In the countries of South and Southeast Asia, the elephant has been an important part of the culture, economy and religion for centuries. And nowhere more so than in Thailand. Unlike its African cousin, the Asian elephant is easily domesticated（驯化）. The rare so-called white elephants have actually lent the power of royalty (皇室)to its rulers，and until the 1920s the national flag was a white elephant on a red background. To the early Western visitors, the country's romantic name was“ Land of the White Elephant".
Today, however, the story is very different. Out of work and out of land, the Thai elephant struggles for survival in a nation that no longer needs it. The elephant has found itself more or less deserted by previous owners who have moved on to a different economic world and a society in the western part. And while the elephant's problems began many years ago, now it has a very low national advantage.
How does the national symbol turn into ignored animals? It is a story of worse environment and the changing lives of the Thais themselves. According to Richard Lair, Thailand's expert on the Asian elephant and author of the report Gone Astray, at the turn of the last century, there may well have been as many as 100,000 national elephants in the country.
In the north of Thailand alone, it was estimated（估计）that more than 20,000 elephants were employed in transport, 1,000 of them alone on the road between the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Saen.
This was at a time when 90 percent of Thailand was still forest---a habitat that not only supported the animals but also made them necessary to carry goods and people. Nothing ploughs through thick forest better than lots of sure-footed elephants.
By 1950 the elephant population had dropped, but still to the number of 13, 397. However, today there are probably no more than 3,800, with another l,350 wandering free in the national parks. But now, Thailand's forest covers only 20 percent of the land. This deforestation（采伐森林）is the central point of the elephant's difficult situation, for it has effectively put the animals out of work. This century, as the road network grew, the elephant's role as a beast of burden decreased.What can we know about African elephants from the passage?
| A．It is of little value to domesticate them. |
| B．It is hard to domesticate them. |
| C．They are living a better life than Asian elephants. |
| D．Their fate is quite similar to that of Asian elephants. |
Thailand was once called "Land of the White Elephant" because ________.
| A．white elephant was a national symbol until the 1920s |
| B．white elephant is rarely seen and thus very special |
| C．white elephant has helped kings to gain the ruling authority |
| D．this name was so romantic that it was popular among visitors |
Why is the Thai elephant "out of work", according to the author?
| A．Because there are too many elephants but too few jobs. |
| B．Because the elephants can't do labor work any longer. |
| C．Because the government pays little attention to the problem. |
| D．Because the elephants are no longer useful to their owners. |
The passage is most probably from ________.
| A．a travel guide |
| B．a history book |
| C．a popular science magazine |
| D．an official announcement |
阅读下面的短文, 并根据短文后的要求答题。
Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers told me, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.”
How right they were! Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and str
angers into friends.
“Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson.①.It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” When others shout, “No, you can’t!”
It took years and years for the early work of Barbara Mclintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments. ②
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.
At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. ③As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, “Years wrinkle(起皱纹) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood? The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself. “Enthusiasm” comes from the Greek and means “God within”. And what is God within is but a sense of love---proper love of self(self-acceptance) and, from that, love of others.
④If we can’t do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that had troubled her for at least 30years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “ I am tempted to call Layton as a genius.”
We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”.
We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses---finding pleasure in the backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, the charming beauty of a rainbow.
第一节：根据短文内容, 从A、B、C、D、E中选出最合适放入短文空缺处的选项，并将序号及相应答案写在答题纸上。选项中有一项是多余选项。
A. A. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
B. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
C. It can certainly help you hang in there when the going gets tough.
D. Music, for Casals, was a hobby that made life a never ending adventure.
E. Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power.
根据短文所给的信息，用一个完整的句子回答下列问题，并将序号及答案写在答题纸上。
⑤What does the author mean by the underlined sentence in paragraph 6?
阅读下列材料, 并从所给的六个选项(A、B、C、D、E、F)中选出符合各小题要求的最佳选项并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。
The people below traveled abroad. Read the following stories and decide what problem each traveler experienced while traveling. _______ David got lost in an isolated place. To make matter worse, he had an accident and couldn’t walk freely. So he was in great need of timely help.
______ Paul had to buy a hamburger and ate it in the park instead of eating his mother’s delicious chicken, with which he couldn’t go through the customs(海关).
_____ Ann was stopped at the customs because she was carrying drugs without a doctor’s prescription. How regretted she was not to have done that!
_____ Sally offended some of the people in the town she was visiting by wearing inappropriate clothes. She should have found out about local customs and followed them.
______ Jack didn’t obtain a transit card when he changed planes at an airport, which made him very worried. There was no doubt that he was not allowed to get on board.
