With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives. Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( 处于沮丧中), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker, neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy (礼貌) to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don’t have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face. They don't get the joke that makes others laugh. I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness in this present world. It drives people crazy. We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives. So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.According to the author, humor is useful in the aspect that ____________.
| A．it makes people more confident |
| B．it can pick up people' s spirits |
| C．it can help rid the cruelty in the world |
| D．it can help people get on well with others |
The phrase “busting a gut" in the third paragraph can be replaced by __________.
| A．explaining carefully | B．speaking loud |
| C．keeping silent | D．laughing hard |
In writing the passage, the author mainly intends to __________.
| A．talk about his own understanding of humor |
| B．encourage people to be humorous in daily life |
| C．introduce a practical way to get through daily life |
| D．convince people of the power of being optimistic about life |
What is the author' s attitude towards the present world?
| A．Positive. | B．Critical. |
| C．Satisfied. | D．Indifferent. |
Choose Winners Club, and you choose to be a winner! The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 – that’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! It’s a club with impressive features for teenagers: No account keeping fees! You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees! Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow? The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）without taking them out in a month. Convenient Teenagers are busy – we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet. You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!
Mega Magazine included along with your regular report, will definitely assure you to receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members. The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (so we can organize that cool key – card) but it is easy. We can’t wait to hear from you. It’s the best way to choose to be a winner! Which of the following is TRUE about the Winners Club?
| A．Special gifts are ready for parents. |
| B．The bank opens only on work days. |
| C．Services are convenient for its members. |
| D．Fees are necessary for the account keeping. |
The Winners Club provides magazines which ________.
| A．encourage spending |
| B．are free to all teenagers |
| C．are full of adventure stories |
| D．help to make more of your money |
If you want to be a member of the Club, you must ________.
| A．be an Internet user |
| B．be permitted by your parent |
| C．have a big sum of money |
| D．be in your twenties |
What is the purpose of this text?
| A．To set up a club. |
| B．To provide part-time jobs. |
| C．To organize key-cards. |
| D．To introduce a new banking service. |
There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life.
Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom. But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools. You now know what open education is.
Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study some subjects if they did not have to. Open education allows the students to _________.
| A．grow as the educated |
| B．be responsible for their future |
| C．develop their own interests |
| D．discover subjects outside class |
Some students will do little in an open classroom because____.
| A．there are too few rules |
| B．they hate activities |
| C．open education is similar to the traditional education |
| D．they worry about the rules |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Some traditional teachers do not like it. |
| B．Many teachers do not believe in open education. |
| C．Teachers may have problems in open classrooms. |
| D．The teacher’s feelings and attitudes are important to the students. |
Which of the following best summarizes the passage?
| A．Open education is a really complex idea. |
| B．Open education is better than traditional education. |
| C．Teachers dislike open education. |
| D．The writer thinks that open education is a good idea in practice. |
When prehistoric man arrived in new parts of the world, something strong happened to the large animals; they suddenly became extinct. Smaller species survived; the large, slow-growing animals were easy game, and were quickly hunted to extinction.
Now something similar could be happening in the oceans. That the seas are being over-fished has been known for years and researchers such as Ransom Myers and Boris Worm have shown how fast things are changing. They have looked at half a century of data from fisheries around the world. Their methods do not attempt to estimate the actual biomass (the amount of living biological matter) of fish species in particular parts of the ocean, but rather changes in that biomass over time. According to their latest paper published in Nature, the biomass of large predators (animals that kill and eat other animals) inanes fishery is reduced on average by 80% within 15 years of the start of exploitation. In some long-fished areas, it has halved again since then.
Dr. Worm acknowledges that these figures are conservative (保守的). One reason for this is that fishing technology has improved. Today’s vessels can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago. That means a higher proportion of what is in the sea is being caught, so the real difference between present and past is likely to be worse than the one recorded by changes in catch sizes. In the early days, too, longlines would have been more saturated with fish. Some individuals would therefore not have been caught, since baited hooks would have been available to trap them, leading to an underestimate of fish stocks in the past. Furthermore, in the early days of longline fishing, a lot of fish were lost to sharks after they had been hooked. That is no longer a problem, because there are fewer sharks around noise.
Dr. Myers and Dr. Worm argue that their work gives a correct baseline, which future management efforts must take into account. They believe the date support an idea current among marine biologists, that of the “shifting baseline”. The notion is that people have failed to detect the massive changes which have happened in the ocean because they have been looking back only a relatively short time into the past. That matters because theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass of a target species is about 50% of its original levels. Most fisheries are well below that, which is a bad way to do business. The aim of the extinction of large prehistoric animals is to suggest that _______.
| A．large animal were not easy to survive in the changing environment |
| B．small species survived as large animals disappeared |
| C．large sea animals may face the same threat today. |
| D．Slow-growing fish outlive fast-growing ones |
We can infer from Dr Myers and Dr. Worm’s paper that _______.
| A．the stock of large predators in some old fisheries has reduced by 90% |
| B．there are only half as many fisheries are there were 15 years ago |
| C．the catch sizes in new fisheries are only 20% of the original amount |
| D．the number of larger predators dropped faster in new fisheries than in the old |
By saying these figures are conservative (line 1, paragraph 3), Dr worm means that_______.
