To prevent the deserts coming near, China has planted billions of trees---to replace destroyed forests and as barriers against the sand. This isn’t a cure, though, say experts, as thirsty trees can make the problem worse by taking in groundwater.
“Planting tress is one way, but it isn’t that simple. It doesn’t solve the basic issue of water resources,” says Wu Bo, a professor. “We need to calculate how much water the trees will absorb, or else it could have a negative effect.”
Villagers in Zhengxin have taken on this challenge, with limited success. When the irrigation channels began to run dry, Lu Xianglin switched from wheat to cotton on his land. He also planted trees to protect his fields from sandstorms. He says he still gets good yields（产量） using flood irrigation and earns a good income for his family.
Other farmers haven’t stuck it out（坚持到底）: about one in three have left Zhengxin in the past 10 years after their wheat crops died. Young people who can find jobs in the towns rarely return.
Last week, Mr Lu joined the other men in his village on a government-arranged trip to see the land that has been set aside for their relocation, nearly 40 miles to the south. The next day, he was back, shaking his head at the plan. The idea of uprooting his family troubles him, as does the idea of giving up the land that fed his forefathers. He prefers to stay and keep up the fight.
“With enough water, this problem can be solved,” Lu says. “We can plant trees and grass, and they will grow bigger. That will stop the desert.”
Experts say that farmers could switch to drip irrigation （滴灌）to lessen their water intake for growing crops. Elsewhere in the region, farmers have built brick greenhouses as part of a plan to grow vegetables using less water. Roadside signs urge farmers to “Save Water, Protect the Environment”. The negative effect of planting trees in deserts is that __________.
| A．it can make groundwater become less |
| B．it can prevent the sand moving freely |
| C．it can stop crops growing well |
| D．it can get the soil to become poor |
Why did Mr. Lu NOT accept the idea of relocation?
| A．Because the plan of relocation will cost him much money. |
| B．Because his family had trouble moving away. |
| C．Because he was reluctant to give up his land. |
| D．Because he would rather stay than fight against the deserts. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The deserts drive more and more people to leave their homes for their lives. |
| B．People have no means to fight against the land becoming desert. |
| C．Water is the biggest barrier for people to stop the desert. |
| D．Planting trees cannot solve the problem of desertification of farmland. |
What advice is given by experts to save water?
| A．To plant more trees. |
| B．To build greenhouses. |
| C．To change crops. |
| D．To use drip irrigation. |
Imagine a boy from a small village in East Africa. He, since a very early age, has been looking after cattle. At twelve years old he knows more about cattle than most of you. However, he has never been to school. Has this boy had any education?
Education is discovering about ourselves and about the people and things around us. All the people who care about us — our parents, brothers, sisters, friends — are our teachers. In fact, we learn something from everyone we meet. We start learning on the day we were born, not on the first day we go to school. Every day we have new experiences, like finding a bird’s nest, discovering a new street in our neighborhood, making friends with someone we didn’t like before. New experiences are even more fun when we share them with other people.
Encouragement from the people around us enables us to explore things as many as possible. As we grow up, we begin to find out what we are capable of doing. You may be good at cooking, or singing or playing football. You find this out by doing these things. Just thinking about cooking doesn’t tell you whether you are good at it.
We learn so much just living from day to day. So why is school important? Of course you can learn some things better at home than at school, like how to do the shopping, and how to help old or disabled people who can’t do everything for themselves. At school, teachers help us to read and write. With their guidance, we begin to see things in different ways.In the opinion of the writer, .
| A．the school is not important at all. |
| B．we have to learn from the people around us. |
| C．education takes place everywhere. |
| D．only people who care for us can teach us. |
One can find out what he / she is good at by _.
| A．what people encourage him/ her to do. |
| B．trying and practising things. |
| C．thinking about it when growing up. |
| D．he teachings of those he / she meets. |
The passage tells us that _.
| A．different classes of people receive different kinds of education. |
| B．everyone gets education from the day he or she was born. |
| C．the school is absolutely necessary if one wants to understand the world. |
| D．everyone will find out what he or she is good at. |
According to the last paragraph, we know that .
| A．the school enables us to understand the world in other ways. |
| B．the school is not so important as our living places. |
| C．the school teaches us things which are useless at home. |
| D．the school cannot prepare us for our daily lives. |
Forbes asked a panel of architects and campus designers to nominate their picks for the best-looking campuses in the world. These are their top choices.
Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio, US
Mike Evans, a principal at Norfolk, Va., design firm Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company, says to be beautiful a campus must have a “signature campus space as a carrier of the campus brand.” At Kenyon College, that space is “Middle Path,” a 10-foot-wide footpath that serves as the Gothic hilltop campus’ central artery. More than just a trail, it’s a village green for the tight-knit campus community. Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, who teaches 17th-century poetry at Kenyon, says the college, both isolated and pastoral, is “a small place to think big thoughts.”
Oxford University
Oxford, England
Teaching within Oxford’s stone walls dates as far back as the 11th century, and the school is considered a paradigm(典范) for all college campuses. With its labyrinth of quads, cloisters, and archways, it evokes elegance and tradition at every turn. “Its monastic roots and the spectacular quality of its buildings make it an architectural wonderland,” says David Mayernik, associate professor at Notre Dame’s School of Architecture.
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J., US
Princeton’s style is pure Collegiate Gothic（学院派哥特式）; most of it executed in gray stone covered in, yes, ivy. As imposing as these old stone structures are, the campus keeps life on a “human scale” by preserving green spaces and walkability.Sinuous footpaths, archways, plazas – all are designed to inspire spontaneous discussion and learning.
Scripps College
Claremont, Calif., US
The total plan of this women’s college, founded in the 1920′s, has always called for artistic connection between buildings and landscape. Together, architect Gordon Kaufmann, in collaboration with landscape architect Edward Huntsman-Trout, created a distinctively Southern Californian blend of Mission Revival-inspired architecture and landscape, which is lovely, evocative and intact. An expert in deciduous trees, Trout planted rows of liquid amber trees to give the students “a sense of autumn” come fall. He also peppered the campus with tulip trees, sycamores, almond and orange trees, as well as rare shrubs.
Stanford University
Palo Alto, Calif., US
New additions like the Science and Engineering Quad manage to gracefully blend modern and technological elements with the timeless, elegant aesthetics of the campus’ early California Mission Revival architecture. The campus also scores big points for its dramatic entrance via Palm Drive, its romantic Spanish red-tile roofs and myriad patches of green.
Tsinghua University
Beijing, China
Forbe’s panel of architects says natural setting plays a big part in assessing a campus’ beauty. In that regard, this campus is blessed: Founded in 1925, Tsinghua sits on the former site of the Qing Dynasty’s royal gardens. Many of Beijing’s most notable historical sites, like the Summer Palace, are close by. The campus is peppered with artificial ponds where stone benches and floating lotus blossoms inspire reflection.In this text, the writer mentioned many best-looking campuses in the world.How many Universities are in America?
| A．Six. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
which school is considered a paradigm for all college campuses.?
| A．Oxford University. | B．Stanford University. |
| C．Scripps College. | D．Princeton University. |
Which University has the style of pure Collegiate Gothic?
| A．Tsinghua University | B．Oxford University |
| C．Princeton University | D．Kenyon College |
In which part of a magazine can we probably read this passage?
| A．Entertainment. | B．Education. | C．Culture. | D．Health. |
Why does Tsinghua University enter the list of the best-looking campuses in the world？
| A．because the amber trees give the students “a sense of autumn” come fall. |
| B．because the artistic connects between buildings and landscape. |
| C．because its natural setting plays a big part. |
| D．because it is founded in 1925. |
Every year in late April, students at Renmin University of China become the subjects of admiration and jealousy of their peers on other campuses in Beijing. Why? Because they get a week off in the middle of term, the so-called spring break.
“It’s been a unique tradition of our school for a decade,” said Wang Yueran, 20, a journalism major at Renmin University, who organized a weeklong trip to Sichuan with 12 classmates last year.
But having fun is just one dimension of the spring break. Field trips, voluntary work, and social projects are all on students’ to-do lists. Experts say the spring break is not just for students to enjoy a few days off, but for them to gain new experiences beyond the campus walls.
Push them out
The traditional Chinese belief of the exploration of knowledge and truth emphasizes “reading 10,000 books and traveling 10,000 miles”, which indicates the importance of experience as much as theory. But while Chinese universities have the tradition of spring outings, what’s the benefit of making spring break an institution?
