Most of the new diseases we humans have faced in the past several decades have come from animals. The more we come into contact with wild animals, the more we risk a so-called disease “spillover” from animals to humans.
“As people move and wildlife move in response to a changing environment, humans and wildlife and animals will come in contact more regularly,” said Jeanne Fair from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Fair argues that by shifting animal habitats, climate change will also make the opportunities for disease spillover more frequent. “Everything is sort of shifting and will shift into the future as the environment changes through climate change,” Fair said.
Scientists, including climatologists and epidemiologists on Fair’s team at Los Alamos, are beginning to model how changes to the climate will impact the spread of infectious diseases. It’s early days for this kind of research, but previous studies suggest that extreme weather has already played a role in at least one outbreak. Scientists say drought and deforestation have combined to force bats out of rainforests and into orchards（果园）in Malaysia to find food. Those bats, a common disease reservoir, then passed the Nipah virus through pigs to humans for the first time in the late 1990s.
“We’re going by the past data to really predict what’s going to happen in the future,” Fair said, “And so, anytime you increase that wildlife-human interface, that’s sort of an emerging disease hot spot. And so, that’s just increasing as we go forward.”
Jeffrey Shaman, head of the climate and health program at Columbia University’s public health school, argues we don’t yet know whether climate change will cause a net increase in infectious disease rates globally. For example, mosquitoes carry disease that affects millions of people across the world every year. As their habitats expand in some parts of the world, they might contract diseases elsewhere. Shaman says what we know for certain about climate change is that it will make it harder to predict where disease outbreaks will pop up.
1.How does climate change affect the spread of disease according to Fair?
A.By breaking animals’ habits.
B.By increasing animals’ varieties.
C.By promoting animals’ breeding.
D.By changing animals’ living environment.
2.What is the example of bats for in paragraph 3?
A.Explaining the influence of Nipah virus.
B.Proving the harm of bats to human beings.
C.Showing the effects of climate change on disease.
D.Presenting scientists’ early study about the cause of disease.
3.What can we infer from Fair’s words in paragraph 4?
A.Humans should give up studying animals.
B.Past data can solve the problems in the future.
C.Disease hot spots will disappear if animals die out.
D.Frequent contact with animals can cause disease outbreaks.
4.What could be the best title for the text?
A.Climate Change and Disease Spillover
B.Animals’ Interaction with Humans
C.Scientists’ Prediction for Disease Outbreaks
D.Early Studies about Extreme Weather
Devon Gallagher, a college graduate from Philadelphia, wants the world to know exactly where she’s been while she’s on her worldwide vacation in a special way. The traveler, who was born with a bone disease, had her right leg amputated (截肢) at the age of four. Although the amputation caused inconvenience for Gallagher early on, she now sees it as nothing short of inspiration for living her best life.
To spread that message. Gallagher has gone to social media, where she shares photos of her travels across the world, but instead of simply using a geo-tag(地理位置标签), she writes her location on her artificial leg before taking a picture.
Now she has been taking pictures across the Continent, which show her cycling over the canal in Amsterdam relaxing on a wall overlooking the city of Barcelona, posing with a waffle in Brussels, taking in the beautiful Parthenon temple in Athens and enjoying a river ride in Budapest, all with the well-known locations written on her artificial leg.
“I get a new leg every two years and I can choose the design on it. One day I had a sudden thought to get a chalk-board,” Gallagher said. “My mum and grandmother didn’t like the idea, but my friends thought it was great and told me to go for it, so I did.”
Gallagher said people often stare when she’s writing on her leg, but once she shares the photos, she receives only positive feedback(反馈), “My leg hasn’t stopped me from doing anything I’ve wanted to do,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s my determination to prove to myself that I can do it, anyway, I’ve been able to keep up with people at my age and lead a pretty great life.”
Gallagher shows us that you should never let anything stand in the way of your dreams. And if life gives you an artificial leg, make art.
1.What message did Gallapher want to spread in her special way?
A.She enjoys her travelling across the globe.
B.She suffers little from her leg’s amputation.
