An absolute description of the threat hanging over the world’s mammals, reptiles, amphibians(不如、爬行、两栖动物) and other life forms has been published by the well-known scientific journal, Nature. A special analysis carried out by the journal indicates that an astonishing 41% of all amphibians on the planet now face extinction while 26% of mammal species and 13% of birds are similarly threatened.
Many species are already critically endangered and lose to extinction, including the Sumatran elephant, Amur leopard and mountain gorilla. But also in danger of vanishing for the wild, it now appears, are animals that are currently rated as merely being endangered.
In each case, the finger of blame points directly at human activites The continuing spread of agriculture is destroying million of hectares of wild habitats(栖息地)every year, leaving animals without homes, while the introduction of newly-come species, often helped by humans, is also damaging native populations. At the same time, pollution and overfishing are destroying ocean ecosystems.
“Habitat destruction, pollution or overfishing either skill off wild creatures and plants or leaves them badly weakened,” said Derek Tittensor, an ocean ecologist at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge. “The trouble is that in coming decades, the additional threat of worsening climate change will become more and more common and could then kill off these survivors.”
The problem, according to Nature, is worsened because of the huge gaps in scientists knowledge about the planet’s biodiversity. Evaluations of the total number of species of animals and plants alive vary from 2 million to 50 million. In addition, evaluations of current rates of species’ disappearances vary from 500 to 36, 000 a year. “That is the real problem we face,” added Tittensor. “The scale of uncertainty is huge.”
In the end, however, the data indicate that the world is heading cruelty towards a mass extinction-which is defined as one involving a loss of 75% of species or more. This could arrive in less than a hundred years or could take a thousand, depending on extinction rates.
1.What’s the main idea of the first two paragraphs?
A. Figures about some wild animals are astonishing.
B. “Nature” is the famous journal around the world.
C. Many endangered species are close to extinction.
D. Some rare species have appeared around the world.
2.The direct reason for the extinction of some species is _____.
A. continuous appearance of new species
B. destructive activities of human beings
C. more and more homeless animals
D. the great change of ocean ecosystem
3.From paragraph 4 we know that another future threat is ______.
A. destruction of habitats
B. overfishing and pollution
C. the worsening climate change
D. killing off wild creatures and plants
4.What is the real problem we are facing now according to paragraph 5?
A. The killing of wild creatures and cutting of trees.
B. The global warming caused by human beings.
C. The destruction of ocean ecosystem by pollution.
D. Evaluation of current rates of species’ disappearances.
5.What does “This” in the last sentence refer to _____?
A. mass extinction
B. extinction rates
C. extinction time
D. 75% of species or more
If you are a sleep deprived(被剥夺) teacher, you may not be aware of the term woodpeckering(啄木鸟式点头), but you’ve probably done it. It happens the day following a bad night’s sleep. You’re sitting in a long meeting and you can barely keep your eyes open, so you support your head up with your hand. Next thing you know, you are moving your sleeping head back to its upright position. Do this a few times and you are woodpeckering.
I thought I knew sleep deprivation when I did my medical internship(实习) in hospital. That year I frequently went 36 hours with no sleep. When I finished my stay in neurology(神经内科), I welcomed the promise of full nights of sleep ever after. It went pretty well for the next 10 years until I became a school teacher and experienced a whole new level of sleep deprivation.
Teachers’ working hours go far beyond the 8 am to 5 pm schedule of kids in school. There are hours spent at staff meetings, correcting homework, preparing for the next day- and then there is the worrying. What I did in a hospital emergency room required no more intensive mental energy than what is need to keep 30 kids attentive enough to learn what I was teacher.
Good teachers are like magicians keeping a dozen balls in the air to come at right time, with alarm set for 6 am to finish grading papers, memories of the day that’s gone- including the students who didn’t understand something, forgot their lunch or were embarrassed by wrong answers. All these will become sleep-resistant barriers. And also with some financial stress, you’ll have a cycle of insomnia(失眠) with unwelcome consequences.
With inadequate sleep comes irritability(易怒), forgetfulness, lower tolerance of even minor annoyances, and less efficient organization and planning. These are the very mental useless that teachers need to meet the challenges of the next day. In wanting to do a better job the next day, the brain keeps bringing up the worries that deny the rest it needs.
1.After a bad night’s sleep, usually the direct effect for the next day is to ______.
A. keep one’s eyes open all the time
B. move head back and forth
C. raise one’s head in upright position
D. keep nodding like a woodpecker
2.The writer’s new level of sleep deprivation began since he _____.
A. did his medical internship in hospital
B. began to teach in a school
C. left hospital ten years ago
D. went 36 hours with no sleep
3.From paragraph 3 we can infer that ____.
A. teachers’ work is comfortable
B. correcting homework needs less time
C. working in hospital is even tougher
D. teaching needs more mental energy
4.Good teachers’ sleep problems are mainly due to the _____.
A. common sleep-resistant barriers
B. embarrassment for wrong answers
C. diligence and devotion to teaching
D. misunderstanding of their students
5.What does the writer really want to tell us in the last paragraph?
A. Unfavorable effects of inadequate sleep are various
B. Lay down worries and sleep well first for the next day.
C. Teachers should often practice mental muscles.
D. Better job has nothing to do with inadequate sleep.
Our most commonly held code for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this code is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, and productive at work. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigid research in psychology and neuroscience(神经学), management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS to fix this broken code. Using stories and case studies from his work with CEOs of Fortune 500 in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive ability at work.
Based on seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential.
A must-read for everyone trying to stand out in a world of increasing workloads and stress, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to acquire the benefits of a happier and more positive mode of thinking to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.