Qin Jianguo, of the student affairs office at Shenzhen University, thinks the idea of the spring break in some universities in China comes from the intention of pushing students out of theivory towerto experience morediversityin their lives.
“Take traveling for example. A week traveling is a very different experience to a one- or two-day outing,” said Qin. “Students are expected to acquire the spirit of teamwork and compromise, and learn survival and communication skills when put out there in an unfamiliar context.”
Diverse approaches
Many countries have similar vacations in the middle of the semester for students to do things out of their own interest. Taking Japan as an example, instead of partying like their US counterparts, many Japanese students choose to work as interns or engage in study-related projects.
“The spring break is an opportunity for many of our students to put their learning to use,” said Hiroshi Kanno, dean of the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University, in the school’s description of a recent spring break project.
As for Chinese students who take a week off around the Labor Day holiday, many tend to do volunteer work. Duan Zhipeng, a 22-year-old economics major at Renmin University, applied for a project to go back to his hometown in Jiangxi province to introduce his university’s enrollment policies and campus culture to local high school students.
Not a trend yet
Apart from Renmin University, only a few other universities, such as Yantai University, have a spring break for their students. The concept in China is still far from the culture and norms built around it in the US.
Wei Xiang, a professor specializing in holiday economics at Beijing International Studies University, said that the spring break is a good experiment for universities to make study schedules smoother in order to give students more options to arrange their own leisure and study activities.According to the text, up to now, Apart from Renmin University, which University has a spring break for their students.
| A．Yantai University |
| B．Peking University |
| C．Suzhou University |
| D．Nankai University |
The underlined word “it” refers to ______
| A．field trips | B．exploration of knowledge |
| C．spring break | D．ivory tower |
According to the passage,why do the students in the other universities admire the students at Renmin University?
| A．Because they tend to do volunteer work. |
| B．Because they go home to meet their relatives. |
| C．Because they get a spring break. |
| D．Because they have lesser courses . |
Which of the following is the best title?
| A．Reading 10,000 books and traveling 10,000 miles |
| B．Spring break expands horizons |
| C．Enjoy yourselves |
| D．A weeklong trip |
Which of the following is Not true according to the passage?
| A．Spring break can help students to gain new experiences beyond the campus walls. |
| B．Students are expected to acquire the spirit of teamwork through pring break. |
| C．Spring break can help students tolearn survival and communication skills when in an unfamiliar context. |
| D．Spring break is not common in the US. |
Air pollution by sources ranging from cooking fires to auto fumes contributed to an estimated seven million deaths worldwide in 2012, the UN health agency has said.
"Air pollution, and we're talking about both indoors and outdoors, is now the biggest environmental health problem, and it is affecting everyone, both developed and developing countries," said Maria Neira, the World Health Organisation's public and environmental health chief.
Globally, pollution was linked to one death in eight in 2012, new WHO research found.
The biggest pollution-related killers were heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
The hardest-hit regions of the globe were what the WHO labels Southeast Asia, which includes India and Indonesia, and the Western Pacific, ranging from China and South Korea to Japan and the Philippines. Together, they accounted for 5.9 million deaths.
The global death toll included 4.3 million deaths due to indoor air pollution, chiefly caused by cooking over coal, wood and biomass stoves. The toll from outdoor pollution was 3.7 million, with sources ranging from coal heating fires to diesel engines.
Many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor pollution, the WHO said, and due to that overlap the separate death toll attributed to the two sources cannot simply be added together, hence the figure of seven million deaths. The new figure is "shocking and worrying", Ms Neira told reporters.
When it last released an estimate for deaths related to air pollution, in 2008, the agency had put the figure related to outdoor pollution at 1.3 million, while the number blamed on indoor pollution was 1.9 million. But a change in research methods makes comparison difficult between the 2008 estimate and the 2012 figures, Neira said.
In the past, for example, the WHO did not take into account the overlap between exposure to both forms, and only assessed urban pollution. Satellite imagery has made it easier to assess rural pollution, and new knowledge about the health impact of exposure has enabled a better count. "The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes," said Neira. "Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution. The evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe."
