If you go to Ethiopia, you’ll find a strange palm-like structure, which is called WarkaWater. It gathers water from fog and condensation（水珠）and is invented by an Italian firm.
When Italian designer Arturo Vittori and Swiss architect Andreas Vogler first visited Ethiopia in 2012, they were shocked to see women and children forced to walk miles to access what, for them, had always been within easy reach, water.
Only 34 percent of Ethiopians have access to a reliable water supply. Some travel for up to six hours a day to fetch some or, even worse, has to use pond water polluted by human waste, subject to the spread of disease.
Worldwide, about 768 million people—two and a half times the U.S. population—don’t have access to safe drinking water. So just imagine if we could just pull water out of thin air? That’s what Vittori and Vogler asked once they saw the severe problem and promised to take action. Their firm, Architecture and Vision, has since come up with WarkaWater, a grand palm-like structure that may look like something you’d see in a modern art museum, but it’s been designed to harvest water from the air.
WarkaWater, which is named after an Ethiopian fig tree, is composed of a 30-foot bamboo frame containing a fog-harvesting nylon net that can catch water easily, can be easily lowered for repairs and allow communities to measure the water level. Collecting water through condensation is hardly a new technique, but the creators of WarkaWater say their tree-inspired design is more effective, maximizing surface and perfecting every angle to produce up to 26 gallons of drinkable water a day—enough for a family of seven.
Western organizations have been working to provide clean water access in Africa for decades, so WarkaWater joins a very long list of earlier attempts. So far, high-tech solutions, like the once promising Playpump, have failed, mostly due to high costs and maintenance issues.
This is where WarkaWater stands apart—a lower-tech solution that is easy to repair and far more affordable than digging wells in the rocky Ethiopian plateau.What does the underlined phrase “subject to” in the third paragraph most probably mean?
| A．Owing to | B．Opposite to |
| C．Sensitive to | D．Giving rise to |
WarkaWater is designed mainly to ______.
| A．gather clean water efficiently |
| B．reduce water supply costs |
| C．simplify maintenance |
| D．preserve water supplies |
According to Paragraph 6, what caused Playpump to fail?
| A．Lack of advanced technology |
| B．Unsuccessful designs |
| C．Lack of money and maintenance issues |
| D．Unreasonable structures |
( A )
There are fifty states in the United States. The largest in population is California, the largest in area is Alaska. Alaska is the smallest in population and Rhode Island is the smallest in size. The oldest states are the ones along the Atlantic coast. The newest states are Alaska and Hawaii. Alaska is also the coldest state. California and Florida are the warmer. Henry and his family live in Seattle, a big city, on the Pacific coast. But Los Angeles and San Francisco, also on the Pacific coast, are larger than Seattle. Henry's cousin, Susan, lives in New York. It is the largest city in the United States. Thousands of people visit New York each year. The most important city in the United States is Washington, D. C. It is the capital, but it is much smaller than New York. How many states are there in the U. S. A. ?
A. Five B. Forty- Five. C. Fifty D. Fifteen. Which state is the largest in population?
| A．California. | B．Rhode-Island. |
| C．Alaska | D．Los Angeles. |
Which state is the newest, and the smallest in population?
| A．Rhode Island. | B．Seattle. | C．San Francisco. | D．Alaska. |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The oldest states are the ones along the Pacific coast. |
| B．Washington is the most important and the largest city. |
| C．New York is the largest city in the United States. |
| D．Henry's cousin lives in the Seattle. |
Why is Washington, D. C. the most important American city?
Because _________.
A. it is the largest cityB. it is the largest in population
C. it is the most beautiful cityD. it is the capital of the United States
D
One of the main challenges facing many countries is how to maintain their identity in the face of globalization and the growing multi-language trend. “One of the main reasons for economic failure in many African countries is the fact that, with a few important exceptions, mother-tongue education is not practiced in any of the independent African states.” said Neville Alexander, Director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa at the University of Cape Town.
In response to the spread of English and the increased multi-language trends arising from immigration, many countries have introduced language laws in the laws in the last decade. In some, the use of languages other than the national language is banned in public spaces such as advertising posters. One of the first such legal provisions was the 1994 “Toubon law” in France, but the idea has been copied in many countries since then. Such efforts to govern language use are often dismissed as futile by language experts, who are well aware of the difficulty in controlling fashions in speech and know from research that language switching among bilinguals is a natural process.
It is especially difficult for native speakers of English to understand the desire to maintain the “purity” of a language by law. Since the time of Shakespeare, English has continually absorbed foreign words into its own language. English is one of the most mixed and rapidly changing languages in the world, but there has not been a barrier to acquiring prestige and power. Another reason for the failure of many native English speakers to understand the role of state regulation is that it has never been the Anglo-Saxon way of doing things. English has never had a state-controlled authority for the language, similar, for example, to the Academic Francaise in France.
The need to protect national languages is, for most western Europeans, a recent phenomenon—especially the need to ensure that English does not unnecessarily take over too many fields. Public communication, education and new modes of communication promoted by technology, may be key fields to defend.Neville Alexander believes that.
| A．mother-tongue education is not practiced in all African countries |
| B．lack of mother-tongue education can lead to economic failure |
| C．globalization has led to the rise of multi-language trends |
| D．globalization has resulted in the economic failure of Africa |
The underlined word “futile” (in paragraph 2) most probably means ““.
| A．useless | B．practical | C．workable | D．unnecessary |
Why do many English-speaking countries not support the language protection efforts described in the passage?
| A．They think language protection laws are ineffective. |
| B．They want their language to spread to other countries. |
| C．They have a long history of taking words from other languages. |
| D．It reduces a language’s ability to acquire international importance. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．English has taken over fields like public communication and education. |
| B．Europeans have long realized the need to protect their national languages. |
| C．Most language experts believe it is important to promote a national language. |
| D．Many aspects of national culture are threatened by the spread of English. |
The main idea of the passage is .
| A．Fighting against the rule of English |
| B．Globalization and multi-language trends |
| C．Protecting local languages and identities |
| D．To maintain the purity of language by law |
C
So long as teachers fail to distinguish between teaching and learning, they will continue to undertake everything to do for children that only children can do for themselves. Teaching children to read is not passing reading on to them. It is certainly not endless hours spent in activities about reading. Douglas insists that “reading cannot be taught directly and schools should stop trying to do the impossible”.
