“Soon, you’re going to have to move out!” cried my neighbor upon seeing the largest tomato plant known to mankind, or at least known in my neighborhood.
One tiny 9-inch plant, bought for $1.25 in the spring, has already taken over much of my rose bed, covering much of other plants, and is well on its way to the front door.
Roses require a good deal of care, and if it weren’t for the pleasure they give, it wouldn’t be worth the work. As it is, I have a garden full of sweet-smelling roses for most of the year. bushes must be pruned(剪枝) in early spring, leaving ugly woody branches until the new growth appears a few weeks later. It was the space available in the garden that led me into planting just one little tomato plant. A big mistake.
Soil conditions made just perfect for roses turn out to be even more perfect for tomatoes. The daily watering coupled with full sun and regular fertilizing(施肥) have turned the little plant into a tall bush. The cage I placed around it as the plant grew has long since disappeared under the thick leaves.
Now the task I face in harvesting the fruit is twofold; First, I have to find the red ones among the leaves, which means I almost have to stand on my head, and once found I have to reach down and under, pick the tomatoes and withdraw(缩回) my full fist without dropping the prize so dearly won. I found two full-blown white roses completely hidden as I picked tomatoes in June. But they were weak and the leaves already yellow for lack of light.
Here I am faced with a painful small decision To tear up a wonderful and productive tomato plant that offers up between ten and twenty ripe sweet tomatoes each day or say goodbye to several expensive and treasured roses. Like Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, I’ll think about that tomorrow.．What are the requirements for the healthy growth of rose?
| A．Frequent pruning and fertilizing. |
| B．A lot of care and the right soil. |
| C．Tomato plants grown alongside. |
| D．Cages placed around the roots. |
．The writer planted the tomato because _________.
| A．there was room for it in the garden |
| B．the soil was just right for it |
| C．it cost only $1.25 |
| D．the roses’ branches needed to be covered |
．This year the writer’s roses were __________.
| A．removed from the rose bed |
| B．largely hidden under the tomato plant |
| C．mostly damaged by too much sunlight |
| D．picked along with the tomatoes |
．By saying “the prize so dearly won” in paragraph 5, the writer wants to ________.
| A．express her liking for the roses |
| B．show the hardship of growing the roses |
| C．show the difficulty in picking the tomatoes |
| D．express her care for the tomatoes |
．In the situation described in the text, one good thing is that ________.
| A．the roses cost the writer little money |
| B．the writer has a daily harvest of tomatoes |
| C．someone will help the writer make the decision |
| D．the writer can now enjoy both the roses and tomatoes |
Buckminster Fuller once said, “The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.” If you want to live abundantly, decide what you really want and figure out a way to do it. Be clear and live with intent (意向).
You may have heard of Fred Lebow. He complained to his doctor that he lacked energy. His doctor advised him to take up running. He fell in love with it! He was 39 years old when he entered his first race.
Fred joined the New York Road Runners Club and organized New York City’s first marathon race. But what Fred truly wanted to do was to bring people together. He believes that anybody should be able to run — people of all ages and of any country.
Not everyone in New York was excited about people running through their neighborhood. A youth gang warned him that nobody had better run through their turf. “That’s great,” Fred said. “I need someone to protect the runners in your area, and you look like just the fellows to do it.”
He gave them each a hat, shirt and jacket and that year, when the marathon went through their neighborhood, these young men proudly guarded the runners along their way.
Fred decided what was truly important to him and he found a way to do it. He lived with intent. That single decision made his life remarkably different.
As one sports writer said, “Fate handed him a short race. With his goal, with his love of life, Fred turned it into a marathon.” Fred would say that it’s not about how long you live, but how you run the race of life. The purpose that Fred Lebow organized New York City’s first marathon race was _____.
| A．to be popular with people |
| B．to display his true love for sports development |
| C．to drive away his loneliness in the running |
| D．to get more people together |
Which word in the passage is the closest in meaning to the underlined word “turf”?
| A．Neighborhood. | B．Way. | C．Decision. | D．Race. |
What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Determination guarantees you a success. |
| B．The race of life with intent. |
| C．Nothing is impossible in one’s life race. |
| D．The benefits of taking up running. |
London Summer School in Classics
Dates
The London Summer School in Classics 2008 will be held at King’s College London. It will run from 8th July until 17th July. Applications close on 2nd June, 2008.
