For £12 you can equip an entire classroom in Burkina Faso, for £31 you can equip a school football team in Sierra Leone and for £68 you can support the whole education of a Haitian schoolgirl.
The educational presents are the latest way on the trend of charitable（慈善的）giving for Christmas. Plan UK, an international children's charity, has made its gift list focusing on helping the world's poorest countries to improve their education conditions.
"Every year we rack our brains for the perfect present and too often end up with yet another pair of socks or a useless ornament," said Marie Staunton, Plan UK's chief executive.
"This year we are offering people in the UK the chance to give twice. Buying an alternative gift for a loved one could likely save the life of some of the world's poorest children."
Plan UK is working on projects in specific countries, such as Burkina Faso, which is one of the poorest countries in the world and has a primary school enrolment rate（入学率）of just 36%. A present of £12 will help equip a classroom in Burkina Faso with chairs, desks, books and pencils.
The educational presents are the latest addition to a list of other charitable presents, including vaccinations（接种）and clean water systems.
Football strips for schoolchildren in Sierra Leone are designed to help the children have fun while continuing with the psychological healing process following the country's civil war. The £31 gift will supply the team strip, a football and a whistle to a school in Sierra Leone.
Oxfam offers similar gifts. Its Back to School kits for five pupils is a bestseller in a catalogue（目录）which includes the £24 Christmas goat, the £30 lavatory and £12 for school dinners for up to 200 children.
The first paragraph is written to tell us________.
| A．the great differences between the rich and the poor. |
| B．the general conditions of education in poor countries. |
| C．the difficulty in getting good education in poor countries. |
| D．the great meaning of a little money to children in poor countries. |
The underlined phrase “rack our brains” means _____in the third paragraph.
| A．cause physical or mental hurt |
| B．think very hard |
| C．improve our intelligence |
| D．make full use of |
Which of the following is Right according to the passage?
| A．Plan UK is working on educational projects all over the world. |
| B．The sufferings brought by war still have side effects on the children in Sierra Leone. |
| C．The educational Christmas presents have been given to the children for many years. |
| D．Its Back to School kits for five pupils is a bestselling book. |
The title for the passage would probably be ______.
| A．A new way of Christmas shopping |
| B．Give a helping hand to poor children |
| C．Buy a child an education this Christmas |
| D．Plan UK, an international children's charity |
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项 。
A
You love photography, but still take average, boring photos?
Don’t worry! Now, I’ve got something NEW for you—Photography Masterclass, the guaranteed fastest way to improve your photography!
Photography Masterclass is a set of 29 videos that will show you how to get the most out of any DSLR camera. Each video thoroughly explains something you need to know to become a better photographer.
Module 1: Mastering your digital SLR camera
Number of videos: 9
Total running time: 2 hours, 26 minutes
Get a general idea of DSLR camera functions; find out the best settings for any situation you’ll experience as a photographer.
Module 2: Photography equipment
Number of videos: 6
Total running time: 2 hours, 33 minutes
Receive a complete introduction to photography equipment; know what gear is essential and what gear should be avoided, and why. These will help you create better photos, save you a lot of time and potentially save you thousands of dollars.
Module 3: Composition and shooting planning
Number of videos: 9
Total running time: 3 hours, 35 minutes
Module 3 is everyone’s favorite. Here I reveal the secrets of the pros (内行): how to create your own brilliant and memorable photographs. This ability can really change your photography for the better.
Module 4: Post-production and software
Number of videos: 5
Total running time: 2 hours, 52 minutes
What software do you need? That depends on how many features you want. In fact, there are hundreds of functions that I don’t use. Instead I focus on tools that deliver the results I want, showing you how to get the most out of your time on the computer.How long are the 29 videos of Photography Masterclass in total?
| A．5 hours 52 minutes. | B．8 hours 36 minutes. |
| C．11 hours 26 minutes. | D．14 hours 13 minutes. |
The underlined word “gear” means ______.
| A．clothing | B．equipment |
| C．furniture | D．composition |
D
Positive Thinking, With a Little Help From Your Phone
Here are some apps （程序）on your phones which can help you think positively or aim at happiness. Examine them, and you can have fun .
Happify is perhaps the most popular positive app available now. By asking some questions about your goals in using the app, it recommends you some tracks.
Each track contains games and activities that guide you to seeing positive aspects of your daily life. It also regularly helps you assess your happiness level, pointing out how you can feel more positive merely by changing your habits. There’s also a community page in the app where you can see inspirational comments by other users and even upload your own .
Happify’s only drawback is that while it’s free to download and use, access to its full range of activities costs $13 a month or $70 a year.
