Greg Woodburn, a student at the University of Southern California, spends a lot of time cleaning sneakers he collected.But soon the shoes will be sent to poor children in the United States and 20 other countries, thanks to Woodburn’s Share Our Soles (S.O.S.) charity.
A high school track star in the town of Ventura, California, Woodburn was treated in hospital for months with knee and hip injuries.
“I started thinking about the health benefits, the friendship and the confidence I got from running,” he says, “And I realized there are children who don’t even have shoes.”
Woodburn gathered up his old sneakers, then asked his friends to donate.His goal was to have 100 pairs by Christmas this year.When he collected more than 500 pairs, he decided to turn the shoe drive into a year-round endeavor.
Back then, the sneakers came from donation boxes at the YMCA and the local sporting goods store and from door-to-door pickups.Woodburn has now set up collection boxes at two high schools, city gym and recreation center.He has started accepting adult sizes and sandals.So far, S.O.S has collected and donated more than 3,000 pairs.
Woodburn has cleaned all the shoes.After sorting the shoes by size, Woodburn selects the good shoes for the washing machine and the worn-out ones for recycling.
To ship the footwear, Woodburn teamed with Sports Gift, a nonprofit organization that provides soccer and baseball equipment to children around the world.Keven Baxter, founder and president, says, “We’d send kids balls and shoes.I've heard that for many of these kids, these old sneakers are the only shoes they had.They wear them to school and to do sports.So Greg’s running shoes were a nice addition for us.”
For many recipients, the shoes represent opportunity.Two young boys in Southern California attended school on alternate days because they shared a pair of shoes.They were too big for one boy and too small for the other.Thanks to S.O.S., each brother received his own pair of shoes.The boys now attend school daily and enjoy their learning.When they graduate, they say, they will help a stranger, just as Woodburn helped them.What caused Greg Woodburn to donate old shoes for poor children?
A.The benefits from playing sports. |
B.News about some poor children. |
C.His reflection to school life. |
D.The medical treatment he received. |
When collecting more sneakers than expected, Woodburn decided to .
A.include adult sizes and sandals |
B.set up branches in different cities |
C.collect shoes throughout the year |
D.expand his endeavor in the whole city |
How did Woodburn manage to deliver the shoes collected?
A.By sending them by mail. |
B.By working with Sports Gift. |
C.By advertising for those in need. |
D.By offering them from door to door. |
What can we learn from Keven Baxter’s remarks?
A.Sports Gift is popular around the world. |
B.Many children need Greg’s old sneakers. |
C.Greg’s running shoes are the best gifts for children. |
D.International organization should provide more help. |
The following is the information about plays which will be on these days.
Big and Little
It is a play written by Botho Strauss and directed by Laurence Strangio, featuring (由……主演) second-year Performing Arts students. It is about a lonely woman living in a big city. From the play, we can learn how to get along well with our friends, our family, our lovers, ... and with ourselves.
A dreamlike journey in search of identity ...
When:15-17 March, 7:30 pm
Where: Drama Theatre, Centre for the Performing Arts, Building 68, Clayton campus (校园)
Tickets: Adults $10, Concessions (优惠票价) $5
You can get the tickets at the door.
Love Play
It is written by Moira Buffini and directed by Trent Baker, featuring Performing Arts students.
First-year Performing Arts students present
Love Play. It follows a series of unexpected meetings that have taken place in the same place in London across 2,000 years, through the centuries from the Romans to the Elizabethans to the present day. Love Play is a comedy that challenges the reasons and ways we want love.
When:17-19 April, 8 pm
Where: Drama Theatre, Centre for the Performing Arts, Building 68, Clayton campus
Tickets: Adults $10, Concessions $5
You can get the tickets at the door.
Smashed
It is a play written by Lally Katz and directed by Suzanne Chaundy, featuring second-year Performing Arts students. Smashed is about friendship, time travel and death. Writing for TheAge, Helen Thomson calls the play "a wonderful memory of childhood on the edge (边缘) of adulthood."Smashedp raises invention, imagination and girl power.
When: 24-26 April, 8 pm
Where: Drama Theatre, Centre for the Performing Arts, Building 68, Clayton campus
Tickets: Adults $10, Concessions $5 You can get the tickets at the door. We can know from the passage that Moira Buffini ______.
A.is a character in Big and Little |
B.is the director of Smashed |
C.wrote the play Love Play |
D.once wrote for The Age |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.All the plays begin at 8 pm on Clayton campus. |
B.The tickets have different prices but all are sold at the door. |
C.Love Play is a comedy which has a different idea about love. |
D.All the plays are performed by second-year Performing Arts students. |
The play Big and Little is mainly about _________.
A.friendship, time travel and death |
B.the life experience of a lonely woman |
C.the life of a Performing Arts student on Clayton campus |
D.unexpected meetings in London during the past 2,000 years |
People are overweight for many reasons, the most important one of which is that they eat the wrong foods, get the wrong types of calories per meal, and they also eat meals at the wrong time each day. Food is more powerful than any weight loss pill, because the food that you eat can either make you thin or fat. This is true because your body is like an engine, and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals(间隔)each day. Low-calorie Diets Do Not Work
The reason people cannot lose weight by starving themselves is that their metabolism(
新陈代谢)will detect any major drop in calories and it will then adjust(调整)itself by burning fewer calories each day. That is the reason why you can eat 1,000 calories per day and not lose any weight, while your friends can eat 2,500 calories per day and not gain any weight.
Low-fat Diets Do Not Work
Many people in today’s society are buying mostly low- fat or non-fat food at the grocery store. Everybody knows how much fat is inside the food they buy. However, people are getting fatter than ever before by doing this. They are not losing weight by changing to this low fat lifestyle.
