Chris Emch was a pretty unhappy guy. He ____ years working as a police officer. After a career-ending injury, he’d opened a shop in Thousands Oaks, California, but the ____ was struggling. And only months before a Scuba(潜水)trip, he’d been ____ with skin cancer and had endured a ____ divorce.
In desperation, Chris Emch joined in a group Scuba trip to Indonesia. About 11 meters ____ water, he removed a borrowed earplug(耳塞), causing ____ to his ear drum. The injury forced Emch to ____ the Scuba trip. He ____ have packed up and gone home. Instead, the 41-year-old man decided to have a look around the ____ islands. So Emch hired a local ____ named Fritz to show him around. He was ____ by the local attractive sights and unique cultures. But ____ affected Emch most was his conversations with Fritz.
Fritz earned about $140 a month, lived in a ____ house and took on odd jobs to provide for his wife and son. But Emch realized that Fritz was ____. Emch told Fritz that he wanted to see his family, so off they went to Fritz’s home. Emch met Fritz’s family members. He sipped sweet tea and chatted with them. They looked content though they were ____.
“I had everything I could ever want and still ____ all the time,” he said. “I realized how happy my life was and how ____ I was to have the life I had been given.
“From that point on, Emch had a new ____ on life. “Things taste better and things smell better now,” he said. He always tries to see the good ____ in people and he has become confident and cheerful again.
“Travel truly ____ my life, and changed my outlook,” he said. “Compared to who I was a year ago, some of my closest friends don’t recognize who I am anymore.”
1.A. wasted B. paid C. cost D. spent
2.A. service B. affair C. business D. matter
3.A. diagnosed B. packed C. equipped D. decorated
4.A. painful B. smooth C. wonderful D. changeable
5.A. beyond B. under C. above D. despite
6.A. loss B. pollution C. damage D. destruction
7.A. watch out for B. give in to C. put up with D. drop out of
8.A. could B. should C. shall D. would
9.A. striking B. surrounding C. rising D. dropping
10.A. guard B. fisherman C. sailor D. guide
11.A. attracted B. disturbed C. confused D. annoyed
12.A. that B. which C. how D. what
13.A. fashionable B. big C. shabby D. modern
14.A. happy B. poor C. sad D. friendly
15.A. famous B. poor C. wealthy D. dirty
16.A. lied B. chatted C. struggled D. complained
17.A. lucky B. regretful C. sorry D. ashamed
18.A. angle B. sense C. perspective D. expression
19.A. idea B. reason C. situation D. aspect
20.A. transformed B. ruined C. enriched D. influenced
Finland is a small country of just 5.3 million people, but over three million saunas(桑拿浴). 1. Finns have a sauna at least once a week. Saunas can be found all over Finland: in offices, factories, sports centres and hotel, and 2/3 of the people have one in their house.
Some of the basic rules for using the sauna include not eating or drinking. Also, you can’t wear any clothes or swimsuits in the sauna. 2. Men and women visit the sauna separately, unless they’re members of the same family.
Saunas have existed for hundreds of years in Finland. In the past, Finns dug holes in the ground and put heated stones in them. When water was thrown on the hot stones, they gave off a vapour.
3. Traditional type is the smoke sauna. We find smoke saunas mostly in rural areas. They’re heated with burning wood. Once the room is hot enough, the fire is allowed to die and the room is ventilated (使通风) by letting the smoke out through a hole in the ceiling. 4. With these, you simply turn on an electric stove an hour before you want to go in. This is seen as the safest and easiest way to heat the room.
5. Many think that they’re important for your wellbeing (幸福). Finns believe that the sauna can treat a number of diseases. Having a sauna is also seen as a good way to relieve stress and tension.
