The year is 2094. It has been announced that a comet is heading towards the Earth. Most of it will miss our planet, but two pieces will probably hit the southern half of the Earth.
On 17 July, a piece four kilometers wide enters the Earth’s atmosphere with a massive explosion. About half of the piece is destroyed, but the remaining part hits the South Atlantic at 200 times the speed of sound. The sea boils and a huge hole is made in the sea bed. Huge waves are created and spread outwards from the hole. The wall of water, a kilometer high, rushes towards southern Africa at 800 kilometers an hour. Cities on the African coast are totally destroyed and millions of people drowned.
Before the waves reach South America, the second piece of the comet lands in Argentina. Earthquakes and volcanoes are set off in the Andes Mountains. The shock waves move north into California and all around the Pacific Ocean. The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tokyo are completely destroyed by earthquakes. Millions of people in the southern half of the Earth are already dead, but the north won’t escape for long. Because of the explosions, the sun is hidden by clouds of dust, temperatures around the world fall to almost zero. Crops are ruined. The sun won’t be seen again for many years. Wars break out as countries fight for food. A year later, no more than 10 million people remain alive.
Could it really happen? In fact, it has already happened more than once in the history of the Earth. The dinosaurs were on the Earth for over 160 million years. Then 65 million years ago they suddenly disappeared. Many scientists believe that the Earth was hit by a piece of object in space. The dinosaurs couldn’t live through the cold climate that followed and they died out. Will we meet the same end?What is mainly described in the passage?
| A．A historic discovery. | B．An event of imagination. |
| C．A research on space. | D．A scientific adventure. |
When the first piece hits the South Atlantic, it causes .
| A．an earthquake | B．damages to cities |
| C．an Earth explosion | D．huge waves |
Why can’t the northern half of the earth escape for long?
| A．Because the land is covered with water. |
| B．Because the light and heat from the sun can not reach the Earth. |
| C．Because people there can not live at the temperature of zero. |
| D．Because wars break out among countries. |
By giving the example of dinosaurs, the author tries to prove .
| A．animals could not live in the cold climate |
| B．what happened 65 million years ago was an invented story |
| C．the human beings will die out in 2094 |
| D．the Earth could be hit by other objects in space |
Can a fish hear fishermen moving along the stream? What are the facts about the ability of a fish to see? Can they tell the difference between colors?
The sharp hearing of a fish has been proved by two scientists, who trained a fish to expect its food when it heard the sound of a whistle. And a slight sound two hundred feet away could drive fishes away. That should make fishermen start thinking.
One scientist had made experiments to prove fish can recognize different colors such as red, brown, yellow and green.
Fish also have an eye for different shapes. One scientist proved this by teaching fish to connect certain patterns with food. He used a small circle and a square. If the fish swam towards the circle, they received food as a reward. If they swam towards the square, they received nothing. The fish learned in time to go to the circle but not to the square. Does this mean that in time fish might learn to leave alone all food on hooks that they have seen often before? Here is something for all fishermen to think about!
These facts help to make more believable some of the “believe it or not” stories that have been told about fish. It is clear that fish have sometimes shown their ability to gain knowledge as man does. A good example of what we might call “thinking” by a fish is given by an experience of Dr. Andrew Gage. Fishing over a bridge, he hooked a fish. It struggled and dragged the line two hundred feet away before he stopped it. Then it swam back to the bridge. The clever fish then swam round a pile and, with a sudden push, broke the line. If the story ended there, one could say that the fish had freed itself by chance. However, Gage went on fishing. Below him he could see the fish that had broken loose. After another twenty minutes the fish again seized the food on the hook. This time it did not swim out but swam round one of the piles and again broke the line.
Many stories are told of the fish that get away and the clever “old hand” ones that can’t be caught. The more often a fish is nearly caught, the more difficult it will be to interest it next time.The last two paragraph’s mainly discuss _________.
| A．whether a fish can think as man does |
| B．how a fish could escape from danger |
| C．how to catch a fish more easily |
| D．whether a fish is believable |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Fish can hear and see |
| B．How clever is a fish? |
| C．Fish can play tricks |
| D．How scientists help fishermen. |
We can infer from the last paragraph that _________.
| A．it’s difficult to catch fish; |
| B．fish are cleverer sometimes than fishermen |
| C．fish seem to learn by their experience |
| D．fewer people will be interested in fish |
I was eight when my neighbors got a TV. It was small and expensive, but that didn’t matter. IT WAS WONDERFUL. Everyone in the building came up to the fifth floor to see this latest wonder of the modern world. That was in 1948.
