All around the world, shoppers flock to Wal-Mart to buy everything. In Texas, they come for another reason: to see the wind turbine（涡轮机）, which supplies 5% of the store’s electricity. It along with other facilities, such as exterior walls coated with heat-reflective paint, makes this Wal-Mart a green giant.
The laws of economics suggest that Wal-Mart, with 5, 200 stores worldwide, influences everything including the price of all kinds of goods. It throws its weight behind environmental responsibility, and the impact could be amazing. “One little change in product packaging could save 1, 500 trees,” says Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott．“If everybody saves 1, 500 trees or 50 barrels of oil, at the end of the day you have made a huge difference.”
Scott wants Wal-Mart to do its part too. He has promised to cut the existing greenhouse-gas emissions（排放）over the next few years and promised to construct new stores that are more efficient. He wants Wal-Mart’s fleet of more than 7, 000 trucks to get twice as many miles per gallon by 2015. Factories that show Wal-Mart they’re cutting air pollution will get preferential treatment in the supply chain. Wal-Mart says it’s working with consumer-product manufacturers to reduce their packaging and will reward them if they do so.
Some people may doubt it is a bid to attract attention from Wal-Mart’s controversial labor and health-insurance practices. But it’s not just window dressing, because Wal-Mart sees profits in going green. Scott says, “___________________________We don’t go where we don’t think there’s a great interest in change.”
Like Bill Gates, who started his charitable foundation, Scott happens to be promoting Wal-Mart’s image at a time when his company’s reputation is declining. He acknowledges that he launched the plan partly to shield （保护）Wal-Mart from bad press about its contribution to global warming. “By doing what we’re doing today, we avoid the headline risks that are going to come for people who did not do anything,” he says. “At some point businesses will be held responsible for the action they take.” Meanwhile, should Wal-Mart succeed at shrinking its environmental footprint and lowering prices for green products, both the planet and the company will profit.
1.We can infer from the passage that ______.
A. Lee Scott is Wal-Mart’s CEO
B. there are 5, 200 stores in the world
C. Wal-Mart has a great influence on the world market
D. Wal-Mart has more than 7, 000 trucks all over the world
2.What does the underlined sentence “This is a business philosophy, not a social philosophy.” mean in the fourth paragraph?
A. Wal-Mart predicts huge profits in its green activity.
B. Wal-Mart’s green activity is just window dressing.
C. Wal-Mart aims to solve its health-insurance practices.
D. Wal-Mart doesn’t have any social responsibility at all.
3.What will Wal-Mart probably do in the future?
A. Reduce air pollution in its present stores.
B. Give favorable treatment to its consumers.
C. Ask the factories to reduce their packaging.
D. Demand the fleet of trucks to use more fuel than before.
4.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. Provide the background of the green plan.
B. Stress the purpose of Wal-Mart’s green plan.
C. Present the risk that Wal-Mart is facing nowadays.
D. Analyze the similarity between Bill Gates and Scott.
The early lack of exposure to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) can be harmful to achieving gender balance in these fields. It begins when we are young and continues throughout our time in high school.
While at home, girls generally don’t get to experience the level of exposure or encouragement in STEM fields that boys do. It is often subtle, but it’s the first obstacle that faces and confuses so many women. Boys, on the other hand, get on their path, and are encouraged to do so, generally earlier than girls. For example, boys are more often given science sets as toys, which spark an interest in these subjects.
In school, boys are often pushed in school to take the more challenging math and science classes. So if we want to attract the best and brightest minds into the fields that will advance us as a people, a country, and a planet, we can no longer look to only half of the population. Young girls cannot possibly consider opportunities they do not know exist. If girls are not exposed to certain subject and career paths, they are highly unlikely to elect to follow them in college.
Our bias(偏见) toward girl, either from families or from schools is so rooted in our culture that we often don’t even recognize it. While the situation has changed greatly in the past 20 or 30 years, there is still a sense that girls aren’t as good at math, for instance, even though there is almost no evidence to support such a belief.
It is important that as a society we deal with gender stereotypes long before young people are faced with a decision to declare or choose a major in college. Without making efforts to break them, we are limiting the potentials of our youth, both male and female. Providing the necessary resources, exposure, and encouragement would help young women understand that their gender shouldn’t determine the career path they choose, and that pursuing a STEM career does not make them less feminine.
1.According to the passage, not many girls grow to enter STEM fields because ________.
A.girls are not as good at STEM as boys
B.girls do not like to take science classes
C.girls get fewer chances to know about STEM
D.girls seldom survive the high pressure positions
2.The underlined word “it” in Para.4 refers to ________.
