The sound of a mosquito can mean trouble in many parts of the world. The bite of the mosquito can be deadly. The insects carry serious diseases like malaria (疟疾). It is estimated that almost 630,000 people died from malaria and malariarelated causes in 2012, and most of these cases were in African countries.
In the United States, a group of California scientists are working to develop a more effective and less costly substance (物质) to protect people from mosquitoes. The researchers are investigating the sense of smell in mosquitoes. They found the insects use the same receptor for identifying carbon dioxide in human breath as they do for the smell of our skin. Anandasankar Ray, who is leading the investigation, says scientists tested more than a million chemical compounds (化合物) until they found a substance called Ethyl Pyruvate. He says Ethyl Pyruvate makes the mosquitoes' receptors inactive. “When we apply Ethyl Pyruvate to a human arm and offer it to hungry mosquitoes in a cage, very few of the mosquitoes are attracted to the human arm because only a few of them are able to smell it out,” said Ray.
Genevieve Tauxe, a member of the research team, says it was not easy to find the neurons (神经元) of noble cells that recognize both the smell of human breath and skin. “With the device used to examine the mosquito, we are able to insert a very small electrode (电极) into the part of the mosquito's nose, where its smelling neurons are and where the smell is happening,” said Tauxe.
Anandasankar Ray says a product based on Ethyl Pyruvate may cost less to produce than DEFT, the most effective chemical treatment now in use. He says DEFT is too costly for most people who live in areas affected by malaria.
“Perhaps by finding smells that can attack other target receptors, we will be able to improve upon DEFT and finally have the next generation of insect behaviour control products,” said Ray.
The underlined word in the second paragraph probably means ________.
| A．a substance that protects people from mosquitoes |
| B．a piece of equipment that sends signals |
| C．a device that reacts to light |
| D．a sense organ that reacts to changes |
According to the passage, Ethyl Pyruvate can ________.
| A．kill the mosquitoes' smelling neurons |
| B．cause the mosquitoes to lose their senses of smell |
| C．result in the inactiveness of the mosquitoes' receptors |
| D．make the mosquitoes uninterested in human breath and skin smell |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Ethyl Pyruvate—an Insect Behaviour Control Product |
| B．Malaria—a Serious Disease Causing 630,000 Deaths |
| C．Scientists Find a New Substance to Fight Mosquitoes |
| D．A New Generation of DEET Has Been Developed to Kill Mosquitoes |
This passage most probably appears in ________.
| A．a textbook of medical schools |
| B．a collection of doctors' essays |
| C．the column of newspaper ads |
| D．the health column of a magazine |
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Sincerely,
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
What’s the purpose of the letter delivered by the CEO?
| A．To encourage customers to join in a special program for free. |
| B．To ask for the feedback of the customers. |
| C．To express festive greetings to the consumers. |
| D．To encourage customers to consume more on line. |
How much can you save compared with the ordinary customers if you have two orders each with a two-day shipping and a over-night shipping?
| A．$ 21.97 | B．$ 25.96 |
| C．$ 16.48 | D．$ 9.48 |
What does “all-you-can-eat” mean in the first paragraph?
| A．direct | B．unlimited |
| C．convenient | D．cheap |
What does the last part infer?
| A．They lose much in the special program. |
| B．The customers spend more in the future. |
| C．This program can offer a double-win in a long term. |
| D．Amazon.com is a very popular on-line bookstore. |
From Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou, you can travel along the East Line not only the other line going past Dujiangyan and Wenchuan. Take a regular bus from Chengdu Chengbei Bus Station from 9:00 to 16:30. It only takes about three hours to Jiangyou. The ticket is CNY50.00 net per person. Up along Fujiang River, you will pass the second largest city in Sichuan, Mianyang and enjoy the picturesque scenery.
There is bus available to the destination from 6:30 to 13:30 in Mianyang Pingzheng Bus Station,The one way ticket is about CNY95.00 net per person. In this case, you can not get stop at Jiangyou and Pingwu. This is one option for you.
In Jiangyou, visit the Former Residence of Li Bai, the famous poet in Tang Dynasty. If time permits, you can also take a look at the Doutuan Mountain, which is famous for its unique sceneries and also holdsnational gliding (滑翔) campaigns every year. Take bus at Jiangyou Bus Station to Pingwu and stay there for one night. Our recommendation is to stay at the Pingwu Hotel, which is the first hotel that can serve foreigners in the small city. The contact phone number is 0816 - 8822022. Pingwu has the best royal Buddhist temples in Ming Dynasty, Bao'en Temple and the historic relics in the period of Three Kingdoms (220-280).
