When it comes to helping developing countries, we often think about offering money in order that they can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs in their lives. However, it's far from enough. We have to come up with better ideas.
A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer, which he decided to invent after he visited a school in Cambodia. The laptop which Mr. Negroponte has designed is not the same as the normal one that you can buy in the shops. One difference is that it will be covered in rubber so that it is strong and won't be damaged easily. As an electricity supply can be a problem in developing countries, the computer also has a special handle in order that children can wind the computer up to give it extra power just as easy as setting a clock.
This special laptop computer will cost less than 100 US dollars and Mr. Negroponte wants to produce as many as 15 million laptop computers in the first year. The idea is that these computers will help the children’s education as they will be able to access the Internet. These computers might not benefit the people in developing countries immediately, but by improving children’s education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.
Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again in the UK and probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. The waste crested by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to achieve two important goals at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others, in other words, we will be able to “kill two birds with one stone” and that is always a good thing.
1. The underlined phrase “wind up” in paragraph 2 means .| A．吹风 | B．给……上紧发条 | C．拆开 | D．带走 |
| A．will be damaged much easier than the normal one |
| B．has a special handle to access the Internet |
| C．is cheap and can run with extra power |
| D．can be helpful to find the people’s own solutions |
| A．illustrate the kindness of people in the developed countries |
| B．tell us what high technology can help people |
| C．show how to find business opportunities in developing countries |
| D．give an example of how to help developing countries |
| A．We need to think about more ways to help people in developing countries，not just throw money at the problem. |
| B．We should spend much money helping people in developing countries build more schools and hospitals. |
| C．We should think about giving help to developing countries by giving them all we have. |
| D．We should help the people in developing countries by improving children's education immediately. |
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【推荐1】Our green spaces are shrinking, despite all the benefits they give us. If we want to save them, we need to value the ecosystem and health and wellbeing services they offer.
Sheffield city council’s balance sheet shows its parks as a £16m liability (负担). Traditional accountancy methods focus on a park’s saleable value, or its operational costs associated with maintenance. So England’s 27,000 parks are considered as financial liabilities rather than the amazing asset to our health and wellbeing that any of their 37 million regular users could vouch for. They also deliver a range of ecosystem services such as improved air and water quality, flood risk reduction by absorbing water run-off, and cooling the urban environment as well as providing much-needed habitat for wildlife. By using a “natural capital” accounting approach that puts a value on all these social, environmental and economic contributions, Sheffield discovered that for every £1 spent on its parks, they generate £34 of benefits.
Yet this true value is not widely measured or recognised. As Ian Walmsley, Stockport council’s green space manager told the Communities and Local Government select committee parks inquiry, “an argument has never been successfully made that if you spend a certain amount of money on a park, there will be a saving in the health budget and therefore you should take money out of the health budget and put it into parks”. As a result, the MPs inquiry report published last week warned that parks are at a tipping point of decline, threatened by a 92% reduction in their budgets since 2010-11 because of local authority cuts. Less money means fewer park rangers, less maintenance, more litter, dog poo and antisocial behaviour, including gang and drug-related activities, and gradually much-loved local parks turn into dangerous and unappealing areas. Tragically it’s the small, green spaces in poorer, built-up areas that suffer disproportionate cuts to park keepers and maintenance. We have been here before. Uncared-for, litter-strewn parks were characteristic of Thatcher’s Britain before an injection of public spending by a Labour government and £850m of lottery cash brought them back to life.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Andrew Hinchley, green space development officer at the London Borough of Camden, told MPs if we had new ways of valuing the services parks provide for improving water quality, for example, then you could ask water companies to pay towards their upkeep.
The committee wants councils to publish strategic plans to recognise the real value of parks and to set out how they will be managed (possibly by a charitable trust, as Newcastle is looking into) to maximise their contribution to wider local authority goals such as promoting healthier lifestyles. It suggests the government’s obesity strategy could fund parks. It also suggests that it could be a legal requirement for councils to produce such strategies.
