One picture in the Wonder Book of knowledge I had as a little boy showed a man reading a book while floating in the Dead Sea. What a miracle! How would it feel to lie back in water so thick with salt that it was impossible to sink?
Fed by the Jordan River and smaller streams, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth’s surface, and its water is ten times saltier than the Mediterranean. With evaporation its only outlet, salt and other minerals become super-concentrated.
Earlier this year, I drove down the long, steep hill to realize my dream. The shoreline was a broad area of bare salt-mud, but the water edge was far out of sight. Had somebody pulled the Dead Sea’s plug? I wondered. Eli Dior, an Israeli official, explained the problem: “The Dead Sea is drying up. Every year, the surface drops about one meter, and as the water level falls, shadow areas are left high and dry.”
Over the last half-century, the five neighboring countries have collectively diverted nearly all the water flowing into the Dead Sea to meet human and agriculture needs. Result: the Dead Sea is being emptied.
With population in the region set to double at least in the next 50 years, there is little hope of restoring the water being diverted for human consumption. No country has a drop to spare for the Dead Sea, where they know it will just evaporate. To dream of opening the dams and restoring natural balance is plainly unrealistic.
Yet one ambitious high-tech dream may turn out to be not only the salvation of the Dead Sea but also a ticket to peace around its shores. The “Red-Dead” is a proposed $5 billion project to bring sea water some 240 kilometers by pipeline and canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The Red-Dead may be the only solution, but even if the project is carried out successfully, the Dead Sea will be 10 to 20 meters lower than now and two thirds of its current size.
Whatever the future holds, the Dead Sea’s magical mix of sun, mud, sea and salt will surely survive. Many might complain that the Dead Sea is half empty—but for me the Dead sea will always be half full.
1.What’s the passage mainly about?
A.Dead Sea – miracle of the world.
B.Save the environment of the Dead Sea.
C.Slow shrinking of the Dead Sea.
D.Why is the Dead Sea so salty.
2.The shrinking of the Dead Sea is mainly caused by ________ according to the passage.
A.a severe reduction of the water flowing into the sea
B.rapid evaporation of the water in the Dead Sea area
C.the increasing quantity of water drawn from the sea
D.very low annual rainfall in the Dead Sea Area
3.Which of the following is right according to the passage?
A.With no outlet to any ocean, the Dead Sea has become by evaporation most dense waters on earth.
B.Though burdened with the growing population, the neighboring countries haven’t cut off the sources of the Dead Sea.
C.All the countries in the area will consider diverting less water from the Jordan River.
D.The Red-Dead Project has not only brought water to the Dead Sea, but peace to the area as well.
4.Which of the following statements will the author approve of?
A.If the Dead Sea dried up, great natural disasters would happen in the region.
B.The Dead Sea will not survive no matter what people do to save it.
C.The five neighboring countries should stop diverting water from the Jordan River.
D.Though the Dead Sea is shrinking gradually, it will not die.
Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are ______ —a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and ______ language, and throw new light on an old scientific ______: whether language, ______ with grammar, is something that we are born with, or whether it is a ______ behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the ______ work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.
When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something ______; among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.
Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural ______, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the “hand ______” his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually have a genuine language? And could that language be ______ any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people ___________ their signing as “substandard”. Stokoe’s idea was academic heresy – a belief contrary to what was generally accepted.
It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a(n) ______. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages ______ English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (调节) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of ______. “What I said,” Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuff(素材)—it’s ______ stuff.”
