Travelling abroad for leisure is becoming more and more popular for Chinese. The UK is high up in the list of places that the Chinese want to visit. There is a sense of mystery about the UK; it’s often the images of England’s green parks, countryside and Victorian houses that people point to as an alternative to polluted, overcrowded cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.
The capital is viewed as modern and dynamic, while being filled deep with history. When asked what other images are thought of by the UK, the reply is often “the Queen, tea and Oxbridge”. So what’s stopping them actually coming? Sebastian Wood ,the British ambassador in Beijing, has described the UK as a “fortress”, and while this is perhaps an exaggeration(夸张)，Britain does have a reputation as a country that is harder to access.
The main problem for Chinese tourists is obvious. Although visa applications are now completed online, visitors are still required to visit one of 12 UK centers across the country for a face-to-face interview and fingerprinting. If you don’t live near one of these enters already, you’d have to travel some distance to get there.
Another problem is also to be mentioned. If travelers from China visit the UK, they also want to cover as much ground as possible. But the UK is not included in the Schengen visa, which allows access to a host of 26 European countries such as France and Germany. So it makes the former seem a less worth it.
There is also the issue of cost: £47 for a Schengen visa, £82 for the UK. On top of this, the UK is viewed as stricter in its handing of visas compared with the rest of Europe, fed by urban legends of rejected applications. In the end, the decision comes down to one question: Is Britain worth a visit?
The underlined word “fortress ” in paragraph2 is something similar to ______.
| A．temple | B．apartment | C．castle | D．market |
Which of the following statements is NOT true for the UK visa?
| A．One can apply for a visa online. |
| B．One must have a face-to-face interview. |
| C．No one can get a visa without a fingerprinting. |
| D．No one needs to travel a long distance to get a center. |
What can a visitor do if he gets a Schengen visa?
| A．He can only visit the UK. |
| B．He can only visit 26 European countries. |
| C．He can visit the UK and France. |
| D．He can travel to any country he likes. |
What is the writer’s attitude towards visiting the UK?
| A．He really supports Chinese people to visit the UK. |
| B．He suggests Chinese people visit London strongly. |
| C．He thinks it is troublesome to visit the UK. |
| D．He believes everyone should go to see the Queen and Oxbridge. |
Does your pet have a slim figure? According to the Association of Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), about half of all dogs and nearly 60% of all indoor cats are overweight. Larry Kornegay, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, says he sees an overweight pet nearly every day, and usually the owner is overweight. So talking about the topic can be touchy. "I talk about their pet's health. Still, some clients take it personally."
Here are some tips for pet weight loss:
See the vet (兽医). Have your vet put together a plan and treat any existing medical problems. Pain relief and diet changes may be required for arthritic (患关节炎的) pets, which will allow for exercise to at least begin.
Skip the crash diet (an attempt to lose weight quickly by strictly limiting the diet). A special weight-loss diet may be suggested. For example, look for the supplement which burns fat and builds muscle mass in foods. Never place any pet on a crash diet, especially cats, which can suffer a potentially fatal liver disease as a result. There's a safe weight-loss drug for dogs you can ask your vet about.
Dine alone. "Cut out treats and resist temptation by keeping pets out of the room you're dining in, " says Chicago vet Sheldon Rubin. You can buy low-calorie treats for dogs and cats. Rubin also recommends mini carrots, small apple slices or blueberries for dogs. What's important is finding other ways, aside from food, to show your love. Play with your cat using an interactive toy, and take your dog for walks. Walks are great for bonding, and good for you. Studies show people are actually more willing to lose weight themselves if it also will help their pet.
