Dear MSN,
I live in San Diego. I’m single and would like to meet people near me. Can I do this on the Internet?
Searching in San Diego
Dear Searching,
On the Internet, you could easily go looking for love in all the wrong places, but here are lots of great ways to meet singles near you.
The Web is a good place to start. MSN also has international sites for Europe, Australia and South America.
There are several California-based MSN web communities where you can meet like-minded people near you as well as city-specific chat rooms for real-time interaction (互动). Hope for some clever friends. What about a little more excitement in your online interactions? Try the “Gaming Zone!”
I also tried MSN Search, looked under the “Personal” heading and found “Relationships”. Clicked on that, then found “Ads & Personals”, by “Region” and found San Diego specific personal from there. Try it!
Also, give “IRC” (Internet Relay Chat) and “Usenet Newsgroups” a shot. Many a net romance has started and then developed in these off-the-Web communities. If you’d rather make friends F2F (face to face), the Web has some helpful dating and redating tips. Searching has written this letter with the purpose of ______________.
| A．getting help from MSN with his computer |
| B．winning the heart of a love from the web. |
| C．meeting single people online |
| D．looking for love in all the wrong places |
According to the second letter, MSN has several advantages such as _______________.
| A．shooting IRC and Usenet Newsgroups |
| B．giving you time and places to chat with others |
| C．satisfying you with whatever kind of help you want |
| D．supplying you with many methods to make friends |
From the second letter we can infer that MSN treats an ordinary reader so kindly and warmly because _______________.
| A．it is its duty to help those who have trouble with their computers |
| B．it needs to attract as many readers as possible so as to make greater benefit |
| C．it likes to see more net romances to share their happiness |
| D．all people need it and it needs all people |
Even a small reduction in salt in the diet can be a big help to the heart. A new study used a computer model to predict how just three grams less a day would affect heart disease in the United States.
The result: 10% fewer heart attacks, 8% fewer strokes, 4% fewer deaths, 11% fewer new cases of heart disease, and 240 billion dollars in health care savings.
Researchers found it could prevent 100,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths every year.
The study is in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo at the University of California, San Francisco was the lead author. She says people would not even notice a difference in taste with three grams, or one half teaspoon, less salt per day. The team also included researchers at Stanford and Columbia University.
Each gram of salt contains four hundred milligrams of sodium（钠）, which is how foods may list their salt content.
The government says the average American man ears ten grams of salt a day. The American Heart Association advises no more than three grams for healthy people. It says salt in the American diet has increased fifty percent since the nineteen seventies, while blood pressures have also rise. Less salt can mean a lower blood pressure.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading effort called the National Salt Reduction Initiative. The idea is to put pressure on food companies and restaurants. Critics call it government interference.
Mayor Bloomberg has already succeeded in other areas, like requiring fast food places in the city to list calorie information. Now a study by the Seattle Children’s Research Institute show that the calorie information on the menu can influence what parents order for their children.According to the passage, what disease is not related to salt in diet?
| A．Cancer. | B．Stroke. | C．Blood pressure. | D．Heart attack. |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．all the heart diseases result from eating too much salt |
| B．the American Heart association suggest less than 3 grams of salt a day for everyone |
| C．how much salt is contained in certain food is measured by the amount of sodium |
| D．the less salt one eats, the healthier he will be |
The National Salt Reduction Initiative aims to________.
| A．attract the public attention to the problem |
| B．require fast food places to list salt information |
| C．inform people of the harm that salt does to health |
| D．put pressure on food companies and restaurants |
The last paragraph mainly tells us________.
| A．Bloomberg has made some other efforts to improve people’s health |
| B．Bloomberg is very successful in his career |
| C．parents must pay great attention to calorie information |
| D．a new study is being done about calorie information |
Rocky Lyons was five years old when his mother, Kelly, was driving along the country road with him. He was asleep on the front seat of their truck, with his feet resting on her lap. As his mom drove carefully down the winding country road, she turned onto a narrow bridge. The truck hit a rock and slid off the road. She attempted to bring it back up onto the road by pressing hard on the gas pedal and turning the steering wheel to the left. But Rocky’s foot got caught between her leg and the steering wheel and she lost control of the truck.[ X.JTYJY.COM/]
The truck fell into a 20-foot ravine（峡谷）. When it hit bottom, Rocky woke up. “What happened, Mama?” he asked. “Our wheels are pointing toward the sky.”
Kelly was seriously wounded and blinded by blood. “I’ll get you out, Mama,” announced Rocky, who had surprisingly escaped injury. He climbed out from under Kelly, slid through the open window and tried to yank（用力拉）his mother out. But she didn’t move.
“Just let me sleep,” begged Kelly, who was out of consciousness. Rocky insisted, “Mom, you can’t go to sleep.”
Rocky managed to push Kelly out of the truck and told her he’d climb up to the road and stop a car to get help. Fearing that no one would be able to see her little boy in the dark, Kelly refused to let him go alone. Instead they slowly moved up to the road. The pain was so great that Kelly wanted to give up, but Rocky wouldn’t let her.
Rocky kept repeating the inspirational phrase, “I know you can, I know you can.” When they finally reached the road, Rocky broke into tears seeing his mother’s torn face clearly for the first time. Waving his arms and shouting, “Please stop!” the boy stopped a truck. His mother was sent to hospital.
It took 8 hours to rebuild Kelly’s face. She looks quite different today---“I used to have a straight long nose, thin lips and high cheekbones; now I’ve got a flat cheeks and much bigger lips”--- but she has few scars and has recovered from her injuries.
