To Friend or Not to Friend
We all love our parents and turn to them when we're in need, but would you like them to hear the conversations you have with your friends on the school playground or lunch queue? Social networking sites have become extensions of the school hallways, so would you add your parents as “friends” and allow them to view your online activities and conversations with friends?
In the past the generation gap included a technology gap, where children were up to date with latest technology and parents were left behind, content to continue their day to day lives as they always had because they had no need to know more about technology. However, more and more parents are beginning to realize just how important social networks are in their lives. This realization has given many parents the motivation to educate themselves about social networking sites.
These days many people are attracted to social networking sites because they can choose who they have around them; there's also a certain amount of control over privacy that we don't get in real life. Sometimes we feel that privacy is violated when we must accept a “friend” request from a parent or family member.
It's a difficult choice whether or not to allow a parent to become a part of our online lives. On the one hand we don't want to “reject” their request because that might hurt their feelings or make them feel you have something to hide. On the other hand if you do accept, then you could have a sense of being watched and no longer feel free to comment or communicate the way you did before.
A recent survey suggested that parents shouldn't take it personally if their child ignores their request: “When a teen ignores a parent's friend request, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are hiding something, but it could mean that this is one part of their life where they want to be independent.”
Perhaps talking with parents and giving explanations would help soften the blow if you do choose not to add them to your friends list.
1.From Paragraph 2, we learn that ________.
A．parents feel secure about their privacy online
B．social networks successfully fill the generation gap
C．parents have realized the importance of social networks
D．social networks offer a platform for parents to communicate
2.Teenagers may refuse a parent's friend request because ________.
A．they hide something from their parents
B．they are unwilling to be watched by parents
C．their parents tend to fall behind in technology
D．their parents make negative comments on them
3.The passage is mainly about ________.
A．privacy online
B．social networks
C．the generation gap
D．parents' friend requests
4.The passage is written mainly for ________.
A．parents B．teenagers
C．teachers D．researchers
Steve knew he'd been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he'd try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he'd been adopted gave him his mother's name: Tallady. But online searches didn't turn up any results about it, and Steve had to let it go.
In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe's store where Steve, then 22, worked as a deliveryman. When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, “You mean Tallady, who works here？”
Steve and Tallady, a cashier, had said hello to each other a few times at the store, but they'd never really talked. He hadn't even known her name. Steve thought there was no possible way she was his mother though they shared the same name. For a few months, Steve avoided Tallady. “I wasn't sure how to approach her，” he told a local reporter. Finally, the agency volunteered to arrange their reunion.
When Tallady realized that the nice guy she'd been waving at was his son, she sobbed. She'd always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearby bar. She'd given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. “I wasn't ready to be a mother，” she told him. Married with two other children, Tallady says, “I have a complete family now.”
1.Steve gave up the online search for his birth mother in 2003 because ________.
A．the agency didn't give him any help
B．there was no information about his mother
C．his mother didn't turn up online
D．he missed the information about his mother
2.．What did Steve find about his mother online in 2007?
A．Her home address. B．Her full name.
C．Her boss's name. D．Her new job.
3.Why Steve avoided Tallady for months?
A．Because she didn't want to talk to him.
B．Because he wasn't fully prepared for the reunion.
C．Because she was very difficult to approach.
D．Because he didn't think she was his birth mother.
4.The best title for the text is ________.
A．The Love of Mother
B．An Unexpected Meeting
C．The Power of the Internet
D．An Unusual Reunion
On May 23rd the United States Department of Agriculture will meet to discuss the pressing topic of wild pigs. These beasts, which number 6 million or so, are an increasing bother. At their worst, they can damage crops, spread diseases, attack humans and kill farm animals. And things are getting worse: a study show that they are likely to double in number over the next 3 years. Why is it so hard to control wild pigs?
Introduced to America in the 16th century, and related to the wild pigs found in Europe, wild pigs can be found in 75% of all states. No single law exists to control them and regulations differ between states: while in Missouri they can only be shot if met by chance, in Texas hunting is actively encouraged. A “pork chopper” law allows Texan hunters to shoot wild pigs from helicopters, and some people in Louisiana have even built their own pighunting drone(无人机). As well as being popular with hunters, wild pigs are cheaper for game raisers to breed(饲养)than deer. In Michigan and Pennsylvania suggested bans on the private breeding of pigs for hunting have caused quarrels between game raisers and wildlife officials.
