Last year I ruined my summer vacation by bringing along a modern convenience that was too convenient for my own good: the iPad. Instead of looking at nature, I checked my e-mail. Instead of paddling a small boat, I followed my Twitter feed（推特简讯）. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading four newspapers each morning. I was behaving as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation, but my head wasn’t.
So this year I made up my mind to try something different: withdrawal（退出）from the Internet. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, since I’m bad at self-control. But I was determined. I started by giving the iPad to my wife.
The cellphone signal at our house was worse than in the past, making my attempts at cheating an experience in frustration （沮丧）. I was trapped, forced to go through with my plan. Largely cut off from e-mail, Twitter and my favorite newspaper websites, I had few ways to connect to the world except for the radio—and how much radio can one listen to, really? I had to do what I had planned to do all along: read books.
This experience has had a happy ending. With determination and the strong support of my wife, I won in my vacation straggle against the Internet, realizing finally that it was I, not the iPad, that was the problem. I knew I had won when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi. “I don’t need it,” I said.
However, as we return to post-vacation life, a harder test begins: Can I continue when I’m back at work?
There are times when the need to know what’s being said right now is great. I have no intention of giving up my convenience completely. But I hope to resist the temptation （诱惑）to check my e-mail every five minutes, which leads to checking my Twitter feed and a website ortwo.
I think a vacation is supposed to help you reset your brain to become more productive. Here I hope this one worked.
What do we know about the author’s last summer vacation?
| A．He was determined to enjoy the beautiful view. |
| B．His iPad ruined his plan of finishing a great novel. |
| C．He felt satisfied that he had stuck to his usual timetable. |
| D．He hated himself for acting as if he were working on vacation. |
What did the author do to keep away from the Internet this year?
| A．He handed his iPad to his wife. |
| B．He cut off his cellphone signal. |
| C．He refused to cheat in his house. |
| D．He listened to the radio most of the time. |
When back at work, the author will probably choose to ________.
| A．stay away from the Internet for ever |
| B．continue to road more and more books |
| C．keep control of when and how to use the Internet |
| D．stop checking what is being said right now completely |
What is the author’s opinion of a great vacation in the passage?
| A．A vacation is having nothing to do but read all day. |
| B．A vacation proves that a life of pleasure is overvalued. |
| C．A vacation is a period of time to do whatever one wishes to. |
| D．A vacation means a change of pace to make one more creative. |
When you want to go shopping, you’d better decide how much money you can spend on new clothes.
Think about the kind of clothes you really need. Then look for those clothes you really need. Then look for those clothes on sale.
There are labels(标签) inside all new clothes. The labels tell you how to take care of your clothes. The label for a shirt may tell you to wash it in warm water. A sweater label may tell you to wash in cold water. The label on a coat may say “dry clean only”, for washing may ruin this coat. If you do as the directions(说明) on the label, you can keep your clothes looking their best for a long time.
Many clothes today must be dry cleaned. Dry cleaning is expensive. When buying new clothes, check to see if they will need to be dry cleaned. You will save money if you buy clothes that can be washed.
You can save money if you buy clothes that are well done. Well-made clothes last longer. They look good even after they have been washed many times. Clothes that cost more money are not necessarily(不一定) better made. They do not always fit better. Sometimes less expensive clothes look and fit better than more expensive clothes.The label inside the clothes tell you．
| A．how to keep them looking their best. |
B．how to save money. |
C．whether they fit you or not. |
D．where to get them dry cleaned. |
If you want to save money, you had better buy clothes that__________.
| A．don’t fit you | B．don’t last long |
C．need to be dry cleaned | D．can be wash |
We learn from the passage that cheaper clothes．
| A．are always worse made |
| B．must be dry cleaned |
| C．can not be washed |
| D．can sometimes fit you better |
Give the best title(标题)for this passage．
| A．Buy Less Expensive Clothes |
| B．Taking Enough Money When Shopping |
| C．Being a Clever Clothes Shopper |
| D．Choosing the Label inside New Clothes |
Imagine you're at a party full of strangers. You're nervous. Who are these people? How do you start a conversation? Fortunately, you've get a thing that sends out energy at tiny chips in everyone's name tag (标签). The chips send back name, job, hobbies, and the time available for meeting - whatever. Making new friends becomes simple.
This hasn't quite happened in real life. But the world is already experiencing a revolution using RFID technology.
An RFID tag with a tiny chip can be fixed in a product, under your pet's skin, even under your own skin. Passive RFID tags have no energy source - batteries because they do not need it. The energy comes from the reader, a scanning device (装置), that sends out energy (for example, radio waves) that starts up the tag immediately.
Such a tag carries information specific to that object, and the data can be updated. Already, RFID technology is used for recognizing each car or truck on the road and it might appear in your passport. Doctors can put a tiny chip under the skin that will help locate and obtain a patient's medical records. At a nightclub in Paris or in New York the same chip gets you into the VIP (very important person ) section and pays for the bill with the wave of an arm.
Take a step back: 10 or 12 years ago, you would have heard about the coming age of computing. One example always seemed to surface: Your refrigerator would know when you needed to buy more milk. The concept was that computer chips could he put every where and send information in smart network that would make ordinary life simpler.
