Rachel Carson，a wellknown nature author in America，was happiest writing about the strength and stability of natural systems.Her books mainly described the inter connectedness of nature and all living things.
Completing Silent Spring took Carson four years.First published in The New Yorker in June 1962，the book alarmed readers across America.It described how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated (堆积) in the fatty tissues of animals，including human beings，and caused cancer and genetic damage.
Carson begins by describing exactly these effects in the first chapter，creating strong images and drawing the readers in.As the book continues，she gives various examples of how insecticides(杀虫剂) are not only unsuccessful，but actually very costly and damaging.She also explains about the biological controls which are less expensive and much more efficient.
A single application on a crop，she wrote，killed insects for weeks and months，and not only the targeted insects but countless more，and remained poisonous in the environment even after it was washed out by rainwater.Carson concluded that DDT and other pesticides had definitely harmed birds and animals and had destroyed the entire world's food supply.The book's most famous chapter，A Fable for Tomorrow，described a nameless American town where all life—from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children—had been “silenced” by the harmful effects of DDT.
The most important effect of Silent Spring，though，was a new public awareness that nature was so easily destroyed by human intervention(干预)．Rachel Carson had made a brave proposal：that，at times，technological progress is so basically at odds with(与……不一致) natural processes that it must be prevented.
What are Rachel Carson's books mainly concerned about?
| A．The relationship between man and nature. |
| B．The balance of natural systems. |
| C．The interconnection of nature and living things. |
| D．The pollution of the environment. |
According to the text，Silent Spring________.
| A．didn't draw the readers' attention when first published |
| B．mainly describes people's quiet lives in an American town |
| C．effectively tells people how to keep the balance of nature |
| D．showed the harmful effects of DDT on nature |
Rachel Carson thinks that the more efficient way to kill insects is to use ________.
| A．DDT |
| B．human controls |
| C．biological controls |
| D．technical progress |
The publication of Silent Spring makes people ________.
| A．understand the author's outstanding writing talent |
| B．realize the importance of technical progress |
| C．aware of the necessity of environmental protection |
| D．rethink the harmful effects of developing industry |
Parents are creating an “I want it now” generation by indulging children's every demand at Christmas，say experts.Youngsters are becoming increasingly selfish，claim the education analysts.
Consumersavvy children are forcing their families into racking up huge debts and risk becoming spoilt and dissatisfied in the future.
Behavioural consultant Chris Calland said，“Parents are desperate to make Christmas into a magical fairy tale for their kids.There's nothing wrong with that as such.The problem arises when it means always giving in to all our children's demands—even if they are beyond our price range or not ageappropriate.”
Ms.Calland，who runs “Santa Says No” style sessions with colleague Nicky Hutchinson，added, “Many of us go into so much debt providing the gifts our children want that we spend the rest of the year paying off the bills.Yet so often the parcels we've carefully wrapped，once opened，are just pushed away because the very thing our little boy or girl was once so desperate for, they have now lost interest in.”
Ms. Calland and Ms.Hutchinson have drawn up a list of guidelines to help parents manage their offspring's Christmas lists this year.They say that adults can actually improve their relationships with their children by resisting “pester (纠缠) power”．
Ms.Calland said，“All too often we say yes because we want an easier life when the fact is that we're only building up problems for the future.We are helping create a generation of youngsters who are blind to the needs of others and the necessity of hard work.”
“Children learn fast—if we sometimes change our mind，they quickly realise it might be worth lying on the floor and screaming for it.Make sure you and your partner are working together on this.Be consistent.And try not to get caught up in competition with other families or friends.”How is the “I want it now” generation created?
| A．Parents can't afford the gifts for their children. |
| B．Parents become heavily in debt. |
| C．Parents are trying to make Christmas into a magical fairy tale. |
| D．Parents give children whatever they want at Christmas. |
What is the main problem with the “I want it now” generation?
| A．They are quite selfcentered. |
| B．They like to live in fairy tales. |
| C．They waste a lot of money on gifts. |
| D．They can't keep their interest in gifts. |
What is probably the aim of “Santa Says No” style sessions?
| A．To advise on how to wrap gifts properly. |
| B．To keep children's interest in the gifts. |
| C．To tell parents how to say no to children's demands. |
| D．To advise parents on what gifts to buy for children. |
According to the passage，we can infer that Ms.Calland intends to ________.
| A．analyze children's behavior |
| B．give advice to parents |
| C．introduce a new generation |
| D．give her support to parents |
Ms.Calland would agree that parents should ________.
| A．buy nothing for children at Christmas |
| B．choose gifts carefully for children |
| C．let children choose their own gifts |
| D．avoid competing with others |
All Ric O Barry wants is to stop the dolphinkilling, so he is headed to this seaside Japanese town, Taiji.The American activist, who is the star of a new awardwinning documentary that portrays the dolphinkilling here, got an unwelcome reception when he showed up here this week for the start of the annual hunt.