Other apps use a different route to developing positive thinking habits. They simply expose you repeatedly to motivational ideas, quotes and suggestions.
Positive Thinking is a relatively simple attempt at this kind of app. It uses colorful imagery and simple controls, and has a list of motivational quotes and suggestions — everything from “do sports” to “stop thinking ... sit there relaxed.” It’s extremely basic, and there’s not a huge amount of content but you may find it has some good ideas and it’s free.
The app Mood Journal, which costs $2, has a great-looking. Through text-entry controls you can make a diary-style note in the app of when you’re feeling positive, and also add a photo. When you’ve accumulated enough entries, the app presents some analytics in the form of graphs that show your positivity over time. This could help you plan strategies to be more positive. , and also add a photo or a selfie.
If you prefer a more meditative approach to positive thinking, check out Smiling Mind, a free iOS and Android app. You enter data on how you’re feeling, using a number of slide controls that ask if you’re feeling “stormy” or “calm,” for example. Then you listen to a meditation-like voice track that talks you through different programs.How does Happify help you think positive?
| A．By playing through games and activities. |
| B．By exposing you to motivational ideas repeatedly. |
| C．By controlling your negative thoughts. |
| D．By analyzing the changes of your emotions. |
What does “drawback” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
| A．advantage | B．mistake |
| C．benefit | D．weakness |
Compared with Happify, Positive Thinking _____.
| A．has more content. | B．is more expensive. |
| C．is much simpler. | D．is more popular. |
Who may be interested in this passage?
| A．A primary student who is playful. |
| B．A college student who feels stressed and boring. |
| C．An office secretary who is optimistic. |
| D．A retired teacher who lives a meaningful life. |
How many apps does the writer introduce?
A. Seven B. Five. C Three. D. Four.
C
B Resort & Spa
Disney World presents a dilemma for many people. If you’re there, you’re probably there because you love the children in your life. But should that noble desire to do right by the wee ones automatically put you in a disgusting holiday of six-foot animated characters, wailing toddlers and chicken-finger meals?
B Resort & Spa has solved this problem. Stay here and you’ve got easy access to “the happiest place on Earth” without sacrificing your adult sensibilities.
There’s 80-minute B Indulged massages to be had at the Aveda spa, complete with footbaths for your weary feet, and adventure tours to nearby Boggy Creek to observe tigers in their natural habitat. Even the mini-bar is stocked with a nod to grownup tastes (think Boulder Canyon natural, kettle-cooked chips).
location
B is right inside Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, just a short, free shuttle from Downtown Disney. This means you don’t have to stay in the kid zone all day long.
If you have a car at your disposal, it’s also well worth a trip out to the East End Market, where you’ll find the best of Orlando’s local food scene, along with a superb Basque eatery, Txokos, whose famous cook Henry Salgado has been nominated twice for a James Beard Award.
Eat in or eat out?
Room service is exceptional for breakfast: quick and delicious, with perfectly poached eggs and house-made sausage so tasty you’ll find yourself craving it for weeks to come. For dinner, American Q has tasty house-made barbecue sauces and all-you-can-eat, Brazilian-style carved meat dishes from across the U.S. The foods here will keep everyone in the family happy, and good pineapple wine should mellow out the grownups after a long, crazy day at Disney.Who may be interested in the passage?
| A．Parents | B．Teachers . |
| C．Children . | D．Adolescents. |
Living in B Resort & Spa, you can _____.
| A．visit Disney World for free |
| B．have breakfast without leaving your room |
| C．enjoy meals cooked by Henry Salgado |
| D．watch tigers closely |
Why does the writer think Disney World is a dilemma?
| A．Because Disney World is like a trap for adults. |
| B．Because adults are forbidden to enter Disney World. |
| C．Because adults can get little joy from Disney World. |
| D．Because Disney World is full of animated characters. |
Which is not mention in the passage?
| A．Transportation. | B．Location. |
| C．Food. | D．History. |
Where can you find this passage ?
| A．In a science book. |
| B．In a travel magazine. |
| C．In a government work report |
| D．In a news report |
B
Australian scientists say an organic compound used by Indian women to paint dots or bindi on their foreheads could hold the key to a breakthrough in cancer treatment. Rose Bengal (玫瑰红)was first used in the early 1900s as a dye for food, textiles and cosmetics. But now it is proving to be a useful weapon in the fight against skin cancer.
Television advertisements constantly warn of the dangers of overexposure to the fierce sun. Among them is the possibility of the disease melanoma(黑瘤), a type of skin cancer. More than 1,200 Australians die every year from the disease.
Initial trials of a solution of Rose Bengal injected into some melanoma cells have had a 75 percent success rate in controlling the disease. Professor John Thompson, the director of the Melanoma Unit at the University of Sydney, says this organic dye could become a powerful cancer-fighting treatment.