Wild pigs' double nature——considered pests by farmers, but valued by hunters——makes it hard to pass laws to control them. Two other factors also contribute. Nearly 70% of land in America is privately owned. And it is difficult for lawmakers to impose(强加)breeding and hunting laws on private landowners. Secondly, it is hard to define a wild pig.
In some states, laws are being introduced to redefine the term “wild animal” to keep out wild pigs. This is good news for those raising pigs for hunting, but less are to those who consider them pests whose number should be limited. Meanwhile, discussions continue over how to deal with this problem.
1.People are not permitted to hunt wild pigs freely in ________.
A．Texas B．Michigan
C．Missouri D．Louisiana
2.Why do the game raisers prefer raising wild pigs to deer?
A．It's difficult to raise deer.
B．Wild pigs are in large numbers.
C．Deer are not popular with hunters.
D．They can benefit more from wild pigs.
3.Which is NOT the reason for the difficulty in controlling wild pigs?
A．The difficulty of passing effective laws.
B．The high percentage of land owned privately.
C．The farmers' unwillingness to shoot wild pigs.
D．The popularity of raising wild pigs in many states.
4.What is the best title of the text?
A．Why are wild pigs so hard to control?
B．Are wild pigs pests or wild animals?
C．Wild pigs——an increasing danger in the US.
D．How to deal with the problem of wild pigs?
As we enjoy the summer ocean waves along the beaches, we may think nervously about Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the great fear that sharks inspire in us. Yet we are happy to see global efforts to protect the declining number of sharks. The world has realized that we need the species, like sharks, to keep a balanced ecosystem.
Sharks, in particular, are “in” these days. Thanks to good public policy and famous stars such as Jackie Chan and Ang Lee, killing sharks for fin soup is no longer cool.
The demand for shark fins has been rising for decades, threatening sharks with extinction(灭绝)—up to 100 million sharks are killed each year just for their fins. But we have started to reverse the trend, particularly in many areas of the United States and overseas where restaurants once proudly provided delicious shark fins on the menu.
In California, a ban on the sale and possession of shark fin soup has gone into effect this year through the efforts of Wild Aid and other organizations.
Overseas marketing and public efforts featuring posters on public transportation systems and TV ads have been underway for the past few years. These efforts all show signs of success, on both the supply side and the demand side of trade in shark fins.
Actually, stopping the killing of sharks is part of a broader movement to stop the killing of wild animals and the buying and selling of wildlife products. These products come from hunting elephants, tigers and rhinos, besides killing marine life.
Whether it is shark fin soup or ivory piano keys, killing animals is big business. The hunting of elephants in search of ivory tusks for luxury(奢侈的)goods has become a fullscale war. The decrease of African elephant populations is alarming. Together with international partners, the United States is leading the worldwide effort to reduce demand for highend products that rely on killing animals.
1.The underlined word “reverse” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.
A．show B．keep
C．follow D．change
2.From the passage, we know ________.
A．Jackie Chan and Ang Lee make fin soup popular
B．a lot of wild animals have been killed for products
C．Steven Spielberg's Jaws inspires us to protect sharks
D．the number of African elephants has been increased
3.．What can we infer from the passage?
A．More animals for highend products will be saved.
B．People have kicked the habit of having shark fin soup.
C．Shark fins will not be available any more in restaurants.
D．Global efforts have succeeded in stopping killing wild animals.
The day that I met my best friend for the first time, I was full of anxiety. I was trying to do some __41__ for an important oral exam in the local library, but people kept ____ me. I was getting annoyed and of course, I wasn't able to ___. Suddenly I heard someone singing behind me. I ____ and glared at the person who was singing. It was a tall girl about the same age as me.
The fact that she looked like a sensitive, friendly girl didn't matter. If anything, it made me even angrier.“ How could she be so selfish？” I thought ____.
I picked up my books, glared at her and whispered coldly, “Thanks to your ____， I've been unable to study. You're so ____！”
I left the library in such a hurry that I left the most important textbook ____. when I got home two hours later, I found that textbook gone. I was so ____ that I almost cried. Just then, the phone rang. A gentle voice ____ the speaker as Jenny and asked if I was Jane. After ____ that I was, she said that she had noticed I'd left my book in the library and as my ___ was in it, she'd asked a librarian to get my phone number. She said that she didn't live far away and could bring it around for me if I needed it.
