A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap. He was texting while being scolded for texting. “It was a subconscious act,” says Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. “Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's compulsive.”
A study this year by psychology students at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., found that the more time young people spend on Facebook, the more likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits. Heavy Facebook users show signs of being more sociable, but they are also more likely to be anxious, hostile or depressed. (Doctors, meanwhile, are now blaming addictions to 'night texting' for disturbing the sleep patterns of teens.)
Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors media's impact on families. Will these young people get rid of this habit once they enter the work force, or will employers come to see texting and 'social-network checking' as accepted parts of the workday?
Think back. When today's older workers were in their 20s, they might have taken a break on the job to call friends and make after-work plans. In those earlier eras, companies discouraged non-business-related calls, and someone who made personal calls all day risked being fired. It was impossible to imagine the constant back-and-forth texting that defines interactions among young people today.
Educators are also being asked by parents, students and educational strategists to reconsider their rules. “In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are skilled at texting with their phones still in their pockets,” says 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, the vice principal, “and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones.”The underlined word “a subconscious act” refers to an act __________.
| A．on purpose | B．without realization |
| C．in secret | D．with care |
Mr. Gallagher reminds us that the students in the past and those today _________.
| A．like to break rules and have the same means of sending messages |
| B．are always the big problem for the educators and their parents |
| C．like sending text messages but those today do it in a more secret and skillful way |
| D．cannot live without a cellphone |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Teenagers and Cellphones |
| B．Teenagers’ Texting Addiction |
| C．Employers and Teenagers |
| D．Teenagers’ Education |
（届重庆市南开中学高三二诊模拟英语试卷）
Coffee is a powerful beverage．On a personal level，it helps keep US awake and active．On a much broader level，it has helped shape our history and continues to shape our culture．
Coffee didn’t take off until the l400s when people figured out they could roast its seeds．By the l500s，the drink had spread to coffeehouses across the Arab world．Within another l50 years，it took Europe by storm．
“It actually had a major impact on the rise of business，” historian Mark Pendergrast says．Coffeehouses became a spot not just to enjoy a cup but to exchange ideas．The insurer Lloyd’s of London was founded hundreds of years ago in one of London’s 2,000 coffeehouses．Literature，newspapers and even the works of great composers like Bach and Beethoven were also spawned(涌现)in coffeehouses．
It is often said that after the Boston Tea Party of l773，when American colonists attacked British tea ships and threw boxes of tea into the harbor，Americans universally switched over to drinking coffee．In a letter John Adams wrote to his wife，Abigail，the Founding Father claims his love of tea but says he will have to learn to embrace coffee instead，because drinking tea had become a symbol of not loving the country．
For all the upsides coffee has brought the modern world，it also led to its fair share of downsides，too．Europeans carried coffee with them as they colonized various parts of the world，and this frequently meant they enslaved people in order to grow it．In Brazil — where slavery was legal until l888 — coffee plantations would use slash-and-burn agriculture，tearing down rain forests and planting coffee trees．Once the soil had been exhausted，growers would move on to another place．
And yet，coffee，as Pendergrast says，”had a very good impact in many ways on our civilization，even though it was，for a long time，grown by slaves．”Why did people enjoy going to coffeehouses?
| A．Because it was a fashion to drink coffee． |
| B．Because coffeehouses provided a better flavor． |
| C．Because they could stay awake and active there． |
| D．Because they could exchange ideas there． |
What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?
| A．American colonists made great profits by trading in coffee． |
| B．Tea was regarded as a symbol of loving one’s country． |
| C．Coffee became very popular after the incident in Boston． |
| D．John Adams was the Founding Father of the Tea Party． |
In the fifth paragraph．the writer points out that __________ .
| A．Coffee plantation was closely connected with slavery |
| B．coffee plantation led to outdated agriculture in Brazil |
| C．slavery in Brazil had been against the law until l888 |
| D．slavery was responsible for the damage to rainforests |
What is mainly talked about in this passage?
