B
It’s reported that powerful Cyclone Pam has impacted at least half the population of Vanuatu, which is a South Pacific island nation.
“Vanuatu is used to disasters but the indications are that Cyclone Pam has caused unprecedented damages,” said President Baldwin Lonsdale in a press release.
The leader of the island nation noted that following a direct hit from the Category 5 storm on Friday, at least two deaths have been confirmed and over 30 injured people are being treated in the Central Hospital in the capital, Port Vila where many people are now homeless and torrential rain has led to severe flooding. He also said bridges which link the capital with the rest of the island have been destroyed.
Mr. Lonsdale made his appeal from Sendai, Japan, where he has been attending since Sunday the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. The Conference has drawn thousands of Government and civil society delegations to craft a new framework for managing disaster risk which will reduce mortality and curb economic losses.
The country is already threatened by coastal erosion and rising sea levels in addition to five active volcanoes and earthquakes. "This is why I am attending this Conference and why Vanuatu wants to see a strong new framework on disaster risk reduction which will support us in tackling the drivers of disaster risk such as climate change."
Meanwhile, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that it is estimated that at least half the population of Vanuatu has been affected by cyclone Pam. Of these, at least 54,000 are children.
Many homes in Vanuatu have likely been destroyed as they are built with natural and local materials such as thatched and corrugated roofs that are vulnerable to strong winds and floods.
Other Pacific Island countries have been severely impacted as well, including the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati.
A UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team was expected arrive in Port Vila late Saturday. OCHA was also expected to deploy three staff with information management, public information and humanitarian coordination as well.
From what President Baldwin Lonsdale said in the second paragraph, we can know that ______.
| A．Vanuatu is a beautiful South Pacific island nation. |
| B．Vanuatu wants to see a strong new framework on disaster risk reduction. |
| C．Vanuatu suffers from natural disasters a lot. |
| D．Vanuatu will have a bright future on tourism. |
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
| A．At least 3 deaths have been confirmed and over twenty people injured. |
| B．Port Vila is the capital of Vanuatu. |
| C．The country is not yet threatened by coastal erosion and rising sea levels. |
| D．The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that half the children has been affected by cyclone Pam. |
What can we know from the last three paragraphs?
| A．Some international rescue teams are being under way. |
| B．Four other Pacific Island countries have been severely impacted by Cyclone Pam except Vanuatu. |
| C．Many houses in Vanuatu are still strong enough for people to live in. |
| D．A UN team was expected arrive in Port Vila late Sunday. |
Where was the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction being held?
A. In Vanuatu. B. In the USA.
C. In China. D. In Japan.
Mayor Boris Johnson Monday outlined plans to make London “the cleanest” by the 2012 Olympics and called for commitments from other world cities at a climate change conference. Leaders of the world's 40 largest cities are meeting in Seoul this week for a summit on combating global warming ---- the third to be held since 2005.
"What we should do in Seoul is agree that we will stop the endless addiction of mankind to the internal combustion engine (内燃机)," said Johnson. He told a press conference the world's cities consume 75 percent of its energy and produce 80 percent of the emissions which cause climate change. "The problem of our planet is an urban problem," Johnson said.
He said the British capital wants to use the Olympics "to drive the greening and the improvement of our city" and noted that London is committed to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025.
Johnson said the key measure was addressing the problems relating to domestic and commercial buildings, which accounted for 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in London. This involved retrofitting (翻新) ---- installing lagging (绝缘层材料) ---- in large numbers of public buildings.
Johnson proclaimed himself a "passionate cyclist" and said he would push ahead with cycle super-highways around London.
London's air quality problem, he said, was caused by vehicle emissions from 8,300 antiquated (陈旧的) diesel (柴油) buses, which could be replaced by low-carbon vehicles. There were also 32,000 taxis running on diesel fuel, which could be replaced by electric vehicles.
