A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap. He was texting while being scolded for texting. “It was a subconscious act,” says Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. “Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's compulsive.”
A study this year by psychology students at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., found that the more time young people spend on Facebook, the more likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits. Heavy Facebook users show signs of being more sociable, but they are also more likely to be anxious, hostile or depressed. (Doctors, meanwhile, are now blaming addictions to 'night texting' for disturbing the sleep patterns of teens.)
Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors media's impact on families. Will these young people get rid of this habit once they enter the work force, or will employers come to see texting and 'social-network checking' as accepted parts of the workday?
Think back. When today's older workers were in their 20s, they might have taken a break on the job to call friends and make after-work plans. In those earlier eras, companies discouraged non-business-related calls, and someone who made personal calls all day risked being fired. It was impossible to imagine the constant back-and-forth texting that defines interactions among young people today.
Educators are also being asked by parents, students and educational strategists to reconsider their rules. “In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are adept at texting with their phones still in their pockets,” says 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, the vice principal, “and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones.”
63. The underlined word “a subconscious act” refers to an act __________.
A. on purpose B. without realization C. in secret D. with care
64. Young people addicted to the use of Facebook _________.
A. are good at dealing with the social relationships and concentrate on their study
B. have high spirits and positive attitudes towards their life and work
C. have been influenced mentally in the aspects of behaviors and habits
D. are always in bad mood and have poor performance in every respect
65. Mr. Gallagher reminds us that the students in the past and those today _________.
A. like to break rules and have the same means of sending messages
B. are always the big problem for the educators and their parents
C. like sending text messages but those today do it in a more secret and skillful way
D. cannot live without a cellphone
66. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Teenagers and Cellphones B. Teenagers’ Texting Addiction
C. Employers and Teenagers D. Teenagers’ Education
Today about 70 countries use Daylight Saving Time (DST). Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I in Australia. During the world wars, DST was used for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943.
In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought(干旱). The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a way of saving power and water. Tasmanians liked the idea of daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. Persuaded by the Tasmanian Government, all states except two passed a law in 1971, for a test use of daylight saving. In 1972, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not do so until 1989.
Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia have had irregular plans, often changing their dates due to politics or festivals(节日). For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended(延长)daylight saving by an extra month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks for the Adelaide Festival. Special daylight saving plans were made during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The differences in daylight saving in Australia continue to cause serious problems in transport and many other social activities. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast cause major differences, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television. Daylight Saving Time was introduced in Tasmania _______________.
A.to stop the drought in 1967 | B.to support government officials |
C.to pass a special law in the state | D.to save water and electricity |
According to the text, which state was the last to use DST?
A.Victoria. | B.Queensland. |
C.South Australia. | D.New South Wales. |
What can we learn about DST in some Australian states?
A.It doesn’t have fixed dates. | B.It is not used in festivals. |
C.Its plan was changed in 2000. | D.It lasts for two weeks. |
What do we know about the use of DST from the last paragraph?
A.There exist some undesirable effects. | B.It helps little to save energy. |
C.It brings about longer working days. | D.Radio and TV programs become different. |
Many animals recognize their food because they see it. So do humans. When you see an apple or a piece of chocolate you know that these are things you can eat. You can also use other senses when you choose your food. You may like it because it smells good or because it tastes good. You may dislike some types of food because they do not look, smell or taste very nice. Different animals use different senses to find and choose their food. A few animals depend on only one of their senses, while most animals use more than one sense.
Although there are many different types of food, some animals spend their lives eating only one type. The giant panda(大熊猫)eats only one particular type of bamboo(竹子). Other animals eat only one type of food even when given the choice. A kind of white butterfly(蝴蝶)will stay on the leaves of a cabbage, even though there are plenty of other vegetables in the garden. However, most animals have a more varied diet(多样化饮食). The bear eats fruits and fish. The fox eats small animals, birds and fruits. The diet of these animals will be different depending on the season.
Humans have a very varied diet. We often eat food because we like it and not because it is good for us. In countries such as France and Britain, people eat foods with too much sugar. This makes them overweight, which is bad for their health. Eating too much red meat and animal products, such as butter, can also be bad for the health. Choosing the right food, therefore, has become an area of study in modern life. We can infer from the text that humans and animals _________.
A.depend on one sense in choosing food | B. are not satisfied with their food |
C.choose food in similar ways | D.eat entirely different food |
Which of the following eats only one type of food?
A.The white butterfly. | B.The small bird. |
C.The bear. | D.The fox. |
Certain animals change their choice of food when ___________.
A.the season changes | B.the food color changes |
C.they move to different places | D.they are attracted by different smells |
We can learn from the last paragraph that __________.
A.food is chosen for a good reason | B.French and British food is good |
C.some people have few choices of food | D.some people care little about healthy diet |
Governments and health officials around the world continued to take steps Tuesday against the outbreak of swine flu that has killed scores of people in Mexico and spread to the U.S., Europe and possibly Asia.
By early Tuesday, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico had caused in 152 deaths and more than 1,600 illnesses. So far, at least 113 cases have been proved worldwide, including 64 in the United States; six in Canada; 11 in New Zealand and two each in Spain the United Kingdom and Israel. None has yet resulted in death.
