Across countryside, non-food crops are growing alongside wheat．Some are used in new alternatives to plastics and other materials, but others will simply be burned．
Burning crops is becoming more popular because it is good for the planet．Doing so is also cheaper than burning fossil fuels．As more land is devoted to non-food crop production, the economics of crops for fuel are likely to become even more favorable．
Humans have been burning such biomass—organic materials from plants or animals— since they discovered fire．But that burning fossil fuels could have catastrophic consequences has brought biomass back into fashion．
Even allowing for emissions (排放) of carbon dioxide from fuel used in planting, harvesting, processing and transporting biomass fuel, replacing fossil fuel with biomass can typically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90 percent．
Power stations around the world are experimenting with forms of biomass to add to their coal or oil, with encouraging results．Indeed, power companies could profit by turning to biomass, especially when the subsidies (补助) many governments offer for using renewable energy are taken into account．
Farmers can benefit from growing biomass．In Europe, the reduction of subsidies for certain crops is exposing farmers to market forces．Instead of being paid for whatever they produce, farmers must seek a clear demand for their product．Many believe that the demand for alternatives to fossil fuels could be just such a driver．
But while biomass offers a variety of potential alternatives, the world's infrastructure (基础设施） has developed around burning fossil fuels to such a stage that switching to biomass involves a change in conception that many companies have not accepted．
Also, there are problems with using biomass．Although most coal-fired power stations could take a small amount of their fuel from biomass without significant adjustment, few are built to run on biomass alone．Burning some forms of biomass also causes environmental problems．Oils and waste can be smelly, while wood produces smoke unless burned properly．
The supply chains for fossil fuels are set up well, but those for biomass are just the beginning. Sources of supply for biomass rely on farm production and can therefore be less reliable. They are necessarily limited and it wouldn't make sense to turn a very large amount of valuable agricultural land away from food crops．But as the world adjusts to the need to control greenhouse gas emissions, these problems may receive more attention．What do we know about biomass?
| A．It is a useful way of burning crops． |
| B．It is plant and animal matter used to provide power． |
| C．It is a new alternative to be used widely． |
| D．It is a popular approach to fighting against pollution． |
What are the advantages of using biomass?
a．It gives off less greenhouse gases．
b．It helps farmers receive subsidies for what they produce．
c．It has met the clear demand for energy．
d．It has brought subsidies for some power companies．
e．It is cheaper than burning fossil fuels．
| A．a, b, c | B．b, c, d | C．c, d, e | D．a, d, e |
For coal-fired power stations, ______．
| A．more effective ways to use biomass have been tried |
| B．using renewable energy has become their daily task |
| C．burning biomass alone would require considerable changes |
| D．setting up dependable supply channels needs governments' support |
What is the author's attitude towards biomass fuels?
| A．Defensive． | B．Doubtful． | C．Negative． | D．Objective |
Detectives often look for footprints when they try to solve crimes. Scientists use footprints, too—dinosaur footprints when they try to figure out how dinosaurs lived and moved.
Dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago. Today scientists work to solve the mysteries of these ancient animals.
Footprints, or tracks(脚印), are an important way to learn about dinosaurs. Christian Meyer of the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland, calls dinosaur tracks “the closest thing to a movie” of dinosaurs.
“They tell us something about the size of the animal, the way they were walking…they tell us something about their speed,” Meyer said.
Tracks also show that dinosaurs sometimes traveled in groups. Traveling in groups probably helped dinosaurs protect themselves from enemies. Plus, some meat-eating dinosaurs may have hunted in groups, much like wolves do today. Bein
g in a group could help dinosaurs work together to kill large animals.
Dinosaur footprints can be as small as a few inches across, but they can also be as big as a few feet across. Dinosaur footprints have been found throughout the world at ove
r 1,500 sites, including a T. Rex footprint in New Mexico. “Trackways” are groups of footprints.
And scientists aren’t the only ones finding dinosaur tracks—kids can, too! Eleven-year-old Mark Turner and nine-year-old Daniel Helm discovered dinosaur tracks in British Columbia, anada. Soon scientists began studying the tracks.
Scientists and other people interested in studying dinosaurs are working to save the trackways from activities like construction and mining.The passage mainly tells us that_______.
