When I was an education official in Palo Alto, California, Polly Tyner, the president of our school board, wrote a letter that was printed in the Palo Alto Times. Polly’s son, Jim，had great difficulty in school．He was classified as the educationally disabled and required a great deal of patience on the part of his parents and teachers. But Jim was a happy kid with a great smile that lit up the room. His parents knew his academic difficulties, but always tried to help him see his strengths so that he could walk with pride. Shortly after Jim finished high school, he was killed in a motorcycle accident. After his death, his mother sent this letter to the newspaper．
Today we buried our 20-year-old son. He was killed instantly in a motorcycle accident on Friday night. How I wish I had known when I talked to him last that it would be the last time．If I had only known, I would have said, “Jim, I love you and I’m very proud of you．”
I would have taken time to count the many blessings he brought to the lives of the many who loved him. I would have taken the time to appreciate his beautiful smile，the sound of his laughter, his genuine love of people.
When you put all the good qualities on the scale and try to balance all the irritating phenomena such as the radio which was always too loud, the haircut that wasn't to our liking, the dirty socks under the bed, etc, your angry feelings won’t amount to much.
I won't get another chance to tell my son all that I would have wanted him to hear, but, other parents, you do have a chance. Tell your young people what you would want them to hear if you knew it would be your last conversation. The last time I talked to Jim was the day he died. He called me to say, “Hi, Mom! I just called to say I love you. Got to go to work, Bye.” He gave me something to treasure, forever．
If there is any purpose at all for Jim's death, maybe it is to make others appreciate more of life and to have people, especially members, take the time to let each other know just how much we care.
You may never have another chance. According to the passage, we know that .
| A．Jim was always ashamed of himself |
| B．Jim did very well in his studies |
| C．Jim’s parents were patient with him |
| D．Jim failed to finish his high school |
The underlined word "irritating" in paragraph 4 most probably means .
| A．annoying | B．aggressive |
| C．impatient | D．surprising |
By writing the letter printed in the Palo Alto Times, the author intends to __________.
| A．mourn(哀悼)her son’s sudden death in a traffic accident |
| B．remind people to be cautious of motorcycles |
| C．tell parents to take better care of their children |
| D．suggest people taking the chance to express their love in time |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Many people loved him． |
| B．Jim's smile cheered up his family． |
| C．Jim was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 20． |
| D．Jim constantly expressed his love to his mother． |
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Love Your Family | B．Do It Today |
| C．Walk with Pride | D．Appreciate Smiles |
Having a child may improve a woman’s memory, a new study suggests.
In the study, women who were new mothers scored better on tests of visuospatial memory – the ability to understand and remember information about their surroundings—compared with women who didn’t have children.
The findings contradicts the old belief that women develop“baby brain" or a decline in memory and cognitive(认知的) function, after they have kids, said study researcher Melissa Santiago, a doctoral student at Carlos Albizu University in Miami. “You don’t have to feel that because you have kids, your memory isn’t the same," Santiago said.
The study was small, and the findings will have to be tested in larger groups of people, Santiago said.
Previous studies on the topic have had mixed results—some showed motherhood hurts cognition, and others showed the opposite. Studies on rats show those with pups have better memory than those without offspring.
Santiago analyzed information from 35 first-time mothers whose children were ages 10 to 24 months, and 35 women who had never been pregnant. Both groups scored similarly on intelligence tests. The average age of mothers was 29 and the average age of never-pregnant women was 27.
To test visuospatial memory, the women were shown a paper containing six symbols for 10 seconds, and then asked to draw what they remembered. This task was repeated several times. The first time women were shown the paper, both groups remembered about the same amount. But on the second and third pass, mothers performed better than those without children, indicating that the mothers collected more information each time than the other women.
Later, the women were shown a variety of different symbols, and asked to remember which ones were presented on the earlier task. Mothers did not make a mistake in this task—they remembered every symbol correctly—but those without children made one or two errors, Santiago said. How did Santiago lead to the findings?
| A．By observation. |
B．By comparison. |
| C．By analyzing intelligence tests. |
D．By asking women questions. |
By saying “The study was small", what did Santiago mean?
| A．The study received little attention. |
| B．The study has just started. |
| C．The study was carried out among a small group of people. |
| D．A small group of researchers were involved in the study. |
Which of the following was discussed in the text?
| A．Ways to test visuospatial memory. |
| B．Why having kids improves memory. |
| C．How young mothers are different from never-pregnant women. |
| D．The negative effects that worries of women without children have. |
It can be inferred that Santiago believe the findings of the study_________.
| A．may cause a heated discussion among parents |
| B．may cause an increase in the birth rate |
| C．are tested by previous similar studies |
| D．are encouraging news for mothers |
A meteorite (陨石) flew fast across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured l,200 people.
