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Cell Phones Are the New Cigarettes
When you get in your car, you reach for it．When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it．When you get into a lift, you play with it．
Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone．And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curbtheir longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships．
With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away．In just the past couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and counselors（顾问）in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined．
The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don’t mean just the monthly bill．Dr．Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality．
Sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him．
Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?
Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation．He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with．Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says．
If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread．Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use．Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them．They far outnumber wired phones in the United States．
Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?

A．Cell phone users smoke less than they used to．

B．Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes．

C．More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes．

D．Using cell phone is just as cool as smoking cigarettes．

The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph 2 means ____．

A．rescue

B．ignore

C．develop

D．control

The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that ．

A．women use cell phones more often than men

B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

D．cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy

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Reasons to learn using the Pimsleur Approach:
•Speak without an accent so that you sound like a native.
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•Join 25 million people who have graduated with success since 1980.
The entire Pimsleur Approach is what language learning should be: quick, fun, and easy! Each lesson is the foundation for the next. You’ll keep building on what you’ve learned.
What can prove Pimsleur courses to be successful?

A．Full 30-day money-back guarantee.

B．Eight fluency-focused lessons on four audio CDs.

C．30-minute lessons are perfect for your daily commuting, lunch break, or workout.

D．25 million people have graduated with success.

According to the text, what does the course offer?

A．Language rules for you to recite.

B．Effective language instruction.

C．Learning a new language by repeating many times.

D．Opportunities to work with business professionals.

According to the text, which of the following is NOT a reason for choosing the Pimsleur Approach?

A．It will correct your accent.

B．It will build your confidence.

C．It will teach you how to control your balance.

D．It will help you remember things easily.

It can be inferred that the text is a (n) __________.

A．report on a new language learning method

B．comment on a language training organization

C．notice of the opening of a new course

D．ad of a language training organization

Some time ago, I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended , as there are a whole lot of antique (古董) shops near my home . So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn’t even look at my chair.
The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and, the fourth-so I decided that my approach must be wrong.
I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said, “Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds,” I said. “OK,” he said, “I’ll give you twenty pounds.” “It’s got a slightly broken leg,” I said. “Yes I saw that, it’s nothing.”
Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?” I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.” “I’ll buy it,” I said. “What do you mean? You’ve just sold it to me,” he said. “Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I’m sorry. I’ll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.” “You must be crazy,” he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.” “You’re right,” I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, ‘Would you mend this chair for me’?” “I wouldn’t have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a five?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.
We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer .

A．was rather impolite	B．was warmly received
C．asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair	D．asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair

The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper .

A．changed his mind	B．saw the writer’s purpose
C．accepted the offer	D．decided to help the writer

How much did the writer pay?

A．£5

B．£7

C．£20

D．£27

From the text, we can learn that the writer was .

A．smart

B．careful

C．honest

D．funny

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Most drinks stating that they are fruit-flavored (水果味道的) contain no fruit at all, while most of the rest contain only a small quantity of fruit, according to a study carried by the British Food Commission.
“Shoppers need to check the labels (标签)before buying drinks, though sometimes the actual content can be non-existent,” said Food Commission spokesperson Ian Tokelove. “Food production is highly competitive. 1It will increase profits, and consumers won’t always realize they are being tricked.”
Flavorings are focused on the flavors of natural food products such as fruits, meats and vegetables, or creating flavor for food products that do not have the desired flavors. Researchers analyzed the contents of 28 strawberry-flavored products sold in stores. 2Of the 11 products that did contain strawberries, five of them contained less than one percent real fruit. In addition, each juice box contained nearly eight teaspoons of sugar.
3Let’s take jam as an example. Some strawberry-flavored jam was labeled as containing no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners, but it contained absolutely no strawberries at all.
4Consumers have the rights to know clearly about what they have bought. Under current UK law, food packages do not have to distinguish between natural and artificial flavoring. “Describing a product as strawberry flavor and covering the surface of the packet with pictures of strawberries is misleading. 5Unfortunately, it is also legal and widespread,” Tokelove said. “It’s time to take measures to protect the consumers’ rights.”

A．The products which contain real fruit are popular with people.

B．Even products advertised as more natural often contained no fruit.

C．They found that about 60 percent of them didn’t contain any fruit at all.

D．If companies can cut their costs by using flavoring, they are likely to do so.

E. It is important and necessary to demand a small amount of flavoring in the products.
F. Actually the product contains just a tiny percentage of strawberry or even no fruit at all.
G. The Food Commission suggested all flavors used in a product should be listed on the packaging.

WASHINGTON—Two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population could be gone by 2050 if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday.
The fate of polar bears could be even worse than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be disappearing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species.
“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat(退却) farther this month.
That means that polar bears—some 16,000 of them -- will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing(简报).
Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century’s end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.
“It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.
“Because the observed trajectory(轨迹)of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative(保守的).”
In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food.
Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are poor hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears’ disappearance would probably take place as young cubs(幼兽)failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully.
What was the US Geological Survey intended to do?

A．To determine whether the polar bear was in danger.

B．To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic.

C．To check the predictions of the computer models.

D．To find out the exact number of the polar bear.

What causes the polar bears to disappear by 2050?

A．The pollution of the Arctic region.	B．The sea ice melting at high speed
C．Fewer food sources being left.	D．The temperature getting colder.

The key to preventing polar bears dying out seems to _______________.

A．help young polar bears to survive the cold winter

B．have large number of seals living in the oceans

C．make sure there is enough sea ice in the Arctic

D．provide chances for adult polar bears to reproduce

A．the 59 countries	B．the 84 gold medals
C．all the athletes	D．the games