Johnson said there would be a substantial (实质上的) program in the next few years to produce a "cleaner, greener" bus for his city. "The age of the diesel-emitting bus has got to be over in London."Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE according to this passage?
| A．The used buses running on diesel will be replaced by electric vehicles. |
| B．London’s air quality will be improved in the near future. |
| C．London promises to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2025. |
| D．Plans have been made to solve the problem of carbon dioxide emissions. |
What does the underlined word mean in the first paragraph?
| A．discussing | B．resisting | C．agreeing | D．supporting |
The topic of the meeting in Seoul might be __________.
| A．climate change | B．London Olympics in 2012 |
| C．global warming | D．green environment |
If the passage was continually written, the following might be __________.
| A．measures to replace the old and used vehicles |
| B．measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in London |
| C．measures to solve housing and commercial items |
| D．measures to end the age of the diesel bus |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there’s whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job's pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas:
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating (使孤立) jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don't happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers?
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy?
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won't know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.This passage mainly talks about the importance of __________.
| A．different jobs | B．personalities | C．personal skills | D．job’s pay |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad. |
| B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| C．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
| D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
| A．Design | B．Skills | C．Cooperation | D．Hobbies |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Lifestyles and Job Pay |
| B．Jobs and Environment |
| C．Job Skills and Abilities |
| D．Personalities and Jobs |
The price of coffee beans hits a 12 – year high today. I thought there might
be some kind of coffee – market story, like we saw with cocoa earlier this summer.
But the main driver of coffee prices right now is simpler: Colombia has had
a few years of weak coffee harvests because of too much rain, which has reduced
the global supply. And coffee drinkers keep buying coffee, even as prices rise, in
other words, demand is unchanged.
The higher price of beans – up about 40 percent since March – means higher prices for the coffee you buy by the pound. But it probably won’t affect the coffee you buy by the cup.
Smuckers, which sells Folgers and Millstone coffees, recently said it was raising its prices because of the higher cost of beans. Starbucks, however, said it would absorb the higher cost of beans without raising prices.
“You see it much more in the grocery store because the raw materials are a big factor of cost,” Jose Sette of the International Coffee Organization told me. “In a coffee shop, your big expenses are rent and labor.”
While real – world supply and demand is the big driver of the price of beans, there may be some speculative action in coffee business in the future.
But futures (期货) of the high – grade Arabica beans are traded in the US, where regulations prevent speculators (投机商) from controlling the market, hoping such things won’t happen just as in London summer market. That suggests that prices should fall when supply improves – which may happen next year.
Some experts say that farmers in third world countries won’t actually benefit from higher prices in this case. When the price difference is due to supply and demand, the profit of the seller usually doesn’t go up.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．Why coffee is getting more expensive? |
| B．How farmer benefits from the high price? |
| C．Whether the US will control the coffee market? |
| D．What has caused the reduction of coffee? |
From the second paragraph we can infer that _______________________.
| A．Colombia is the coffee trading center of the world |
| B．Colombia coffee output contains a final share of the world |
| C．People need more and more coffee |
| D．Coffee sales will be getting less and less |
In this summer’s coffee bean market, ____________________________.
| A．the US made more rules about coffee prices |
| B．speculators once held the coffee bean market in London |
| C．coffee bean trading was seriously disorganized |
| D．coffee bean prices were very low in the US |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
| A．The price difference determines the profit of the seller. |
| B．Smuckers is a famous coffee manufacturer. |
| C．Real – world supply and demand decides the prices. |
| D．Coffee prices will become much higher next year. |
When most people think of giant pandas, the pictures of the cute, black-and-white bears from China that eat bamboo will immediately jump into their mind. Scientists from Mississippi State University, however, are interested in what they leave behind: their poop(排泄物). At a recent meeting in Denver, Professor Brown at the university presented her research showing how panda poop could inspire a new way to obtain energy from plants, which are a renewable energy source. Usually, plants can be called biomass(有机燃料) when they are used as an energy source.
