Why is pink or purple a color for girls and blue or brown for boys?
The answer depends largely on cultural values as well as personal experiences. To the Egyptians, green was a color that represented the hope and joy of spring, while for Muslims, it means heaven. Red is a symbol of good luck in many cultures. In China, children are given money in a red envelope to bring good fortune in the New Year. For many nations, blue is a symbol of protection and religious beliefs. Greek people often wear a blue necklace hoping to protect themselves against evils.
People’s choice of colors is also influenced by their bodies' reactions toward them. Green is said to be the most restful color. It has the ability to reduce pain and relax people both mentally and physically. People who work in green environment have been found to have fewer stomach aches.
Red can cause a person’s blood pressure to rise and increase people’s appetites（食欲）. Many decorators will include different shades of red in the restaurant. Similarly, many commercial websites will have a red “Buy Now” button because red is a color that easily catches a person’s eye.
Blue is another calming color. Unlike red, blue can cause people to lose appetite. So if you want to eat less, some suggest that eating from blue plates can help.
The next time you are deciding on what to wear or what color to decorate your room, think about the color carefully.Muslims regard green as a symbol of heaven mainly because of their .
| A．cultural values |
| B．commercial purposes |
| C．personal experiences |
| D．physical reactions to the color |
Why will many commercial websites have a red “Buy Now” button?
| A．To relax people physically. |
| B．To increase people’s appetites. |
| C．To encourage people to make a purchase. |
| D．To cause a person’s blood pressure to rise. |
What color might help lose weight according to the text?
Which of the following would be the most proper title for the text?
| A．Colors and Human Beings |
| B．The Cultural Meaning of Color |
| C．Colors and Personal Experiences |
| D．The Meaning and Function of Color |
Even if you are naturally shy, these three tricks will help you to quickly build a new social circle in any new city.
1. Take pictures.
One of the great things about taking pictures at an event or party is that it gives you an excuse to get in touch with the person later. Everybody loves seeing pictures of themselves, and it’s very easy after taking a picture to say “If you’d like I can email it to you”. This can be the seed that leads to new connections. The next time you hear about a fun event, email your new contacts to let them know about it.
2. Eat alone in public.
You might feel self-conscious eating by yourself but it has an important benefit: you are much easier to approach when you are alone. People may be afraid of interrupting you or being rude if you are in a conversation with someone else. Bring a book or newspaper to read (this will make you feel less self-conscious). Plus, having an interesting book with you will give others an excuse to start a conversation if they’ve read it.
3. Join a class, sports team, or club.
Yoga, salsa dancing, volleyball, Toastmasters (a public speaking club), a class for work, etc. Take up a new hobby or continue an old one!
These are all great places to meet new people, primarily because you will be forced to see the same people over and over again in the class. You will automatically make friends with them if you have a common interest and are forced to see each other again.
Tips:
* In the beginning, never turn down an invitation from someone, even if it’s something you wouldn’t normally do.
* Email your new friends with fun things to do instead of always asking what their plans are. If they have a better plan you can drop yours and join them. This will help establish you as someone who is contributing value instead of just taking it (people want this in a friend).
* Don’t let little things in life upset you or be a negative person. People don’t want to be around someone like that!According to the text, which of the following is NOT mentioned as an advantage of joining a class?
| A．It helps you find out people who share a common interest with you. |
| B．It helps you find out your interest and take up a new hobby. |
| C．It offers an opportunity to meet the same people repeatedly. |
| D．It is a good way to meet new people and make friends in a new city. |
Which of the following pieces of advice is a tip from the text?
| A．Try to be outgoing and talkative instead of being shy. |
| B．Never turn down an invitation from your friends. |
| C．Offer suggestions on how to spend time together. |
| D．Always give a positive response to any request. |
By writing the text, the author intends to tell us ________.
| A．why you should change when you move to a new city |
| B．how you can make new friends in a new city |
| C．why you should make new friends in a new city |
| D．how you can keep in touch with strangers |
Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in order to cut the greenhouse gases they send out，which is thought to be responsible for global warming．
Thanks to special bacteria in the stomachs，kangaroo flatulence（肠胃气胀）contains no methane（甲烷）and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep which produce large quantities of the harmful gas．
While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a huge factory chimney pushing out carbon dioxide，farm animals’ passing wind contributes to a surprisingly high percentage of total emission（排放物）in some countries．
“Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from methane from cattle and sheep，’’said Athol Klieve，a senior research scientist with the Queensland state government．
“And if you look at another country such as New Zealand，which has got a much higher agricultural base，they are actually up around 50 percent，”he said．
Researchers say the bacteria also make the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers．
But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep．
Another group of scientists，meanwhile，has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos．And about twenty percent of health-conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already．
“It’s low in fat，it’s got high protein levels and it’s very clean in the sense that basically it’s the free-range（放养的）animal，”said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales’s institute of environmental studies．The passage mainly talks about ________.
| A．a better way to prevent air pollution |
| B．the danger of methane from farm animals |
| C．possible solutions to protecting environment |
| D．a recent research on global warming |
Scientists intend to put the bacteria into cattle and sheep in order to ________.
| A．prevent them from sending out harmful gases |
| B．promote Australian farming |
| C．protect Australian ecosystem |
| D．make the most of the special bacteria |
Another possible solution to the problem is ________.
| A．to reduce the number of animals raised on farms |
| B．to eat more kangaroos rather than keep more sheep and cattle |
| C．to eat more plants rather than beef and mutton |
| D．to grow more trees to absorb carbon dioxide |
From the passage we learn that ________.