Teaching and learning are two entirely different processes. They differ in kind and function. The function of teaching is to create the conditions and the climate that will make it possible for children to devise the most efficient system for teaching themselves to read. Teaching is also a public activity. It can be seen and observed.
Learning to read, however, involves all that each individual does to make sense of the world of printed language. Almost all of it is private, for learning is an occupation of the mind, and that process is not open to public scrutiny.
If teacher and learner roles are not interchangeable, what then can be done through teaching that will aid the child in the quest (探索) for knowledge? Smith has one principal rule for all teaching instructions. “Make learning to read easy, which means making reading a meaningful, enjoyable and frequent experience for children.”
When the roles of teacher and learner are seen for what they are, and when both teacher and learner fulfill them appropriately, then much of the pressure and feeling of failure for both is eliminated. Learning to read is made easier when teachers create an environment where children are given the opportunity to solve the problem of learning to read by reading.The problem with the reading course as mentioned in the first paragraph is that
________.
| A．it is one of the most difficult school courses |
| B．students spend endless hours in reading |
| C．reading tasks are assigned with little guidance |
| D．too much time is spent in teaching about reading |
The teaching of reading will be successful if ________.
| A．teachers can improve conditions at school for the students |
| B．teachers can enable students to develop their own way of reading |
| C．teachers can devise the most efficient system for reading |
| D．teachers can make their teaching activities observable |
The underlined word “scrutiny” most probably means “________”.
| A．inquiry | B．observation | C．control | D．suspect |
According to the passage, learning to read will no longer be a difficult task when
________.
| A．children become highly motivated |
| B．teacher and learner roles are interchangeable |
| C．teaching helps children in the search for knowledge |
| D．reading enriches children’s experience |
The main idea of the passage is that ________.
| A．teachers should do nothing in helping students learn to read |
| B．teachers should encourage students to read as widely as possible |
| C．reading ability is something acquired rather than taught |
| D．reading is more complicated than generally believed |
B
He is a lesson to every boy who ever picked up a basketball and dreamed that it would change his life.
The lights were never brighter and the crowds were never bigger for a homegrown sports hero than they were a quarter-century ago for Ray Hall. But his athletic achievements, as impressive as they are, are to my mind not what is most admirable about the man.
Known as “Sugar Ray” in his teens, Hall was rated among the country’s top 25 high school basketball players. An inner-city kid from a solid family, Hall took on the challenge of lifting Canisius College — still recovering from its failure — back to respectability, rejecting more favorable offers. His status of a savior (救世主) brought more pressure than any 18-year-old should have to handle. However, I watched him mature into the player who led Canisius back to daylight.
After college Hall played professionally in Italy and Greece for over 10 years until a car accident at 32 ended his basketball career. The news that he would never play again shocked Hall but unlike so many others he was ready for life after basketball. When I met Hall — still fit at 46 — for lunch Monday, he wore a cut-sharp gray suit, designer tie and blazing white shirt that screamed Success. “That was always the question — when the cheers end, where do you go? Who do you turn to?” he said. “It starts and ends with that person in the mirror.”
Hall got the concept of academics-first from his parents. He graduated from Canisius a semester early. “No matter how good of an athlete you are, you are just one injury away from losing it all,” he said. “But if you take care of things academically, you are prepared until you leave this earth.”
For the past 14 years, he has been in a computer sales job at Ingram Micro. He married his college sweetheart. They have three kids and a nice house in the suburbs. He figured out early what others learn too late: Athletics is part of a journey, not the destination.
Congratulations, Ray, you made it. In more ways than one.Ray was regarded as a savior because ________.
| A．he liked to take on challenges |
| B．he helped his team to regain its glory |
| C．he was faithful to his hometown city |
| D．he fought hard against failure at a young age |
According to the writer, which of the following best describes Ray’s success?
| A．Unlike other athletes, he was academically superior. |
| B．He defeated his injury and returned to the playground. |
| C．He enjoys a successful job and a happy family. |
| D．He has gained impressive athletic achievements. |
What’s the right order of the events related to Ray?
a. He was rated among the best high school basketball players.
b. He was in a car accident.
c. He graduated from Canisius College.
d. He started his computer sales job.
e. He gave up his athletic career.
| A．a, c, b, e, d | B．a, c, e, b, d | C．c, a, b, d, e | D．c, a, e, b, d |
We can learn from the passage that ________.
| A．Ray was from an academic family |
| B．Ray was very mature in his teens |
| C．Ray was once desperate facing the cruel reality |
| D．athletics was not Ray’s final goal in life |
What was the writer’s intention in writing this passage?
| A．To describe the difficulties of being a professional athlete. |
| B．To explain the importance of choosing the right college. |
| C．To emphasize the need for a good education. |
| D．To warn against playing professional basketball. |
A
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the dilemma. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is — politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg — the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority — someone who actually knows something — and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. |
| B．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
| A．give orders to the other | B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other | D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts. |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war. |
| C．Solutions for the parent-teen problems. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
Where do you think this passage can be found?
| A．In a report. | B．In a letter. |
| C．In a novel. | D．In a textbook. |