Across the United States, universities and colleges have been looking to become more sustainable (可持续发展的) and more than 600 schools have already planned to become eco-friendly. The EcoDorm, home to 36 students at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, was designed to be sustainable from top to bottom, or in this case, from its rainwater-collection system to its garden. The dormitory is bringing new meaning to the concept of living “green” at college.
At Warren Wilson College, a biological science school with fewer than 1,000 students, the sustainability drive came from the student body. The EcoDorm concept was presented ten years ago by two students; a planning committee firstly suggested using building materials like corncob. Although the architects disagreed with the idea, they came up with other creative solutions: Wood siding was taken from the trees grown in the school yard that were suffering from a disease, and rainwater was collected in an old railway car and pumped back into the house to clean the toilets.
All in all, the dorm uses nearly two-thirds less electricity than a similar-sized traditional building would. But even the most sustainable homes need continued efforts from its livers. And in the case of EcoDorm, students live by their words. Most also take advantage of the dorm’s bio-garden, planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables. “I didn’t have to worry about paper towels being wasted or feel bad about drying my clothes outside,” Jeremy Lekich, the dorm’s gardener, said. “Basically, it has made my life easier.” We can learn from the text that the EcoDorm in the US .
| A．offers students the chances to have a natural living at college |
| B．was firstly built by two college students |
| C．was designed for saving building materials |
| D．is only applicable in few schools |
The second paragraph is mainly about .
| A．where the EcoDorm was built |
| B．when the EcoDorm got its name |
| C．what the EcoDorm is made of |
| D．how the concept of EcoDorm started |
What is the advantage of the EcoDorm?
| A．It helps students to enjoy life at college. |
| B．It saves a lot of money and energy for the college. |
| C．It makes students study harder. |
| D．It brings new energy to the college. |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．A long-term development calls for students’ efforts. |
| B．Students’ ideas should be encouraged at college. |
| C．Green living is a new trend at American colleges. |
| D．Students can learn to protect the environment through practice. |
My father died when I was nine months old, making my mom a single mother. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life, “Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it.”
At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I wanted to badly enough. She drove that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school — walking on my own!
When the Great Depression (大萧条) hit, my mom lost her job. Then I left school to support the family. At that moment, I was determined never to be poor again.
My real turning point occurred on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951. I was angry that the second-class hotel charged an extra $2 for each child. That was too expensive for the average American family. I decided to open a motel (汽车旅馆) for families that would never charge extra for children. There were plenty of doubters at that time.
Not surprisingly, mom was one of my strongest supporters. We experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother’s words deeply rooted in my soul, I never doubted we would succeed. Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world — Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.
You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.What Kemmons’ mom often told him during his childhood was ______.
| A．caring | B．moving |
| C．encouraging | D．interesting |
According to the author, who played the most important role in making him walk back to school again?
| A．Doctors. | B．Nurses. | C．Friends. | D．Mom. |
What caused Kemmons to start a motel by himself?
| A．His terrible experience in the hotel. |
| B．His previous business success of various levels. |
| C．His mom’s support. |
| D．His wife’s suggestion. |
Which of the following best describes Kemmons’ mother?
| A．Modest, helpful, and hard-working. |
| B．Loving, supportive and strong-willed. |
| C．Careful, helpful and beautiful. |
| D．Strict, sensitive and supportive. |
At first I couldn't believe it! There were no 41 in rows; no bells rang; no one had to go to . Although we all lived “in”, made us go to bed at a certain time; there was no “lights out”.
The thing was that practically all the students went to class, very few people stayed up late at night. Only the new people stayed up or class. The new ones always went wild at first, but this never lasted long. The took some getting used to. Our teachers treated us like ; never did we have to “stand up”, “sit down”, “speak out”. I don't one student who didn't try his best.
The subjects were the same as those in school, but what a difference in the approach(方式)！For example, in botany(植物学) we had classes in the spring or fall, but instead we two gardens, a vegetable garden and a flower garden. Then in winter we each studied a few things about what we had grown. In math, the students built three different kinds of storerooms - small ones, but usable. They did this instead of having lessons in the classroom. They really had a time too, designing everything, drawing the blueprints, figuring out(计算出) the angles(角度) and so on. I didn't take . I can't stand it! Besides, I could do the basic things with numbers. That's !
