Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, and the nail is a mean rumor(谣言) about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.
There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying(欺侮). When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular. It’s the same thing as teasing, only it’s done behind someone’s back instead of to his or her face.
When you spread a rumor about someone, you’re sending a signal that the person is outside of the group, and somehow less worthy of friendship than others. You’re making fun of that person or pointing out negative things about him or her. This can let others think that it’s okay to make the person feel bad, and make him or her an outsider.
We need to be able to trust our friends, and gossip and rumors can break this trust. If you tell a personal secret to a friend, and he turns around and tells it to someone else, you might feel like you will get burned if you ever get close to him again.
Letting a rumor influence your behavior is like letting someone else make a big decision for you. Let’s say you hear that the teacher plans to call a Snow Day tomorrow because a blizzard (暴风雪) is coming. Expecting a day off, you don’t do your homework. The next morning, the blizzard turns out to be nothing more than a drizzle(毛毛雨), and school isn’t off after all. You get zeroes on your work. To tell a rumor and a tease apart, you depend on ______.
| A．whether it is done behind someone |
| B．whether it is painful or not |
| C．whether it is a kind of bullying |
| D．whether it is spread fast. |
If a rumor is spread about someone, others may_______.
| A．point out his or her advantages |
| B．keep away from him or her |
| C．not feel he or she is an outsider |
| D．be hurt if getting close to him or her again. |
The purpose of this passage is to _______.
| A．advise on how to deal with rumors |
| B．teach us how to judge a rumor |
| C．find out why rumors spread fast |
| D．explain why rumors hurt |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
(2012年湖南卷，B)Still seeking a destination for your weekend break? There are some places which are probably a mere walk away from your college.
King's Art Centre
A day at the Centre could mean a visit to an exhibition of the work of one of the most interesting contemporary artists on show anywhere. This weekend sees the opening of an exhibition of four local artists.
You could attend a class teaching you how to ‘learn from the master' or get more creative with paint—free of charge.
The Centre also runs two life drawing classes for which there is a small fee.
The Botanic Garden
The Garden has over 8,000 plant species，it holds the research and teaching collection of living plants for Cambridge University.
The multi-branched Torch Aloe here is impressive. The African plant produces red flowers above blue-green leaves, and is not one to miss.
Get to the display house to see Dionaea muscipula, a plant more commonly known as the Venus Flytrap that feeds on insects and other small animals.
The Garden is also a place for wildlife-enthusiasts. Look for grass snakes in the lake. A snake called ‘Hissing Sid' is regularly seen lying in the heat of the warm sun.
Byron's Pool
Many stories surround Lord Byron's time as a student of Cambridge University. Arriving in 1805, he wrote a letter complaining that it was a place of “mess and drunkenness”. However, it seems as though Byron did manage to pass the time pleasantly enough. I'm not just talking about the pet bear he kept in his rooms. He spent a great deal of time walking in the village.
It is also said that on occasion Byron swam naked by moonlight in the lake, which is now known as Byron's Pool. A couple of miles past Grant Chester in the south Cambridge shire countryside, the pool is surrounded by beautiful circular paths around the fields. The cries of invisible birds make the trip a lovely experience and on the way home you can drop into the village for afternoon tea. If you don't trust me, then perhaps you'll take it from Virginia Woolf—over a century after Byron, she reportedly took a trip to swim in the same pool.As mentioned in the passage, there is a small charge for________.
| A．attending the masters' class |
| B．working with local artists |
| C．learning life drawing |
| D．seeing an exhibition |
“Torch Aloe” and “Venus Flytrap” are ________.
| A．common insects |
| B．impressive plants |
| C．rarely-seen snakes |
| D．wildlife-enthusiasts |
We can infer from the passage that Byron seemed ________.
| A．to fear pet bears |
| B．to like walking |
| C．to be a heavy drinker |
| D．to finish university in 1805 |
In the passage Byron's Pool is described as a lake________.
| A．surrounded by fields |
| B．owned by Lord Byron |
| C．located in Grant Chester |
| D．discovered by Virginia Woolf |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Some places for weekend break. |
| B．A way to become creative in art. |
| C．The colorful life in the countryside. |
| D．Unknown stories of Cambridge University. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
It was graduation day at the university where I worked a beautiful day quite unlike the first graduation I attended as a young professor. On that cold day years ago，as we watched the students walking into the hall，one of my colleagues turned to me and said，“Graduation will be one of the happiest and one of the saddest times of your life.”At my inquiry，he answered，“Because the students you have gotten to know have to leave.”
