The number of accidents involving pedestrians (行人) wearing headphones is on the rise , a report suggests, causing fresh warning from road safety groups in Britain .
A US-based study found a total of 116 reports of death or injury to pedestrians wearing headphones between 2004 and 2011 , jumping from 16 in 2005 to 47 in 2011 .
Most victims were men (68%) and under the age of 30 (67%) , with around one in ten of all cases (9%) under the age of 18 .Some 89% of the cases occurred in urban areas and more than half (55%) of the victims were struck by trains .
Eighty-one of the 116 accidents (70%) resulted in the person’s death--- even though a warning was sounded in around a third of the cases .
The study concluded , “ The use of headphone may be a safety risk to pedestrians , especially in environments with moving vehicles（cars） . Further research is needed to determine if and how headphone use threatens pedestrian safety .” British road safety groups warned pedestrians to be careful.
Floor Lieshout , director of Youth For Road Safety , said, “ This study shows once more the importance of using all of our senses while we are near traffic . It is important that we find an attractive way to make youth learn about the risks of wearing headphones in traffic .”
Andrew Howard , who is the head of road safety at the Automobile Association , added that some pedestrians can be “so focused in their own little world they forget the world going on around them”.That can include headphone wearers , Howard said, but also people talking on phones.
However , Howard said that more researches needed to be done.
Earlier studies have shown that people wearing headphones or talking on phones can suffer “inattentional blindness” which makes them isolated (孤立) from the world around them .
Ian Harvey , at the charity Civic Voice , said that “ to defeat isolation and to help build a civic(文明的) society , people need to interact(交往) with each other .
He said , “ A basis for any civilized society is communication--- Surfing the web , listening to MP3s , reading blogs or sending e-mail is not interacting with a person; it’s interacting with a machine.
“If people feel socially isolated , they need to have more face-to-face interactions with other human beings and in time , will begin to feel happier and more connected to the world and place they live in .”What does the text mainly discuss ?
| A．Recent research on the risks to pedestrians |
| B．Safety problems caused by wearing headphones. |
| C．The advantages and disadvantages of headphones |
| D．Traffic accidents in the United States |
We can learn from the Us-bases study that _________ .
| A．most victims died in the accidents |
| B．most accidents were caused by cars |
| C．most accidents happened in the countryside |
| D．most victims are under eighteen |
Howard will probably agree that ____________ .
| A．it is safe if you wear headphones in a proper way |
| B．people wearing headphones are more likely to go blind |
| C．most people wear headphones because of loneliness |
| D．it is dangerous to talk on phones while walking |
What Lan Harvey said shows the importance of ___________ .
| A．beating isolation | B．communication between people |
| C．building a civilized society | D．new technologies |
I remember my math teacher Mr. Young very well. He suggests Ways to Burn More Calories.
Run through water
Running in water is one of the toughest activities you can perform because the wet stuff is about 12 to 15 times as resistant (具有阻力的) as air. Try your hardest to run and you can burn about 17 calories per minute.
Start fast
Don’t be fooled — slow and steady won’t win the race. A recent study found that after a short warm-up, cyclists who rode hard during the first half of their workouts and then slowed for the second half burned about 10 percent more calories than those who started slow and finished fast.
Take to the sand
Here is some easy-to-remember advice on burning calories: the softer the surface, the more you burn. By walking or running on the beach, you can use up 20 to 50 percent more calories than you do going at the same pace on a hard trail.
Shut up and dance
Here’s the perfect excuse to sign up for that hip-hop dance class you’ve been eager to try. Surprising your body with new activities
— dance, a new sport, you name it — forces it to work harder because it’s doing unfamiliar movements and using muscle groups in different ways.
Use your arms
Getting both your upper and lower body involved can provide a big calorie-burning advantage. So if you’re short of time or want to get everything you can out of your usual 45-minute workout, try total-body activities, like rowing. You can swing your arms as hard as you can while you walk.
1. How can water help you burn more calories?
A. By pushing your body. B. By wetting your clothes and shoes.
C. By forcing you to run faster. D. By forcing your body to work harder.
2 What does “it” in Part 4 refer to?
A. dance B. movement C. body D. muscle
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. One can burn more calories when walking on the sand than on land.
