Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an air
plane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computer results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not rel
ax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and d
o nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard
tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence. The new products become more and more time-saving because .
| A．the manufacturers boast a lot | B．time is limited |
| C．the prices are increasingly high | D．our love of speed seems never-ending |
What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Simple life in the past. | B．Imaginary life. |
| C．Times of inventions. | D．Time for constant activity. |
. What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
| A．Critical. | B．Optimistic. | C．Objective. | D．Negative. |
. What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．The present and past times. | B．Modern technology and its influence. |
| C．Imaginations and inventions. | D．Machinery and human beings. |
It seems school children all over the world complain about their school food. Cherie Blair, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that she would prepare a packed lunch for her son if school dinners do not improve. So what do students of your age eat for lunch at school?
Japan
High schools have canteens(餐厅), which serve everything from noodles to rice, but not burgers and chips. Other children bring food from home such as cold rice balls, meat or fish, pickles(泡菜) and vegetables.
Students take home a menu for the coming month containing notes on nutrition value. Twice a year parents are invited to have a taste of the food. The class with the fewest leftovers(剩饭) at the end of the month receives a prize.
Untied States
A typical menu from a US school is made up of a hamburger with fried potatoes or roast chicken, lettuce and pickles, fruit and cookies. School lunches must also provide at least one-third of the daily dietary allowances(定量) of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.
Australia
Meat pies, sausage rolls and hotdogs are all traditional dishes in Australian school shops. But as the nation pays more attention to children’s health, healthier foods have started to find their way onto school menus.
Many schools have used a traffic light system. The sale of red-labelled foods, including pastries(点心), chocolate and soft drinks, is served only twice a week. Healthier green-labelled foods such as sushi(寿司), sandwiches, corn and watermelon, however, are available every day.
In some schools, students have a choice of up to 89 foods to choose from, including popcorn and rice.
South Africa
Most of South Africa’s schools do not serve meals at all. Classes end at 1:30pm and students get their own lunches. Many students bring food from home, usually sandwiches.
Fast food and fried food sell the best among students, which has led to a rise in obesity among children. But as more people began to realize the fact that being too fat may cause different diseases, some schools in towns have led the way towards better nutrition. Now students at these schools are provided with lunches of porridge(麦片粥) with vegetables, such as cabbages, onions, beans, carrots and tomatoes.What does the underlined word “obesity ”in the last paragraph probably mean?
| A．Fighting. | B．Sadness. | C．Food shortage. | D．Overweight. |
We can infer from the passage that ________.
| A．a typical menu from a US school consists of enough nutrition. |
| B．most students in South Africa eat their lunch at home. |
| C．many schools in Australia have traffic lights outside their school. |
| D．you can have whatever you like in school canteens in Japan. |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Schools should try to satisfy the needs of students. |
| B．Schools serve different foods from country to country. |
| C．Food served in the US is the best of all. |
| D．School children all over the world dislike their school food. |
The article is meant for ________.
| A．school lunch suppliers | B．schoolmasters |
| C．students of your age | D．nutritionists(营养学家) |
Peter King, 15 and Mary King, 13 went to see a doctor together. Peter had a bad cold, so the doctor gave him some pills to take. Mary had a bad cough, so the doctor |gave her some cough medicine.
These are the words on the bottle of medicine:
| Cough Medicine Shake well before use. Take three times daily after meals. Dosage: Adults 2 teaspoonfuls Children 8 -14 1 teaspoonful Child 4-7 1/2 teaspoonful Not suitable for children below the age of 4. Store in a cool place. Use before October 1998. |
Mary should take ____ in a day.
| A．2 teaspoonfuls | B．3 teaspoonfuls |
| C．4 teaspoonfuls | D．1 teaspoonful |
People aged ____ cannot take this medicine.
| A．80 | B．15 | C．20 | D．3 |
Mary or her mother should ____ the medicine after the tenth month of 1998.
| A．throw away | B．take two times |
| C．stop to take | D．take 3 times more |
What makes one person more intelligent than another? What makes one person a genius, like the brilliant Albert Einstein, and another person a fool? Are people born intelligent or stupid, or is intelligence the result of where and how you live? These are very old questions and the answers to them are still not clear.
