UGG boots have been a winterweather fashion for several years now, combining function, comfort, warmth and even some style. What many UGGenthusiasts don't know is that their boots are a breeding ground for bacteria and cause foot problems.
Doctors believe the boots, which are particularly popular among young teenage girls, are leading to a rise in the number of people suffering pains in their feet and knees.
Dr. Ian Drysdale, head of the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, believes because the foot does not get the proper support on the inside, it will lead to more ankle, knee, hip and back problems. “These boots are not designed for outside wear. Just because something becomes a trend or fashionable doesn't mean it's good or right，” he said. “The particular problem with this type of footwear is that it is unsupported. It's a slipper. You wouldn't normally expect to be doing outdoor activities from something that's indoor. If you decide to wear your pajamas outside all the time, someone will come up and say it's not a good idea.” Dr. Drysdale explained that the feet issues become a particular problem among young teenage girls, whose bones are “plastic” and developing when they are growing. “If that structure is developing in an inappropriate way，” he said，“then the ultimate structure will be deformed.”
Mike O'Neill, a consultant surgeon, said，“As the foot slides around, you get wear and tear (磨损) on the joints on the inside of the foot. The ankle is in the wrong position, the thigh bone also changes position, and you get an abnormal movement in the pelvis, which leads to back problems.”
UGG Australia, who makes the designer version of the boots, told The Daily Wirror that their boots are “comfort” rather than “performance” footwear and consumers should be aware of “knockoffs (仿制品)” which lack reinforced heels in their boots.Teenage girls prefer to wear UGG boots because of the following EXCEPT ________.
| A．design | B．comfort | C．quality | D．warmth |
According to Dr. Ian Drysdale, ________.
| A．there is a possibility that bacteria will multiply in UGG boots |
| B．wearing UGG boots will lead to more ankle and toe problems |
| C．it's not a good idea to wear boots like UGG outside all the time |
| D．teenage girls' bones are plastic enough to wear UGG boots |
The underlined word “deformed” is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．shaped | B．strengthened | C．reformed | D．damaged |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．Potential Harm of UGG Boots |
| B．The Popularity of UGG Boots |
| C．The Unique Design of UGG Boots |
| D．Benefits of UGG Boots |
Terraforming (Earth-forming) other planets, also known as planetary engineering (行星工程), seems like a task still centuries away for mankind to accomplish. However, it is a vigorous topic that attracts both popular and scientific interest. Why should the possibility of terraforming other planets be studied when it may be centuries before we know enough to even decide if it’s a good idea?
Mankind is getting more and more hard facts about other planets. The atmosphere of Venus has been explored; robots have surveyed the surface of Mars; Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn have been studied by spacecraft. Speculations have been answered; new questions have been raised, and enough hard data is right now becoming available to allow us to make the first attempt of planetary engineering.
In the past, people with excellent ideas about terraforming have kept them to themselves, or buried them in a desk drawer because they did not realize that anyone else was interested. But now, a wide circle of people has begun to do this kind of work. For instance, NASA funded a project on transforming Mars.
There are several strong reasons which demand that the possibilities of terraforming be studied carefully. First, it’s an exciting idea of a possible future for human beings. Such thinking has a valuable role in providing options for our future directions. Secondly, the techniques of terraforming will also help contemporary technologies in weather and climate control. Thirdly, such study may assist us in detecting any possible existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 地外文明搜索) and alien (异己的) civilizations on other planets.
Though the mission is far beyond our reach at the moment, we should at least keep our options open. Through debate and study on this subject, the possibility of rebuilding other planets to make them suitable homes for people may come true some day in the future..
. According to the context, what’s the meaning of the word “speculation” in paragraph 2?
| A．The act of discussing something with a group of people. |
| B．The act of studying and researching. |
| C．The act of guessing without knowing all the facts about something. |
| D．The acting of writing letters to a certain organization. |
.
Why did people keep the idea of terraforming to themselves in the past?
| A．They thought no one else would show interest in the idea. |
| B．They gradually came to find the idea crazy. |
| C．They thought the idea would never come true. |
| D．They had few resources for further study on this topic. |
.
. Which is NOT the reason to support the study of terraforming?
| A．Even if we don’t succeed in terraforming, such study may help us to better understand technologies such as climate and weather control. |
| B．Such study may explore a new direction of development for human beings. |
| C．Such study may enable us to find the lives on other planets. |
| D．As the resources on Earth are being drained, it’s very urgent to study how to migrate (迁移) to other planets。 |
.
