Some Chinese new-rich like eating shark fin soup because they think it shows their class. However, for the Chinese NBA idol Yao Ming, doing so is unacceptable as the practice has led to the overfishing of sharks.
When Yao and his wife Ye Li got married in 2007, they publicly announced that they would not allow shark fin soup to be served at their wedding banquet.
Actually, Yao had been saying no to shark fins since 2006, when he was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for wild life protection.
Now, the 226-cm big guy is resorting to his personal influence to encourage more to say no to eating the soup and to raise awareness of animal protection. "Sharks are friends of human beings. They are not our food," Yao said.
Other celebrity athletes like Olympic champions Li Ning and Kong Linghui are following on the heels of Yao, throwing themselves into serving the public as Goodwill Ambassadors for wild animal rescue. Recent reports about Yao's retirement have saddened tens of thousands of basketball fans both at home and abroad. Yet Yao's influence goes far beyond the basketball courts.
Yao has engaged himself in charity and public welfare services for quite a while. When the devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Wenchuan in southwest China in 2008, Yao donated 2 million yuan . "When I was a little boy, my parents and teachers told me to help others and to be a good man," Yao recalled. "But I could not donate then because I had not much pocket money. After I moved to Houston, I got involved in quite a number of community service activities and I felt a strong sense of achievement when I got people together," Yao said.
Like Yao, newly crowned French Open champion Li Na has showed her willingness to donate. Li gave 480,000 yuan of her prize money from the open, plus 20,000 yuan from her own pocket, to a local nursing home in her hometown. Another Chinese sports icon, hurdler Liu Xiang, has also been actively involved in charity for years.The reason why some Chinese new-rich like eating shark fin soup is that they think _______ .
| A．it is very delicious | B．it is very cheap and healthy |
| C．it is very popular in society | D．it can show their status |
Yao Ming is against eating shark fin soup because ________ .
| A．too many sharks are killed | B．he dislikes eating sharp fin |
| C．it is too expensive | D．sharks are dangerous animals |
Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
| A．Li Na donated 500,000 yuan to a local nursing home in her hometown. |
| B．Yao Ming donated 2 million yuan after the earthquake of Wenchuan. |
| C．Yao Ming has encouraged more people to stop eating shark fin soup and protect animals. |
| D．Yao Ming was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for protecting wild life in 2007. |
What words can be used to describe Yao Ming according to the passage?
| A．Rich and generous. | B．Influential and warmhearted. |
| C．Energetic and optimistic. | D．Popular and confident. |
From the passage , we can learn that________.
| A．most athletes don't like eating shark fin soup |
| B．Yao Ming has been donating money to charity since he was a child |
| C．Yao Ming has an influence on not only the basketball courts but also charity and public welfare services |
| D．Yao Ming has taken part in many community service activities when he was in China |
The extraordinary Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city, is said to be the only one in the world to use the same cooling and heating principles like the termite mound(白蚁堆).
Architect Mick Pearce used precisely the same strategy when designing the Eastgate Building, which has no air-conditioning and almost no heating. The building—the country’s largest commercial and shopping mall—uses less than 10% of the energy of a traditional building of its size. The Eastgate’s owners saved $3.5 million on a $36 million building because an air-conditioning plant didn’t have to be imported.
The mall is actually two buildings linked by bridges across a shady, glass-roofed atrium(天井) open to the air. Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and from there into each office through baseboard vents(通风口). As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exists through forty-eight brick chimneys.
During summer’s cool nights, big fans blow air through the building seven times an hour to cool the empty floors. By day, smaller fans blow two changes of air an hour through the building to circulate（流通） the air which has been in contact with the cool floors. For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents.
This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little dampness and rapid temperature swings （摆幅）—days as warm as 31℃commonly drop to 14℃at night. “You couldn’t do this in New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters,” Pearce said.
The engineering firm of Ove Arup&Partners monitors daily temperatures. It is found that the temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23℃and 25℃, with the exception of the annual hot period just before the summer rains in October and three days in November, when a doorkeeper accidentally switched off the fans at night. And the air is fresh—far more so than in air-conditioned buildings, where up to 30% of the air is recycled.Why was Eastgate cheaper to be built than a traditional building?
| A．It was designed in a smaller size. |
| B．No air conditioners were fixed in. |
| C．Its heating system was less advanced. |
| D．It used rather different building materials. |
What does “it” refer to in Paragraph 3?
| A．Fresh air from outside. |
| B．Heat in the building. |
| C．Hollow space. |
| D．Baseboard vent. |
Why would a building like Eastgate Not work efficiently in New York?
| A．New York has less clear skies as Harare. |
| B．Its dampness affects the circulation of air. |
| C．New York covers a larger area than Harare. |
| D．Its temperature changes seasonally rather than daily. |
The data in the last paragraph suggests Eastgate’s temperature control system_____.
| A．allows a wide range of temperatures |
| B．functions well for most of the year |
| C．can recycle up to 30% of the air |
| D．works better in hot seasons |
Here are the comments on CRI (China Radio International) given by people from different countries on the Internet.