| A．Some interesting stories about coffee culture． |
| B．Important Roles that coffee played in history． |
| C．How coffee became the most popular beverage． |
| D．How coffee affected America’s independence． |
（2014届山西太原市高三年级模拟考试（一）英语试卷）
Some people have travelled to Canada while others may have just heard of it . As is known to all, the Canadian red and white maple leaf flag is officially called The National Flag of Canada. The Canadian flag shows a stylized red maple leaf with 11 points on a white background, with red borders down each side. The Canadian flag is twice as long as its width. The white square containing the red maple leaf is the same width as the flag. Canada is a very large country, too. It is the second largest country in the world.By contrast, it has a very small population. There are only about 29 millinon people there. Most Canadians are of British or French origin, and French is an official language as well English. About 45 % of the people are of British origin, that is, they or their parents or grandparents, etc, come from Britain. Nearly 30 % are of French origin. Most of the French-Canadians live in the province of quebec. Over the years people have come to live in Canada from many countries in the world. They are mostly from European countries and also from China, as well as other Asian countries.
However , Canada was not an empty country when the Europeans began to arrive. Canadian-Indian lived along the coast, bythe rivers and lakes and in forests. Today there are only 350,000 Canadian-Indians in the whole country, with their own language. In the far north live the Inuits. There are only 27, 000 Canadian-Inuits. Their life is hard in such a harsh climate.What is the populatin of Quebec?
| A．More than 29, 000.000 |
| B．About 30% of the total population. |
| C．Over 45% of th etotal population |
| D．Less than 30% of the French-Canadians. |
Which of the following stands for Canada?
Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?
| A．The Canadian flag I stwice as wide as its length. |
| B．Most Indians are now forced to live along the coast. |
| C．Nowadays Inuit still have difficult living conditions. |
| D．Nobody existed when the Europeans began to arrive in Canada. |
（届山西太原市高三年级模拟考试（一）英语试卷）
Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance (pocket money). The purpose is to let children learn from experiences at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.
The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance.
In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money. At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this,they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget (预算). Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance. The object is to show young people that a budget demands a choice between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics.
Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life. Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works.
Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it.
Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice. You have to cut costs and plan for the future. Requiring children to save part of their allowances can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance. A saving account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest.
Compounding works by paying interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on. That may not seem like a lot, but over time it adds up. Parents give their children allowances in order to _____.
| A．show off their wealth of family |
| B．let them make more money |
| C．learn the value of money |
| D．help children manage family finance |
What is the second paragraph mainly about?
| A．The time to give allowances. |
| B．The way to spend alloweances. |
| C．the amount of allowances given to children. |
| D．Considerations taken to give allowances. |
Why are parents adivsed to offer young children allowances strictly as planned?
| A．To help children learn to make a budget. |
| B．To have children save money for larger costs. |
| C．To let children make fewer mistakes. |
| D．To give them more allowances next time. |
What does the author intend to tel lthe readers?
| A．The methods of limiting allowances. |
| B．The advice on a better family budget. |
| C．Teaching children to use allowances wisely. |
| D．Offering allowances to children properly. |
（届安徽省马鞍山市高三第一次教学质量检测英语试卷）
“iPhone 5”, the tallest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone
We don’t want to change your phone, we want to make you say, “Wow, that is a bigger change than I expected”. “iPhone 5” is a result of that desire to surprise.
It’s been completely redesigned. For the first time ever, we’ve increased the size of display (显示) by making the screen taller but not wider.
You can see more of your content without the need to scroll. We are making scrolling the thing of the past. It is more comfortable to use and reduces tiredness from scrolling when you read long documents.
Even with the larger display, it is the thinnest iPhone we ever built. To achieve the design this tall, we have to look at it and completely redesign the architecture inside. It’s 18% thinner and 79.5% taller than the previous iPhone. It makes everything you do on “iPhone5” easier. No more hidden menus, no confusing gestures. Everything is right at your fingertips.
