The Palm Islands are the largest artificial islands in the world and are under construction in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. They are being developed as tourist, leisure, and residential resorts, and will increase the coastline of the country by 120 kilometres.
After four years of planning and careful consideration of the environmental issues, construction started in 2001. Dutch engineers with experience of reclaiming land from the sea were employed in the building of the first two islands. The site for all three islands is an area of the sea where the water is not very deep. Sand is taken from the seabed and sprayed into the construction site. Although the shallow water facilitates this process, the islands are still very exposed to the currents and tidal movements of the sea. Rocks are used to hold the sand in place resulting in a large crescent (月状的) structure. This acts as a breakwater and protects the islands from the sea.
The first two islands are in the shape of date palm trees and consist of a trunk and 17 frond, or leaves coming off the trunk. The first island, named Palm Jumeirah, has three five-star hotels in the trunk, and luxury homes in the leaves. It is astonishing that when these homes went on sale in 2004, they were all sold within three days.
The second palm, Jebel Ali, was started in 2002 and is designed to be an entertainment centre. Six marinas (小游艇船坞) are planned, with a water theme park, and homes built on stilts (桩柱) in the water.
The Palm Deira planned to be the largest of the three islands, with a length of 14 km and a width of 8.5 km, an area larger than the city of Paris. It will consist of residential properties, marinas, shopping malls, sports facilities, and clubs. These will be open to both residents and tourists.
More artificial islands, the World Islands, are now being constructed near the Palm Jumeirah. They consist of 300 private islands grouped into the shape of the continents of the world and will be used for estates, private homes, community islands, and resorts.
Unquestionably, these artificial islands are one of the wonders of the modern world. They will also maintain Dubai’s status as one of the leading tourist destinations in the region.According to the passage, all the following are right EXCEPT___________.
| A．Some Dutch engineers are experienced in reclaiming land from the sea. |
| B．The islands are being built in the shallow water of the sea. |
| C．All the luxury homes on Palm Jumeirah were sold. |
| D．The World Islands are bigger than the Palm Jumeriah. |
The underlined word “facilitates” in the second paragraph probably means___________.
| A．holds back | B．makes easier |
| C．slows down | D．leads to |
What is the passage written for?
| A．To introduce the wonderful artificial islands. |
| B．To show how to build artificial islands. |
| C．To offer a travel service for tourists. |
| D．To prove the Palm Islands are the largest artificial islands in the world. |
When I first told people I was going to work in Cameroon, the most common reaction was：“Why？” The second was：“It’s in Africa；you’ll die！” The third: “Where is that？”So let me give some answers. I was offered a job that looked interesting in a part of the world I’d never been to before. I’d also long had an interest in Africa, so I decided it was time to find out the reality. A small amount of research showed that in more than 40 years since gaining independence, Cameroon has been a peaceful country with no wars. Not only were there no wars but Cameroon is a food exporter to the region.
Now, after three years, I can say that these have been the healthiest years of my life! No malaria or any of the other frightening diseases you read about when Africa is mentioned .The worst thing that ever happened to me was a bout of food poisoning-once.
So what is it like to teach here? Well not surprisingly, not so different from anywhere else. Most students come to us with a bit of English in their heads. Cameroon is a bilingual country with French and English as official languages, while there are also close to 200 local ethnic languages in a country of 16 million people. French is the dominant language, spoken by about eighty percent of the population.
The local school system is very traditional and somewhat strict. Perhaps not surprisingly when there can be up to 150 students in the classroom ( of which maybe 30 have the books, and there are probably seats for 70)．Like anywhere, students appreciate it if you know a bit about their country, and not just Roger Milla (top scorer of the 1990 World Cup, in case you’re wondering). It helps if you know the names of the ten provinces, know who the first president was, or can say a word in a local language.
So in conclusion: Cameroon isn’t just football. Nor is it war, poverty and disease. It’s just life and people, like anywhere else.On hearing the writer’s decision, most people__________.
| A．admired him |
| B．considered it as a joke |
| C．didn’t understand him |
| D．laughed at him |
According to the passage, Cameroon is__________.
| A．peaceful after liberation |
| B．a country full of diseases |
| C．a poor country, especially lack of food |
| D．quite different from others in education |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Food export may lead to many frightening diseases. |
| B．Most students in Cameroon do not need books. |
| C．Cameroon is not as bad as people commonly believed. |
| D．There must be a lot of people suffering from food poisoning. |
Which language is spoken by about eighty percent of the population in Cameroon?
| A．local dialect | B．French |
| C．An ethnic language | D．English |
When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing one person. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.
Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn't have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny's mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.
Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."
Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans' corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success. Helene tied several chopsticks together to show ______.
| A．the strength of family unity |
| B．the difficulty of growing up |
| C．the advantage of chopsticks |
| D．the best way of giving a lesson |
We can I earn from Paragraph 2 that the An family ______.
| A．started a business in 1975 |
| B．left Vietnam without much money |
| C．bought a restaurant in San Francisco |
| D．opened a sandwich shop in Los Angeles |
What can we infer about the An daughters?
| A．They did not finish their college education. |
| B．They could not bear to work in the family business. |
| C．They were influenced by what Helene taught them. |
| D．They were troubled by disagreement among family members. |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to Run a Corporation |
| B．Strength Comes from Peace |
| C．How to Achieve a Big Dream |
| D．Family Unity Builds Success |
Welcome to the Electronic Village to explore new ways of language teaching and learning.
| Electronic Village Program (Thursday, June 18, 2015) |
|
| Nearpod ❖9:00 am to 10:00 am ❖Room 501 Nearpod is a software program that creates a rich context (语境) for students to learn vocabulary. The presenter will show how to use it. |
TEO ❖ 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ❖Room 502 Our students come from different backgrounds but have the same desire to learn on-line. The presenter will use examples from his first on-line class to explain how any teacher can begin teaching on-line with TEO. |
| Kahoot ❖10:30 am to 11:30 am ❖ Room 601 Kahoot software can be used to create grammar tests which can be graded on a network. It can provide students with instant feedback (反馈), including reports about their strengths and weaknesses. |
Prezi ❖3:30 pm to 4:20 pm ❖Room 602 Uses of Prezi in listening and speaking courses draw students' attention to speaking more fluently. The presenter will show how students can use Prezi to confidently present on a variety of topics, including introducing family, friends, and hobbies. |
Nearpod can be used to ______.
| A．offer grammar tests |
| B．teach listening on-line |
| C．help vocabulary learning |
| D．gain fluency in speaking |
If you want to improve your speaking skills, you can go to____________.
| A．Room 501 | B．Room 502 |
| C．Room 601 | D．Room 602 |
Which of the following can assess your grammar learning?
| A．Nearpod. | B．Kahoot. |
| C．TEO. | D．Prezi. |
A teacher who wants to learn on-line teaching is expected to arrive by ______.
| A．9:00 am | B．10:30 am |
| C．2:00 pm | D．3:30 pm |
In the United States alone, over 100 million cell-phones are thrown away each year. Cell-phones are part of a growing mountain of electronic waste like computers and personal digital assistants. The electronic waste stream is increasing three times faster than traditional garbage as a whole.
Electronic devices contain valuable metals such as gold and silver. A Swiss study reported that while the weight of electronic goods represented by precious metals was relatively small in comparison to total waste, the concentration (含量) of gold and other precious metals was higher in So-called e-waste than in naturally occurring minerals.
Electronic wastes also contain many poisonous metals. Even when the machines are recycled and the harmful metals removed, the recycling process often is carried out in poor countries, in practically uncontrolled ways which allow many poisonous substances to escape into the environment.
Creating products out of raw materials creates much more waste material, up to 100 times more, than the material contained in the finished products. Consider again the cell-phone, and imagine the mines that produced those metals, the factories needed to make the box and packaging(包装) it came in. Many wastes produced in the producing process are harmful as well.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that most waste is dangerous in that “the production, distribution, and use of products — as well as management of the resulting waste — all result in greenhouse gas release.” Individuals can reduce their contribution by creating less waste at the start — for instance, buying reusable products and recycling.
In many countries the concept of extended producer responsibility is being considered or has been put in place as an incentive (动机) for reducing waste. If producers are required to take back packaging they use to sell their products, would they reduce the packaging in the first place?
Governments’ incentive to require producers to take responsibility for the packaging they produce is usually based on money. Why, they ask, should cities or towns be responsible for paying to deal with the bubble wrap (气泡垫) that encased your television?
From the governments’ point of view, a primary goal of laws requiring extended producer responsibility is to transfer both the costs and the physical responsibility of waste management from the government and tax-payers back to the producers.By mentioning the Swiss study, the author intends to tell us that _________ .
| A．the weight of e-goods is rather small |
| B．E-waste deserves to be made good use of |
| C．natural minerals contain more precious metals |
| D．the percentage of precious metals is heavy in e-waste |
The responsibility of e-waste treatment should be extended _________ .
| A．from producers to governments |
| B．from governments to producers |
| C．from individuals to distributors |
| D．from distributors to governments |
What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．The increase in e-waste. |
| B．The creation of e-waste. |
| C．The seriousness of e-waste. |
| D．The management of e-waste. |
Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession(经济衰退).
“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辞的) companion “energy security” are, however, unreliable concepts that are rarely thought through. What is it we want independence from exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle(涓涓细流) of bio-fuel(生物燃料) available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to tolerate the environmental impacts of domestic(国内的) energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices. At the same time, we get massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.What does the author say about energy independence for America?
| A．It sounds very attractive. |
| B．It will bring oil prices down. |
| C．It ensures national security. |
| D．It has long been everyone’s dream. |
What does the author think of bio-fuels?
| A．They keep America’s economy running healthily. |
| B．They cause serious damage to the environment. |
| C．They prove to be a good alternative(substitute) to petroleum. |
| D．They do not provide a sustainable energy supply. |
Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
| A．It wants to expand its storage of raw oil. |
| B．Its own oil reserves are quickly running out. |
| C．Its own oil production falls short of demand. |
| D．It wants to keep its own environment untouched. |
What does the author say about oil trade?
| A．It makes for economic recession． |
| B．It brings benefit only to the sellers． |
| C．It improves economic efficiency． |
| D．It saves the cost of oil exploration． |
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To explain the increase of international oil trade. |
| B．To raise Americans’ awareness of the energy crisis. |
| C．To argue for America’s dependence on oil imports. |
| D．To stress the importance of energy protection. |