In the US and Britain, the slogan around colleges was “Save water. Shower with a friend.” Now, Wuhan University has come up with another system for the campus bathhouse. It charges students for the amount of time in a shower. Before entering the bathhouse, students pay for the amount of time they want in the shower with cash or their student ID card. The clock starts ticking the minute the tape is turned on. It pauses when a button is pressed for soap. An integrated circuit(IC) card reader at each tap shows the time. No money, no water. The benefits of the new system can be seen with the old system, which charged 1 Yuan for each person regardless of time in the shower. The university used about 320 tones of water daily under the old system, but only 160 tons now.
Many students use the new system but opinions on it are divided. Some students say it is bad because bathing had become a sort of race. Many people using it for the first time are not sure how long they need to shower. Some might be embarrassed if their time is up and they’re still covered in soap. They have to ask the bathhouse worker to help them buy extra time.
“It’s a flaw in the system that you can not buy extra time on the ID card,” said Ren, a freshman in Wuhan University. The university is also considering some students’ suggestions that they be allowed to pay after they’ve finished the shower. Not surprisingly, some are complaining about losing the hour shower. But many students say the move helps them develop a water-saving sense.
Without the time limits, most students tended to shower for 30 to an hour in the bathhouse.
Some even used the hot water to wash their clothes. “In my experience, 10-20 minutes is enough,” said Dai Zhihua, a third-year student who usually takes 8 minutes.
A similar system has been installed in other universities. Shanghai Normal University introduced it at its Fengxiang Campus in September. The bathing fee there is 0.2 Yuan per minute. One male student responded by setting a record with a two-minute shower.
1.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Students pay for the amount of time they want in the shower.
B. The clock times all through while the student is bathing except when the bather paused for soap.
C. If money runs out, there will be no water.
D. Having finished bathing, the student has to pay for it.
2.The underline word “flaw” (Paragraph3) most probably means______.
A. perfection B. advantage C. pity D. fault
3.Since the new system has performed, ______ of water can be saved.
A. a quarter B. one third C. one half D. two thirds
4.It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A. the new operation can solve the water crisis.
B. The new operation can raise students’ environmental awareness.
C. a similar operation has been set in other universities.
D. The university has saved a lot of water by using the new system.
5.In which column can you find this passage?
A. People. B. Society C. Campus Life. D. Lifestyle.
Winners Club
You choose to be a winner!
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account(交易账户)where you receive a keycard so you can get to your money 24/7—that’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
It’s a club with impressive features for teenagers：
● No account keeping fees!
You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!
● Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits without taking them out in a month.
● Convenient
Teenagers are busy — we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet...You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your parttime job!
● Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (so we can organize that cool keycard)but it is easy. We can’t wait to hear from you. It’s the best way to choose to be a winner!
1.The Winners Club is a bank account intended for________.
A. parents B. teenagers C. winners D. adults
2.Which of the following is TRUE about the Winners Club?
A．Special gifts are ready for parents.
B．The bank opens only on work days.
C．Services are convenient for its members.
D．Fees are necessary for the account keeping.
3.The Winners Club provides magazines which________.
A．encourage spending
B．are free to all teenagers
C．are full of adventure stories
D．help to make more of your money
4.If you want to be a member of the Club，you must________.
A．be an Internet user B．be permitted by your parent
C．have a big sum of money D．be in your twenties
5.What is the purpose of this text?
A．To set up a club.
B．To provide parttime jobs.
C．To organize keycards.
D．To introduce a new banking service.
Outside our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a seemingly ancient woman waited beside the door with her hand outstretched. Every day I put my hand in hers as our eyes met. She never failed to return my smile, my grasp, and my greeting.
On the last day of our visit, I found myself alone on a busy corner across the street from our hotel. Bicycles and motorbikes rushed in front of me. As I hesitated on the sidewalk, I felt a hand on my elbow and looked down to see the smile of my small beggar friend looking up at me. She nodded her head toward the street, indicating that she would take me across. Together, we moved slowly into the chaos.
Then we moved on toward the sidewalk, where she pulled my face down to hers, kissed me on both cheeks, and then left, still smiling and waving back to me.
Traveling in poorer nations, I have witnessed a variety of ways to deal with beggars. The most common response of tourists faced with the poverty-stricken is to ignore them and focus their eyes elsewhere. I have seen people push away an outstretched hand in angry annoyance. A few may drop a few coins into the hand in a hurry, hoping that other ragged pursuers won’t immediately appear on the scene.
For many reasons, giving money is not the best response to an outstretched hand. Many world travelers have discovered that the greatest gift they can give is their time and respect. Everyone needs recognition, to be seen as worthy of being known, to feel appreciated and loved. And I believe that everyone is worthy and worth knowing.
1.The woman beggars helped the author go across the busy street because __________.
A．the author gave her material assistance
B．the author treated her kindly and friendly
C．the author would help her as a reward
D．the author was a foreigner
2.From the story, what position of the beggars in the author’s mind might be?
A．equal B．superior C．lower D．valuable
3.In common cases, people will do the following things to the beggars EXCEPT for ________.
A．pretending to see nothing
B．handing out some money
C．refusing them angrily
D．greeting them normally
4.According to the author, the most important things beggars really need are _________.
A．mercy and pity B．money and food
C．smile and greeting D．attention and respect
5.The purpose of the passage is to _________.
