Word travels quickly in the small fishing village of Port Washington, Wisconsin. So when Mardy McGarry wanted to build a playground for kids with special needs, she knew it wouldn’t take long to create interest in the project. But she never expected that a third of the town people would join in it. 1.
“A lot of learning comes through play,” says McGarry, a special education teacher for 28 years. She’d seen the wood chips and sand of traditional playgrounds stop wheelchairs dead in their tracks.
When a piece of land became available, the city council agreed to choose a part for a playground. 2. She asked classrooms of kids for their wish list. She also asked experts for help. And she brought on board her friend Sue Mayer, whose eight-year-old son, Sam, has a serious disease.
Her Kiwanis Club chapter came through with $ 7,000, and that’s when the grassroots movement really got started. One woman gave $ 25,000 and had her company donate the same amount. 3. There were silent auctions(拍卖) and T-shirt sales. The local Pieper Family Foundation offered to donate half of the remaining $170,000 balance if McGarry could raise the rest. The $ 450,000 covered materials, but the actual construction would cost an additional $ 900,000. Not a choice. But the community could build it.
On September 16, 2008, the first day of construction, they came. Two women heard about the project on the radio on the way to work and took the day off to help. 4. Ten-year-olds sanded surfaces.
Today, Possibility Playground is one of the most popular destinations in Ozaukee County. There’s a giant pirate ship, a rock-climbing wall, high and low rings, monkey bars, sandboxes, swings, slides, bridges and so on.
5. It’s exactly what McGarry wanted. People used to ask why she wanted to build a playground just for children with disabilities. “They didn’t get it. It’s only when you build a playground for children with disabilities that you build one for all children,” she said.
A. Soon smaller businesses were helping.
B. All children play shoulder to shoulder.
C. But her students were too often left out.
D. Everyone thought it was really a great wonder.
E. A couple in their 80s operated their own trucks.
F. McGarry started researching play equipment and contacting design firms.
G. They rolled up their sleeves and used their weekdays to bring her idea to life.
Scientists think that growing garden grass could be the secret to solving our energy needs, and we may soon be able to replace our gasoline with “grassoline”.
The team, including experts from Cardiff University in Wales, has shown that hydrogen can be taken from grass in useful amounts with the help of sunlight and a cheap catalyst(催化剂) —something that speeds up a chemical reaction without being used up.
It is the first time that this has been shown and it could lead to a sustainable(可持续的) way of making hydrogen, reported Asian News International. This could be an important kind of renewable energy because it is high in energy and it does not give out harmful gases when it is burned.
Study co-author Michael Bowker said, “This is really a green source of energy. Hydrogen is seen as an important future energy carrier as the world moves from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and our research has shown that even garden grass could be a good way of getting it.”
Cellulose(纤维素), which is a key part of plants and the biopolymer(生物聚合物) found in the largest numbers on the earth, could be a great source of hydrogen.
In its study, the team looked at the possibility of getting hydrogen from cellulose using sunlight and a simple catalyst.
This is called photocatalysis(光催化作用) and in it, the sunlight starts the catalyst, which then makes cellulose and water into hydrogen. The researchers studied the effectiveness of three metal-based catalysts, of which nickel(镍) especially interested the researchers, as it is a much more common metal than gold and palladium(钯) and it saves more money.
According to Bowker, producing hydrogen from cellulose using photocatalysis has not been studied in detail. The team’s research shows that large amounts of hydrogen can be produced using this method with the help of a bit of sunlight and a cheap catalyst.
The study shows that it is effective to use real grass taken from a garden. “This is important as it avoids the need to separate and clean up cellulose, which can be both difficult and costly,” said Bowker.
1.What are needed to get hydrogen from grass?
A. A catalyst and palladium. B. Water and cellulose.
C. Sunlight and a biopolymer. D. Sunlight and a catalyst.
2.Why is the new way of making hydrogen considered significant?
