If a sitcom(情景喜剧)that lasts for l0 years is considered popular，then surely one that still arouses emotions after 20 must be considered a classic．Friends first aired in the US in 1994，featuring a cast of six young men and women in New York．In the time since，it’s become one of the most famous titles in the sitcom style，aired in over 100 countries and regions in the world．
The show is typical among those who grew up in the 1990s because it explores basic yet important themes like friendship，struggling to survive in a big city，and finding independence and identity，all of which are still relevant to young audiences today．
Against the background of the Internet age，IT staff who were once marginalized(排斥)and laughed at have experienced a revival due to the popularity of hit show The Big Bang Theory，in which four talents lacking normal social skills make an attempt at living on a college campus．
At the same time，Gossip Girl，describing a young cast of New Yorkers born with silver spoons in their mouths，demonstrates the difficulties upper-class adolescents experience．The show’s fashion and mature subject matter allowed it to capture the interest of both teenagers and adults．
Although these typical TV shows span a wide timeline and feature a variety of themes，they all have a universal topic．Love，money，friendship，career aspirations and identity are things all young people struggle to understand．Why are they still fascinating? It remains to be found out．Why is the sitcom Friends typical among young people in the 1990s?
| A．Because it is a breakthrough in the producing style． |
| B．Because it is the most influential sitcom of all time． |
| C．Because it addresses the subjects faced by the youth． |
| D．Because it predicts the future of the young at that time． |
What can we learn about The Big Bang Theory?
| A．It arouses people’s enthusiasm for computers． |
| B．There are four talents who are good at everything． |
| C．It is set in the time before the Internet came into being． |
| D．It improves the conditions of the people in technological industry． |
According to the passage，Gossip Girl ．
| A．attracts people of all ages |
| B．shows eye-catching style and adult subject |
| C．describes the life of ordinary girl |
| D．describes the hardships of upper-class people |
What will the author most probably talk about next?
| A．The introduction to other hit sitcoms． |
| B．The further information about the plot． |
| C．The emotional response among audience． |
| D．The analysis of the reasons for the appeal． |
Taking exams in a large group setting can be stressful for students and for the staff members who are watching over them. When classrooms are crowded and desks are close together, cheating might be tempting. 
One university in Thailand came up with an anti-cheating hat that makes it almost impossible for students to see other students’ papers. A photo of the students wearing the anti-cheating hats made its way to the Internet, and the university was criticized for making students wear those ridiculous looking homemade hats. The hats were made by stapling two pieces of paper onto a headband, one to each side of the head.
After being criticized, senior academic staff at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand, released a statement saying that the hats idea came from students. They said that in a bid to prevent cheating they asked the students for ideas on how to prevent cheating in the upcoming exam, which was being taken by almost one hundred students. Students came up with different ideas, and then the paper hat idea was selected by them as the most fit. The university claims that no one was forced to use the hat, but they all chose to do so. “When wearing the hat during the exam, students felt more relaxed,” Nattadon Rungruangkitkrai, a lecturer at the university said. “It was not meant to indicate that Kasetsart students often cheat on exams. I apologize if the photo makes other people look at my students in a negative way,” Rungruangkitkrai added.Why was the university criticized on the Internet?
| A．Wearing the anti-cheating hat made students look ridiculous. |
| B．The homemade anti-cheating hat looked too simple. |
| C．Wearing the anti-cheating hats couldn’t prevent students from cheating in the exam. |
| D．The university forced students to wear the anti-cheating hat. |
What’s most of the Kasetsart University students’ attitude towards the cheating hat?
| A．Skeptical | B．Supportive | C．Objective | D．Negative |
It can be inferred from the passage that_______
| A．it’s useless wearing the anti-cheating hat in the exam. |
| B．Kasetsart students are often caught cheating in the exam. |
| C．wearing the anti-cheating hat is effective to some degree. |
| D．some students are forced to wear the anti-cheating hat. |
It's going to be a chaotic(混乱的)day. How do I know? It’s Monday. OK, joking. But, I do predict that today will be filled with the normal last-minute tasks, fire drills, and unforeseen events. So, how do you keep yourself from being swept away in the stream of chaos? How do you remain calm while others are rushing and panicking? There's a problem… Panic! When things don't go as planned, how do you react? Are you the calm one who works to fix things? Or the one running around like Chicken Little screaming that the sky falling? Getting upset or alarmed can seem like natural reactions to a problem.
