Why do people travel? Well, many people travel because they want to see other countries and visit places that are famous, interesting or beautiful. People also travel to meet new friends, to try new kind of food, to experience life in other parts of the world or simply to get away from cold weather. Yet there are other reasons why people travel. Many of today’s travelers are looking for an unusual experience and adventure travel is becoming more and more popular. Here is a quick look at two popular activities: hiking and rafting.
HIKING
Hiking is a great way to travel. You will get close to nature and take exercise at the same time. Hiking is easy to do and doesn’t have to be very expensive. You can hike close to home or travel to other places. The basic equipment you need for hiking is simple: good shoes, clothes and a backpack. You can hike in the mountains, in a forest or along a river. You can also go for a hike in the city.
Hiking is fun and exciting, but you shouldn’t forget safety. Here are some basic tips for successful hiking: 1. Don’t hike alone. 2. Tell someone where you are going; 3. Bring water and a good map; 4. Watch out for dangers, such as spiders, snakes, or poisonous plants; 5. Wear a hat to protect yourself from the sun; 6.Bring a mobile phone if you have one.
RAFTING
Another exciting adventure is rafting. A raft is a small boat that you can use to paddle down rivers and streams. Rafting is a good way to experience nature. If you want a normal rafting trip, choose a quiet stream or river that is wide and has few trees and other dangers. The name “whitewater” comes from the fact that the water in these streams and rivers looks white when it moves quickly.
As with hiking, you should always think about your safety and wear good clothes. You also need to learn the basic skills of rafting, such as how to handle the raft, how to paddle and how to get in and out of the raft. You should not go rafting unless you know how to swim, and you should always wear a life jacket.Adventure travelers want to _______.
| A．try new kinds of food |
| B．meet new friends. |
| C．experience fun and excitement |
| D．visit famous sites or beautiful places |
Hiking is a kind of adventure travel because _________.
| A．it is not expensive |
| B．it is not only exciting but inexpensive |
| C．you need a lot of equipment for it |
| D．you will often put yourself in danger. |
While hiking or rafting, it is important to think about________.
| A．cost | B．excitement | C．safety | D．fun |
While you go rafting, you have to _________.
| A．put on a life jacket. | B．know how to swim |
| C．wear leather shoes | D．have rafting skills |
Scientist Says ‘No’ to Human Cloning
“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.”
That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and a cat.
They just might succeed in cloning Missy soon — or perhaps not for another five years.
Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog's eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate（代孕的）mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted(流产，发育不全) fetuses（胎）may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. “Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,” he says.
Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, Westhusin's phone has been ringing with people calling in hopes of duplicating their cats and dogs, cattle and horses. “A lot of people want to clone pets, especially if the price is right,” says Westhusin. Cost is no obstacle for Missy's mysterious billionaire owner; he's put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M's research.
Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she does die. The prototype（原型；雏形）is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and supersmart. Missy's master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament（气质、性情）. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy.”
Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs. nurture. It could also lead to the cloning of special rescue dogs and many endangered animals.
However, Westhusin is cautious about his work. He knows that even if he gets a dog pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems~ “Why would you ever want to clone humans,” Westhusin asks, “when we're not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”By “stupid endeavor”, Westhusin means to say that ________.
| A．human cloning is a foolish undertaking |
| B．animal cloning is absolutely impractical |
| C．human cloning should be done selectively |
| D．animal cloning is not worth the effort at all |
What does the first paragraph tell us about Westhusin's dog cloning project?
| A．Its success is already in sight. |
| B．It is progressing smoothly. |
| C．It is doomed to utter failure. |
| D．Its outcome remains uncertain. |
By cloning Missy, Mark Westhusin hopes to ________.
| A．study the possibility of cloning humans |
| B．search for ways to modify its temperament |
| C．find out the differences between Missy and its clones |
| D．examine the reproductive system of the dog species |
We learn from the passage that animal clones are likely to have ________.