His movie, The Cove(海豚湾), directed by National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos, was released in the United States a month ago but has not yet to come out in Japan.
Scenes in the film, some of which were shot secretly, show fishermen banging on metal poles stuck in the water to create a wall of sound that scares the dolphins— which have supersensitive sonar(声纳系统)—and sends them fleeing into a cove.
There, the fishermen sometimes pick a few to be sold for aquarium shows, for as much as $150,000. They kill the others, spearing(刺) the animals repeatedly until the water turns red. The meat from one dolphin is worth about 50,000 yen, and is sold at supermarkets across Japan.
Greenpeace and other groups have tried to stop the hunt for years.Activists hope The Cove will bring the issue to more people internationally—and eventually in Japan.
Already，the Australian town of Broome dropped its 28year sistercity relationship with Taiji last month，partly because of the movie.
“Some regions have a tradition of eating dolphin meat，” said fisheries official Toshinori Uoya. “Dolphinkilling may be negative for our international image, but it is not something orders can stop.”
The town government in Taiji—which has made whales and dolphins its trademark—refused to comment about The Cove, or the growing international criticism against dolphinkilling.
Many in Taiji take the dolphin hunt for granted as part of everyday life. They are defensive about The Cove，seeing themselves as powerless victims of overseas pressure to end a simple and honest way of making a living.Ric O Barry made The Cove because he wanted to ________.
| A．stop the dolphinkilling |
| B．win an international award |
| C．support Greenpeace's efforts |
| D．make Taiji wellknown in the world |
Viewers can learn from The Cove ________.
| A．the advanced techniques to catch dolphins |
| B．the cruel and bloody dolphinkilling |
| C．the beautiful Japanese seaside town Taiji |
| D．the sale of dolphin meat around the world |
What is the response to The Cove on the Japanese side?
| A．Taiji broke up with its western sistercity Broome. |
| B．Japanese officials decided to ban dolphinkilling. |
| C．The town government in Taiji kept silent on criticism. |
| D．Most Japanese people were against eating dolphin meat. |
What does the underlined word “defensive” probably mean?
| A．Feeling guilty for killing dolphins. |
| B．Protecting themselves against criticism. |
| C．Attacking those against dolphinkilling. |
| D．Making the determination to change. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Many people in Japan have seen The Cove in the cinema. |
| B．The Cove has not influenced Japan's international image. |
| C．Taiji's dolphinkilling industry has been seriously damaged. |
| D．The Cove has brought international attention to dolphinkilling. |
The first flights of the new airlines that will take tourists into space are ready to take off in 2012, and getting a seat on one is not all that different from booking a trip someplace on Earth. You can sign up on the website of, say, Virgin Galactic，the most wellknown of the new space tourism companies, or go to an approved travel agency and put down a large deposit. Soon you will be able to buy travel insurance，just as you can for any other vacation.
Until now，space tourism has been limited to the ultrawealthy. Just seven people have paid tens of millions of dollars each for a trip to the International Space Station aboard a Russian rocket.
But that could change this year, when Virgin Galactic intends to start offering flights just beyond the space barrier on a rocket ship it has built, featuring five minutes of weightlessness during a twoandahalfhour tour. At $ 200,000 a seat, this will open the final frontier to far more people.
At least two other specialty airlines have jumped in as well, taking reservations and deposits for future space flights.Allianz, the big insurer, will introduce an insurance product in 2012, lending space tourism the trappings of the regular travel industry.
“Just to be able to sell space travel as a regular part of your business, really, just how cool is that？” said Lynda Turley Garrett, president of Alpine Travel of Saratoga, Calif.，who is one of 58 accredited space agents for Virgin Galactic in the United States.
In five years，Ms.Garrett has sold three seats. But she expects that to change once passengers start going up and coming down to tell their friends. “By 2017，it'll be just like scheduling a flight to L．A.，” Ms.Garrett predicted.If you want to book a flight to space in 2012, you can________.
| A．go to any travel agency |
| B．telephone Virgin Galactic |
| C．pay a visit to Allianz |
| D．sign up on the website of Virgin Galactic |
From Paragraph 2 we can know that ________.
| A．only the extremely rich people can afford the space trip |
| B．seven people have paid tens of millions of dollars for a space trip |
| C．Russia is the first country to build the space station |
| D．ordinary people are not allowed to take space tour |
Which of the following is true of Virgin Galactic?
| A．It is one of the approved space agencies. |
| B．It is a famous space tourism company. |
| C．It sells insurance products to space tourists. |
| D．Its rocket has carried space passengers successfully. |
What does the underlined word “trappings” in Paragraph 4 probably refer to?
| A．Standard uniforms. |
| B．Traditional decorations. |
| C．Symbolic signs. |
| D．Personal belongings. |
What does Ms. Garrett think of the future space travel?
| A．Common. | B．Changeable. |
| C．Flexible. | D．Reasonable. |
There are many things people do with their spare time.Have you ever thought about tuning(调音)your own piano for fun and profit？Are you a piano teacher or player who really does not want the expense of hiring a piano tuner and feels that you could do it yourself with a little training？Well，this is your lucky day.All you need are the right tools，a piano and patience.
