Plants are flowering faster than scientists predicted（预测）in reaction to climate change, which could have long damaging effects on food chains and ecosystems.
Global warming is having a great effect on hundreds of plant and animal species around the world, changing some living patterns, scientists say.
Increased carbon dioxide（CO2）in the air from burning coal and oil can have an effect on how plants produce oxygen, while higher temperatures and changeable rainfall patterns can change their patterns of growth.
“Predicting species’ reaction to climate change is a major challenge in ecology,” said the researches of several U.S. universities. They said plants had been the key object of study because their reaction to climate change could have an effect on food chains and ecosystem services.
The study, published on the Nature website, uses the findings from plant life cycle studies and experiments across four continents and 1,634 species. It found that some experiments had underestimated（低估）the speed of flowering by 8.5 times and leafing by 4 times.
“Across all species, the experiments under-predicted the speed of the advance — for both leafing and flowering — that results from temperature increases,” the study said.
The design of future experiments may need to be improved to better predict how plants will react to climate change, it said.
Plants are necessary for life on the Earth. They are the base of the food chain, using photosynthesis（光合作用）to produce sugar from carbon dioxide and water. They let out oxygen which is needed by nearly every organism on the planet.
Scientists believe the world’s average temperature has risen by about 0.8℃ since 1900, and nearly 0.2℃ every ten years since 1979.
So far, efforts to cut emissions（排放）of planet-warming greenhouse gases are not seen as enough to prevent the Earth heating up beyond 2℃ this century — a point scientists say will bring the danger of a changeable climate in which weather extremes are common, leading to drought, floods, crop failures and rising sea levels.What is the key information the author wants to give in Paragraph 1?
| A．Plants’ reaction to weather could have damaging effects on ecosystem. |
| B．The increasing speed of flowering is beyond scientists’ expectation. |
| C．Climate change leads to the change of food production patterns. |
| D．Food chains have been seriously damaged because of weather. |
We can learn from the study published on the Nature website that ______.
| A．plants’ flowering is 8.5 times faster than leafing |
| B．there are 1,634 plant species on the four continents |
| C．scientists should improve the design of the experiments |
| D．the experiments failed to predict how plants react to climate change |
Scientists pay special attention to the study of plants because _______.
| A．they can prove the climate change clearly |
| B．they are very important in the food chains |
| C．they play a leading role in reducing global warming |
| D．they are growing and flowering much faster than before |
What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs about the world’s temperature?
| A．It has risen nearly 0.2℃ since 1979. |
| B．Its change will lead to weather extremes. |
| C．It is 0.8℃ higher in 1979 than that of 1990. |
| D．It needs to be controlled within 2℃ in this century. |
The best example of something is often called the "gold standard." It sets the standard against which other things are measured. In economics, the term describes how major trading nations once used gold to set currency values and exchange rates. Many nations continued to use the gold standard until the last century.
In the United States, people could exchange paper money for gold from the eighteen seventies until nineteen thirty-three. Then-President Richard Nixon finally disconnected the dollar from the value of gold in nineteen seventy-one. From time to time, some politicians call for a return to the gold standard.
In 1978, the International Monetary Fund ended an official gold price. The IMF also ended the required use of gold in transactions with its member countries. Since that time, gold prices have grown and continued to be high. But people keep buying. Some people are "gold bugs." These are investors who say people should buy gold to protect against inflation(通货膨胀).
People have valued gold for thousands of years. The soft, dense metal polishes to a bright yellow shine and resists most chemical reactions. It makes a good material for money, political power -- and, more recently, electrical power. If you own a device like a mobile phone or a computer, you might own a little gold in the wiring.
The gold standard was the subject of one of the best-known speeches in American political history. William Bryan wanted the country to use both gold and silver as money. The idea was to devalue the dollar and make it easier for farmers to pay their debts. So he delivered a speech, which made him famous. He was a presidential candidate three times. But he never won.The underlined word “transactions” probably means “”
| A．wars | B．trade | C．meetings | D．conflict |
After the IMF ended the official gold price, the gold prices .
| A．stayed the same | B．began to drop |
| C．increased | D．increased a little at first and kept drop |
What’s the fourth paragraph mainly about?
| A．The reason for valuing gold | B．The history of the use of gold |
| C．New function of gold | D．How to obtain gold |
We can learn from the last paragraph that William Bryan .
| A．was once a farmer | B．loved to collect gold |
| C．was a famous political figure | D．was a good at giving speeches |
The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman's life spent in caring for the children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, four or five of whom lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has to take care of children, her work is lightened by modern living conditions.
This important change in women's life-patterns has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls took a full-time job after they left school. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school- leaving age is sixteen; many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry older, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more afterwards return to full-or-part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.At what age did most women marry around the 1890 according to the passage?
| A．At about twenty-five | B．In their earl fifties |
| C．At the age of fifteen | D．At any age from fifteen to forty-five |
Many girls, the passage claims, are now likely to_______.
| A．give up their jobs for good after they are married |
| B．leave school as soon as they can |
| C．marry so that they can get a job |
| D．continue working until they are going to have a baby |
When she was over fifty, a late nineteenth-century mother ______.
| A．was usually expected to die fairly soon |
| B．would expect to work until she died |
| C．would be healthy enough to take up paid jobs |
| D．was less likely to find a job even if she wanted to |
Nowadays, a husband tends to_______.
| A．play a greater part in looking after the children |
| B．help his wife by doing much of the housework |
| C．feel dissatisfied with his role in the family |
| D．take a part-time job so that he can help in the home |
My brother Ron joined the US army a few years ago. Most girls, especially those who are my age, are thrilled by anything that has to do with the “army”. It’s a novelty to them to shoot a gun, jump out of a plane, and wear uniform.