Feed pets at special times. Pre-measure food carefully—don't give them a larger meal than ever—and leave it in various places, so pets sniff it out and use the stairs. It's fun, and it's good exercise.The underlined word "touchy"in Paragraph 1 probably means __________.
| A．sensitive |
| B．exciting |
| C．moving |
| D．pleasant |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Overweight people usually like overweight pets. |
| B．Pets' weight is easier to lose than humans'. |
| C．Cats have a greater chance of serious liver disease. |
| D．Overweight people often ignore their pets' weight. |
Which of the following methods is healthy for your pets?
| A．Providing them with mini carrots or blueberries. |
| B．Keeping them with you when you're dining. |
| C．Supplying them with larger meals or drinks. |
| D．Leaving the food in a fixed place for your pets. |
What does the passage mainly tell us?
| A．How to feed pets without a crash diet. |
| B．The importance of pet weight loss. |
| C．How to help pets lose weight. |
| D．The problems that pets will meet. |
Speaking in his first National Day Rally speech on 15 August 9 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore's education system was set for more reforms in the years ahead, particularly for the primary and secondary education. Read the summary of his thoughts on education below.
For a start, the Government is prepared to send an additional 3, 000 teachers to Singapore schools, cut the courses of study even further and change the way the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is taught. But, for the changes to be successful, parents need to help.
Singapore has a devoted group of teachers and principals and quite a few of them are. outstanding, but the Republic's schools can be even better. To help the schools make a jump in quality, the Government plans that within the next 6 years, it will send 1, 000 more teachers to primary schools, 1, 400 to secondary schools and 550 more to junior colleges. Each school would decide how to use its extra teachers. Some may want to make classes smaller so students get more individual attentions while others may have new teachers assist more senior teachers, but the overall goal is to give teachers the time and space to come up with ways to bring out the best in their students.
More teachers must not mean more homework, however. In fact, the Prime Minister wants to see the courses cut down so that there is less pressure on the students. Good grades are important but they should not be the only goal students have. PM Lee is convinced that "we must teach less so that our children can learn more."
Another change will be in the teaching of the mother tongue so that students can become more fluent. The key is to teach Chinese as a living language not just an academic subject like Latin. Therefore, the focus should be on speaking and reading the language. To do this, there must be an environment outside the classroom that is contributing to strengthening the Chinese lessons. The text is mainly about __________ in Singapore.
| A．the education reform |
| B．adding more teachers |
| C．the mother tongue |
| D．ways of teaching |
The general goal of using extra teachers is to __________.
| A．make classes smaller |
| B．assist more senior teachers |
| C．teach more |
| D．help teachers improve teaching quality |
PM Lee holds that the students should __________.
| A．do more homework |
| B．give up higher grades |
| C．study more courses |
| D．be given more time to learn more |
The key to teach Chinese well is to __________.
| A．make it academic |
| B．have a creative environment |
| C．give more Chinese lessons |
| D．encourage speaking and reading a lot |
The measures to be carried out will have pressure taken off __________.
| A．teachers |
| B．students |
| C．parents |
| D．the Government |
With only about 1, 000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone (克隆) the animal and save the endangered species (物种). That's a move similar to what a Texas A & M University researcher has been undertaking for the past five years in a project called "Noahs Ark".
Noah's Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos (胚胎), semen and DNA of endangered animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct, Dr Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine, said there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.
It is estimated that as many as 2, 000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles will become extinct in over 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years.
This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an __________
embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal.
The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete.
"The nuclear transfer (核子移植) of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available panda eggs could be a major problem," Kraemer believed. "They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy. It takes a long time and it's difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort, " added Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Project at Texas A&M, the first ever attempt at cloning a dog.
"They are trying to do something that's never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah's Ark. We're both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly appreciate their effort and there's a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. It's a research that is very much needed."The aim of "Noah's Ark"project is to __________.
| A．make efforts to clone the endangered pandas |
| B．save endangered animals from dying out |
| C．collect DNA of endangered animals to study |
| D．transfer the nuclear of one animal to another |
According to Professor Kraemer, the major problem in cloning pandas would be the lack of __________.
| A．available panda eggs |
| B．host animals |
| C．qualified researchers |
| D．enough money |
The best title for the passage may be __________.
| A．China's Success in Pandas Cloning |
| B．The First Cloned Panda in the World |
| C．Exploring the Possibility to Clone Pandas |
| D．China—the Native Place of Pandas Forever |
From the passage we know that __________.
| A．Kraemer and his team have succeeded in cloning a dog |
| B．scientists try to implant a panda's…egg into a rabbit |
| C．Kraemer will work with Chinese scientists in clone researches |
| D．about two thousand species will probably die out in a century |
Is language, like food, a basic human need? Judging from the extreme experiment of Frederick in the 13th century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.