Burning biomass is one way to capture its energy, but Brown hopes panda poop can teach scientists something about breaking down biomass. Pandas—or at least the bacteria in their stomachs—are very good at getting energy out of bamboo. Unlike cows, which use 4 stomachs to digest large amounts of grass, a panda has only one stomach. Bamboo comes in, and poop goes out.
Every day for 14 months, Brown and her team on this project, counted the bacteria in the poop of the two pandas, YaYa and LeLe living at the Memphis Zoo. Her studies turned up 12 species of bacteria that break down biomass, including one that had never been found in pandas. Brown says that because the poop contains bacteria that break down biomass, it could also be used to break down other types of biomass.
Now the scientists hope to identify the chemicals that help with the process of breaking down biomass and then figure out how the bacteria work. If those chemicals can be made in the lab, they could be used to turn biomass—like grass or other plants—into fuel.
Brown says she doesn’t mind handling panda poop. “It’s probably the most pleasant material to work with,” she says, “My colleagues and I have been working with other poop for a long time, and we can assure you it has a fairly pleasant smell associated with it.”The importance of studying panda poop is _______.
| A．to create a renewable energy from plants |
| B．to explore a new way to get energy from plants |
| C．to learn a lesson of energy from panda poop |
| D．to figure out how the bacteria work for us mankind |
The process of the panda poop project can be described as ______.
| a. Identify the chemicals helpful to break down biomass. b. Find the bacteria in panda poop which break down bamboo. c. Reproduce the chemicals in the lab to turn biomass into energy. d. Analyze how the bacteria in panda poop work in panda’s stomach. |
A. a, b, d, c B. a, d, c, b C. b, a, d, c D. b, d, a, cWhat does the author mainly want to express in the 2nd paragraph?
| A．Pandas don’t digest bamboo the same way as cows. |
| B．Pandas are capable of getting energy using stomachs. |
| C．Pandas can get energy from bamboo more efficiently. |
| D．Scientists have learnt something new from panda poop. |
What does Professor Brown think of working with panda poop?
| A．Sick | B．Challenging | C．Inspiring | D．Enjoyable |
I fell in love with music from a young age and often sat down making a few songs of my own．What would life be like, I wondered, without a beautiful song? In 1992, I made two love songs to my darling wife and watched tears run down her face as I sang．"Sam," she said earnestly, "Your songs should be heard by more people."
She got my ballads and started bothering various media people about me, her singing barber husband．Two radio stations took an interest and played the songs．After the programme was aired, I became known in our community as the Singing Barber．
The biggest surprise, however, was still to come．I received a call from a music promoter who offered me a long-term recording contract．He explained that he would be investing a lot of money to market my songs．I needed to be wholly focused on selling my records all over Australia．
But I hesitated．
My friends all told me to go for it．And Mary also thought I should do．"Go, Sam．I'll manage with the family．．．it'll be OK．"
I watched my daughter and son playing in the backyard．Soon they would both be in high school．．．and where would I be? I was so used to my family turning to me for love and support．If I were to start a singing career, I would not only miss them terribly, I'd also certainly miss out on watching them grow up．Signing this contract would put a huge gap between my family and me．．．and I couldn't bear it．My family was my life．So I refused the music promoter's offer．I'm still making music, I'm rich in love and I have no regrets．When the author was offered the contract, most of his friends _____．
| A．envied him | B．laughed at him | C．encouraged him | D．didn't believe him |
Why did the author give up the contract?
| A．Because his wife was strongly against it． |
| B．Because the pay was not attractive enough． |
| C．Because he wanted to care about his two kids． |
| D．Because he didn't want his family life damaged． |
According to the passage, we can infer the author _____．
| A．used to be a country singer |
| B．preferred his present life |
| C．went on the road to fame |
| D．regretted giving up his contract |
What does the author mainly intend to tell us?
| A．One should know himself． |
| B．Interest is the best teacher． |
| C．Family should come first． |
| D．Every dog has its day． |