There were smiling children all the way. Charily they knew at what time the train passed their homes and they made it their business to stand along the railway, wave to complete strangers and cheer them up as they rushed towards Penang. Often whole families stood outside their homes and waved and smiled as if those on the trains were their favorite relatives. This is the simple village people of Malaysia. I was moved.
I had always traveled to Malaysia by plane or car, so this was the first time I was on a train. I did not particularly relish the long train journey and had brought along a dozen magazines to read and reread. I looked about the train. There was not one familiar face. I sighed and sat down to read my Economics.
It was not long before the train was across the Causeway and in Malaysia. Johore Baru was just another city like Singapore, so I was tired of looking at the crowds of people as they hurried past. As we went beyond the city, I watched the straight rows of rubber trees and miles and miles of green. Then the first village came into sight, Immediately I came alive; I decided to wave hack.
From then on my journey became interesting. I threw my magazines into the waste basket and decided to join in Malaysian life. Then everything came alive. The mountains seemed to speak to me. Even the trees were smiling. I stared at everything as if I was looking at it for the first time.
The day passed fast and I even forgot to have my lunch until I felt hungry. I looked at my watch and was surprised that it was 3:00 pm. Soon the train pulled up at Butterworth. I looked at the people all around me. They all looked beautiful. When my uncle arrived with a smile, I threw my arms around him to give him a warm hug (拥抱). I had never done this before. He seemed surprised and then his weather-beaten face warmed up with a huge smile. We walked arm in arm to his car.
I looked forward to the return journey.The author expected the train trip to be
| A．adventurous | B．pleasant |
| C．exciting | D．dull |
What did the author remember most fondly of her train trip?
| A．The friendly country people. |
| B．The mountains along the way. |
| C．The crowds of people in the streets. |
| D．The simple lunch served on the train. |
Which of the following words can best take the place of the word “relish” in the second paragraph?
| A．choose | B．enjoy |
| C．prepare for | D．carry on |
Where was the writer going?
| A．Johore Baru. | B．The Causeway. |
| C．Butterworth. | D．Singapore. |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Comfort in traveling by train. |
| B．Pleasure of living in the country. |
| C．Reading gives people delight. |
| D．Smiles brighten people up. |
EDGEWOOD—Every morning at Dixie Heights High School, customers pour into a special experiment: the district’s first coffee shop run mostly by students with special learning needs.
Well before classes start, students and teachers order Lattes, Cappuccinos and Hot Chocolates. Then, during the first period, teachers call in orders on their room phones, and students make deliveries.
By closing time at 9:20 a.m. , the shop usually sells 90 drinks.
“Whoever made the chi tea, Ms. Schatzman says it was good,”Christy McKinley, a second year student, announced recently, after hanging up the phone with the teacher.
The shop is called the Dixie PIT, which stands for Power in Transition. Although some of the students are not disabled, many are, the PIT helps them prepare for life after high school.
They learn not only how to run a coffee shop but also how to deal with their affairs. They keep a timecard and receive paychecks, which they keep in check registers.
Special-education teachers Kim Chevalier and Sue Casey introduced the Dixie PIT from a similar program at Kennesaw Mountain High School in Georgia.
Not that it was easy. Chevalier’s first problem to overcome was product-related. Should schools be selling coffee? What about sugar content?
Kenton County Food Service Director Ginger Gray helped. She made sure all the drinks, which use non-fat milk, fell within nutrition(营养) guidelines.
The whole school has joined in to help.
Teachers agreed to give up their lounge(休息室) in the mornings. Art students painted the name of the shop on the wall. Business students designed the paychecks. The basketball team helped pay for cups.What is the text mainly about?
| A．A best-selling coffee |
| B．A special educational program. |
| C．Government support for schools |
| D．A new type of teacher-student relationship. |
The Dixie PIT program was introduced in order to.
| A．raise money for school affairs |
| B．do some research on nutrition |
| C．develop students’ practical skills |
| D．supply teachers with drinks |
How did Christy McKinley know Ms. Schatzman’s opinion of the chi tea?
| A．She met her in the shop |
| B．She heard her telling others. |
| C．She talked to her on the phone |
| D．She went to her office to deliver the tea. |
We know from the text that Ginger Gray.
| A．manages the Dixie PIT program in Kenton County |
| B．sees that the drinks meet health standards |
| C．teaches at Dixie Heights High School |
| D．owns the school’s coffee shop |
Medicine comes in lots of different packages. Painkillers in a tablet can make your headache go away. Antibiotic cream (抗菌素膏) from a tube can prevent your cuts from becoming infected. But can medicine come packaged in chicken eggs?