The World Health Organization on Monday raised its alert level from three to four on its six-level scale. The move means the U.N. agency has determined that the virus can transmit from human to human.
"In this age of global travel, where people move around in airplanes so quickly, there is no region to which this virus could not spread," said Fukuda, assistant director-general of the WHO.
Governments around the world struggled to prevent further outbreak. Some, like China and Russia, banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico. U.S. President Barack Obama said the outbreak was a cause for concern, not for alarm. The government urged travelers to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico.
The latest WHO report listed only seven proved swine flu deaths in Mexico but it was not clear why there was the discrepency.
Mexico City has closed all schools until at least May 6 to help curb(control) the spread of swine flu and ordered 35,00 public venues to close or serve only takeaway meals. In addition, bars, clubs, movie theaters, pool halls, gyms, sport centers and convention halls have been told to close until May 5. Armed police officers are also guarding hospitals in Mexico City while roads and schools in the city of 20 million people are deserted. Officials also have talked about shutting down the bus and subway systems.
57.How many people were found catching swine flu in Spain?
A. 2. B. 11. C. 6. D. 64.
58.When learning the outbreak of swine flu, the WHO was ____.
A. calm B. nervous C. shocked D. careful
59. Fukuda’s words suggest that _____.
A. he likes travel by air
B. global travel hasn’t been affected
C.this virus can spread quickly because of global travel
D. planes must be forbidden to take to prevent swine flu
60.The last paragraph mainly tells us _____.
A. Mexico has taken measures to control swine flu
B. Mexico City is too dangerous to live in
C. the normal life in Mexico has been changed
D. people in Mexico are badly in need of help
Four people in England back in 1953, stared at Photo 51,It wasn’t much—a picture showing a black X. But three of these people won the Nobel Prize for figuring out what the photo really showed –the shape of DNA The discovery brought fame and fortune to scientists James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins. The fourth, the one who actually made the picture, was left out.
Her name was Rosalind Franklin.”She should have been up there,” says historian Mary Bowden.” If her photos hadn’t been there, the others couldn’t have come up with the structure.” One reason Franklin was missing was that she had died of cancer four years before the Nobel decision. But now scholars doubt that Franklin was not only robbed of her life by disease but robbed of credit by her competitors
At Cambridge University in the 1950s, Watson and Click tried to make models by cutting up shapes of DNA’s parts and then putting them together. In the meantime, at King’s College in London, Franklin and Wilkins shone X-rays at the molecule(分子). The rays produced patterns reflection the shape.
But Wilkins and Franklin’s relationship was a lot rockier than the celebrated teamwork of Watson and Crick, Wilkins thought Franklin was hired to be his assistant .But the college actually employed her to take over the DNA project.
What she did was produce X-ray pictures that told Watson and Crick that one of their early models was inside out. And she was not shy about saying so. That angered Watson, who attacked her in return, “Mere inspection suggested that she would not easily bend. Clearly she had to to go or be put in her place.”
As Franklin’s competitors, Wilkins, Watson and Crick had much to gain by cutting her out of the little group of researchers, says historian Pnina Abir-Am. In 1962 at the Nobel Prize awarding ceremony, Wilkins thanked 13 colleagues by name before he mentioned Franklin, Watson wrote his book laughing at her. Crick wrote in 1974 that “Franklin was only two steps away from the solution.”
No, Franklin was the solution. “She contributed more than any other player to solving the structure of DNA . She must be considered a co-discoverer,” Abir-Am says. This was backed up by Aaron Klug, who worked with Franklin and later won a Nobel Prize himself. Once described as the “Dark Lady of DNA”, Franklin is finally coming into the light.What is the text mainly about?
A. The disagreements among DNA researchers.
B. The unfair treatment of Franklin.
C. The process of discovering DNA.
D. The race between two teams of scientists.Watson was angry with Franklin because she .
A.took the lead in the competition | B.kept her results from him |
C.proved some of his findings wrong | D.shared her data with other scientists |
Why is Franklin described as “Dark Lady of DNA”?
A. She developed pictures in dark labs.
B. She discovered the black X-the shape of DNA.
C. Her name was forgotten after her death.
D. Her contribution was unknown to the public.What is the writer’s attitude toward Wilkins, Watson and Crick?
A.Disapproving. | B.Respectful. | C. Admiring. | D.Doubtful. |
In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh(法老)treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today's conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said, "Oh boy, bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it's going to rain."I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his while
Several months ago I was racing to catch a him As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales agent said with a broad smile ,"Oh that bus left five minutes ago."Dreams of head-cutting!
It's not the news that makes someone angry. It's the unsympathetic attitude with which it's the unsympathetic attitude with which it's delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn't get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the receiver.
Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When you're tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn't ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have said, " Oh, that's all right I'll catch the next one." Big winners, when they bear bad news ,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded(被轰炸的)person is sure to have.
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In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to.
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2. |
In the writer's opinion, his neighbor was.
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3. |
From "Dreams of head-cutting!"(Paragraph3),we learn that the writer.
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4. |
What is the main idea of the text?
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