I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car．I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my wife to get out of work．
Coming my way from across the parking lot was what society would consider a bum．From the looks of him, he had no car, no home, no clean clothes, and no money．There are times when you feel generous but there are other times that you just don't want to be bothered．This was one of those “don't want to be bothered times”．
“ I hope he doesn't ask me for any money,” I thought．
He didn't．He came and sat on the edge of the pavement in front of the bus stop but he didn't
look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus．After a few minutes he spoke．
“That's a very pretty car,” he said．
He was in rags but he had an air of dignity around him．His badly-grown blond beard kept more than his face warm．
I said, “thanks,” and continued wiping off my car．He sat there quietly as I worked．The expected plea（乞求） for money never came．As the silence between us widened, something inside said, “ask him if he needs any help．” I was sure that he would say “yes” but I held true to the inner voice．
“Do you need any help?” I asked．
He answered in three simple words that I shall never forget．We often look for wisdom in great men and women．We expect it from those of higher learning and achievements．I expected nothing but an outstretched dirty hand．He spoke the three words that shook me．
“Don't we all?” he said．Why did the writer parked his car before the mall?
| A．Because he wanted to pick up his wife． |
| B．Because he wanted to show off his car． |
| C．Because he wanted to wipe off his car． |
| D．Because he wanted to do some shopping． |
Which has the closest meaning to the underlined word "bum" in Paragraph 2?
| A．dustman | B．driver | C．beggar | D．robber |
Which is the best title for this text?
| A．A good husband | B．Didn't he need help? |
| C．Don't we all? | D．One should be generous |
Good news for middle and high school students． When it comes to sleeping a little longer, physicians are on your side．
On Monday, the American Academy Pediatrics（儿科） announced its recommendation that middle and high schools start at 8:30 a．m．or later． "Doing so will match school schedules to the biological sleep patterns of adolescents," the AAP writes in a press release regarding its new policy statement called “School Start Times for Adolescents" ．
"Chronic（慢性的） sleep loss in adolescents is one of the most common public health issues in the U．S．today," according to Judith Owens, director of Sleep Medicine at Children's National Health System．
"The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life," Owens said in the press release． "Studies have shown that delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn．"
Even before the AAP's announcement, school districts across the country have been rethinking start times． Earlier this year The New York Times wrote about Dos Santos, a student at Rock Bridge High School． When Dos Santos learned that school officials were considering starting school 30 minutes earlier than the existing time, she became worried．The student gathered others to her cause． In the end, school officials decided against the earlier start time．
One of the organizations that Dos Santos reached out to for help was Start School Later, a nonprofit organization that focuses on getting public schools to set "healthy school hours．"
"It's going to take collective action, perhaps on a national scale, to get many districts to take on this issue," Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhD, director and co-founder of Start School Later, told Yahoo Health．
"The science is clear, the will to change isn't," she explained． "The reason for that is that community life goes around school schedules, and any suggestion of change - earlier, later, whatever - brings powerful opposition from everyone who fears a change in routine．"What can be learned about Start School Later?
| A．Dr．Snider is director of this nonprofit organization． |
| B．It is a commercial organization belonging to Yahoo Health． |
| C．It helps private schools to set healthy schedules for students． |
| D．It made a policy called。‘School Start Times for Adolescents"． |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as benefit from enough sleep?
| A．Students will enjoy a better life． |
| B．Students might feel less depressed． |
| C．Students may achieve higher grades． |
| D．Students are more likely to be on time for school． |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．Scientific findings are not convincing． |
| B．Changing school start time is no easy job． |
| C．Most people are willing to change schedules． |
| D．The revolution of school schedules is under way． |
People talk about energy everywhere. Green energy, for example. Then, energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession(经济衰退).
"Energy independence" and its rhetorical(修辞的) companion "energy security" are, however, unreliable concepts that are rarely thought through. What is it that we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle(涓涓细流) of biofuel(生物燃料) available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to tolerate the environmental influence of domestic(国内的) energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to keep its economy stable. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices. At the same time, we get massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.What does the author say about energy independence for America?
| A．It sounds very attractive. |
| B．It ensures national security. |
| C．It will bring oil prices down. |
| D．It will protect the environment. |
Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
| A．It wants to expand its storage of raw oil. |
| B．Its own oil reserves are quickly running out. |
| C．Its own oil production falls short of demand. |
| D．It wants to keep its own environment untouched. |
What does the author say about oil trade?
| A．It improves economic efficiency. |
| B．It makes for economic recession. |
| C．It brings benefit only to the sellers. |
| D．It saves the cost of oil exploration. |
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To explain the increase of international oil trade. |
| B．To raise Americans' awareness of the energy crisis. |
| C．To argue for America’s dependence on oil imports. |
| D．To stress the importance of energy protection. |
Whenever people think of charity, the first word that jumps into their mind may be money donated to the needy. However, Wugging, or web-use giving, describes the act of giving to charity at no cost to the user. By using Everyclick. com, which is being added to a number of university computers across the UK, students can raise money every time they search, but it won’t cost them a penny.
Research shows that students are extremely enthusiastic about supporting charity--88% of full time students have used the Internet to give to charity. This figure is high considering this age group is often the least likely to have their own income. 19% of 22 to 24 year olds have short-term debts of more than & 5, 000. With rising personal debt levels in this age group, due to university tuition fees or personal loans and a lack of long-term savings, traditional methods of donating to charity are often not appealing or possible.
