Water, which covers about 74 percent of the earth’s surface, is man’s most preci

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Water, which covers about 74 percent of the earth’s surface, is man’s most precious resource. Without it we cannot live. Clean water keeps us alive; polluted water means disease and death.Keeping our water pure is by no means an easy task but it is something that must be done.
Hong Kong once prided herself on being the “Fragrant Harbour”. However, these days, it is not certain if Hong Kong’s harbour could still be called “fragrant”. For, like many other places, Hong Kong has not been spared water pollution. A visit to Tolo and Victoria Harbour, or any of the beaches in Hong Kong is enough to make one aware of the ugly truth that Hong Kong waters are indeed polluted.
The great threat to our water is bacteria pollution. Another great source of water pollution is poisonous chemicals. These substances, which are found in industrial waste and agricultural pesticides, make up unseen dangers that enter biological food chains.
Pollution control is a continuing problem for the government. It is believed that the most effective form of control is legislation（立法）. Most importantly, the present laws on pollution should be given more force. On the other hand, no amount of legislation can effectively control pollution unless those concerned are properly educated about the danger posed by pollution.
While a great majority of Hong Kong citizens and residents seem to be greatly concerned about ways to control water pollution, it is discouraging to note that there are, in our midst, some people who remain apathetic（无动于衷）about the problem. In a recent radio programme conducted on what people in the streets thought about the water pollution problem, one apparently unconcerned person said, “What do I care about water pollution? I don’t drink polluted water. As long as the water I drink is not polluted, I’m not bothered. Water pollution is too big a problem and let’s leave it to the government.”
If all residents in Hong Kong will take such an indifferent attitude, all the government’s attempts to control pollution, let alone the anti-pollution legislation, will prove useless. The best form of pollution control each citizen can employ is to be aware of his surroundings. We hope that someday, the problem of water pollution in Hong Kong will cease to alarm us.
小题1:By the underlined sentences, the writer wants to show that ______.

A．we should not use polluted water

B．it is our responsibility to keep our water clean and safe

C．clean water is vitally important to the survival of human beings

D．water is abundant but very expensive

小题2:What can you infer from the second paragraph?

A．Hong Kong indeed deserves the name.

B．Hong Kong never deserves such a name.

C．Hong Kong can’t avoid the damage of pollution.

D．Hong Kong has failed to live up to such reputation.

小题3:The writer quotes the words in the programme to show us that a block to the solution of the problem is _________.

A．people’s lack of education

B．people’s I-don’t-care attitude

C．people’s wait-and-see attitude

D．people’s over-dependence on the government

小题4:In the final analysis, the best approach to the problem of water pollution is ________.

A．legislation

B．rapid development of modern science

C．mass education

D．everybody taking care of his own surroundings

答案

小题1:C
小题2:D
小题3:B
小题4:D

解析

小题1:C句意理解题。划线句子说明了水对我们的重要性，所以选C。
小题2:D推理判断题。第二段的大意是“Hong Kong waters are indeed polluted”，不再是“Fragrant Harbour”（芳香的港口）。由此可知D正确：香港未能达到这样的声誉。
小题3:B细节理解题。结合If all residents in Hong Kong will take such an indifferent attitude, all the government’s attempts to control pollution, let alone the anti-pollution legislation, will prove useless可知答案。
小题4:D细节理解题。结合The best form of pollution control each citizen can employ is to be aware of his surroundings可知答案。

举一反三

Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(报复)of the Nerds. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.
How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer. “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students. “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts for more. Much more.”
In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either. “It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.
The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
小题1:The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ .

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

小题2:What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students.

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students.

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films.

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society.

小题3:Some students become super-achievers mainly because_________ .

A．they are born cleverer than others

B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities

D．they know the shortcut to success

小题4:What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students.

B．The role IQ plays in learning well.

C．The techniques to be better learners.

D．The achievements top students make.

小题5:What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study.