A team of scientists from Scotland say “yes”. They’ve engineered special chickens that lay eggs with disease-treating drugs inside.
These eggs come from chickens that have been engineered to produce certain drugs inside their egg whites.
These drugs are made of molecules called proteins(蛋白质). Animals make thousands of proteins — they’re the main element in skin, hair, milk and meat. Since animals can make proteins easily, they’re good candidates (候选者) for making protein drugs.
Researchers have already made cows, sheep and goats produce protein drugs in their milk. But chickens are cheaper to take care of, need less room, and grow faster than these other animals. Those qualities could make chickens a better choice to become living drug factories, says Simon Lillico of the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Lillico and a team of researchers changed chickens’ DNA — the code that tells cells how to make proteins — so that the birds’ cells made two protein drugs. One drug can treat skin cancer, and the other treats a nerve disease called multiple sclerosis (多发性硬化).
The scientists changed the chickens’ DNA so that the birds made these drugs only in their egg whites. This protects the chickens’ bodies from the drugs’ possible harmful effects and makes it easy for scientists to collect the drugs. If you cut your finger, you may use ________ to cure it.
| A．painkillers in a tablet | B．antibiotic cream from a tube |
| C．chicken eggs | D．protein drugs |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．Scientists from Scotland have succeeded in packing medicine into chicken eggs. |
| B．The drugs are made of molecules called proteins. |
| C．Scientists chose chickens for their experiments because chicken eggs taste delicious. |
| D．The animals are good candidates for making protein drugs. |
The drugs in special chicken eggs can ________.
| A．treat lung cancer | B．help reduce headache |
| C．change people’s DNA | D．treat multiple sclerosis |
We can infer from the passage that ________.
| A．eating eggs is the best choice for the patients now |
| B．scientists changed the chicken’s DNA and put all the drugs in chicken eggs |
| C．we may eat special eggs as drugs when we are sick in the future |
| D．the drugs produce harmful effects on the chicken’s bodies |
The best title for the passage is ________.
| A．Chicken Eggs to Replace Medicine | B．Chicken Eggs as Drug |
| C．Chicken Eggs and Medicine | D．Chicken Eggs and Animal Milk |
The rat is named Lola and she’s at the top of her class of risk-running animals being trained to smell out landmines (地雷) in Colombia, home to the world’s highest number of mine-related deaths and injuries last year. Of the victims, many are children who died in the accidents while walking to school or playing in the countryside.
The smartest rat among the first six that the government is teaching to locate landmines equipment planted by rebels(叛乱者) has a 90 percent success rate in locating landmines material in her lab training.
Police animal trainers, tired of seeing their landmines-smelling dogs blown up by stepping on mines, hope the white-furred, pink-eyed creature will lead her classmates through coming open field tests and then into the country mine fields before the end of the year. It takes about 400 grams of pressure to detonate (引爆) a mine while Lola only weighs about 220 grams. “The dogs can easily set off the landmines, sometimes killing people nearby,” they said.
Police animal trainer Jose Pineda says that rats have more sensitive noses than dogs, which should allow them to better smell out mines in difficult terrain (地形).
Plus, it takes the police about six months to train mine-smelling dogs. Training the rats is expected to take about half that time once the program is established.