A. It is cheap, green and sustainable.
B. It is the best to produce the renewable energy.
C. It is more productive and efficient than other methods.
D. It can replace the way to make fossil fuels completely.
3.Why does nickel interest the researchers in making hydrogen from cellulose?
A. It can produce the largest amount of hydrogen.
B. It can avoid separating and cleaning up cellulose.
C. It is more common than other metals and costs less.
D. It works quicker than other metals during photocatalysis.
4.What does the author intend to tell us mainly in this passage?
A. Catalysts that could be taken from grass.
B. A new way of making hydrogen from cellulose.
C. The potential of hydrogen as a renewable energy.
D. The connection between hydrogen and photocatalysis.
People have different ways of dealing with a common cold. Some take over-the- counter(非处方的) medicines such as aspirin while others try popular home remedies(治疗)like herbal tea or chicken soup. Yet here is the tough truth about the common cold: nothing really cures it.
So why do people sometimes believe that their remedies work? According to James Taylor, professor at the University of Washington, colds usually go away on their own in about a week, improving a little each day after symptoms peak, so it’s easy to believe it’s medicine rather than time that deserves the credit, USA Today reported.
It still seems hard to believe that we can deal with more serious diseases yet are powerless against something so common as a cold. Recently, scientists came closer to figuring out why. To understand it, you first need to know how antiviral(抗病毒的) drugs work. They attack the virus by attaching to and changing the surface structures of the virus. To do that, the drug must fit and lock into the virus like the right piece of a jigsaw(拼图), which means scientists have to identify the virus and build a 3-D model to study its surface before they can design an antiviral drug that is effective enough.
The two cold viruses that scientists had long known about were rhinovirus(鼻病毒) A and B. But they didn’t find out about the existence of a third virus, rhinovirus C, until 2006. All three of them contribute to the common cold, but drugs that work well against rhinovirus A and B have little effect when used against C.
“This explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinovirus,” study leader Professor Ann Palmenberg at University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, told Science Daily.
Now, more than 10 years after the discovery of rhinovirus C, scientists have finally built a highly-detailed 3-D model of the virus, showing that the surface of the virus is, as expected, different from that of other cold viruses.
With the model in hand, hopefully a real cure for a common cold is on its way. Soon, we may no longer have to waste our money on medicines that don’t really work.
1.What does the author think of popular remedies for a common cold?
A. They are quite effective.
B. They are slightly helpful.
C. They actually have no effect.
D. They still need to be improved.
2.How do antiviral drugs work?
A. By breaking up cold viruses directly.
B. By changing the surface structures of the cold viruses.
C. By preventing colds from developing into serious diseases.
D. By absorbing different kinds of cold viruses at the same time.
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. The surface of cold viruses looks quite similar.
B. Scientists have already found a cure for the common cold.
C. Scientists were not aware of the existence of rhinovirus C until recently.
D. Knowing the structure of cold viruses is the key to developing an effective cure.
4.What is the best title for this passage?
A. Drugs against cold viruses B. Helpful home remedies
C. No current cure for common cold D. Research on cold viruses
Thomas Cheatham had planned to study Latin during his time at Hebron High School in Texas. But when he learned that the school district was going to offer a Mandarin(普通话) class, he quickly changed his mind.
“I thought Mandarin would be more beneficial than Latin,” said Cheatham, who is now in his second year of studying the language.
He speaks Mandarin to order food at Chinese restaurants and can read social media posts from his Chinese-speaking friends. While it’s a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study computer engineering, thinks it will be important for his career. “Chinese is a good language to know, especially with China becoming a growing power,” he said.
Many experts agree that proficiency(熟练) in a language spoken by a billion people worldwide will give American students an edge in the global economy.
“People are looking at China as our next economic competitor, and interest in Mandarin is growing fast,” said Marty Abbott, director of the American Council(议会) on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. “We’re seeing it in all parts of the country.”
