The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru's heartbreaking story could have one good consequence-other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived in the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate(磷酸盐)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which was a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top player of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island or Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem—their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately$433, 600, 000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.
What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?
| A．Rich and powerful] |
| B．Modern and open |
| C．Peaceful and attractive |
| D．Greedy and aggressive |
The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from .
| A．soil pollution |
| B．phosphate overmining |
| C．farming activity |
| D．whale hunting |
Which of the following was a cause of Nauru's financial problem?
| A．Its leaders misused the money |
| B．It spent too much repairing the island |
| C．Its phosphate mining cost much money |
| D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war. |
What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?
| A．The leaders will take the experts' words seriously |
| B．The phosphate mines were destroyed |
| C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans |
| D．The ecological damage is difficult to repair. |
A recent study in the Chronicle of Higher Education said many foreign students report feeling lonely or unwelcome in Australia. Those feelings are among the reasons why Australia is taking a close look at its international education industry. The government has formed an advisory council to help develop a five-year national strategy for the future of international education in Australia.
But wherever international students go, making friends may not always be easy. The Journal of International and Intercultural Communication recently published a study done in the United States.
Elisabeth Gareis of Baruch College in New York surveyed 454 international students. They were attending four-year colleges and graduate schools in the American South and Northeast.
Students from English-speaking countries and from northern and central Europe were more likely to be happy with their friendships. But 38 percent of the international students said they had no close friends in the United States.
And half of the students from East Asia said they were unhappy with the number of American friends they had. Professor Gareis says 30 percent said they wished their friendships could be deeper and more meaningful.
Elisabeth Gareis said, "Students from East Asia have cultures that are different on many levels from the culture in the United States. But then there's also language problems, and maybe some social skills, such as small talk, that are possibly not as important in their native countries, where it's not as important to initiate friendships with small talk."
She says many East Asian students blamed themselves for their limited friendships with Americans.
VOA's Student Union blogger Jessica Stahl did her own survey to find out how American students and foreign students relate to each other. More than 100 students, about half of them American, answered her online questions.
Half of the international students and 60 percent of the Americans said they related as well or better to the other group than to their own group.
Professor Gareis says students who make friends from their host country return home happier with their experience. What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．International students making friends may not always be easy. |
| B．Australia judges its strategies for the future of international education. |
| C．International students were happy with their friendships. |
| D．Many East Asian students have limited friendships with Americans. |
According to the text, what makes Australia examine its international industry?
| A．A recent study in the Chronicle of Higher Education. |
| B．The feelings of loneliness many foreign students have. |
| C．A survey made by Professor Gareis. |
| D．Her own survey done by blogger Jessica Stahl. |
Which may NOT be the reason why many students from East Asia were unhappy with their friendships?
| A．Different cultures. | B．Language problems. |
| C．Some social skills. | D．Living conditions. |
The word "where" in Paragraph 6 probably refers to __________.
| A．students' home countries |
| B．students' host countries |
| C．the United States |
| D．Australia |
Where do you think this article can be seen?
| A．Newspaper. | B．Journal. |
| C．Textbook. | D．Website. |
Of all the reasons, cloning for medical purposes has the most potential to benefit large numbers of people. How might cloning be used in medicine?
Much of what researchers learn about human disease comes from studying animal models such as mice. Often, animal models are genetically engineered to carry disease-causing mutations (变异) in their genes. Creating these transgenic animals is a time-intensive process that requires trial-and-error and several generations of breeding. Cloning technologies might reduce the time needed to make a transgenic animal model, and the result would be a population of genetically identical animals for study.
Stem cells are the body's building blocks, responsible for developing, maintaining and repairing the body throughout life. As a result, they might be used to repair damaged or diseased organs and tissues. Researchers are currently looking toward cloning as a way to create genetically defined human stem cells for research and medical purposes. To see how this is done, see Creating Stem Cells for Research, a component of the Stem Cells in the Spotlight module.
Farm animals such as cows, sheep and goats are currently being genetically engineered to produce drugs or proteins that are useful in medicine. Just like creating animal models of disease, cloning might be a faster way to produce large herds of genetically engineered animals. Find out more about this research in the feature article Pharming for Farmaceuticals.
Have you seen Jurassic Park? In this feature film, scientists use DNA preserved for tens of millions of years to clone dinosaurs. They find trouble, however, when they realize that the cloned creatures are smarter and fiercer than expected.
In reality? Probably not. It's not likely that dinosaur DNA could survive undamaged for such a long time. However, scientists have tried to clone species that became extinct more recently, using DNA from well-preserved tissue samples.