According to the WHO, some 2.9 billion people in poor nations live in homes that use fires as their principle method of cooking and heating. Carlos Dora, the WHO's public and environmental health coordinator, said that turned homes into "combustion chambers". Simple measures to stem the impact include so-called "clean cook stoves", which are a low-tech option, as well as improved ventilation, he said.
Countries also need to rethink policies, Mr Dora said, pointing to the impact in the developed world of a shift to cleaner power sources, more efficient management of energy demand, and technical strides in the auto industry. He also said transport policies needed a shake-up. With air pollution having sparked a recent scare in France, leading to restrictions on car use and the temporary scrapping of public transport fees in Paris, Mr Dora said such measures could be applied in the longer term. "You can't buy clean air in a bottle," he said."The air is a shared resource. In order to breathe clean air, we have to have interventions in the areas that pollute air." The WHO said it planned by the end of this year to release a ranking of the world's 1,600 most polluted cities.The main idea of this article is that .
| A．In the past, the WHO did not take into account the overlap between exposure to both forms. |
| B．Air pollution by sources ranging from cooking fires to auto fumes caused an estimated seven million deaths worldwide in 2012. |
| C．According to the WHO, some 2.9 billion people use fires as their principle method of cooking and heating. |
| D．The WHO will release a ranking of the world's 1,600 most polluted cities by the end of this year. |
The underlined word “it” in the second paragraph refers to “ ”..
| A．The risks |
| B．cooking fires |
| C．environmental health problem |
| D．Air pollution |
Which of the following is True according to the passage? .
| A．The biggest pollution-related killers were heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease and lung cancer. |
| B．Air pollution only affects developing countries. |
| C．The risks from air pollution are now not serious. |
| D．Maria Neira said that we can't buy clean air in a bottle. |
What is main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．The air is a our shared resource. |
| B．The WHO will release a ranking of the world's 1,600 most polluted cities. |
| C．The government should make effective policies to control the air pollution. |
| D．The transport policies need a shake-up. |
The death toll in 2008 can hardly compare with that in 2012 because________.
| A．the death toll included 4.3 million deaths due to indoor air pollution. |
| B．in 2008 the WHO only assessed rural pollution. |
| C．the research methods changed. |
| D．the risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought. |
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrived in Beijing on Thursday evening, the official Xinhua news agency said, beginning a hotly anticipated week-long trip during which she will promote education and cultural ties.
Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer, is expected to spend Friday with China's charismatic first lady, Peng Liyuan, who is admired at home as both a glamorous songstress and fashion icon.
Besides Beijing, Obama will visit the western historic city of Xi'an and the southern city of Chengdu, where she will visit a panda preserve. Obama's two daughters are accompanying her, as well as her mother. She also plans to visit American and Chinese students to promote education and cultural exchanges, and visit historical landmarks like the Great Wall of China.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the visit would help deepen ties between the world's two largest economies. "We believe that this visit will play an important role in increasing mutual understanding between the two countries and expanding friendship." Hong told reporters ahead of Obama's arrival.
News of Obama's arrival spread fast on Sina Weibo, where users speculated on what the trip would bring - as well as what Obama would wear and eat. "Two intellectual women playing the game of great power politics - how beautiful." wrote one user.The underlined word “charismatic” in Paragraph 2 probably means _____.
| A．smart | B．serious |
| C．charming | D．kindhearted |
From this passage we know that U.S. first lady Michelle Obama _____
| A．is a Harvard-educated lawyer | B．will visit China alone |
| C．arrived in Beijing on Friday evening | D．will promote laws and cultural exchanges. |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Michelle Obama will visit the western historic city of Xi'an and the southern city of Chengdu. |
| B．Sina Weibo users didn’t care about what the trip would bring. |
| C．Michelle Obama is expected to spend Friday with China's first lady, Peng Liyuan. |
| D．The U.S. first lady Michelle Obama will visit historical landmarks like the Great Wall of China. |
In which part of a magazine can we probably read this passage?
| A．Entertainment. | B．Education. | C．Culture. | D．News. |
According to the Foreign Ministry spokesman，which of the following is NOT true？
| A．The visit would help deepen ties between the world's two largest economies. |
| B．The visit will play an important role in increasing mutual understanding between the two countries. |
| C．The visit will promote education and cultural exchanges. |
| D．The visit will expand mutual friendship between the two countries. |