The next day, take bus to Huanglong, which is 120 kilometers away from Pingwu. It only takes about 2 hours to arrive at one of the world's most naturally fantastic locations - the Huanglong Scenic and Historic Areas. The bus ticket is CNY30.00 net per person.
You can easily find the bus from Chuanzhusi to Jiuzhaigou. The journey time is 1.5 hours. Here we would like to recommend another hotel in Jiuzhaigou for you, Mofang Hotel. The contact number is 0837-7764926.
Two days in Jiuzhaigou Valley can give you enough time to explore there. Sometimes, you need to purchase the extra charge for entering the valley twice.What is the tour route of the East Line from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou according to the passage?
| A．Chengdu - Mianyang - Jiangyou - Huanglong - Pingwu - Chuanzhusi - Jiuzhaigou |
| B．Chengdu - Mianyang - Fujiang - Jiangyou - Pingwu - Huanglong - Jiuzhaigou |
| C．Chengdu - Mianyang - Jiangyou - Pingwu - Huanglong - Chuanzhusi - Jiuzhaigou |
| D．Chengdu - Mianyang - Jiangyou - Pingwu - Chuanzhusi-Huanglong - Jiuzhaigou |
Where is this passage likely to appear?
| A．An advertisement of local hotels. |
| B．A travel guide for foreign travelers. |
| C．A geography book of Sichuan Province |
| D．A newspaper for English learners. |
If you take the bus from Pingzheng Bus Station to Jiuzhaigou, you can________.
| A．directly get to the destination |
| B．get on the bus before 2 o’clock pm |
| C．also visit Bao’en Temple halfway |
| D．enjoy the scenery along Fujiang River |
From this passage, which of the following statement is TRUE?
| A．Pingwu Hotel is the only choice for foreign guests in Pingwu. |
| B．We’d better pay the entrance fee twice in Jiuzhaigou. |
| C．We can travel from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou along different routes. |
| D．Doutuan Mountain is famous for the Former Residence of Li Bai. |
Where we live, on the eastern shore of Maryland, the gentle waters run in and out like fingers slimming at the tips.
The Canada geese know this place, as do the white swans and the ducks. In autumn, they come home for the winter. Once or twice each year, snow and frozen rain move into the area. When this happens, if the river is at its narrowest, there is a freeze which hardens the water to ice.
One morning, a friend of mine set the breakfast table beside the huge window, which overlooked the Tred Avon River. Suddenly she leaned forward and cried out, “There is a goose out there.”
We saw the figure of a large Canada goose, very still, its wings folded tight to its sides, its feet frozen into the ice.
Then from the dark skies, she saw a line of swans. They floated from the top of the sky downward and at last landed on the ice. My friend was on her feet now, with one hand against her mouth, unbelieving. As the swans surrounded the frozen goose, she feared that life it still had might be pecked(啄) out by those great swan bills.
Instead, those bills began to work on the ice. The long necks were lifted and curved down, again and again. It went on for a long time. At last, the goose’s head was lifted. Its body was pulled. Then the goose was free and stood on the ice. And the swans stood in the air watching. Then, as if it had cried, “I cannot fly.” Four of the swans came down around it. Their powerful beaks chipped off the ice held in the feathers. Slowly, the goose spread its wings as far as they would go, and moved slowly into the sky.
This is a true story. I just think of it in the bad moment, and from it comes only one hopeful question: If so for birds, why not for man?
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Why Not for Man? | B．Graceful Swans |
| C．Swans’ Brave Act | D．I Just Couldn’t Believe It! |
What happened to the Canada goose?
| A．It was deserted by other geese. |
| B．It was stuck in the ice. |
| C．It was wounded and couldn’t fly. |
| D．It was lost in the water. |
At first the author’s friend was worried that________.
| A．the swans would not help the Canada goose |
| B．she didn’t care about this matter any more |
| C．the swans wouldn’t identify with the Canada goose |
| D．the swans would peck the Canada goose to death |
What did the swans do when they saw the Canada goose couldn’t fly?
| A．They chipped off the ice held in its feathers. |
| B．They waited patiently for the ice held in its feathers to melt. |
| C．They came down and lifted it up to the sky together. |
| D．They stayed with it and protected it. |
Every kid wishes to be an adult. Do you remember playing houses as a child pretending to be a grownup like your parents? Did you imagine you were a doctor, a soldier or a teacher? At that time, anything seemed more exciting than young.
