【推荐1】Last July, my parents and I went to visit my aunt and uncle in Seattle, a city on the northwest American coast. Dad did some research and had no difficulty in finding us cheap tickets online.

On the day of our flight, we had to wake up very early. When we checked our bags in, we found that one bag weighed too much, so we had to pay a fine. After that, dad insisted that we go and have some breakfast at the airport restaurant. We had a lot of fun watching many different people there. Then we realized it was getting late, so we rushed to the gate. It took one hour for everyone to get on the plane, but finally the door was shut and we were on our way!

I think my favorite experience during our trip was our visit to Mount Rainier, a volcano near Seattle. It was nothing like I had expected. Before we left, my aunt lent us hats to protect us from getting sunburned, so I supposed that it would be very hot. Imagine my surprise when we drove up the mountain and I discovered the top was covered with snow and ice.!

My uncle led us to a small path beyond the main trails to increase our chances of seeing wildlife. We walked over a small hill, and suddenly before us there appeared a field of snow. Small wild flowers grew up through the snow; underneath the snow we could hear rushing water—a small stream. Little animals stood still to avoid being noticed; tiny birds rose into the air. It was the most beautiful sight that I’d ever seen.

1. What ticket did the father buy for the family?

A．Bus	B．Ship
C．Train	D．Airplane

2. Why did they pay a fine?

A．Because they got up late.	B．Because they didn’t wait in line.
C．Because they came to the airport late.	D．Because their bag was overweight.

3. What was the writer’s most impressive experience?

A．The flight to Seattle	B．The breakfast in the airport
C．The visit to Mount Rainier	D．The discovery of a small stream

4. Why did they choose a small path instead of the main trails?

A．To enjoy more of the wildlife	B．To take a shortcut to save time
C．To avoid the snowy road	D．To avoid being attacked by animals

【推荐3】The Most Bicycle Friendly Countries Around the World

Denmark

Cycling is a hugely popular means of transport and a way to see the country in Denmark. In fact, across the country you’ll find huge networks of cycle paths where no motorized vehicles can go, so you can feel safe while riding your bike. Because of this cycling has become one of the main tourist attractions and activities in Denmark, particularly when it comes to exploring the beautiful capital city of Copenhagen.

Norway

Because of the popularity of cycling here, you’ll find plenty of bicycle parking and public rentals, so you can simply get a bike and go as you explore the country. Much like Denmark, the dedicated bike lanes do not allow for cars or motorized vehicles to enter them.

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands the government prefer bikes to cars and encourage people to travel by bike as much as possible. If you’re a tourist visiting big cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, you can easily hire a bike and explore. There are bike lanes (and bikes) everywhere, they even have their own sets of traffic lights. Much like driving, there are strict rules for cycling in the country and these must obey.

Sweden

While it can get very cold there in the winter, cycling is still enjoyed year-round and the country develops a cycling culture that encourages people to use bikes as their primary means of transport. For this reason, there are supportive measures in place and plenty of places to rent a bike from. Many travel Sweden’s beautiful cities on two wheels, Stockholm, in particular, is a great place to explore on a bike.

What’s more, cycling is so big there that they have pump stations for deflated(泄气的)tires and bicycle-specific parking. The use of electric bikes is also becoming more popular here.

1. What do Denmark and Norway have in common?

A．They have set strict rules for cycling.

B．Their main tourist attraction is cycling.

C．They allow visitors to rent bikes for free.

D．They have the dedicated cycle paths or bike lanes.

2. Where will you find special traffic lights for bikes?

A．In the Netherlands.	B．In Denmark.
C．In Sweden.	D．In Norway.

3. What can a visitor easily find in Sweden?

A．The use of electric cars.	B．Warm weather in winter.
C．Pump stations for deflated tires.	D．Free bicycle-specific parking places.

【推荐1】Lions are most successful at hunting animals during the darker period of the moon’s cycle. But how those prey (猎物) respond to changing threats as the night’s light changes throughout a month has been a mystery. Scientists spied on four of the lions' favorite prey species for several years. They fixed 225 cameras across an area. When animals came by, the cameras responded by taking their pictures.

The prey — wildebeests (角马), zebras, gazelles (瞪羚) and buffalo — are all plant eaters. To meet their food needs, such species must searching for food frequently, even at night. The cameras showed that these species respond to changing risks across the lunar cycle in different ways.

Common wildebeests, which make up a third of the lion’s diet, were the most sensitive to the lunar cycle. These animals appeared to set their plans for the entire night based on the moon’s change. During the darkest period of the month, they’d park themselves in a safe area. But as the nights got brighter, wildebeests were more willing to venture into places where run-ins with lions were likely.

Weighing as much as 900 kilograms, the African buffalo are a lion’s most tough prey. They also were least likely to change where and when they searched for food throughout the lunar cycle. But as nights got darker, the buffalo were more likely to form herds (兽群).

Plain zebras and gazelles also changed their evening routines with the lunar cycle. But unlike the other prey these animals reacted more directly to changing light levels across an evening. Gazelles were more active after the moon had come up. Zebras were sometimes up and about and doing things before the moon had risen.