A．show how poor the beggars are in Vietnam
B．offer some advice on dealing with begging
C．express what we should offer the beggars
D．describe an experience with a beggar
Whether we’re 2 years old or 62, our reasons for lying are mostly the same: to get out of trouble, for personal gain and to make ourselves look better in the eyes of others. But a growing body of research is raising questions about how a child’s lie is different from an adult’s lie, and how the way we deceive changes as we grow.
“Parents and teachers who catch their children lying should not be alarmed. Their children are not going to turn out to be abnormal liars,” says Dr. Lee, a professor at the University of Toronto and director of the Institute of Child Study. He has spent the last 15 years studying how lying changes as kids get older, why some people lie more than others as well as which factors can reduce lying. The fact that children tell lies is a sign that they have reached a new developmental stage. Dr. Lee conducted a series of studies in which they bring children into a lab with hidden cameras. Children and young adults aged 2 to 17 are likely to lie while being told not to look at a toy, which is put behind the child’s back. Whether or not the child takes a secret look is caught on tape.
For young kids, the desire to cheat is big and 90% take a secret look in these experiments. When the test-giver returns to the room, the child is asked if he or she looked secretly. At age 2, about a quarter of children will lie and say they didn’t. By 3, half of kids will lie, and by 4, that figure is 90%, studies show.
Researchers have found that it’s kids with better understanding abilities who lie more. That’s because to lie you also have to keep the truth in mind, which includes many brain processes, such as combining several sources of information and faking that information. The ability to lie — and lie successfully — is thought to be related to development of brain regions that allow so called “executive functioning”, or higher order thinking and reasoning abilities. Kids who perform better on tests that involve executive functioning also lie more.
1.What’s the purpose of children telling lies?
A. To help their friends out.
B. To get rid of trouble.
C. To get attention from others.
D. To create a popular image.
2.The underlined word “deceive” in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by “ ”.
A. tell lies B. handle troubles
C. raise questions D. do research
3.From the second paragraph we can know that .
A. which factors can reduce lying
B. why some lie more than others
C. it is normal for kids to tell lies
D. how lying changes as kids grow
4.It can be inferred from the passage that .
A. children’s lies are the same as adults’
B. the better kids are, the more they lie
C. the older kids are, the more they lie
D. kids always keep the truth in their mind
5.What is NOT included in the passage?
A. The reasons why kids tell lies.
B. Which kind of kids tells more lies.
C. Experiments about lying of young kids.
D. What to do with lying children.
阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填人一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡标号为16～25的相应位置上。
If you struggle against figures, maybe you were born that way, research has suggested. Being good at mathematics may be entirely pre-destined—you either have it 16 you don’t.
And those who find 17 difficult to add up the number shouldn’t feel too hopeless—mathematical talent does not appear to be linked to all-round intelligence. Previous research has indicated that "number sense" is 18 (base) to humans. We use it to estimate such things as 19 number of seats in a cinema or crowd sizes.
U.S. psychologists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore made their finding after testing children too young to have been taught mathematics. During the study, 200 four-year-olds 20 (study) in terms of number senses, calculation skills and vocabulary. The verbal test was done for the reason 21 language and maths abilities are thought to be 22 (close) linked through general intelligence.
"Unlike 23 previous studies proved, this one shows that the link 24 number sense and maths ability is already present before the beginning of formal maths instruction. One of the most important questions is whether we can train a child’s number sense 25
(improve) his future maths ability."
We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are married, have a baby, then another. Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough, and that __1__ will be well when they are older. Then we are frustrated __2__ they reach adolescence and we must deal with them. Surely we’ll be __3__ when they grow out of the teen years.
We tell ourselves our __4__ will be better when our spouse(配偶)gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a __5__， when we finally retire. The truth is that there is no better time to be happy than __6__.If not, then when? Your life will always be full of challenges. It is better to admit as much and to decide to be happy __7__it all. For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to start—real life.
But there were always some obstacles along the way, an ordeal(苦难) to __8__， some work to be finished, some time to be given, a bill to be __9__.Then life would start. It finally dawned on me that those __10__ were part of life. Little by little, that point of __11__ also helped me see that there isn’t any road to happiness.
Happiness is the road. So, enjoy every moment. And bear in mind that __12__ waits for no one. So stop __13__ school to end, for a return to school, to lose ten pounds, to __14__ ten pounds, for work to begin, to get married，...before deciding to be happy.
Happiness is a voyage, not a destination. There is no __15__ time to be happy than...NOW! Live and enjoy the moment.
1.A.we B．they C．all D．nothing
2.A.because B．but C．so D．and
3.A.luckier B．happier C．older D．healthier
4.A.life B．study C．children D．condition
5.A.rest B．bath C．breath D．vacation
6.A.before B．ever C．just then D．right now
7.A.instead of B．in addition to C．in spite of D．up to
8.A.meet with B．go ahead C．turn to D．get through
9.A.paid B．got C．asked D．printed
10.A.achievements B．obstacles C．duties D．opinions
11.A.view B．life C．position D．condition
12.A.happiness B．time C．age D．road
13.A.asking for B．supposing C．waiting for D．hoping for
14.A.gain B．reduce C．weigh D．enjoy
15.A.worse B．better C．more D．less
