This year the selfie earned its place as the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2013 Word Of The Year. It has taken over our culture --- and our smartphones. The rise of the selfie has become universal–between presidents, celebrities(名人) and citizens alike–and the trend is only continuing to grow. 
A recent survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 54 percent of Internet users have posted original photos online. And of those hundreds of millions of photos, many are of selfie photos.
For example, currently there are nearly 62 million posted selfie photos on Instagram, the social media tool that has significantly contributed to the personal photo’s popularity. That figure, which continues to rise every day, doesn’t even begin to include the selfies shared on Facebook and Twitter.
What makes the selfie so attractive -- and why do we feel it a must to take one? According to Dr. Pamela Rutledge, psychologist and director of the Media Psychology Research Center, the desire to take, post and get “likes” on selfies goes back to a biological behavior of all humans.
“I think it influences our sense of social connection in the same way as it does when you go to a party and people say ‘Oh I love your dress,’” Rutledge told The Huffington Post. “Biological, social recognition is a real need and there is even an area of the brain that contributes to social activity.”
There is a way to adapt to the growing selfie culture. Whether you’re a selfie novice or an advanced poster, there are always things to be mindful of when you’re posting, Rutledge advises.
She offered two main principles to follow when it comes to posting on social media:
1. The Grandmother Rule
“Don’t post anything online, whether text or visual, that you don’t want grandmother or future employer to see,” Rutledge said. “Selfies especially.”
2. The Elevator Rule
“You wouldn’t say something in an elevator that you or no one else wants to hear -- the whole world of social media is an elevator,” Rutledge said. “Be aware of the breadth (宽度) of platform. It’s easy to think you’re sharing a photo with a few people, but Instagram is public and people can come across things.”What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．The selfie is taking the lead. |
| B．Many people are fond of smartphones. |
| C．The selfie will take over everything. |
| D．The selfie is an important new word. |
According to the passage, people like “selfie” so much, because they ___________.
| A．want to show off their new dresses |
| B．need to be acknowledged in social life |
| C．desire to share good things |
| D．mean to amuse the public |
The underlined word “novice” in Paragraph 6 probably means “________”.
| A．greenhand | B．publisher | C．novelist | D．celebrity |
When it comes to posting on social media, Rutledge advises people to ______.
| A．share photos only on Instagram |
| B．talk about your photos in an elevator |
| C．be cautious in posting things online |
| D．follow rules set by your grandmothers |
Dickson Despommier, a public health professor at Columbia University in New York City developed an idea with his students nine years ago. They imagined people in cities growing crops inside a tall building. Tomatoes could grow on one floor of the skyscraper(摩天大楼), potatoes on the next, small animals and fish on the floor above.
This vertical(垂直的) farm, or "farmscraper", could have space for restaurants and other places that serve food, like schools or hospitals. They could serve foods that are truly locally grown.
But why would anyone want to build a farm indoors in a city? Dickson Despommier believes it will become necessary. The world needs to find places to produce enough food to feed the growing population. Space, he says, is an all-important issue.
The professor also points to the problems of traditional farms. They use a lot of freshwater. Their fertilizer and animal waste can pollute water resources. And their growing seasons can be limited.
But inside the vertical farm, crops could grow all year. And there would be no wind to blow away soil. Farmers would not have to worry about too much or too little rain, or about hot summers, freezing winters or insects. And without insects there would be no need for chemicals to kill them.
Farm machines that .use fossil fuels, like tractors, would not be needed either. And water could be recycled for drinking. "The vertical farm reuses everything, so there is no waste," says Professor Despommier.
Even buildings could be saved. Old buildings could become new farms and provide jobs.
The professor has been actively proposing the idea to cities as far away as Dubai and Canada. But so far it exists only in plans and drawings, and a model at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Critics say building a farmscraper would cost too much, especially considering the price of land in many cities. Dickson Despommier estimates the cost at about twenty to thirty million dollars.
