The need to feed a growing population is putting much pressure on the world’s supply of water. With 97% of the world’s water too salty to be drunk or used in agriculture, the worldwide supply of water needs careful management, especially in agriculture. Although the idea of a water shortage seems strange to someone fortunate enough to live in a high rainfall country, many of the world’s agricultur
al industries experience constant water shortages.
Although dams can be built to store water for agricultural use in dry areas and dry seasons, the costs of water redistribution (重新分配) are very high. Not only is there the cost of the engineering itself, but there is also an environmental cost to be considered. Where valleys are flooded to create dams, houses are lost and wildlife homes destroyed. Besides, water may flow easily through pipes to fields, but it cannot be transported from one side of the world to the other. Each country must therefore rely on the management of its own water to supply its farming requirements.
This is particularly troubling for countries with agricultural industries in areas dependent on irrigation. In Texas, farmers’ overuse of irrigation water has resulted in a 25% reduction of the water stores. In the Central Valley area of southwestern USA, a huge water engineering project provided water for farming in dry valleys, but much of the water use has been poorly managed.
Saudi Arabia’s attempts to grow wheat in desert areas have seen the pumping of huge quantities of irrigation water from underground reserves. Because there is no rainfall in these areas, such reserves can only decrease, and it is believed that fifty years of pumping will see them run dry..
. From t
he first two paragraphs we learn that __________.
| A．much of the world’s water is available for use |
| B．people in high rainfall countries feel lucky |
| C．water can be easily carried through pipes across the world |
| D．the costs of water redistribution should be considered |
.
. Which of the following is true?
| A．The underground water in Saudi Arabia might run out in 50 years. |
| B．Most industries in the world suffer from water shortages. |
C．The  water stores in Texas have been reduced by 75%. |
| D．Good management of water use resulted from the project in the Central Valley. |
.
The text is mainly about __________.
| A．water supply and increasing population |
| B．water redistribution and wildlife protection |
| C．water use management and agriculture |
| D．water shortages and environmental protection |
.
. What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Approaches to handling the pressure on water supply. |
| B．Ways to reduce the costs of building dams. |
| C．Measures to deal with worldwide water shortages. |
| D．Steps to improving water use management. |
Most teens can't wait to learn to drive. Not so with me. Driving made me nervous. I didn't get a license until I turned 24 years old. As a result, when I first married, we only had one car and car pooled to work. My husband's hours were different from mine by one hour. I worked earlier. So he dropped me off and went to the diner to drink coffee until work time.
Then, in the afternoons, I leisurely walked the three miles to his work place where I waited in his car, reading a book.
One day while waiting for him, I noticed the most beautiful Cadillac pull in the lot. It was powder blue and sleek looking. The kind of car you dream about. I was busily admiring the car, when I noticed the driver. Honestly, she was probably the prettiest woman I had ever seen off the movie screen.
She pulled into the spot beside our car and it was all I could do not to stare. There was a striking resemblance to Liz Taylor. Jet black hair and alabaster skin. Our eyes made contact and she smiled at me. Her eyes were as blue as the sea, and teeth like an even row of pearls. She was wearing a light blue shirt that just matched her car. Peeking through her long, softly curled hair I could see gold hoop earrings. They had to be gold to shine like that. A couple of minutes later, a nice looking man came out of the building, entered her car, leaned over and kissed her and she drove away.
Sitting there in my jeans, shirt and hair in a pony tail, I wanted to cry. How could some people have it all?
Maybe I would have forgotten about her, but the following week, I saw her again. Then it became almost routine to see her about once a week. She seemed friendly and always waved, flashing a big smile. My envy lingered long after she drove away.
Many nights when sleep evaded me, I would think about the beautiful lady. I wondered if she and her husband ate out, and where they dined, and what she was wearing. I wanted her to get out of the car and let me see her full length. Did she wear really high heeled shoes and pants, or a skirt.
I would get my answers in a couple of weeks.
Sitting in our usual parking lot, I was holding my book, watching her over the top of it. She was waiting and when her husband came to the car, she called to him. They spoke a few words and he opened the car door for her to step out. He took her arm and helped her out of the car. I could see very well as she moved to get out. She was wearing a skirt.