1.A.unique B.neutral C.inexact D.vague
2.A.varies B.applies C.interrelates D.understands
3.A.argument B.definition C.conclusion D.statement
4.A.familiar B.complete C.changeable D.comparative
5.A.adopted B.inherited C.introduced D.learned
6.A.pioneering B.concluding C.proceeding D.imitating
7.A.casual B.odd C.witty D.tricky
8.A.clue B.file C.code D.digit
9.A.talk B.gossip C.clap D.shake
10.A.characteristic of B.different from C.equal to D.worthy of
11.A.contributed B.signified C.justified D.dismissed
12.A.evolution B.procedure C.revolution D.presentation
13.A.with B.among C.as D.like
14.A.space B.rhythm C.volume D.rate
15.A.culture B.brain C.muscle D.heart
Recently, I flew to Las Vegas to attend a meeting. As we were about to arrive, the pilot announced with apology that there would be a slight delay before setting down. High desert winds had forced the airport to close all but one runway. He said that we would be circling the city for a few minutes waiting to land. We were also told to remain in our seats meanwhile with our seat belts 1. (fasten) because there might be a few bumps. Well, that few minutes turned into about forty-five minutes, including a ride that would make a roller coaster 2. (pale) by comparison.
The movement was so sudden 3. several passengers felt sick and had to use airsickness bags. 4. you might guess, that’s not good thing to happen in a narrow space because it only serves to increase the discomfort of the situation.
About twenty minutes into the adventure, the entire airplane became very quiet. There was now a sense of anxiety and fear that could be distinctly noticed. Every passenger simply held on for dear life…5. one. A baby was having a good time! With each bump of the aircraft, he 6. let out a giggle of happiness. As I observed this, I realized that he didn’t know he was supposed to be afraid and worried about his safety. He 7. thought about the past nor about the future. Those are 8. we grown-ups have learned from experience. He was enjoying the ride because he 9. (not teach) to fear it. 10. (understand) this, I took a deep breath and sat back into my seat, pretending I was really on a roller coaster. I smiled for the rest of the flight. I even managed to giggle once or twice, which is much to the chagrin of the man sitting next to me holding the airsickness bag.
Directions: Write an English composition in 120 – 150 words according to the directions and requirements given below in Chinese.
你的朋友彼得沉迷于网络游戏《王者荣耀》(Glory of Kings)，高三了，他的成绩直线下 降，你作为他的朋友，给他写封信，谈谈你对这件事情的看法。
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Translation
1.这些保存完好的历史建筑让游客们流连忘返。 (reluctant)
2.教师对学生所产生的影响对于学生的未来发展来说可能意味着成与败的区别。 (impact)
3.中国政治和经济实力的提升如此之快，学中文的外国人越来越多。 (So)
4.好的爱情是你通过一个人看到整个世界，坏的爱情是你为了一个人舍弃了整个世界。(while)
Directions: Read the passage carefully. Write a summary of the passage in 60 words.
Job stress and worrying about job security can both take a toll on a woman’s body, although the two issues affect female health differently, according to research presented last month at the American Heart Association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.
In a recent study looking at work stress and women, researchers from Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital studied more than 17,000 otherwise healthy women, generally in their 50s, enrolled in the Women’s Healthy Study for 10 years. Overall, working women reporting high job strain faced a 40 percent higher rate of cardiovascular(心血管的) disease.
Worrying about losing a job did not appear to increase heart attack risk, but it was linked to obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol（胆固醇）, all of which can eventually lead to cardiovascular disease. But whether chronic work-related stress is eating at your nerves or ballooning your waistline, there are natural solutions with no toxic side effects that you can use to relax the pressure.
Previous research out of the university of Oregon has found that you could adopt stress-damaging properties of Integrative Body-Mind Training（IBMT）before the workweek’s out. After practicing it for 20 minutes a day for five days in a row, participants reported reduced stress and increased energy. Prevention suggests this introIBMT exercise: Sit quietly in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and think of your mind as a full cup; as thoughts come and go, keep returning to an image of the cup becoming empty. Repeat for five minutes.
Regardless of your meditation style, know this: Compared too non-meditators, women who practice meditation enjoy up to a 66 percent drop on stress hormone levels, which can dramatically improve heart health. You don’t need to be a monk to enjoy the benefits of meditation. In fact, more and more Western integrative medicine practitioners are using it as a nontoxic health improver.