B. One can burn more calories when walking on stones than on earth.
C. One can burn more calories when running in water than on the sand.
D. One can burn more calories when exercising using the upper body than using the lower body.
Liu Qian, a magician from Taiwan, cast his spell(魔法)over an audience of thousands on the CCTV Spring Festival Show. Die-hard fans are still trying to work out the secrets behind many of the tricks he performed.
But Liu, 32, when asked, laughed off the idea that there might be an “answer” to his magic. “The most fascinating things about magic is the puzzling process. People enjoy how magicians make the impossible come true,” said Liu.
Few people today believe in the possibility of real magic. They also often fail to consider magicians’ devotion to their art. It can take a magician years’ of practice to perfect a trick before he performs it on stage.
Part of Liu’s star appeal is his astonishing skill. However, when he began in the industry, he was embarrassingly clumsy. “I could practice thousands of times for one single act. It wasn’t much fun,” he said.
No magician’s supernatural powers on stage extend to their life off stage. Liu says his life was no easier or funnier because he was a magician.
He developed an interest in magic at a young age, but didn’t consider making a living out of it until he graduated from university. He had studied Japanese language and found himself unable to find a job. “My parents never considered being a magician as a proper job. To begin with, I had little confidence I would be doing this in the long term,” he said.
Yet Liu felt a powerful calling to become a magician. “For many people, magic somehow means a miracle, which is something we all secretly wish for no matter how hard-bitten or cynical (愤世嫉俗的)we become,” he said.
Liu may be right. A popular modern dream is of the fairy godmother, who waves her magic wand (棒) and makes our dreams come true. But according to Liu, we all have the power to create magic in our lives. As Liu puts it: it’s not the magic that makes it work；it’s the way we work that makes it magic.
1. According to the passage, we can tell that ________.
A. being a famous magician, Liu Qian leads a comfortable life
B. it is a hard job for magicians to perform magic tricks well
C. Liu Qian’s parents supported his wish of earning a living by being a magician
D. Liu Qian showed great talents in performing magic tricks when he first took it up
2. As to whether there’s real magic, Liu Qian believes ________.
A. there is no real magic and what counts in our life is the way we work
B. if we secretly wish for something, mag
ic will turn out to be a miracle
C. the puzzling process of performing magic tricks is the answer to magic
D. there exists a fairy godmother waving her magic wand to make our dreams come true
3. Which of the following sayings is similar to the underlined sentence in meaning?
A. All roads lead to Rome. B. Easier said than done.
C. Actions speak louder than words. D. Where there is a will, there is a way.
4. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Magic in our lives B. The answer to magic
C. A popular magician from Taiwan D. The way to become a successful magician
Due to the increasing number of violence acts produced in schools all over the world, more and more parents prefer to have their children educated at home rather than at school. This way they can assure their safety and well-being. Teachers and school representatives are trying to improve the situation in schools by increasing the number of the persons in charge of the safety of the students.
The main reason for violence acts are the films and cartoons that fill the children’s time. They want to do everything they watch on TV and never think of the consequences, they may hurt a classmate or a teacher. On the other hand, parents are not fully satisfied with the children’s results obtained in classes and they consider private classes would have better results. When a teacher is obliged to watch 30 students in class he can’t probably see what each of them is doing, how he is writing, or if he understood the explanations. At home the teacher can explain in details everything the child doesn’t understand as many times as he considers proper.
Many times, the child grows fond of the teacher at home, who becomes his best friend, and who helps him whenever he needs someone to talk to. However, the best solution would be a mixture between the education received at school and that at home. School makes children communicate and socialize. Keeping a child at home for fear something bad might happen to him, only makes the child’s character weak and prevents him from knowing what real life is. Staying in a crystal ball only does harm to the child.
All in all, schools have been created to help children, not to harm them, so it’s best to keep children in these special places, where they learn, laugh, have fun and make new friends.
1. The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to_____________ .
A. teach parents the ways to keep the children safe
B. show solutions to developing children’s character
C. explain the main reason for violence acts in schools
D. analyze an education problem and give opinions
2. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Classes
B. Who is to Blame, Parents or Schools?
C. which is Better, School Study or Home Study?
D. The Relationship between Teachers and Children
3. What does “a crystal ball” in the passage refer to?
A. A toy that can be used for entertainment.
B. A safe and comfortable
environment.