1. According to the text, parks are regarded as financial liabilities because ________.| A．the area of the park is gradually decreasing due to poor protection |
| B．the budget for the construction of the park is gradually decreasing |
| C．the value of the park is low by using a “natural capital” accounting approach |
| D．the traditional accountancy methods focus on a park’s saleable value |
| A．Improving air and water quality. |
| B．Symbolizing the city civilization. |
| C．Cooling the urban environment. |
| D．Providing much-needed habitat for wildlife. |
| A．The government will take money out of the health budget. |
| B．The local authorities will centralize the management of the park. |
| C．Much-loved local parks will turn into unwelcoming places. |
| D．The true value of the park will be widely measured or recognised. |
| A．The committee has published strategic plans to recognise the real value of park. |
| B．It could be a legal requirement for councils to produce such strategies. |
| C．The local citizens should pay for the improving water quality. |
| D．The Labour government will spend £850m of lottery cash to revive the park. |
【推荐2】From ordering food to buying a new book to making a charitable donation, more and more decisions that used to be made on paper are now being made on digital devices like tablets, phones, and computers. And this trend towards digitalization has many advantages, in particular when it comes to efficiency and sustainability — but could it also be negatively influencing how we make decisions?
We conducted a series of studies with more than 2, 500 participants across the U. S. and China to explore the impact of the medium you use to make a decision, with a particular focus on decisions with some sort of moral component, such as whether or not to make a donation to a charity, or whether to choose a healthy or unhealthy entrée (主菜) at a restaurant. We asked the participants to make a variety of these sorts of choices using either a paper form or a digital tablet, and despite controlling for all other variables (变量) , we consistently found that people who used paper made more moral decisions than those who used a digital device: For example, participants who read their choices and made a selection on paper were significantly more likely to give money to charity, choose a healthy entree, and opt for an educational book rather than something more entertaining.
Why might this be? Our research suggests that the key mechanism driving this effect is how “real” the decision feels. We asked participants in two of our studies to describe how real a decision felt, as well as the extent to which they believed the decision as representing who they were as people, and they consistently indicated that making a choice on paper felt more real and representative than making the same decision on a digital device.
It may seem like a minor detail, but our research shows that the medium with which your customers, employees, or community members make a decision can have a major impact on the choices they make. This has implications (暗示) for marketers, policymakers, and anyone seeking to encourage any sort of virtuous behaviour. For example, to encourage customers to choose healthier options, restaurants might consider opting for paper rather than digital menus. Similarly, parents and educators might opt to provide students with paper rather than online book order forms, to increase the chances that they’ll choose educational reading materials.
1. What do we know about the studies?| A．The participants are all from America. |
| B．The participants are divided into three groups. |
| C．The studies pay special attention to decisions with moral component. |
| D．The studies prove the efficiency and availability of the digital device. |
| A．The awareness of environmental protection. |
| B．People’s objection to trend towards digitalization. |
| C．The real feeling caused by making decisions on paper. |
| D．People’s care about their identity when making decisions on paper. |
| A．It has practical value. | B．It needs improvement. |
| C．It can stand the test of time. | D．It makes sense in every situation. |
| A．Pen and paper will never be replaced. |
| B．We encourage everyone to make a responsible choice. |
| C．We make more moral choices when using pen and paper. |
| D．Educational reading materials should be provided in the form of paper. |
【推荐3】For some adolescents and teenagers, using social media can be as easy as breathing. But a study suggests there could be a hidden price: their mental health.
Young people who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media are more likely to suffer from depression (沮丧) , anxiety and other illnesses and are more likely to experience bad feelings about themselves, according to the study by Johns Hopkins University.
“Time spent on social media may increase the risk of experiencing cyberbullying (网络霸凌),’’ according to the study. Seeing others’ lives on social media “may also expose adolescents to idealized self-presentations that encourage social comparisons”.
But it might be difficult to break the close connection between young people and social media — something that’s ubiquitous and seemingly an extension of their personal lives.
“A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that 97% of adolescents report using at least 1 of the 7 most popular social media platforms,” according to the study. “Moreover, digital media use by adolescents is common: 95% report owning or having access to a smartphone, and almost 90% report they are online at least several times a day.
The study sought to examine the data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health. Data was examined for some 6,600 adolescents aged 12 to 15 who reported spending time on social media during a typical day but who also reported mental health difficulties.
After weighing factors, the research found that the youngsters who spent more than three hours a day on social media were more likely to report mental problems, compared with adolescents who didn’t use social media.
One potential solution is to help young people reduce the time they spend online, according to Kira E. Riehm, the lead researcher. More importantly, she adds, parents should teach their children to think critically about what they’re seeing online, and that “idealized” photos of their friends don’t necessarily represent an ideal life.
