Here is the Eight O’clock News.
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Chinese people spent about 120 billion yuan during the first three days of the May Golden Week last year. This year it has increased to 140 billion yuan.
The children of Beijing No.2 Middle School sang with students from Toronto in Canada to celebrate（庆祝）the 20th anniversary. They had been sister schools since 1986. They spent about two weeks together in Beijing. They visited the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. They took a lot of photos in Beihai Park.
Have you ever got tired of heavy shopping bags? A new shopping assistant robot which was invented by a Japanese company could be the answer. The helpful robot can follow you around and carry several bags. The robot was tested at a shopping center in February 2006.
About 500 people from different countries were in the 2006 “Rock Paper Scissors (剪刀)” World Match in Canada. This event was founded in 1842. It is said that playing this game is fun, and also a good way to solve problems among people.
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And now it’s time for Morning Music.The students from Canada and Beijing No. 2 Middle School didn’t _________.
| A．take photos | B．visit places of interest |
| C．sing songs | D．have a football match |
Which of the following is NOT talked about in the news?
| A．The robot can help with shopping bags. |
| B．A Japanese company invented the robot. |
| C．The robot was tested at a shopping centre. |
| D．There are such robots in people’s homes now. |
The underlined word “anniversary” means_________.
| A．No.2 Middle School |
| B．yearly return of the date of an event |
| C．university |
| D．the new beginning of something important |
Which of the following is a game?
| A．Shopping assistant robot. | B．May Golden Week. |
| C．Rock Paper Scissors. | D．A visit to the school. |
How to improve my life? Many people think that they have to accept whatever life throws at them. They'll say, "This is my fate, my destiny. I cannot change it."
Of course not! You don't have to suffer needlessly. Your destiny depends on you, not on any other external factors.
I know someone wh
o says she just accepts what life gives her because she has done everything she can to improve it. Guess what her lifestyle is? She wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes back home, relaxes, chats with people, watches TV, then goes to sleep. Next day, the same routine cycle follows.
Huh! Is this what she calls "doing her best"? She believes she has tried her best and just accepts it in her heart that this is the life that God has intended for her to live; that her luck can only change if God wills it. Of course God wants us to be happy and live our life to the fullest, but we have to do our share of exerting(运用) the effort to live the life of our dreams.
Remember that you reap what you sow. You just don't sit around and wait for a million dollars to fall from the sky. You have to get off the couch, get your eyes off the TV screen, get your hands off the phone. Don’t expect your luck to change unless you do something about it. If something goes wrong, don't just regard it as a temporary setback; but use it as feedback. Learn your lesson, make the most of the situation, and do something to solve the problem. It's not enough to think positively; you also have to act positively.
If someone's life is in the trouble, do you just hope and pray that things will turn out fine? Of course not! You get to do anything you can to save the person. So it is with your own life. It is not enough to hope for the best, but you have to do your best. In other words, don't just stand (or sit ) there, do something to improve your life.According to the woman mentioned in Para.3, her life ____________.
| A．Doesn't need improving | B．couldn't be improved |
| C．will be better some day | D．Will be worse in the future |
What does the author think of the woman's life?
| A．positive | B．satisfying | C．colorful | D．passive |
Which of the following statements is the author's opinion?
| A．Your temporary problem is not discouraging. |
| B．Your luck can be changed by your efforts |
| C．You can only achieve success when God wills it. |
| D．You should treat yourself in the way you treat friends. |
In Para.5, the author emphasized the importance of _____________.
| A．positive action | B．positive thinking | C．hope for the best | D．intention to succeed |
The text is mainly written to advise you to ____________.
| A．understand yourself | B．improve your life |
| C．believe in yourself | D．change your normal way |
Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives.
To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so. Medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a mainly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients captured in the product it was relatively inefficient.
Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safer and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat loss and to reducing biodiversity.
All this means that agriculture in the 21st century will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th. This will require thorough thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are certainly more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the notion that agriculture can be “zero impact”. The key will be to abandon the rather simple and static(稳定的)measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage. Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons of all the various way land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield: energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity.
What is important is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.How do people often measure progress in agriculture?
| A．By its impact on the environment | B．By its contribution to economic growth |
| C．By its productivity | D．By its sustainability |
Specialization and the effort to increase yields have resulted in.
| A．Localized pollution | B．The shrinking of farmland |
| C．the decrease of biodiversity | D．competition from overseas |
What does the author think of traditional farming practices?
| A．They are not necessarily sustainable | B．They have not kept pace with population growth |
| C．They have remained the same over the centuries | D．They are environmentally friendly |
What will agriculture be like in the 21st century?
| A．It will abandon traditional farming practices | B．It will mainly keep traditional farming |
| C．It will go through complete changes | D．It will cause zero damage to the environment |
What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
| A．To remind people of the need of sustainable development. |
| B．To urge people to rethink what sustainable agriculture is. |
| C．To advance new criteria for measuring farming progress. |
| D．To suggest ways of ensuring sustainable food production. |
I’ve been writing for most of my life. The book Writing Without Teachers introduced me to one distinction(区别)and one practice that has helped my writing processes tremendously. The distinction is between the creative mind and the critical mind. While you need to employ both to get to a finished result, they cannot work in parallel no matter how much we might like to think so.
Trying to criticize writing on the fly is possibly the single greatest barrier to writing that most of us encounter. If you are listening to that 5th grade English teacher correct your grammar while you are trying to capture a fleeting (稍纵即逝的) thought, the thought will die. If you capture the fleeting thought and simply share it with the world in raw form, no one is likely to understand. You must learn to create first and then criticize if you want to make writing the tool for thinking that it is.