Now I know you’re thinking that I must find it really cool to know a solider, who’s my brother. That’s wrong, before I found out that my brother joined the army, I was crazy about the army. Firstly, I wanted to go to college, knew that joining the army was probably the only way I could get it as my parents couldn’t afford it. Additionally there were all the other points of the army that grabbed my heart. I wanted the challenge, I wanted the discipline and I wanted the feeling that I would be doing something beyond the ability of average citizen.
But as soon as my brother joined the army, all those things fell away. All I saw were dead people, guns shooting, tanks turning into a ball of fire, tents burning, and lots of blood. It was so horrible. When Ron went to Iraq, I freaked out whenever I didn’t hear from him for more than a week. I kept up with the news, reading the latest newspaper and listening to the hourly reports. And every time I heard that an American solider was killed, I prayed, it’ wasn’t Ron.
I’m proud of my brother for serving our country, and his willingness to devote his life to something he finds important. It’s great to see how discipline and mature he’s got, and I’m glad he has his college paid for. But although I am proud, I gladly give up the “coolness” of having a brother in the army. I would be perfectly all right if I had never seen that uniform on him, and he was just a plain old “boring” brother.
I love my brother, and I’m proud of him, but I want him back home!What did the writer think of the army before Ron joined?
| A．Joining the army was more beneficial than going to college. |
| B．Joining the army was a good choice for those who couldn’t afford college education. |
| C．Joining the army was meant risking one’s life for something important, |
| D．Joining the army did more harm than good. |
After Ron joined the army, the writer .
| A．decide to join the army one day |
| B．became afraid of seeing soldiers |
| C．often showed off Ron in front of friends |
| D．became aware of the danger of joining the army |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Peace or war? |
| B．Life in the army |
| C．Having a soldier in the family |
| D．A choice between your life and your dream |
Stop Spam!
When I first got an e-mail account ten years ago, I received communications only from family, friends, and colleagues. Now it seems that every time I check my e-mail, I have an endless series of advertisements and other correspondence that do not interest me at all. If we want e-mail to continue to be useful, we need specific laws that make spamming (发送垃圾邮件) a crime.
If lawmakers do not do something soon to prohibit spam, the problem will certainly get much worse. Computer programs allow spammers to send hundreds of millions of e-mails almost instantly. As more and more advertisers turn to spam to sell their products, individual (个人的) e-mail boxes are often flooded with spam e-mails. Would people continue to use e-mail if they had to deal with an annoying amount of spam each time?
This problem is troubling for individuals and companies as well. Many spam e-mails contain computer viruses that can shut down the entire network of a company. Companies rely on e-mail for their employees to communicate with each other. Spam frequently causes failures in their local communications networks, and their employees are thus unable to communicate effectively. Such a situation results in a loss of productivity and requires companies to repeatedly repair their networks. These computer problems raise production costs of companies, which are, in the end, passes on to the consumer.
For these reasons, I believe that lawmakers need to legislate (立法) against spam. Spammers should be fined, and perhaps sent to prison if they continue to disturb people. E-mail is a tool which helps people all over the world to communicate conveniently, but spam is destroying this convenience.What does the underlined word “correspondence” in the Paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．messages | B．ideas | C．connections | D．programs |
According to the text, what is the major cause of the flooding spam?
| A．Companies rely on e-mail for communications. |
| B．More people in the world communicate by e-mails. |
| C．Many computer viruses contain spam e-mail. |
| D．More advertisers begin to promote sales through spam. |
According to Paragraph 3, who is the final victim of spam?
| A．The business | B．The advertiser. |
| C．The employee | D．The consumer. |
What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To inform. | B．To educate. | C．To persuade. | D．To instruct. |
| BORDER CROSSINGS While there are no restrictions on the amount of money that you can bring across the border, you must report to both the US and Canadian border services amounts equal to or greater than $10.000. PERSONAL EXEMPTIONS（免税）ON PURCHASES AMERICANS RETURNING TO THE US Less than 48 hours: $ 200 US 48 hours or more: $ 800 US duty-free personal exemption. next $ 1.000 US at 3% Including up to 100 cigars and 100 cigarettes. CANADIANS RETURNING TO CANADA Less than 24 hours: $ 50 CAN 48 hours or more: $ 400 CAN Including up to 100 cigars and 200 cigarettes. 7 days or more: $ 750 CAN Including up to 100 cigars and 200 cigarettes. DOCUMENTATION NEEDED FOR BORDER CROSSING LAND OR SEA TO THE US(INCLUDING FERRIES) A valid passport or passport card, or a NEXUS card. (A NEXUS card is a Trusted Traveler Program that provides quick travel for pre-approved, low risk travelers through special lanes.) A recent Washington State, New York or BC driver’s license. Note: Children 15 years of age and younger require only a birth certificate or copy.(Certified copies are not required but are advised.) AIR TRAVEL TO THE US A valid passport, an Air NEXUS card, or a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine Document. |
If a Canadian who is on a 7-day trip to New York buys $ 800 CAN worth of goods, how much should he pay tax on when returning home?
| A．$ 800 CAN | B．$750 CAN | C．$ 400 CAN | D．$ 50 CAN |
For an American citizen on a 2-day tour of Canada, how much tax does he have to pay on $ 1.600 US worth of purchases when returning to the US?
| A．$ 24 US | B．$ 48 US | C．$52 US | D．$ 200 US |
What documentation should a couple with a 7-year-old child carry when they drive a car from Canada to America?
| A． A BC driver’s license, an Air NEXUS card, and a birth certificate. |
| B． An Air NEXUS card, a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine Document, and a birth certificate. |
| C． Two valid passport cards and a certified copy of a birth certificate. |
| D．A NEXUS card, a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine Document., and a certified copy of a birth certificate. |