| A．it is easy to transfer the bacteria to cattle and sheep |
| B．farm animals are to blame for global warming in some countries |
| C．cattle and sheep produce more methane than kangaroos |
| D．less cattle and sheep are raised in New Zealand |
“I’ve changed my mind．I wanted to have a telescope, but now I want my dad back．” Lucien Lawrence’s letter to Father Christmas, written after his father had been knifed to death outside his school gate, must have touched everyone’s heart．Lucien went on to say that without his father he couldn’t see the stars in the sky．When those we love depart from us, we cannot see the stars for a while．
But Lucien, the stars are still there, and one day, when you are older and your tears have gone, you will see them again．And, in a strange way, I expect that you will find your father there too, either in your mind or heart．I find that my parents, who died years ago, still linger （留连） in many of my dreams and that I think of them perhaps more than I ever did when they were alive．I still live to please them and I’m still surprised by their reactions．I remember that when I became a professor, I was so proud, or rather so pleased with myself that I couldn’t wait to cable my parents．The reply was a long time in coming, but when it did, all my mother said was “I hope this means that now you will have more time for the children!” I haven’t forgotten．The values of my parents still live on．
It makes me pause and think about how I will live on in the hearts and minds of my children and of those for whom I care．Would I have been as ready as Philip Lawrence has been to face the aggressors（入侵者）, and to lay down my life for those in my care? How many people would want me back for Christmas? It’s a serious thought, which gives me pause．
I pray silently, sometimes, in the dead of night, that ancient cry of a poet “Deliver my soul from the sword and my darling from the power of the God．” Yet I know death comes to us all, and sometimes comes suddenly．We must therefore plan to live together, but live as if we will die tomorrow．We live on, I’m sure, in the lives of those we loved, and therefore we ought to have a care for what they will remember and what they will treasure．If more parents knew this in their hearts to be true, there might be fewer knives on our streets today．According to the whole text we can see that the first paragraph ________.
| A．puts forward the subject of the text |
| B．shows the author’s pity on the kid |
| C．serves as an introduction to the discussion |
| D．makes a clear statement of the author’s views |
In the second paragraph the author mainly wants to explain to us ________.
| A．how much he misses his parents now |
| B．why his parents often appear in his dream |
| C．when Lucien will get over all his sadness |
| D．how proud he was when he succeeded in life |
In the author’s opinion, the value of a person’s life is ________.
| A．to leave a precious memory to the people related |
| B．to have a high sense of duty to the whole society |
| C．to care what others will remember and treasure |
| D．to share happiness and sadness with his family |
What does the writer mean by the sentence taken from an old poem?
| A．Call on criminals and murderers to lay down their guns. |
| B．Advise parents to stay with their children safely at home. |
| C．Spend every day meaningfully in memory of death. |
| D．Try to keep violence and murder far away from society. |
Scientists are developing a new kind of machine to take the place of humans. These machines can do jobs in places that are too dangerous for humans. For example, they are being developed to work in nuclear power center, deep under the oceans and in outer space.
John Marrit, a psychologist(心理学家) in Williamsburg Massachusetts, helped develop the new machine. This is how they work. A machine is placed in an area far away from the person who operates it. The person wears special hard hat with television screens and sound equipment. The screens and sound equipment let the person see and hear exactly what the machine is seeing and hearing. Mr. Marrit says this gives the person the feeling of being in the same place as the machine. The idea, he says, is being there without going there. The person uses an electronic control to make the machine move. The machine copies the person’s movements exactly. If the person raises his right arm, the machine raises the right arm, too. This means an expert can do a dangerous job while staying in the safe place. For example, a person can direct the machine to destroy a bomb without going near the bomb himself.The new kind of machine being introduced in the passage is _______.
| A．in existence | B．only an idea |
| C．being tried out | D．being researched and developed |
The machine _______.
| A．follows the person’s order |
| B．is controlled by a computer |
| C．does exactly what the person does |
| D．is controlled by a television on the person’s head |
The difference between such a new machine and a robot is that _______.
| A．the new machine is more difficult to make than a robot |
| B．the new machine is more difficult to be controlled |
| C．a robot is controlled by man indirectly |
| D．a robot can’t be used in places too dangerous or faraway |
A flock of hungry pigeons were flying across the sky in search of food. Having traveled a long distance, they felt tired and settled down on a tree. Just below the tree, they saw grains strewn (撒满) all over the ground. The pigeons were happy to have found enough food to eat. All the pigeons came down from the tree and started eating the grains. As they were doing so, a huge net fell on them and trapped them all.
The pigeons were taken aback. They noticed a hunter sitting at a distance from the tree, a bow and arrow in hand. The pigeons realized it was the hunter who had trapped them in the net. The hunter got up and began to move towards the pigeons.
The leader of the pigeons spoke, “Friends, we are in great trouble. The hunter will catch us if we do not act swiftly in a few seconds. There is only one option available at this moment. Let all of us use our force together and fly up along with the net. If all of us use our force and fly together, we can fly carrying the net along with us. Let us start now.”
All the pigeons agreed with him and flew high carrying the net along with them. After traveling enough distance away from the hunter, the pigeons settled on a tree and carefully came out of the net one by one and thus escaped the evil design of the hunter.Who strewed the grains over the ground?
| A．A villager. | B．The hunter. |
| C．The pigeon. | D．The writer. |
The word “”has the closest meaning to the underlined word “option”.
| A．reason | B．choice | C．action | D．opinion |
How did the pigeons react when they got trapped?
| A．They didn’t know what to do. |
| B．They tried to fly in all directions. |
| C．They remained rather calm. |
| D．They decided to fight for their lives. |
This story wants to tell us that .
| A．two heads are better than one. |
| B．confidence will save everyone. |
| C．teamwork can work wonders. |
| D．actions speak louder than words. |