What’s the main idea of the article?
| A．It’s highly possible that terraforming other planets will come true so we should increase investing in this program. |
| B．Even if the idea of terraforming other planets may take centuries to realize, we have many reasons to support such studies. |
| C．Terraforming other planets is the best option for human being’s future. |
| D．More and more people are taking planetary engineering as their occupation. |
One of our biggest fears nowadays is that our kids might some day get lost in a “sea of technology” rather than experiencing the natural world. Fear – producing TV and computer games are leading to a serious disconnect between kids and the great outdoors, which will change the wild places of the world, its creatures and human health for the worse, unless adults get working on child’s play.
Each of us had a place in nature we go sometimes, even if it was torn down. We cannot be the last generation to have that place. At this rate, kids who miss the sense of wonder outdoors will not grow up to be protectors of natural landscapes. “If the decline in parks use continues across North America, who will defend parks against encroachment（蚕食）?” asks Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.
Without having a nature experience, kids can turn out just fine, but they are missing out a huge enrichment of their lives. That applies to everything from their physical health and mental health, to stress levels, creativity and cognitive（认知的）skills. Experts predict modern kids will have poorer health than their parents—and they say a lack of outside play is surely part of it; research suggests that kids do better academically in schools with a nature component and that play in nature fosters（培养）leadership by the smartest, not by the toughest. Even a tiny outdoor experience can create wonder in a child. The three – year – old turning over his first rock realizes he is not alone in the world. A clump of trees on the roadside can be the whole universe in his eyes. We really need to value that more.
Kids are not to blame. They are over – protected and frightened. It is dangerous out there from time to time, but repetitive stress from computers is replacing breaking an arm as a childhood rite（仪式）of passage.
Everyone from developers to schools and outdoorsy citizens, should help regain for our kids some of the freedom and joy of exploring, taking friendship in fields and woods that cement（增强）love, respect and need for the landscape. As parents, we should devote some of our energies to taking our kids into nature. This could yet be our greatest cause..
According to Paragraph 2, the writer thinks that_____.
| A．we are the last generation to experience nature. |
| B．the author of Last Child in the Woods don’t defend parks against encroachment |
| C．without having a nature experience, kids are missing out a huge enrichment of their lives |
| D．children should grow up to be protectors of nature |
.
According to the passage, children without experiencing nature will.
| A．keep a high sense of wonder |
| B．be over – protected by their parents |
| C．be less healthy both physically and mentally |
| D．change wild places and creatures for the better |
.
. According to the author, children’s breaking an arm is.
| A．the fault on the part of their parents |
| B．the natural experience in their growing up |
| C．the result of their own carelessness in play |
D．the effect of their re petitive stress from computers |
.
In writing this passage, the author mainly intends to.
A. blame children for getting lost in computer games
B. encourage children to protect parks from encroachment
C. show his concern about children’s lack of experience in nature
For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.
As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “Ye O
lde Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.
However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.
That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of busi
ness. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.
This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.
In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men's Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all..The passage mainly tells us something about
| A．the past and present of British pubs | B．the decline of British pubs |
| C．the long history of British pubs | D．the importance of British pubs |
.Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?
| A．The credit crunch. | B．The present closing time. |
| C．The ban of smoking. | D．Having no spare money. |
.. We can infer from the passage that
| A．British people used to like drinking slowly |
| B．closing the pubs early will reduce social problems |
| C．binge drinking means drinking less beer |
| D．British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking |
.We can see from the last paragraph that the author ________
| A．is against the admission of too many women to the pubs |
| B．holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs |
| C．thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems |
| D．thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need |
Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an air
plane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computer results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not rel
ax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and d
o nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard
tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence. The new products become more and more time-saving because .
| A．the manufacturers boast a lot | B．time is limited |
| C．the prices are increasingly high | D．our love of speed seems never-ending |
What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Simple life in the past. | B．Imaginary life. |
| C．Times of inventions. | D．Time for constant activity. |
. What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
| A．Critical. | B．Optimistic. | C．Objective. | D．Negative. |
. What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．The present and past times. | B．Modern technology and its influence. |
| C．Imaginations and inventions. | D．Machinery and human beings. |
It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides (杀虫剂）and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job — eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning..
. From Paragraph 1 we learn that the villagers.
| A．worked very hard for centuries | B．dreamed of having a better life |
| C．were poor but somewhat content | D．lived a different life from their forefathers |
.
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
| A．The frogs were easy money. | B．They needed money  to buy medicine. |
| C．They wanted to please the visitors. | D．The frogs made too much noise. |
.
. What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?
| A．The crops didn’t do well. | B．There were too many insects. |
| C．The visitors brought in diseases. | D．The pesticides were overused. |
.
What can we infer from the last
sentence of the text?
| A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country. |
| B．Health is more important than money. |
| C．The harmony between man and nature is important. |
| D．Good old days will never be forgotten. |