Welcometoourschool.Youcandoalo-优题课

Two Earthquakes in Two Months:
Comparing the Quakes in Haiti (海地) and Chile (智利)
Overview (概要) How do the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti compare? Here, students perform a gallery walk to learn more about the earthquakes from a specific point, and then do a specific research and presentation project or response activity. Finally, they seek answers to their unanswered questions.
Materials Print copies of photographs, charts, documents and other visuals to display, as described below; computer (s) with Internet access (optional), research materials, handouts.
Warm-up Choose and prepare a “gallery” of photographs, graphics, news reports and other materials to display around the room to enable students to consider the 2010 earthquake in Chile.
Depending on course program, choose materials for the gallery that provide a window on the two quakes, through one of the following specific points, or the focus of your choice:
Earthquakes through History Putting the 2010 Chilean and Haitian quakes into historical view related to other earthquakes, including the 1960 Chilean quake and the 2004 Asian earthquake and tsunami.
Rescue and Aid Considering domestic and international response to the disasters by militaries, governments and aid organizations, including rescue and recovery as well as efforts to provide food, water, health care and shelter to those affected.
Related The article Underwater Plate Cuts 400 Mile Gash compares several earthquakes:
Mr. Lin figured that the quake on Saturday was 250 to 350 times more powerful than the Haitian quake.
But Paul Caruso noted that at least on land, the effects of the Chilean tremor (震动) might not be as bad. For one thing, he said, the quality of building construction is generally better in Chile than in Haiti. And the fact that the quake occurred offshore should also help limit the destruction. In Haiti, the rupture (断裂) occurred only a few miles from the capital, Port-au-Prince. The rupture on Saturday was centered about 60 miles from the nearest town, Chillan, and 70 miles from the country’s second-largest city, Concepción.
Read the article using the following questions.
Questions For discussion with others and reading comprehension:
How does the 2010 Chilean earthquake compare to the 1960 Chilean earthquake?
Why do scientists believe that the 2010 Chilean earthquake will not cause the same level of damage as January’s Haitian earthquake did?
How does the 2010 Chilean earthquake compare to the 2004 Indonesian earthquake?
What reasons do scientists give to explain why the Indonesian quake caused so much more damage than the recent Chilean earthquake?
64. Which of the following shows one of the reasons for slighter losses in Chile than in Haiti?
A. Position:

B. Power:

65. We can infer that the article Underwater Plate Cuts 400 Mile Gash includes ________.
A. the causes of the 2010 Chilean earthquake and the 1960 Chilean earthquake
B. the comparison between the 2010 Haitian and the 2004 Indonesian earthquakes
C. the reason for the 2010 Chilean quake being more powerful than January’s Haitian earthquake
D. the reason for less damage in the 2010 Chilean quake than in the 2004 Indonesian earthquake
66. What is the passage most likely to be?
A. A program for research. B. A guide to earthquake study.
C. An advertisement for students. D. An introduction to quakes.

If you enjoyed the spring-like sunshine over the weekend and thought the weather has finally turned a corner, you’re sadly mistaken.
Chilly (寒冷的) days and grey clouds are forecast for the week—making it far too early to pack away the winter woollies.
Temperatures will struggle to rise above zero at night and fail to make double figures during the day.
People enjoy the spring sunshine in Sefton Park, Aigburth, Liverpool. Forecasters have predicted a return to chilly weather this week.
Met Office forecaster Charlie said, “It was a nice, dry, bright weekend in many parts and Monday is going to be a similar affair for many.”
“Temperatures will be between 5℃and 8℃, which is below average for the start of spring.”
The sun will disappear from the south of the country after today, with dry but cloudy conditions forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday.
Wednesday will be warmest of the three, with temperatures peaking at 9℃.But this is still two degrees below the March average for the district.
Overnight, temperatures will drop sharply, with lows of minus 3℃for the next three nights.
“It will generally stay on the cold side of average,” said Mr. Powell.
The March misery comes at the end of the coldest winter for more than 30 years.
Temperatures in December, January and February struggled to stay above zero, with the UK’s average 1.5℃, making it the deepest freeze since 1978—79.
It claimed there was just a one-in-seven chance of a cold December to February.
The agency also sadly predicted a “barbecue summer”, saying it was “quite optimistic” that it would be warmer and drier than average.
Following the two mistakes, the Met Office has dropped its long-range seasonal forecasts and will instead publish a monthly prediction for Britain, updated once a week.
In its defense, it says that while short-term forecasts are extremely accurate, Britain’s size and geographical position makes long-term predictions much more challenging.
It also points out that it gave warning of any heavy falls of snow this winter.
60. According to the passage, the weather on Tuesday in the south might be _______.
A. dry but cloudy B. sunny but chilly C. sunny and warm D. cloudy and chilly
61. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. British people can put away their winter clothes now.
B. The Met Office has shortened its forecast range.
C. The weather forecast becomes more and more accurate.
D. The agency was quite confident of long-term predictions.
62. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. The big chill isn’t over yet B. A warm spring finally arrives
C. A heavy snow is on the way D. The Met Office drops forecasts
63. From the passage, we can conclude ________.
A. the weather report is more and more important
B. British people become worried about bad weather
C. Britain has just experienced a very freezing winter
D. The Met Office can always predict any heavy snow falls accurately

