Three Boys and a Dad
Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favourite TV talk show on his first day off in months. “This will be like a walk in the park,” he’d told his wife. “I’ll look after the kids, and you can go visit your mom.”
Things started well, but just after eight o’clock, his three little “good kids”—Mike, Randy, and Alex—came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted “breakfast, daddy.” When food had not appeared within thirty seconds, Randy began using his spoon on Alex’s head as if it were a drum. Alex started to shout loudly in time to the beat（节拍）. Mike chanted “Where’s my toast, where’s my toast” in the background. Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.
Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy’s underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their very eyes. Someone named “Not Me” had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.
By ten o’clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the jar refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating the kitchen wall with his colour pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the family room，but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realised that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.
At exactly 11:17, Brad called the daycare centre (日托所）.“I suddenly have to go into work and my wife’s away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes?” The answer was obviously “yes” because Brad was smiling.When his wife left home. Brad expected to .
| A．go out for a walk in the park |
| B．watch TV talk show with his children |
| C．enjoy his first day off work |
| D．read the newspaper to his children |
Which of the following did Randy do?
| A．Drawing on the wall | B．Eating apple jam |
| C．Feeding the fish. | D．Reading in a room |
Why did Brad ask the daycare centre for help?
| A．Because he wanted to clean up his house. |
| B．Because he suddenly had to go to his office |
| C．Because he found it hard to manage his boys home. |
| D．Because he had to take his wife back |
This text is developed .
| A．by space | B．by comparison | C．by process | D．by time |
Something in chocolate could be used to stop coughs and lead to more effective medicines, say UK researchers.
Their study found that theobromine, found in cocoa, was nearly a third more effective in stopping coughs than codeine, which was considered the best cough medicine at present.
The Imperial College London researchers who published their results online said the discovery could lead to more effective cough treatment. “While coughing is not necessarily harmful (有害的），it can have a major effect on the quality of life, and this discovery could be a huge step forward in treating this problem，” said Professor Peter Barnes.
Ten healthy volunteers (志愿者） were given the-obromine, codeine or placebo, a pill that contains no medicine, during the experiment. Neither the volunteers nor the researchers knew who received which pill. The researchers then measured levels of capsaicin, which is used in research to cause coughing and as a sign of how well the medicine are stopping coughs.
The team found that, when the volunteers were given theobromine, the capsaicin need to produce a cough was around a third higher than in the placebo group. When they were given codeine they need only slightly higher levels of capsaicin to cause a cough compared with the placebo.
The researchers said that theobromine worked by keeping down a nerve activity (神经活动），which caused coughing. They also found that unlike some standard cough treatments, theobromine caused no side effects such as sleepiness. According to Professor Barnes, theobromine __________
| A．cannot be as effective as codeine |
| B．can be harmful to people's health |
| C．cannot be separated from chocolate |
| D．can be a more effective cure for coughs |
What was used in the experiment to cause coughing?
| A．Theobromine. | B．Codeine. | C．Capsaicin. | D．Placebo. |
We learn from the text that volunteers in the experiment __________.
| A．were patients with bad coughs |
| B．were divided into three groups |
| C．received standard treatments |
| D．suffered little side effects |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Codeine： a new medicine |
| B．Chocolate may cure coughs |
| C．Cough treatment： a hard case |
| D．Theobromine can cause coughs |
Wugging, or Web use giving, describes the act of giving to charity at no cost to the user. By using every click . com , which is being added to a number of university computers across the UK, students can raise money every time they search, but it won't cost them a penny.
Research shows that students are extremely passionate about supporting charity—88% of full time students have used the Internet to give to charity. This age group is often the least likely to have their own income. 19% of 22 to 24 year olds have short-term debts of more than 5,000. With rising personal debt levels in this age group, due to university tuition fees or personal loans and a lack of long-term savings, traditional methods of donating to charity are often not appealing (有感染力的）or possible.