For an application form, please download either the 2-page PDF or the word format document from the foot of the page.
If you have any problems downloading the application form or any questions, please contact: London Summer School in Classics, King’s College London.
Tel: 020 7848 2299
Fax: 020 7848 2545
Organization
The school is organized by the colleges of the University of London. The summer school offers eight days of intensive teaching in Greek and Latin. There are four language classes each day as well as lectures and a debate, between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm. The course is not residential (提供住宿的), and there is no teaching during the weekend of 12th to 13th July.
The fee is £85.00. Travel grants (旅行补助金) are available as a contribution to your travel costs, but may not cover all your expenses. The travel grants are arranged during the summer school.
Teaching is generally in groups of 12-15 people and it, as far as possible, comprises (包含) of students of roughly the same level of experience. The style of teaching is friendly, but demanding: a lot of work is expected from students during the school, but they usually find the whole experience both stimulating and valuable. Some classes concentrate chiefly on reading, while others offer a mixture of grammar and translation practice. Our tutors include some of the most experienced and talented teachers of Classics in the London area and beyond.
The Summer School in Classics caters for a wide range of interests and for both school & university students as well as those who wish to learn Greek or Latin, or to revive their knowledge of the languages. Our principal concern is to provide a thorough program of language learning in a lively university environment.To join in the school, you have to apply before ________.
| A．8th July, 2008 | B．2nd June, 2008 |
| C．17th July, 2008 | D．13th July, 2008 |
As a student of the school, you are probably asked to _______.
| A．do a lot of reading in Greek and Latin |
| B．learn the grammar of Greek and Latin only |
| C．do some translation work only |
| D．speak Greek and Latin with experienced teachers |
What is the London Summer School in Classics most concerned about?
| A．Providing a stimulating experience for students. |
| B．Promoting students to develop a wide range of interests. |
| C．Teaching students languages in a lively environment. |
| D．Improving students’ level of debating in the argument. |
Which is one of the teaching ways of the school?
| A．Student groups consist of the same level students strictly. |
| B．Students needn’t do any work in the class. |
| C．Students learn Greek and Latin by listening to teachers all day. |
| D．Students are generally divided into groups of 12-15. |
Which of the following can we know from the passage?
| A．The fee is £85, including the travel costs. |
| B．Students needn’t go to class on 12th and 13th July. |
| C．People should fill in two application forms. |
| D．People can contact the school by phone or email. |
Wugging, or web use giving, describes the act of giving to charity at no cost to the user. By using Everyclick.com, which is being added to a number of university computers across the UK, students can raise money every time they search, but it won’t cost them a penny.
Research shows that students are extremely passionate about supporting charity — 88% of full time students have used the Internet to give to charity. This age group is often the least likely to have their own income. 19% of 22 to 24 year olds have short-term debts of more than £5,000. With rising personal debt levels in this age group, due to university tuition fees or personal loans and a lack of long-term savings, traditional methods of donating to charity are often not appealing (有感染力的) or possible.
Beth Truman, a 21 year old recent university graduate, has used Everyclick.com to donate to her chosen charity, the RSPCA, for two years and has seen the “wugging” movement grow in popularity with students. “When you’re at university you become more socially aware, but it’s sometimes hard to give to others when you have little money yourself,” says Beth. “Wugging is great for people in this age group as it allows them to use the technology on a daily basis to give to charity, without costing them a single penny.”
Wugging is perfect for people who want to be more socially aware and supportive but don’t feel they have the means to do so. Students using the web can raise money for causes they care about without costing them anything in terms of time or money, and charities get a valuable source of funding.
