The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（钻孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The project is meant to ______.
| A．increase the world’s food output in the future |
| B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes |
| C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds |
| D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?
| A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone. |
| B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousand years ago. |
| C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever. |
| D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place. |
We can infer from the text that _______.
| A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before. |
| B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture |
| C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year. |
| D．There haven’t been any seed storage centers in the world before. |
What is probably the best title of the passage?
| A．The Best Place to Store Seeds |
| B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan |
| C．Concerns of World Food Supply |
| D．A New Way to Feed the World |
Most people feel lonely sometimes, but it usually only lasts between a few minutes and a few hours. This kind of loneliness is not serious. In fact, it is quite normal. For some people, though, loneliness can last for years. Now researchers say there are three different types of loneliness.
The first kind of loneliness is temporary(暂时的). This is the most common type. It usually disappears quickly and does not require any special attention. The second kind, situational loneliness, is a natural result or a particular situation---- for example, a family problem, the death of a loved one, or moving to a new place. Although this kind of loneliness can cause physical problems, such as headaches and sleeplessness, it usually does not last for more than a year.
The third kind of loneliness is the most severe. Unlike the second type, chronic(长期的) loneliness usually last more than two yeas and has no specific cause. People who experience habitual loneliness have problems socializing and becoming close to others. Unfortunately, many chronica
lly lone people think there is little or nothing they can do to improve their condition.
Psychologists (心理学家)agree that one important fact in loneliness is a person’s social contacts, e.g, friends, family members, co-workers, etc. We depend on various people for different reasons. For instance, our families give us emotional support, our parents and t
eachers give us guidance, and our friends share similar 
interests and activities. However, psychologists have found that, though lone people may have many social contacts, they sometimes feel they should have more. They question their own popularity.
Psychologists are trying to find ways to help habitually lonely people for two reasons: they are unhappy and unable to socialize and there is a connection between chronic loneliness and serious illness such as heart disease. While temporary and situational loneliness can be a normal, healthy part of life, chronic loneliness can be a very sad, and sometimes dangerous condition.
How would you treat temporary loneliness according to the passage?
| A．Talk to friends | B．Just ignore it |
| C．Go to see a doctor | D．Ask your teachers for guidance |
The topic of the 4th paragraph is that _______________.
| A．lonely people don’t have many friends |
| B．lonely people don’t have many social problems |
| C．one problem of loneliness is a person’s social contacts |
| D．we depend on various people for different reasons |
Why do psychologists want to help chronically lonely people?
| A．Chronic loneliness can cause family problems |
| B．Chronic loneliness can cause serious illness |
| C．Chronic loneliness cannot be overcome |
| D．A, B, and C are all correct |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Three kinds of Loneliness | B．Loneliness and Diseases |
| C．Loneliness and Social Contacts | D．Chronic Loneliness |
Every kid wishes to be an adult. But now as grown-ups, some adults find they cannot leave childhood behind.They become "kidults" (kid+adult). Being a kidult has become a lifestyle-choice among young people across Asia.
Some kidults collect toys they once played with. Hello Kitty, Garfield, and Snoopy have many adult fans around the world. It is not unusual to see a 20-something woman with a big, Garfield-shaped cushion (坐垫)on her sofa or a Hello Kitty mobile phone accessory (挂件).
Other kidults still enjoy children's stories and fairy tales. For example, Bloomsbury even published the Harry Potter novels with an adult cover. That way, no one else on the subway will know that an adult is actually reading a children's book!
"Kidults can be like vitamins to society. Adults who value their childhood and hold on to pure, child-like emotion may be needed in such a rough and dry society," said Lee Sojung, professor of Foreign Studies at Hankuk University(韩国外国语大学). He added that kidult culture may fill the generation gap between adults and kids. It could give children and their parents books, movies, and cartoon shows to enjoy together. He may be right.
Tim Greenhalgh, a professor, explained that some kidults just refuse to grow up. They value childhood because life in a busy and stressful city frightens them. Kidults would like to forget their age and openly show their fear of society and adulthood.