| A．fishing technology has improved rapidly |
| B．then catch-sizes are actually smaller then recorded |
| C．the marine biomass has suffered a greater loss |
| D．the date collected so far are out of date. |
Dr Myers and other researchers hold that _______.
| A．people should look for a baseline that can’t work for a longer time |
| B．fisheries should keep the yield below 50% of the biomass |
| C．the ocean biomass should restore its original level. |
| D．people should adjust the fishing baseline to changing situation. |
The author seems to be mainly concerned with most fisheries’ _______.
| A．management efficiency |
| B．biomass level |
| C．catch-size limits |
| D．technological application. |
In the world today, there are millions of surveillance cameras, or “spy cams”, watching and monitoring our daily activities. There are some benefits of course, as people who are breaking laws can be watched and caught using cameras and this helps keep our society and public places safe. These cameras are everywhere and most are openly visible on roads, in airports, businesses, shopping centers and government buildings and even in lifts. Even schools have started using spy cams to watch student activity and behaviour.
The cameras are so common now that we hardly ever even notice them. But the problem lies with the ones that are hidden away from our eyes and are unseen. Technology has helped develop tiny cameras that can be very well hidden and they can “spy” on shoppers, workers, babysitters and people in hotels and clubs without the people even knowing.
It is these spy cams that people feel are an invasion of privacy. Recently, in the US, there have been a number of court cases against babysitters whose actions have been recorded by their employers on hidden cameras.
The number of cameras in public and private areas is on the increase and with rising crime rates and the recent terrorist attacks, more and more surveillance cameras are being used to watch us. This means that we all have to be aware that our employers, department stores, police and even some of our friends could be spying on us at any time!In the writer’s opinion, surveillance cameras _______. .
| A．do more good than wrong |
| B．are overused |
| C．should be very popular |
| D．ought to be more widely used |
In what way can the surveillance camera benefit the public?
| A．By helping keep social safety. |
| B．By monitoring the employees. |
| C．By watching the students in class. |
| D．By spying on customers. |
According to Paragraphs 3 and 4, people _______ the use of hidden cameras.
| A．object to |
| B．agree to |
| C．feel happy about |
| D．are fearful of |
Spy cams will be more widely used in the future because _______. .
| A．all people want to spy |
| B．of the invasion of privacy |
| C．people enjoy being watched |
| D．of terrorist attacks |
“We do look very different; we’re older. Leo’s 38, I’m 37. We were 21 and 22 when we made that film. You know, he’s fatter now -- I’m thinner.” So says Kate Winslet, who is thrilled at the 3-D re-release of Titanic to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship’s demise. “It happens every time I get on any boat of any kind." She recalls. There are all the people who want her to walk to the front of the ship and re-create her famous pose, arms flung wide. Most people remember the tragedy: The British passenger ship—said to be unsinkable—hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, during its maiden voyage from England to New York City. More than 1,500 people died. But little known is what the world learned from the sinking to prevent future incidents.
Probably the greatest deficiency (不足) of the Titanic was that she was built 40 years before the widespread use of the wonderful invention radar (雷达). Her only defense against icebergs and hidden obstacles was to rely on manned lookouts. On that fateful night the eyesight of trained lookouts only provided 37 seconds of warning before the collision.
Traveling at nearly 30 miles an hour, the Titanic was moving far too fast to avoid the huge iceberg. The warning did prevent a head-on collision as the officer on the bridge managed to turn the ship slightly.
The last ship to which it could send an SOS message was the California. She was within ten miles of the Titanic during the disaster, but her radio operator went to bed at midnight and never received any of the SOS messages from the Titanic. That was one of the important lessons learned from the catastrophe, the need for 24-hour radio operators on all passenger liners.
Another lesson learned was the need for more lifeboats. The Titanic remained afloat (漂浮) for almost three hours and most of the passengers could have been saved with enough lifeboats.
1,500 passengers and workers died in the 28 degree waters of the Atlantic. Out of the tragedy, the sinking did produce some important maritime reforms. The winter travel routes were changed to the south and the Coast Guard began to keep an eye on the location of all icebergs. The new rules for lifeboats were obvious to all. There must be enough lifeboats for everybody on board.
The most important lesson learned was that no one would ever again consider a ship unsinkable—no matter how large or how well constructed. Never again would sailors place their faith in a ship above the power of the sea. The text mainly tells us ______.
| A．the reason why the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean |
| B．how the unsinkable ship of Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean |
| C．the lessons that we could learn from the accident of the Titanic |
| D．the things we should do to protect the lives on the ship |
According to the passage, which of the following could we infer?
| A．If the captain had been more careful, he could have had the chance to save the Titanic. |
| B．If radar had existed 40 years ago, the Titanic would have never disappeared from the world. |
| C．If the lookout had had much more experience, he could have had the time to save the Titanic. |
| D．If there had been enough lifeboats on the Titanic, the Titanic would not have sunk in the Atlantic. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Lessons from the Titanic | B．Technology is Important |
| C．Demands of Passengers | D．Power of Sea |
What’s the sailors’ attitude towards the ships after the tragedy?
| A．They think there really exists the unsinkable ship. |
| B．They think ships could eventually defeat the sea. |
| C．They think there is no power that could control the sea. |
| D．They think the bigger the ship is, the safer it is. |