.
Without plants, people could not live. We eat plants. We take in oxygen that plants make. And we need plants for another reason: We need them because they are beautiful.
Imagine a world with no plants. Imagine no flowers with their sweet smells, their beautiful colours and their lovely shapes. Imagine, when the wind blows, we are not able to hear the leaves of the trees or watch the branches swing from side to side.
Everywhere people need beautiful plants. That is why we have parks full of trees and flowers. That is why people always like houses with room for some grass and a garden.
Do you talk to your plants? Do you give them love and take good care of them? Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, writers of a book called The Secret of Plants , tell of an experiment in which two seeds were planted in different places. While the plants were growing, one plant was given love and hopeful ideas. After six months, the beloved plant was bigger. Under the earth it had more and longer roots; above the earth, it had a thicker stem and more leaves.
68.In the experiment, the two plants were _____.
A.treated in two different ways
B. of different kinds
C. both given love and taken good care of
D. grown in the same place
69 At the end of six months________.
A. the plants were of the same size
B. one plant had longer roots than the other
C. one plant had longer roots; the other plant had a thicker stem
D. one plant had a thicker stem; the other plant had more leaves
70.Tompkings and Bird believe that plants________
A. can talk to each other
B. can take care of each other
C. should be grown in different places
D. need love and care
Do you find getting up in the morning so difficult that it's painful? This might be called laziness, but Dr. Kleitman has a new explanation. He has proved that everyone has a daily energy cycle.
During the hours when you labor through your work you may say that you're “hot”. That's true. The time of day when you feel most energetic is when your cycle of body temperature is at its peak(高峰). For some people the peak comes before noon. For others it comes in the afternoon or evening. No one has discovered why this is so, but it leads to such familiar monologues ( 自言自语 ) as: “Get up, John! You'll be late for work again!” The possible explanation to the trouble is that John is at his temperature-and- energy peak in the evening. Much family quarrelling ends when husbands and wives realize what these energy cycles mean, and which cycle each member of the family has.
You can't change your energy cycle, but you can learn to make your life fit it better. Habit can help, Dr. Kleitman believes. Maybe you're sleepy in the evening but feel you must stay up late anyway. Counteract ( 对抗 ) your cycle to some extent by habitually staying up later than you want to. If your energy is low in the morning but you have an important job to do early in the day, rise before your usual hour. This won't change your cycle, but you'll get up steam ( 鼓起干劲 ) and work better at your low point.
Get off to a slow start which saves your energy. Get up with a leisurely yawn and stretch. Sit on the edge of the bed a minute before putting your feet on the floor. Avoid the troublesome search for clean clothes by laying them out the night before. Whenever possible, do routine work in the afternoon and save tasks requiring more energy or concentration for your sharper hours. If a person finds getting up early a problem, most probably________.
A.he is a lazy person |
B.he refuses to follow his own energy cycle |
C.he is not sure when his energy is low |
D.he is at his peak in the afternoon or evening |
Which of the following may lead to family quarrels according to the passage?
A.Unawareness of ener![]() |
B.Familiar monologues. |
C.A change in a family member's energy cycle. | |
D.Attempts to control the energy cycle of other family members. |
. If one wants to work more efficiently at his low point in the morning, he should________.
A.change his energy cycle | B.overcome his laziness |
C.get up earlier than usual | D.go to bed earlier |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A.Getting off to work with a minimum effort helps save one's energy. |
B.Dr. Kleitman explains why people reach their peaks at different hours of day. |
C.Habits help a person adapt to his own energy cycle. |
D.Children have energy cycles, too. |
With a busy life and job, pressure can make you look tired and aged. Kissi Health-Beauty Center gives classes, makes training plans according to your physical conditions, and sets up an individual file. All these things will help you to get to know your body and the way to keep it fit.
1)BODY-BUILDING
Imported gym equipment will help you build up your body’s muscles, making you look full of energy and strength.
2)GYMNASTIC EXERCISES
A bright and large exercise room with excellent equipment and music will give your body a chance to enjoy movement with rhythm.
3)SPECIAL “LAZY-BONE” FITNESS CENTER
“Lazy-bone” fitness equipment is the first bodyshaping set of seven beds in Houston. Designed according to human anatomic (解剖学的) and kinematic(运动学的)theory, the seven special beds will help you to exercise your waist, abdomen(腹), hips(臀)or legs. In the relaxing hours you may try them to strengthen your muscles and lose weight.
*Tuition: “Lazy-bone” fitness card, 1000 dollars /month (gymnastic classesincluded).
*Open Time: 10:30 a.m. —10:30 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
*Tel: 59185700
*Address: 16 Johnson Street, Houston The purpose of this passage is to ______.
A.give advice on health | B.introduce new ways of body-building |
C.ask you to go to the center | D.introduce ways to lose weight |
If you want some exercise as well as relaxation after a busy day, you’ll go to the center and ______.
A.learn anatomic and kinematic theory | B.lie still on the special beds |
C.join in the gymnastic exercises | D.buy a special card |
70.Tom Everest who keeps a “Lazy-bone” fitness card can go to the center ______ this week. 11:30 a.m. Monday B. 11:30 p.m. Monday
C. 10:00 a.m. Tuesday D. 10:00 p.m. Tuesday According to the passage, the center wants to show it is _____ .
A.the most convenient | B.the largest |
C.the newest | D.the most advanced |
More than one million children in the United States do not go to school. Instead, they learn at home. Most often, their parents are their teachers. Educational companies, libraries and the Internet provide many families with teaching materials.
