D
China may send naval ships to the seas off Somalia to help the fight against piracy（海盗行为） there, Chinese media on Wednesday quoted a Vice Foreign Minister as saying at the United Nations, Reuters reported.
"China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near future," the Xinhua news agency quoted He Yafei as saying. He Yafei, speaking at a Security Council ministerial meeting, said that China welcomed global cooperation in the fight against Somali piracy, and supported efforts by other countries to send ships to the region, Xinhua reported.
Earlier this month a leading Chinese military strategist, Major-General Jin Yinan, urged the government to send ships, in comments generating debate about combating piracy in a country which has generally confined its navy to waters near home. Jin told a Chinese radio interviewer that "nobody should be shocked" if his government one day decided to send navy ships to deal with the pirates, whose recent victims have included ships from Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. Jin is the head of a strategy institute at China's National Defense University.
While the military strategist is urging an active part, other scholars think the government should be cautious before a decision is made. The Chinese military ships should go there "only within the UN framework," said Pang Zhongying, a professor of international relations with Renmin University of China. Pang added that he also had some concerns over the Chinese navy's capability. "I don't think the Chinese navy has the capability to fight against unconventional threats far in the ocean," he said, adding supplying and refueling in the Indian Ocean are key challenges.
A sharp increase in attacks at sea this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has pushed up insurance costs, brought the Somali pirates tens of millions of dollars in ransom（赎金） and prompted foreign warships to the area. Among the captured ships are a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million of crude oil, the Sirius Star, and a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying some 30 Soviet-era tanks. The victims have also included a Hong Kong-flagged ship with 25 crew aboard and a Chinese mainland fishing boat reported seized off Kenya. NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in late October, but they have failed to stop the attacks.
56. This year, many ships from different countries have been captured by the Somali pirates except _______.
A. a Saudi supertanker B. a Ukrainian cargo C.NATO ships D. the Sirius Star
57. The underlined word "confined" in the third paragraph most probably means ________.
A. involved B. restricted C. confirmed D. contract
58. From the passage, we learn that _______.
A. China has sent its navy to fight the Somalia pirates
B. some countries have launched their anti-piracy operations
C. the Somalia pirates often attacked foreign warships for ransom
D. The Chinese navy hasn’t the capability to travel far to combat pirates
59. When the Major-General Jin Yinan said "nobody should be shocked", he actually indicated that ________.
A. the Chinese people should keep calm about the government's decision
B. no one should be frightened by the pirates' attack as the Chinese navy will defend them
C. it is reasonable for China to send its navy to fight against the Somalia pirates
D. if China had dealt with the pirates earlier, nobody would have been shocked
60. Professor Pang Zhongying’s main concern about the Chinese naval ships is that _______.
A. adding supplying and refueling far in the ocean is really a challenge
B. the Chinese navy has never fought against such unconventional threats
C. the fighting against pirates is not within the UN framework
D. the attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has increased sharply
Two students started quarreling at school. One student shouted dirty words at the other, and a fight began. What can be done to stop fights like this at school? In some schools, the disputants sit down with peer mediators(同龄调解者). Peer mediators are students with special training in this kind of problems.
Peer mediators help the disputants to talk in a friendly way. Here are some of the ways they use:
1) Put what you think clearly but don’t say anything to hurt the other. Begin with “I feel…” instead of “You always…”
2) Listen carefully to what the other person is saying. Don’t stop the other person’s words.
3) Keep looking at the other person’s eyes when he or she talks.
4) Try to see the other person’s side of the problem.
5) Never put anyone down. Saying things like “You are foolish” makes the talk difficult.
6) Try to find a result that makes both people happy.
Peer mediators never decide the result or the winner. They don’t decide who is right and who is wrong. Instead, they help the two students to find their own “win-win” result.
The underlined word “disputants” refers to the students ________.
| A．who make peace | B．who give in |
| C．who are lazy | D．who quarrel |
If you could take a large snapshot (照片) of everyone in the United States today, it would contain six minion more females than males. In this country, women outlive men by about seven years. Throughout the modern world, cultures are different, diets are different, ways of life and causes of death are different, but one thing is the same--- women outlive men.
It starts before birth. At conception, male fetuses(胎儿) outnumber female by about 110 to 100; at birth, the rate has already fallen to about 105 boys to every 100 girls. By the age of 30, there are only enough men left to match the number of women. Then women start taking a lead. Beyond the age of 80, there are nearly twice as many women as men.
“If you look at the top ten or twelve causes of death,” said Deborah Wingard, a disease expert at the University of California at San Diego, “every single one kills more men.” She listed out one sad fate after another – heart disease, lung cancer and so on. Each kills men at roughly twice the rate of that it does women.
More than a century ago American men surpassed and outlived the women. But in the 20th century, women began living longer, primarily because pregnancy（怀孕) and giving birth to children had become less dangerous. The gap grew steadily. In 1946, for the first time ever in the United States, females outnumbered males.
Parts of the reasons are self-made. Men smoke more, drink more and take more life-threatening chances than women. Men are murdered (usually by other men) three times as often as women are. They commit suicide at a higher rate and have more than twice as many fatal car accidents as women do. Men are likely to be involved in alcohol-related deaths.
But behavior doesn’t explain away the longevity gap.
Today, some scientists studying the gender gap believe that the data point to one conclusion Mother Nature may be partial(偏袒) to women.