Abbott predicts that as many as 100,000 students are now studying Mandarin in public and private schools throughout the US. She said the US government has designated (指定) Mandarin as an “important needs” language and provides professional development programs for teachers. “Our government wants to increase our language ability for national security and economic competitiveness,” Abbott added.
At the same time, the Chinese government is spreading knowledge of the Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes set up in many US states. For example, the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas has been the home of a Confucius Institute for 10 years. It sponsors Confucius Classrooms at 21 local public and private schools, where tens of thousands of students are learning Mandarin.
1.Why did Thomas Cheatham decide to study Mandarin instead of Latin?
A. Mandarin was easier to learn than Latin.
B. Mandarin could be helpful to his future career.
C. Mandarin might help him learn more about China.
D. Mandarin could enable him to study computer engineering.
2.The underlined word “edge” in Paragraph 4 probably means “________”.
A. a slight advantage B. the outside limit
C. a sharp tone of voice D. an exciting quality
3.Which of the following statements might Marty Abbott agree with?
A. Mandarin should be taught in classrooms throughout the US.
B. Those skilled at Chinese will be the most competitive in the future.
C. The US government’s policy has helped popularize Mandarin in the US.
D. Americans learn Mandarin because they worry about their national security.
4.What does the author mainly talk about in this passage?
A. The rising popularity of Mandarin among American students.
B. The great benefits of learning Mandarin for American students.
C. The influence of China’s growing power on American education.
D. The effect of Confucius Institutes in promoting Mandarin in the US.
There are campus museums all over China that offer various collections and make for eye-opening visits.
Beijing Air and Space Museum at Beihang University
Admission: free
Opening hours: Tuesday and Saturday, 9:00 am -12:00 pm
Highlights: Included among the more than 300 historic aircraft and space artifacts are one of the two Northrop P - 61 Black Widows in the world and China’s first light airliner, Beijing 1.
Fudan University Museum
Admission: free
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 9:00 am - 11:30 am and 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Highlights: A unique collection of native artifacts from the Gaoshan aborigines in Taiwan. Some of them, such as pearl vests, are rarely seen even in Taiwan.
China Ichthyic Culture Museum at Shanghai Ocean University
Admission: 10 yuan
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 am - 11:30 am and 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Highlights: In this collection of more than 40,000 specimens of about 3,000 ocean-dwelling species, the most eye-catching one is an 18. 4-meter-long sperm whale skeleton.
Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences
Admission: 40 yuan; half price for students
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am - 12:00 pm and 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm; weekends and holidays, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Highlights: It houses a collection of more than 30,000 mineral and rock specimens, more than 2,000 of which are rare ones like the museum’s well-known dinosaur fossils.
China Academy Museum at Hunan University
Admission: 50 yuan
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday, 8: 00 am - 6: 30 pm in summer and 8: 30 am - 6:00 pm in winter
Highlights: China’s only museum to feature the history of academies and cultural education in the country.
1.Which museum will you choose if you’re interested in sea species?
A. China Academy Museum at Hunan University.
B. Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences.
C. Beijing Air and Space Museum at Beihang University.
D. China Ichthyic Culture Museum at Shanghai Ocean University.
2.What can you see in Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences?
A. Space artifacts. B. Dinosaur fossils.
C. Native artifacts. D. Sperm whale skeletons.
3.When can you go to China Academy Museum at Hunan University?
A. On Tuesday 6:00 pm in winter.
B. On Saturday 8:00 am in winter.
C. On Sunday 6:30 pm in summer.
D. On Wednesday 8:00 am in summer.
假设你是李华。你的外国笔友peter打算七月来中国，特来信了解中国人的社交习俗。请你用英语回一封信，从以下几个方面作具体介绍:
1. 见面时的问候方式；2. 对赞美的回答方式；3. 接收礼物时的回应方式；4. 餐宴礼节。
注意：1. 词数100左右，信的开头和结束语已为你写好(不计入总词数)。
2. 可根据内容要点适当增加细节，使行文连贯。
Dear Peter,
Glad to hear from you and you’re welcome to China in July.
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Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