Losing weight has nothing to do with these things. One of the most important things you can do to control your weight is to eat the proper foods, such as fruit and vegetables, eat them at the right time, and exercise every day. If people make this a habit, they will lose weight.
What is the main reason why people are overweight?
A.They eat the wrong foods at the wrong time. |
B.They eat food with lots of calories. |
C.They don’t take any weight loss pills. |
D.They burn many calories every day. |
The article is written in order to _______.
A.tell readers not to buy low-fat or non-fat food |
B.tell readers how to lose weight |
C.tell readers about an important scientific discovery |
D.call on people to lose weight and stay healthy |
To realize the aim of your weight loss plan, you should ________.
a. do exercise every day
b. eat meals at the right time
c. eat fruits and vegetables
d. eat low-fat or sweet food
e. eat the proper foods at each meal
A.a, b, c, d | B.a, b, d, e | C.a, c, d, e | D.a, b, c, e |
You will spend hours at the gym training your body, but do you ever think about training your brain? Here are four ways to keep your brain mentally (脑力上地) active and healthy.
Play games
Your brain is a muscle just like the ones in the rest of your body. If you don’t use it, you will lose it. For example, doing a crossword puzzle (纵横填字游戏) once a day is a good way to give the brain the exercise it needs. This kind of puzzle is good at training different areas of the brain. But remember that when doing this puzzle, you should gradually increase the complexity (复杂度); otherwise, it will become repetitive (重复乏味的) and stop being mentally challenging.
Talk aloud
Although it might sound strange to you, talking aloud is a great way to boost your memory. A good exercise to try is counting to 99 in threes as fast as you can.
Be a team leader
If you find you can do your work very easily, you should find a new task. It is important that your job should be mentally challenging. Complex jobs are often more challenging and make the brain work a little harder.
Learn a language
A study found that, compared with those who could speak only one language, the people who could speak two languages had a slower rate of cognitive (认知能力) decrease. Learning a new language is very challenging and it makes sure that different areas of the brain have their lights on. What is the main idea of this passage?
A.Why you should train your brain. |
B.How to be a good team leader. |
C.Training the brain is more important than training the body. |
D.How to make your brain healthy and work actively. |
Which word can replace the word "boost" in the third paragraph?
A.Change. | B.Promote. | C.Decrease. | D.Lose. |
We should gradually increase the complexity when doing crossword puzzles because ______.
A.if we don’t use our brain, we will lose it |
B.we should make our brain face different challenges |
C.our brain is a muscle like other parts in our bodies |
D.these puzzles can work on different areas of the brain |
Which group of people have a slower rate of cognitive decrease?
A.Those who don’t often do crossword puzzles. |
B.Those who don’t often count to 99 in threes. |
C.Those who do their work very easily. |
D.Those who can speak more than one language. |
I come from a city on the United States’east coast. It’s a ten-hour flight for me to get home from Shanghai. When I got off the plane, I took photos of the blue sky and white clouds along the way. After two weeks, I returned to Shanghai. Much to my surprise, the blue sky in Shanghai that I liked before was not as blue as that in the US. I couldn’t help wondering what had happened.
A few days later, I went to tour Waitan (a famous tourist attraction in Shanghai) by the Huangpu River with some of my friends. There we saw five Ferrari sports cars by the side of the road. The red and yellow cars looked so nice that everyone was looking at them. However, when I turned my head, I noticed the sky over Waitan, I was shocked to find that the buildings in the Lujiazui area on the other side of Huangpu River could hardly be seen. It was then that I realized that Ferrari cars could be bought with money, but a blue sky couldn’t.
Shanghai is an important economic (经济的) and trade center in China. It has made great contributions (贡献) to the whole nation’s economic development. However, we need to protect the environment during economic growth. Pollution is poisoning our air and our rivers. Without clean air and rivers, how will people be able to survive?The author mentioned the Ferrari sports cars in order to _______.
A.tell us that Shanghai is a developed city |
B.ask us to stop driving sports cars |
C.tell us how much people like cars |
D.focus our attention on air pollution |
What can we learn about the author?
A.He comes from Shanghai. |
B.He likes to visit different places. |
C.He wants to buy a Ferrari sports car. |
D.He is socially responsible (责任). |
Who might be interested in this passage?
A.Those who love Ferrari sports cars. |
B.Those who care about the environment. |
C.Those who want to travel in Shanghai. |
D.Those who like to take photos. |
What is the best title for this passage?
A.Money Can Buy Ferraris, But Not a Blue Sky |
B.Where People Should Live |
C.Different Opinions on Cars |
D.Different Places Have Different Skies |
“In wilderness(荒野) is the preservation of the world.” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism. The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection: whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved.
As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly. The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation(开发) brings to such landscapes(景观) is real. Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities. To Mr. Sauven, these “ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation.
Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view. He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation. But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation. There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival. While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance. If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so. Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others.
I look forward to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants. One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly. And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.
This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason. What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking.John Sauven holds that________________.
A.many people value nature too much |
B.exploitation of wildernesses is harmful |
C.wildernesses provide humans with necessities |
D.the urge to develop the ecosystem services is strong |
What is the main idea of Para. 3?
A.The exploitation is necessary for the poor people. |
B.Wildernesses cannot guarantee better use of raw materials. |
C.Useful services of wildernesses are not the reason for no exploitation. |
D.All the characteristics concerning the exploitation should be treated equally. |
What is the author’s attitude towards this debate?
A.Objective. | B.Disapproving. | C.Sceptical. | D.Optimistic. |
Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
A.![]() |
B.![]() |
C.![]() |
D.![]() |
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) C: Conclusion