Not many things in life can be more irritating (令人气愤的): you are having a conversation with friends, but they check their phones and begin replying to texts or checking their emails. The Guardian (卫报) described the scene of a friend’s face buried in a screen as “a distinct 21st-century problem”. A new word has been created to describe this --- phubbing. It is the act of looking at your mobile phone instead of paying attention to others during a social interaction. Like pointing at one’s nose, phubbing is widely considered rude behavior. People everywhere are beginning to lose patience with the phenomenon.
A “Stop Phubbing” campaign group has been started in Australia and at least five others have appeared as anger about the lack of manners grows. The campaign’s creator, Alex Haigh, 23, from Melbourne, said, “A group of friends and I were chatting when someone said how annoying being ignored by people on mobiles was.” He has created a website where companies can download posters to discourage phubbing.
Phubbing is just one symptom of our increasing dependence on mobile phones and the Internet, which is replacing normal social interaction. A survey found that one out of three Britons would answer the phone in a restaurant and 19% said they would while being served in a shop. The survey came after a supermarket assistant in south London refused to serve a woman until she stopped using her phone. A survey, for a Sunday paper, also found that 54 per cent of people checked Facebook, Twitter or other social media every day, with 16 per cent checking more than ten times a day. An unsurprising 63 per cent of people carry their phone with them “almost all, or all of the time”, it found.
Phil Reed, a professor of psychology at Swansea University who has studied the Internet addiction disorder, said many phubbers show symptoms of addiction to their mobile phones.
Time magazine once pointed out, “Phubbing has a much greater potential harm to real-life connections by making people around us feel like we care more about posts than their presence.”
In the UK, Glamour magazine even imagined how novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) would have written about people with bad mobile phone manners: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man or woman in possession of a good mobile phone must be in want of manners.”Phubbing has occurred because _______.
| A．distrust has already been everywhere among people |
| B．the friendship between people is becoming weak |
| C．people are getting dependent on attraction online |
| D．there has been a lack of means of communication |
Which of the statements is TRUE about the “Stop Phubbing” campaign?
| A．It was first started in America and then it spread to Melbourne. |
| B．Companies can update posters against phubbing on the website. |
| C．Alex Haigh, 23, was the first one to find phubbing annoying. |
| D．Up till now, at least six groups have claimed to support it. |
The supermarket assistant refused to serve the woman mainly because _______.
| A．the woman buried her face in the mobile phone screen for a very long time |
| B．the woman ignored respect and manners by focusing only on her phone |
| C．the assistant lost his patience with the woman who was using her phone |
| D．it is rare for customers to answer the phone while being served in shops |
In the last paragraph, the writer wants to tell readers that ______.
| A．one with a mobile phone should mind his/her manners |
| B．Jane Austen must have worked for Glamour magazine |
| C．phubbing is going to be forbidden immediately in the UK |
| D．people with good manners must have good mobile phones |
This is a true story about two friends.
One day a young man said to his good friend, "I can see that some day you will become great and rich." His friend laughed, "Ridiculous! How can you know that?" The first said, "Yes, I can see it from your forehead." The second one said, "Ok, if I become great and rich, I will give you 10,000 rupees." The first friend asked. "Really? If so, then write it down."
The second one really wrote it down. The first man kept the note, but he never took his friend seriously. The agreement was made as a joke. 10 or 12 years later, the friend did become rich and great, while the other remained poor. By that time both friends had separated and were leading their own lives. Even so, the poor friend still preserved the note, although he felt that since it was a joke, he would never receive the money.
Quite unexpectedly, the poor man fell seriously ill. Just before he died, he took out the agreement and called his son, who was only seven years old, "My son, there is something very precious that I have kept for you. After I die…you go to this man and show him what he has written."
Soon the man died. Their friendship had faded so much that the rich man did not even come to see him before he left this world. But after three or four weeks' time the son took the note to the rich man. The boy gave the rich man the note. The rich man read it and asked, "Did I write this?"