B．The brightest students can never get low grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

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Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap. Some call it the summer learning setback. Simply speaking, it means the longer kids are out of school, the more they forget. The only thing they might gain is weight.
Most American schools follow a traditional nine-month calendar. Students get winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation. Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes for about eight weeks at a time, with a few weeks off in between. The National Association for Year-Round Education says there were fewer than three thousand such schools at last count. They were spread among forty-six of the fifty states.
But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school. Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said, "Year-round schools don"t really solve the problem of the summer learning setback. They simply spread it out across the year."
Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summer than other students. Experts say this can be prevented. They note that many schools and local governments offer programs that can help.
But calling them "summer school" could be a problem. The director of the summer learning center at Johns Hopkins, Ron Fairchild, said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term summer school”. In American culture, the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood. The parents welcomed other terms like "summer camp," "enrichment," "extra time" and "hands-on learning."
小题1:According to the first paragraph the summer learning gap .

A．helps children to gain weight

B．leads children to work harder

C．improves children’s memories

D．affects children’s regular studies

小题2:Compared to traditional schools, students in the year-round ones .

A．perform better and have more learning gains

B．have much less time for relaxation every year

C．have generally the same number of class days

D．hold more classes with more free weeks off

小题3:Which of the following statements is true?

A．Students from poor families often fall behind after the vacation.

B．Year-round schools can solve the problem of the learning gap.

C．There are schools in each state following a year-round calendar.

D．Nothing can help the students who fall behind after the vocation.

小题4:Why did almost all parents dislike the term “summer school”?

A．They cherish the children’s rights of freedom very much.

B．They are worried about the quality of the “summer school”.

C．They want their children to be forced to make up the gap.

D．They can’t afford to the further study during vacation.

小题5:What would be the best title of this passage?

A．Opening Summer Camps

B．Forbidding Summer Schools

C．Spreading Year-Round Education

D．Minding the Summer Learning Cap

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Why do people drink too much, eat too much, smoke cigarettes or take drugs? What’s to blame for all the bad behavior? Most people would say that, while these self-destructive (自我毁灭的) acts can have many root causes, they all have one obvious thing in common: they are all examples of failures of self-control, lacking the will power to resist them.
According to a recent study, however, if you really think about it, something about that simple answer doesn’t quite make sense. In fact, it turns out that sometimes it’s having will power that really gets you into trouble.
Think back to the time you took your very first sip (啜饮) of beer. Disgusting, wasn’t it? When my father gave me my first taste of beer as a teenager, I wondered why anyone would voluntarily drink it. And smoking? No one enjoys their first cigarette — it tastes awful. So even though smoking, and drinking alcohol or coffee, can become temptation (诱惑) you need will power to resist, they never, ever start out that way.
Just getting past those first horrible experiences actually requires a lot of self-control. Ironically (讽刺的是), only those who can control themselves well, rather than give in to them, can ever come to someday develop a “taste” for Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigarettes, or dark-roasted Starbucks coffee. We do it for social acceptance. We force ourselves to consume alcohol, cigarettes, coffee and even illegal drugs, in order to seem experienced, grown-up, and cool.
These bad habits aren’t self-control failures — far from it. They are voluntary choices, and they are in fact self-control successes. Self-control is simply a tool to be put to some use, helpful or harmful. To live happy and productive lives, we need to develop not only our self-control, but also the wisdom to make good decisions about when and where to apply it.
小题1:What do most people think causes bad behavior?

A．Being forced by others.

B．Not having enough will power.

C．Enjoying their first experiences.

D．Following the examples of their friends.

小题2:The author mentions his experience in the third paragraph to prove ____.

A．will power helps develop bad habits sometimes

B．drinking beer is harmful to the health of teenagers

C．self-control should be developed when one is young

D．everyone can be challenged by different temptations

小题3:In the last paragraph, the author stresses that ____.

A．without self-control, no one can succeed

B．bad habits don’t always lead to bad results

C．applying self-control correctly is important

D．people can develop wisdom from bad behavior

小题4:What would be the best title for the passage?

A．My First Sip of Beer

B．Do You Have Will Power ?

