Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil.It is usually made out of organic material, like crop waste.Farmers may keep the remains of maize or other crops on top of the soil.This creates mulch on the soil surface.The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage.Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants.It also helps keep the soil from getting dry, and reduces the need for watering plants.It also limits temperature changes in the soil.And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds，from growing.
Organic mulch improves the condition of soil.As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard.This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil.It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants.It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil.
It is easy to find organic mulch materials.Cutup leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used.Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds.
The best time to add mulch depends on your goal.Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air.This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result，mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer.In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil.The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives.Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter.Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem.The animals will probably find another place to live.The author tells us the following EXCEPT________.
| A．what mulch is and its benefits |
| B．the best time to add mulch |
| C．what can be mulched on the soil surface |
| D．the bad effects of mulch |
The following can be used as organic materials to make mulch EXCEPT________.
| A．tree barks | B．cutup leaves |
| C．grass cuttings | D．plastic |
Which of the following is the benefit of mulch?
| A．Protecting the soil against wind and water damage. |
| B．Keeping the soil wet and reducing the need for watering plants. |
| C．Reducing temperature changes in the soil and stopping unwanted weeds growing. |
| D．All of the above. |
The main idea of Paragraph 2 is that organic mulch can________.
| A．improve the condition of soil |
| B．improve the ability of the soil to hold water |
| C．provide a good environment for earthworms |
| D．improve the growth of roots and increase the movement of water through the |
soilFrom the last paragraph, we know ________.
| A．the best time to add mulch is in spring and summer |
| B．the best time to add mulch is after the coldest weather arrives |
| C．the best time to add mulch depends on weather |
| D．choosing the best time to add mulch can avoid attracting small animals |
Compassion is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into action. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers, and it’s not hard to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register（收款机）with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash, had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.
I couldn’t help staring at him, I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world, I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.
Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable（可怜的）. “Charge it to me” was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either, then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.The aged gentleman who wanted to buy the biscuits ________.
| A．promised to obey the store rules |
| B．forgot to take any money with him |
| C．hoped to have the food first and pay later |
| D．could not afford anything more expensive |
Which of the following best describes the old gentleman?
| A．Kind and lucky. |
| B．Poor and lonely. |
| C．Friendly and helpful. |
| D．Hurt and disappointed. |
The writer acted upon the store rules because ________.
| A．he wanted to keep his present job |
| B．he felt no pity for the old gentleman |
| C．he considered the old man dishonest |
| D．he expected someone else to pay for the old man |
What does the writer learn from his experience?
| A．wealth is more important than anything else. |
| B．Helping others is easier said than done. |
| C．experience is better gained through practice. |
| D．Obeying the rules means more than compassion. |
How would the old men feel at the end of the story?
| A．Sad and disappointed. | B．Happy and lucky. |
| C．Depressed and unlucky. | D．Surprised and grateful. |
In the famous fairy tale, Snow White eats the Queen’s apple and falls victim to a curse; in Shakespeare’s novel, Romeo drinks the poison and dies; some ancient Chinese emperors took pills that contained mercury, believing that it would make them immortal, but they died afterward.
Poison has long been an important ingredient in literature and history, and it seems to always be associated with evil, danger and death. But how much do you really know about poison?
An exhibition, The Power of Poison, opened last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, intended to give the audience a more vivid understanding of poison. The exhibition will continue until August, reported The New York Times.
The museum tour starts in a rainforest setting, where you can see live examples of some of the most poisonous animals: caterpillars, frogs and spiders. Golden poison frogs, for instance, aren’t much bigger than a coin, but their skin is covered in a poison that can cut off the signaling power of your nerves, and a single frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown humans.
The exhibition also features interactive activities. In an iPad-based game, visitors are presented with three puzzling illnesses and asked to identify the poisons based on symptoms. In one case, for example, a pet dog is found sick in a backyard and visitors have to figure out whether it was the toad (蟾蜍), the leaky batteries in the trash or the dirty pond water that did it.
''Poisons can be bad for some things,'' Michael Novacek, senior vice president of the museum, told NBC News. ''Yet they can also be good for others.''
This is what visitors learn from the last part of the exhibition, which displays how poisons can be used favorably by humans, including for medical treatment.
The blood toxins of vampire bats, for example, can prevent blood from clotting (凝结), which may protect against strokes. A poisonous chemical found in the yew tree is effective against cancer, which is what led to the invention of a cancer-fighting drug called Taxol. One chemical in the venom of Gila monsters can lower the blood sugar of its victims, so it has been used to treat diabetes.