We know, however, that just being born with a good mind is not enough. In some ways, the mind is like a leg or an arm muscle. It needs exercise. Mental (done with the mind) exercise is particularly important for young children. Many child psychologists (心理学家) think that parents should play with their children more often and give them problems to think about. The children are then more likely to grow up bright and intelligent. If, on the other hand, children are left alone a great deal with nothing to do, they are more likely to become dull and unintelligent.
Parents should also be careful with what they say to young children. According to some psychologists, if parents are always telling a child that he or she is a fool or an idiot, then the child is more likely to keep doing silly and foolish things. So it is probably better for parents to say very positive (helpful) things to their children, such as “That was a very clever thing you did.” or “You are such a smart child.”The words “intelligent” and “brilliant” in the first paragraph probably mean _______ while “dull” in the second paragraph means ________.
| A．bright and splendid; slow in thinking and understanding |
| B．pretty and handsome; ordinary-looking |
| C．great and important; common |
| D．hopeful and helpful; careless |
According to the context we can guess that a genius is ________ while an idiot is ________.
| A．a normal person; a funny person |
| B．a strong person; a weak person |
| C．a highly intelligent person; a foolish or weak-minded person |
| D．a famous person; an ordinary person |
A person ________ is more likely to become a genius.
| A．whose parents are clever |
| B．often thinking about difficult problems |
| C．often helped by his parents and teachers |
| D．born with a good brain and putting it into active use |
What would life be like without rich, creamy, mouthwatering, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate?
Life would be bitter for most Americans. They spend about $13 billion a year buying all sorts of chocolate treats.
However, for the African children who toil under slavelike conditions on cacao plantations, life is not sweet. The cacao bean is the main ingredient in the chocolate. According to a 2002 survey by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the US Agency for International Development, about 284,000 children work in dangerous conditions on cacao farms in western Africa.
More than half those children are younger than 14. Many were sold into forced labor to work 12 hours or more a day on the cacao plantations.
A number of international organizations, including several African governments, recently began a program to eliminate(消除) child labor on cacao plantations. Under the program, government officials will remove children from abusive working situations while teaching farmers about child labor issues.
The program will also make borrowing money easier for cacao farmers. Officials hope farmers will use the money to invest in their farms and hire paid laborers.The cacao bean is the main ingredient in _______.
| A．treats |
| B．coffee |
| C．chocolate |
| D．cigarettes |
How many children under 14 work on cacao farms in western Africa?
| A．About 284,000. |
| B．About 142,000. |
| C．About 467,000. |
| D．About 876,000. |
From the passage, you can reasonably conclude that _______.
| A．cacao farms in western Africa rely heavily on child labor |
| B．children in Africa know how to make the best chocolate |
| C．candy bars sold in the United States are made on plantations in Africa |
| D．eating too much chocolate is bad for your health |
Americans love dogs, all types of dogs: small dogs, big dogs, lapdogs (供玩赏的小狗). Each year, people spend billions of dollars on their four-legged pals, making sure the lovable dogs have enough food to eat and lots of toys to play with.
Dogs love people, too. They lick their faces, protect their homes. Where did these four-legged companions come from? Some scientists believe that they have found the answer.
Scientists have long known that dogs evolved from（演化） wolves. Exactly when the transformation from wolf to dog actually took place, however, remains a mystery.
Some said dogs evolved as a separate species 135,000 years ago in two parts of the world. One group of dogs developed in Europe and Asia from Asian wolves. The other group evolved in North, Central, and South America from American wolves.
Now researchers say those theories are wrong. New studies suggest that domesticated dogs first appeared 15,000 years ago in eastern Asia. Scientists also say that every modern dog descended from approximately five female Asian wolves, the mother of all modern dogs.
Scientists suspect dogs first set paws in North America by following settlers across a land bridge that once linked northern Asia and North America.According to recent studies, all modern dogs came from female wolves in ______.
| A．Asia | B．Africa |
| C．Europe | D．South America |
From this story, we can conclude that _______.
| A．dogs are scientists’ best friends |
| B．dogs are more like wolves than they are like any other animal |
| C．most dogs are from Africa |
| D．scientists have no idea how dogs evolved |
The underlined word “domesticated” means “_______”.
| A．tamed | B．indoor | C．intelligent | D．friendly |
The best title for this story might be ______.
| A．Why Cats Don’t Like Dogs |
| B．Barking up the Wrong Tree |
| C．Love Me, Love My Dog |
| D．Going from Wolf to Dog |