1. What can cause mental problems of the young according to the study?| A．Too much learning pressure. |
| B．The occasional social comparisons. |
| C．Spending too much time daily on social media. |
| D．Holding negative opinions about others constantly. |
| A．Very common. | B．Rather strange. |
| C．Old-fashioned. | D．Quite expensive. |
| A．By having face-to-face interviews. |
| B．By conducting a series of surveys. |
| C．By collecting information from social media. |
| D．By analyzing the data from believable resources. |
| A．The benefit of a strict time limit. |
| B．The importance of critical thinking. |
| C．The necessity of representing an ideal life. |
| D．The frequency of family interaction. |
【推荐1】Scientists in the Netherlands have trained bees to identify COVID-19 through their sense of smell, according to a press release from Wageningen University. The research was conducted on more than 150 bees in Wageningen University’s research lab.
The scientists trained the bees by giving them a treat — a sugar-water solution — every time they were exposed (暴露于) to the smell of samples (样本) infected with COVID-19. Each time the bees were exposed to a non-infected sample, they wouldn’t get a reward. Eventually, the bees could identify an infected sample within a few seconds — and would then stick out their tongues like clockwork to collect the sugar water.
Bees aren’t the first animals to detect COVID-19 by smell. Researchers have also trained dogs to tell the difference between positive and negative COVID-19 samples from human saliva (唾液) or sweat with fairly high levels of accuracy. A German study found that dogs could identify positive COVID-19 samples 94% of the time. That’s because the coronavirus (冠状病毒) makes an infected person’s body smell slightly different from those of a non-infected person. But researchers still aren’t sure whether animals are the best bet for smelling out COVID-19 cases outside the lab.
“No one is saying they can replace a PCR machine, but they could be very promising,” Holger Volk, a neurologist, told Nature. PCR machines are what lab technicians use to process standard COVID-19 tests. At the very least, certain animals could be useful for identifying COVID-19 in places or countries in which high-tech lab equipment is not enough or inaccessible.
Wageningen scientists are working on a machine that can train bees at once. Then bees can use their skills to test for coronavirus aerosols (气溶胶) in the surrounding environment.
1. How did the researchers teach the bees to identify COVID-19?| A．By offering bees some rewards. | B．By infecting bees with the virus. |
| C．By raising bees with sugar water. | D．By exposing bees to infected humans. |
| A．They can watch for the hidden virus. |
| B．They have a sharp sense of smell. |
| C．They can feel samples’ inner changes. |
| D．They react more quickly than bees. |
| A．To keep track of more bees. | B．To detect coronavirus aerosols. |
| C．To help underdeveloped countries. | D．To develop a new type of machine. |
| A．Dogs: Well-trained PCR machines |
| B．Bees: Promising COVID-19 detectors |
| C．Holger Volk: A fighter against COVID-19 |
| D．Wageningen University: A leader in keeping bees |
【推荐2】Have you ever imagined what it would be like to see the world through an animal’s eyes? For example, what a chimpanzee sees as it sits at the top of a tree, or a penguin’s view as it dives into the sea to catch its dinner?
These questions are answered in the nature documentary Animals with Cameras, produced by the BBC. The three-part series was first aired in the UK last month. To explore animal stories “told” by the animals themselves, the documentary’s filmmakers worked with scientists to develop cameras that wild animals could wear.
“Never before have we seen such high-quality footage (连续镜头) directly from the animal’s point of view,” BBC Nature executive producer Fred Kaufman told PBS. “This miniseries greatly expands our comprehension of animal behavior and this camera technology opens up new possibilities for discovering so much more.”
Indeed, the groundbreaking technology provides a new viewpoint of the animal kingdom. New cameras with enough battery life to shoot for hours at a time were designed to be comfortable enough for animals to wear, according to the documentary’s camera designer Chris Watts.
The technical challenges didn’t stop there. Some animals were very curious about the equipment, with some even fighting each other for the chance to wear a camera. In the case of chimpanzees, “we had to create dummy (仿造的) cameras, so that every chimpanzee could get one”, the miniseries’ wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan told Live Science.
For animals that were comfortable enough to be with human beings, the cameras could be fitted and removed by hand. But for others, the cameras came off automatically using a timed release and were collected afterward. This meant that the cameras needed to be as tough as possible.
