Parts of Africa are covered by a dark cloud. But this is no rain cloud. It is a living cloud made of billions of locusts(蝗虫) that are traveling across the continent eating everything in their path.
And now in the battle to stop this disaster, a radio station in Senegal, West Africa, is offering listeners 50 kilograms of locusts. “We think this idea will get more people to take part in the war on the locusts.” said Abdoulaye Ba, from Sud-Fm, a radio station in one of Senegal’s worst affected area.
This is West Africa’s biggest locust disaster in 15 years, and it is moving east, causing huge damage to crops. As they move they produce young and increase their number and will soon threaten Sudan in the northeast of Africa. Some say it could reach Asia.
Experts say the harmful effect on crops in areas already suffering from food shortage and war could cast many people to go hungry. Governments in the areas are not well equipped to fight the pest.
Although leaders of 12 countries have agreed on a plan, it is not expected to be enough. “We are now treating 6,000 hectares per day with pesticide(杀虫剂), but we need to treat 20,000 hectares per day in order to have any hope of controlling this disaster,” said Mohamed Adballahi Ould Babah, director of locust control in Mauritania.
Requests are being made for international aid, which is the only way to limit the disaster, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned.By using “dark cloud” to describe locusts in the first paragraph, the author mainly meant to______.
| A．show the size, speed and damage of the mass of locusts |
| B．suggest the high speed that locusts travel at |
| C．warn that locusts would sweep the continent severely |
| D．hint that they look like dark monster |
The story is mainly about______.
| A．West Africa’s united effort in fighting a disaster |
| B．the difficulty in controlling locusts |
| C．the great damage locusts caused to West Africa |
| D．a struggle to fight against a disaster brought by locusts in West Africa |
According to the text we learn that the locust disaster______.
| A．can be even more serious in Asia |
| B．is then out of control |
| C．has affected greatly most areas |
| D．cannot be stopped unless twice as much pesticide is provided for the affected areas |
Which of the following is WRONG？
| A．Sud-Fm offered a reward for fighting locusts so that more people would join in the effort. |
| B．Senegal is to southwest of Sudan. |
| C．The locusts can cause such damage mainly because it has no natural enemy in West Africa. |
| D．12 countries affected by locusts have untied but still lack pesticide. |
Tiny transmitters(发射机) fixed on the backs of the blue-green bees have allowed scientists to follow the insects as they fly for miles in search of rare flowers.
Working in Panama, scientists caught 17 bees of the common species and fixed a 300 milligram radio light onto the back of each. The signals they sent out were used to follow their movements in and around the forest where they lived.
Professor Martin, from Princeton University, US, and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, said, “By following the radio signals, we discovered that male bees spent most of their time in small centre areas, but could take off and visit areas farther away. One male even crossed over the shipping lanes in the Panama Canal, flying at least 5km, and returned a few days later.”
Researchers have struggled to follow the movements of bees before, following bees marked with paint or using radar which doesn’t work well in forests.
“Carrying the transmitter could reduce the distance that the bees travel, but even if the flight distances we record are the shortest distances that these bees can fly, they are impressive, long-distance movements,” said Dr. Roland Kays, from New York State Museum, a co-author of the research published today in the on-line journal. “This result helps to explain how these bees’ pollination(授粉) can be so rare.” Pollination by bees and other insects is the key to the diversity and continued growth of flowers and trees in some forests.
The new study is the first to use radio transmitters to follow bees in a forest. Similar research may now be carried in temperate forests, where bees also play a vital role.The main purpose of the passage is to___
| A．call on people to protect the bees for the environment |
| B．explain why the bees fly far away in search of flowers |
| C．introduce a modern way to follow the bees to readers |
| D．encourage the public to support the scientists’ research |
What was the problem when researchers tried to follow the bees in the past?
| A．It was quite difficult to mark the bees |
| B．The radar itself didn’t work very well |
| C．The bees weren’t easy to be recognized |
| D．Environmental limits were hard to solve |
What Dr. Roland Kays said implied that____
| A．he didn’t expect bees could fly so long a distance |
| B．The transmitter didn’t have any effects on bees at all |
| C．He wanted to know how far bees could travel badly |
| D．The record was in fact as exact as he had thought |
Researchers follow the movements of bees mainly to___
| A．learn how far they can fly at most |
| B．discover how they affect the plants |
| C．correct some wrong ideas about bees |
| D．get to know where they enjoy living |
If you’re tired of the Mediterranean and don’t want to head to Disney again, perhaps it’s time for a summer holiday in space. Russia has declared plans for its first floating hotel, 217 miles above earth, and it is something of an offering with good service.
