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 socialable, 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.”
46. The underlined word “a subconscious act” refers to an act __________.
A. on purpose B. without realization C. in secret D. with care
47. 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
48. Through the situation of today’s older workers in their 20s, it can be inferred that ___________.
A. the employers will not accept young people’s sending text messages
B. a cellphone is a must for today’s older workers instead of young people
C. the employers prefer older workers to young people
D. the employers will find it hard to control the interaction among young people
49. 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
50. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Teenagers and Cellphones B. Teenagers’ Texting Addiction
C. Employers and Teenagers D. Teenagers’ Education
Dealing with School Pressure
College can be a very demanding time for students．These tips can help keep college stress at a minimum before it becomes too hard to handle．
Get organized．By becoming more organized, you can reduce your stress level drastically（彻底地）Make a daily schedule of all your activities．Another way to become more organized is by getting your supplies and desk in order．Label folders（文件夹） for each class and arrange your notes and assignment by topic or date so you can easily find information．
Don't procrastinate．Putting off doing your schoolwork will only make you more stressed．If you get an assignment that is due in a month, and you don't have any other assignment to finish, go ahead and begin working on it．
Exercise．Performing some sort of physical activity for thirty minutes three times a week will considerably lower your stress level．Taking the time to exercise will help get your mind off the chaos and stress in your life．
Get plenty of sleep and eat healthily．You need between seven to eight hours of sleep per night in order to rest your mind and body so they can perform well during the day．Eating well-balanced meals will provide your with enough energy to accomplish your daily activities．
Adopt a positive attitude．If you are always negative, then stress will overwhelm you．By looking at things in a positive light, you will not only reduce your stress, but you will also feel better about yourself．
Realize that it's okay to say "no"．If you already have a full schedule, don't attempt to add anything else to it．If your friends want you to go out at the last minute but doing so would conflict wit
h your schedule, don't feel bad about turning them down．They will understand．They have been stressed before too．
45．According to the tips, your life will be if you study without a proper schedule．
A．organized B．in disorder C．free D．busy
46．Which is NOT TRUE according to the tips?
A．The more you sleep, the less stressed you will feel．
B．A balanced diet will make you energetic．
C．Regular exercise will help you feel relaxed．
D．Everything in a mess will increase one's stress．
47．What does the underlined word " procrastinate" mean?
A．ahead of time． B．delay．C．give up． D．make up．
48．If your good friend invites you to do something while you are busy．what should you do so as not to increase stress?
A．You should accept the invitation． B．You had better say "no"．
C．You should keep silent． D．You should feel bad．
第二部分阅读理解（共25小题。第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45分）
第一节阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Our listener question this week comes from Abdullahi Farah, who wants to know about the life and work of Doctor Benjamin Carson.
Doctor Carson is an internationally recognized doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the hospital for twenty-five years. At the age of thirty-three, he became one of the youngest doctors in the United States to hold that position. And he was the first African-American to have that position at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Ben Carson is known for his work as a brain surgeon for children. For example, in nineteen eighty-seven, he led a team of seventy doctors and nurses in an operation to separate two babies joined at the head. Earlier attempts by other surgeons on other babies had failed. Doctor Carson successfully performed the operation. Both babies were able to survive independently.
Doctor Carson has written four books. His first book, "Gifted Hands," tells the story of his life. Benjamin Carson was born in nineteen fifty-one in Detroit, Michig
an.
As a boy, Ben was not a good student. In fact, he was the worst in his class. When his mother learned of his failing grades she asked her sons to read two library books every week. She limited the amount of time they watched television. And she told them to respect every person.
Ben Carson soon became the top student in his class. He went on to study at Yale University, one of the best universities in the country, and later to medical school at the University of Michigan.
Doctor Carson has received many awards and honors. Last year he received the nation's highest civilian honor. Former President George W. Bush presented Benjamin Carson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House.
41. The passage is probably taken from _____.
A. a radio B. a magazine C. TV D. a paper
42. What does the word “surgeons” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. nurses B. doctors C. hospitals D. points
43. Benjamin Carson’s change in study was largely because of ______
A. his hard work B. his teacher C. his mother D. his father
44. What’s the aim to write the passage?
A. To call on us to learn from Benjamin Carson.
B. To praise Benjamin Carson for his achievements.
C. To show us how Benjamin Carson succeeded
D. To introduce Benjamin Carson’s life and work
All the wisdom of the ages and all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries are easily and cheaply available to all of us within the covers of books. The most unfortunate people in the world are those who have never discovered how satisfying it is to read good books.
Reading is the pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness make you a good reader. Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the author's or even goes beyond his. Your experience, compared with his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.
Every book stands by itself, like a one--family house, but books in a library are like houses in a city. Although they are separate, together they all add up to something. They are connected with each other and with other cities. Books influence each other; they link the past, the present and the future and have their own generations, like families. Wherever you start reading, you connect yourself with one of the families or ideas, and in the long run, you not only find out about the world and the people in it but also you find out about yourself, too.
Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on books somebody tells you "you ought" to read, you probably won't have fun. But if you put down a book you don’t like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax yourself with it, you will almost certainly have a good time and if you become, as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or more gentle, you won't have suffered during the process.
72. In the writer's opinion, in fact reading is a process of ________.
A. listening to the author B. accepting the author's ideas
C. communicating with the author and yourself D. judging the author's work
73. The writer thinks that the most unfortunate people are those _______.
A. who don't have any books B. who can't enjoy reading books
C. who don’t like books D. who read too many books
74. To find pleasure in reading, you should read the books _______.
A. written by famous writers B. written in humor style
C. which you like to read D. which are recommended by your friends
75. The author's purpose in writing the passage is to _______.
A. show the importance of reading B. tell us how to make reading more effective
C. tell us how to read D. show the pleasure of reading
In classrooms across the USA, students from different speech backgrounds give speeches in English. It is important to remember that the major goal of the speech is communication of ideas, not perfection of language skills. Therefore, as you listen to a speaker who is not fluent in the language, seek to understand what is being said by concentrating on the ideas of the message rather than on the specific words of the speaker. This may require a special kind of patience as well as the ability to take the perspective (视角) of the communicator. Perspective taking means that you can put yourself in the other person’s shoes. That is, you try to imagine what it would be like to give a speech in a foreign language to a group of native speakers of that language. Keep in mind that non-fluency is not linked to low intelligence or lack of education~ it is linked to experiences with the second language.
These guidelines can help you be a better listener in these situations.
1. Approach the speech with a positive attitude, and expect to understand.
2. Listen all the way through. Make special efforts to keep your mind from wandering in the middle of the speech. It may help to take notes.
3. Plan to give proper nonverbal (非语言的) feedback to prove your interest, patience, and support for the speaker.
4. Control your negative emotional responses. Let's face it, it is difficult to deal with linguistic barriers (语言障碍), and people often get disappointed or bored when there are language differences.
5. Do not laugh, even if the speakers do, at their language skills. Often they laugh nervously to relieve tension.
68. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. How to become a good listener.
B. How to become a good speaker.
C. We should take a positive attitude towards speech.
D. How to communicate with others
69. The underlined phrase "put yourself in the other person’s shoes" in the first paragraph means ____.
A. to know one's shoes is to know one's problem
B. try to wear the other person’s shoes
C. understand others by trying on their shoes
D. look at something from the point of others
70. What can we learn from the passage?
A. People should be strict with speakers speaking in a foreign language.
B. Taking notes helps keep your mind from wandering in listening to a speech.
C. Whenever the speaker is nervous, he laughs.
D. It's hard to concentrate when the speaker is not fluent.
71. What advice is given on listening to a speech?
A. Believing you can understand every word of the speech.
B. Showing your support for the speaker nonverbally.
C. Laughing when the speaker laughs at himself.
D. Commenting on the speech at times.
London: What could possibly he wrong with planting trees? The benefits are obvious: they firm the soil, absorb extra water and take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
However, it now turns out that planting trees could add to global warming. Tree roots do a great job of keeping soil firmly on the ground and out of the wind's power. The problem is that some of those dust clouds play an important part in taking in carbon dioxide.
Huge dust storms blow out over the oceans from dry parts of North Africa and central Asia. Tons of dust are lifted and left as a thin film over the ocean surface.
Dust from China is carried east and left in the Pacific Ocean. If a tree-planting program there is successful and the dust supply reduced, the final result may be that less carbon dioxide gets locked away in the ocean.
Andy Ridgwell, an environmental scientist from the University of East Anglia, has spent the past few years studying dust and says his work shows clearly the complexity of the system and the importance of not working uselessly with it without understanding the results. For this reason the need is to focus on cutting carbon dioxide giving off rather than dealing with the land surface aimlessly.
An American scientist, Robert Jackson, has shown that when native grassland areas are occupied by trees, carbon is lost from the soil. "We are studying why the soil carbon disappears, but one theory is that trees do a lot more of their growing above ground compared to grasses, so less carbon goes directly into the soil from trees. " said Jackson.
In wet areas of the world, the gain from trees absorbing carbon dioxide above ground seems to be outweighed by the loss of carbon from the soil below ground.
Countries that plan to combat global warming by planting trees may have to think again. Solutions to environmental problems are often more complex than they first appear, and understanding the Earth's climate is a very great challenge.
64. People usually hold the opinion that _______.
A. huge dust storms can destroy carbon dioxide
B. huge dust storms can destroy the oceans on the earth
C. planting trees could reduce global warming
D. planting trees is the only way to control huge dust storms
65. Andy Ridgwell, the environmental scientist, believes that _______.
A. environmental problems are more complex than expected
B. trees shouldn't have been planted in dry places
C. dust plays a more important part than trees
D. carbon dioxide is harmful to everything
66. Robert Jackson's experiment proves that _______.
A. carbon can turn grass into dust
B. trees hold more carbon than grass
C. less carbon can make trees grow faster
D. grassland areas should be covered by forests
67. The underlined word "combat" in the last paragraph means _______.
A. learn about B. give up C. live with D. fight against