The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru's heartbreaking story could have one good consequence-other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived on the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. Then whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1，400 to 900.
Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate（磷酸盐）on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which is a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip-mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968，Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem-their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000，Nauru was al-most financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately$433，600，000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.What might be the author's purpose in writing the text?
| A．To seek help for Nauru's problems. |
| B．To give a warning to other countries. |
| C．To show the importance of money. |
| D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war. |
What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?
| A．Rich and powerful. |
| B．Modern and open. |
| C．Peaceful and attractive. |
| D．Greedy and aggressive. |
The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from __________.
| A．soil pollution |
| B．phosphate overmining |
| C．farming activity |
| D．whale hunting |
In a little-known part of the counter-terrorism（反恐怖主义） world, one of the most effective detection systems is a 600-pound animal that works for about 20 pounds of fish a day.
Since the 1960s, the United States and a handful of other countries have trained dolphins and sea lions to detect sea mines and swimmers, to recover inert torpedoes（鱼雷）and to test objects used in Naval exercises.
Program officials estimate that the sea lions in the Marine Mammal Program have recovered millions of dollars of U.S. Naval torpedoes and instrumentation dropped on the sea floor.
The U.S. Navy kept its Marine Mammal Program a secret until the 1990s, and this spring CNN became one of only a handful of media outlets to see firsthand how the program works.
The program has trained about 75 Pacific bottlenose dolphins, with natural biosonar (生物声纳) that tracks better than any manmade device; and 35 California sea lions, with superb underwater eyesight.
Not only do these trained marine mammals track and retrieve millions of dollars in U. S. military equipment, they are also helping to save lives.
The Navy won't disclose whether the dolphins and sea lions have effectively intercepted （阻拦）terrorists attempting to do harm to any U.S. facilities.
"Either way, it serves as a deterrent（阻碍） effect." says Christian Harris, operations supervisor for the program. The mammals can be deployed（调动） via C-130 cargo aircraft to perform their missions anywhere in the world within 72 hours. They have been used in exercises from Alaska to Hawaii, operating in great temperature and environmental ranges. They also have the capability to operate off vessels.
Dolphins most recently were deployed in the Iraq war, performing mine detection and clearance operations in the Persian Gulf to ensure safe passage for humanitarian ships delivering aid. Some of these Iraq war "veterans" are now back home, tasked with a new mission: guarding nuclear submarines in their homeports of Bremerton, Washington, and Groton, Connecticut.The underlined word "retrieve" in Paragraph 6 can be replaced by ________.
| A．find out | B．recover | C．save | D．detect |
Which is NOT the purpose of the Marine Mammal Program?
| A．To detect sea mines and swimmers. |
| B．To save lives of people. |
| C．To recover inert torpedoes. |
| D．To help the U.S. Naval test equipment. |
What can be inferred according to the text?
| A．These trained marine mammals eat pounds of fish a day. |
| B．The U.S. Navy performed the Marine Mammal Program for about 30 years secretly. |
| C．These mammals can carry out a task everywhere. |
| D．A lot of countries will train dolphins and sea lions for anti-terrorism. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Special Skills of Marine Mammals | B．The U.S. Anti-terrorism Program |
| C．Exceptional Anti-terrorism Member | D．Trained Marine Mammals |
Everyone knows about straight-A students．We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge（报复）of the Nerds．They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book．They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports．
How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School．She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society．For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject．Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque．He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station．Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses．
How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer．“Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students．“Knowing how to make the most of your innate（天生的）abilities counts for more．Much more．”
In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ．For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down．
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either．“It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed．“It’s what you do while you’re sitting．” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates．
The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn．The underlined word “nerds” can probably be．
| A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills |
| B．successful top students popular with their peers |
| C．students with certain learning difficulties |
| D．born leaders crazy about social activities |
What can we conclude from the first paragraph?
| A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students． |
| B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students． |
| C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films． |
| D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society． |
Some students become super-achievers mainly because．
| A．they are born cleverer than others | B．they work longer hours at study |
| C．they make full use of their abilities | D．they know the shortcut to success |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．IQ is more important than hard work in study． |
| B．The brightest students can never get low grades． |
| C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments． |
| D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers． |
The malls were filled with people seeking gifts for their loved ones. Some of the malls remained open around the clock, partly to satisfy our needs to buy gifts.
Behind the materialistic aspect of shopping for gifts lies the idea of caring, being attentive to the desires of special people in our lives. However, to use a well-worn play on words: it is our presence, not our presents, that truly counts. Many of us, unfortunately, can be so inattentive, even in the presence of our loved ones, that we might as well not be there at all.
Attention is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other. Companies around the globe spend billions every year on advertising to catch our attention for just a short moment at a time. Whole industries – media, entertainment, education – rely on the precious gift of our attention for their continued existence. A baby lacking attention for a long time is likely to he psychologically unhealthy.
In earlier times, both diet and attention could be left unregulated without major cause for concern. There were natural checks and balances: limited availability of food meant few got fat, for example. Similarly, in bygone times we might have spent a few hours communicating with the village storyteller, today, watching an entire TV series, while speaking to nobody, is common. In traditional societies, with smaller population, everyone would get a fair deal of attention. On many issues we might go to see Grandma or Grandpa; now we have Google and Wikipedia.
“She just wants attention.” people tend to think little of those doing things simply for attention. But the truth is that human beings need attention, and giving attention to each other is, to a large extent, what human civilization is based upon. This perhaps explains the runaway success（一举成功）of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. While we use such sites for “micro blogging”, “idea voicing” and “status updates” – the reality is that we are often doing no more or less than fulfilling our basic human drive for attention exchange.
