If you haven’t already, you too should switch to the latest eco-friendly, energy-efficient, energy-saving LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting. As the world becomes more focused on green issues, everyone should do their part in practicing energy efficiency, recycling, cutting down their CO2 emissions and much, much more. One of the most successful campaigns that started in Australia is the now world-famous“Earth Hour”. 2.2 million of Sydney’s residents turned off their lights for an hour in a mass attempt to save energy. The following year, the same idea was adopted by a whole host of different cities.
This is a great example of a campaign to promote eco-friendly options and energy efficiency. But while it clearly raises awareness, it is not a long-term solution to energy saving across the developed world. A long-term solution can be found in the form of switching to LED lighting rather than the traditional halogen lights(卤光灯) found in a typical home.
Put simply, LED lighting is the future of lighting. LED lamps use up only a fraction of the energy pared to that of regular lamps. They also produce a quality flicker-free light, and will last longer than a regular light with 50,000 hours being realistic. Not only are they longer lasting and more energy-efficient with no sacrifice in light quality, but they may quickly become a possible substitute (替代物) for regular lamps that have been previously installed by homes and businesses.
An ordinary 50 watt low-voltage halogen light on for 4 hours a day would cost $ 25 per year to run. With a life span of around 3,000 hours it will typically stop working at the two-year mark. compared with the regular one, an LED light of 50 watts operating for the same period will cost roughly $ 6 per year to run and last 50,000 hours. That means it won’t have to be replaced for 24 years! It really is a no brainer to switch to energy-saving LED lighting. Plus, you will be doing your bit for the environment by being more eco-friendly.
“Earth Hour”is held in the world every year in order to .
| A．ask people to generate more energy for daily use |
| B．call on people to use less energy as much as possible |
| C．remind people to remember the days without lights |
| D．advise people to have a good rest after working hard |
How should we save energy according to the author?
| A．Raise public awareness. |
| B．Turn off the lights. |
| C．Hold“Earth Hour”. |
| D．Use LED lights. |
It can be inferred from the third paragraph that LED lamps .
| A．are more expensive that regular ones |
| B．will take the place of regular lamps pletely |
| C．might be used by more homes in the future |
| D．use up more energy and give out more light |
The underlined phrase in the last paragraph“no brainer”probably means a thing that .
| A．needs no consideration. |
| B．needs deep study |
| C．changes with others |
| D．connects with others |
I was in a strange city I didn’t know at all, and what’s more, I could not speak a word of the language. On my second day I got on the first bus that passed, rode on it for several stops, then got off and walked on. The first two hours passed pleasantly enough, then I decided to turn back to my hotel for lunch. After walking about for some time, I decided I had better ask the way. The trouble was that the only word I knew of the language was the name of the street in which I lived, and even that I pronounced badly. I stopped to ask a newspaper-seller. He handed me a paper. I shook my head and repeated the name of the street and he put the paper into my hands. I had to give him some money and went on my way. The next person.I asked was a policeman. He listened to me carefully, nodded and gently took me by the arm. There was a strange look in his eyes as he pointed left and right and left again. I nodded politely and began walking in the direction he pointed.
About an hour passed and I noticed that the houses were getting fewer and fewer and green fields were appearing on either side of me. I had come all the way into the countryside. The only thing left for me to do was find the nearest railway station.The writer preferred to walk back to his hotel because.
| A．he had no money to buy a ticket |
| B．he wanted to lose himself in the city |
| C．he tried to know the city in this way |
| D．it was late and there were no buses passing by |
The newspaper-seller______.
| A．didn’t know where the hotel was |
| B．didn’t understand what the writer said |
| C．could understand what the writer said |
| D．didn’t want to take the money from the writer |
From the story we know that the policeman______.
| A．was kind but didn’t understand the writer |
| B．told the writer where to take a train |
| C．knew what the writer really meant |
| D．was cold-hearted and didn’t help the writer |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．The writer got close to the hotel where he stayed. |
| B．The writer got to the hotel with the policeman’s help. |
| C．The writer found he was much farther away from the hotel. |
| D．The writer found the hotel in the direction the policeman pointed. |
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
The Importance of Accessibility Awareness
At a recent Teen Leadership of Jewish Family Services meeting, people with disabilities talked about their lives. However, what amazed me most was the great importance of education about handicap accommodations (残疾人便利设施).