1.Which of the following is the traditional code for success?
A. Hard word→success→happiness.
B. Success→happiness→hard word.
C. Happiness→hard word→success.
D. Hard work→ happiness→success.
2.What do we know about the new discovery in paragraph 1?
A. Conventional code for success is totally useless.
B. The more we are successful, the happier we are.
C. Positive psychology is really backward.
D. Happiness contributes greatly to success.
3.Why did the writer write the book The Happiness Advantages?
A. To reprogram one’s brain to be healthier.
B. To make people more positive and competitive.
C. To study stories and cases of CEOs.
D. To make a lecture at Harvard University.
4.The underlined phrase “capitalize on” in paragraph 3 is closes in meaning to ____
A. provide fund for
B. make full use of
C. write big letters for
D. stand out in
5.What is the purpose of the writer in writing the passage?
A. To help people stand out in the world.
B. To arouse people’s sense of happiness.
C. To help people decrease the work stress.
D. To strongly recommend the book.
One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds dashing and dancing in the exciting atmosphere above the earth. As the strong winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check.
Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the controlling string and the clumsy tail kept them in tow(牵引), facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They flew beautifully even as they fought the forced restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. “Free at last,” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”
Yet freedom from control simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic gentle wind. It flew ungracefully to the ground and landed in a twisted mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last”. Free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to settle down lifeless against the first roadblock.
How much like kites we sometimes are. There always exist misfortunes and restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Prohibition is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us pulled at the rules so hard that we never fly fast to reach the heights we might have obtained. If we keep all the commandment(戒律), we will never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us each rise to the great heights, recognizing that some of the prohibitions are actually the steady force that helps us climb and achieve.
1.In the passage the writer watched _______.
A. many young people enjoying the sunny day
B. many birds dashing and dancing in the sky
C. many young people flying multicolored kites
D. the strong winds blowing against the sky
2.What enables a kite fly gracefully in the sky according to the story?
A. The kite itself and strange shapes.
B. A long string and blowing wind.
C. A windy spring day and blue sky.
D. The size and a long string.
3.What didn’t happen to the freed kite?
A. It kept flying freely in the air.
B. It lay powerless in the dirt.
C. It was trapped in a dead bush.
D. It was blown helplessly around.
4.What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?
A. To give up tips on how to fly kites effectively.
B. To warn us that freedom is actually powerless.
C. To explain that restrictions are really unnecessary.
D. To teach us a lesson that rules are important in life.
5.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A. Fly with Restrictions
B. Where to Fly
C. Why to Fly Kites
D. Fly to Freedom
I seldom thought I had a passion. I would sit before the TV all day, thinking 1. nothing but the next shadow. It was not long ago that I first learned how important having a passion is to life.
One day I went with Mum to drop my sister off at the gym. Then, 2. Mum stopped at a red light, someone on the roadside caught my eyes. It was a man 3. (dress) in rags, homeless. That didn’t interest me, for I 4. (see) many like him before.
But he man wasn’t sitting down with a sad 5. (express). He had a radio in his hand and was dancing 6. (merry) to the music. The radio seemed to be the most precious thing 7. he had.
“Mum, why does that man have a radio even though he’s homeless?” I asked.
“He bought 8.,” she replied.
“But if he’s homeless, why doesn’t he use the money to buy food or clothes? He wasted it on something he doesn’t need.”
“Well, Sarah, sometimes food and clothes aren’t 9. only important things. We need happiness, too.”
“I see.” The man must care too much about music, so he bought a radio instead of food and clothes. I realized that happiness is the key to life. 10. it, there’s nothing to look forward to. A passion gives a person the happiness they need to keep going!
It is generally agreed that a good student must be able to concentrate for a reasonable time on a written text, yet most students are given very little help to practice this skill. Almost all classroom reading is into minutes of reading and therefore it is no wonder that a number of students have in this field.
If you have a problem with ,you must first examine the conditions in which you work. Lighting can be a problem: too many readers put up with lighting conditions. If this is a problem, and you don’t have a reading lamp, try a strong bulb(灯泡), read near a window in day time and always avoid reading in your own shadow. the light should come from overhead or over your shoulder. Reflective surfaces should be avoided. You should also excessive contrast (过度对比) caused by using a reading lamp as the only of light as this will cause great tiredness and probably eye injury.
A second reason for poor concentration is the of motivation, that is, an absence of any sense of purpose. If this is the cause, you will almost be bored by the text. Be sure that you keep your in mind during your reading so that you know you should also adopt some specific techniques—such as making notes from your reading—to aid your concentration.
If you play the role of a receiver of information, simply concentrating on absorbing everything you read, you will that your mind is overloaded, confused by the material. Then you should take a more active approach. Enter into a with the text, pausing to reflect on what you read, and what you find. That’ll be good for reading and comprehension.
1.A. forced B. driven C. admitted D. broken
2.A. problems B. abilities C. advantages D. mistakes
3.A. instruction B. communication C. concentration D. appreciation
4.A. good B. poor C. strong D. bright
5.A. Ideally B. Optionally C. Deliberately D. Cheerfully
6.A. promote B. ensure C. avoid D. increase
7.A. source B. grade C. aspect D. system
8.A. supply B. concern C. awareness D. lack
9.A. abnormal B. clear C. careful D. humorous
10.A. carefully B. strangely C. certainly D. naturally
11.A. objectives B. requirements C. memories D. considerations
12.A. sensitive B. relative C. conservative D. passive
13.A. forget B. doubt C. find D. believe
14.A. quarrel B. dialogue C. battle D. connection
15.A. refusing B. demanding C. receiving D. questioning