The boy said, “I do not know. My father asked me to give it to you before he died." The rich man summoned one of his secretaries and explained, "I promised this boy's father many years ago that I would give him 10,000 rupees if I became rich and great. I have been rich for seven years; please calculate how much interest I have to give him in addition to the 10,000 rupees."
The secretary told him, "An additional 7,000 rupees, which makes it 17,000 altogether."
The rich man immediately issued a check for 17,000 rupees and gave it to the little boy, saying, "Take this directly to your mother.”
This is how a sincere man kept his promise.
56. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. The first friend can know others’ future from his or her forehead.
B. The second friend couldn’t believe his friend’s words at first.
C. The first friend wished his friend to help his son after he died.
D. The second didn’t come to see his dying friend because of different life.
57. What do you think of the man who became rich later?
A. He had a bad memory.
B. He is very selfish and unwilling to help others.
C. He is mean with his money.
D. He is a man who keeps his promise.
58. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. The poor friend preserved the note because he knew he would get the money sooner or later.
B. The man became rich 3 or 5 years later after he signed the agreement.
C. The rich man gave the boy 17,000 rupees altogether.
D. The little boy knew something about his father’s story.
The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standard by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world.
These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city’s population expected to increase only slightly and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, and official with the water authority, said Shanghai’s water consumption will not increase from its present amount.
Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said, “Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve.”
He said water saving will help keep the sustainable development of China’s economy.
Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city’s infrastructure（基础设施）costs by 10,000 Yuan. Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology.
“The aim is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages,” Chen said. “The abundant surface water and amount of rain of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water.”
Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 percent of the city’s drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion.
The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water.
Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used.
At present, the city has 600，000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated（整修）to use only 9 liters of water per flush.
The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households – at a cost of 40 Yuan each.
In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million Yuan every year in water conservation.
Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage（污水）to improve the water environment.
At present the city can only treat 44 percent of its daily 5.04 million tons of waste water. To meet the total demand, 27 more sewage treatment factories are to be established with an estimated investment of 18 billion Yuan.
41．People in Shanghai get their daily water mainly from _______now.
A．the underground B．the rain
C．the Yangtze River D．the Huangpu River
42．According to the passage, some people have the wrong opinion of using water
because .
A．the renovating of family toilets will save plenty of water
B．about half of waste water has been treated already
C．advanced technology makes people use water as much as possible
D．there is plenty surface water and large amount of rain at present
43．The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households to .
A．make people’s living more convenient
B．improve people’s living standards
C．ease employment pressure
D．meet the total demand of water
44．Which group of measures are all mentioned in the passage to save water?
a．improve drinking water quality
b．change some industrial structure
c．introduce or use some new technology
d．speed the economic development of Shanghai
e．renovate some family toilets
f．build more sewage treatment factories
A．a, b, c, d B．b, c, e, f
C．b, c, d, e D．a, b, e, f
45．We can infer from the passage that .
A．the boom of economy will need a larger amount of water in the future
B．citizens today in Shanghai drink the best quality of water in the world
C．not everyone today in Shanghai is aware of water shortage
D．all the family toilets will be renovated to save water within 3 years
People with disabilities make up a large part of the population. It is estimated that over 35 million Americans have physical, mental, or other disabilities. About half of these disabilities are “developmental", i.e., they occur before the individual's twenty-second birthday, often from genetic conditions, and are severe enough to affect three or more areas of development, such as mobility, communication, employment, etc. Most other disabilities are considered “adventitious", i.e., accidental or caused by outside forces.
Prior to the 20th century, only a small percentage of people with disabilities survived for long. Medical treatment for these disabilities was unavailable. Advancements in medicine and social services have created a climate in which people with disabilities can expect to have such basic needs as food, shelter, and medical treatment. Unfortunately, these basics are often not available. Civil liberties such as the right to vote, marry, get an education, and gain employment have historically been denied on the basis of disability.