To clone or not to clone: that is the question. The prospect of cloning humans is highly controversial and raises a number of ethical, legal and social challenges that need to be considered. Of all the reason of cloning, which do people think is the most benefit to people?
| A．Medicine purpose. | B．protecting endangered animal |
| C．Cloning for some families. | D．Purifying human beings |
By the passage we can infer that the side effect people would research human disease using animal models is __________.
| A．the sample is not the same with human |
| B．the sample has less function than human |
| C．the sample often carries disease in the genes |
| D．the results can't adapt to human |
What function do stem cells play in body?
| A．Breeding. | B．Repairing. | C．Replacing. | D．Reproducing. |
According to the passage, which statement of the following is not right?
| A．Cloning animals have achieved now. |
| B．By cloning people can cure some deadly diseases. |
| C．Dinosaurs in the future film are smarter. |
| D．Cloning can bring human only happiness. |
The title of this passage probably is __________.
| A．Why clone? | B．The benefit of cloning. |
| C．Cloned animals. | D．Cloning in the future. |
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had "seven fathers" because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated (躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university's Writers' Workshop, however, she felt lonely—a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her "Creative voice".
"It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn't think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That's when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn't write about. "
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children's book, and a short-story collection. Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
| A．She had seven brothers. |
| B．She felt herself a nobody. |
| C．She was too shy to go to school. |
| D．She did not have any good teachers. |
The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to __________.
| A．work for a school magazine |
| B．run away from her family |
| C．make a lot of friends |
| D．develop her writing style |
According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
| A．Her early years in college. |
| B．Her training in the Workshop. |
| C．Her feeling of being different. |
| D．Her childhood experience. |
What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
| A．It is quite popular among students. |
| B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros. |
| C．It wasn't successful as it was written in Spanish. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |
The word "sport" first meant something that people did in their free time. Later it often meant hunting wild animals and birds. About a hundred years ago the word was first used for organized games. This is the usual meaning of the word today. People spend a lot of their time playing football, basketball, tennis and many other sports. Such people play because they want to. A few people pay for the sport they play. These people are called professional sportsmen. They may be sportsmen for only a few years, but during that time the best ones can earn a lot of money. For example, a professional footballer in England earns more than 30, 000 dollars a year. The stars earn a lot more. International golf and tennis champions can make more than 500，000 dollars a year. Of course, only a few sportsmen can earn as much money as that.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about sportsmen and money is that the stars can earn more money from advertising than from sports. An advertisement for sports equipment does not simply say "Buy our things". It says "Buy the same shirt and shoes as...". Famous sportsmen can even advertise things like watches and food. They allow the companies to use their names or a photograph of them and they paid for this. Sport is no longer just something for people's spare time. From the passage we can learn that __________.
| A．people spend too much money on sports |
| B．the development of sports is slower than any other activity |
| C．most people enjoy sports because they can earn money |
| D．nowadays sport is not merely a pastime for people |
Nowadays, the word "sport" means __________.
| A．what people do in their spare time |
| B．hunting wild animals and birds |
| C．organized games |
| D．something people are paid to do |
People play sports for __________.
| A．fun | B．different purposes |
| C．money | D．keeping fit |
What surprises people most is that __________.
| A．the stars get more money from advertising |
| B．the word "sport" meant hunting animals |
| C．professional sportsmen are paid for what they do |
| D．only a few sportsmen can earn $500, 000 a year |
I always felt sorry for the people in wheelchair. Some people, old and weak, cannot get around by themselves. Others seem perfectly healthy, dressed in business suits. But whenever I saw someone in a wheelchair, I only saw a disability, not a person.
Then I fainted at Euro Disney due to low blood pressure. This was the first time I had ever fainted, and my parents said that I must rest for a while after First Aid. I agreed to take it easy but, as I stepped toward the door, I saw my dad pushing a wheelchair in my direction! Feeling the color burn my cheeks, I asked him to wheel that thing right back to where he found it.
I could not believe this was happening to me. Wheelchairs were fine for other people but not for me, as my father wheeled me out into the main street, people immediately began to treat me differently.
Little kids ran in front of me, forcing my father to stop the wheel chair suddenly. Bitterness set in as I was thrown back and forth. "Stupid kids—they have perfectly good legs. Why can't they watch where they are going?" I thought. People stared down at me, pity in their eyes. Then they would look away, maybe because they thought the sooner they forgot me the better.
"I'm just like you!" I wanted to scream. "The only difference is you've got legs, and I have wheels."
People in wheelchairs are not stupid. They see every look and hear each word. Looking out at the faces, I finally understood: I was once just like them. I treated people in wheelchairs exactly the way they did not want to be treated. I realized it is some of us with two healthy legs who are truly disabled. The author once __________ when she was healthy.
| A．laughed at disabled people |
| B．looked down upon disabled people |
| C．imagined herself sitting in a wheelchair |
| D．saw some healthy people moving around in wheelchairs |
Facing the wheelchair for the first time, the author __________.
| A．felt curious about it |
| B．got ready to move around in it right away |
| C．refused to accept it right away |
| D．thought it was ready for his father |
The experience of the author tells us that "__________".
| A．life is the best teacher |
| B．people often eat their bitter fruit |
| C．life is so changeable that nobody can foretell |
| D．one should not do to others what he would not like others do to him |
Which is the best title for this passage?
| A．How to Get Used to Wheelchairs |
| B．The Wheels Are as Good as Two Legs |
| C．People with Two Legs Are Truly Healthy |
| D．The Difference between Healthy People and the Disabled |