Mobile phones are an important business tool for farmers in rural areas. But they also put a valuable educational tool in their hands.
The University of Illinois in the United States has a project called SAWBO—Scientific Animations Without Borders. It produces educational videos that can be downloaded to cell phones. The goal is to help people in developing countries improve their lives.
One video shows farmers how to make a natural insecticide from neem seeds to prevent insect damage to crops. The process starts with sorting and drying the neem fruits. Then let the fruit dry in the sun for about three or four days, until they become brown. Using a mortar(碾槌) and stick, the fruits are slightly pounded to remove the shells from the fruits without breaking the seed inside.
The videos use computer animation(动画). Some of the animated characters are a little funny looking-like a farmer with a long nose. But the subjects are serious, including a health video on preventing cholera(霍乱). Team member Francisco Seufferheld says the information in the videos is meant to be quickly understood. He says, “The information is digested in such a way that in two minutes, we can transmit a complex idea.”
The researchers tested the seven-minute video on seven mobile phones. They wanted to see if people would share the video using Bluetooth wireless technology. With Bluetooth, files can be passed to a nearby phone even if neither phone is connected to the Internet. As a result, in one month, the video had spread to one hundred eighteen people in fifty different villages. “This is just incredible impact,” said Francisco Seufferheld.
The team has made a few videos so far. These are available in a total of eighty languages, dialects and accents. Professor Barry Pittendrigh says there are plans for more videos later this year. What is the text mainly about?
| A．A best-selling mobile phone |
| B．A valuable educational project for farmers |
| C．United States support for developing countries |
| D．A new type of scientist –farmer relationship |
The SAWBO program is introduced in order to ____.
| A．raise farmers’ standard of living |
| B．do some research on mobile phones |
| C．develop farmers’ practical skills |
| D．help farmers prevent insect damage to corps |
The biggest advantage of the program is that it______.
| A．includes health video on preventing cholera |
| B．can be passed to farmers using Bluetooth technology |
| C．can be used to sort and dry the neem fruits |
| D．is easy for farmers to understand |
Which of the following words can best take the place of the word “ pound” in the 3rd paragraph?
| A．moved | B．beat | C．picked | D．cut |
阅读下面短文，从各题A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。
People who smoke could lose around one third of their daily memory, researchers say.
A study by a team at Northumbria University showed that smokers lost more of their memory when compared to non-smokers.
And the research also found that those who kicked the habit saw their ability to recollect information restored to almost the same level as non-smokers.
The study involved more than seventy 18-to-25-year-olds and included a tour of the university’s campus. Those who took part were asked to recall small details, such as a list of songs played at a campus concert and tasks completed at various points－known as real world memory test. Smokers performed badly, remembering just 59 percent of tasks. But those who had given up smoking remembered 74 percent and those who had never smoked recalled 81 percent of tasks.
Dr. Tom Heffernan, who leads Northumbria University’s Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group, said the findings would be useful in anti-smoking campaigns. He said, “Given that there are up to 10 million smokers in the UK and as many as 45 million in the United States, it's important to understand the effects smoking has on everyday cognitive（认知的）function-of which prospective memory is an excellent example. ”
“This is the first time that a study has set out to examine whether giving up smoking has an impact on memory. We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits for the body, but this study also shows how stopping smoking can have knock-on benefits for cognitive functions too. ’’
The research will now investigate the effects of passive smoking on memory, while Dr. Heffernan and Dr. Terence O’Neil will look into the effects of third-hand smoking－toxins left on curtains and furniture. What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Smoking does harm to health. |
| B．Smokers take a tour to the University’s campus. |
| C．Smoking can affect one’s memory. |
| D．Smokers are compared to non-smokers. |
How did those who took part in the study perform when asked to recall small details?
| A．Smokers did the worst among the participants. |
| B．Non-smokers could recall about half of them. |
| C．Smokers could recall nothing at all. |
| D．Those who gave up smoking did best. |
According to Dr. Tom Heffernan, the findings_______.
| A．would be really a surprise to the public |
| B．would contribute to fighting against smoking |
| C．would be used in real world memory test |
| D．would be nothing new to the researchers |
What does the underlined word “impact’’ most probably mean?