Why did Bloomsbury publish the Harry Potter novels with an adult cover?
| A．Bloomsbury knows some kidults don't want people to know that they are kidults |
| B．Bloomsbury thinks it can attract more readers |
| C．Bloomsbury knows kidults prefer to chose books for adults in nature |
| D．Bloomsbury thinks the cover with an adult is better |
Being a kidult is good in some way EXCEPT that _______.
| A．it is helpful to solve some social problems |
| B．it can make people listen to their parents |
| C．it can improve the relationship between parents and their kids |
| D．it can help kidults feel relaxed |
According to the writer, _______.
| A．our society is very dull |
| B．kidults have mental problems |
| C．being a kidult is nothing wrong |
| D．some people can never grow up |
Last year, Jack Bleed cut through the bone of his ring finger while working. The 31-year-old resident of North Little Rock, Arkansas, waited for about six hours at a nearby medical center while the medical staff there called all over town — even as far away as Dallas and Memphis — to find a hand surgeon to reattach his finger. Finally, a willing doctor was located in Louisville, Kentucky. But even though Bleed had insurance(保险), he would have to hire a private plane to get himself there, at a cost of $4,300. In the end, he charged the cost to two credit cards, and his finger was saved. His insurance company eventually covered the cost of the plane, but his experience makes people aware of the fact that trauma(外伤) care in the United States is not only geographically limited, but in many places, non-existent.
Only eight states — New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, New Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington — have local, fully functional trauma systems. The remaining states have partial systems, and 12 — including Arkansas — have no trauma system at all.
Although the President has signed a bill of $12 million for the purpose of supporting trauma care systems nationwide, many in Congress(国会) are unwilling to spend government money for a service they think should be paid for by states, says Wayne Meredith, medical director for trauma programs at the American College of Surgeons. Meanwhile, many states have also failed to find the dollars to support trauma systems. 
To make matters worse, many people without insurance depend heavily on the emergency care services, placing a huge financial burden on the medical centers that serve them.
For the same reason, doctors, too, often go unpaid. They are unwilling to perform emergency care, worsening critical shortages of neurosurgeons, orthopedists, and hand surgeons — the very types of specialists Bleed needed at short notice.
Supporting a trauma care system doesn’t take much. A half-penny sales tax in Miami-Dade County makes its outstanding system work. In Arkansas alone, says Wayne Meredith, a well-funded trauma system would possibly prevent 200 to 600 deaths each year. If trauma care systems were to work well across the nation, experts say, many thousands of lives each year could be saved. “You don’t get much better return on your investment than that,” Meredith says.
In Paragraph 1, the writer uses Bleed’s case to ______.
| A．make a comparison | B．describe a person |
| C．introduce a topic | D．tell a story |
Many people in Congress argue that trauma care systems should be supported by ______.
| A．the President | B．each state |
| C．insurance companies | D．the US government |
The example of Miami-Dade County shows that ______.
| A．its tax policy is admirable |
| B．running a trauma system is profitable |
| C．a trauma system is not expensive |
| D．sales tax is not heavy in small counties |
Why are the present trauma care systems in some states not satisfactory?
| A．They are shared by all the states. |
| B．They are short of financial support. |
| C．The doctors are not well trained. |
| D．The hospitals can’t provide low-cost services. |
In ancient Japan, if you saved someone’s life, they would make it their duty to spend the rest of their life serving you. Nowadays, if you rescue someone’s story, he or she will feel the same kind of gratitude(感激).
It happens all the time. Someone in a group is telling a story and, just before their big point, BOOM! There’s an interruption. Someone new joins the group, a waiter with a plate of biscuits comes over, or a baby starts crying. Suddenly everyone’s attention turns to the new arrival, the food on the plate, or the “charming” little child. Nobody is aware of the interruption — except the speaker. They forget all about the fact that the speaker hasn’t made his or her point.
Or you’re all sitting around the living room and someone is telling a joke. Suddenly, just before his big punch line(妙语), little Johnny drops a dish or the phone rings. After the crash, everyone talks about little Johnny’s carelessness. After the call, the subject turns to the upcoming marriage or medical operation of the caller. Nobody remembers the great punch line got unfinished — except the joke teller. When it’s you entertaining everyone at a restaurant, have you ever noticed how you can almost set your clock by the waiter coming to take everyone’s order just before your funny punch line?