Soon, a lot of people got a TV, but not us. My parents didn’t think it was good for children. Being a good son, I didn’t argue with them. But I secretly watch TV—at my friends’ homes.
By 1955, televisions weren’t so expensive and were much larger. My parents still thought they were not good for us, but my sisters insisted, saying they were the only people in the neighborhood who didn’t have one. All their friends talked about certain programs and actors, but they couldn’t. Their friends laughed at them, which made them feel very unhappy. My youngest sister cried, saying she was never going back to school and that life without a TV wasn’t worth living. Nothing my parents said made her feel better. The next morning, without telling us, they went out and got a new TV.
When we were young our parents allowed us to watch TV for two hours a night. And we couldn’t watch until our homework was finished. But after a year or two, TV wasn’t exciting or new anymore. It became just another part of our lives like shoes or soap. My parents still had fears about TV. We were going to forget how to read, and TV was going to fill our minds with violence, they said.
Today people still argue about the value of TV. Nobody can deny the power of TV, which has a powerful influence on our lives. On average, Americans spend 30 hours a week watching TV. Is this influence good or bad? This is an unanswerable question indeed: It is hard enough to measure influence; and it is even harder to decide what is good and what isn’t. What is good, I suppose, is that many people are concerned about TV’s influence and that we have the power to change what we don’t like.
The people of Monhegan Island, 18 kilometers away off the coast of Maine, don’t have electricity, and they decided; once again, that they liked that way. Electricity, they think, would make life too easy and spoil their way of life. Maybe the young people wouldn’t want to go to town dances anymore. Maybe they would be more interested in staying at home and watching TV.How old was the author, when their family got a TV?
| A．About 15. | B．8. | C．18. | D．About 10. |
The author’s parents finally decided to buy a TV because _______.
| A．they wanted to meet their daughters’ needs . |
| B．the children couldn’t go to school without a TV |
| C．the sisters would like to be like their friends |
| D．they had to do as the youngest daughter told them to |
The author thinks “to judge whether a TV’s influence is good or bad” is ________.
| A．concerning | B．hard | C．meaningless | D．important |
The last paragraph is written to show ________.
| A．the disadvantage of TV |
| B．TV influences people a great deal |
| C．the advantage of TV |
| D．we can change what we don’t like |
Kelly Reeves was getting ready for a trip when her phone slipped into a sink full of water. Panic moment! She quickly picked up the wet phone and tried to turn it on, but nothing worked. Her first reaction? She got dressed, drove to the nearest store, and bought a new mobile at full price.
A new study finds that fear of losing your phone is a common illness. About 66 percent of those surveyed suffer from nomophobia or “no mobile phone phobia”. Interestingly, more women worry about losing their phone than men.
Fortunately, there’s a solution.
The first step is to figure out if you have nomophobia. Checking your phone too often is one thing, but the true sign of a problem is that you can’t conduct business or go about your routine when the fear becomes so severe.
Do you go to unusual lengths to make sure you have your phone? That’s another sign of a problem. If you find you check your phone plenty of times per hour, or a total of an hour per day, there may be a problem.
Some of the treatments are similar to those for treating anxiety attacks: leaving the phone behind and not checking e-mail or text messages, and then learning to tolerate the after anxiety. Even if this leads to a high level of worry and stress, the solution is to push through the fear and learn to deal with not having your phone.
Of course, there are also technological alternatives. Luis Levy, a co-founder at Novy PR, says he uses an application called Cerberus that can automatically track the location of his phone. To find it, he can just go to a website and see the phone’s location.