Every living thing is assembled according to instructions on its chromosomes (染色体), and humans have 23 pairs of them. But in males, one of these is a weak non-matching pair, expressed by “xy”. The agreement pair in females is “xx”, and its genetic “backup” power is sometimes listed as a clue to woman’s superior restoring force. If the male’s single “x” chromosome isn’t perfect, it is possible for a serious genetic disorder to appear. Some blood diseases, for instance, are diseases caused by a shortcoming in a single gene on the “x” chromosome. They are far more common in males than females.
What may the underlined word “outlive” in Paragraph1 mean?
| A．Become stronger than. | B．Live longer than. |
| C．Be wiser than. | D．Be born more earlier than. |
Homework and stress are rarely reduced inside the classroom. Meanwhile, outside the classroom, the pressure is on to find scholarships for college.
According to Braintrack, a higher education database with worldwide reach, more than 3 billion US dollars (18 billion yuan) in private scholarships are awarded to college students annually. Average awards range from $2,000 to $3,000.
The scholarship application process is similar to the college application process: forms to be completed, test scores and transcripts to be sent, essays to be written and often interviews to be prepared for.
A few great places to start looking for scholarships are: www.fastweb.com, www.finaid.org and www.collegexpress.com.Check out the annual scholarship guidebooks Scholarships, Grants & Prizes by Peterson’s and the Ultimate Scholarship Book: Billions of Dollars in Scholarships, Grants and Prizes by Gen Tanabe and Kelly Tanabe.
Be selective. Thoroughly research the qualifications required by each of the scholarships. Don’t waste your time applying for those that are need-based if you can’t produce the appropriate documents.
Research past recipients (接受者). Check out the websites of the organizations sponsoring the scholarships. Many post the biographies of past recipients. You don’t need to have cured cancer, but if you don’t think your résumé (履历) measures up to the past winners’, you might be better served by moving onto the next scholarship on your list. Prepare for the interview.
You’ll want to dazzle them with your personality, but above all you’ll want to be prepared. Find someone you trust to conduct a similar interview with you – someone who will be honest with you and provide valuable suggestions.
Let your personality shine through in your essays. The essays are the best way for students to share who they are, where they’ve come from, what they’ve overcome and so on. Tell your story in an interesting and persuasive way. And if you do have an interview, send a thank-you note afterward.
By Lee Bierer
The underlined word “dazzle” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to ___.
| A．influence | B．impress | C．guide | D．present |
Whether you’re eating at a fancy restaurant or dining in someone’s home, proper table manners are likely to help you make a good impression. According to a US expert, Emily Post, “All rules of table manners are made to avoid ugliness.”
While Henry Hitchings of the Los Angeles Times admits that good manners can reduce social conflict, he points out that mostly their purpose is protective – they turn our natural warrior-like selves into more elegant ones.
So where did table manners come from?
In medieval England, a writer named Petrus Alfonsi took the lead to urge people not to speak with their mouths full. And King David I of Scotland also proposed that any of his people who learned to eat more neatly be given a tax deduction (减除).
Disappointingly, that idea never caught on. It was during the Renaissance, when there were real technical developments, opinions of correct behavior changed for good. “None of these was more significant than the introduction of the table fork,” wrote Hitchings. “Gradually, as forks became popular, they brought the new way of eating, making it possible, for instance, to consume berries without making one’s fingers dirty.”
Forks were introduced to Britain in 1608 and 25 years later, the first table fork reached America. Yet while most of the essentials (基本要素) are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, there are a few clear differences between what’s normal in the US and what holds true in the UK. For example, in the US, when food needs cutting with a knife, people generally cut a bite, then lay aside the knife and switch the fork to their right hand. Then they pick up one bite at a time. By contrast, Britons keep the fork in the left hand and don’t lay the knife down.
Though globalization has developed a new, simpler international standard of table manners, some people still stick with the American cut-and-switch method.The Los Angeles Times noted, “They are hanging on to a form of behavior that favors manners above efficiency.”
The underlined phrase “caught on” in the passage probably means ______.
| A．worked in practice | B．became popular |
| C．drew attention | D．had a positive effect |
No one should be forced to wear a uniform under any circumstance. Uniforms are controlling the human spirit and totally unnecessary in a democratic(民主的) society. Uniforms tell the world that the person who wears one has no value as an individual but only lives to function as a part of the whole. The individual in a uniform loses all self-worth.
There are those who say that wearing a uniform gives a person a sense of identification with a larger, more important concept. What could be more important than the individual himself? If an organization is so weak that it must rely on cloth and buttons to inspire its members, that organization has no right to continue its existence.
Others say that the practice of making persons wear uniforms, say in school, gets rid of all envy and competition in a matter of dress, such that a poor person who cannot afford good-quality clothing is not to be looked down upon by a wealthy person who wears expensive clothing. Those persons ignore the concepts as freedom of choice, motivation, and individuality. If all persons were to wear the same clothing, why would anyone struggle to be better? It is only a short step from forcing everyone to drive the same car, have the same type of food. When this happens, all motivation to improve one’s life is removed. Why would parents bother to work hard so that their children could have a better life than they had when they know that their children are going to be forced to have exactly the same life as they had?
Uniforms also hurt the economy(经济). Right now, billions of dollars are spent on the fashion industry yearly. Thousands of people are employed in designing, creating, and marketing different types of clothing. If everyone were forced to wear uniforms, artistic personnel would be unnecessary. Salesmen would be extra as well. Why bother to sell the only items that are available? The wearing of uniforms would destroy the fashion industry which in turn would have a wave effect on such industries as advertising and sales promotion. Without advertising, newspapers, magazines, and television would not be able to remain in business. Our entire information and entertainment industries would collapse.
The last word of the passage “collapse” probably means ________.
| A．fail | B．rise | C．disappear | D．struggle |