To avoid disturbing the animals, scientists who were good at dealing with wildlife came to help by putting the cameras on the animals. “The last thing we want to do is cause them distress.” the documentary’s producer Dan Rees told the BBC. “To follow an animal in the first place, there had to be a clear benefit in terms of knowledge about it that might be useful to protecting a species in the future.”
Their efforts certainly paid off. “Footage that captures (捕捉) these rare and exciting glimpses of animals hidden habits is important to scientists, but documentaries like Animals with Cameras also resonate with (引起共鸣) audiences, connecting them with the beauty — and danger — of wildlife in their natural environments,” Live Science noted.
1. According to the text, Animals with Cameras ______.| A．is a documentary made by wildlife experts |
| B．presents high-quality footage of animals for the first time |
| C．shows wildlife from the unique viewpoint of animals |
| D．mainly records the life of chimpanzees and penguins |
| A．reflect the weakness of the camera technology |
| B．present how filmmakers put cameras on chimpanzees |
| C．explain why chimpanzees were attracted by the equipment |
| D．show how filmmakers dealt with the challenges in shooting |
| A．set up a protected area for them to live in |
| B．invited scientists to help equip them with cameras |
| C．made the cameras look like animals in disguise |
| D．fitted and removed the cameras by hand |
| A．It could help scientists learn more about wild animals’ hidden habits. |
| B．It has contributed to the discovery of new species. |
| C．The camera technology shed light on future animal research. |
| D．It has raised people’s awareness of environmental protection. |
【推荐3】We are in lack of enough sleep, according to Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. And this has great consequences on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. What is needed, she boldly declares, is nothing short of a sleep revolution. Only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives.
In her bestseller Thrive, Arianna wrote about our need to redefine success through wellbeing, wisdom, wonder, and giving. Her discussion of the importance of sleep as a gateway to this more fulfilling way of living struck such a powerful chord (弦) that she realized the mystery and transformative power of sleep called for a fuller investigation (调查).
The result is a scientifically sweeping and personal exploration of sleep from all angles, from the history of sleep, to the role of dreams in our lives, to the consequences of sleep deprivation (剥夺), and the new golden age of sleep science that is showing the vital role sleep plays in our every waking moment and every aspect of our health — from weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s.
In The Sleep Revolution, Arianna shows how our cultural removal of sleep as time wasted damages our health and our decision-making and our work lives and shortens our personal lives. She explores all the latest science on what exactly is going on while we sleep and dream. She decides the dangerous sleeping pill industry, and all the ways of our addiction to technology disturb our sleep. She also offers a range of recommendations and tips from leading scientists on how we can get better and more restorative sleep.
In today’s fast-paced, always-connected and sleep-deprived world, our need for a good night’s sleep is more important than ever. The Sleep Revolution both sounds the alarm on our worldwide sleep crisis and provides a detailed road map to the great sleep awakening that can help transform our lives, our communities, and our world.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The importance of sleep. | B．The necessity of improving sleep. |
| C．The way to improve our sleep. | D．The effect of sleep on health. |
| A．She thinks good sleep is more important. |
| B．She doesn’t think much of becoming successful. |
| C．She thinks it wrong to sacrifice health to success. |
| D．She is concerned about the nature of success. |
| A．It is really of great value. |
| B．It is scientific and historical. |
| C．It costs Arianna’s sleep in practice. |
| D．It covers all necessary aspects scientifically, |
| A．It helps to slow down the pace of modern life. |
| B．It warns people against taking sleeping pills. |
| C．It warns the harm of inadequate sleep of people. |
| D．It helps to stress the value of sleep to success. |
【推荐1】We human beings have many great powers and one of them is our imagination. Maybe you are surprised and wonder why I draw such a conclusion. Wait and let me explain to you.
William James was a philosopher and one of the leading thinkers more than a century ago. He said this is about the power of the mind, “Anything you may hold firm in your imagination can be yours.” He believed there was tremendous power in imagination and wrote in length about how humans can bring about significant positive changes in their attitudes, behaviors and relationships by first holding a vivid image of their best selves, or the person they want to become，in their imagination.