| A．a bad temper |
| B．defective（有缺陷的、有毛病的）organs |
| C．immune deficiency |
| D．an abnormal shape |
LOS ANGELES, the US
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled Michael Jackson’s father can receive some medical records related to his superstar son’s death．The judge will review the records first before making them accessible to Joe Jackson’s lawyer，Brian Oxman．Beckloff said the man can only receive records on or after June 25一the day Michael Jackson died．
VANCOUVER，CANADA
World number one Zhou Yang overcame three South Korean players to win the women’s short track speed skating 1,500 meters final at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games．The l8-year-old made perfect debut(首次亮相)as she set an Olympic record of a winning time of 2 minutes and l6,993 seconds among other seven skaters．
China has never won the women’s l,500 meters in the Olympics before，and this time Zhou’s performance gave China its third gold medal in Vancouver．
BElJING，CHINA
China’s first compulsory,(强制性的)safety regulation on primary school buses，which requires every seat to have a seat belt，will take effect on July l to help ensure safer transportation for the country’s 100 million students．
Each primary school bus must also be equipped with a “black box”，0r a recording monitor，to record speed，travel time and distance．Also，the bus must be staffed by teachers who will ensure student safety．In addition，the new rule states that the color of the school buses should be yellow，and each bus must have at least two emergency exits．
Texas，the US
A software engineer who crashed his plane into a Texas building housing a United States tax agency office，killing himself and at least one worker，apparently left behind an angry anti-government manifesto(宣言) detailing his financial difficulties and tax problems．The pilot took off from an airport in Georgetown．about 48 km from Austin．He flew low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the building．We can learn from the first news that_________．
| A．all Michael Jackson’s medical records can be accessed |
| B．Mitchell Beckloff will not go over the record first |
| C．Joe Jackson’s lawyer will not get any records |
| D．medical records before June 25 won’t be received |
The new school bus safety rules include all the followings EXCEPT_____________.
| A．the color of the bus | B．the equipment of the bus |
| C．the driver’s experience | D．emergency exits |
It seems the software engineer crashed into the US tax office mainly because of___________.
| A．unhappy marriage | B．financial and tax problems |
| C．heavy work pressure | D．mental disease |
We can infer from the news that____________.
| A．Joe Jackson will be the first to receive the medical records |
| B．the tax agency office is somewhere inside the building in Texas |
| C．Zhou Yang once broke the Olympic records in the same event |
| D．the software engineer flew high over skyline before crashing into the building |
A new system that scans customers’ fingerprints and subtracts（减去）the grocery bill from their bank accounts has taken supermarkets in Germany to use the new system. “Almost a quarter of our customers pay with their fingers,” said an employee at the headquarters. Edeka has tried the system at 70 of its supermarkets. It says it will introduce it at 200 others because customers like it.
“At first we thought that only the young who really keep up with the latest technology would be interested, but we were wrong,” said Stefan Sewoester from IT Werke. “Almost two-thirds of the people who use the system are 40 and older,” he said.
IT Werke, a computer company, is one of the pioneers of fingerprint payment software in Germany. It has helped about 150 shops, canteens and bars to put in the fingerprint scanning machines. Each costs about 2,000 euros.
To sign up for the service, customers must have their fingerprints taken and leave their addresses and banking details with the shop. The shop then takes the cost of goods directly out of the customer’s bank account.
“It is especially a good thing for elderly people. Now they do not have to remember their pin to pay with their bank cards, or to scratch around for their glasses or cash.” Sewoester said.
The stores benefit from the system too. It saves more than time in the check-out line. It also cuts out the hidden costs of accepting electronic card payments.According to the passage, the fingerprint system______.
| A．was invented by the Edeka supermarket chain |
| B．has caused payment revolution in Germany |
| C．is more popular with young people |
| D．is preferred by most American customers |
To apply to pay with fingers, customers are required to do all of the following EXCEPT______.
| A．have their fingerprints taken |
| B．leave their addresses |
| C．give the shop information about the bank accounts |
| D．have their phones connected with computers |
Why do elderly people benefit much from the fingerprint machine?
| A．They will spend less time on shopping.. |
| B．They are not forgetful. |
| C．They don’t like to pay in cash |
| D．They always fail to find their bank cards. |
How the iron of tomorrow (the first Self Clean Iron)can change your lifestyle today?