I sighed with ____ and agreed to meet her at the convenience store down the road. Of course you've ____ who Jenny was. She was the girl I had shouted at for singing in the library. When I recognized her in the convenience store, I was filled with ____ and apologized for my ruled behavior. I felt so ____， but Jenny just laughed, saying she was glad to see that I'd also left my ____ in the library! I couldn't help laughing at this and I invited her back to my apartment for a quick cup of tea.
Ever since then we've been best friends and we got along really well. To be honest, I trust her more than any one else. I often think how ____ I am. If Jenny hadn't been a kind person who was willing to ____ my shortcomings, I would ____ have experienced such true friendship.
1.A.research B．revision
C．work D．experiment
2.．A.watching B．asking
C．warning D．disturbing
3.A.speak B．improve
C．concentrate D．follow
4.A.turned around B．turned down
C．turned off D．turned over
5.A.sadly B．hopelessly
C．angrily D．crazily
6.A.practice B．noise
C．attitude D．existence
7.A.selfish B．active
C．sensitive D．stupid
8.A.out B．around
C．aside D．behind
9.A.nervous B．careless
C．upset D．forgetful
10.A.introduced B．considered
C．took D．remembered
11.A.deciding B．confirming
C．realizing D．thinking
12.A.address B．class
C．writing D．name
13.A.comfort B．relief
C．confidence D．satisfaction
14.A.recognized B．found
C．guessed D．heard
15.A.courage B．energy
C．doubt D．shame
16.A.worried B．sorry
C．terrible D．excited
17.A.glare B．expression
C．virtue D．friendship
18.．A.considerate B．pleased
C．lucky D．grateful
19.A.overcome B．share
C．hide D．forgive
20.A.ever B．never
C．seldom D．still
Can a Language Become Extinct?
A language can become extinct when the last person who can speak it passes away. Or more likely when the secondlast person who speaks it dies because then there is no one left to talk to. According to linguists (语言学家) there is nothing unusual about a single language dying out. But what is happening today is quite remarkable. According to the recent statistics, there are approximately 6,000 languages in the world as we speak. Of these, about half are going to die out in the next century.
There are several reasons as to why a language can eventually die out. These range from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, to sociological factors, like cultural assimilation, in which the culture of a minority group is gradually replaced by a stronger one. The former can cause tribes to leave their natural habitat(栖息地) and therefore become fewer and fewer in number. However, it doesn't happen very frequently. In fact, the latter is a much bigger threat and it is responsible for the extinction of a lot of languages in countries like the USA and Australia. For instance, Chemehuevi is one of the languages which is really close to dying out since its sole speaker is an old, yet healthy, man named Johnny Hill, Jr.
It is very important for as many languages as possible to be preserved. Scientists have been trying to raise people's awareness on how certain tribes have specific words which cannot be expressed in let's say English simply because there is no equal meaning. Namely, the Yupik of Alaska have 99 names to describe different layers of ice formation, or how the Tofa of Siberia classify reindeer (驯鹿). In other words, when languages die out, mankind's wisdom reduces.
On a happier note, there are many famous cases which show what can be done to preserve languages in danger of extinction. In particular, the Maori in New Zealand have created socalled “language nests”： organizations which help children under five learn the language. They provide them with a setting where they are exposed to the language intensively so that they get to realise that communicating in Maori is as natural as communicating in English. There is always, of course, the risk that the children won't keep the language alive after they have left their “nests”. Nevertheless, hope dies hard.
1.What most probably caused the death of languages in the USA and Australia?
A．Habitats were lost.
B．Natural disasters struck.
C．Native cultures disappeared.
D．Foreign languages were spoken.
2.In Paragraph 3, the author states his opinion by ________
A．listing definitions
B．providing examples
C．presenting causes and effects
D．comparing with other opinions
3.What does the author really intends to tell us in the last paragraph?
A．Attempts may not produce the desired effect.
B．Environment is important in language protection.
C．People can do little about a language's extinction.
D．Measures should be taken in spite of difficulties.
4.The author believes that ________.
A．all languages are finally going to die out
B．human wisdom can be reflected in languages
C．the protective approaches have proved ineffective
D．the current situation of languages hardly requires attention