Here are a few tips to kelp you remain calm in the face of the storm:
• Don't PanicYou are better able to find a solution if you aren't panicking. If you can keep your head when others are losing theirs, you will be able to make a dear decision in the chaos.
• There Aren't Many True Emergenaes My time as a Naval Officer taught me about true emergencies. In the military, when there is a problem, people can get hurt or die. This is not usually the case when the office copier or email server goes down. Keep things in perspective. There are very few true emergencies in life.
• Avoid the "Fight or Flight" When you are stressed, your body will want to go into "fight or flight." Your body was designed to keep you safe from danger, but its natural reflexes aren't always the best solution against a project gone away. Keep your emotions in check and ensure that your physical reflexes don’t make bad decisions for you.
• Head Into The Problem While everyone else is running away, true leaders walk into a problem. Sticking your head in the sand only makes things worse. Instead of trying to ignore the situition, get to the heart of the issue as soon as possible. Only then can you address it
How Will You React? When you find yourself ready to lose it, take a step back. Ask, "In this truly an emergcncy?" Keep your head when others are losing theirs. And you'll find that you are that much closer to a solution.The author writes the first paragraph in order to______.
| A．describe a chaotic day | B．advocate a way of life | C．introduce a topic | D．make a joke |
In order to make a wiser decision in the chaos, you should _____.
| A．low your head | B．keep your head | C．shake your head | D．stick your head |
The example of the author's time as a Naval Officer is used to illustrate_____.
| A．there are seldom true emergencies in life |
| B．there are many true emergencies in life |
| C．some emergencies are really urgent |
| D．some emergencies can't be predicted |
What would the best title for the passage?
| A．Fight or Flight |
| B．True emergencies |
| C．Less Talking, More Doing |
| D．Keep calm in the face of the storm |
The world's largest solar thermal plant(太阳热能发电站)is set to begin producing power in the United States by the end of the year. Wind and energy from the sun are generally considered clean, unlike energy from coal-burning power stations. However, environmentalists now worry that too much solar power development could harm the local environment.
A California company — BrightSource Energy is building a huge solar power plant in the Mojave desert, about 60 kilometers southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The plant is known as the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Joe Desmond works for the company. "This is actually one of the highest concentrations of sunlight in the world, out here in Ivanpah." explained Desmond. BrightSource Energy will deploy 170,000 specially designed mirrors to direct solar energy towards boilers on top of three power towers. The steam produced in the boilers will drive turbine (涡轮) to make electricity. Joe Desmond says the steam can reach temperatures of more than 260 degrees Celsius. "We can store the sun's thermal energy in the form of molten salt, so we can produce electricity even when the sun goes down. There is a lot of interest in concentrating solar power around the globe in environmnents where you have lots of sun, such as China, South Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, explained Desmond.
Environmentalists generally support the idea of solar power, however, many are concerned about the effect of power plants on sensitive environment. Lisa Belenky is a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, a private group. She says environmentalists are specifically worried about the effect of the Ivanpah Solar Project on the sensitive plant and animal life in that part of Mojave desert. "Even though the desert seems big, when you start cutting it up, it can really affect how the species and the animals and the plants are able to survive in the long run,"said Lisa Belenky. BrightSource Energy has already spent more than $ 50 million to move endangered desert tortoises away from the power plant. but Lisa Belenky says this is not the answer. "We should be reusing areas that have a1ready been disturbed, like old mining sites, for example...either on homes, on businesses, parking lots." said Belenky.
There have also been reports of birds dying at the Ivanpah Plant and others like it.
Some birds die after colliding with solar equipment which the animals mistake for water. Other birds were killed or suffered burns after flying through the intense heat at the solar thermal plant. As solar projects increase, environmentalists and developers are considering what to do to reduce bird death.Why is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System being built in the desert?
| A．Because the temperature is extremely high in the desert. |
| B．Because there is no life in the desert. |
| C．Because there is much salt in the desert. |
| D．Because sunlight is highly focused in the desert. |
Why can the plant make electricity at night?
| A．Because the sun's thermal energy can be stored in the form of steam. |
| B．Because the sun's thermal energy can be stored in the form of molten salt. |
| C．Because the sun'ss thermal energy can be stored through mirrors |
| D．Because the sun's thermal energy can be stored in the boilers. |
According to Lisa Belenky, in order to reduce the effect,_____.