A. Now there are several types of sauna.
B. That is to say, you have to go naked.
C. Why are saunas so popular in Finland?
D. Saunas play an important role in Finnish life.
E. Since then, saunas have been introduced to Asia.
F. However, the most common type is the electric sauna.
G. If you ever visit Finland, don’t forget to have a nice, relaxing sauna.
With their furry round heads and big black eyes, Zhongzhong and Huahua look just the same as any other monkey. But they happen to be the world’s first cloned (克隆的) monkeys.
Years ago, scientists used cloning techniques to produce Dolly, the world’s first cloned mammal (哺乳动物).They now used the same technique to produce the monkeys in China.
In animal cloning, animals are produced in a lab by using DNA that is taken from the cells (细胞) of a naturally-born animal. To clone Zhongzhong and Huahua, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS.中国科学院) first removed the nucleus (细胞核) from a monkey’s egg cell (卵细胞). They then put another nucleus taken from the monkey’s body cells into the egg cell. The newly-formed egg was put into the womb (子宫) of a female monkey. Finally, Zhongzhong and Huahua were born.
The cloning process is hard, especially removing nucleus. It needs to be done in a fast and precise (精确的) way. The faster you do it, the less damage is done to the egg, according to CAS. Scientist Liu Zhen spent three years practicing removing the nucleus.
Unlike common monkeys, cloned monkeys have the same DNA as each other. When doing experiments on them, scientists can easily know that certain results are caused by different treatments, rather than different genes.
According to Sun Qiang from CAS, most drug trials (药物试验) are done on lab mice. However, drugs that work on mice might not work on humans. The two species are very different.
“Monkeys and humans are much closely related and testing on monkeys is supposed to be as effective (有效的) as testing on humans,” Sun added.
1.Zhongzhong and Huahua are ______.
A. naturally-born monkeys
B. the world’s first cloned mammals
C. the world’s first cloned monkeys
D. twin sheep that were born by Dolly
2.What do we know about the two monkeys?
A. They look different from other monkeys.
B. They have the same DNA.
C. Their body cells don’t have any nucleus.
D. They can live for only three years.
3.What can we learn from Paragraph 4?
A. Removing the nucleus is difficult.
B. The cloning process is very safe.
C. It took three years to remove the nucleus.
D. It is impossible to clone other animals.
4.Why do scientists want to do drug tests on monkeys?
A. Because it’s easier to use them for tests.
B. Because there are not enough mice.
C. Because drugs work well on monkeys.
D. Because monkeys are similar to humans.
Once there was an old man, who was completely broke (破产的), living in a tiny house. He had to live on a $105-a-month social security (保障) check.
At 65 years of age, he decided things had to change. So he thought about what he had to offer. His friends thought highly of his chicken recipe (烹饪法). He decided that this was his best shot at making a change.
He left Kentucky and traveled to different states to try to sell his recipe. He told restaurant owners that he had a mouth-watering chicken recipe. He offered the recipe to them for free, just asking for a small percentage (比例) on the items sold. Sounds like a good deal, right?
Unfortunately, not to most of the restaurants. He heard “NO” over l, 000 times, but he didn’t give up. He believed his chicken recipe was something special. He got rejected (拒绝) 1,009 times before he heard his first yes.
With that one success, the old man changed the way Americans eat chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken, popularly known as KFC, was born. The old man was Colonel Harland Sanders, who was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. His name and image (肖像) are still symbols of KFC now.
1.When the old man was broke, we can infer that ______.
A. he had a lot of fast food chicken restaurants
B. he gave away 105 dollars to others every month
C. he had no money and lived a poor life
D. his image became a symbol of KFC
2.In order to change his life, the old man decided ______.
A. to get a social security check
B. to sell fried chicken in the street
C. to tell his friends the secret of his recipe
D. to introduce his recipe to restaurants
3.The old man succeeded after he tried ______ times.
A. 1,000 B. 1,001
C. 1,009 D. 1,010
4.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Actions speak louder than words. B. Always believe in yourself.
C. Far from eye, far from heart. D. It’s never too old to learn.
They are called “sea parrots”, and sometimes “clowns (小丑) of the sea”!