A.there were really dinosaurs on the earth millions of years ago
B.dinosaurs were the most frightening animals in the past
C. dinosaur footprints are important in learning about dinosaurs
C.why dinosaurs died out millions of years agoBy studying footprints scientists can know the following EXCEPT _______.
| A．how big the dinosaur was | B．what color the dinosaur was |
| C．how fast the dinosaur could run | D．how the dinosaur walked |
By working in groups, some meat-eating dinosaurs_______.
| A．made the hunting of large animals easily |
| B．could travel a long way without being lost |
| C．could protect themselves from being hunted by wolves |
| D．could get to a place faster |
From the last paragraph we can infer that some human activities like mining_______.
| A．are helpful to the study of dinosaurs |
| B．can help scientists solve many mysteries |
| C．can lead to the discovery of the footprints |
| D．can destroy the footprints of the dinosaur |
We often hear the phrase: "You've a greater chance of being struck by lightning." It is used to describe something that hasn't got much chance of happening. However, the common saying undermines(掩盖) the very real dangers of lightning.
Last Friday, at least 5 people were killed by lightning in Nepal(尼泊尔).
Lightning strikes are the second most common cause of deaths during natural disasters in the US. The first is floods. Around 400 people nationwide are struck by lightning each year, and of those, 73 people die. There are more people killed by lightning than by tornadoes and hurricanes.
Because lightning kills only one or two people at a time, its danger does not receive as much attention as other disasters.
So to raise awareness, the US has made June 22-28 National Lightning Safety Week. It aims to warn the public of the dangers of lightning and provide safety tips during thunderstorms.
"If you hear thunder, you are in danger of lightning," said Rocky Lopes, a disaster educator at the American Red Cross.
"Thunder means that lightning is close enough to hit you at any minute, so you should move indoors immediately and stay there until after the storm has ended. The single most important thing to remember is to seek a hiding place," Lopes said.
Summer is the high time for lightning storms, so when lightning strikes across the sky, remember these safety tips:
Stop working, fishing, swimming or playing in open fields.
If you can count less than ten seconds between a thunder and a lightning flash, take cover inside the nearest building.
Do not stand under a tree.
Get off bicycles or motorcycles.
Crouch down(蹲下)if there is no hiding place.
Avoid open spaces, wire fences, metal objects and electrical objects such as hair driers. The popular opinion about being struck by lightening is that ______.
| A．there’s a greater chance for being killed by lightening than any other natural disaster |
| B．it is the most dangerous among all the natural disasters |
| C．the chance for a person to be struck by lightening is very small |
| D．it is impossible for people to be killed by lightening |
The average death rate of being struck by lightening in US is about _______.
| A．18% | B．50% | C．30% | D．73% |
thunder in the open air______.
| A．just stand by your bicycles and motorcycles |
| B．quickly find a place to go inside |
| C．count ten seconds between a thunder and a lightening |
| D．don’t have a hair drier in your hand |
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
| A．There are more people killed by tornadoes and hurricanes than by lightening in US each year. |
| B．There are on average 5 persons killed by lightening in Nepal each day. |
| C．The death rate of being stuck by lightening is much higher than by other natural disasters. |
D．The National Lightening Safety Week is made to warn the public against the lightening. |
The website FarmersOnly.com calls itself an online dating and friendship finder. The idea started in the mind of a man, Jerry Miller in Ohio. He wondered how farmers could meet new people who understand the life of a farmer. Jerry Miller is not a farmer but he represents a lot of farmers.
As he tells it, the idea for the site was planted when a farmer told him one day that she was recently divorced and would like to date. But someone would invite her to meet for coffee at nine o’clock at night, when she had to start her day at five the next morning.
So, in 2005, Jerry Miller launched his website. “You don’t have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America’s Heartland.”
You also have to live in the United States or Canada to be a member of the site. Some services are free, but a full membership costs fifty dollars for a year. As of last week the site listed more than 58,000 members. Many of them are farmers in the United States. Others are students or workers involved in some way with agriculture. Jerry Miller tells us about thirty marriages in the last year have resulted from his website.