In recent decades, the disability rights movement has been organized to fight against these infringements（违反；侵犯）of civil rights. Congress responded by passing major legislation recognizing people with disabilities as a protected class under civil rights statutes.
Still today, people with disabilities must fight to live their lives independently. It is estimated that more than half of qualified Americans with disabilities are unemployed, and a majority of those who do work are underemployed. About two-thirds live at or below the official poverty level.
Significant barriers, especially in transportation and public awareness, prevent disabled people from taking part in society. For example, while no longer prohibited by law from marrying, a person with no access to transportation is effectively excluded from community and social activities which might lead to the development of long-term relationships.
Only when public attitudes advance as far as laws have will disabled people be fully able to take their rightful place in society.
36. A “developmental" disability ______.
A. develops very slowly over time
B. is caused by forces
C. occurs in youth and affects development
D. is getting more and more severe
37．Most disabled people used to die early because ______.
A. disabilities destroyed major bodily functions
B. they were not very well looked after
C. medical techniques were not available
D. they were too poor to get proper treatment
38. In the author's opinion, to enable the disabled people to take their rightful place in society, ______.
A．more laws should be passed
B．public attitudes should be changed
C．government should provide more aids
D．more public facilities should be set up
39. Which of the following cannot be inferred（推断）from the passage ?
A．Many disabled people may remain single for their whole life.
B．The public tends to look down upon the disabled people.
C．The disabled people feel inferior to those surrounding them.
D． Discriminatory laws prevent the disabled from mixing with others.
40. The best title for this passage might be ______.
A．Handicaps（不利条件；障碍；）of People with Disabilities
B．The physical difficulties of the Disabled
C．The Causes for Disabilities
D．Medical Treatments for Disabilities
Few laws are so effective that you can see results just days after they take effect. But in the nine days since the federal cigarette tax more than doubled----to $1.01 per pack---smokers have jammed telephone ‘quit lines’ across the country seeking to kick the habit.
This is not a surprise to public health advocates. They’ve studied the effect of state tax increases for years, finding that smokers, especially teens, are price sensitive. Nor is it a shock to the industry, which fiercely fights every tax increase.
The only wonder is that so many states insist on closing their ears to the message. Tobacco taxes improve public health, they raise money and most particularly, they deter people from taking up the habit as teens, which is when nearly all smokers are addicted. Yet the rate of taxation varies widely.
In Manhattan, for instance, which has the highest tax in the nation, a pack of Marlboro Light Kings cost $10.06 at one drugstore Wednesday. In Charleston, S.C., where the 7-cent-a-pack tax is the lowest in the nation, the price was $4.78.
The influence is obvious.
In New York, high school smoking hit a new low in the latest surveys----13.8%, far below the national average. By comparison, 26 % of high school students smoke in Kentucky, Other low-tax states have similarly depressing teen-smoking records.
Hal Rogers, Representative from Kentucky, like those who are against high tobacco taxes, argues that the burden of the tax falls on low-income Americans “who choose to smoke.”
That’s true. But there is more reason in keeping future generations of low-income workers from getting hooked in the first place. As for today’s adults, if the new tax drives them to quit, they will have more to spend on their families, cut their risk of cancer and heart disease and feel better.
31. The text is mainly about___________.
A the price of cigarettes
B the rate of teen smoking
C the effect of tobacco tax increase
D the differences in tobacco tax rate
32. What does the author think is a surprise?
A Teen smokers are price sensitive.
B Some states still keep the tobacco tax low.
C Tobacco taxes improve public health.
D Tobacco industry fiercely fights the tax rise.
33. The underlined word "deter" in Paragraph 3 most probably means .
A. discourage B. remove C. benefit D. free
34. Rogers’ attitude towards the low-income smokers might be that of .
A. tolerance B. unconcern C. doubt D. sympathy
35. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. The new tax will be beneficial in the long run.
B. Low-income Americans are more likely to fall ill.
C. Future generations will be hooked on smoking.
D. Adults will depend more on their families.