People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave.
According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the fireball, travelling at a speed of 30km per second, had burnt very brightly across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200km away. Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted.
“I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day,” said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains. “I felt like I was blinded by headlights.”
The meteorite, which weighed about 20 tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart 30-50km above ground, according to Russia’s Academy of Sciences.
The energy released when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere was about several thousand tons, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding.
No deaths were reported, but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.
The Interior Ministry said about l,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from broken pieces of glass.“While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts.”When did the meteorite incident happen?
| A．At midnight. |
B．In the early morning. |
| C．In the late morning. |
D．In the evening. |
According to the text, the meteorite explosion caused _________.
| A．some deaths |
B．road accidents |
| C．communication problems |
D．building collapse |
The Russian government’s response to the incident was ________.
| A．a little slow but effective |
B．quick and serious |
| C．cold and slow |
D．quick but ineffective |
It can be inferred that the loss caused by meteorites _________.
| A．is nearly unavoidable |
B．happens every few years |
| C．can be avoided |
D．is hard to estimate |
Ever wonder how this season’s celebrations affect the environment? Guest blogger Krista Fairles takes an amusing look at this very topic:
The holidays are a wonderful, cheerful time when most people wait for Santa to bring them presents. But I’m not like most people. I spend my time wondering just what the environmental impacts of Santa Claus and his reindeer are, and more importantly, how I can calculate those impacts.
Lately I’ve been particularly curious as to whether Santa’s old sled is a clean green flying machine, or if he should be replacing his 8 reindeer with an environmentally-friendly car.
I should mention that, surprisingly, I was unable to find statistics specific to Santa’s magical flying reindeer, so these calculations use numbers from various sources and may not represent actual pollution caused by Santa and his animals. In other words, don’t complain to the government about the damage Santa is causing the environment based on this article.
Santa’s yearly trip around the globe is 44,000km long, twice the average of a North American driver. If we assume that the magic provides the altitude for this trip, then reindeer power only needs to push Santa’s sled forward. To complete the trip in 12 hours, I estimate they must travel at a speed of about 3100km/h. To travel at this speed, for this length of time, the reindeer need to eat an incredible 980 million calories each!!
So the next question is: how much food is in 980 million calories? Well, if they’re eating corn, they’d need to eat 16,500 lbs each — or 1.6 acres of food. Growing 12.8 acres of corn has its own implications for the environment that we’ll leave for another calculation.
We now need to consider that during the global trip the reindeer are “letting out” some of that corn in the form of methane (甲烷，沼气). A resting cow produces 110 kg of methane per year, so flying reindeer would each let out about 4.8 tons. With methane causing 20 times the global warming damage of CO2, and the altitude increasing that damage by 1000% that another 20 times, we can put Santa’s round-trip emissions at 15,488 tons. This is much more than the 100 tons an environmentally-friendly car would release on the same trip!
Bad Santa.Which aspect does the writer NOT include in her analyses about reindeer’s influence on environment?
| A．Distance covered. | B．Calories consumed. |
| C．Tons of waste let out. | D．Money spent on food. |
According to Paragraph 6, how many acres of corn would Santa need to feed 10 reindeer?
| A．1.6. | B．16. | C．12.8. | D．128. |
Which of the following statements would the writer most probably agree with?
| A．Christmas celebrations are really a waste of money. |
| B．Vegetarians are more likely to survive than meat-eaters. |
| C．Raising animals has a negative influence on environment. |
| D．The car industry does less harm to environment than farming. |
Which of the following words best describes the language style of the passage?
| A．Humourous and concerned. | B．Cheerful and friendly. |
| C．Academic and formal. | D．Serious and boring. |
Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
| A．Is Santa driving clean and green? |
| B．Santa, watch where you’re going! |
| C．Santa Claus is coming to town! |
| D．Let’s reduce waste on Christmas celebrations! |
It is one of the most annoying words in the English language and it seems there is no escaping it. The word “huh?” is in worldwide use, a study found.
Researchers discovered that languages spoken in countries from Ghana and Laos to Iceland and Italy all include “huh?”, or something that sounds very like it. They said that while the study may sound silly, the word is an absolutely necessary part of speech. Without it and similar words, it would be impossible to show that we haven’t heard or understood what had been said and this would lead to constant misunderstandings.
But while other words used in the same context, such as “sorry” or “what”, vary widely across languages, “huh?” remains unchanged.
The Dutch researchers carefully studied ten languages from around the world, including Siwu, which is spoken in Ghana, and an Australian Aboriginal language, as well as Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Mandarin Chinese.
They analysed tapes of recorded conversations for words that sounded like “huh?” and were used to request that whatever had just been said be repeated. All contained a version of “huh?”. The word was also found in another 21 languages. While there were subtle differences in each country, all sounded basically the same.