On the whole, I think I am a person for having gone to the school. I can read and write as well as anyone else my age, and I can think better. That's probably a real big 59 between the free school and regular school-the amount of .
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When 24-year-old Hannah Brencher moved to New York after college, she was hit by depression and loneliness. One day she felt so lonely that she wanted to reach out to someone. So she put pen to paper and started writing letters—letters to complete strangers.
But these weren’t sad letters about how she was feeling. They were happy letters, all about the other person, not her. She would write messages for people to have a “bright day” and tell strangers how outstanding they were, even if they thought no one else had noticed. Brencher began dropping the notes all over New York, in cafes, in library books, in parks and on the subway. It made her feel better, knowing that she might be making somebody’s day through just a few short, sweet words. It gave her something to focus on. And so, the website The World Needs More Love Letters was born.
The World Needs More Love Letters is all about writing letters—not emails, but proper, handwritten letters. Not traditional love letters, written to a real beloved, but surprise letters for strangers. They don’t necessarily say “I love you”, but they are full of kindness—telling people they are remarkable and special and all-around amazing.
Brencher’s initiative (初衷) has now exploded. She has personally written hundreds of letters. Last year, she did a TED talk, in which she talks about a woman whose husband, a soldier, comes back home from Afghanistan and they struggle to reconnect: “So she leaves love letters all over the house as a way to say: ‘Come back to me. Find me when you can.’” And then comes another story of a man threatening to kill himself on his Facebook page, only to now be in the land of the living, with many love letters under his pillow.
The World Needs More Love Letters Project works on the idea that “A love letter a day keeps the doctor away”. It’s about sharing positive energy, restoring confidence and happiness. There are now more than 10,000 people from all over the world joining in to write letters to the lonely and depressed, to basically tell them that everything will be okay.When feeling lonely, Brencher wrote letters to _________________.
| A．share her sad feelings with strangers |
| B．tell strangers how outstanding she was |
| C．express her wish to have a bright day |
| D．brighten strangers’ day with kind words |
According to the passage, which of the following letters can be found on the website?
| A．The email to remarkable people. |
| B．The handwritten letters to friends. |
| C．The traditional love letters to beloved ones. |
| D．The encouraging letters to strangers. |
What can be inferred from Brencher’s TED talk?
| A．The man leaves love letters to his wife, asking her to look for him. |
| B．The woman gets on well with her husband after his return from Afghanistan. |
| C．The life of the man in the second story has been saved by the inspiring love letters. |
| D．The man in the second story has written many love letters and put them under his pillow. |
In the last paragraph, the underlined sentence means____________.
| A．love letters can help cheer you up in spirits |
| B．love letters can keep you physically healthy |
| C．love letters can make the doctors out of work |
| D．love letters can keep you away from loneliness only |
A lot of us enjoy doing it: you turn on the camera on your mobile phone and hold it at a high position, making your eyes look bigger and your cheekbones more marked out. You turn to your best side and click. There it is --- your selfie.
Over the past year, “selfie” has become a well-known term across the globe. This August the Oxford dictionary added the word to their online dictionary and defined it as: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”
Today it’s not difficult to find social networking pages full of photos people have taken of themselves and their friends. And selfie culture has become especially related to young people. As many as 91 percent of teenagers have posted photos of themselves online, according to a recent survey by the US Pew Research Center.
So what are the reasons for the rise of selfie culture?
“The craze of the selfie celebrates regular people,” Pamela Rutledge, a professor at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, told Vogue magazine. “There are many more photographs available now of real people than models.”
Posting selfies also allows you to control your image online. “I like having the power to choose how I look, even if I’m making a funny face,” Samantha Barks, 19, a high school student in the US, told Vogue.
In addition, selfies “allow for a close friendship for long-distance friends, because you can see each other’s faces every day”, wrote Casey Miller at The Huffington Post.
But US psychologist Jill Weber is concerned that selfies might lead to social problems. “There’s a danger that your self-esteem （自尊心） may start to be tied to the comments and ‘likes’ you get when you post a selfie, and they aren’t based on who you are ---they’re based on what you look like,” Weber told Vogue. “When you get nothing or a negative response, your confidence can plummet.”