Rocky’s heroics were big news. Everyone was surprised at this little boy’s power. “It’s not like I wanted it to happen,” The boy explained. “ I just did what anyone would have done.” “If it weren’t for Rocky, I’d have died,” said his mother.According to the text, Rocky and Kelly _________ .
| A．were lost on a country road |
| B．had limited time to find their way |
| C．were involved in a truck accident |
| D．knew little of what happened to them |
When he woke up, Rocky ___________ .
| A．was frightened by his mother’s blood |
| B．found his mother had fallen asleep |
| C．was stuck against the door of the truck |
| D．found the car was turned over |
What happened to Kelly at last?
| A．She passed away. |
| B．She survived and recovered from injuries. |
| C．She became a hero. |
| D．She had a different life. |
What is the best title for the text?
| A．A Boy and His Mother | B．How to Behave Well？ |
| C．I Think I Can | D．Nothing is Lost |
When students and parents are asked to rate(排名) subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as only entertainment, but certainly not an education priority(优先). This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the people who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from . Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity(身份) as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception(感知)that cannot be gained any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive(情感的)meaning of the same phenomenon(现象). We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful as maths and science. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization(文明) through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children some important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away the meanings that music expresses from our children.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, happiness, the meaning and value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.According to Paragraph 1, students
| A．regard music as a way of entertainment |
| B．disagree with their parents on education |
| C．view music as an overlooked(被忽视的) subject |
| D．prefer the arts to science |
In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz an example to
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．show music identifies(身份) a society |
| C．introduce American musical traditions |
| D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science .
A. approach the world from different angles(角度)
B. explore different phenomena of the world
C express people’s feelings in different ways
D. explain what it means to be human differently What is the main idea of the passage ?
| A．Music education deserves(值得) more attention. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority(优先). |
| C．Music is an effective communication tool. |
| D．Music education makes students more imaginative. |
Benin is one of the smallest African states. It lies in West Africa on the Gulf (海湾) of Guinea, to the south of Burkina Faso and Niger, between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east.
Benin used to be called Dahomey and was controlled and ruled by France from 1893 to 1960, when it became independent. In 1963 the army general Soglo overthrew (推翻) the first president Maga. Soglo set up an army government and called himself head of state in 1965, but was overthrown and replaced by a civilian (非军人) government in 1967. In December 1969 Benin had another change of power with the army again taking over. In May 1970, Maga and two other men set up a new government, with each of them acting as president in turn for two years. However, half a year after Maga turned over power to the second man Ahomadegbe, the three-man government was overthrown by the army once more and General Kerekou became president. In November 1975 Kerekou changed the name of the nation from Dahomey to Benin, Benin being the name of a 17th century kingdom covering the same place. Kerekou also announced that Benin would be a People’s Republic based on Marxism-Leninism.Which of the following maps shows rightly the positions of Benin and its neighbouring countries?
Bn="Benin;"
Tg="Togo;"
Nr="Niger;"
BF="Burkina" Faso;
Na="Nigeria;"
GG="Gulf" of GuineaFor how long was Benin an independent state before it became a People’s Republic?
| A．30 years. | B．25 years. | C．20 years. | D．15 years. |
Choose the right order in which the following people ruled in Benin. (Ah="Ahomadegbe;" Ke="Kerekou;" Ma="Maga;" So=Soglo)
| A．Ma, So, Ma, Ke, Ah | B．So, Ma, Ah, Ma, Ke |
| C．Ma, So, Ma, Ah, Ke | D．So, Ma, Ke, Ma, Ah |
When and how did Benin get its two names — Benin and Dahomey?
| A．Benin was its oldest name. The name Dahomey was used later, but has been replaced by Benin again. |
| B．Dahomey was its oldest name, but it has been replaced by Benin. |
| C．Dahomey was its oldest name. The name Benin was used later, but has been replaced by Dahomey again. |
| D．Benin was its oldest name, but it has been replaced by Dahomey. |
Dear Michelle,
My Dad hates my Mom. He tells me that she is a liar and that I should not trust her. Of course, they are divorced but they have “joint custody” (共同监护). What a joke! I am 15, my brother is nine, and we have a life of hell, frankly.
We live one week on and one week off. This was the brilliant idea of both of my parents, which was fair to them but ruining my life. I cannot get away from his voice and his putting my mom down. Sometimes I think about running away.
A Hopeless Ant
Dear Hopeless Ant,
First, thank you for trusting me with your problem. If all you said is correct, then there are several things that you can and should do to help yourself, your brother, and oddly enough, your parents.
You need a family counselor. Such a person could listen to each family member alone and then meet together to talk about the situation.
If refused, you need to talk to a counselor in your school. You need to be heard, and you need an adult who will listen. A school counselor can organize a meeting with your parents.
Perhaps you need to write to your mother. Writing things down allows people to go over it more than one time.
I cannot imagine that she will stand passively by and do nothing at all to help once she reads how you feel. Your father needs a letter as well. He may not realize the destructive effect that it has on his children.
Lastly, have a plan in mind when all else fails that is not self-destructive. Life passes very quickly, sweetheart, and you will grow up and have your own life.
Until then, you need to keep yourself safe. Never doubt that it will get better. Write back and let me know how everything is going.
MichelleThe Hopeless Ant wrote the letter to ________.
| A．express dissatisfaction with his parents |
| B．ask for advice seriously |
| C．make his father punished |
| D．just make a joke |
The Hopeless Ant hated his father because ________.
| A．his father always told a lie |
| B．his father wasn’t friendly to his mother |
| C．his father divorced his mother |
| D．the Hopeless Ant couldn’t stay with his parents |
According to the text, which of the following is the Hopeless Ant in need of at present?
| A．Keep himself/herself away from danger. |
| B．Have a talk with his/her parents. |
| C．Have his/her own family plan. |
| D．Write letters to families. |
In which part of a magazine will the text probably appear?
| A．Entertainment | B．Advertisement | C．Life | D．Education |