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 |
NEW YORK- One in five U.S. workers regularly attends after-work drinks with coworkers, where the most common mishaps range from badmouthing another worker to drinking too much, according to a study released on Tuesday.
Most workers attend so-called happy hours to bond with colleagues, although 15 percent go to hear the latest office gossip and 13 percent go because they feel necessary, said the survey conducted for CareerBuilder.com, an online job site. As to what happens when the after-work drinks flow, 16 percent reported bad-mouthing a colleague, 10 percent shared a secret about a colleague and 8 percent said they drank too much and acted unprofessionally. Five percent said they had shared a secret about the company, and 4 percent confessed to singing karaoke. While 21 percent of those who attended said happy hours were good for networking, 85 percent said attending had not helped them get closer to someone higher up or get a better position. An equal number of men and women said they attended happy hours with co-workers, with younger workers aged 25 to 34 most likely and workers over 55 least likely to attend. Overall, 21 percent of workers attend happy hours with co-workers and; of those nearly a quarter go at least once a month.
The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 6,987 full-time employees between February 11 and March 13. Harris Interactive said the results had a sampling error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.
56. Harris Interactive made the survey to find out ________.
A. how U.S. workers spend their after-work time
B. what U.S. workers do at after-work drinks
C. the relationships between U.S. workers
D. who are most likely to attend after-work drinks
57. ________ of workers who attend after-work drinks speak ill of a colleague.
A. 4 percent B. 8 percent C. 16 percent D. 10 percent
58. According to the passage, most of those surveyed believed attending after-work drinks ________.
A. benefited them a lot B. could provide information
C. only made them relaxed D. was of no help to them
59. We can learn from the text that _________.
A. workers over 55 don’t like to attend happy hours at all
B. about 75% of workers go more than once a month
C. 10.5% of male workers attend happy hours with co-workers
D. about 700 workers surveyed shared a secret about a co-worker
60. After the survey, it can be inferred that_________.
A. all the workers oppose after-work drinks
B. the workers may change their attitudes towards after-work drinks
C. all the workers support after-work drinks
D. all the workers are suggested going to attend after-work drinks
Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion--a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive: knowing neither joy nor pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn: they could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear: people would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist: in a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, or bonds (关系) among members of groups. Society's economic underpinnings (支柱) would be destroyed: since earning $10 million would be no more pleasant than earning $10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there would be no incentives of any kind, for as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them.
In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in important ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True, we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object's physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us--hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are "good" and others are "bad”, and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life--from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society uses our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty morality, pride shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal penal (刑法的) system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.
International Weather Forecast(January 18 th,2008)
Paris Weather
·Today:Plentiful sunshine High 59F.Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
·Tonight:Generally clear.Low near 35F.Winds light and variable.
·Tomorrow:A mainly sunny sky.High 59F.Winds ENE at 5 to l0mph.
·Tomorrow night:A mostly clear sky.Low 36F,Winds light and variable.
New York Weather
·Today:Cloudy with rain and snow showers Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s.Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.Chance of precip 40%.
·Tonight:Rain and snow showers this evening changing to rain showers overnight Low 34F.Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph Chance of precip 60%.
·Tomorrow:Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day.High around 45F.Winds WNW at l0 to 20mph.
·Tomorrow night:Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight Low 29F.Winds W at 5 to10 mph.
London Weather
·Today:Cloudy and windy.High 56F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph.
·Tonight:Partly cloudy and windy.Low 43F.Winds W at 20 to 30 mph.
·Tomorrow:Windy with occasional light rain.High 58F.Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph.Chance of rain 70%.
·Tomorrow night:Cloudy and windy.Periods of light rain early.Low 54F.Winds WSW
at 20 to 30 mph,Chance of rain 60%.
Sydney Weather
·Today:Cloudy with periods of rain.High 73F.Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph.Chance of rain 70%.Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
·Tonight:Rain.Low near 70F.Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.Chance of rain 70%.Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
·Tomorrow:Showers in the morning with isolated thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon.High 78FWindsNNE at 5 to10 mph.Chance of rain 40%.
·Tomorrow night:An isolated thunderstorm possible during the evening.then occasional showers overnight.Low near 70F.Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..Chance of rain 40%.
65.Which city has the strongest wind on January 19th?
A.Paris. B.New York. C.London. D.Sydney.
66.There will be thunderstorms in Sydney oil .