The panorama feature (全景拍照) is simply awesome. The ultra HD (超高清) widescreen display lets you get your entire shot in a single snap (快门). You can also use its creative design for picture stabilization.
With an iPhone this tall, reception of signals has never been better. And of course, all your favorite applications are still available. In fact you will find your old favorites also benefit from the new experiencing handsome ultra HD widescreen. We found while many previous iPhone owners were using Facetime, they only used it for the faces. That’s why we are introducing Bodytime. With its ultra HD widescreen display, Bodytime lets you see a person’s entire body.
It took all of our learning and all of our thinking to realize something so simple, so clear, and yet so tall.
And I wish your pocket were tall enough to hold such a perfect invention!How is the screen of “iPhone 5” different from the previous ones?
| A．Wider. | B．Taller. | C．Easier. | D．Thinner. |
What does the underlined word “scroll” probably mean?
| A．Update the webpage. | B．Download new documents. |
| C．Refresh the content. | D．Move the content upward. |
What can we infer about “iPhone 5” from the passage?
| A．It is really necessary for you to hide menus. |
| B．The reception of signals is bad due to its length. |
| C．Bodytime is popular with previous iPhone owners. |
| D．New applications of “iPhone 5” are unbelievable. |
“iPhone 5” is introduced in a(n) ________ way in this passage.
| A．humorous | B．objective | C．scientific | D．serious |
（届广东省湛江市高三高考模拟测试（一）英语试卷）
Taking a picture of your tongue with a mobile phone could soon instantly tell you how healthy you are. Researchers believe the images can reveal important information about a patient’s health and even give them early warning of serious illness.
A team at the University of Missouri is developing a system that can analyze pictures using a 5,000-year-old Chinese principle, which is based on the flow and balance of positive and negative energies in the body, and uses the tongue as a key to learning about a person’s physical health, or “zheng” according to Chinese medicine.
“Within a year, our goal is to create an application for smart phones that will allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their zheng,” said Dong Xu, chair of MU’s Computer Science Department in the College of Engineering and the co-author of the latest study.
The software analyzes images based on the tongue’s color and coating to distinguish between tongues showing signs of “hot” or “cold” zheng. Shades of red and yellow are associated with hot zheng, whereas a white coating on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng.
“Hot and cold zheng doesn’t refer directly to body temperature,” said Xu, “Rather, it refers to a series of symptoms associated with the state of the body as a whole.”
For the study, 263 gastritis(胃炎) patients and 48 healthy volunteers had their tongues analyzed. The gastritis patients were classified by whether they showed infection by a certain bacteria as well as the intensity of their gastritis symptoms. In addition, most of the gastritis patients had been previously classified with either hot or cold zheng. This allowed the researchers to test the accuracy of the software’s analysis.
“Our software is able to classify people based on their zheng status. And as we continue to work on the software we hope to improve its ability,” said another co-author Ye Duan, “Eventually everyone will be able to use this tool at home using webcams or smart phone applications, which will allow them to monitor their zheng and get an early warning about possible ailments.”The software mentioned in the passage is based on ________.
| A．the latest development of smart phones |
| B．a traditional Chinese medical principle |
| C．the changes in one’s flow and energy |
| D．symptoms related with the state of the body |
According to Chinese medicine, zheng refers to ________.
| A．one’s body temperature |
| B．the physical health of a person |
| C．the possible disease of a person |
| D．the color and coating of one’s tongue |
The study led by Dong Xu proves _________.
| A．the effect of the software |
| B．the software’s great prospect |
| C．the advancement of smart phones |
| D．the greatness of Chinese medicine |
The underlined word “ailments” can be replaced by _________.
| A．analysis | B．effects | C．illnesses | D．applications |
It can be inferred from the passage that _________.
| A．the software still needs improvement |
| B．the subjects in the study are all gastritis |
| C．the software has been in market for a year |
| D．the subjects in the study are classified by age |