This is surprising because normally unrelated languages will use very different words to describe the same thing. For instance, the Japanese for “dog” is “inu”, while the French is “chien”. It is thought that languages around the world have developed their own version of “huh?” because the sound is quick and simple to form, as well as being easily understood.
The researchers, said that it might seem unimportant to carry out scientific research into a word like “huh?” but in fact this little word is an essential tool in human communication. They also have an answer for those who claim that “huh?” isn’t a word. They say that it qualifies because of the small differences in its pronunciation in different languages. It also can be considered a word because it’s something we learn to say, rather than a grunt or cry that we are born knowing how to make. According to researchers, the word “huh?” is very important in speech because of ________.
| A．its stable meaning in language development |
| B．its important function in communication |
| C．its simple and easy sound and spelling |
| D．its popularity in every language |
What is the natural response if you hear the lady you’re speaking to say “huh?”?
| A．You should ask her to repeat what she says before that. |
| B．You should apologize to her for speaking in a low voice. |
| C．You should invite her to share her different views politely. |
| D．You should try to repeat what you’ve just said in a clearer way. |
The main method used in the research of “huh?” was ________.
| A．interviewing language experts in universities |
| B．talking with people from ten different countries |
| C．analyzing the recorded conversations in different languages |
| D．comparing different words with the same meaning in different languages |
According to researchers, “huh?” should be considered a word rather than a sound because ________.
| A．it is listed in most dictionaries |
| B．it is something humans learn to say |
| C．there is a clear and consistent spelling of the word |
| D．there is a big difference in the way it pronounces in different languages |
What is the purpose of the passage?
| A．To inform readers about research on the worldwide used word “huh?”. |
| B．To argue that “huh?” is the most important word in every language. |
| C．To entertain readers by relating similar idioms in different languages. |
| D．To instruct readers of the differences of “huh?” in different languages. |
Silk production has a long and colourful history unknown to most people. Scientific discoveries have shown that silk production existed in China from around 2500 B.C., although it could be much older. For hundreds of years, China kept the secret of silk to itself as one for the most closely protected secrets in history. Anyone revealing the secret of silkworms or trying to take silkworm eggs out of ancient China was punished by death.
At one time silk was reserved only for the Chinese emperor. Gradually, others began wearing silk. In addition to being used for clothing, silk came to have industrial uses in ancient China, something that happened in the West only in modern times. Silk was used to make musical instruments, fishing lines, weapons, ropes and even paper. During the Han Dynasty silk became a form of money. Farmers paid taxes in both rice and silk. The prices of goods were calculated in lengths of silk just as they had once been calculated in gold. The importance of silk is even reflected in the Chinese language. For example, of the 5000 most common Chinese characters, around 500 have silk as their “key”.
In spite of their secrecy, the Chinese eventually lost their monopoly on silk production. It reached Korea in around 200 B.C. when immigrants from China arrived there. Silk production came to India in 300 A.D.. It was not until 500 A.D. that silk production came to Europe when travellers smuggled out silkworms in hollow tubes of bamboo. These were used to establish silk industry in Rome (modern-day Italy), although Chinese silk was still considered to be the best.
Silk was brought to Rome from China by means of the Silk Road. There were actually two Silk Roads, one over land and one on the sea. The land route in particular had a huge effect in history. All sorts of trade goods — silver, gold, jade, porcelain — passed along this road. Ideas travelled the Silk Road too. For example the religion of Buddhism was carried to China from India by traders on the Silk Road. The Silk Road created the first international culture, exposing many people to the ideas and treasures of both Western and Chinese cultures.How was China able to keep the secret of silk production?
| A．It refused to sell its silk to other countries. |
| B．Foreigners were not permitted to enter China. |
| C．The silkworms needed were not able to survive outside China. |
| D．Chinese passing on the secret to foreigners were seriously punished. |
Which of the following uses of silk is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．A way of purchasing goods people sold. |
| B．A material used for making different products. |
| C．A method of paying money to the government. |
| D．A valuable gift given to foreigners travelling in China. |
In what order did silk production spread throughout the world according to the passage?
| A．Europe àIndia àKorea àChina. | B．China àKorea àIndia àEurope. |
| C．China àIndia àKorea àEurope. | D．China àEurope àIndia àKorea. |
The underlined phrase “smuggled out” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．quietly traded | B．openly removed |
| C．illegally transported | D．violently stole |
Which of the following is true about the Silk Road?
| A．It allowed for economic and cultural exchanges between countries. |
| B．It made China the most powerful country in the ancient world. |
| C．It could only be completed by travellers with access to a boat. |
| D．It was first developed for transferring religious ideas. |