He also insures his phone through a service called Asurion. The company’s description of its product reads like a prescription for anxiety：“60 million phones are lost, stolen or damaged each year. You’ll have complete peace of mind knowing that your phone is protected and you can quickly reconnect with family, friends and work, as soon as the very next day!”Why does the author mention Kelly’s experience in the first paragraph?
| A．To introduce the topic for discussion. |
| B．To inform us that mobile phones are useful. |
| C．To warn us that we should be careful. |
| D．To tell us we should get phones ready for a trip. |
The underlined word “nomophobia” in Paragraph 2 means “ ” .
| A．habits of using mobile phones |
| B．fear of losing mobile phones |
| C．eagerness for new mobile phones |
| D．independence of mobile phones |
Which of the following is a way to treat nomophobia?
| A．Avoiding using a phone for some time |
| B．Learning more about modern technology |
| C．Protecting one’s phone against any damage |
| D．Not using a mobile phone in one’s daily work |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Attitude toward mobile phones |
| B．New mobile phone technology |
| C．Disadvantages of mobile phones |
| D．Solutions to nomophobia |
Do you have any skiing equipment you no longer need? A ski school in the far north of India could put it to good use.
In March we published a photo story about the extraordinary Zsnskar region in northern India，which is cut off from the outside world for more than seven months of the year，and only accessible (可通行的)via a frozen river．We also included information about the limited use of skiing in the region and the recent creation of the Zanskar Ski School:
“Despite the difficulties of travelling through the region when the snow comes，skiing hasn’t traditionally been used as a means of transport by the locals，largely because trees don't grow here, so there is little in the way of raw materials from which to make skis．In 1995, a group of British scientists in the region noticed the lack of skis and one of them returned to set up the Zanskar Ski School in Padam．The school provides lessons for a small fee and rents skis to the local people. Among the benefits that the school hopes to bring are improved education—children often find it difficult to get to school through the deep snow—and the possibility of offering ski tours to tourists in the future．So far，more than 300 local people have received training，and local doctors and policemen regularly borrow skis.”
But what we weren't able to include in the article is that the ski school is always on the look out for old skiing equipment—particularly of a size suitable for children—and, I thought. Now the European ski season is drawing to a close，there might be a few of you out there who have some old equipment you'd like to see go to a good home．If that's the ease you can get in touch with the school via their website www.zanskarski school.org.What's the purpose in writing the text?
| A．To raise money to develop this area |
| B．To attract more tourists to the area |
| C．To appeal to more locals to attend the school |
| D．To ask people to give away their skis to the school |
The local people don't use skiing to go about because .
| A．it is against the local custom |
| B．they don't have the wood to make skis |
| C．trees are in the way of the skiing route |
| D．it is dangerous to go skiing in this region |
Who would be the most helpful to the school now?
| A．People having old skiing equipment． |
| B．Students in the Zanskar Ski School |
| C．Locals in Zanskar region |
| D．Tavellers enjoying skiing |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．An extraordinary region in India |
| B．A home for old skis |
| C．A good means of transport |
| D．A popular sport—skiing |
We are looking for energetic volunteers who might be willing to volunteer their time. It’s a great way to build your volunteer experience, get involved in your community, meet new people and show your pride.
Computer Teacher
The computer teacher will be responsible for teaching older adults computer skills, including basic skills such as turning on computer or more media skills such as setting up email. This position requires patience, dedication and long hours on your feet. Computer skills needed. Ask Mandy, 01313377227.
Meals on Wheels
Do you have time in your schedule to make a difference in the lives of seniors in your community? Meals on Wheels drivers deliver nutritious lunchtime meals to homebound seniors on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Our aim is to help seniors who are unable to go out themselves due to age or disability. A valid driver’s license and personal vehicle is required. Call Lucy,（781）2727177.
Tree Nursery Volunteer
Tasks are different according to season, but may include: collecting tree seeds from ancient woodland, preparing seeds for sowing, planting trees and tree aftercare. Some of the work is physical and outdoors, others such as seed preparation can be done indoors. No experience is necessary, but a knowledge or interest in botany would certainly be helpful. Ask Amrita, 07748623073.
Photography Volunteer
If you have a talent for photography, this may be the role for you. We need someone who can take great photos for posters and websites. We especially need photos of our events and volunteers. This is a great opportunity to gain valuable work experience. You’ll also gain the satisfaction of seeing your work being displayed on the National Trust website and in literature. Ask Sarah, 01248600954.If you are interested in teaching, you can get in touch with ________.
| A．Mandy | B．Lucy | C．Amrita | D．Sarah |
What do Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver for the seniors?
| A．Breakfast. | B．Lunch. | C．Supper. | D．Snack. |
Which kind of voluntary work doesn’t require special experience or skills?
| A．Computer Teacher. | B．Meals on Wheels. |
| C．Tree Nursery Volunteer. | D．Photography Volunteer. |