But now as grownups, some adults find they cannot leave childhood behind. They become “kidults”(kid+adult). Being a kidult has become a lifestyle choice among young people across Asia. Some kidults collect toys they once played with. Hello Kitty, Garfield, and Snoopy have many adult fans around the world. It is not unusual to see a 20something woman with a big, Garfieldshaped cushion on her sofa or a Hello Kitty mobile phone accessory(饰物). Other kidults still enjoy children’s stories and fairy tales. For example, even an edition of the Harry Potter novels with an adult cover came out in Britain. That way, no one else on the subway will know that an adult is actually reading a children’s book!
“Kidults can be like vitamins to society. Adults who value their childhood and hold on to pure, childlike emotion may be needed in such a rough and dry society,” said a professor in a Korean University. He added that kidult culture might fill the generation gap between adults and kids. It could give children and their parents books, movies, and cartoon shows to enjoy together.
Tim Greenhalgh, a professor in London explained that some kidults just refuse to grow up. They cling to(舍不得放弃) childhood because life in a busy and stressful city frightens them. Kidults would like to forget their age and openly show their fear of society and adulthood.
“So, they look for an escape from increasingly complex and stressful life that are hard to deal with,” Greenhalgh said.We can learn from the passage that kidults are________.
| A．children who can’t wait to grow up |
| B．grownups who hold on to childlike emotion |
| C．people who enjoy playing sports |
| D．young people who pretended to be grownups when young |
According to the passage, kidults would like to do the following except________.
| A．buy Hello Kitty mobile phone accessories |
| B．read a children’s book on the subway |
| C．work in a busy and stressful city |
| D．collect toys they once played with |
In the opinion of the Professor in a Korean University, kidults are________.
| A．immature (不成熟) and weak |
| B．necessary to our society |
| C．looked down upon |
| D．getting more and more |
The main reason of the kidult culture lies in that________.
| A．some companies are taking advantage of it |
| B．modern life is stressful and hard |
| C．some people like to stay young and energetic |
| D．some people wish to bridge the generation gap |
Happiness pays off, studies show.
Psychologists seeking the real secrets of happiness report that very happy people tend to be more extroverted and agreeable than less happy people.
“Our findings suggest that very happy people have rich and satisfying social relationships and spend little time alone compared to average people,” write psychologists Ed Diener and Martin E. P. Seligman in the journal Psychological Science.
Solid social relationships do not promise happiness, but they are an important contributing factor. The very happy people whom the authors studied all said they had good quality social relationships. However, the authors write, there is no single key to high happiness. “High happiness seems to be like beautiful symphonic music--including many instruments, without any one being enough for the beautiful quality.”
Diener regards happiness as “subjective (主观的) wellbeing”--in other words, the person evaluates his or her own quality of life. The question to ask is, “Is my life going well, according to the standards I choose to use?” If the answer is “yes”, then that person is judged to be happy.
Because people evaluate their lives based on happiness, subjective wellbeing is very important. Though necessary, it is not enough for having a good life. “Subjective wellbeing seems quite necessary for the ‘good society’, although it is not enough for that society because there are other things we also value and would want in such a place.” says Diener.
Can subjective wellbeing be measured scientificall? Diener points out three parts contributing to happiness: pleasant emotions and moods, lack of negative emotions and moods, and satisfaction judgment, to which other factors including cheerfulness and feelings of fulfillment may be added.
There is no magic formula for happiness. Diener suggests steps you can take to ensure you are as happy as you can be. Surrounding yourself with good friends and family--people who care about you and whom you care about--is a start. Joining in activities you enjoy and value is also important; whether it’s work or play, keeping busy in an environment enjoyable to you will contribute much to your subjective wellbeing. In addition, a healthy outlook is necessary.The underlined word “extroverted” probably means________.
| A．pleasant and social | B．hardworking and active |
| C．careful and shy | D．warmhearted and helpful |
Happiness and symphonic music are common in that________.
| A．they are both something beautiful |
| B．they both make people feel pleased |
| C．they both depend on more than one factor |
| D．they are both hard to achieve |
According to Diener, a person can be judged to be happy when he________.
| A．has rich and satisfying social relationships |
| B．spends more time with other people |
| C．joins in a lot of activities he enjoys and keeps himself optimistic |
| D．thinks his life is going well according to his own standards |
Which of the following does NOT belong to factors contributing to happiness?
| A．Pleasant moods. |
| B．Negative emotions. |
| C．Satisfaction judgment. |
| D．Feelings of fulfillment. |