She haltingly walked around to the passenger side very slowly, leaning on a walking cane. Sitting sideways in the car, she lifted one leg with her hands and then the other one. The beautiful lady had a prosthesis on the left leg and a brace on the right leg. I couldn't watch them drive away as the tears were blinding me. For weeks I had envied this woman and her way of life, while I had been able to walk three miles to our car!
When my husband arrived and found me crying, he immediately asked what was wrong. Through my tears, I told him about the beautiful lady. He said he knew her husband and also knew the story. The beautiful lady and her parents were in a car that either stalled or got caught on the railroad tracks and was hit by a train. Both parents were killed and she was severely injured. She was only 12 years old. The railroad made a large settlement with her because the crossing had no signals. He explained her car was specially built for her needs as well as the home.
I prayed for forgiveness all the way home. The lady I thought had everything I didn't. I realized how lucky I was to have my parents, the ability to walk, run or dance through life and many wonderful things money can't buy. I would not have traded places with the beautiful lady for anything
When you meet a person who seems to be much better off than you, don't be fooled.In the afternoons the woman walked three miles to her husband’s work place to___.
| A．take exercise on the way | B．meet the beautiful lady. |
| C．enjoy the scenery and reading | D．wait for her husband |
After seeing the beautiful lady, the woman concluded_______.
| A．the beautiful lady led a rich and happy life. |
| B．the beautiful lady liked to show off herself. |
| C．she and her husband must make more money. |
| D．she shouldn’t have married her husband. |
The woman prayed for forgiveness all the way home because_______.
| A．She should have known the whole story earlier. |
| B．She shouldn’t have compared herself with the woman. |
| C．She shouldn’t have told her husband what she had seen. |
| D．She shouldn’t have seen the woman getting out of the car. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The woman learned that health and family are more important. |
| B．The woman was poor and couldn’t afford another car and fancy clothes. |
| C．The woman envied the beautiful lady of her capable husband. |
| D．The woman regretted marrying her husband. |
The underlined word “haltingly” probably means________.
| A．proudly | B．excitedly |
| C．difficultly | D．steadily |
Which of the following do you think can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Seeing is believing | B．Trust her heart instead of her look |
| C．Looks can be deceiving | D．Fooled by her look |
Topic: "Enjoy Worldwide privileges with BOC cards" 5% cash rebate(折扣) from UnionPay credit card issued by Bank of China
Time: April 1, 2014 to February 28, 2015
Customer: Personal credit cards with card number starting with “62” and with the UnionPay logo on the card
Details：
The promotion period is from April 1, 2014 to February 28, 2015.
Payments with business cards, corporate cards or transactions（交易）through third-party platform (PAYPAL, Alipay and the internet banking payment and Kuai payment supported by Alipay) are not eligible（合格的）for the promotion.
The promotion is applicable to online shopping payments to appointed business partners only, and all the transactions need to be completed via UnionPay online.
Amazon (U.S.) personal credit cards with card number starting with “62” and with the UnionPay logo on the card are eligible for the promotion.
As the promotion has no pre-defined upper limit on the number of transactions, all transactions meeting the criteria above will enjoy the cash rebate.
The value of eligible transactions will be the settlement amount in RMB according to the UnionPay system.
All single transactions of RMB 500 or more with payment made by UnionPay credit card issued by Bank of China (card number starting with ’62’) via UnionPay online platform will enjoy a 5% cash rebate, capped at RMB 100 per card per month.
Cardholders will receive the cash rebate within 90 calendar days after every promotion period. If the cardholder has any questions on the amount of rebate, please contact Bank of China Credit Card Customer Care Hotline（4006695566）within 30 calendar days since receiving the rebate; if no question is raised within 30 calendar days, the bank with deem the client agreeable to the amount of rebate. The date of cash rebate arriving in client’s account could be later than the date described above due to force majeure that is not unforeseeable.
Transaction value for the main credit card and supplementary cards will be calculated separately, and transaction value for credit cards of different card numbers will be calculated separately. Only transactions made with specified credit cards to appointed business partners will be eligible for the cash rebate promotion; in case of refund, no cash rebate will be made. At the same time, Bank of China reserve the right to recall any unqualified cash rebate already made.