The first paragraph is intended to _________.
| A．introduce the topic of selfie |
| B．describe how to enjoy selfie |
| C．show the importance of selfie |
| D．explain why selfie is popular |
How many reasons for the rise of selfie culture are mentioned in the passage?
| A．One | B．Two | C．Three | D．Four |
What is Jill Weber’s opinion about selfies?
| A．Comments on selfie are based on who you are. |
| B．Others’ response to selfies might affect one’s self-esteem. |
| C． Selfies have more disadvantages than advantages. |
| D． Selfies shouldn’t be encouraged for they lead to social problems. |
The underlined word “plummet” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to __________.
| A．put up | B．calm down |
| C．pick up | D．go down |
Below is some advice on how to prevent cancer:
1. Eat Blueberries
Aside from being a healthy and delicious snack, blueberries contain pterostilbene, which has important colon（结肠） cancer-fighting prosperities. But wait, it gets better. Blueberries also offer a large dose of vitamins C (14 milligrams per cup). So at breakfast, try to take in a cup and a half of blueberries in your cereal or yogurt, or mixed with other berries.
2. Drink Pomegranate（石榴）Juice
The deep red juice of the pomegranate contains polyphenols, isoflavones and ellagic acid, which together create a powerful anticancer mixture. Most recently, researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison has discovered that 16 ounces of pomegranate juice per day also may inhibit the growth of lung cancer.
3. Relax
Feeling stressed or worried? Find ways to relax and you may reduce your chances of developing cancer. Purdue University researchers tracked 1,600 men over 12 years and found that half of those with high levels of worry died during the study period. Only 20 percent of the optimists died before the study were completed, while 34 percent of the extremely anxious men died of some type of cancer. Instead of stressing about the past or future, focus on the present and relax!
4. Take Selenium（硒）
Selenium is well known for its cancer-fighting properties. In a study of almost 1,000 men, researchers from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that when men with the lowest initial levels of selenium in their bodies received a daily supplement over a-4-year period, they remarkably cut their prostate（前列腺） cancer risk by 92 percent. However, it is possible to get too much of a good thing, so monitor your intake of selenium-containing supplements, Brazil nuts, tuna, meats and grains carefully.
5. Eat Sushi（寿司）
Seaweed may not be your idea of a great snack, but it is high in fiber, calcium and iron, and dry, roasted seaweed sheets used in sushi provide the additional benefits of vitamins A and C. Sushi rolls are also high in protein. So don’t skimp（节省）on the Sushi!
6. Breathe Clean Air
There’s no question that secondhand smoke kills. A recent American Journal of Public Health study showed that nonsmokers working in smoky places had three times the amount of carcinogen（致癌物质） in their urine（尿） than nonsmokers working in smoke-free locations. What’s worse, their levels of the carcinogen rose 6 percent for every hour worked. Nine states have banned smoking in all workplaces, bars and restaurants. The message is clear: Do whatever you can to avoid the cloud of smoke.
7. Break a Sweat
Even a small amount of exercise can offer major cancer-fighting benefits. In a study of 29,110 men published in The International Journal of Cancer, men who exercised just once a week had a percent lower risk of metastasis(转移性) prostate cancer than men who didn’t work out at all. The better the frequency, duration and intensity of the exercise, the bigger the reduction in risk, according to the study.To prevent yourself from catching colon cancer, you should eat ________ as often as possible.
| A．sushi | B．blueberries |
| C．pomegranates | D．Vitamin D |
A person is very likely to catch some type of cancer if _________________.
| A．he is very fond of exercise every day. |
| B．he is addicted to drinking |
| C．he is always feeling extremely stressed or worried |
| D．he likes to have meals in restaurants |
_____________________________ will remarkably reduce the risk of men’s prostate cancer.
| A．Having a proper supplement of selenium |
| B．Drinking a cup of pomegranate juice every day |
| C．Breathing fresh air now and then |
| D．Taking exercise at least once a week |
If you want to keep cancer away, it is completely important to ______.
| A．have a daily supplement of vitamins B and C |
| B．try to ignore the secondhand smoking |
| C．take in as many selenium-containing supplements as possible |
| D．have exercise as often as possible |