I friend you, you friend me, I retweet you, you retweet me. The charming case with which we can now get and give attention is why many people appear overly attached to their smartphones. It is also a vicious（恶性）circle. As ever more people are busy exchanging attention online, there is increasingly less attention to be paid in the real world, which forces more people to seek their attention exchange online, or else risk attention-starvation.
The very nature of attention exchange is being rapidly transformed, and there is a danger that some of us will develop unhealthy practices. Just as eating red meat every day is a bad idea, so it is with too much attention exchange. The biological consequences of our technological advancement in food production are highly visible; heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The consequences of our transformed attention exchanges will be psychological and social, and so may take longer to identify, but they will be equally damaging.
Face-to-face attention is becoming rarer, and therefore more valuable. In a sense it is priceless. And it is a gift that can be given all-year-round.In the first two paragraphs the author.
| A．offers advice to attention givers | B．analyses the present problems |
| C．states the necessity of presents | D．puts forward his point of view |
People use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to.
| A．obtain information | B．give attention to others |
| C．voice their opinions | D．notice and get noticed |
Attention exchange was not a major concern in traditional societies because of.
| A．limited availability of food | B．natural checks and balances |
| C．a much smaller population | D．the guidance from old people |
What can we infer from Paragraph 6-7?
| A．More people will risk attention-starvation in future. |
| B．The nature of attention exchange is rarely changed. |
| C．Technological advancement contributes to all diseases. |
| D．Transformed attention exchanges do harm to society. |
The writer’s purpose for writing the passage is to.
| A．advocate more focus on real life attention |
| B．analyze the necessity of attention giving |
| C．give practical tips on attention exchange |
| D．recommend some social networking sites |
Chinese writer Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize for Literature might ignite an explosion of global interest in Chinese literature and lead to more titles translated into English, European experts say.
“Hopefully, the award means more people will read Chinese literature and more works will get translated,” says Michel Hockx, professor of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia from University of London. “Many very good Chinese writers have been accepted globally for a long time already. Mo Yan is probably the most translated Chinese writer alive, with at least five of his novels made available in English over the past 20 years.”
Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of bookseller Foyles, says Mo’s win coincides with growing interest in Chinese literature and recognizes the talents of a distinctive and visionary（富于幻想的）writer. “We are very excited by the fact that English translations of more of his books should now become available,” Ruppin says. He made the comment after Mo became the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in its century-long history.
As East-West cultural exchange has been booming, Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention in recent years. Hockx explains, “It’s mainly because there are many more opportunities for Chinese writers to visit other countries, to publish their works outside China and to interact with readers abroad. At the same time, more and more people globally are learning Chinese and taking an interest in the Chinese language and culture.”
University of Oxford lecturer in modern Chinese literature Margaret Hillenbrand says, “The obvious reason for the growing global presence of Chinese literature is the growing global presence of China itself. People have come to realize that there is a serious knowledge deficit between China and its international counterparts — in particular, China knows incomparably more about Europe and America than the other way round — and reading Chinese literature is an effective, simple means of solving that gap.”The underlined word “ignite” in Paragraph 1 probably means “________”.
| A．start out | B．burn up | C．set off | D．appeal to |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Chinese literature has spread with the development of China. |
| B．The Nobel Prize for Literature has a history of hundreds of years. |
| C．In the past, no Chinese writers were accepted outside China. |
| D．Foreigners know about China mainly by reading Mo Yan’s works. |
Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention mainly because
| A．Chinese writers have been writing more and more books in English |
| B．the Chinese language has become the most widely used language in the world |
| C．the Chinese government attaches great importance to literature |
| D．the cultural communication between China and western countries has developed |
How do you understand the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
| A．China knows more about Europe and America than before. |
| B．China knows more about Europe and America than they know about China. |
| C．China, Europe and America know one another more than before. |
| D．Compared with America, China knows more about Europe. |
If it really is what’s on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.
Some doctors now think that the internal(内部的) fat surrounding important organs like the heart or liver could be as dangerous as the external fat which can be noticed more easily.
“Being thin doesn’t surely mean you are not fat,” said Dr Jimmy Bell at Imperial College. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.
According to the result, people who keep their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are slim.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside. Of the women, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had too high levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are actually on the edge of being fat. They eat too many fatty and sugary foods, but they are not eating enough to be fat. Scientists believe we naturally store fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some think it has something to do with heart disease and diabetes. They want to prove that internal fat damages the body’s communication systems.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. “If you want to be healthy, there is no short cut. Exercise has to be an important part of your lifestyle,” Bell said.According to the pass age, which of the following is WRONG?
| A．People with heart disease all have internal fat. |
| B．People can get rid of internal fat by improving diet. |
| C．Men are more likely to have too much internal fat. |
| D．Exercise can help to reduce the internal fat. |
From the last paragraph, we can find that ______.
| A．whether internal fat can lead to disease has been proved |
| B．exercise plays an important role in people’s life for keeping healthy |
| C．thin people usually have internal fat even if they are slim |
| D．it is easier to burn off internal fat than external fat |
Doctors have found ______.
| A．the exact dangers of internal fat |
| B．internal fat is the cause of heart disease and diabetes |
| C．being slim doesn’t mean you are not fat inside |
| D．being slim is not dangerous at all |
The underlined part in the last paragraph means ______.
| A．a long road | B．a clear difference |
| C．an easy way | D．a short distance |