A.the evening of January 18th B.the afternoon of January 18th
C.the morning of January 19th D.the afternoon of January 19th
67.If you go on a tour on January l8th,which of the following places of interest is the most favorable according to the weather report?
A.The Eiffel Tower. B.Statue of Liberty. C.Big Ben.D.The Sydney Opera House.
You hear this,“No wonder you are fat.All you ever d0 is eat.”You feel sad.“I skip my breakfast and supper.I run every morning and evening.What else can I do?”
Basically you can do nothing.Your genes,not your life habits,determine your weight and your body constantly tries to maintain it.
Albert Stunkard of the University of Pennsylvania found from experiments that“80 percent of the children of two fat parents become fat,as compared with no more than 14.percent of the children of two parents of normal weight.”
How can obese people become thinner through dieting? Well,dieting can be effective.but the health costs are great.
Jules Hirsch,a research physician at Rockefeller University,did a study of eight fat people.They were.given a liquid formula(配方)providing 600 calories a day.After more than 10 weeks,the subjects lost on average 45 kg.But after leaving the hospital,they all regained the weight.
The results were surprising:by metabolic(新陈代谢的)measurement,fat people who lost large amounts of weight seemed like they were starving.They had psychiatric problems.They dreamed of food or of breaking their diet They were anxious and depressed.Some wanted to kill themselves.They hid food in their rooms.
Researchers warn that it is possible that weight reduction doesn’t result in normal weight,but in an abnormal state lust like that of starved non.obese people.
Thin people, however,suffer from the opposite.They have to make a great effort to gain weight Ethan Sims of the University of Vermont got prisoners to volunteer to gain weight.In four to six months—they ate as much as they could.They succeeded in increasing their weight by 20 to 25 percent. But months after the study ended,they were back to normal weight and stayed there.
This did not mean that people are completely without hope in controlling their weight.It means that those who tend to be fat will have to constantly battle their genetic inheritance(遗传)if they want to significantly 1ower their weight.
The findings also provide evidence for something scientists thought was true—each person has a comfortable weight range.The range might be as much as 9kg.Someone might weigh 60--69kg without too much effort.But,going above or below the natural weight range is difficult.The body resists by feeling hungry or full and changing.the metabolism to push the weight back to the range it seeks.
56.The story is mainly written to 。
A.point out the relations between our body and mind
B.warn us it’s extremely harmful to reduce or gain our weight
C.tell us that it’s difficult to make a significant change in our weight
D.stress that dieting 1s a recommended way to help you reach your desired weight
57.Jules Hirsch’s study’found that .
A.big weight loss could lead to mental problems
B.a person’s weight can be decided by their parents’ weight
C.only dieting cannot produce a desired result in weight reduction
D.big efforts to lose weight may result in a weight much heavier than one’s normal weight
58.From the text,we know that the body can still feel comfortable
A.when the weight goes up or down by 6 kg
B.when the weight goes up or down by l0 kg
C.when the weight is increased by 20 to 25 percent
D.when the weight is decreased by 20 to 25 percent
59.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.When it comes to weight,naturalness is the healthiest
B.Weight reduction could be both risky and painful.
C.Seek professional advice when reducing your weight.
D.There’s no hope and no point in controlling your weight.
If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Patten J.K Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books , which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children .According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all . In 2003, 35% did . And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile . Either way , Chancellor Cordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class .In his pre-budget report , he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds ,who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher . An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress ,and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well ,but read less often for fun than those elsewhere .Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success . According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage. Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?
| A.Many children’s books have been adapted from films. |
| B.Many high-quality children’s books have been published . |
| C.The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films. |
| D.The sales of presents for children have increased. |
Statistics suggested that _______.
| A.the number of top students increased with the use of computers |
| B.a decreasing number of children showed interest in reading |
| C.a minority of primacy school children read properly |
| D.a large percentage of children read regularly |
What do we know about Reading Recovery?
| A.An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year. |
| B.Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking. |
| C.It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading. |
| D.Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading. |
Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________.
| A.take greater advantage of the project | B.show the potential to enjoy a long life |
| C.are likely to succeed in their education. | D.would make excellent future researchers |
The aim of this text would probably be _________.
| A.to overcome primary school pupils reading difficulty. |
| B.to encourage the publication of more children’s books |
| C.to remind children of the importance of reading for fun |
| D.to introduce a way to improve early childhood reading |