Trainers think that they are much smarter than the dogs. The second-best scorer in the laboratory is Lucrecia, with an 83 percent success rate. Males, such as one named Runcho, have fallen behind until now but may do better in the coming field tests. Pineda said that the next step of training will present new challenges to the rats as they are sure to meet distractions (分心的事) in the open. What do the underlined words “the accidents” in the first paragraph mean?
| A．Children were shot while playing outside. |
| B．A buried landmine was walked on and set off. |
| C．A rebel blew up a landmine and killed children. |
| D．Children got hurt in traffic accidents on the way to school. |
Which of the following is NOT a reason why rats are chosen to find buried landmines?
| A．They have a good sense of smell. |
| B．They are too light to set off buried landmines. |
| C．They can smell all kinds of explosive materials. |
| D．They cost people less time in terms of training |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Rats will perform as well in the open air as in the lab. |
| B．Until now, female rats are better than the male ones. |
| C．Trainers should have chosen only female rats for the program. |
| D．Because they are foolish, dogs are not preferred for the program. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Dogs Bring Peace to the People in Colombia |
| B．Colombia Develops a New Way to Reduce Deaths |
| C．Buried Landmines are a Great Danger to Colombians |
| D．Colombian Police Train Rats to Sniff Out Landmines |
The question this week comes from our listener Herve Acard, who asks about the American word “OK”, which means “all right” or “acceptable”. It expresses agreement or approval. The word is used more often than any other word in the world.
Language expert Allen Walker Read said the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct”. Old stories say some foreign-born people would write “all correct” as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t and spoke it as “OK”. Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaws. The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word “OK”. Experts say early explorers in the Western America spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.
According to some people, “OK” was a way to shorten Greek words that mean everything is fine. It is also said that a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word. He is said to have put the first letters of his names — O and K — on each object people gave him to place on the train.
Another explanation is that “OK” was invented by a political organization that supported Martin Van Buren for president in the 1800s. They called their organization the OK Club. The letters O and K were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York.
Not everyone agrees with these explanations, but experts do agree that the word is purely American and has spread to almost every country on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech. Serious writers prefer using words, such as “agree”, “approve” or “confirm” instead.Where does the passage probably come from?
| A．A newspaper. | B．A textbook. |
| C．A radio program. | D．A language magazine. |
Of the following origins, which one has the same meaning as the American word “OK”?
| A．The OK Club |
| B．The Choctaw word “okeh” |
| C．The word invented by Martin Van Buren |
| D．The short form of “all correct” |
According to the passage, which statement is NOT true?
A. People disagree about the origin of “OK”.
B. “OK” is often used in formal writing in the USA.
C. The word “OK” is widely used all over the world.
D. Native American language once influenced American English.
Children pushed in buggies which face away from their parents may suffer longterm emotional（情感的）and language problems，according to a study published on Friday.
The research，believed to be the first of its kind，found that children who were not facing the person pushing them were less likely to talk，laugh and communicate with their parents.
The findings were based on a study of 2,722 parents and babies and an experiment where 20 babies were wheeled in buggies for a mile，facing their parents for half the journey and facing away for the other half. Parents using facetoface buggies were twice as likely to talk to their children while the babies’ heart rates fell and they were twice as likely to fall asleep，showing that they were feeling relaxed and safe.
In addition，only one baby out of the 20 studied laughed while sitting in an awayfacing buggy.
“Our data(数据) suggests that for many babies today，life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults，” said Dr Suzanne Zeedyk，Developmental Psychologist at Scotland’s Dundee University who carried out the research.
The study，which was published by National Literacy Trust as part of its “Talk To Your Baby” campaign，found that 62 percent of all children observed travelled in awayfacing buggies.
Zeedyk said it would have a negative effect on babies’ development if they spent a long time in awayfacing buggies，which would be bad to their ability to communicate with their parent at a time when their brain was developing rapidly.
Laura Barbour of the Sutton Trust，a social mobility charity which funded the research，said buggy manufacturers(制造商) should look closely at the findings.Using awayfacing buggies may________.
| A．benefit both the babies and their parents |
| B．affect babies’ language ability permanently |
| C．help babies communicate with their parents |
| D．have positive effect on babies’ development |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Parents may talk twice with the babies in awayfacing buggies. |
| B．The study suggests children feel relaxed and safe in buggies. |
| C．The samples (案例)of the study were 20 babies wheeled in buggies. |
| D．One of the 20 babies was twice as likely to fall asleep in buggies. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Best for Kids to Face Parents in Buggy |
| B．Best for Kids to Communicate with Parents |
| C．Stressed Babies Grow into Anxious Adults |
| D．Buggy Manufacturers Care about the Finding |