Beth Truman, a 21-year-old recent university graduate, has used Everyclick. com to donate to her chosen charity, the RSPCA, for two years and has seen the "Wugging" grow in popularity with students. "When you’re at university you become more socially aware, but it’s sometimes hard to give to others when you have little money yourself," says Beth. "Wugging is great for people in this age group as it allows them to use the technology on a daily basis to give to charity, without costing them a single penny."
Wugging is perfect for people who want to be more socially aware and supportive but don’t feel they have the means to do so. Students using the web can raise money for causes they care about without costing them anything in terms of time or money, and charities get a valuable source of funding.
Everyclick. com works like any other search engine, allowing users to search for information, news and images but users can decide which of the UK’s 170, 000 charities they would like to support through their clicks. Everyclick. com then makes monthly payments to every registered charity. Launched in June 2005, Everyclick. com is now the eighth largest search engine and one of the busiest charity websites in the UK.According to the passage, "Wugging" is actually____.
| A．a charity-related action |
| B．a website |
| C．a school organization |
| D．a student movement |
In the case of charity, Everyclick. com____.
| A．receives much money from students |
| B．frees students of the financial worries |
| C．offers valuable information to students |
| D．praises students for their money-raising |
From the passage, we can conclude that____.
| A．most full time students do charity on the Internet every day |
| B．Everyclick. com is the busiest charity website in the UK |
| C．Everyclick. com helps students pay for further education |
| D．"Wugging" is a win-win idea for both students and charities |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．"Wugging", a popular term on the Internet |
| B．Students collect money for charity by "Wugging" |
| C．More British charities benefit from the Internet |
| D．Charity enjoys increasing popularity with the British |
People laugh and people cry. But it is thought that emotions such as anger, or joy, typically make Americans feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. The shedder of tears(落泪者) is likely to apologize, even when a great tragedy was the cause. The observer of tears is likely to do everything possible to put an end to the emotional tears. But judging from recent studies of crying behavior, both those responses to tears are often inappropriate and may even be counterproductive (适得其反).
Humans are the only animals clearly known to shed emotional tears. Since evolution has given rise to few purposeless physiological responses, it is logical to assume that crying has one or more functions that increase survival.
Although some observers have suggested that crying is a way to ask for assistance form others (as a crying baby might from its mother), the shedding of tears is hardly necessary to get help. Vo-cal (出声的) cries would have been quite enough, more likely than tears to gain attention. So, it appears that there must be something special about tears themselves.
Indeed, the new studies suggest that emotional tears may play a direct role in easing stress. University of Minnesota researchers who are studying the chemical composition of tears have recently separated two important chemicals from emotional tears. Both chemicals are found only in tears that are shed in response to emotion. Tears shed because of exposure to cut onion would contain no such substance.
Other researchers are looking into the usefulness of tears as a means of diagnosing human ills and monitoring drugs. At Tulane University’s Teat Analysis Laboratory Dr. Peter Kastl and his colleagues report that they can use tears to detect drug abuse, to study the causes of "dry eye" syndrome(综合症) and the effects of eye surgery, and perhaps even to measure exposure to environmental pollutants.What does the phrase "both those responses" in Paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Crying out of sorrow and shedding tears for happiness. |
| B．The embarrassment and unpleasant feelings of the observers. |
| C．Linking illness with crying and finding the chemical composition of tears. |
| D．The tear shedder’s apology and the observer’s effort to stop the crying. |
It is known from the first paragraph that____.
| A．shedding tears gives unpleasant feelings to Americans |
| B．crying may often result in tragedy |
| C．crying usually wins sympathy from other people |
| D．one who sheds tears in public will be blamed |
What does the author say about crying?
| A．It is a pointless physiological response to the environment. |
| B．It must have a role to play in man' s survival. |
| C．It is meant to get attention and assistance. |
| D．It usually produces the desired effect. |
From the passage we can infer that____.
| A．it is unnatural for people to shed tears |
| B．we can reduce our stress by shedding tears |
| C．shedders of tears can' t get help by crying loudly |
| D．unlike animals, humans can shed tears for survival |
My old digital camera broke down, so I wanted to buy a new one. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the Net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, "Can I have one of those? " He looked perturbed(不安). "Do you want to try it first?" he said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. "Do I need to?" I replied, "There’s nothing wrong with it." This made him look a bit offended and I started to feel bad. "No, no. But you should try it," he said encouragingly, "compare it with the others.
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers... and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well. Why do we think that new options still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.The shop assistant insisted that the writer should ____.
| A．trust him and stop asking questions |
| B．try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it |
| C．get more information about different companies |
| D．compare the camera he had chosen with the others |
What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it"(Paragraph 2)?
| A．He should get a 50% discount. |
| B．The price of the camera would soon fall. |
| C．The quality of the camera was not good. |
| D．The price of the camera was unreasonably high. |
The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he _______.
| A．knew very little about it |
| B．wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best |
| C．didn't trust the shop assistant |
| D．had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers |
It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer’s opinion, _______.
| A．we waste too much money on cameras |
| B．cameras have become an important part of our daily life |
| C．we don’t actually need so many choices when buying a product |
| D．famous companies care more about profit than quality |