Atlantic puffins (海鹦) are small seabirds which are around 25 cm in length. They have black and white feathers and a large parrot-like beak (鸟喙). The beak changes color during the year. In winter, the beak has a dull gray color, but it turns orange in spring!
Puffins spend most of their lives out at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. They live on the eastern coast of Canada and the United States, and the western coast of Europe.
Puffins live off small fish such as herring, hake and sand eels. Puffins flap (拍) their wings up to 400 times a minute and speeding through the air at up to 88 km an hour. Wow! What’s more, puffins can dive down 60m under water in search of their favorite fish.
In spring and summer, thousands of puffins stay together on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic Ocean to start a puffin family. They usually pair up with the same partner as before some may have been together for 20 years! Puffins dig out a hole usually in a grassy bank. Both parents take it in turn to incubate (孵化) the egg for the next 36-45 days!
Although puffins are not classed as an endangered animal, their population in some places is becoming smaller. The main reasons are overfishing, which can lead to a shortage of food for puffins, and pollution---especially oil spills (溢出). Not only does the oil make these beautiful birds sick, it harms their feathers.
1.Where do puffins live?
A. On the western coast of Canada and the United States.
B. On the eastern coast of Europe.
C. On the coasts of the North Atlantic Ocean.
D. On the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
2.According to the passage, puffins are ______.
A. great flyers B. large birds on land
C. grass-eating animals D. bad swimmers
3.How do puffins breed (繁殖)?
A. They mainly breed in early autumn.
B. They pair up with different partners every year.
C. Mother puffins lay eggs on the grass or sand.
D. Father puffins also take part in incubating the eggs.
4.The population of puffins is becoming smaller because of _____.
① the bad weather along the coast
② the process of taking too many fish from the sea
③ the harm from water pollution
④ humans’ habits of eating the eggs of puffins
A. ①② B. ②③
C. ③④ D. ①④
Craziest Food Festivals sounds like a joke topic, but once you start looking into it, you’ll realize they’re everywhere---the crazier, the better.
1. Bibimbap Festival
In the South Korean town of Jeonjuloves, their “mixed rice” dish is a hearty serve of rice topped with raw beef, a rainbow of vegetables, a raw egg and gochujang sauce (韩国的辣椒酱) so much. They take four days out of October to celebrate it.
Like any festival there’s music, entertainment and magic, but making it that little bit different is the bibimbap that’s whipped (搅拌) up in a big bowl by dozens of chefs and served to over 400 people.
2. Waikiki Spam Jam (怀基基午餐肉节)
Who knew this canned meat had so much love? Well, it turns out that a can of Spam is the go-to item in Hawaii, along with a grass skirt and garland (花环). The people of Hawaii love Spam so much that they even spend a day in May serving out the best Spam, a type of cheap canned meat made mainly from pork.
3. Bessieres Easter Egg Festival
At Easter time, for those in the French town of Bessieres it’s all about an egg far less sweet.
Here they celebrate the holiday by getting dozens of chefs to make one large omelette (煎蛋卷) - 15,000 eggs strong - for the townsfolk (市民).
4. Potato Days Festival
This festival actually takes place in Barnesville, Minnesota(明尼苏达州), the US. Over the last Friday and Saturday in August the town celebrates its potato-growing skills by hosting potato picking and peeling contests, as well as a Miss Tater Tot pageant (盛典) for five-and six-year-old girls.
1.Bibimbap is ______.
A. a kind of egg cake far less sweet
B. a can of meat made mainly from pork
C. a fried potato ball covered with sauce
D. a rice dish mixed up with vegetables, etc
2.Waikiki Spam Jam takes place ______.
A. from 22 to 25 October B. in May in Hawaii
C. in Barnesville, Minnesota D. in a French town
3.If Jim wants to learn Asian food culture, he’d better go to _____.
A. Bibimbap Festival B. Waikiki Spam Jam
C. Bessieres Easter Egg Festival D. Potato Days Festival