One school-teacher who is blind, and a woman who has used a wheelchair all her life are two important members of the National Group for Disabled Persons, devoted to raising awareness about disabilities. These include handicap parking spots, handrails, and wheelchair ramps. One big concern is the people who take advantage of aids, such as handicap parking spaces.
And the meeting focused on educating the public.
Some handicap spots have extra room next to them, marked with the “No Parking” signs. “As long as I'm not in the spot, I can take the no-parking area next to it,” some people say. However, the woman who uses a wheelchair disagrees to this. The space exists to allow someone in a wheelchair to have room to get in or out of their car.
Some walkways have handrails next to them to help those who require extra assistance. Whether it is a blind person seeking guidance or an elderly person seeking support, the rail is there for walking. Sometimes the rail is blocked, by a parked bicycle for instance, and consequently made useless. People who are informed of the rail’s use would be less likely to mistake it for a bike rack.
Meeting some of the people who are affected by the lack of education about accommodations made me see that there is work to be done. If more people were educated about the proper uses of accommodations, there would be fewer challenges for people with physical disabilities.
| A．Accommodations will vary according to the needs of the disabled. |
| B．As with the parking spot, this is more likely a case of lack of education. |
| C．They educate about all the accommodations for people with disabilities. |
| D．Improvement must be made so that disabled people can fully participate. |
E. If there is a car in that space, the handicap parking spot is no longer useful.
F. So people without disabilities need to be educated about these accommodations.
G. I was amazed to hear about the challenges faced by people with physical disabilities.
If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery, a small reward like a sticker(贴画) for taking even a taste may help get them to eat previously disliked foods, a UK study said.
Though it might seem obvious that a reward could encourage young children to eat their vegetables, the idea is actually controversial, researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. That’s because some studies have shown that rewards can backfire and cause children to lose interest in foods they already liked, said Jane Wardle, a researcher at University College London who worked on the study. Verbal praise, such as “Brilliant! You’re a great vegetable taster”, did not work as well.
The study found that when parents gave their small children a sticker each time they took a “tiny taste” of a disliked vegetable, it gradually changed their attitudes. The children were also willing to eat more of the vegetables—either carrots, celery, cucumber, red pepper, cabbage or sugar snap peas—in laboratory taste tests, the study said.
Researchers randomly assigned (分派) 173 families to one of these groups. In one, parents used stickers to reward their children each time they took a tiny sample of a disliked vegetable. A second group of parents used verbal praise. The third group, where Parents used no special vegetable-promoting methods, served as a “control”.
Parents in the reward groups offered their children a taste of the “target” vegetable every day for 12 days. Soon after, children in the sticker group were giving higher ratings to the vegetables—and were willing to eat more in the research lab, going from an average of 5 grams at the start to about 10 grams after the 12-day experience. The turnaround(转机) also seemed to last, with preschoolers in the sticker group still willing to eat more of the once-disliked vegetable three months later.
Why didn’t the verbal praise work? Wardle said the parents’ words may have seemed “insincere” to their children.The purpose of writing the passage is.
| A．to show the procedure of an experiment on children’s diet |
| B．to introduce a practical method of making children eat vegetables |
| C．to explain why children hate to eat vegetables |
| D．to present a proper way of verbal praise to parents |
The underlined word “backfire” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.
| A．shoot from behind the back |
| B．make a fire in the backyard |
| C．produce an unexpected result |
| D．achieve what was planned |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．Most children are born to dislike carrots or celery. |
| B．Children in the sticker group will never lose interest in eating vegetables. |
| C．Oral praise works quite well in encouraging children to eat vegetables. |
| D．It remains a question whether rewarding is a good way to get children to eat vegetables. |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Children like rewards, not verbal praise. |
| B．Parents should give up verbal praise. |
| C．Children are difficult to inspire. |
| D．Parents should praise their children in a sincere tone. |
Teaching is more than leadership. Some of the teacher’s time and effort is directed toward instruction, some toward evaluation. But it is the teacher as a group leader who creates an effective organizational structure and good working environment so that instruction and evaluation activities can take place. A group that is totally disorganized, unclear about its goals, or constantly fighting among its members will not be a good learning group. The leadership pattern includes helping to form and maintain a positive learning environment so that instruction and evaluation activities can take place.