The practice that can help you past your learned bad habits of trying to edit as you write is what Elbow calls “free writing.” In free writing, the objective is to get words down on paper non-stop, usually for 15-20 minutes. No stopping, no going back, no criticizing. The goal is to get the words flowing. As the words begin to flow, the ideas will come from the shadows and let themselves be captured on your notepad or your screen.
Now you have raw materials that you can begin to work with using the critical mind that you’ve persuaded to sit on the side and watch quietly. Most likely, you will believe that this will take more time than you actually have and you will end up staring blankly at the pages as the deadline draws near.
Instead of staring at a blank start filling it with words no matter how bad. Halfway through your available time, stop and rework your raw writing into something closer to finished product. Move back and forth until you run out of time and the final result will most likely be far better than your current practices.When the author says the creative mind and the critical mind “cannot work in parallel” in the writing process, he means .
| A．one cannot use them at the same time | B．they cannot be regarded as equally important |
| C．they are in constant conflict with each other | D．no one can be both creative and critical |
What prevents people from writing on is .
| A．putting their ideas in raw form | B．ignoring grammatical soundness |
| C．attempting to edit as they write | D．trying to capture fleeting thoughts |
What is the chief objective of the first stage of writing?
| A．To organize one’s thoughts logically. | B．To get one’s ideas down. |
| C．To choose an appropriate topic. | D．To collect raw materials. |
One common concern of writers about “free writing” is that .
| A．it overstresses the role of the creative mind | B．it does not help them to think clearly |
| C．it may bring about too much criticism | D．it takes too much time to edit afterwards |
In what way does the critical mind help the writer in the writing process?
| A．It allows him to sit on the side and observe. | B．It helps him to come up with new ideas. |
| C．It saves the writing time available to him. | D．It improves his writing into better shape. |
Many people take it for granted that black is a color of bad things while white should always mean something good. This may be because, in their opinion, black is related to darkness and white to purity. However, that is not always the case. Did you know that the same colour may mean differently in different places of the world?
In the English-speaking world, black is the colour of mourning. People wear black clothes at the funeral. Red is concerned with danger or bloodshed (流血). Yellow is the word for fear. If you are afraid, you are yellow. Yet none of these sayings is true outside the English-speaking world. In China and Korea white is the colour of mourning. In Russia, China and some other countries, red stands for beauty, life and excellence. In Italy and Germany, you are yellow with anger, not with fear.
Even within the English-speaking area it is not difficult to find colour contradictions. A redcap in the United States is a porter in a railway station. In Britain, however, a redcap is a military policeman. Both names are logical because both men wear red caps. Similarly, the British term for an American white collar worker is sometimes called a black-coated worker.
One does not have to cross an area to find colour differences. Would you rather be red-blooded? If we go back to the origin
, we find that both terms are logical as both names suggest. The expression "blueblood" comes from Spain, where some noble families 
proudly said that they had "blue blood". But then why "blue" blood? Because they were fairskinned, and it is only natural that their blood vessels (血管) stood out appearing blue.Yellow is concerned with anger in .
| A．Russia | B．China | C．Britain | D．Germany |
The two meanings of the term "redcap" form a difference in .
| A．pronunciation | B．logical relationship | C． custom | D．climate |
Both Britain and America would probably agree that .
| A．a black-coated worker is employed in an office | B．black is the color of mourning |
| C．red stands for beauty and excellence | D．a redcap is a porter in a station |
The best title for this passage is
| A．The Development of the Symbolic use of Colors | B．The Meaning Concerned With Certain Colors |
| C．Colors that Carry Bad Meanings | D．The Origin of Blue Blood. |
When some Spanish called themselves “blueblood”, they actually meant.
| A．they came from a noble family | B．their faces looked blue |
| C．they had blue blood in their vessels | D．they were fairskinned |
There were quite a lot of things that the philosophers of the old times got right and one of those things was that there is a very strong need for lawyers and government in a society. The government looks to protect and help you in times of need and the lawyers are there to fight for your case if you a
re treated unfairly. Just like then, there is still a need for government to help people when they need help now in today’s world. This sort of help can come from when people need social security benefits because they become disabled after some sort of accident.
If you have become disabled in recent days, then you certainly have rights go to find out whether you are qualified to receive the social security disability benefits. The social security disability is for those who have become disabled or are disabled due to some sort of accident that may have happened and that forces you to be out of work. This can be very frustrating because being out of work means that you cannot make money that you need in order to provide for yourself and those you are possible taking care of. This is where the government comes into play. The government will help you out with this and possibly give you money in order to keep yourself from ending up on the streets.
They understand that accidents do happen and that there needs to be some sort of help for those who get into accidents and cannot provide for themselves. If you are sure that you have a disability, get in touch with the social security department for more information. Meyers Law Firm can help you get the social security disability benefits you have rights to gain.This passage talks mainly about.
| A．suggestions for you to contact related department | B．the disabled need protection from lawyers. |
| C．how you ask for help when having an accident | D．the government helps the disabled people |
If you are disabled the author suggests you.
| A．find out whether you can get the money | B．go to the related department to treat |
| C．ask your family members to give a hand | D．provide evidence for the social department |
When having an accident and becoming disabled people need to .
| A．ask the lawyers for help | B．turn to the government for help |
| C．fight for their benefits | D．seeking money from the accident |
What does the underlined part mean in the 2nd paragraph?
| A．Make you homeless. | B．Get you to live a happier life. |
| C．Stop you wandering in the street. | D．End your poor life. |
The social security disability is given to those who.
| A．are out of work making no money | B．have a deadly illness in the hospital |
| C．become disabled after an accident | D．have the disabled in their family |