These behaviors show the wide-reaching effects of moonlight. It offers a very clear example of how the presence or absence of the moon can have fundamental, ecosystem-level impacts.

1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A．Lions are excellent night hunters.	B．How lions hunt has always been a mystery.
C．Moonlight is a threat to the lion’s prey.	D．Lion’s prey likes hunting for food at night

2. What do wildebeests usually do when there is no moon at night?

A．Look for food.	B．Wander in the filed
C．Stay in a safe place.	D．Explore dangerous places.

3. How do buffalo deal with the risk from lions when it is darker?

A．They stay still at a place.	B．They troop to search food.
C．They ignore the lion.	D．They change places frequently.

4. Which part of the site might this article come from?

A．Food.	B．Animal.
C．Astronomy.	D．Environment.

【推荐2】

★ #ChefsChallenge!

Love cooking? Join famous chefs with this online challenge—cook, have fun and share your best healthy recipes!

When it comes to food, it’s difficult to match East Asia & Pacific in terms of variety and tastiness. From wontons to dumplings, from spicy fish to noodle soups, East Asia & Pacific’s amazing food culture is a central part of life for millions of people and indeed tourists from across the world.

However, changes in diet and lifestyle in recent years have sadly destroyed traditional food cultures, and the health of millions of people. Cheap “fast food” and unhealthy snacks that are high in sugar, salt and fat are now all too common but offer little nutrition.

★A new challenge

Today, there are more than 25 million of malnourished children living in the region, but the picture is changing. While the number of stunted (发育不良) children is slowly falling in many countries, overweight and obesity are growing, and at a much faster rate.

In many countries, three forms of malnutrition—undernutrition, hidden hunger and overweight-co-exist. A family may have an overweight mother and a stunted child. Or a child may be both stunted or too short and overweight. Unhealthy diets are a major cause of all forms of malnutrition.

★Join us!

One way to slow this tide is to reconnect families and young people with food. That’s why chefs from across the region are taking part in the #ChefsChallenge, asking you to show off your cooking skills. Get involved today by sharing your recipes with videos, photos or any other creative ways on social media using #ChefsChallenge and tagging UNICEF East Asia Pacific on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

1. What has badly affected the traditional food culture in East Asia & Pacific?

A．Western cooks’ arriving.

B．People’s turning to unhealthy food.

C．Tourists’ bringing new recipes.

D．Overweight children’s growing in number.

2. What can we infer about “a malnourished child”?

A．He is in a poor state of health.

B．He is shorter than other kids.

C．He has an overweight parent.

D．He prefers eating at home.

3. What is the purpose of “#ChefsChallenge”?

A．To introduce excellent Asian cooks online.

B．To help ordinary people challenge professional cooks.

C．To reconnect people with tasty and nutritious food.

D．To encourage family and friends to get together online.

【推荐3】A new computer program is being praised as a life-changer for blind people. The new program is known as the KNFB Reader app. It can help users listen to the sound of printed materials.

The application software program costs $99. It is the product of a long relationship between the National Federation of the Blind and Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist and an employee of Google.

The KNFB Reader makes use of new pattern recognition and image-processing technology, and new hardware for smartphones. People using the app can adjust or change the position of the camera and read printed materials out loud.

Mr Kurzweil started working on what he called “reading machines” in the early 1970s. The idea came after speaking with a blind person who expressed frustrations with the lack of technology to help blind people. His first reading machine was the size of a washing machine. It cost $50,000. The technology has continued to improve over the past 20 years. The. new smartphene app can recognize and take a printed material in one language and change it to another language. But it was not available on a mobile device until now. In the past, it cost more than $1,000 to use he software app with a camera and a mobile phone.

Blind people say the app will make life much easier and it will help with everything from reading restaurant menus to studying papers in the classroom. Users say the app has given some people greater independence. One user, named Gordon Luke, reported that he was able to use the app to read his voting card for the recent vote in Scotland.

Bryan Bashin leads the non-profit group Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco. He is also blind. He says the KNFB app shows the positive impact that technology can have and there are times in his life when he wishes the KNFB app were available to him. He adds that the ability to gain information quickly with something that fits in your pocket will be what he calls “a game changer”.

1. What can the KNFB Reader app be used to do?

A．Print the stories with the smartphone.	B．Adjust the position of the camera.
C．Find the way for the blind.	D．Read the books out for the blind.

2. What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?

A．The first reading machine was invented by a blind person.

B．Mr. Kurzweil’s first reading machme was very expensive.

C．The smartphone app can’t be used to translate language.

D．The reader app was available on a mobile phone 20 years ago.

3. What are the users’ attitudes towards the app?

A．Negative.

B．Positive.

C．Doubtful.

D．Alarming.

【推荐1】The Healthy Habits Survey shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.

1. How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday? ●Finding:A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day. ●Step:Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day. 2. How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday? ●Finding:Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30% wash their hands only 4 times a day-- half of the number doctors recommend. ●Step:We touch our faces around 3,000 times a day -- often inviting germs (病菌) to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds. 3. How often do you think about fighting germs? ●Finding:Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should. ●Step:Be aware of germs. Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge (海绵)that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.