A. we should move all the plants and animals away from the solar plant
B. we should guide the bird not to hit the solar plant
C we should build the solar plant in disturbed areas
D. we should build the solar plant in the desertThe author’s attitude towards the solar projects is _____.
| A．supportive | B．critical | C．indifferent | D．cautious |
Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn new things. But the organizers of a new study say there's no scientific evidence that early musical training affects the intelligence of young people.
An estimated 80 percent of American adults think music lessons improve children's abilily to learn or their performance in school. They say that the satisfaction for learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.
Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there's one thing musical training does not do. They say it does not make children more intelligent. Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard's School of Education. He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child's intellectual development. He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of 4-year-olds and their parents. One group attended music class, the other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts—arts that can be seen.
"The evidence there is 'no'. We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids participating in these music clases," said Mehr.Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says the results have been mixed. He says only one study seems to show a small percentage increase in IQ, intellectual scores among students after one year of music lessons. He does not believe that IQ is a good measure of child's intelligence. He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musical training group did on mental processing tasks or projects, then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons. There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group.
The researchers comfirmed the results with a larger group of children and their parents.Mr Mehr says music lessons may not offer children a fast easy way to gain entry to the best schools later of their life. But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, "We teach music because music is important for us."According to the new study, musical training______.
| A．makes children smarter |
| B．helps a child express creativity |
| C．does not make children more intelligent |
| D．improve children's ability to learn in school |
Samuel Mehr may agree that______.
| A．the children who attended music class are smarter than those who attended arts class |
| B．IQ is a good measure of a child's intelligence |
| C．we needn't to teach children music |
| D．music training is still important for cultural reasons |
In order to confirm his view, Samuel Mehr______.
| A．conducted more than one research |
| B．interviewed many American adults |
| C．taught two groups of 4-yetr-olds music and arts |
| D．offered children a fast way to be admitted to the best schools |
The artical may be taken from a report about _____.
| A．health | B．education | C．culture | D．economy |
Researchers conducting a study of hospital stays for over two hundred and eighty six thousand older folks found something interesting in their data.
The number of hospitalizations for heart disease and stroke went down significantly among a certain group of people at a certain time of year. What folks, and what time of year, you ask? Flu season and the lucky people were the ones who got flu shots(流感疫苗).
It’s generally recommended that people over fifty get their flu shots every year. Influenza(流行性感冒) is no small thing. it’s responsible for around thirty six thousand deaths a year in the U. S. alone. Getting the shots also cuts down on the chances of getting pneumonia(肺炎), which is especially dangerous in seniors.
But what wasn’t known was that there seems to be an added benefit to getting a flu shots in terms of warding off heart problems. The data,in fact, are quite strong in suggesting this is the case.
In this study, flu shots cut clown the number of hospitalizations for heart disease by nineteen percent. Stroke went down sixteen percent one season and a whopping twenty-three percent a second season.These are big results.
So what's the connection between getting a flu shot and having a stronger heart? It isn’t yet known.
Researchers speculate that the flu virus itself may do damage to blood vessels(血管), possibly making clots(血块)more likely. Blood clots in the heart can cause heart attacks, and blood clots in the brain can cause strokes.
Whatever the specific details are, there's one more good reason to follow your doctor’ s advice and get that annual flu shot.According to the study, the number of hospitalizations for heart disease and stroke went down significanntly among the ones who _____.
| A．got flu shots after they were ill |
| B．got flu shots before they were ill |
| C．got flu shots at the flu season |
| D．got flu shots whenever convenient |
The benefits of getting flu shots can be listed except that_____.
| A．it can cut down on the chances of getting pneumonia |
| B．it can cut down the number of hospitalizations for heart disease |
| C．it can kill the flu virus |
| D．if can make blood clots |
The underlined phrase "warding off" probably means_______.
| A．keeping away | B．dealing with | C．setting off | D． picking up |
According to the passage, we'd better ______.
| A．work out to fight against influenza | B．get flu shot every year |
| C．follow our doctor's all advice | D．protect our blood vessels |