A.this bias B.our culture
C.the situation D.a sense
3.The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A.show girls’ potentials in STEM fields
B.praise women’s contributions to STEM fields
C.describe the present gender bias in STEM fields
D.call for more involvement of women in STEM fields
4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
CP：Central Point P：Point Sp：Sub-point C： Conclusion
A.
B.
C.
D.
Dear Volunteers，
The service you will provide to elderly individuals in Abilene as a Meals on Wheels volunteer is deeply appreciated. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the many miles you will travel and all of the hours you will contribute to help make this one of the best programs in the entire state.
We have our staff members make a home visit before adding each person to the program and try to visit everyone at least once every year. That is hardly enough, and we depend on your contact a great deal! It is important that you report back when you do not get an answer to your knock on the door. The person inside may be hurt or ill. They may be in hospital or out of town and fail to inform us. If they are frequently absent, we may need to determine if they still need meals.
If you find someone with a medical emergency, please call 911 to request medical assistance, and then call the Meals on Wheels office. If you find someone who needs assistance other than for a medical emergency, please call the Meals on Wheels office at 6725050, and we will try to find the appropriate agency or individual to call.
Let us know when a certain person needs extra food. We have a food preparation room of shelf stable items to share with them. Please feel free to take a few magazines when you deliver meals. Many of those we serve cannot afford magazines and enjoy reading. If someone is interested in getting books from the Abilene Public Library, let us know. We can sign them up for the Books on Wheels program. Call if you smell gas strongly when you deliver meals, or if someone needs a space heater, a blanket, or an electric fan. Please convey all needs to us, and we will try to see that they are met. Some of the elderly people who we offer our service may have cancers, liver diseases, AIDS, etc. If you do not want to deliver meals to the people with certain types of health problems, such as these, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Betty L. Bradley, LBSW,
Executive Director
1.Why does the author write this letter?
A.To express great thanks to volunteers.
B.To explain how the old people get help.
C.To tell volunteers what they are tasked with.
D.To describe the life situation of the old people.
2.What can we learn about the volunteers from the passage?
A.They order books for needy people.
B.They design programs to help people.
C.They offer medical help to sick people.
D.They deliver food to the elderly people.
3.How does the author learn about the needs of the people served?
A.The volunteers report back the information to him.
B.His staff members call them to get the information.
C.He visits them now and then to get the information.
D.The family members send the information to his office.
Clyde, a small-clawed otter, was moved from Auckland Zoo to Wellington Zoo two months ago. The zookeepers hoped he and the other otter Bonnie might start a family together.
But only two days after he arrived, Clyde went missing. He had dug his way under one of the walls and was nowhere to be seen.
The zookeepers set up cages inside the zoo, with plates of Clyde’s favorite fish in them, hoping to catch him.
Two days went by and still there was no sign of Clyde.
At last a couple saw Clyde at their house a whole kilometer away in Newtown. Clyde was hiding in an out-of-reach hole outside their laundry.
The zookeepers arrived and set up some more traps to try to catch him. But Clyde is a pretty smart otter. Twice he managed to get the fish out of a trap without being caught.
Five days after he’d escaped ^Clyde s days on the run came to an end when he was finally caught in one of the traps.
It was no good putting Clyde back in his old home---he’d only dig his way out again. So he and Bonnie were put into the zoo hospital. There was no chance of their escaping from there.
Meanwhile, the zookeepers were working hard to make Clyde’s old home safer. They put an iron barrier underground to stop him digging his way out. Then Bonnie and Clyde went home again.
But a month after his first escape, Clyde was out again. Once more the zookeepers came hurrying to catch Clyde. They found him by following the bubbles he made in the river nearby.
Nobody knew how Clyde had escaped. But this time he was only out for an hour. So back he went to the hospital again.
Poor Clyde. It seemed that he wasn’t happy at Wellington Zoo, even though he and Bonnie were getting on well together. The keepers didn’t like seeing him unhappy, so they planned to look for a home for him somewhere else.
1.Where was Clyde found after his first escape?
A.Back in Auckland Zoo. B.In a river nearby.
C.At a house a kilometer away. D.In the zoo hospital.
2.How did zookeepers catch Clyde after his second escape?
A.They set up cages in the zoo. B.They attracted Clyde with fish.
C.They dug a hole outside his home. D.They followed the bubbles in the water.
3.What do we know about Clyde?
A.He often gets ill. B.He is good at digging.
C.He likes hiding in a hole. D.He escaped to meet Bonnie.
4.Where is the passage most likely to have been taken from?
A.A news report. B.An advertisement.
C.A book review. D.A research paper.
I am curious about how coffee companies such as Starbucks will ____________ the “coffee cancer warning” problem.
A.handle B.educate C.deserve
Determination is the most important of all the ____________ because without determination, you will end up doing nothing.
A.tactics B.virtues C.emotions