| A．order | B．impression | C．expression | D．effect |
What will Dr. Heffernan and Dr Terence O’Neil do?
| A．Investigate the effects of third-hand smoking. |
| B．Do research on how smoking affects passive smokers. |
| C．Find ways to persuade people to quit smoking. |
| D．Study whether giving up smoking affects memory. |
Most tourist destinations around China are witnessing travel peaks during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays that run through Sunday. In Beijing, the Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, attracted 182, 000 tourists on Tuesday, the biggest number on a single day, as millions of visitors arrived in the national capital. “We saw absolutely nothing but people’s heads,’’ said Guo Zhijun, 42, of Henan province. “We wanted our 11-year-old son to learn something from the trip, but we only ended up very tired. ”
Earlier, from Sunday noon to midday Monday, garbage collected at Tian’anmen Square in the heart of the city amounted to 7.9 tons, a quarter more than that in the same period of last year.
In the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, its top five major tourist sites attracted more than 200, 000 visitors on Tuesday.
Yesterday, thousands of cars jammed two 20-kilometer mountain roads winding to and out of the Lushan Mountain scenic area in the eastern province of Jiangxi. The area, with about 3, 000 car parking spaces, was unable to contain at least 8, 000 inbound cars, said head of the Lushan Mountain public security bureau.
The Lushan Mountain tourism administration temporarily stopped selling entrance tickets to prevent the traffic from growing on Tuesday afternoon. Similar measures could be taken during the rest of the holidays, a police officer said.
Emergency measures have been taken at other scenic sites. Crowded visitors overwhelmed the capacity（承载量）of the cable cars at Huashan Mountain, in Shaanxi province, leaving tens of thousands stuck at the peak late into Tuesday night. According to China Central Television, restless visitors demanded refunds from the tourism committee, and a lot of visitors had to give up and walk down the mountain.
Chen Li, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department, said on his micro blog that more than 300 policemen and government officials climbed up the mountain to help trapped visitors. Fearing that tourist sites might become too crowded, many people are staying at home, going shopping or making short suburban trips. A resident Mr. Wang in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, canceled long-distance travel plans after learning of heavy traffic on many highways during the first two days of the holidays. Instead, Wang, his wife and son went fishing in the suburbs before having a picnic. What happened in the Forbidden City that Tuesday?
| A．There were far more visitors coming than expected. |
| B．A large number of zones were opened to the visitors. |
| C．Over 7.9 tons of garbage was collected. |
| D．More than 200, 000 visitors gathered there. |
What does the underlined word “overwhelmed” mean in paragraph 6?
| A．showed up | B．added to | C．reached beyond | D．filled in |
The writer wrote this article to________________.
| A．advise traveling to different places to learn something |
| B．warn people not to climb those mountains on holidays |
| C．encourage people to change the travel plans according to the traffic |
| D．suggest we stay at home or go shopping during those holidays |
Which of the following might be the best title?
| A．Experiences from Different Travel Plans |
| B．Travel Peaks in China's Tourist Sites |
| C．Floods of People to the Forbidden City |
| D．Problems with Travelling on Holiday |
Nanjing-style paper cutting is an important part of Chinese paper cutting. It is known for its different designs, simplistic but graceful shapes, finely cut lines and unique skills. Zhang Fanglin is a leading figure in the Nanjing-style paper cutting. Zhang was born in a paper-cutting family. He is the fourth generation to continue the family’s paper-cutting skills. Taught by his father, he began to learn paper cutting in his childhood. In 1963 when he was only 14 years old, he started his artistic career in a local folk handicraft factory. Over the past decades, Zhang has created many works and developed excellent skills. In 1985, Zhang was admitted into Nanjing Municipal Fine Arts Company, creating and designing paper cuts. Throughout his artistic career, Zhang has absorbed characteristics and elements（元素）of various styles of paper cutting and created a large number of creative paper-cutting works. Thanks to his great contributions, he won many national prizes and was awarded the title of “National Master Artist in Handicraft Art”.