Some farmers have also found love through a group, Singles in Agriculture, which was formed as a nonprofit organization in 1986. It organizes gatherings that usually end with a dance, but is not a dating service. The purpose is to support educational and social activities that offer people a chance for friendship. Its website, singlesinag.org, says there are more than 1,000 members across the nation and as far away as France. Jerry Miller started singlesinag.org in order to .
| A．help farmers | B．support traditions |
C．un derstand farmers |
D．represent farmers |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 indicate?
| A．She dislikes city lifestyle. |
| B．She prefers late night coffee |
| C．Country life isn’t well understood. |
| D．It’s tiring to get up early. |
Which of the following is true of singlesinag.org?
| A．Its services are free. |
| B．It provides dating services. |
| C．Only farmers can become its members. |
| D．Farmers in France can’t benefit from it. |
The author of the text intends to .
| A．advertise for the two websites |
| B．introduce two websites |
| C．encourage social activities |
| D．urge readers to help farmers |
It can be inferred from the text that .
| A．all farmers desire marriage |
| B．farmers are easy to meet new people |
| C．more farmers get divorced in the USA |
| D．the Internet helps improve farmers’ social life |
Parents are often amazed at how fast their child grows and develops. New research has determined that the ability to quantify may develop much sooner than most parents realize.
Kristy vanMarle, professor of the University of Missouri, has determined that contrary to what previous studies have shown, infants（婴儿）are able to quantify substances（物质）—like sand or water—as early as 10 months. As long as the difference between the two substances is large enough, infants will choose the larger amount, especially when it comes to food.
With the assistance of her team researchers, vanMarle tested the quantifying skills of babies by presenting them with two cups: one containing a small amount of food, and one containing a larger amount. Consistently, the babies chose the larger amount.
“Several studies throughout the last 15 years have shown that infants are very good at telling how many objects they see; however, infants don’t seem to count things like water or sand,” vanMarle said. “What we’re saying is that they can quantify substances; it’s just much harder. The infants can see how much food goes into each cup and compare that in their memories. They decide which amount is larger, and they almost always select the larger one.”
This information further refutes（驳斥）the long-held idea that babies “know nothing of the world,” vanMarle said.
“Since psychologists have begun studying infants with sensitive measures, we’ve discovered a lot of early abilities. I think for parents, it should be exciting to know that there’s somebody in there that has some fundamental and basic knowledge of the world, and that knowl
edge is guiding their development,” vanMarle said.
In the future, vanMarle says this kind of study could be linked to a child’s progress in math-related skills, although programs marketed to increase those abilities, such as “Baby Einstein,” still have mixed reviews when it comes to academic study. The quantifying ability refers to the ability to .
| A．choose between different substances |
| B．get much knowledge of the world |
| C．describe the quantity of something |
| D．obtain math-related skills |
What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 4?
| A．The process of doing research. |
| B．The scientific findings. |
| C．The final choice of infants.] |
| D．The observation of infants’ behavior. |
Babies choose the larger amount of food .
A．by saying numbe rs |
B．with the help of parents |
| C．on personal preference | D．through their natural abilities |
We can learn from the text that .
| A．some parents don’t care about their kids |
| B．people used to think the world is known to babies |
| C．little research has been done on infants |
| D．scholars disagree on baby-training programs |
What’s the best title of the text?
| A．Breakthrough in Baby Studies |
| B．Amazing Baby-training Ideas |
| C．Early Human Abilities |
| D．Unique Quantifying Methods |
“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move,” said David Belle, the founder of parkour(跑酷).
Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond’s wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.
Yes, that’s parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.
Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.
Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”
Another philosophy we’ve learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence. Parkour has become popular throughout the world because of .
| A．its founder, David Belle | B．the film, Casino Royale |
| C．its risks and tricks | D．the varieties of participants |
The underlined word “obstacles” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “”.
| A．streets | B．objects |
| C．barriers | D．roofs |
Which of the following is true of parkour?
| A．It challenges human abilities. | B．It is a good but boring sport. |
| C．It needs special training. | D．It is a team sport. |
As its participants move around a city, .
| A．they can ask for help | B．they may choose to escape |
| C．they should run to extremes | D．they must learn to survive |
Which of the following is the philosophy of parkour?
| A．Sports and extremes. | B．Excitement and popularity. |
| C．Dreams and success. | D．Determination and freedom. |