Saving the Planet with Earth-Friendly Bamboo Products
Jackie Heinricher’s love affair with bamboo started in her backyard. “As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a slight wind, the bamboos sounded really musical.”
A fisheries biologist, Heinricher, 47, planned to work in the salmon industry in Seattle, where she lived with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, but she found it too competitive. Then her garden gave her the idea for a business: She’d planted 20 bamboo forests on their seven-acre farm.
Heinricher started Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998. She realized early on what is just now beginning to be known to the rest of the world. It can be used to make fishing poles, skateboards, buildings, furniture, floors, and even clothing. An added bonus: Bamboo absorbs four times as much carbon dioxide as a group of hardwood trees and releases 35 percent more oxygen.
First she had to find a way to mass-produce the plants—a tough task, since bamboo flowers create seed only once every 50 to 100 years. And dividing a bamboo plant frequently kills it.
Heinricher appealed to Randy Burr, a tissue culture expert, to help her. “People kept telling us we’d never figure it out,” says Heinricher. “Others had worked on it for 27 years! I believed in what we were doing, though, so I just kept going.”
She was right to feel a sense of urgency. Bamboo forests are being rapidly used up, and a United Nations report showed that even though bamboo is highly renewable, as many as half of the world’s species are threatened with dying out. Heinricher knew that bamboo could make a significant impact on carbon emissions (排放) and world economies, but only if huge numbers could be produced. And that’s just what she and Burr figured out after nine years of experiments—a way to grow millions of plants. By placing cuttings in test tubes with salts, vitamins, plant hormones, and seaweed gel, they got the plants to grow and then raised them in soil in greenhouses.
Not long after it, Burr’s lab hit financial difficulties. Heinricher had no experience running a tissue culture operation, but she wasn’t prepared to quit. So she bought the lab.
Today Heinricher heads up a profitable multimillion-dollar company, working on species from all over the world and selling them to wholesalers. “If you want to farm bamboo, it’s hard to do without the young plants, and that’s what we have,” she says proudly.
56. What was the main problem with planting bamboo widely?
A. They didn’t have enough young bamboo.
B. They were short of money and experience.
C. They didn’t have a big enough farm to do it.
D. They were not understood by other people.
57. What does Heinricher think of bamboo?
A. Renewable and acceptable B. Productive and flexible.
C. Useful and earth-friendly. D. Strong and profitable.
58. The underlined word “renewable” in Paragraph 6 probably means “________”.
A. able to be replaced naturally B. able to be raised difficultly
C. able to be shaped easily D. able to be recycled conveniently
59. What do you learn from the passage?
A. Heinricher’s love for bamboo led to her experiments in the lab.
B. Heinricher’s determination helped her to succeed in her work.
C. Heinricher struggled to prevent bamboo from disappearing.
D. Heinricher finally succeeded in realizing her childhood dream.

Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine.“Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting creatures,”William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word“habit”carries a negative meaning.
So it seems contradictory to talk about habits in the same context as innovation (创新). But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.
Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try, the more creative we become.
But don’t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain, they’re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately press into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.
“The first thing needed for innovation is attraction to wonder,”says Dawna Markova, author of The Open Mind.“But we are taught instead to‘decide’, just as our president calls himself‘the Decider’．”She adds, however, that“to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”
“All of us work through problems in ways of which we’re unaware,”she says. Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the ability to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, collaboratively (合作地) and innovatively. At the end of adolescence, however, the brain shuts down half of that ability, preserving only those ways of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.
The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us use our innovative and collaborative ways of thought.“This breaks the major rule in the American belief system—that anyone can do anything,”explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book This Year I Will…and Ms. Markova’s business partner.“That’s a lie that we have preserved, and it fosters commonness. Knowing what you’re good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.”This is where developing new habits comes in.
67．Brain researchers have discovered that .
A．the forming of new habits can be guided
B．the development of habits can be predicted
C．the regulation of old habits can be transformed
D．the track of new habits can be created unconsciously
68．The underlined word“ruts”in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to .
A．zones B．connections C．situations D．tracks
69．Which of the following statements most probably agrees with Dawna Markova’s view?
A．Decision makes no sense in choices.
B．Curiosity makes creative minds active.
C．Creative ideas are born of a relaxing mind.
D．Formation of innovation comes from fantastic ideas.
70．The purpose of the author writing this article is to persuade us .
A．to give up our traditional habits deliberately
B．to create and develop new habits consciously
C．to resist the application of standardized testing
D．to believe that old habits conflict with new habits

Apparently，we are safe neither at home nor in the business office．We use water in both places，but the research shows that chemicals added to our local water supply to kill harmful bacteria can have unwanted side effects．These chemicals can cause potential harm through drinking and in seemingly harmless activities as cleaning one’s house．They are released(set free)from water by daily actions like water running out of tap，spraying from garden pipes，or splashing in dishwashers and washing machines．As the water is moving．these chemicals are released into the air and then breathed in. Once inside our bodies, they start to affect our health.
Does this mean we should stop bathing? No, say the scientists, but we should put all pollution into perspective. Activities at home such as the burning of coal, cooking oil, or even candles release carbon monoxide and particulates such as cigarette ashes which have been proven as harmful to health as working or living near heavy traffic. New tugs, bedding, and even clothing give off that“new smell, ”which is a sure sign of chemicals. In the office, newly applied paint, newly purchased telephones and other telecommunications equipment, and computers release polluting chemicals, too. As offices and homes often have inadequate ventilation (通风), these chemicals can build up to become health problems. Their poisonous effects are only now being slowly recognized.
These facts suggest that, at a minimum, proper airing of newly purchased goods with an obvious chemical smell is a wise warning. Home and office windows should be opened during good weather. Even one’s car needs to be ventilated as well while in the garage.
We need further research to understand better other potential health dangers, too. For example, the effects of overcrowding of schools (carbon dioxide build-up ), the factory work environment ( an endless list of potentially dangerous substances ), and even home heating and cooling (the air conditioner may be our enemies, not our friends) have only recently started to come to light. Until we understand the effects of our new technological environment better, we can only hope that“there is no place like home.”
64．What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A．The air we breathe in is harmful.
B．The water in everyday use is unsafe.
C．Chemicals are added to the drinking water.
D．Chemicals are released in the running water.
65．In Paragraph 2, the underlined sentence means that .
A．bathing should be done with caution
B．homes and offices should be aired often
C．any pollution should be taken into consideration
D．we should prevent any pollution from doing harm to us
66．What is the purpose of the passage?
A．To call on us to guard our water.
B．To show us that no place is like home.
C．To make us aware of the pollution around us.
D．To argue that neither homes nor offices are safe.

Timetable
Sunday8:30---11:30 Personal Inventions You can see many inventions by the students; you may also bring your own inventions.	Monday19:00---21:00 Space and Man Dr. Thomas West If you want to know more about the universe.
Wednesday 19:30---21:00 Modern Medicine Mrs. Lucy Green Would you like to know medical science?	Friday18:30---21:00 Computer Science Mr. Harry Morison from Harvard University Learn to use Windows XP.

A．8:30 to 11:30 on Sunday	B．19:00 to 21:00 on Monday
C．19:30 to 21:00 on Wednesday	D．18:30 to 21:00 on Friday