“We believe it works by getting into the tumor(肿块) cells and causing them to self-destruct. But the exact mechanism by which it works is not totally clear. It’s not useful for people who have a primary melanoma. The treatment of primary melanoma is surgical excision(切除),”he said. “It’s useful to inject tumors for people who have recurrences; when the primary treatment has failed and when recurrence in the area, or at more distant sites has occurred.”
About 90 percent of Australians who develop melanoma survive thanks to early diagnosis and treatment. If left untreated, however, the disease can be fatal.
Convincing younger people in Australia about the dangers of overexposure to the sun is a battle campaigners are constantly waging.
Veronica Manock, a 21-year-old student, had two major operations to remove a cancerous tumor from her leg.
“I’ve had a lot of friends who just said ‘I thought it was just, you know, I’ll get a mole(痣) cut out and that’s it’, whereas I don’t think people realize how much danger they’re putting themselves into and how easy it is to stop something like this happening to you just from doing little things,”said Marock.
Other researchers in Australia are investigating genetic treatments to skin cancer. There is a pressing need for such research to produce effective treatments. Australians, the majority of whom are fair-skinned(浅肤色的), are four times more likely to develop a melanoma than people in Canada, the United States or Great Britain.Which can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Rose Bengal—the cause of skin cancer. |
| B．Rose Bengal—a tool to fight against skin cancer. |
| C．Skin cancer—the first killer. |
| D．Melanoma—the threat to health. |
What does the underlined word “fatal” mean?
| A．Curable. | B．Serious. |
| C．Deadly. | D．Self-healing. |
From what Veronica Manock said , we can know _______.
| A．people haven’t realized overexposure to the sun is dangerous |
| B．mole on the leg is dangerous. |
| C．people can do nothing to protect themselves from melanoma |
| D．nothing can be done to deal with the disease. |
Who are likely to develop a melanoma?
| A．Englishmen. | B．Canadians. |
| C．Americans. | D．Australians. |
In which section of a newspaper does the passage possibly appear?
| A．Economy. | B．Health. |
| C．Agriculture. | D．Fashion. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Noah McQueen is part of "My Brother's Keeper," a White House program aimed at young men of color.
His teen years have been rough, and include several arrests and a short period of being in prison. But last week, he was at the White House talking with President Obama.
"Growing up, I didn't have a stable household. I attended eight schools in three years," McQueen says.
McQueen adds his dad lives down the street from him, but he doesn't really have a relationship with him.
"That's one of the things we have in common," Obama says. "As I get older, I start reflecting on how that affected me. How do you think that affected you?"
"I think I learn right and wrong on my own terms." McQueen says.
"Obviously you've straightened yourself out and become successful as a black man. " Obama says. " But did you feel pressure to look back on the way you once acted?"
"Definitely, there's always pressure." McQueen says, "People will say, 'You are the success story,' but it's hard to always make the right decision and always be the leader."
"You shouldn't feel like you can't make mistakes.” Obama says. “You've discovered this strength inside yourself. If you stay true to that voice that clearly knows what's right and what's wrong, sometimes you're going to mess up, but you can steer back and keep going."
About his future plan, McQueen says" I want to do education because I want to work with kids," "You know, to see the beginnings, and to see where I was, to see the exact same kid doing the exact same thing. And it's like, we owe it to everyone and ourselves to come back and change that. That's like our duty.
"Yeah, and Noah, I just want to say how proud I am of you, man," Obama says. "It's not an easy thing to do what you've done. And I think you give others a lot of confidence and a sense of what's possible for them. And that makes me real proud. I know you're going to do great things."What doe the underlined words “steer back” possibly mean?
| A．Stop to have a rest. |
| B．Hesitate to go ahead. |
| C．Turn to the right direction. |
| D．Adapt to the environment. |
From the passage we can know Obama ____.
| A．got along well with his father when young |
| B．cares about the growth of the American youth |
| C．hates the youth to make mistakes |
| D．asks McQueen to work with kids |
Why does McQueen want to do education?
| A．Because he wants to make a living. |
| B．Because he is encouraged by Obama. |
| C．Because he wants to help children grow healthily. |
| D．Because there is a great need for teachers. |
Which is wrong about Noah McQueen ?
| A．Heisa black boy. |
| B．He did something wrong |
| C．He is praised by the president. |
| D．He founded “My Brother's Keeper”. |
What can be the best title?
| A．You Have This Strength Inside Yourself. |
| B．Mistakes are the best teacher. |
| C．My Brother's Keeper—A Nice Program. |
| D．Black People should be Treated Equally. |