| People |
Comments |
| Yingtian Hu Guangzhou, China |
This is the first time that I participate in CRI. And I like it very much. I hope its website will become the most excellent one with the foreign languages. And I choose the important news which I think has a great influence on our society and our lives. In the end, I hope that more and more persons join in CRI and make it perfect! |
| SujanParajuli, Select city, Nepal |
I am both a regular listener of CRI and visitor of its wonderful Website. First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to CRI for its great efforts to keep the listeners up-to-date during the year 2008. We, the listeners, are greatly grateful to CRI for its praise-worthy efforts to quench the thirst of its dear listeners. During the Year 2008, I found all of your programs quite interesting, informative and educational. Once again, thanks a lot for offering lots of information, news, entertainment and many items which have indeed broaden the horizons of our knowledge and understanding as well. |
| Ibrahim Rustamov, Tajikistan |
With CRI, I was impressed by China’s rapid development in all spheres. But I felt so sorry to get to know about the snowstorms in China and Wenchuan earthquake. CRI and CCTV play a great role in introducing China to the world! Kudos! My friends and I wish CRI all the best! |
| Mike Thatcher, London |
My family and I are all keen on Chinese Culture, especially the beautiful Chinese folk music. Various interesting programs by CRI just open a window for us foreigners, through which we can know more about China and have a better understanding of the Chinese culture. Best wishes to CRI! Best wishes to China! |
Which of the following benefits of CRI is NOT mentioned above?
| A．CRI helps to keep its listeners up-to-date. |
| B．CRI helps its listeners to better understand China. |
| C．CRI helps its listeners to practice and improve foreign languages. |
| D．CRI helps its listeners broaden their knowledge with its rich contents. |
The underlined phrase “quench the thirst” refers to _____.
| A．satisfy one’s need |
| B．supply drinks |
| C．take care of |
| D．keep in touch with |
What can be concluded from the four comments?
| A．CRI has a great influence on our society and lives. |
| B．Wonderful though CRI is, there are still many weaknesses. |
| C．CRI plays an important role in introducing the world to China. |
| D．CRI has made great efforts to make itself better and gained popularity. |
My father was always a good gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled(翻耕的) soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.
As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller(耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things: yellow and green onions, watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow corn, and our favorite--- red tomatoes.
As I grew into a teenager, I didn’t get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.
But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be.
For the first few years after he died, I couldn’t even bear to look at anyone’s garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the corner of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.Why did the author like the garden when he was a child?
| A．He wanted to be a garden-crazy like his father. |
| B．He loved being in the garden with his father. |
| C．The garden was full of his favorite food. |
| D．The garden was just freshly tilled. |
When all the kids started their own families, the author’s father _____.
| A．stopped his gardening |
| B．turned to other hobbies |
| C．devoted more to gardening |
| D．focused on planting tomatoes |
What happened to the garden when the author’s father was seriously ill?
| A．There was a great harvest. |
| B．The garden was almost deserted. |
| C．No plant grew in the garden at all. |
| D．The author’s son took charge of the garden. |
Why did the author start his garden with tomatoes?
| A．He wanted to honor his father. |
| B．His son liked the fields of tomatoes. |
| C．He only knew how to grow tomatoes. |
| D．He thought tomatoes were easy to manage. |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social-progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: "I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try." What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistake belief that-one's self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.What does this text mainly talk about?
| A．Competition helps to set up self-respect. |
| B．Competition is harmful to personal quality development. |
| C．People hold different opinions about competition. |
| D．Failures are necessary experience in competition. |
Some people favor competition because they think it __.
| A．builds up a sense of pride |
| B．pushes society forward |
| C．improves social abilities |
| D．develops people's relationship |
The underlined phrase "the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 refers to those who
| A．are strongly against competition |
| B．highly value competition |
| C．try their best to win |
| D．mostly rely on others for success |
Which viewpoint does the author agree to?
| A．Self-worth relies on winning. |
| B．Competition leads to unfriendly relationship. |
| C．Fear of failure should be removed in competition. |
| D．Winning should be a life-and-death matter. |
The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwide now have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connected mobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impact has only just begun.
“Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural, and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen write in their new book The New Digital Age.
Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutions like the news media. But if the book has one major shortcoming, it’s that authors don’t spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these sweeping changes.
In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volume to date that describes — and more importantly predicts — how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual.
At the core of the book is the idea that “technology is neutral, but people aren’t.” By using this concept as a starting point, the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy (对立观点) that has characterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for society. In an interview with TIME earlier this week, Cohen said although he and his co-author are optimistic about many aspects of the Internet, they’re also realistic about the risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next five billion people come online, particularly with respect to personal privacy and state surveillance(监视).
【题文1】 In what way is the rise of the Internet similar to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph?
A. It transforms human history.
B. It revolutionizes people's thinking.
C. It is adopted by all human beings.
D. It makes daily communication easy.
【题文2】 In what respect is the book The New Digital Age considered inadequate?
A. It lacks an objective evaluation of the role of Internet businesses
B. It fails to look into the social implications of the Internet.
C. It fails to recognize the impact of the Internet technology.
D. It does not address the technical aspects of Internet communication.What will the future be like when everybody gets online?
| A．People don’t have to travel to see the world. |
| B．People will have equal access to information. |
| C．People will be living in two different realities. |
| D．People don’t have to communicate face to face. |
What does the passage say about the authors of The New Digital Age?
| A．They leave many questions unanswered concerning the Internet. |
| B．They don’t take sides in analyzing the effects of the Internet. |
| C．They have explored the unknown territories of the virtual world. |
| D．They are optimistic about the future of the Internet revolution. |