Cardholders will need to ensure no late payment, card freeze or other abnormal occasions during the promotion period, otherwise the cardholder will not be eligible for the promotion.
Income tax associated with the cash rebate will be taken care of by the cardholder. Cardholders hold the responsibility to declare the income and settle the tax payment. Which of the following cards can get the cash rebate?
 |
 |
| A |
B |
 |
 |
| C |
D |
How much rebate can I get from a 500 dollars payment?
| A．About 5RMB | B．About 25 RMB |
| C．About 100 RMB | D．About 125 RMB |
According to this passage, the third-party platform doesn’t include_______.
| A．Business cards | B．PAYPAL | C．Alipay | D．Kuai payment |
In which of the following payment can we get the cash rebate?
| A．$60 for a sweater on Amazon. |
| B．$80 for a bottle of wine from a shop in Paris. |
| C．$100 for a souvenir bought in the duty-free shop of LAX. |
| D．$200 for a child safety seat on Amazon. |
We can learn from the passage that ___________.
| A．The cash rebate will arrive in our account within 30 calendar days. |
| B．We can’t get the cash rebate unless we pay the income tax associated. |
| C．Both the customers and Amazon(U.S.) will benefit from this promotion. |
| D．Any transactions of RMB 500 or more can get the cash rebate. |
More and more people take part in marathons these days – over 30,000 people will run the London Marathon this weekend, for instance. But it’s not just the 26 miles and 385 yards that could be a daunting prospect. “I have to admit to being completely frustrated by the blocking and for 18-19 miles was just keeping away from people and being held up,” one participant grumbled after the 2012 London Marathon. “I had to overtake a lot of people and ended up with bruised（淤肿的）forearms from all the elbows,” said another.
How do such crowding problems arise, and could they be reduced? Some researchers believe that we can find the answers through a more familiar system in which jams appear – road traffic flow. Martin Treiber, of the Technical University of Dresden in Germany, has previously developed models for traffic flow. One of the first attempts to model traffic flow was made in the 1950s by James Lighthill and his collaborator Gerard Whitham of Manchester University. They considered the traffic as a kind of liquid flowing down a pipe, and looked at how the flow changes as the fluid gets denser(浓稠). At first the flow rate increases as the density increases, since you simply get more stuff through in the same period of time. But if the density becomes too high, there’s a risk of jams, and the flow rate drops sharply.
Treiber’s model of a marathon uses this same principle that the flow rate first increases and then decreases as the density of runners increases, thanks to an sudden switch from free to crowded flow. He assumes that there is a range of different preferred speeds for different runners, which each maintains throughout the race. With just these factors, Treiber can calculate the flow rate of runners, knowing the “carrying capacity”(承载能力)at each point on the route.
This allows Treiber to figure out how blocking might depend on the race conditions – for example, for different starting procedures. Some marathons start by letting all the runners set off at once (which means those at the back have to wait until those in front have moved forward). Others assign runners to various groups according to ability, and let them start in a series of waves.
Treiber has applied the model to the annual Rennsteig half-marathon in central Germany, which attracts around 6,000 participants. The traditional route had to be changed in 2013, because the police were no longer willing to close a road to ensure that runners could cross safely. It could pass either over a 60m wooden bridge or through a tunnel. Treiber used his model to predict the likely blocking caused in the various options. The model predicted that a mass start would risk an overload of runners if the bridge were to be used. Only by moving the starting point further back from the bridge could the danger be avoided – and even then, if some of the numbers assumed in the model were only slightly inaccurate, there was still a risk of jams at the bridge. On the other hand, no dangerous blocking seemed likely for the tunnel route. The run organizers consulted Treiber’s team, and eventually chose this option.What is the worst thing while running a marathon?
| A．The long distance. | B．Too many participants. |
| C．The dangerous blocking. | D．Serious injuries in forearms. |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．James Lighthill is the first expert trying to model traffic flow. |
| B．The denser the flow is, the faster the flow rate becomes. |
| C．The flow rate increases in the beginning because fewer people passed together. |
| D．The flow rate increases first and then decreases later when the flow is too denser. |
What is NOT true about the Rennsteig?
| A．It has much less participants than the London Marathon in 2014. |
| B．It has a shorter distance than the London Marathon. |
| C．The route was changed because the traditional one is not safe any longer. |
| D．The participants running this marathon will pass a tunnel because this choice is safer. |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Make a comparison between marathon and road traffic. |
| B．Running a marathon is somewhat dangerous if it is not well organized. |
| C．Introduce a new technology to solve the blocking problem in marathon. |
| D．Some advice for people who are to run a marathon. |
An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old highly educated son.
