Many peoplerush into the commitment of bringing home a four-legged family member, only to find out that they are not ready for a pet. This often results in the dog being turned over to a shelter where it may not find another home. This can be avoided if potential pet owners take the time to figure out if they are truly ready for the responsibilities of pet ownership.
Being a responsible pet owner involves a financial commitment that goes beyond buying dog food. There are also parasite (寄生虫) prevention, boarding costs while traveling and the cost to care for the pet should it become ill or injured. That is not to say that one must be rich in order to have a dog, but it is important to be prepared for the expenses that come with being a pet owner.
Another consideration is the time commitment. An owner away from home for 14 hours every day is not an ideal situation for a dog. A potential dog owner must also consider the time it takes to care for his or her pet, the time it takes to feed, walk, play with, bathe and clean up. Also, dogs require attention. Be prepared to spend time each day petting and playing with it.
Dogs are dogs, and will act like dogs. This includes barking, digging, having accidents in the house and, possibly, destroying some of the owner’s prized possessions, such as furniture, shoes and cell phones. If the above would cause an owner to want to get rid of the dog, then he or she is not yet ready to be a pet owner. Many wonderful pets end up in shelters simply because they acted like dogs!Who might be qualified to be a dog owner, according to the text?
| A．Jim, who has a daughter sensitive to dog’s smell. |
| B．Dick, a jobless teenager who can hardly pay his rent. |
| C．Kari, a teacher who works eight hours a day. |
| D．Steven, a business man who travels a lot on business. |
To be a responsible dog owner you need to do all the following EXCEPT _________.
| A．finding a shelter for it when you are bored with it |
| B．buying dog food and feeding it |
| C．taking it to hospital when necessary |
| D．spending time each day playing with it |
What does the underlined part in the first paragraph probably mean?
| A．Rush to adopt a dog formally. |
| B．Decide to be a pet owner without thinking about it carefully. |
| C．Run into a pet shelter and take one home so quickly. |
| D．Commit to buy a dog and take it home. |
What might be the best title for the text?
| A．Dogs Are Dogs | B．Pets Are Family Members |
| C．Have Time for a Dog? | D．Ready for a Pet? |
“Come on! All of us are cutting math. Who wants to take that quiz? We’re going to take a walk and get lunch instead. Let’s go!” says the coolest kid in your class. Do you do what you know is right and go to math class, take the quiz? Or do you give in and go with them?
People who are at your age, like your classmates, are called peers（同龄人）. When they try to influence you how to act, to get you to do something, it’s called peer pressure（压力）. It’s something everyone has to deal with—even adults.
Peers influence your life, even if you don’t realize it, just by spending time with you. You learn from them, and they learn from you. It’s only human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group.
Peers can have a positive influence on each other. Maybe another student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember the planets in the solar system. Or you got others excited about your new favorite book, and now everyone is reading it. Sometimes peers influence each other in negative（消极的） ways. For example, a few kids in school might try to get you to cut class with them.
It’s difficult to say “no” to peer pressure, but you can do it. Paying attention to your own feelings and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help you know the right thing to do.
It can really help to have at least one other peer, or friend, who is willing to say “no” too. If you continue to face peer pressure and you’re finding it difficult to handle, talk to someone you trust, a parent, or a teacher. They can help you feel much better and prepare you for the next time you face peer pressure.With his words in the first paragraph, the kid is ________.
| A．planning some interesting activities after school |
| B．talking about a dinner party |
| C．asking other kids to take a quiz with him |
| D．encouraging other kids to cut a class |
According to the author, _________.
| A．peer pressure does kids more harm than good |
| B．math is the most difficult subject for most kids |
| C．kids today are under greater pressure than before |
| D．peer pressure exists among people of all age groups |
What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Peer pressure. | B．Your time. |
| C．Your life. | D．Human nature. |
It’s suggested in the last paragraph that the readers _______.
| A．make more close friends while at school |
| B．learn to refuse their friends in a polite way |
| C．get support from someone else if it’s necessary |
| D．build closer relations with their parents and teachers |
Think of life as a game in which you are playing with five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit and you keep all of them in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce (弹跳) back.
But the other four balls, family, health, friends and spirit, are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be broken. They will never be the same. You must understand that and try to have balance in your life. How?
Don’t look down on your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different and each of us is special.
Don’t let other people set goal for you. Only you know what is best for yourself.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid of difficulties. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; the best way to keep love is to give it wings（翅膀).
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don’t use time or words carelessly. You can’t get them back. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that’s why we call it “the present”. Life is not a competition, but a trip, step by step.The passage tells us not to _________ because everyone is special.
| A．be afraid of difficulties |
| B．be afraid to learn |
| C．run through life so fast |
| D．compare yourself with others to look down on your worth |
The sentence “Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.” means that _______.
| A．Nothing is possible |
| B．If we don’t give up, there is always hope |
| C．You should learn to give up |
| D．Although you try, nothing will change. |
Why can’t we use time carelessly? ___________
| A．Because time is too expensive. |
| B．Because time never returns. |
| C．Because we are too poor. |
| D．Because times will get back. |
If you run through life so fast, you will ____________.
| A．lose your own treasure that you can always carry easily |
| B．lose love by holding it too tightly |
| C．forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going. |
| D．not afraid of the difficulties |
The planet is getting greener, and we are responsible. Carbon dioxide generated by human activities is promoting photosynthesis (光合作用) and causing a beneficial greening of the Earth’s surface.
For the first time, researchers claim to have shown that the increase in plant cover is due to this “CO2 fertilisation (肥沃化) effect” rather than other causes. However, it remains unclear whether the effect can reduce any negative effects of global warming, such as the spread of deserts.