C.she looks on her misfortune as another form of blessing.
D.She has exactly fallen in love with posting photos online.
2.What does the word “which” underlined in paragraph 3 refer to?
A.the continent B.the pictures C.the leg D.the location
3.Gallapher can best be described as ________.
A.helpful and ambitious B.friendly and generous
C.determined and creative D.independent and sensible
4.Which of the following might be the best title for the text?
A.Never Too Late to share B.A Special Artificial Leg
C.An Outstanding Photographer D.Gallagher’s Summer Holidays
1. TrueCar.com
Top dealers compete for your business by offering lower prices. TrueCar spends a lot of money and resources on making sure the entire car renting experience is simple and straightforward. If you’re in the market for a new car, give this site a try first.
TrueCar’s network checks many of the prices in your area and gets you the best price for the car you’re looking for.
2. Carvoy.com
It offers more control by allowing you to “build your car” and select your rental plan. The “build your car” option is one of the better options for those looking to add on features to their car. If you’re looking for cars with options like a sunroof or navigation (导航), it’s Carvoy that makes it very easy to get started with the process.
3. CarsDirect.com
They have a large collection of new and used cars, and also provide resources for car comparisons. In the business for many years, they are one of the first online car outlets. They have a staff that can usually help you if you give them a call. Their phone support is very good and they are mostly located in the United States.
4. CarRent.com
It delivers your rental car to the door, which is actually a huge selling point. Many people don’t like to go to a dealership or even drive somewhere to pick up a car. Imagine renting a car and having it delivered right to your doorstep, no driving necessary!
5. CostcoAuto.com
It offers member-only savings, many car selections and an easy sign-up process. The deals through Costco are great and unique. Many times they have deals with General Motors cars like Chevrolet. There are a lot of deals to be done, but the one thing that Costco does not do is negotiate the price.
1.What’s the selling point of TrueCar.com?
A. Its most reasonable prices for cars.
B. The diversity of its used cars.
C. Its delivery service to your door.
D. The special offers to its members.
2.What is the special service that Carvoy.com provides?
A. You can have other functions added to your car.
B. You can rent a car more easily than elsewhere.
C. You can design the whole car by yourself.
D. You can have better operation over your car.
3.If you are a good bargainer, it’s wise to avoid dealing with _______.
A. CarsDirect.com B. Carvoy.com
C. CarRent.com D. CostcoAuto.com
假设你是李津，你校学生会计划创办英语报，该报开设文学，体育，音乐，科 技；校园生活等五个栏目，学生会招募本校学生担任专栏作者，申请者需要提交不少于 100字的英文版的自荐信，请你给负责这项工作的外教Mr. Smith写信，主要内容包括：
（1）自我介绍（姓名，性别，年级）；
（2）你所申请的栏目及理由；
（3）对所申请的栏目的理解及计划。
注意：（1）不要逐字翻译提示内容，可适当增加信息。
（2）开头结尾己经给好，不计入总字数。
Dear Mr. Smith,
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Jin
阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
My family and I belonged to a country club located across the street from the Long Island Sound. Each summer, the big attraction for us was the pool. I learned how to swim and joined the swimming team but was never really a good swimmer. However, swimming in my younger days was a way to keep cool, and swimming on a team gave me identity and a sense of belonging. It also became invaluable many years later.
Fast-forward (快进) to 1973 — I was married, pregnant and had a home. What made our little home even more wonderful was when I discovered that four blocks away was Rath Park Pool! For the next 30 years, most of our summer days were spent around that pool.
Each of my five kids took swimming lessons and learned all the different swimming strokes (姿势). They later joined the swim team and competed in meets. My daughter even became a lifeguard at the town pool. I sat back and happily took it all in!
As much as I would have liked to have life stand still, it doesn’t. My children outgrew their pool days and moved on. But the pool was still four blocks from my home, so I began to take up swimming again. And it was far better than I ever could have imagined. I got so much out of it that I joined the local pool so I could swim year-round. Whenever I swam, I would always come out feeling physically and mentally refreshed. I often felt that if I looked hard enough, I would be able to see all of the worries and problems I’ve had in life, sitting at the bottom of the pool!