General Electric introduces the iron of tomorrow. The iron can clean itself, inside where irons get dirty. Because it cleans itself each and every time you empty it.
How? With a push of a magic blue button.
The magic blue button
The first thing you’ll notice that’s different about this iron is the blue button on the side. It’s marked “Self Clean”. Push this blue button, and you can wash out loose mineral deposits that remain and block up inside. Push this button, and you’ve made life a lot easier.
Less chance of brown spots
Sure, Self Cleaning Iron is going to cut down on brown spots. (Those ugly spots that happen on nice, cleanly pressed clothes.) Because a Self Cleaning Iron becomes clean each time you press that magic blue button.
Steams much longer
Common sense tells you that if you’ve an iron that blocks less often it has to stay younger for a long period of time. In other words, it steams much longer. That’s another joy of owning General Electric’s Self Cleaning Iron.
What does it mean to you
Today you are doing so much more than just running a house and running after the kids.
You’re working. You’re going to school. It’s all part of your lifestyle. The iron can change that lifestyle. By giving you less trouble before you iron. If we can make it easier for you to be a better wife, a better mother, a better housemaker, we want to. The new Self Cleaning Iron is another one of Home-Makers from General Electric.
Lifestyle.
We’re with yours.
GENERAL ELECTRICThis passage is ______.
| A．an introduction to General Electric |
| B．an operating instruction of Self Cleaning Iron |
| C．an advertisement of Self Cleaning Iron |
| D．a description of the change of lifestyle |
This iron can clean itself by ______.
| A．empting itself |
| B．washing out mineral deposits |
| C．blocking up mineral deposits |
| D．giving off more steam |
According to the passage, what is most likely to attract the customers?
| A．It is made by General Electric. |
| B．The iron will not produce mineral deposits. |
| C．There will be fewer brown spots on pressed clothes. |
| D．Their clothes will be cleaned at the same time. |
Self Cleaning Iron can help change your lifestyle because ______.
| A．you can run your house better |
| B．you don’t have to run after the kids |
| C．you can use it while you are working |
| D．we want you to be a better housemaker |
Friendship is one of the basic bonds (纽带) between human beings. While the characteristics of friendship might vary from one country to another, people from all cultures not only enjoy friends but need them.
Many studies have shown that teenagers who have no friends often suffer from psychological disorders. It has been shown that teenagers, perhaps more than any other age group, need companionship and a sense of belonging. The negative consequences of loneliness have also been observed among the elderly. The death of a spouse often leaves a widow or a widower totally bereft (失去). If, however, they are surrounded by friends and relatives and if they are able to articulate（清楚表达） their feelings, they are more likely to recover from their grief.
“No man is an island.” In other words, we are all parts of society. We all need the love, admiration, respect and moral support of other people. If we are fortunate, our friends will provide us with all of these necessary aspects of life.
As most people observe, there are many levels of friendship. The degree or intensity of friendship varies depending on the personality of the individuals involved and the context of the relationships. Extroverts (性格外向者) enjoy being surrounded by many people whereas introverts（性格内向者）are perhaps content with fewer but more intense friendships.
Everyone is not equally open with all their friends. The degree of intimacy (密切) is determined by many factors. Close friends can be formed at any stage in one’s life but they are usually very rare. Not very many people have more than a few really close friends. Irrespective of the level of intimacy, all friendships are based on reciprocity（相互性）, honesty and a certain amount of love and affection.The second paragraph implies that _____..
| A．teenagers without friends will suffer from psychological problems |
| B．a widow or a widower will die very soon without companionship |
| C．human beings need companionship and a sense of belonging |
| D．both A and B |
The degree of intimacy of friendship mainly depends on _____ .
| A．age | B．belonging | C．personality | D．culture |
The author thinks that close friends _____ .
| A．can be easily formed when one is young |
| B．cannot be long-lasting |
| C．are not rare for everyone |
| D．are rare for most people |
The word “irrespective”(Last sentence, Para. 5) means _____ .
| A．not respecting | B．dishonoring | C．regardless | D．Considering |