C．Will Power Benefits Us

D．Dark Side of Self-control

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Should ecigarettes (electronic cigarettes) be a new choice for the smokers trying to get rid of the habit? Reactions from Americans are mixed．More than half of the people questioned in a survey think ecigarettes should be controlled by the US Food and Drug Administration，but 47 percent believe the ecigarettes should be available to the smokers who want to quit．
“In the hunt for a safer cigarette，ecigarettes are becoming a popular choice among those either trying to quit or looking to replace standard tobacco smoke with an alternative that manufacturers claim to be safer，” Zogby International，which conducted the survey，said in a statement．
About half of the 4,611 adults who took part in the survey had heard about ecigarettes，which are batterypowered，or rechargeable cigarettes that vaporize a liquid nicotine solution．They do not produce smoke but a water vapor without smell．Sold mostly on the Internet，ecigarettes were first made in China．
Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against using ecigarettes，saying there was no evidence to prove they were safe or helped smokers break the habit．The WHO said people who smoke ecigarettes breathe in a fine fog of nicotine into the lungs．
Nearly a third of people questioned in the survey think that ecigarettes should be allowed in places where smoking is forbidden，because they don’t produce smoke，but 46 percent disagree．Men who were aware of the availability of ecigarettes were more likely than women to say they should be a choice available to smokers who want to quit．Young people，aged 18－29，and singles were the groups most open to trying ecigarettes．Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable death worldwide，according to the WHO．
小题1:What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．American smokers ought to try ecigarettes．

B．Americans have different opinions about ecigarettes．

C．Every kind of cigarettes should be forbidden in America．

D．Most of the Americans don’t like ecigarettes．

小题2:According to Zogby International，ecigarettes ______．

A．are much safer than common cigarettes

B．are popular among people who want to quit smoking

C．will take the place of traditional cigarettes

D．are produced in a safer way by manufacturers

小题3:What do we know about ecigarettes from the passage?

A．Most Americans are familiar with them．

B．They are a good choice as there is no nicotine．

C．They produce a water vapor that can’t be seen．

D．Most people buy them on the Internet．

小题4:What’s the attitude of the WHO towards ecigarettes?

A．Negative

B．Supportive

C．Doubtful

D．Indifferent

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Seth DeBolt is a plant scientist at the University of Kentucky US. He and other scientists wanted to find a source of fuel that poor people in rural areas of developing countries could use to make electricity.
The United Nations Development Program says a billion and a half people have no electricity. A billion others have an undependable supply.
Professor DeBolt went on a study trip to rural Indonesia. He saw that there was very little waste in the use of agricultural products. Everything that farmers grew was used for something. Even the remains of fruit that people did not eat were fed to chickens.
Little waste meant there was little that could be used for fuel. Growing a separate fuel crop would take land away from food crops. That was something Professor DeBolt did not want to do.
DeBOLT said, "The people at most risk with respect to energy poverty, typically they"re the same people who have food insecurity issues as it is. And then any change in availability would be most damaging to that group of people."
But he found one item that was in plentiful supply and would not create competition between food and fuel. Coconut shells are generally thrown out. Yet Professor DeBolt says it has an "excellent" heating value. All someone needs is a way to release that energy.
DeBolt says he and his team see possibilities for coconut power. "Coconuts are growing here and these are the areas where there is possibility for energy poverty to be eased at least in part by these small-scale production systems."
The researchers say these systems could provide as much as thirteen percent of the energy needs of a country like Indonesia. Other tropical countries with large crops of coconuts and similar fruit could benefit, as well.
But DeBolt says this is not a perfect solution. There are technical questions, like how to safely deal with the dangerous waste produced in the process. And there needs to be money to get these projects started.
小题1:Professor DeBolt went on a study trip to rural areas of developing countries to .

A．help farmers make full use of waste

B．seek certain materials to make electricity

C．persuade farmers to grow more coconuts

D．find a suitable place to carry out the experiment

小题2:DeBolt thought it was not a good idea to grow fuel crops because .

A．there are plenty of coconuts

B．local farmers have no interest in it

C．it would make food problems worse

D．fuel crop has little use for local farmers

小题3:The last two paragraphs mainly tell us that coconut power .

A．needs further experiments and efforts

B．can help solve energy problem perfectly

C．will cause technique and money problems

D．has drawn Indonesia"s government attention

小题4:What might be the best title for the passage?

A．Make Full Use Of Coconuts	B．Make Power From Coconuts
C．A Perfect Solution	D．Food And Energy Problems

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