The US has always been on the top destination list for Chinese students, with its high education standards and enough scholarship. Good news:It"s easier to get a US student visa (签证) nowadays. Last year, the refusal rate was only 20 to 30 per cent, much lower than a few years before, according to US Embassy. Concerns: There"re a lot to prepare. The TOFEL, GRE... It"s longer time to apply to US universities than schools in the UK or Australia. Useful link: www. Usembassychina.org. cn |
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Less TV Reduce Kids Weight PALO AITO, California-" Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter-even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise," US researchers said last week. A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds (0.91 kg ) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet. "The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity," said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician (儿科专家) at Stanford University. " American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubt over the past 20 years," Robinson said. In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies" annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third. Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise. "One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories," Robinson said. "Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more," Robinson added. |
1. The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ______. |
A. children will get fatter if they eat too much. B. children will get thinner if they eat less. C. children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV. D. children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV. |
2. According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV ______. |
A. is more than four hours a day. B. is less than four hours a day. C. doubled in the last twenty years. D. is more than on any other activities. |
3. The time children spend on TV viewing every day is suggested to be about _______. |
A. six hours B. eight hours C. three hours D. one hour |
4. Which of the following is right? |
A. Children usually eat fewer while watching TV. B. Children usually eat more while watching TV. C. Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV. D. Children usually eat nothing while watching TV. |
5. Why can watching TV increase kids" weight according to the passage? |
A. They usually eat more while watching TV. B. They burn off fewer calories. C. They change their diet while watching TV. D. Both A and B |
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Net Library is a library that lends out digital (数字化的) books. It treats a digital book like a paperback copy. It charges libraries per book per copy and gives publishers a cut of the total income. From the consumer"s (消费者) point of view, this means that if more than, say, five people want the latest Danielle Steel romance novel, other people who request that book will get a message saying the title is unavailable. It"s a model many publishers seem to have embraced. More than 350 gave the company rights to hand out their digital works, and McGraw-Hill Corporation and Houghton Mifflin Corporation have put money in the company. The California public libraries and about 1, 800 others across the US are trying out the Net Library service. Some librarians criticize the New Library model. Stanford University librarian Michael Keller argues that the company is creating an unnatural fear of digital works, which is contrary to the ideas of the Internet. Keller and some other librarians argue for the e-book vision set forth by EBrary. EBrary is starting a service that lets us users read books for free. But it will charge about 25 cents a page when a person tries to print out material or copy and paste it into a different file or tries to download a copy onto a computer. Christopher Warnock, chief executive of EBrary, believes most consumers won"t want to buy entire books, only the parts that interest them. "There"s not really a lot of good in owning an electronic file and having to store it and manage it. It doesn"t make sense," he said. |
1. How do publishers get money from the Net Library? |
A. They get money from selling their books to the Net Library. B. They share the money with the Net Library. C. They get money by cutting the cost of the books. D. They get the money from the readers. |
2. The underlined word "embraced" in the 3rd paragraph means ______. |
A. taken something willingly B. held something tightly C. disliked something badly D. tried out something hard |
3. From the 2nd paragraph we can see consumers ______. |
A. don"t care if they are charged money B. enjoy the service of the Net Library C. don"t like other people borrowing books D. complain about the limited number of the new books |
4. What does the last paragraph mean? |
A. Net Library is not a good way for the consumers. B. There is no need for consumers to have a whole book. C. EBrary is not a good library for the consumers. D. It"s reasonable to charge the consumers money for copying some pages. |
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When people want to know about the weather, they usually go to their radios, TVs, newspapers, or to the Internet. However, you can also find many weather signs among wildlife, because of their highly developed senses. Drops in air pressure (压力) produce an effect on small animals in many ways. Mice and deer are good weather indicators. People who spend a lot of time outdoors have observed that, before a storm, field mice come out of their holes and run around. Deer leave high ground and come down from the mountains. Birds are especially good weather indicators because they also show the effect of a pressure drop in many ways. For example, some birds become irritable (急躁的) and quarrelsome and will fight over a piece of bread. Other birds chirp (叽叽喳喳) and sing just before a storm. It seems they know they won"t get another chance for an hour or two. Birds also seek safe places before a storm. You will sometimes see birds settling in trees or gathering together on a wire close to a building. Pre-storm low pressure makes the air so thin that birds have difficulty flying. It is unusual to see many birds flying overhead in the summertime, rather than during the periods in the spring or autumn. Watch for other weather signs if you see this. If they fly in the wrong direction, they may be flying ahead of a storm. By paying closer attention to some important signs in nature, we can become better prepared for any kind of weather. |
1. The word "indicators" in paragraph 1 probably means _____. |
A. maps B. services C. signs D. stations |
2. There will be a storm if birds _____. |
A. make more noise than usual B. fly in different directions C. come down from tall trees D. share a piece of bread |
3. How can birds sense the coming of a storm? |
A. By feeling a drop in air temperature. B. By noticing the change of wind directions. C. By feeling a drop in air pressure. D. By noticing the movements of other animals. |
4. The best title for the text would be _____. |
A. Signs of a Storm B. Drops in Air Pressure C. Animals"Sharp Senses D. Nature"s Weather Signs |