As years went by，my previous confusion about my colleague's words no longer existed. When I come across naughty students，I have to rethink why I chose to be a teacher. It obviously isn't the money. Once a former computer science student of mine called me，asking me if I wanted to have a change. He was working at Nintendo Corporation. His salary was higher than my current one，though I have more education and have worked for over a decade. With my programming skills，he said he could get me hired. I thanked him，but declined his kind offer.
A few days before this current graduation，while working on final grades，I found a note a student had slipped in with her homework. She thanked me for being her teacher and said the things she had learned in my class－not about math，but about life－would be things she would remember long after the math skills had faded away. As I finished reading，I remembered why I had become a teacher.
Now，on this sunny graduation day，as I again observed the sea of blue_hats_and_gowns，I did so with renewed dedication(奉献) and a deeper sense of satisfaction－I will always be grateful that I am a teacher.Hearing his colleague's description of graduation for the first time，the author ______.
| A．quite agreed with his colleague |
| B．thought it very funny |
| C．was very puzzled |
| D．was very sad |
The computer science student called up the author because he ________.
| A．wanted to inform the author of his present job |
| B．tried to persuade the author to work with him |
| C．wanted the author to share his joy and satisfaction |
| D．thought the author wasn't fit to be a teacher |
The underlined part “blue hats and gowns” refers to ________.
| A．university colleagues |
| B．life memories |
| C．graduates' clothes |
| D．decorations in the hall |
The author wrote this passage to ________.
| A．express his devotion to being a teacher |
| B．compare two different graduation ceremonies |
| C．talk about the meaning of graduation |
| D．give advice on how to be a good teacher |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
There's no better place to be than beside the seaside in the summer. And even in Britain you can still find beaches away from the crowds with golden sand.
COMPTON BAY，ISLE OF WIGHT
This wide sandy beach is on the south west coast，between Freshwater and Brook and is part of the Tennyson Heritage Coast. There are striking views of the white cliffs further along the coast. A coastal path passes behind the beach，and you can enjoy scenic cliff top walks in either direction.
Accommodation：Sandpipers Hotel (01983 758500，www.sandpipershotel.com) with doubles from ￡10pp.
KINGSGATE BAY，KENT
Around the beach round a bend in the coastal road from Ramsgate is white cliffs with Kingsgate Castle dominating the whole landscape. It is fairly isolated，with few facilities，but is perfect for summer bathing or for bracing winter walks.
Accommodation：Fayreness Hotel (01843868641，www.fayreness.com) with doubles with breakfast from ￡69.15pp.
RINGSTEAD BAY，DORSET
A picturesque 210ft crescent(弦月状的) of pebbles with clean water 
that's a perfect escape from some of the busier beaches around Weymouth. You reach it by passing through the village of Upton，then along a narrow country road. Next to the car park is a well stocked shop. The cliffs behind Ringstead Bay are an excellent place for fossil hunting.
Accommodation：Glenburn Hotel (01305 832318，www.glenburnhotel.com) with doubles from ￡79 including breakfast.
BRANSCOMBE，DEVON
Lying on the East Devon Heritage Coast，Branscombe has good facilities with toilets and a car park close to the beach，as well as a small picnic area. A well stocked shop sells the most attractive dairy ice cream. Next to the shop is the Sea Shanty restaurant－open every day until 5 p．m. during the summer.
Accommodation：The Mason's Arms，Branscombe Village (01297 680300，www.masonsarms.co.uk) with doubles from ￡65 pp with breakfast.Which beach is the best wonderful place for summer bathing?
| A．COMPTON BAY. |
| B．BRANSCOMBE. |
| C．KINGSGATE BAY. |
| D．RINGSTEAD BAY. |
In which of the following beaches will you enjoy ice cream?
| A．COMPTON BAY. |
| B．BRANSCOMBE. |
| C．KINGSGATE BAY. |
| D．RINGSTEAD BAY. |
If you want to know more information about Fayreness Hotel，you'd better refer to the following web site ______.
| A．www.masonsarms.co.uk |
| B．www.fayreness.com |
| C．www.glenburnhotel.com |
| D．www.sandpipershotel.com |
What's the purpose of the passage?
| A．To attract more tourists. |
| B．To describe some beautiful beaches. |
| C．To tell us the most beautiful places in UK are beaches. |
| D．To tell us where to spend summer. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
By creating a distinctive username and reusing it on multiple websites，you may be giving online marketers and scammers a simple way to track you. Four researchers from The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) studied over 10 million usernames－collected from public Google profiles，eBay accounts，and several other sources. They found that about half of the usernames used on one site could be linked to another online profile，potentially allowing marketers and scammers to build a more complex picture of the users.