Suddenly a crow perched on their window.
The father asked his son, “What is this?”
The son replied, “It is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son the 2nd time, “What is this?”
The son said, “Father, I have just now told you ‘It’s a crow’.”
After a little while, the old father again asked his son the 3rd time, “What is this?”
At this time some expression of irritation was felt in the son’s tone when he said to his father. “It’s a crow, a crow, a crow.”
A little after, the father again asked his son the 4th time, “What is this?”
This time the son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again, although I have told you so many times ‘IT IS A CROW’. Are you not able to understand this?”
A little later the father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary:
“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel irritated, I rather felt affection for my innocent child.” The underlined word “irritation” in the passage means ___________.
| A．puzzlement | B．annoyance |
| C．patience | D．excitement |
Why did the old father keep asking his son the same question?
| A．Because he developed a kind of disease. |
| B．Because he was so boring that he wanted to play a joke with his son. |
| C．Because he wanted to know whether his son was as patient as he used to be. |
| D．Because his son used to love playing this game with him. |
How old was the father when he wrote down this page in the diary?
| A．35 years old | B．38 years old |
| C．45 years old | D．80 years old |
The reason why the father did not feel irritated when his son asked him the same question for 23 times is that _______________.
| A．he knew his son was still so innocent |
| B．the father was more patient than the son |
| C．the father had already got used to this kind of situation |
| D．the father loved his son so much that he never got tired of doing this again and again |
What would the son probably say after reading the words in the diary?
| A．“Sorry, dad. It’s all my fault to forget that.” |
| B．Nothing but felt rather ashamed. |
| C．“Sorry, dad. I shouldn’t have done that to you when I was such a young child.” |
| D．“Thank you, dad. I will do the same to my son.” |
Worried about how many calories you will get in that piece of pizza, chocolate cake or bag of chips? A new iPhone application (应用程序) MealSnap may help. Users just need to take a picture of the meal with the phone, and it will give a calorie read-out almost immediately.
MealSnap was developed by DailyBurn, a health social network that focuses on helping its users lead healthier lifestyles. It has created several other health and diet-related iPhone applications. The application gives users a quick reply. To do that, it matches the taken picture to a databank (数据库) with the calorie information of nearly 500,000 kinds of food. Users then get the range of calories for the meal that is photographed.
We started with something simple—an apple. A couple of minutes later, the application replied that it was an apple and between 64 and 96 calories. More impressive was the reply we received after sending a photo of a mixed salad bowl. MealSnap replied that the bowl contained “yellow rice with corn, boiled eggs and beans” and that the food was between 532 and 789 calories.
Mr. Smith, director of DailyBurn, said that usual calorie counting needed a long time, but that the application made it easier to know the calories in food. That is why it is so popular among those who are trying hard to lose weight.
In addition, MealSnap can act as a food diary. No need to write down what they’ve eaten, the photoes will be stored. The users can keep a visual log (视觉的记录). Mr. Smith said, “it’s like a food journey, but easier. All you do is to take the picture. The simple act of recording something can cause a psychological (心理的) change that can help people on their health journey. Knowing the calorie range makes me think more about what I’m eating.” The purpose of DailyBurn is to________.
| A．help people find ways to lose weight |
| B．make iPhone more popular |
| C．persuade people to buy iPhone products |
| D．help people have a healthy life |
What can be learned from the third paragraph?
| A．MealSnap is only useful for simple things. |
| B．The result of MealSnap isn’t always right. |
| C．MealSnap can also tell what the food is. |
| D．MealSnap needs a long time to show the calorie range. |
Which of the following statements about MealSnap is TRUE?
| A．It has been put into the market. |
| B．People will have a physical change by using it. |
| C．It’s popular because it was developed by DailyBurn. |
| D．People have to link iPhone with the Internet to use it. |