But he says the building would not have to be very tall. And his graduate students have found many empty lots and unused buildings in New York City that could provide space.According to the passage the purpose of proposing the idea of a farm scraper is to .
| A．find places to produce enough food |
| B．serve food that are truly locally grown |
| C．prevent polluting the limited land |
| D．save fresh water |
Which is one of the advantages of a farm scraper?
| A．It costs less |
| B．It saves labor power. |
| C．It consumes too much energy |
| D．It is more environmentally friendly. |
Those against the idea of farm scrapers argue that
| A．it uses too much land in cities |
| B．it costs too much to build one |
| C．it causes people to lose their jobs |
| D．it exists only in unrealistic plans |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．A vertical farm has been built in Chicago. |
| B．Old buildings could be changed into new farms. |
| C．Traditional farms use less water but pollute more water |
| D．There are some vertical farms being put into use in Canada. |
I love it at night. It’s peaceful. And when it cools down I sometimes do some ironing. I don’t really care for it. I work full-time and too busy for most housework. I remember the old woman who taught me to iron. I was about 15 and somehow got a live-in job taking care of a woman who had been an able-bodied, healthy woman until the accident that caused her to be paralyzed（瘫痪）.
The woman had an electric wheelchair. She could move her head and arms but not her hands or fingers. She had this clamp（夹子）attached to her arm and I’d have to open it and put a cup or a pencil in it and then she could move it. She would tell me how to do things. She would instruct me in great detail on the correct way to do things. Her home was perfect and beautiful. She would follow me around in her electric wheelchair to make sure I did everything exactly right. I’m sure she had been a perfect homemaker. She would have me fold everything, including socks and pillow cases. I would complain silently and wish terrible things on her. She taught me the right way to make the bed and tuck （塞）the corners. I know sometimes she’d get frustrated and impatient with me. I knew she wanted to grab it and do it herself. But she never yelled or scolded. Only insisted I do it right. I didn’t like it much, but I did it.
Today I can iron pretty well. I know where to start on a shirt, the right way to do the collar and sleeves. Now that I think about it, I don’t think she is an old lady. I think she might have been about my age now. Anyway, when I iron, I think of her and silently thank her for all the things I learned. From the passage we can infer that the writer of the passage now is ________.
| A．a housewife | B．a full-time worker |
| C．a clothes maker | D．a college student |
The writer used to take care of the lady because ______.
| A．she wanted to learn how to do housework |
| B．she was a relative of the disabled woman |
| C．she wanted to earn some money while sleeping and eating there |
| D．she had to do something in return to the lady for her kindness |
When the lady taught the writer how to do housework, the little girl was ______.
| A．eager to learn | B．unwilling to learn |
| C．forced to learn | D．careful to learn |
What’s the writer’s attitude towards the lady now?
| A．Sympathetic | B．Fearful | C．Hateful | D．Grateful |
Special Bridges Help Animals Cross the Road
—Reported by Sheila Carrick
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.
Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more worried about how the grizzly bear (灰熊) and mountain lion can cross the road.
“Millions of animals die each year on U.S. roads,” the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today. The main reason? Roadkill.
“Ecopassages ” may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over and under roads. “These ecopassages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid road accidents,” said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Protection Society.
But do animals actually use the ecopassages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an ecopassage that went under a highway. This showed that the lions used the passage.
Builders of ecopassages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders (火蜥蜴) and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses.
The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animal overpass!The writer uses the example of “ocelots” to show that _______.
| A．wild animals have become more dangerous |
| B．the driving conditions have improved greatly |
| C．the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work |
| D．an increasing number of animals are killed in road accidents |
From the news story, we know an ecopassage is ________.
| A．an underground path for cars |
| B．a fence built for the safety of the area |
| C．a bridge for animals to get over a river |
| D．a path for animals to cross the road |
When the writer says that animals seem “to be catching on”, he means ________.
| A．animals begin to realize the dangers on the road |
| B．animals begin to learn to use ecopassages |
| C．animals are crossing the road in groups |
| D．animals are increasing in number |
The writer asks visitors and drivers to look around when traveling because ________.
| A．wild animals may attack cars |
| B．wild animals may block the road |
| C．they may see wild animals in the park |
| D．they may see wild animals on ecopassages |
With eco-tourism on the rise, eco-hotels are fast becoming the darling of the travel industry. These days, however, staying at an eco-hotel doesn’t necessarily mean vacationing in a tree house in the Costa Rican jungle, although that is certainly a choice.