RFID tags are a small part of this phenomenon. "The world is going to he a loosely coupled set of individual small devices, connected wirelessly." Predicts Dr. J. Reich. Human right supporters are nervous about the possibilities of such technology. It goes too far tracking school kids through RFID tags, they say. We imagine a world in which a beer company could find out not only when you bought a beer but also when you drank it. And how many beers, Accompanied by how many biscuits.
When Marconi invented radio, he thought it would be used for ship - to - shore communication, not for pop music. Who knows how RFID and related technologies will be used in the future. Here's a wild guess: Not for buying milk.
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The article is intended to.
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We know from the passage that with the help of RFID tags, people.
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Passive RFID tags chiefly consist of.
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Why are some people worried about RFID technology?
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The last paragraph implies that RFID technology.
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Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are determined to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.
Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference.
Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
"Dollars buy status, and status makes people feel better," conclude some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways－scientists or actors, for example－may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.
In a research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desire－not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health－rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap(差距). Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. "The gap measures just blow away the only measures of income." Says Michalos.
Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad. "Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?" asks Professor Laura Carstensen.
In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotions questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people, but negative emotions much less often.
Why are old people happier? Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they're more realistic about their goals, only setting ones that they know they can achieve. But Carstensen thinks that with times running out, older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don't.
"People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever," she says. "A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20."
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According to the passage, the feeling of happiness.
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Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs.
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Aged people are more likely to feel happy because they are more.
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Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if.
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Almost every child is scared of something, from monsters in the cupboard to dogs in the park. But the fact that such fears are common and normal doesn’t mean they can be taken lightly. Kids experience fears and phobias(恐惧症) much more strongly than adults. And the influence of the fear can be physical as well as psychological(心理的). It can build up so they almost seem scared of everything－a kind of childhood anxiety. Dr. Creswell says: “Your child may always seem to expect the worst to happen and lack confidence in his or her ability to deal with any challenge.” So don’t make the same old mistake of treating them as if they’re silly for being a “scaredy cat”. Handling the fears is essential.
Children can be born nervous and, if you have such a baby, you’ll tend to prevent them from getting worried. So if they fear dogs, you’ll keep them away from dogs, but in fact that can just confirm to the child that dogs are scary. What is worse, keeping your child away from what they fear can turn that feeling into a phobia. Instead, you should encourage them to get in touch with the thing they fear, in a safe and supportive environment. Dr. Andy Field, a researcher of childhood fears, says: “You shouldn’t force, for example, a dog anxious child to go up to a dog. But you can approach it yourself, show them there is nothing to be afraid of, stroke(抚摸) it, and talk about the dog being friendly. Once your child dares to stroke a dog－one that’s good with children, of course－then you should encourage them to carry on until they feel calmer, and reward them for ‘being brave’.”Children’s fears are usually taken lightly because __________.
| A．they will not develop into phobias |
| B．their influence is psychological |
| C．they exist widely in the world |
| D．they will disappear gradually |
If we fail to help children to overcome fears, they will ___________.
| A．make the same old mistake |
| B．overcome them by themselves |
| C．experience the worst of things |
| D．grow up lacking self confidence |
According to Dr. Andy Field, if a child is afraid of a cat, parents should __________.
| A．tell the child not to be afraid of it |
| B．show the child how to approach it |
| C．keep the child away from it |
| D．ask the child to stroke it |
How can a creature weighing over 5 tons and normally taking 150 kilograms of food and 120 liters of water per day survive in a desert environment?
In the southwest African country of Namibia, and the Sahara lands of Mali further north, the desert elephant does just that.
Although not regarded as a separate species from the African elephant, the desert cousin differs in many ways. Their bodies are smaller, to absorb less heat, and their feet are larger for easier walking across sandy surfaces, They are taller, to reach higher branches. They have shorter tusks（象牙）, and most importantly, longer trunks to dig for water in riverbeds.
Desert elephants can travel over 70 kilometers in search for feeding grounds and waterholes, and have a larger group of families. They drink only every 3 –4 days, and can store water in a “bag” at the back of their throat, which is only used when badly needed. Desert elephants are careful feeders – they seldom root up trees and break fewer branches, and thus maintain what little food sources are available. Young elephants may even eat the dung（粪便）of the female leader of a group when facing food shortage.
During drought they are unlikely to give birth to their young but with good rains the birthrate will increase greatly. Desert elephants have sand baths, sometimes adding their own urine（尿液）to make them muddy!
As we continue to overheat our weak planet, it can only be hoped that other animal species will adapt as extraordinarily well to change as the desert elephant.The underlined part in Paragraph 2 means “”.
| A．remains in the African countries |
| B．drinks 120 liters of water a day |
| C．manages to live in desert areas |
| D．eats 150 kilograms of food daily |
Desert elephants are called careful feeders because they _________.
| A．rarely ruin trees |
| B．drink only every 3-4 days |
| C．search for food in large groups |
| D．protect food sources for their young |
The author answers the question raised in the first paragraph with __________.
| A．stories and explanation |
| B．facts and descriptions |
| C．examples and conclusion |
| D．evidence and argument |
What can be inferred from the last sentence in the passage?
| A．Overheating the earth can be stopped. |
| B．Not all animal species are so adaptable. |
| C．The planet will become hotter and hotter. |
| D．Not all animals are as smart as desert elephants. |