Parents choose home schooling for several reasons. Some choose it because of their religious beliefs. Others say it provides more time for the family to be together. They say the home offers a better place for learning. Some parents believe home schooling avoids learning. Some parents believe home schooling avoids problems of national schools. Critics, however, say children need to attend school with other children.
All fifty American states and the District of Columbia permit home schooling. Some states do not require much preparation by parents or testing of children. Other states have more requirements for home schooling. Home schooling in the United States began when the country was established. In farm areas, people often lived far from a school. Widespread home schooling took place until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, in 1852, the state of Massachusetts passed the first law requiring children to attend school.
Over the years, the American public education system strengthened and grew. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, some Americans believed that traditional education was not helping their children. So a number of parents began home schooling.
Home schooling expert Linda Dobson says many people have helped the movement grow. She says many kinds of people have joined the movement. These include rich people and poor people. They represent many races, religions and political beliefs. Ms. Dobson says the number of home-schooled children has increased an estimated fifteen to twenty percent each year during the last fifteen years.Teaching materials for home schooling do NOT come from _______.
A.parents | B.libraries |
C.the Internet | D.educational companies |
Which of the following is one of the reasons why parents choose home schooling?
A.it makes parents and their children have less time together. |
B.Some people have different religious beliefs from the others. |
C.It can’t provide a comfortable place for children to be in. |
D.There are too many students in a home classroom. |
Home schooling was started in ________.
A.the 1960s | B.the 1970s | C.the 1850s | D.the 1776 |
Home schooling in the United States now is __________.
A.facing many difficulties | B.struggling |
C.growing fast | D.decreasing in large numbers |
About 90 percent of Chinese believe the polarization(分化) between the rich and poor is “serious” in China, according to a survey conducted by China Youth Daily. And more than 80 percent of the respondents(对象) surveyed said something must be done to narrow the expanding gap between the rich and poor, while 14.1 percent said it was necessary.
The polarization has aroused wide concern among the public in recent years. The State Development and Reform Commission(国家发改委) said the Gini Coefficient had reached 0.47 for China, up from o.29 two decades ago. Usually, a country with a number above 0.4 is warned to pay attention to the income inequality problem.
To find out the people’s view, the survey covered 10,250 respondents, between the ages of 20 and 30 with a college education and a monthly salary between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan. Surprisingly, most disagreed with the view of experts who claim the urban-rural difference is causing the widening gap. More than 70 percent of the respondents believed that “ the group of special interests” is the prime reason for the polarization, followed by “people in power” 68 percent, and “bosses” 50 percent.
Another unexpected finding is that almost all agreed that a good educational background and knowledge were not the decisive factors in gaining wealth. About 95 percent said rich people are not necessarily those who are able to speak English or have a college education.
Today in China, rich people , accounting for 10 percent of the population, control 45 percent of the total social fortune, and poor people, also 10 percent of the population, only control 1.5 percent, according to an investigation published by the National Bureau of Statistics last June. It can be inferred that the Gini Coefficient ( in paragraph 2) would probably be _____.
A.the unit used in advanced mathematics |
B.the degree of a country’s development |
C.the level of the citizen’s living standard |
D.a measure of income inequality |
Experts hold the view that the main reason for the polarization is _____.
A.the urban-rural difference | B.the group of special interests |
C.the people in power | D.the bosses |
Which of the following can show the correct proportion(比例) of the social fortune among population?
What’s the best title of the passage?
A.Close the Gap between the Rich and Poor |
B.Surveys conducted by China Youth Daily |
C.Higher education, Higher pay |
D.Rich-Poor Divide Serious, Study Finds |
In ancient times the most important examinations were spoken, not written. In the schools of ancient Greece and Rome, testing usually was made up of saying poetry aloud and giving speeches.
In the European universities of the Middle Ages, students who were working for advanced degrees had to discuss questions in their field of study with people who had made a special study of the subject. This custom exists today as part of the process of testing candidates(应试者) for the doctor’s degree.
Generally, however, modern examinations are written. The written examination, where all students are tested on the same questions, was probably not known until the nineteenth century. Perhaps it came into existence with the great increase in population and the development of modern industry. A room full of candidates for a state examination timed exactly by electric clocks and carefully watched over by managers, looks like a group of workers at an automobile factory. Certainly, during examinations teachers and students are expected to act like machines.
One type of test is sometimes called an “objective” test. It is intended to deal with facts, not personal opinions. To make up an objective test, the teacher writes a series of questions, each of which has only one correct answer. Along with each question the teacher writes the correct answer and also three statements that look like answers to students who have not learned the material properly. The main idea of Paragraph Three is that ___________ .
A.workers now take examinations | B.the population has grown |
C.there are only written exams today | D.examinations are now written and timed |
The kind of exams where students must select answers are ___________ .
A.objective | B.personal | C.spoken | D.written |
Modern industry m
ust have developed ____________ .
A.around the 19th century | B.before the Middle Ages |
C.in Greece or Rome | D.machines to take tests |
It may be concluded that testing __________ .
A.should test only opinions | B.should always be written |
C.is given only in factories | D.has changed since the Middle Ages |