Dear Volunteers，
The service you will provide to elderly individuals in Abilene as a Meals on Wheels volunteer is deeply appreciated. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the many miles you will travel and all of the hours you will contribute to help make this one of the best programs in the entire state.
We have our staff members make a home visit before adding each person to the program and try to visit everyone at least once every year. That is hardly enough, and we depend on your contact a great deal! It is important that you report back when you do not get an answer to your knock on the door. The person inside may be hurt or ill. They may be in hospital or out of town and fail to inform us. If they are frequently absent, we may need to determine if they still need meals.
If you find someone with a medical emergency, please call 911 to request medical assistance, and then call the Meals on Wheels office. If you find someone who needs assistance other than for a medical emergency, please call the Meals on Wheels office at 6725050, and we will try to find the appropriate agency or individual to call.
Let us know when a certain person needs extra food. We have a food preparation room of shelf stable items to share with them. Please feel free to take a few magazines when you deliver meals. Many of those we serve cannot afford magazines and enjoy reading. If someone is interested in getting books from the Abilene Public Library, let us know. We can sign them up for the Books on Wheels program. Call if you smell gas strongly when you deliver meals, or if someone needs a space heater, a blanket, or an electric fan. Please convey all needs to us, and we will try to see that they are met. Some of the elderly people who we offer our service may have cancers, liver diseases, AIDS, etc. If you do not want to deliver meals to the people with certain types of health problems, such as these, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Betty L. Bradley, LBSW,
Executive DirectorWhy does the author write this letter?
| A．To express great thanks to volunteers. |
| B．To explain how the old people get help. |
| C．To tell volunteers what they are tasked with. |
| D．To describe the life situation of the old people. |
What can we learn about the volunteers from the passage?
| A．They order books for needy people. |
| B．They design programs to help people. |
| C．They offer medical help to sick people. |
| D．They deliver food to the elderly people. |
How does the author learn about the needs of the people served?
| A．The volunteers report back the information to him. |
| B．His staff members call them to get the information. |
| C．He visits them now and then to get the information. |
| D．The family members send the information to his office. |
You're busy filling out the application form for a position you really need. Let's assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn't it appealing to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University? More and more people are turning to cheat like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university.
Registrars（登记员） at most well-known colleges say they deal with deceitful claims like these at the rate of about one per week. Personnel officers do check up on degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are unwilling to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them "cheats"; another refers to them as "special cases". One well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by "no such people". To avoid outright(彻底的) lies, some job-seekers claim that they "attending" means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that "being associated with" a college means that the job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century—that's when they began keeping records, anyhow. If you don't want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a false diploma.
One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from "Smoot State University". The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the "University of Purdue". As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.The main idea of this passage is that ______.
| A．employers are checking more closely on applicants now |
| B．lying about college degrees has become a widespread problem |
| C．college degrees can now be purchased easily |
| D．employers are no longer interested in college degrees |
According to the passage, "special cases" refers to cases that ______.
| A．students attend a school only part-time |
| B．students never attended a school they listed on their application |
| C．students purchase false degrees from commercial firms |
| D．students attended a famous school |
We can infer from the passage that _______.
| A．performance is a better judge of ability than a college degree |
| B．experience is the best teacher |
| C．past work histories influence personnel officers more than degrees do |
| D．a degree from a famous school enables an applicant to gain advantage over others in job competition |
This passage implies that ______.
| A．buying a false degree is not moral |
| B．personnel officers only consider applicants from famous schools |
| C．most people lie on applications because they were dismissed from school |
| D．society should be greatly responsible for lying on applications |
Making greener choices and encouraging healthy lifestyles can promote your health and benefit the environment. Here are some guidelines to follow:
Choose foods thoughtfully
Americans have never had such a variety or abundance of food to choose from. Besides so many choices, we now hear about our “food print”, the amount of land needed to supply one person’s nutritional needs for a year. Do we buy cherry tomatoes from Mexico or tomatoes grown locally in a hothouse? Do we get the Granny Smiths from the farmers’ market or the supermarket? Is organic produce healthier for us and the planet?