A My mother was worried about me. She cooked me all my favorite dishes and put them into a box to take with me on my journey. But the customs officer inspected all the plant and animal products at the airport. Unfortunately it was illegal for me to bring into the country the kind of food my mother had given me and so it all had to be thrown away.
B It was very hot so I put on some shorts and a T-shirt to go sightseeing. I hadn’t gone very far when I found everyone was looking at me, and they didn’t seem friendly to me. One woman even spat on me as I walked past. I decided to get off the crowded streets and so I turned down a small, quiet street.
C During the four-day walking tour, I was amazed by mountain scenery and the ancient ruins we passed on our hike. On the last day, we arrived at the ruins of Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise over the Andes. I spent the day visiting the ruins of that ancient Inca city before catching the train back to the capital city of the country.
D When I got off the plane at the first airport, I saw someone handing out cards to some of the passengers, but I didn’t know what they were for, so I didn’t take one. When I tried to board the second plane they asked for my transit card, which I didn’t have. I was worried they were going to send me back to London.
E I had been walking for about an hour when suddenly I slipped and fell down a riverbank. I hurt my ankle and couldn’t stand up. I didn’t know how I could get back to the village. I hadn’t told anyone where I was going, so no one would know where to look for me when they realized I was missing.
F When I arrived at my destination, a customs officer at the airport looked in my bag and found the pills in a small box. He wanted to know what the pills were for and why they weren’t in their proper bottle with my name and the doctor’s name on it. I explained that the bottle had been too big and heavy. Then he wanted to know if I had a letter from my doctor explaining about the pills.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a report, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47 percent of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.
That is more than twice the 22 percent of users who did in 2002, but Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised that the growth wasn’t higher than it had been expected.
“Yes it’s doubled, but it’s still the case that there’s a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of connecting their names with search engines,” she said. “Certainly more and more people have become aware of this, but I don’t know it’s necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us.”
About 60 percent of Internet users said they aren’t worried about the extent of information about themselves online, although they are increasingly concerned over how that data can be used.
Americans under 50 and those with more education and income were more likely to self-Google---in some cases because their jobs demand a certain online persona(形象).
Meanwhile, Pew found that 53 percent of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else, famous people not included.
Often, it’s to find someone they’ve lost touch with. But looking up information about friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors also was common.
Although men and women equally searched for online information about themselves, women were slightly more likely to look up information about someone they are dating.
In many cases, the search is not harmful, done to find someone’s contact information. But a third of those who have conducted searches on others have looked for public records, such as bankruptcies(破产) and divorce proceedings. A similar number have searched for someone else’s photo.
Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to limit the range of people who can see their information at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.’s MySpace, contrary to conventional wisdom.
“Teens are more comfortable with the applications in some ways, (but) I also think they have their parents and teachers telling them to be very careful about what they post and who they share it with,” Madden said. Mary Madden was surprised at the result that ______.
| A．fewer and fewer adult Internet users are looking for information about themselves |
| B．the number of adult Internet users looking for information about themselves has doubled |
| C．more adult Internet users should have looked for information about themselves |
| D．so many people don’t know how to connect their names with search engines |
According to the report some people haven’t looked for information about themselves because ______.
| A．they are not rich enough to get a computer |
| B．they are not well educated |
| C．they don’t know they can look for their own information on the Internet |
| D．they think it unnecessary to look for their own information on the Internet |
Which group of people are more likely to look for their own information on the Internet?
| A．Teens. | B．Women. | C．The old. | D．The educated. |
People look for others’ information on the Internet mainly to ______.
| A．see what they are doing | B．find someone they have lost touch with |
| C．have a look at their photos | D．know their perso nal affairs |
It was a lovely day at the park and Stella Bianchi was enjoying the sunshine with her two children when a young boy, aged about four, approached her two-year-old son and pushed him to the ground.
“I’d watched him for a little while and my son was the fourth or fifth child he’d pushed,” she says. “I went over to them, picked up my son, turned to the boy and said, firmly, ‘No, we don’t push.’” What happened next was unexpected.
“The boy’s mother ran toward me from across the park,” Stella says, “I thought she was coming over to apologize, but instead she started shouting at me for blaming her child. All I did was let him know his behavior was unacceptable. Was I supposed to sit back while her kid did whatever he wanted and hurt other children?”
Getting your own children to play nice is difficult enough. Dealing with other people’s children has become a hidden danger.