C. An object that is made of crystal.
D. A setback that is hard to overcome.
4. We call infer from the passage that____________.
A. violence TV programs have bad effects on children’s behavior
B. the teacher at home is more patient than the teacher at school
C. children today are weak from lack of sense of right and wrong
D. there are too many students in class for a teacher to teach
第三部分阅读理解 (共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分)
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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Birds are the only animals with feathers, although some other animals, such as insects and bats, also have wings. Nearly all birds can fly, and even flightless birds, such as ostriches (鸵鸟), penguins, evolved from flying ancestors.
Birds are found worldwide in many habitats. They can fly over some of the highest mountains on earth as well as both of the earth’s poles, dive through water to depths of more than 250m, and occupy habitats with the most extreme climates on the planet, including arctic tundra (冻土地带) and the Sahara Desert. Certain kinds of seabirds are commonly seen over the open ocean thousands of kilometers from the nearest land, but all birds must come ashore to raise their young.
Highly developed animals, birds are sensitive and responsive, colorful and graceful, with habits that excite interest a
nd inquiry. People have long been fascinated by birds, in part because birds are found in the same habitats in which humans live. And like people, most species of birds are active during daylight hours. Humans find inspiration in birds’ capacity for flight and in their musical calls. Humans also find birds useful---their flesh and eggs for food, their feathers for warmth, and their companionship. Perhaps a key basis for our friendliness with birds is the similarity of our sensory worlds: Both birds and humans rely more heavily on hearing and color vision than on smell. Birds are useful indicators of the quality of the environment, because the health of bird populations mirrors the health of our environment. The rapid decline in birds populations and the accelerating extinction rates of birds in the world’s forests, grassland, wetlands, and islands are therefore reasons for great concern.
1.Which of the following
would be the best title of the text?
A. Animals with Feathers and Wings
B. Our friendliness with birds
C. An introduction to Birds
D. Bird’s life
2 What does the second paragraph mainly tell us
?
A. Bird’s friendship B. Bird’s habitats
C. Bird’s raising D. Bird’s environment
3.Which of following is NOT true according to the passage ?
A. Bird’s flying abilities and musical calls inspire humans greatly.
B. Birds live in the same surround
ings in which humans live.
C. Both birds and humans rely more heavily on hearing and smell than on color vision.
D. Bird’s flesh and eggs for food, bird’s feathers for warmth, and their companionship are useful to us.
4.From the text it may imply but NOT state that __________.
A. the environment is being damaged seriously
B. if you want to raise birds, you should pay attention to environment
C. the environment affects the human beings
D. bird populations decrease rapidly
The benefits of telling a bedtime story should never be neglected by any parent. It is important to your child’s overall development.
Telling bedtime stories helps your child expand his vocabulary, improves his listening skills, and develops his ability to understand events and characters. His oral communication skills will improve. Storytelling is a great way to make your child interested in reading and also in expressing their thoughts through writing.
There are various thinking skills that are mastered by your little one as he listens to a story. He learns to recall the information and use it in real life. As your child listens to different ideas, he will be more open to accept new ideas. He learns to be more flexible in his thinking but, at the same time, have his own points of view.
Your child also learns to solve problems through stories. For instance, he may behave appropriately in various situations. Your child will learn a lot from the story and pay attention to his behavior.
Some tales tell us of moral values, which are important for your child’s moral development. Knowing that other kids also learn basic manners and respect for elders in stories, he will son develop a set of moral values for his own.
The last but not least benefit would be the quality time you spend together with your child. This close and personal time between the parent and the child is not easily copied in other situations. Your child will have a good relationship with you.
1．The main idea of Paragraph 2 is that telling bedtime stories can help children__________
A．acquire communication skills B．change their attitudes to learning
C．develop good characteristics D．improve their learning abilities
2．How can children learn to solve problems through stories?
A．By applying what others do to similar situations.
B．By comparing different kinds of problems.
C．By accepting various new thoughts and ideas.
D．By trying to be more flexible with new things.
3．Telling bedtime stories contributes to a better parent – child relationship because__________
A．parents spend more time together with their children
B．children’s thinking ability grows through the stories
C．children can learn a log from bedtime stories
D．bedtime stories tell children of moral values
4．How is the text mainly developed?
A．By comparing details. B．By listing examples.
C．By explaining reasons. D．By telling stories.