These are very complex issues that require analysis of many criteria, including the energy used in producing and transporting the food, as well as the type of soil and methods of raising the food.
Despite the complexities, there are some general guidelines you can follow. For instance, eat less meat or eat low on the food chain. Your doctor may have recommended you to restrict your consumption of red meat because of its too much fat content. Beyond that, there are environmental reasons, too. Raising food animals contributes substantially to climate change because a meat-based diet requires more land, energy and water than a plant-based one.
______________________________
Drinking plenty of fluids is significant during hot weather or when exercising. But is bottled water the way to go? You may not think so when seeing the true costs. Based on a survey, manufacturing the 30-plus billion plastic water bottles can produce more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and use three times the amount of water in the bottle. Adding in transportation, the energy used comes to over 50 million barrels of oil equivalent (等价物). Consequently, skip the bottled water and drink tap water, both at home and at restaurants. Additionally, bottled water is not necessarily cleaner than tap.In Paragraph 2 the author puts forward three questions mainly ______.
| A．to prove Americans have less food to choose from |
| B．to show us the shopping habits of most Americans |
| C．to indicate Americans tend to buy food from abroad |
| D．to remind people to reconsider their food purchase |
According to the text, which of the following is true?
| A．Americans all prefer to buy cherry tomatoes from Mexico. |
| B．The plant-based diet is responsible for the climate change. |
| C．Americans have a variety of food to choose from. |
| D．Organic produce is the only choice for Americans. |
Based on the last paragraph, we know that ______.
| A．bottled water is cleaner than tap water |
| B．tap water is economical as well as eco-friendly |
| C．bottled water is more available than tap water |
| D．tap water uses one-third the cost of bottled water |
What is the best subtitle for the last paragraph?
| A．Skip bottled water, carry tap | B．Drink bottled water |
| C．Produce plastic water bottles | D．Save water resources |
Greece declared a national state of emergency on Saturday as scores of forest fires that have killed at least 46 people continued to burn out of control, leaving some villages trapped within walls of flames, cut off from firefighters.
Although most of the fires have been on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, some broke out on the outskirts of Athens on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of homes and closing a major road linking the capital to the main airport for several hours. The national fire brigade said that by evening it had brought those blazes under control, including one that came within about six miles of the city.
The country has been helpless to fire this summer because of drought and three consecutive heat waves that sent temperatures high over 100 degrees. More than 3,000 forest fires have destroyed thousands of acres of wooded areas since June; the earlier fires killed nine people.The latest wave of fires on the peninsula started Friday. Strong, hot winds have spread the flames.
Firefighters expect the death toll to rise, because they have not yet been able to search some areas that had been overrun by flames.
Hardest hit by the fires were a dozen small villages around the town of Zaharo in the western peninsula, where at least 12 people, including some who may have been trying to flee by car, were killed. Scores of other residents, including elderly and disabled people, remained trapped in their homes, phoning into local television and radio stations, crying for help.
Late Saturday, Mr. Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece appeared on national television and declared that he was mobilizing all of the country’s resources to control the fire. Mr. Karamanlis also suggested that the recent fires might have been purposely set. “So many fires sparked at the same time in so many regions is no coincidence,” he said, “We will get to the bottom of this and punish those responsible.”
The overstretched national fire services are being helped by an estimated 6,000 soldiers mobilized for the operation. A fleet of water-dumping aircraft was expected from France, Germany and Norway, after Greece appealed to the European Union for “urgent assistance.”The writer mainly wants to tell us that ______ in the passage.
| A．firefighters battles fearlessly in Greece to control the fire |
| B．constant fires in Greece have caused great life and wealth lose |
| C．Greece is facing great danger as forest fires continue to break out |
| D．Greek government is investigating the cause of recent forest fires |
According to the passage, which of the following might not contribute to the recent forest fires in Greek?
| A．Storm thunders in summer | B．Lack of rainfall |
| C．Extremely hot weather this summer | D．Hot and strong wind |
We can learn from the passage that ______.
| A．now the fire crisis in Greece has come to an end |
| B．assistance from EU members is expected to come to help Greece |
| C．firefighters in Greece so far can still manage the situation |
| D．the number of people who die in the fire is expected not to rise any more |
Mr. Karamanlis believes the forest fires in Greece _______.
| A．is a happening by chance | B．is a natural disaster |
| C．might be caused by human on purpose | D．is a punishment of nature |
Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.