In his book The Winner's Edge，writer Denis Waitley tells of high school basketball players who learned the power of holding something firm in their imaginations. The students were divided into three groups. Group One was told not to practice shooting free throws for one month. Group Two was told to practice shooting free throws in the gym every afternoon for a month. Group Three was told to imagine shooting free throws every afternoon for one hour for a month. Rankly, I can hardly imagine a group of athletes, after sitting in class all day, dressing out, going to the gym, sitting in the bleachers and just thinking about shooting free throws for an hour every day. But look at these results. Group One, the no－practice group, slipped slightly in their percentage free－throw average. Group Two，the students that practiced, increased their accuracy by about two percentage points. Group Three, the ones who imagined shooting, also increased about two percentage points—the same as the group that practiced.
Neuroscience(神经学)is just now discovering that there are biological reasons for this phenomenon William James talked about so long ago. But here is the point. Do you want to become more excellent at some endeavor? Do you want to improve your outlook? Is there a skill you'd like to perfect? Do you want better relationships? Or would you like to replace your fear of something, such as speaking in public or heading up a project, with more confidence and courage? If so, then some mental practice, holding a vivid image of what you have in your mind, is as important as physical practice. The time you spend “seeing” in your mind what you are trying to accomplish actually helps to bring it to pass.
I don't mean we have to sit down and imagine something for an hour every day. It's as simple as holding a vivid mental picture of what you truly desire and returning to it as often as possible.
So there are many things that you can have in your imagination. Imagine your success. Never hesitate to visualize doing that thing you fear at first. Get it in your mind and then imagine your success in that area over and over again, like free throws going into the basket. What does it look like to be confident? How does it look to be actually doing the thing you're afraid to do? How does it feel? Can you imagine it in detail? In a short time, you will discover that things really are changing for you. And after that, well, just imagine what else you can do if you really want to achieve some unexpected results.
1. In the research in Denis Waitley's book, Group Three was told to________?| A．practice shooting free throws for one month. |
| B．practice shooting free throws every afternoon for a month. |
| C．imagine shooting free throws every afternoon for a month. |
| D．imagine shooting free throws for an hour every afternoon for month. |
| A．encourage the readers to discover the real reasons for imagination's power |
| B．prove there are biological reasons for imagination's power |
| C．show physical practice is as important as mental practice |
| D．tell people how they can build up their confidence |
| A．critical | B．instructive | C．ambiguous | D．humorous |
| A．The Power of Imagination | B．Famous Words about Imagination |
| C．The Detail of Imagination | D．The Method of Imagination |
【推荐2】Hipster Greenport: 4 places to eat, shop and visit
Greenport may date back to the 1630s, but it’s feeling pretty of-the-moment right now. Here are four places that embody the old-meets-new energy of the village:
Claudio’s
If you’ve been to Greenport, you can’t miss Claudio’s — it’s where generations of Long Islanders have made a tradition of eating, whether inside the main restaurant or at the floating dock-bar. The new owners have added fresh elements: Baccano Pizza by Nino, which offers a variety of slices and pies until as late as 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays — is right by the dock entrance.
Little Creek Oyster Farm & Market
It’s little spots like this that tell the current Greenport story. There’s no sign or advertising for this tiny house changed from the cabin of an old ship that’s practically hidden down Bootlegger’s Alley near Mitchell Park. But there they are — streams of people who come to enjoy the fresh oysters while drinking local craft beer, with a waterside view.
The Times Vintage
Nostalgia (怀旧) for bygone times runs high in this 1909 building, which once served as the base for the Suffolk Times newspaper. These days, this well-designed shop sells vinyl records (黑胶唱片) and loads of old-fashioned clothing and home decoration items including mid-century highball sets.
Greenport Fire
Heat comes in many forms and several are sold here — hot sauces, cigars and candles. Consult the chalkboard for the current sauce offerings or browse cigars such as a hand-rolled Honduran Leaf by Oscar or the Gurkha Cellar Reserve made with 18-year-aged tobacco.
1. What’s special about Greenport?| A．It is a place full of energy. |
| B．It is a famous port in the world. |
| C．It is a combination of new and old. |
| D．It is a popular place of interest. |
| A．You can enjoy delicious oysters. |
| B．You can buy some old things. |
| C．You can find hand-rolled cigars. |
| D．You can have Baccano Pizza. |
| A．Claudio’s |
| B．Little Creek Oyster |
| C．Greenport Fire |
| D．The Times Vintage |
【推荐3】On a boat near Costa Rica, a team of marine biologist is helping a turtle. The animal is having trouble breathing, and the team discovers why—there is something inside its nose. A scientist tries to extract the object, but the turtle cries in pain. Finally after eight long minutes, a long object is pulled out. It is a 10-centimeter plastic straw.