What has swimming taught me? I’ve learned that balance is the key to being a good swimmer. If you are balanced in the water, you have no resistance. Working on staying balanced made me realize the similarities between life in and out of the swim lane (泳道). If you work on keeping yourself balanced, you will be able to swim right through the stress and problems life throws at you!
1.What influence does swimming ever have on the author according to Paragraph 1? (no more than 10 words)
2.What does Paragraph 3 mainly tell us? (no more than 10 words)
3.What is the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4? (no more than 10 words)
4.What has the author learned from swimming? (no more than 15 words)
5.Name one of your favorite sports (swimming not included). What lesson can you learn from your sport? (no more than 20 words)
JENNIFER SALLS — A high school math teacher in Sparks, Nevada
It is possible to construct good online courses that would support mathematics learning with middle and high school students. However, these courses would not look like most current online courses.
When we imagine an online course, we think of a solitary (孤立的)process in which a student is holed up with his or her computer, watching PowerPoints, paging through screens of text and solving a whole bunch of problems. While learning may be occurring, I suspect that it's short-term with little real understanding of mathematics. There are some students who learn well under these circumstances, but this is not true for the majority of students.
A good online course would take advantage of the many interactive resources. For example, if students were learning to solve equations, they would be directed to solve a carefully arranged set of problems using an interactive program. They would reflect on the interaction and share their observations with others taking the course.
Eventually, the lesson would move students toward solving equations, using their experiences with the interactive program as the jumping-off point. Students could experience real-world problems through video and simulations and use a variety of computer-based tools to solve these problems. Notice that a course like this is not solitary, but highly interactive, and it builds both problem-solving skills and conceptual knowledge.
BRIGID BARRON — A psychologist at Stanford University's School of Education
Whether or not any computing tool used in the classroom will interfere with or energize learning depends on how the teacher organizes its use.
When online courses are well designed, they offer learners and teachers wonderful opportunities. Hybrid models that combine classroom interaction with tools like blogs, podcasts, social networks and discussion forums can engage students in ways that traditional environments do not. When students are given challenging material, asked to carry out research and to create ways to share what they are learning with students from all over the world, engagement goes up.
There are other benefits. Assessment of student learning can be partly automated and designed to provide continuous feedback. When students need assistance, they can be directed to activities that will help them learn. Perhaps most importantly, online courses can help bridge gaps in course offerings within a school district. Many economically challenged schools don't have the resources to provide specialized or advanced courses, but those courses could be offered online.
Many students are already using technology in their own time to learn and create, for their own purposes or for school assignments (作业).If they know where to look, they can access online communities that foster their imagination and offer informal mentorship.
Instead of wondering whether teenagers are too easily distracted by computers, we should be figuring out how we can use digital media to sustain teenagers' interest and their desire to learn.
1.According to Jennifer Salls, in most current online classes, .
A.students hardly learn anything
B.students are made to learn all on their own
C.students are led to improve their self-study abilities
D.students focus more on theories than on problem-solving skills
2.Which of the following statements best summarizes Salls' opinions?
A.Online courses should try to make the most of interactive resources.
B.Schools today pay more attention to students, conceptual knowledge.
C.Students cannot learn mathematics effectively through online courses.
D.Thanks to online classes, teachers' work load can be greatly decreased.
3.Brigid Barron mentioned all of the following potentials of online classes EXCEPT
A.narrowing the gap between rich and poor
B.providing students with real-time feedback
C.teaching students how to exploit online resources
D.maintaining students' interest throughout the course
4.What does the underlined word “foster” in the passage probably mean?
A.help ... to recover B.help ... to grow
C.help ... to relax D.help ... to display
5.Both Salls and Barron believe that .
A.good courses should combine advanced technology and online resources
B.teachers play an important role in ensuring the effectiveness of online classes
C.students should be able to learn effectively through well-designed online classes
D.online courses are more effective only when students are assigned challenging tasks