Everyclick.com works like any other search engine, allowing users to search for information, news and images but users can decide which of the UK’s 170,000 charities they would like to support through their clicks. Everyclick.com then makes monthly payments to every registered charity. Launched in June 2005, Everyclick.com is now the eighth largest search engine and one of the busiest charity websites in the UK.According to the passage, “wugging” is actually ______.
| A．a website |
| B．a charity-related action |
| C．a school organization |
| D．a student movement |
In the case of charity, Everyclick.com ______.
| A．frees students of the financial worries |
| B．receives much money from students |
| C．offers valuable information to students |
| D．praises students for their money-raising |
What does Beth Truman think of the “wugging” movement?
| A．It makes Everyclick.com popular in the UK. |
| B．It becomes easy to do charity because of it. |
| C．It results in students’ more social awareness. |
| D．It helps students to save money. |
From the passage, we can conclude that ______.
| A．most full time students do charity on the Internet every day |
| B．Everyclick.com helps students pay for the college education |
| C．“wugging” is a win-win idea for both students and charities |
| D．Everyclick.com is the most successful search engine in the UK |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．“Wugging”, a new popular term on the Internet. |
| B．British people show strong interest in charity. |
| C．More Britain charities benefit from the Internet. |
| D．Students raise money for charity by “wugging”. |
Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease. “The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age. The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to “________”.
| A．health | B．long life | C．ageing | D．effect |
The text mainly talks about ________.
| A．men’s heart cells |
| B．women’s ageing process、 |
| C．the gender difference |
| D．hearts and long life |
According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.
| A．women have more cells than men when they are born |
| B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat |
| C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age |
| D．women never lose their pumping power with age |
If you want to live longer, you should ________.
| A．enable your heart to beat much faster |
| B．find out the reason for ageing |
| C．exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy |
| D．prevent your cells from being lost |
We can know from the passage that ________.
| A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out |
| B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells |
| C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss |
| D．women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20 |
“Children who eat less salt and drink fewer sugar-sweetened soft drinks may significantly lower their risks of obesity,” researchers recently reported in the journal Hypertension.
“Sugar-sweetened soft drinks are a significant source of calorie intake in children,” said Feng J. He, a researcher at St George’s University of London, England. “It has been shown that sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption is related to obesity in young people.” They wanted to know whether there is a link between salt intake and sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption.
Dr He and colleagues analyzed data from a 1997 national survey of more than 2,000 people between 4 and 18 in Britain. “We found that children eating a lower-salt diet drank less fluid,” said He. “From our research, we estimated that 1 gram of salt cut from their daily diet would reduce fluid intake by 100 grams per day.”
The researchers also found that children eating a lower-salt diet drank fewer sugar-sweetened soft drinks. From their research, they predicted that reducing salt intake by 1 gram each day would reduce sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption by 27 grams per day, after. “If children aged 4 to 18 cut their salt intake by half, there would be a decrease of about two sugar-sweetened soft drinks per week per child, so each child would decrease calorie intake by almost 250 kilocalories per week,” Dr He said.
In previous studies, researchers found that a low-salt diet lowers blood pressure in children, and prevents the development of high blood pressure later in life. “Both high blood pressure and obesity increase the risk of having strokes and heart attacks,” Dr He said.
Dr He recommends that parents check labels and choose low-salt food products. “Small reductions in the salt content of 10 to 20 percent cannot be detected by the human salt taste receptors (感受器) and do not cause any technological or safety problems,” Dr He said.According to the passage, obesity is directly linked to ______.
| A．high-salt foods |
| B．sugar-sweetened soft drinks |
| C．high blood pressure |
| D．strokes and heart attacks |
Compared with previous studies, the recent one found that ______.
| A．a lower-salt diet may mean less sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption |
| B．a low-salt diet keeps children out of high blood pressure |
| C．children face the risk of having strokes and heart attacks |
| D．low-salt food products do not do harm to people’s health |
Which of the following statements would Dr He agree to?
| A．The less salt people eat, the healthier people become. |
| B．Children should reduce fluid intake in their daily life. |
| C．No high-salt food products will be available in shops. |
| D．A low-salt diet may prevent both high blood pressure and obesity. |
After reading the passage, who should take effective action?
| A．Children. | B．Parents. | C．Doctors. | D．Researchers. |