Indian’s snake charmers are to be retrained as wildlife teachers under a plan to prevent their unique skills and knowledge from being lost. The charmers， who make snakes dance to the sound of flutes， used to be a traditional feature of Indian life， performing in towns and villages， until they were banned in 1972 to control the trade in snake skins.
The government is now considering a plan to train the saperas， as they are known， to visit schools and zoos to tell children about forests and wildlife. There is also a proposal to set up a “dial a snake charmer” service to help householders to deal with unwelcome intruders.
“For generations they have been a feature of Indian life but now they can’t earn a living for fear of arrest，” said Behar Dutt， a conservationist behind the plans， “if a policeman doesn’t catch them， animal rights activists report them.”
Many snake charmers have continued to work clandestinely(暗中地) since the ban， despite the threat of up to three years in jail. But their trademark cloth-covered baskets， hung from a bamboo pole carried across their shoulders， make them an easy target for police.
The fate of Shisha Nath， 56， from Badarpur， a village just outside of New Delhi， is typical of practitioners(从业者) of the dying art. “I used to earn enough to support my family and send my children to school，” he said. “Now it’s hard to earn even $1 a day. My children want to be snake charmers. It’s our identity. We love the work. But it’s become impossible.”
Next month Dutt’s project to train 30 snake charmers will begin at a snake park in Pune， western India， where experts will enrich their home-grown skills with some formal knowledge.
More than the law， though， it is the dishonest attitude of their fellow countrymen that anger many snake charmers.
“We’re disturbed all the time but when people want a snake removed from the house， they rush to us，” said Prakash Nath， who was ordered recently to the home of Sonia Gandhi， the Congress party leader. What do snake charmers usually do in India？ (no more than 8 words) (2 marks)
How long will a saperas be in prison if he is caught during the ban？ (no more than 3 words) (2 marks)
For what purpose will snake charmers in India be retrained as wildlife teachers？(no more than 10 words) (3 marks)
According to the passage， what will make snake charmers angry？ (no more than 11 words) (3 marks)
Read the following passage. Complete the diagram by using the information from the passage. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
A device that stops drivers from falling asleep at the wheel is about to undergo testing at Department of Transport laboratories and could go on sale within 12 months. The system， called Driver Alert， aims to reduce deadly road accidents by 20%—40% that are caused by tiredness. Airline pilots can also use it to reduce the 30% of all pilot-error accidents that are related to fatigue(疲劳).
Driver Alert is based on a computerized wristband(表带). The device， worn by drivers or pilots， gives out a sound about every four minutes during a car journey. After each sound the driver must respond by squeezing the steering wheel(方向盘). A sensor in the wristband detects this pressing action and measures the time between the sound and the driver’s response. Tiredness is directly related to a driver’s response time. Usually， a watchful driver would take about 400 milliseconds to respond， but once that falls to more than 500 milliseconds， it suggests that the driver is getting sleepy.
In such cases the device gives out more regular and louder sounds， showing that the driver should open a window or stop for a rest. If the driver’s response continues to slow down， the sounds become more frequent until a nonstop alarm warns that the driver must stop as soon as possible.
The device has been delivered to the department’s laboratories for testing. If these tests， scheduled for six months’ time， are successful， the markets will bring the product to market within about a year.Driver Alert
Ⅰ. ：
To reduce accidents.
Ⅱ. Working principle：
● (the device) based on
● (the device) giving out a sound
● (the driver) by squeezing the steering wheel
● (the device) giving out more regular and louder sounds when response time is
● (the driver) stopping if a nonstop alarm rings
Ⅲ. Present situation：
● (the device) still
● (the device) to be brought to market within about if the tests are