Beth Truman, a 21-year-old recent university graduate, has used every click. com to donate to her chosen charity, the RSPCA，for two years and has seen the “ wugging ” movement grow in popularity with students. “When you're at university you be-come more socially aware, but it's sometimes hard to give to others when you have little money yourself，”says Beth. “Wugging is great for people in this age group as it allows them to use the technology on a daily basis to give to charity, without costing them a single penny. ”
Wugging is perfect for people who want to be more socially aware and supportive but don't feel they have the means to do so. Students using the Web can raise money for causes they care about without costing them anything in terms of time or money ,and charities get a valuable source of funding.
Every click. com works like any other search engine ,allowing users to search for information, news and images but users can decide which of the UK's 170，000charities they would like to support through their clicks. Every click . com then makes monthly payments to every registered charity. Launched in June 2005，every click. com is now the eighth largest search engine and one of the busiest charity websites in the UK. According to the passage, “wugging” is actually __________
| A．a website |
| B．a charity-related action |
| C．a school organization |
| D．a student movement |
In the case of charity, every click. com __________.
| A．frees students of the financial worries |
| B．receives much money from students |
| C．offers valuable information to students |
| D．praises students for their money-raising |
What does Beth Truman think of the “ wugging ”movement?
| A．It makes every click. com popular in the UK. |
| B．It becomes easy to do charity because of it. |
| C．It results in students' more social awareness. |
| D．It helps students to save money. |
From the passage, we can conclude that __________.
| A．most full time students do charity on the Inter-net every day |
| B．every click. com helps students pay for the college education |
| C．“ wugging ” is a win-win idea for both students and charities |
| D．every click. com is the most successful search engine in the UK |
What would be the BEST title for this passage?
| A．“Wugging"，a new popular term on the Internet |
| B．British people show strong interest in charity |
| C．More Britain charities benefit from the Internet |
| D．Students raise money for charity by “wugging” |
The meaning of the word “volunteer” may be a little different in different countries, but it usually means “one who offers his or her services”. There are many different ways in which people can volunteer, such as taking care of sick people, working in homes for homeless children, and picking up garbage(垃圾)from beaches and parks. Volunteers may work within their own countries or in other countries. They are often people with a strong wish to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. Volunteers don't expect any kind of pay.
At the root of volunteering is the idea that one person may have the ability to offer services that can help other people. Tracy, a good friend of mine ,however, recently came back from India with a new idea of what being a volunteer means. She worked for two and a half weeks in one of Mother Teresa's homes in Calcutta. The following is her story.
“I first heard about Mother Teresa in my high school. We watched a video (录像）about her work in India and all over the world. I was so moved by her spirit to help others and her endless love for every human being that after I graduated from high school ,I too wanted to try her kind of work. So with two friends I flew to Calcutta for a few weeks. ”
“I was asked to work in a home for sick people. I helped wash clothes and sheets, and pass out lunch. I also fed the people who were too weak to feed themselves and tried to cheer them up. I felt it was better to share with them than to think that I have helped them. To be honest, I don't think I was helping very much. It was then that I realized that I had not really come to help, but to learn about and experience another culture (文化）that helped improve my own understanding of life and the world. "According to the text, a volunteer refers to a per-son who __________.
| A．is willing to help those in need without pay |
| B．can afford to travel to different places |
| C．has a strong wish to be successful |
| D．has made a big fortune in life |
Tracy started her work as a volunteer __________.
| A．after she met Mother Teresa |
| B．after she finished high school |
| C．when she was touring Calcutta |
| D．when she was working in a hospital |
Why did Tracy choose to be a volunteer?
| A．She liked to work with Mother Teresa. |
| B．She had already had some experience. |
| C．She was asked by Mother Teresa's example. |
| D．She wanted to follow Mother Teresa's example. |
What is Tracy's “new idea” (Paragraph 2) of being a volunteer?
| A．Going abroad to help the sick. |
| B．Working in Mother Teresa's home. |
| C．Doing simple things to help the poor. |
| D．Improving oneself through helping others. |
Scientists recently found three animal species living two miles below the surface of the Mediterra-nean Sea, where the super-salty waters don't have oxygen. They're multicellular (多细胞的），which means their bodies have many cells. They each are as small as a large grain of sand. But they are animals.