Most joke and story tellers are too shy to say, after the interruption, “Now, as I was saying…” Instead, they’ll spend the rest of the evening feeling bad they didn’t get to finish. Here’s where you come in. Rescue them with the technique I call “Lend a Helping Tongue.”
Watch the gratitude in the storyteller’s eyes as he stabilizes where his story sunk and he sails off again toward the center of attention. His expression and the appreciation of your consideration by the
rest of the group are often reward enough. You are even more fortunate if you can rescue the story of someone who can hire you, promote you, buy from you, or otherwise lift your life. Big winners have excellent memories. When you do them subtle favors like Lend a Helping Tongue, they find a way to pay you back.
Very often, a storytelle
r cannot make his point because ______.
| A．people are more interested in food than his story |
| B．many guests bring their babies to the party |
| C．his story is easily forgotten by the listeners |
| D．he is interrupted by something unexpected |
From Paragraph 3, we know that when someone is telling a joke, ______.
| A．something bad will surely happen just before their punch line |
| B．the only person really interested in the joke is the joke teller |
| C．listeners’ attention is often drawn to something else |
| D．the waiter knows when to take everyone’s order |
How can we “Lend a Helping Tongue” to the story tellers, according to the writer?
| A．Comfort them to make them happy. |
| B．Give them a chance to finish. |
| C．Go on telling the story for them. |
| D．Teach them some useful techniques. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．People should learn how to take turns in a conversation. |
| B．Telling jokes will make you the center of attention. |
| C．We can win someone’s heart by getting him back to his story. |
| D．It is impolite to cut in on someone’s talk. |
When you think about math, you probably don’t think about breaking the law, solving mysteries or finding criminals. But a mathematician in Maryland does, and he has come up with mathematical tools to help police find criminals.
People who solve crimes look for patterns that might reveal(揭示) the identity of the criminal. It’s long been believed, for example, that criminals will break the law closer to where they live, simply because it’s easier to get around in their own neighborhood. If police see a pattern of robberies in a certain area, they may look for a suspect(嫌疑犯) who lives near the crime scenes. So, the farther away from the area a crime takes place, the less likely it is that the same criminal did it.
But Mike O’Leary, a mathematician at Towson University in Maryland, says that this kind of approach may be too simple. He says that police may get better clues to the locati
on of a criminal’s home base by combining these patterns with a city’s layout(布局) and historical crime records.
The records of past crimes contain geographic
al information and can reveal easy targets — that is, the kind of stores that might be less difficult to rob. Because these stores are along roads, the locations of past crimes contain information about where major streets and intersections are. O’Leary is writing a new computer program that will quickly provide this kind of information for a given city. His program also includes information about the people who live in the city, and information about how a criminal’s patterns change with age. It’s been shown, for example, that the younger the criminal, the closer to home the crime.
Other computer programmers have worked on similar software, but O’Leary’s uses more math. The mathematician plans to make his computer program available, free of charge, to police departments around the country.
The program is just one way to use math to fight crime. O’Leary says that criminology — the study of crime and criminals — contains a lot of good math problems. “I feel like I’m in a gold mine and I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun.”
To find criminals, police usually ______.
| A．focus on where crimes take place | B．seek help from local people |
| C．depend on new mathematical tools | D．check who are on the crime scene |
O’Leary is writing a computer program that ______.
| A．uses math to increase the speed of calculation |
| B．tells the identity of a criminal in a certain area |
| C．shows changes in criminals’ patterns |
| D．provides the crime records of a given city |
By “I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like”, O’Leary means that he ______.
| A．is better at finding gold than others |
| B．is the only one who uses math to make money |
| C．knows more criminals than other mathematicians |
| D．knows best how to use math to help solve crimes |
What is the main idea of the text?
A．Criminals live  near where crimes occur. |
| B．Math could help police find criminals. |
| C．Crime records could be used to fight crime. |
| D．Computer software works in preventing crimes. |