“These results show that some users can be profiled just from their usernames，” says Claude Castelluccia，research director of the security and privacy research group at INRIA，and one of the authors of a paper on the work.“More specifically，a profiler could use usernames to identify all the profiles that belong to the same user，and then use all the information contained in these sites to profile the victim.”
Those who have more unique usernames are more likely to be attacked. The INRIA researchers have created a tool that can check how unique a username is，and thus how easily an attacker could use it to build a profile of a person.
Researchers are exploring ways that the traces of data that people leave on different websites could be combined and used to track them. A 2010 paper showed that the online groups to which people belonged could be used to infer their real identity in 42 percent of cases.
Building profiles of consumers using online information has already become a major industry for marketers as well as online criminals.What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Look out for online criminals |
| B．Your username may betray you |
| C．Don't leave your traces online |
| D．A unique username is more attractive |
Online marketers may use your username to ________.
| A．get a picture of yours |
| B．steal from your online account |
| C．get useful information about you |
| D．find out your interest or hobbies |
The main purpose of the passage is probably to ________.
| A．warn us of the possible dangers of a unique username |
| B．tell us how to manage our online information |
| C．advise us on how to choose a proper username |
| D．tell us the importance of a username |
We can infer from the passage that ________.
| A．it's hard to build a profile of a person from an online username |
| B．it's better to use a more complex username online |
| C．an online username has little to do with the real person |
| D．we'd better not use the same username on different sites |
The underlined word “scammers” in Paragraph 1 most probably means ________.
| A．friends |
| B．criminals |
| C．victims |
| D．salesmen |
阅读理解
Migrations are one of the animal kingdom’s most widespread phenomena.They are seasonal tests of endurance，collective journeys often taken at great costs by birds，whales，land mammals，insects，and other creatures that are wired to travel.Scientists estimate that onethird to half of all animals—and even some microorganisms—migrate during part of their lives.
According to scientists, human actions are threatening many migrations.Habitat destruction，the creation of obstacles such as dams and fences，overexploitation of natural resources, and climate change are combining to make migrations increasingly difficult for many species.
Global warming，for example，is changing flowering times and other natural cycles，driving many birds and insects to move their ranges or arrive before or after their food sources have appeared. Many of the planet’s great migrations have already disappeared.
By increasing public awareness of the troubles of migratory animals and committing to the preservation not only of individual species but also their way of life，many migrations can still be saved.Migrations should be saved，if not for the absolute fear that seeing millions of animals moving with one purpose elicits，then for their ecological importance.
“What we really want to protect is the natural phenomenon of abundance，”Wilcove said.“If we wait until migrating animals are endangered，then we lose both the ecosystem benefits associated with their abundance and also the wonder and majesty(壮丽)of migrations.”
“It’s like global warming” he said.“You have to alert people，and after a while，the public knows about it and they do something about it.That’s when the big changes will come about.I think there’s absolute hope.”When animals begin to migrate，they will________.
| A．achieve it whatever is needed |
| B．spend half of their lives in migrating |
| C．make the journey in an individual way |
| D．adapt to the season at a fixed place |
Which of the following affects flowering times?
| A．Habitat destruction. |
| B．The building of dams. |
| C．Global warming. |
| D．The use of natural resources. |
Migrations should be saved because________.
| A．it is a pleasure to see millions of animals moving with one purpose |
| B．the way of individual species’ life should be protected |
| C．it is environmentally critical mass movement |
| D．the benefits of the ecosystem are connected with it |
The attitude of Wilcove towards saving migrations is ________.
| A．sympathetic |
| B．negative |
| C．suspicious |
| D．optimistic |
What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．Animals’ migrations need saving. |
| B．Global warming makes animals migrate more frequently. |
| C．Animals’ migrations are affected by their environment. |
| D．Migrating animals are reducing in numbers rapidly. |