All the babies died before the first year. But clearly there was more than language deprivation (剥夺，丧失). What was missing was good mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the ability to survive is seriously affected.
Today no much extreme deprivation exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the baby, whose brain is programmed, to map up language rapidly. There are critical times, it seems, when children learn more rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again.
Linguists suggest that speech milestones are reached in a fixed order and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in achild who eventually turns out to be of high IQ.
Recent evidence suggests that a baby is born with the ability to speak. What is special about man's brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a teddy bear with the sound pattern "teddy bear".
But speech has to be developed, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the child's babbling, clinging, grasping, crying, smiling, and responds to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals reduces the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the child's nonverbal (非语言的) signals is basic to the growth and development of language.Frederick's experiment was extreme because __________.
| A．he wanted to prove children are born with ability to speak |
| B．he ignored the importance of mothering to the babies |
| C．he was unkind to the nurses |
| D．he wanted his nurses to say another language |
The reason some children are backward in speaking today is that __________.
| A．they do not listen carefully to their mothers |
| B．their brain have to absorb too much language at once |
| C．their mothers do not respond to their attempts to speak |
| D．their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them |
In Paragraph 3, by "critical times" the author means __________.
| A．difficult periods in the child's life |
| B．moments when the child becomes critical towards its mother |
| C．important stages in the child's development |
| D．times when mothers often neglect their children |
With their weakening bodies, advanced age orincreasing pressure of work or study, people have been advised and usually persuaded to have health care products. Do you remember your first time to take a nutritional supplement (营养补充品)？ What was your first impression?
Madeline on Dec. 24，2010 7: 25 PM
Years ago, as a young mom with two small children, I struggled to keep up with the demands of a busy life. One day, I woke up feeling so tired that I knew something had to change!
A friend gave me some Royal Jelly—an amazing substance (物质) from the beehive (蜂房). I was doubtful, but desperate... so I tried it! In time, I began to experience renewed energy and vitality (活力) like never before! Now, over two decades later, I travel all round the country, sharing my life-changing experience. I'm grateful for the energy to keep up and love to share this wonderful discovery with others.
Blanca on Dec. 25，2010 7: 02 PM Ten years ago, when I was 73, my mind wanted to be busy and useful, but my body didn't. I became tired and lethargic (无精打采的). That's when my daughter Madeline tried to persuade me to try her special Royal Jelly. It made such a dramatic (巨大的) difference in her life, so she was sure it could help me too! Hesitating for 2 days, I gave in. She was right! I no longer felt worn out. I had a new, youthful zest (热情) for life and I've been OK —thanks to Royal Jelly!
Lori on Dec. 25，2010 10: 27 PM
When my mom Madeline was introduced to Royal Jelly, it affected my life, too! Mom gave me some of her fantastic Royal Jelly. Boy, things did turn around! I had more energy and stamina (耐力) and was finally able to keep up with high school and, eventually, college activities. Today, I'm a busy mom in my mid-thirties with two active boys and a new business! I have enough energy to do it all! I'm glad I took my mom's advice.From the text, we learn that __________.
| A．Madeline became more than willing to take Royal Jelly at the very beginning |
| B．Lori was grateful partly because Royal Jelly helped him to improve his studies |
| C．Royal Jelly is a product that can help renew a person's energy and vitality |
| D．Amy has benefited from Royal Jelly so she posted a topic about the product |
Which of the following is TRUE of Blanca?
| A．She replied to the topic on Christmas Eve. |
| B．She tried Royal Jelly without hesitation. |
| C．She is now supposed to be in her seventies. |
| D．She was the second one to reply to the topic. |
What's the relationship between the Royal Jelly takers?
| A．Lori and Blanca are Madeline's grandchildren. |
| B．Madeline is Blancas daughter and Lori's mother. |
| C．Blanca is Lori and Madeline's great grandmother. |
| D．They have no blood relationship but friendship. |
Where can we most probably read this text?
| A．In a sports club. |
| B．On an Internet page. |
| C．In a fiction. |
| D．In a travel magazine. |