The majority of eco-hotels fall into several categories: hotels and resorts that conserve ecologically important habitats; “green” hotels that reduce, recycle, minimize waste, and protect water; sustainable hotels that harvest food from gardens on the hotel property or get part or all of their power from renewable energy; hotels that encourage community involvement such as guests taking part in trail clearing; and hotels that offer some form of environmental education to their guests.
As such, eco-hotels are a various group. Stylish urban hotels like the Willard Inter-Continental Washington focus on energy conservation whereas the Rosario Resort & Spa on Orcas Island in Washington State offers a wildly popular “green” vacation package where guests can “take a hike, clear a trail”.
No matter what you call them, eco-hotel, eco-lodge, eco-resort, or green hotel, they’re all part of the “greening” of the tourism industry.
Part of what drives this greening of the hotel industry is no doubt competition. Going green is another way to distinguish a hotel from the mass of other excellent hotels that consumers have to choose from. But for many hotels, it’s also part of their philosophy. With the concept of “going green” firmly rooted in consumers’ minds, eco-hotels have taken it to the next level, and whether or not money is the driving factor behind the greening of the hotel industry doesn’t matter so much as it’s good for the planet.According to the passage, which of the following can match the idea of eco-hotel?
| A．It is comfortable and fashionable. | B．It uses renewable energy. |
| C．It has walls of glass. | D．It is home to endangered species. |
From the passage, we know the Rosario Resort & Spa is a kind of hotel that _______.
| A．encourages its guests to participate in its greening activities |
| B．harvests food from its own garden |
| C．has courses on the environment for its guests |
| D．protects important habitats |
From the last paragraph, we can infer that _______.
| A．money is the driving force behind eco-hotels |
| B．the hotel industry cares more about money than the environment |
| C．eco-hotels teach their guests the philosophy of eco-hotels |
| D．eco-hotels have no advantages in competing for guests |
Facebook means never having to say goodbye. The social media website has earned a reputation for reconnecting old friends. Last week, a guy whom I hadn’t seen since my bachelor party five years ago sent me a friend request. I accepted and waited for “Easy E” to send me a greeting of some kind. He had sought me out, after all.
I learned from his profile that he was in a relationship and had a son. However, I’m pretty sure we won’t ever write wall-to-wall, let alone e-mail each other. But he’ll remain a friend of online until one of us makes a point of removing the other from his official list.
My pool of friends consists of family members, college buddies, co-workers from past and present, and friends of friends. There are 35 in all. If I spent some time uploading old e-mail addresses, I’m confident that I could increase my friend count actually.
A person could make a mission out of reconnecting with childhood friends, former classmates, distant cousins, and those one would like to get to know better. And some people can even handle hundreds of on-screen relationships, keeping up with the daily happenings of their small army of companions. After all, there are worse fates than having too many friends.
Thanks to e-mail, the inability to schedule face-to-face meetings no longer means a friendship must come to a close. But even with e-mail, people will lose touch if one or both parties stop writing back. That’s normal. People move from school to school, job to job, city to city. You never have to feel guilty for breaking away.
Every day, the masterminds of Web 2.0 find new ways of making human communication easier. However, convenience can be a walking stick. Some things shouldn’t be simplified. When it comes to friendship, there can be no shortcuts.According to Paragraph 1, the website is famous because .
| A．it has an interesting name of “Facebook” |
| B．it can send people a greeting of some kind |
| C．it helps people get in touch with old friends |
| D．it reminds people of events in the past |
From the second paragraph we can learn that the writer .
| A．would write to the friend quite often |
| B．did get some information about the friend |
| C．asked the friend to e-mail him |
| D．would keep in touch with the friend forever |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．The author communicates with all the 35 friends by e-mails. |
| B．There are 35 people in the author’s list of friends right now. |
| C．The list of 35 friends doesn’t include the old e-mail addresses. |
| D．It is not difficult for the author to increase his friend count. |
What does the writer mean by saying “However, convenience can be a walking stick”？
| A．The masterminds of Web 2.0 also sell walking sticks online. |
| B．Taking a walking stick is a new way of making friends online. |
| C．Convenience is dangerous for human communication. |
| D．Convenience is not really good for human communication. |