So，why would I want to tune my piano？There are many reasons for tuning your own piano.
·It is a very pleasant thing to do.
·You can make up to $80 each time tuning other people's pianos.
·There are millions of pianos in the world and thousands of new ones are being sold every day.There are not enough piano tuners available to tune them all.
·You can provide a valuable service for friends，family and others.
·You can teach yourself very cheaply and then develop it into a parttime or fulltime business.
You may have thought that only a trained expert could do this，someone who had devoted years of study and developed a sense of perfect pitch(音高)．In the past，tuning a piano was as much an art form as it was a technology exercise，but now the balance is swaying(摇动) more towards the technology and the final result is as good or even better than tuning by ear.
A few simple tools and a laptop computer with tuning software are all that are required.The real secret is the tuning software，which makes the whole process extremely easy.It means you do not have to train your ears but just look at the laptop screen to know when the piano string is in tune.
I have put together an ebook in my website with all the information you need to get started tuning your own piano, where to get the free software and where to buy the tools.
I hope I have inspired you to think about piano tuning and actually give it a go.You will find it a very rewarding and pleasant activity even if it remains just a hobby.The writer asks two questions in the first paragraph to ________.
| A．show his doubt on the topic |
| B．ask readers to answer the questions clearly |
| C．encourage readers to make comments on the topic |
| D．attract readers to more information on this topic |
According to the passage，why should you learn to tune pianos?
| A．To offer help to piano tuners. |
| B．To save money and earn money as well. |
| C．Because it can help you make a piano yourself. |
| D．Because it can help you learn how to play the piano. |
What makes piano tuning easier now?
| A．Advanced technology. |
| B．More effective training. |
| C．More chances of practicing. |
| D．Traditional tuning methods. |
If you want to get the tuning software and tools，you can ________.
| A．get them for free from the piano sellers |
| B．buy them from the writer's online shops |
| C．make them yourself according to the passage |
| D．surf the writer's website for the information |
In the last paragraph，the writer mainly wants to show that ________.
| A．one must be active to play the piano |
| B．piano tuning will be popular in the future |
| C．it's valuable to take piano tuning as a hobby |
| D．it's difficult to tune pianos without professional training |
The kiwi bird
The kiwi bird is a flightless bird，about the size of a chicken. It sleeps during the day and is active at nighttime. It has a long beak that is onethird the length of its body, and its beak actually has nostrils (鼻孔) at the end. The kiwi is the only bird with this feature. Another unique feature of the kiwi is that it has no tail. It has thick brown hairlike feathers. This bird has many physical features unlike any other bird on earth.
Kiwi birds have been called a genetic leftover. Their characteristics seem very odd to us probably due to the fact that they haven't evolved much at all. They are suspected to be about 8 million years old. That's 7 million years older than humans. Due to New Zealand's isolated environment, it has been safe from predators(食肉动物) and hasn't needed to do much adapting. They just hang around.
With its long beak, the kiwi digs up and chows down on worms. A kiwi is almost blind; it can see about six feet at night and around two feet during the day，so when it comes to hunting the kiwi is not well equipped.It uses the nostrils on its beak to find its food and then picks up the worms with its beak.
The kiwi bird is native of New Zealand.It is the island country's national bird, and is rare anywhere but here and a few Pacific island neighbors. Of course，it is available for viewing at certain zoos.It has stayed in its native land due to the facts that it is an isolated island and that kiwis can't fly.
Kiwi birds are extremely unique in the bird world. Though they are the size of chickens, they lay eggs the size of ostrich eggs, weighing around a pound each.Their enormous eggs are the largest in the bird world, compared to their bodies. These birds were named after their distinctive shrill cry “keewee keewee”．Which of the following is NOT the distinctive feature of the kiwi bird?
| A．It has no tail at all. |
| B．It has a long beak. |
| C．Its feathers are thick and brown. |
| D．There are nostrils at the end of its beak. |
Kiwi birds haven't evolved much over the past 8 million years probably because ________.
| A．the climate is mild |
| B．they have no enemy |
| C．something is wrong with their genes |
| D．they have adapted to living on the island |
What plays a key role in looking for food?
| A．Its long beak. | B．Its eyes. |
| C．The nostrils. | D．Its tail |
What does Paragraph 4 mainly talk about?
| A．The kiwi bird's habitat. |
| B．The kiwi bird is New Zealand's national bird. |
| C．The kiwi bird can not fly. |
| D．The kiwi bird is available at zoos. |
Kiwi birds got their name from ________.
| A．the large size of their eggs |
| B．the food they feed on |
| C．their appearance |
| D．their unique cry |