As a leading figure, Zhang Fanglin has been invited to more than 30 countries and regions around the world, showcasing his paper-cutting skills. In the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Zhang showcased his new creations of gold foil-embedded paper cutting works. What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Chinese paper cutting. |
| B．Nanjing-style paper cutting. |
| C．A paper cutting family. |
| D．A paper cutting artist. |
How old was Zhang Fanglin when he was admitted into Nanjing Municipal Fine Arts Company?
| A．36. | B．14. | C．22. | D．18. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Nanjing-style paper cutting is the most important part of Chinese paper cutting. |
| B．Zhang is a creative artist who knows different styles of paper cutting well. |
| C．Zhang won many international prizes because of his great contributions. |
| D．All the members of the family taught Zhang how to design paper cuts. |
I can still remember the first day when I met my best friend. She had just moved into the neighborhood and her grandmother brought her down to meet me. I hid behind my mother and she hid behind her grandmother, scared to look at each other.
Soon, we lost the shyness and started playing with each other, bike riding to each other’s house and having sleepovers. In 7th grade she was going through family problems. However, every summer we would always sit at each other’s house and watch movies on TV and talk about all the boys we liked.
It was last year when I noticed the problem. She suffered from clinical depression（抑郁症）, and had to go to a hospital during the day. I was very sorry for her at first. But with the late night calls, and meeting each other halfway up the street at midnight, we still stayed in touch. I wanted to be there for her since her new best friend left her, and I knew I still cared about her like a sister.
Yesterday she came to me and said this. “I never knew what a best friend was until you were the only person that would stop me from cutting myself; the only person that ever made me feel better about myself and my problems. You didn’t know this but I was trying to kill myself that very night you called me and I was crying. I owe you so much, and you didn’t even know you were helping me. ”
We both cried. And I guess a kind of lesson from my life so far is to never give up your friends. Even if they aren’t as cool as others, or people think they are crazy, they need someone there. If you leave them, you will only be very sorry. So if friends need you, and you care for them, you should be always there for them. Why did the two girls hide behind their family members when they first met?
| A．Because they were playing a game. |
| B．Because they didn’t like each other. |
| C．Because they quarreled before. |
| D．Because they were both shy. |
What would have happened to her friend if the author had not cared about her?
| A．She would have lost her new best friend. |
| B．She would have killed herself that night. |
| C．She would have run away from her family. |
| D．She would have stayed in hospital for a long time. |
What lesson does the author learn from the story?
| A．Always care for your friends. |
| B．Don’t care about others’ opinions. |
| C．Never owe your friends too much. |
| D．Try to be as cool as others. |
At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they’re bad. Yet the agreement among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants’ impact on the economy and the reality?
There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the stress that undocumented immigrants place on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation's fears and insecurities. There’s some truth to all these explanations, but they aren’t quite sufficient.
To get a better understanding of what’s going on, consider the way immigration’s impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most directly from immigrants’ low-cost labor are businesses and employers—meatpacking plants in Nebraska, for instance, these producers’ savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist, immigration has reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9%.
Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, opposition was strongest in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried them most, in other words, was the financial burden of immigration. That conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to soften when that financial burden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed immigrants’ access to certain benefits.
The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal. Even for those most acutely affected—say, low-skilled workers, or California residents—the impact isn’t all that dramatic. “The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our perceptions,” says Daniel Tichenor, a professor at the University of Oregon. “But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a small one.” Too bad most people don’t realize it.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．Whether immigrants are good or bad for the economy has been puzzling economists. |
| B．The American economy used to thrive on immigration but now it’s a different story. |
| C．The agreement among economists is that immigration should not be encouraged. |
| D．The general public thinks differently from most economists on the impact of immigration. |
What is the chief concern of native high-skilled, better-educated employees about the inflow of immigrants?
| A．It may change the existing social structure. |
| B．It may pose a threat to their economic status. |
| C．It may decrease .their financial burden. |
| D．It may place a great pressure on the state budget. |
What is the irony about the debate over immigration?
| A．Even economists can’t reach an agreement about its impact. |
| B．Those who are opposed to it turn out to benefit most from it. |
| C．People are making too big a fuss about something of small impact. |
| D．There is no essential difference between seemingly opposite opinions. |
Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
| A．A debate about whether to immigrate. |
| B．A debate about the impact of illegal immigrants. |
| C．The great impact of immigrants on the economy. |
| D．Opposition to illegal immigration. |