The benefits from natural poisons are not limited to just medicine. Believe it or not, many substances that we regularly take in – chili, coffee and chocolate, etc. – owe their special flavors or stimulating effects to chemicals that plants make to poison insects. By mentioning Snow White and Romeo at the beginning of the story, the author intends to________.
| A．draw readers’ attention to the topic of the article |
| B．show that poison is always linked with evil and death |
| C．show that poison has long been involved in literature |
| D．get readers to think of more examples of the use of poison in stories |
What is the main purpose of the exhibition The Power of Poison?
| A．To inform people about which animals are the most poisonous. |
| B．To teach people how to handle poisonous animals. |
| C．To give people more in-depth knowledge about poison. |
| D．To show how poison has been used for medical treatment. |
Which of the following statements about the exhibition is TRUE according to the article?
| A．The exhibition will lead visitors to a real rainforest. |
| B．Those who visit the exhibition can join in some iPad-based interactive games. |
| C．Golden poison frogs are the most poisonous animals on display. |
| D．Visitors can listen to lectures on recent studies of poisonous animals. |
Everyone has heard of the San Andreas fault（断层）, which constantly threatens California and the West Coast with earthquakes. But how many people know about the equally serious New Madrid fault in Missouri?
Between December of 1811 and February of 1812, three major earthquakes occurred, all centered around the town of New Madrid, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Property damage was severe. Buildings were almost all destroyed. Whole forests fell at once, and huge cracks（裂缝） opened in the ground.
The Mississippi River completely changed character, developing sudden fast-moving currents. Several times it changed its course, and once it appeared to run backwards. Few people were killed in the New Madrid earthquake, simply because few people lived in this area in 1811; but the severity of the quake is shown by the fact that the shock waves rang bells in church towers in Charleston, South Carolina, on the coast. Buildings shook in New York City, and clocks were stopped in Washington, D.C.
Scientists now know that America’s two major faults are different. The San Andreas fault is a horizontal (水平的) boundary between two major land masses that are slowly moving in opposite directions. California earthquakes result when the movement of these two masses suddenly leans (倾斜) forward.
The New Madrid fault, on the other hand, is a vertical（垂直的）fault; at some point, millions of years ago, rock was pushed up toward the surface, probably by volcanoes under the surface. Suddenly, the volcanoes cooled and the rock collapsed, leaving huge cracks. Even now, the rock continues to settle downwards, and sudden sinking motions start earthquakes in the region. The fault itself, a large crack in this layer of rock, with dozens of other cracks that split off from it, extends from northeast Arkansas through Missouri and into southern Illinois.
Scientists who have studied the New Madrid fault say there have been numerous smaller quakes in the area since 1811; these smaller quakes indicate large ones are probably coming, but the scientists say they have no method of predicting when it will occur. The New Madrid fault is _______.
| A．responsible for forming the Mississippi River |
| B．a fault in the flat position |
| C．a fault caused by rocks moving directly upward |
| D．a worse fault than the San Andreas fault |
Which of the following is NOT true about the New Madrid fault?
A. Not many people were killed in the quakes in 1811.
B. Bells were rung in church towers in Charleston to inform the coming quakes.
C. The quakes stopped the clocks in Washington, D.C.
D. The quakes were caused by sudden sinking motion. It can be concluded from the passage that _______.
| A．it is probably as dangerous to live in Missouri as in California. |
| B．the New Madrid fault will eventually develop a mountain range in Missouri |
| C．in the future California will become an island |
| D．California will be broken into small pieces by an eventual earthquake |
The author suggests that________.
| A．earthquakes occur only around fault areas |
| B．horizontal faults are more dangerous than vertical ones |
| C．vertical faults are more dangerous than horizontal ones |
| D．faults are cracks on the earth’s surface caused by past movements of the earth’s land masses |
Expensive and new gloves allow chatterboxes (话匣子) to take the term "handsfree" to a new level—by talking into them as they make a call. The gloves are known as "Talk to the Hand" and cost £1,000 a pair. They fixed a speaker unit into the thumb and a microphone into the little finger that can be connected to any mobile handset using Bluetooth.
Artist Sean Miles designed the new gloves that double as a phone in part of his project that shows the possibilities of gadget (小玩意) recycling. He uses outdated gloves and combines them with parts from mobile handsets recycled through O2, which took up the project. Mobile phone users will be able to keep their hands warm while they chat without taking their phones out of their pockets or handbags.