On the first day of class, the teacher faces a room filled with individuals. Perhaps a few closely united groups and friendships already exist. But there is no sense of group unity, no set of rules for conduct in the group, no feeling of belonging. If teachers are successful leaders, they will help students develop a system of relationships that encourages working together.
Standards and rules must be set to keep order, make sure of justice and protect individual rights, but do not contradict school policy. What happens when one student hurts another’s individual rights? Without clear regulations agreeable to the students and teachers, the classroom can become chaotic. Students may break rules they did not know existed. If standards are set without participation from the class, students may spend a great deal of creative energy in destroying the class environment or finding ways to break rules.
No matter how skillful the teacher is in uniting students and creating a positive atmosphere, the task is never complete. Regular maintenance is necessary. Conflicts arise. The needs of individual members change. A new kind of learning task requires a new organizational structure. Sometimes outside pressures such as holidays, upcoming tests or sport competitions, or family troubles cause stress in the classroom. One task for the teacher is to recreate a positive environment by helping students deal with conflict, change, and stress.The underlined word “maintain” in Para.1 probably means_______.
| A．keep | B． build | C．recreate | D．evaluate |
According to the author, the teacher should _______.
| A．free students from outside pressures |
| B．set the standards and rules on his own |
| C．be responsible for a well-organized class |
| D．focus more on instruction and evaluation |
From the passage we can learn that ______.
| A．rules cannot be changed once they’re formed |
| B．outside pressures can not cause tension among students |
| C．if the teacher well unites his students, he then will finish his task |
| D．if rules are not acceptable both to students and teachers, the classroom can be a mess |
What is the author’s main purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To provide information for teaching. |
| B．To show the importance of teaching a class. |
| C．To study the teacher’s behavior in the classroom. |
| D．To compare the teacher’s behavior with the students’ in class. |
Italy is one country where beauty is prized more than any other virtue. That is, except in the small town of Piobbico, the self-declared World Capital of Ugly People. The road sign at the edge of the town even warns visitors that they are entering the ugly zone. People who consider themselves ugly have been gathering in Piobbico since the 1960s. That’s when Ugly Club president Telesforo Lacobelli established a dating agency for women who believed they were too ugly to attract husbands. Lacobelli believes that he is ugly himself because he has a short nose in a country where long or large noses have always been considered beautiful.
People from around the world travel to Piobbico to tell their sad stories of ugliness. During the annual Festival of the Ugly, which occurs on the first Sunday of every September, hundreds of people gather in Piobbico’s town square to elect the president of the Ugly Club. Lacobelli wins the election every year. The Ugly Club has over 20, 000 members. They carry ID cards that grade their ugliness from bearable to extreme. A prize is awarded to Ugly Club members who qualify as extremely ugly.
The Ugly Club president insists that ugliness is a virtue. Since beautiful people get a lot of attention for their beauty alone, they have to work hard to prove their other virtues. Ugly people, on the other hand, are genuine and do not have to prove anything to anybody, according to Lacobelli.
Lacobelli is a spokesperson for ugly people everywhere. He believes that the uglier one is, the better life can be. Though the club enjoys making fun of beauty, especially beauty contests, Lacobelli has a serious side as well. He believes that too many people suffer from financial and emotional pressures because they don’t meet society’s standards of beauty. The fact that beautiful people are more successful in the workforce is a problem that Lacobelli has attempted to bring forward to the Italian public and government. Piobbico is rather special in that.
| A．it is a very small town | B．it is home to ugly people |
| C．it receives no visitors | D．it is the capital of Italy |
Why is Lacobelli elected the president of the Ugly Club every year?
| A．Because he is the ugliest person in the whole world. |
| B．Because his ugliness is always graded as bearable. |
| C．Because he is a spokesperson for ugly people everywhere. |
| D．Because he has won the members’ trust and admiration. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Ugly people are most respected in Italy. |
| B．The Festival of the Ugly is held every two years. |
| C．Ugly people are unfairly treated in society. |
| D．The uglier one is, the better life he or she lives. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Ugly Capital of the World | B．The Ugliest Person of the World |
| C．Festival of the Ugly | D．Beauty Contests Should be Banned |