In my house, jumping on the sofa is not allowed. In my sister’s house it’s encouraged. I find myself saying “no” a lot when her kids are over at mine. That’s OK between sisters but becomes dangerous when you’re talking to the children of friends or acquaintances.
“Kids aren’t all raised the same,” agrees Professor Naomi White of Monash University.” But there is still an idea that they’re the property of the parent. We see our children as a mirror of ourselves, so if you’re saying that my child is behaving improperly, then that’s somehow a criticism(批评) of me.”
In those situations, it’s difficult to know whether to approach the child directly or the parent first. There are two opinions.
“I’d go to the child first,” says Andrew Fuller, author of Tricky Kids. “Usually a quiet reminder that ‘we don’t do that here’ is enough. Kids have antennae (直觉) for how to behave in different settings.”
He points out bringing it up with the parent first may make them feel careless, which could cause problems. Of course, approaching the child first can bring its own headaches, too.
This is why White recommends that you approach the parents first. Raise your concerns with the parents and ask them to deal with it,” she says.
Asked how to approach a parent in this situation, psychologist Meredith Fuller answers: “Explain your needs as well as stressing the importance of the friendship. Start with something like: ‘I know you’ll think I’m silly but in my house I don’t want…’”What did Stella Bianchi expect the young boy’s mother to do when she talked to him?
| A．Make an apology | B．Come over to stop her |
| C．Blame her own boy | D．Take her own boy away |
What does the author say about dealing with other people’s children?
| A．It’s important not to hurt them in any way |
| B．It’s no use trying to stop their wrongdoing |
| C．It’s advisable to treat them as one’s own kids |
| D．It’s possible for one to get into lots of trouble |
According to professor Naomi White, when one’s kids are criticized, their parents will probably feel ______.
| A．discouraged | B．hurt | C．puzzled | D．affected |
What should one do when seeing other people’s kids misbehave according to Andrew Fuller?
| A．Talk to them directly in a mild way | B．Complain to their parents politely |
| C．Simply leave them alone | D．Punish them lightly |
If you dream in color, you’re not alone: the majority of people today claim to have colorful dreams. But it wasn’t always thus. Research conducted in the early part of the last century consistently found that people reported dreaming most often in black and white.
According to Eva Murzyn at the University of Dundee, there are at least two possible explanations for this strange situation.
The first is the methods used in the researches. The early studies tended to use questionnaires（问卷）, while more modern studies use dream diaries (filled in upon rising in the morning) or so-called “REM-awakening”, which involves interrupting people’s dream-filled periods of sleep to find out what they were dreaming about. People’s memories of their dreams are likely to be less accurate by using the questionnaire approach and they are more likely to reflect their beliefs about the form dreams generally take in an unclear way.
The second explanation has to do with black and white television and film. It’s possible that the sudden increase in black and white film and television during the first half of the last century either affected the form of people’s dreams at that time, or affected their beliefs about the form dreams generally take.
According to Murzyn’s findings, it’s the explanation based on media exposure that carries more weight. She used both questionnaire and diary methods to study the dreams of 30 older (average age 64) and 30 younger people (average age 21).
The methodological technique made no difference to the type of dreams people reported. However, the extremely important thing was that, across both questionnaires and diaries, the older participants (who had had significant early life exposure to black and white media) reported experiencing significantly more black and white dreams over the last ten days than the younger participants (22 per cent vs. 4 per cent).
Another finding was that older participants reported black and white dreams and colorful dreams to be of equal clearness. By contrast, the younger participants reported that the quality of black and white dreams was poorer. This raises the possibility that the younger participants didn’t really have any black and white dreams at all, but were simply regarding poorly remembered dreams as black and white. We learn from the text that ______.
| A．people in the first half of the last century never had colorful dreams |
| B．older people are more likely to have black and white dreams |
| C．the dreams of younger people are always colorful |
| D．people today don’t have white and black dreams any more |
What did Murxyn do to find out the explanations for the colors in people’s dreams?
| A．She applied both questionnaire and diary methods to study people’s dreams. |
| B．She used diary methods to record people’s dreams. |
| C．She chose 60 people to answer her questions about their dreams. |
| D．She woke people up to record the colors of their dreams. |
What does the underlined expression “carry more weight” in paragraph 5 mean?
| A．be heavier | B．be more powerful | C．be more important | D．be more useful |
From Murxyn’s findings we can infer that ______.
| A．both older people and younger people could report colorful dreams clearly |
| B．young people don’t have any black and white dreams in fact |
| C．the color of a person’s dream is decided by one’s age |
| D．it is probably the color of media that affects the color of one’s dream |