Mr. Miles designed two pairs of the new gloves — one in pink and the other in brown and yellow. They will appear in an exhibition this July and visitors will be able to win the gloves. If demand is high, they will then be produced on a larger scale. O2 Recycle, which backed the project, estimates that there are already 70 million unused mobile handsets in the UK. The service pays up to £260 to those who recycle gadgets including phones, handheld consoles (操纵台), MP3 players and digital cameras.
Designer Sean Miles hopes his work will get people thinking about recycling. The 41-year-old said, "I hope that my 'Talk to the Hand' project will get people to think again about the waste created by not recycling gadgets. If a few more people recycle their gadgets rather than send them to trash, I think this project will have fulfilled its aim."
Bill Eyres, head of O2 Recycle, urges people to recycle their phone responsibly. He said, "There’s a pressing need for all of us to look at outdated handsets, and all the gadgets that we move on from or upgrade each year. Whether they are consoles or cameras, we should think of them as a resource that we need to recycle responsibly rather than throw them away."The underlined word "O2" in Paragraph 2 is probably the name of ______.
| A．an artist | B．a mobile |
| C．a company | D．an exhibition |
Consumers can buy the "Talk to the Hand" gloves ______.
| A．in the exhibition |
| B．from Mr. Miles |
| C．after they recycle the gadgets |
| D．when they are mass-produced |
The purpose of the project is to _______.
| A．promote the technology of IT |
| B．enable people to talk to their hands |
| C．raise peoples awareness of recycling |
| D．attract visitors’ attention in the exhibition |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．New mobiles which are fashionable. |
| B．Outdated handsets which are upgraded. |
| C．Outdated gadgets which can be used for recycling. |
| D．New gloves which can be used for making phone calls. |
Shanghai Xintiandi Style Mall is filled with a festive mood, featuring large-scale equipment, knit works and various activities, under the theme "kiss".
"Kissing is seldom taken as the theme of artworks because in oriental (东方的) culture, people restrain themselves from expressing their emotions," says Jiang Shan, who is in charge of the exhibition.
"Through the exhibition, we hope to encourage people to be confident and brave in expressing their love."
Inside the mall, which covers a large area from Zizhong Lu (Road) to Fuxingnan Lu (Road), dozens of colorful decorations, including balloons, lollipops and lip-shaped decorations are hung on the walls and from the ceiling.
Among the decorations, a bright-colored wool artwork attracts most eyeballs and brings about a feeling of warmth.
The designer, Gu Yeli, says the art piece, Kiss Forest, was inspired by US artist Andy Warhol’s 1963 experimental film Kiss, which featured various couples kissing for three and a half minutes each. Gu also organizes a small workshop to teach knitting (编织) to children.
Artist Wang Xuejun sets up a stainless-steel mirror at the mall's gate leading to Zizhong Lu. Visitors, including men, are invited to put on lipstick and kiss the mirror, thus kissing themselves.
The Beast Floral Shop, a flower shop in Shanghai, contributes two walls of flowers that are made into the shape of a book, named Kiss Book. Artifacts (手工艺品) of bees and butterflies are fixed among the blossoms, kissing the flowers. The work represents love and harmony in nature.
Architect Ma Ke creates a Kiss Bridge with transparent (透明的) acrylic boards and ceramic（陶瓷的）fishbowls. Bridges are often spots for dating lovers in traditional Chinese folk stories and the goldfish in the bowls are witnesses of the lovers' kisses.
In the south plaza, an 18-meter-high interactive tree-shaped light equipment encourages people to kiss. Each kiss turns a certain light on, reminding audiences of their sweet childhood memories of kisses.
At the side of the tree is a counter, in which each kiss is counted and represents a donation to charity organizations. What is the main idea of the article?
| A．It tells people how important kisses are to life. |
| B．It introduces an exhibition under the theme "kiss". |
| C．It describes what Shanghai Xintiandi Style Mall looks like. |
| D．It introduces various activities in Shanghai Xintiandi Style Mall. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．people encourage themselves to express their emotions. |
| B．people teach themselves to express their emotions. |
| C．people discourage themselves from expressing their emotions. |
| D．people learn a lot from expressing their emotions. |
What can we learn from the article?
| A．Most people are interested in Jiang Shan's art piece, which brings about a feeling of warmth. |
| B．Most visitors will kiss each other in front of the stainless-steel mirror at the gate. |
| C．All the decorations in the mall are aimed at encouraging lovers to express their love bravely. |
| D．The 18-meter-high interactive tree-shaped light equipment will be on for each kiss. |
The article above probably is taken from a ____________.
| A．textbook | B．science and technology magazine |
| C．travel leaflet | D．news website |