To home in on the effect of CO2, Randall Donohue of Australia’s national research institute, the CSIRO in Canberra, monitored vegetation (植被) at the edges of deserts in Australia, southern Africa, the US Southwest, North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia. These are regions where there is plenty of warmth and sunlight, but only just enough rainfall for vegetation to grow, so any change in plant cover must be the result of a change in rainfall patterns or CO2 levels, or both.
If CO2 levels were constant, then the amount of vegetation per unit of rainfall ought to be constant, too. However, the team found that this figure rose by 11 per cent in these areas between 1982 and 2010, mirroring the rise in CO2 emissions (排放). Donohue says this lends strong support to the idea that CO2 fertilization drove the greening.
The extra plant growth could have knock-on effects on climate, Donohue says, by increasing rainfall, affecting river flows and changing the likelihood of wildfires. It will also absorb more CO2 from the air, potentially damping down (抑制) global warming but also limiting the CO2 fertilization effect itself.
Donohue cannot yet say to what extent CO2 fertilisation will affect vegetation in the coming decades. But if it proves to be significant, the future may be much greener.According to the author, the increase in plant cover _____.
| A．will speed up global warming |
| B．results from human activities |
| C．will stop the spread of deserts |
| D．promotes the CO2 fertilization effect |
What does the underlined phrase “To home in on” in Para 3 probably mean?
| A．To hold back. | B．To cut down. |
| C．To improve. | D．To observe. |
The amount of vegetation in those monitored areas rose with _____.
| A．the rise in CO2 emissions | B．annual rainfall |
| C．the temperatures around | D．the amount of sunlight |
What’s the best title of the text?
| A．More rainfall, less CO2 emission |
| B．How to deal with carbon emissions |
| C．Positive effects of global warming |
| D．CO2 emission making Earth greener |
A new study from Harvard University revealed that the message parents mean to send to children about the value of sympathy(同情心） is being mistaken by the message they actually send. In fact they value achievement and happiness above all else.
The Making Caring Common Project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education surveyed 10,000 middle and high school students about which is more important to them—achievement, happiness, or caring about others. Almost 80 percent of students placed achievement or happiness over caring about others. Only 20 percent of students considered caring about others as their top aim.
In the study “The Children We Mean to Raise: The Real Message Adults Are Sending about Values”, the authors refer to a reality gap, an incongruity (不一致) between what adults tell children they should value and the message we grown-ups actually send through our behavior.
Simply talking about sympathy is not enough. While 96 percent of parents say they want to raise caring children, and cite the development of moral character as “very important, if not essential”, 80 percent of the youths surveyed reported that their parents “are more concerned about achievement and happiness than caring about others”. Approximately the same percentage of the students reported that their teachers put their achievement over caring.
As the report shows, simply talking about sympathy is not enough. Children are sensitive creatures, fully capable of telling the true meanings in the blank spaces between well-organised words. If parents really want to let their kids know that they value care and sympathy, the authors suggest, they must make a real effort to help their children learn to care about other people—even when it’s hard, even when it does not make them happy, and yes, even when it is at odds with their personal success.The first paragraph suggests that parents _____.
| A．value achievement less |
| B．fail to make students realize the importance of sympathy |
| C．don’t intend to value success |
| D．regard achievement and happiness as the same |
What can be concluded from the study?
| A．20% of the students are not ambitious. |
| B．Kids care more about achievement. |
| C．About 80% of the students are not caring. |
| D．A majority of the kids are kind students. |
What may be the cause for the reality gap?
| A．Children’s failure to understand parents’ well-organised words. |
| B．The generation gap between parents and children. |
| C．Children’s desire for getting individual achievement. |
| D．Parents’ lack of a real effort to guide children. |
Yesterday my old neighbor knocked on my door angrily. Obviously, my cat, Rocco, had left a turd (粪便) in his perfect flower beds.
Fortunately, I wasn’t home when this happened, so he angrily complained to my friend and neighbor Kate about this. She was kind enough to listen to him and to go down into the garden with him to have a look. She even took a picture.
When I got home later, Kate had left a message on my answering machine about the incident. Hearing it was about my cat again, my stomach turned. Several weeks before, he’d gotten so upset that he threatened to put rat traps on the ground, hoping that would frighten me into keeping my cat indoors. So, I was a little apprehensive this time.
But I couldn’t help but laugh when Kate told me the whole story. I understood what gardening meant to him. Since my old neighbor retired ten years ago, he had spent all of his time on his garden. So when I saw him in the garden later on, I went to talk to him. To my surprise, it turned out quite nice. I was really surprised to find that I had the grace (雅量) not to respond to his bad words. Instead, I engaged (使忙于) him in a conversation on the beautiful flowers he’d planted, the color combinations and the care he took to create such a sense of order. I tried to convey my understanding and appreciation without complimenting or talking down to him. I was really amazed by how that turned out. We hadn’t had a conversation like that for over a year!The story happened .
| A．between family members | B．between strangers |
| C．between friends | D．between neighbors |
What does the underlined word “apprehensive” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
| A．Anxious. | B．Satisfied. | C．Angry. | D．Excited. |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．The author’s friend dealt with the incident patiently after it happened. |
| B．The author’s old neighbor had a bad relationship with all his neighbors. |
| C．It was the first time that the author’s cat had made the neighbor angry. |
| D．The neighbor didn’t say bad words about the cat’s action. |
We can infer from the text that after the talk with his old neighbor, the author would .
| A．throw his cat away | B．send his cat to others |
| C．feel relaxed and happy | D．become more nervous |