1. Which of the following is true according to the text?

A．There are less than 300 types of bacteria in the mouth.

B．We should keep from touching our faces.

C．We should wash our hands before touching a door handle.

D．A kitchen sponge can carry more germs than a toilet.

2. What is found out about American seniors?

A．Most of them have good habits.

B．About one third of them brush their teeth only once a day.

C．Nearly 30% of them bathe three days a week.

D．All of them are fighting germs better than expected.

3. Doctors suggest that people should wash their hands________.

A．twice a day.

B．three times a day.

C．four times a day.

D．eight times a day.

4. The text probably comes from   ________.

A．a guide book.

B．a book review.

C．a popular magazine.

D．an official document.

【推荐2】If the world were a village of 1,000 people, it would include:
• 584 Asians
• 124 Africans
• 95 Eastern and Western Europeans
• 84 Latin Americans
• 55 former Soviets (including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups)
• 52 North Americans
• 6 Australians and New Zealanders
The people of the village would speak:
• 165 Mandarin
• 86 English
• 83 Hindu/Urdu
• 64 Spanish
• 58 Russian
• 37 Arabic
The above list covers the mother tongues of only half the village.
One-third of the people in the village are children, and only 60 are over the age of 65. Just under half of the married women in the village have access to modern equipments.
This year 28 babies will be born. Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from can­cer. Two of the deaths will be of babies born within the year. With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village next year will be 1,018.
In this village of 1,000 persons, 200 people receive 75 percent of the income; another 200 re­ceive only 2 percent of the income.
About one-third have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Of the 670 adults in the village, half can not read nor write.
The village has a total yearly budget , public and private, of over $3 million — $ 3,000 per person if it is distributed evenly. Of the total $3 million:
$181,000 goes to weapons and warfare
$159,000 to education
$132,000 to health care
These weapons are under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 are watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether they can learn to get along together.
1. Which of the following is true about Mandarin according to the text?

A．Nearly one-third of Asian people speak Mandarin in the village.

B．About 8.25 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village.

C．About 16. 5 per cent of the people speak Mandarin in the village.

D．Nearly all the Mandarin-speaking people are from Asia in the village.

2. Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the text?

A．Poverty.

B．Education.

C．Environment.

D．Marriage.

3. The underlined part “have access to” (in Para. 4) means_____.

A．use

B．buy

C．produce

D．try

4. The last sentence in the text implies that most of the people long for _____.

A．a peaceful world	B．good education
C．better health care	D．a life without anxiety

【推荐3】In an early survey conducted in 1888, a billion and a half people inhabited the earth. Now, the population exceeds seven billion. This means that the world must accommodate a new population roughly equal to that of the United States and Canada every three years. Even though the rate of growth has begun to slow down, most experts believe the population size will still pass eight billion soon.

If we examine the amount of land available for this ever-increasing population, we begin to see the problem. Everyone on the planet had an equal share of land, we would each have about 50,000 square metres. This figure seems to be quite encouraging until we examine the type of land we would have. Not all land is useful to humans as it cannot produce food. We can cut out about one fifth of it because it is permanently covered by snow and ice. Then we can cut out another one fifth because it is desert. Another fifth is too mountainous or is too great a height above sea-level. A tenth doesn’t have enough soil for crops to grow - it is bare rock. Now the position begins to look rather mom bleak (荒凉)!

Obviously, with so little land to support us, we should be taking great care not to reduce it further. But are we? We are consuming its “ capital” , which means its nonrenewable fossil fuels and other mineral deposits that took millions of years to form but which are now being destroyed in decades. We are also doing the same with other vital resources not usually thought of as being nonrenewable such as fertile soils, groundwater and the millions of other species that share earth with us.

The birth of a baby in, for example, Hong Kong, imposes more than a hundred times the amount of stress on the world's resources as a baby in India. Most people in India do not grow up to own cars or air-conditioners. Nor do they eat the huge amount of meat and fish that the Hong Kong child does. Their life-styles do not require vast quantities of minerals and energy. Also, they are aware of the requirements of the land around them and try to put something back into nature to replace what they take out.

1. Why does the author mention the example of America and Canada?

A．To emphasize that world population has to be reduced.

B．To give a brief history of the population growth.

C．To stress how quickly the world population is rising.

D．To point out what a large population they have.

2. According to the author, how much per person of the earths surface can be used to produce food?

A．15,000 square metres.	B．25,000 square metres.
C．30,000 square metres.	D．40,000 square metres.

3. Which of the following belongs to vital resources?

A．Fossil fuels.	B．Mineral deposits.
C．Chemical fertilizer.	D．Groundwater.

4. When can learn from the passage that _____.

A．different lifestyles require similar quantities of resources

B．a Hong Kong baby consumes more resources than an Indian baby

C．tropical forest are being better used for pastureland

D．nature is powerful enough to destroy an aggressive man