Hosting just seven guests in a four cabins, the accommodation will boast huge windows with views back to earth and tasty microwave meals will be served instead of the ones often used by astronauts.
Just getting there will be an adventure in itself—it will take two days aboard a Soyuz rocket—and it won’t exactly be a budget holiday: A five-day stay will cost you￡100, 000 to￡500, 000 for your journey. The hotel is due to open by 2016 and, according to those behind it, will be far more comfortable than the International Space Station (ISS) used by astronauts and cosmonauts.
In the weightlessness of space, visitors can choose to have beds that are either vertical or horizontal. Tourists, who will be accompanied by experienced crew, will dine on food prepared on Earth and sent up on the rocket, to be reheated in microwave ovens. Many kinds of delicacies will be available.
Iced tea, mineral water and fruit juices will be available, but alcohol will be strictly prohibited. Toilets will use flowing air instead of water to move waste through the system. Waste water will be recycled.
Sergei Kostenko, chief executive of Orbital Technologies which will construct the hotel, said: “Our planned module inside will not remind you of the International Space Station. A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth. The hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space.” The hotel can also be used as an emergency bolthole (避难处) for astronauts aboard the International Space Station if there is a crisis.Which can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Russia declares the design for its first space hotel |
| B．The first space hotel is under construction now |
| C．The astronauts will have a second home in space |
| D．Russia has the advanced technology in exploring space |
What does the underlined word “budget” in the 3rd paragraph mean?
| A．expensive | B．worthwhile |
| C．economic | D．uncomfortable |
What kind of accommodation will the guests have in the space hotel?
| A．They will have the same food as the astronauts have. |
| B．Many kinds of drinks are available including alcohol. |
| C．Guests can have beds that are either vertical or horizontal. |
| D．Tourists are accompanied by the astronauts from the ISS. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The space hotel is built to remind you of the International Space Station. |
| B．The hotel is constructed with big windows so that tourists can see the earth. |
| C．The company, Orbital Technologies, has already begun to build the space hotel. |
| D．In the near future, a space trip for most of the people can be realized. |
Shopping for clothes is not the same experience for a man as it is for a woman. A man goes shopping because he needs something. All men simply walk into a shop and ask the assistant for what they want. If the shop has it in stock, the salesman immediately finds it, and the business of trying it on follows at once. All being well, the deal can be and often is completed inless than five minutes.
For a man, small problems may begin when the shop doesn't have what he wants. In that case, thesalesman, tries to sell the customer something else. "I know this jacket is not the style you want, sir, but would you like to try it for size? It happens to be thecolour you mentioned. "Few men have patience with this treatment, and the usual response is: "This is the right colour and may be the right size, but I should be wasting my time and yours by trying it on."
However, a woman in almost every respect she does so in the opposite way. Her shopping is not often based on needand she is only "having a look around". She is always open to persuasion; indeed she sets great store by what the saleswoman tells her. She will try on any number ofthings. Most women have an excellent sense of value when they buy clothes. They are always on the lookout for the unexpected bargain. Faced with a roomful of dresses, a woman may easily spend an hour going from one room to another, often retracing her steps, before selecting the dresses she wants to try on. It is a laborious process, but apparently an enjoyable one. Most dress shops provide chairs for the waiting husbands.The underlined part “sets great store by ” in paragraph 3 means___
| A．has much information about | B．knows nothing bout |
| C．believes in | D．has her doubts about |
What does the passage tell us about women shoppers for clothes?