The most exciting thing about these creatures, say the scientists, is that they obviously don't need oxygen to live. What biologists know about life so far is that only single-celled living things can live in places that have no oxygen, and that multicellular organisms (有机物）can visit these places，but not live there. These newly found creatures could change that idea.
Finding animals down there was so surprising that the scientists couldn't believe it. “At first, we thought they were dead bodies, ” Roberto Danovaro ,a scientist at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Ancona, Italy, told Science News. To find out whether the animals could actually live there, Danovaro and his colleagues brought up more samples from the ocean floor. Studying the animals in the new samples showed that they appeared to be alive.
The researchers did more tests, and found that some of the animals had eggs—which suggests they were reproducing. Also in the samples were old skins, suggesting that the animals had lived there long enough to grow. Finally, pictures taken showed that the insides of the animals appear to adapt to living in an environment that has no oxygen.
These clues suggest the animals don't need oxy-gen, but the evidence is indirect, which means that scientists still have not observed how the animals live without oxygen. This means more studies are needed, but the scientists think they're on the right track. And if they're right, biologists will need to rethink what they know about where animals live. What excited the scientists most is that __________.
| A．they found three animal species visit the salty water under the Mediterranean Sea |
| B．single-celled animals can live in super-salty waters |
| C．the tiny animals have many cells |
| D．three kinds of animals can live in places that have no oxygen |
The underlined phrase in Paragraph 2 means the scientists could think __________.
| A．only single-celled creatures don't need oxygen to live |
| B．multicellular animals can visit the super-salty waters |
| C．the newly found creatures can't live in the super-salty waters |
| D．multicellular animals can also live without oxy-gen besides single-celled ones |
Which of the following CAN'T be used to prove the newly found creatures can live in super-salty waters?
| A．Their dead bodies are found there. |
| B．Some in the samples have eggs. |
| C．Some old skins are found in the samples. |
| D．The pictures of their insides have been taken. |
More studies are needed to prove __________.
| A．where single-celled animals can live |
| B．how the newly found animals live without oxy-gen |
| C．whether the multicellular creatures can live underwater |
| D．why the super-salty waters have no oxygen |
There's no end of dangerous sports to try out in Southern Africa — bungee jumping, skydiving, water rafting. But for a new rush, how about swimming face to face with a killer shark?
The public seems interested in finding danger in this activity. Cape Town's aquarium has been filled with divers who want to swim with the sharks since it opened its tanks to paying visitors last month. Around70 tourists aged between 12 and 40 have paid 275rand (US $55) each to spend up to an hour with Maxine，Dee and Floyd, the aquarium's three sharks.
And conservationists say the project should help change the damage done to the shark's image by the popular movie Jaws.
“People will always pay money to be a bit daring, ”said Paul Loetter , an aquarium diver. “Most people think every shark is dangerous, but they've got the wrong idea. ”
Each visitor can swim with the sharks and other fish that share their tank, guarded by aquarium divers armed only with a stick to keep off any over-friendly sharks.
“This is part of a communication and education programme to show sharks are not as bad as everyone makes out, ”said Tony McGyre , operations manager at the aquarium.
Len Compagno , head of the South African shark research center, agreed. "It's no joke to play around with a big dog. In the same way, a three-metre-long shark could put a few holes in you，" he said. We may infer that in the movie Jaws __________.
| A．sharks are hunted everywhere |
| B．sharks kill other sea animals |
| C．sharks are disappearing in the sea |
| D．sharks are man eaters |
What Len Compagno said really means that __________
| A．you had better be careful when you get close to sharks |
| B．you needn't be too serious about sharks |
| C．sharks are more dangerous than big dogs |
| D．sharks are as friendly to people as dogs |
The writer's purpose in writing the passage is to tell us that __________
| A．sharks are not as bad as everyone makes out |
| B．people will always pay money to be a bit daring |
| C．there's no end of dangerous sports in Southern Africa |
| D．the public seems interested in finding danger in swimming with a killer shark |
We can learn that Maxine , Dee and Floyd are __________
| A．workers in the aquarium |
| B．the aquarium's three sharks |
| C．conservationists |
| D．divers in the aquarium |