| A．They welcome suggestions from others. |
| B．They rarely consider buying cheap clothes. |
| C．They predict what they want to buy. |
| D．They listen to advice but never take it. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Men never buy what they don’t need |
| B．A man’s shopping is often based on need |
| C．A woman goes shopping in order to look for cheap things |
| D．A woman’s shopping is never based on need. |
In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Warsaw, Poland．Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students’ test scores from significantly below average to well above it．Polish kids have now outscored（超过……分数） American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does．One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind．
That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint．This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities．This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment（PISA） results are announced, it’s safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan．Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers．
Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it．And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too．She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D．C．, which costs thirty thousand dollars a year．The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school’s flaws（暇疵）．When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted．When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned．“Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?” One of the ironies（讽刺） of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible．American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expection are high．It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing．Tom decides to spend his senior year in Poland because _______．
| A．there are striking differences between the 2 countries |
| B．Polish kids are better at learning |
| C．he intends to improve his scores |
| D．sports are not supported at schools in Gettysburg |
According to Paragraph 2, we know that _______．
| A．little time is spent on sports in Japanese schools |
| B．too much importance is placed on sports in America |
| C．American high schools complain about sports time |
| D．PISA plays a very important role in America |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means _______．
| A．American students’ academic performance worries their parents a lot |
| B．high expectations push up American students’ academic performance |
| C．lacking practice contributes to American students’ average performance |
| D．low expectations result in American students’ poor PISA performance |
The purpose of this article is to _______．
| A．draw public attention to a weakness in American school tradition |
| B．call on American schools to learn from the Polish model |
| C．compare Polish schools with those in America |
| D．explain what is wrong with American schools and provide solutions |
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was one of the most private women in the world, yet when she went to work as an editor in the last two decades of her life, she revealed（展现）herself as she did nowhere else．
After the death of her second husband, Greek shipping magnate（巨头）Aristotle Onassis, Jacqueline’s close friend and former White House social secretary Letitia Baldrige made a suggestion that she consider a career in publishing．After consideration, Jacqueline accepted it．Perhaps she hoped to find there some idea about how to live her own life．She became not less but more interested in reading．For the last 20 years of her life, Jacqueline worked as a publisher’s editor, first at Viking, then at Doubleday, pursuing（追求）a late-life career longer than her two marriages combined．During her time in publishing, she was responsible for managing and editing more than 100 successfully marketed books．Among the first books were In the Russian Style and Inventive Paris Clothes．She also succeeded in persuading TV hosts Bill Moyer’s and Jose Campbell to transform their popular television conversations into a book, The Power of Myth．The book went on to become an international best-seller．She dealt, too, with Michael Jackson as he prepared his autobiography（自传）, Moonwalk．
Jacqueline may have been hired for name and for her social relations, but she soon proved her worth．Her choices, suggestions and widespread social relations were of benefit both to the publishing firms and to Jacqueline herself．In the books she selected for publication, she built on a lifetime of spending time by herself as a reader and left a record of the growth of her mind．Her books are the autobiography she never wrote．Her role as First Lady, in the end, was overshadowed by her performance as an editor．However, few knew that she had achieved so much．We can learn from the passage that Jacqueline _________
| A．became fond of reading after working as an editor |
| B．was in charge of publishing 100 books |
| C．promoted her books through social relations |
| D．gained a lot from her career as an editor |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that_________
| A．Jacqueline was more successful as an editor than as First Lady |
| B．Jacqueline’s life as First Lady was more colorful than as an editor |
| C．Jacqueline ended up as an editor rather as First Lady |
| D．Jacqueline’s role as First Lady was more brilliant than as an editor |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Jacqueline’s two marriages lasted more than 20 years |
| B．Jacqueline’s views and beliefs were reflected in the books she edited |
| C．Jacqueline’s own publishing firm was set up eventually |
| D．Jacqueline’s achievements were widely known． |
The passage is mainly______________
| A．a brief account of Jacqueline’s career as an editor in her last 20 years |
| B．a brief description of Jacqueline’s lifelong experiences |
| C．an introduction of Jacqueline’s life both as First Lady and as an editor |
| D．an analysis of Jacqueline’s social relations in publishing |