The video of the turtle's rescue has been viewed millions of times on YouTube. It has helped raise awareness of a growing problem: The world's seas are full of plastic. Since 2000, there has been a huge increase worldwide plastic production, but we recycle less than one-fifth of it. A lot of this plastic waste' ends up in the ocean. Today, scientists think about 8.1 billion kilograms goes into the sea every year from costal regions. Most of this plastic will never break into little pieces.
This ocean plastic hurts millions of sea animals every year. Some fish eat plastic because it is covered with sea plants, and it looks and smells like food. “In some cases, eating sharp pieces of plastic can seriously hurt sea animals and even result in death,” says marine biologist Matthew Savoca.
Plastic is useful to people because it is strong and lasts a long time, but this is bad news for sea creatures who eat or get stuck in it. According to Savoca, Single-use plastics are the worst.” These are items that are used only once before we throw them away. Some common examples include straws, water bottles, and plastic bags. About 700 sea species have been caught in or have eaten this kind of plastic. Luckily, the turtle survived and was released back into the ocean. How will plastic affect sea animals in the long term? “I think we’ll know the answers in 5 to 10 years’ time,” says an expert from Columbia University. But by then, another 25 million tons of plastic will already be in the ocean.
1. Which of these questions is answered in Paragraph 1?| A．Where was the scientist from? |
| B．When did the incident take place? |
| C．What was the cause of the turtle's pain? |
| D．How did the scientists remove the object? |
| A．The video. | B．The turtle. | C．YouTube. | D．The Plastic. |
| A．Because sea animals consume plastic. |
| B．Because more plastic is produced than recycled. |
| C．Because plastic can be dissolved in the sea quickly. |
| D．Because other places are already full of plastic waste. |
| A．Single-use plastics are people's favorite. |
| B．Plastic waste can cause deadly damage to sea animals. |
| C．More than 700 sea species can survive the ocean plastic. |
| D．The ocean’s plastic problem will be solved in a decade. |
【推荐1】By 11:00, Gopamma knew something was wrong. Her husband, Hanutha, should have returned from collecting firewood an hour before.Gopamma sent for her son, who gathered a search party and headed to Bandipur Tiger Reserve, a nearby national park in south-western India. Just inside the forest, they discovered Hanutha’s half-eaten remains. The tiger that killed him was still sitting next to the body.
In the face of her husband’s death, Gopamma struggled not only with grief but economic hardship. Her son had to drop out of university. “My life was much better when my husband was alive,” she says. “My older son could have studied, but now both of my sons have to work. I feel insecure and dependent.”
Despite all this, Gopamma feels no hate toward the tiger that killed her husband. Like many Hindus in India, she views humans and creatures, each with an equal right to existence. Her husband’s death, she says, has nothing to do with the fact that the government is trying to save tigers: “This was my fate.”
Rural Indians are unique in the world for their high tolerance for co-existing with potentially deadly wildlife. “You don’t find this in other cultures,” says Ullas, a biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and a leading expert on tigers. “If this kind of thing happened in Montana or Brazil, they’d wipe out everything the next day.”
The country holds just 25% of total tiger habitat, but accounts for 70% of all remaining wild tigers, or around 3,000 animals today.Success does not come without cost, however.They still have a lot of difficulties with tigers breaking into human-dominated places in certain parts of India,livestock(牲畜) are killed and sometimes so are people.
Some animal activists think that there are too few tigers left in the wild ,so even one shouldn’t be killed.Tigers are treasures, we’d better live with them together.
1. Which of the following words can replace the underlined word “remains” in the first paragraph?| A．ashes | B．body | C．rest | D．flesh |
| A．She suffered financial difficulties. |
| B．Her life was much better than before. |
| C．She hated the tiger and was in deep sorrow. |
| D．She became independent and supported her sons with their studies. |
| A．Other cultures keep tigers as pets. |
| B．Other cultures can kill tigers casually. |
| C．Rural Indians can bear the killing caused by the tiger. |
| D．People wipe out the tigers once they see them in Montana or Brazil. |
| A．Gopamma’s two sons used to study in the university. |
| B．Tigers often break into indians’ houses and kill the villagers. |
| C．Gopamma knew something was wrong in the early morning. |
| D．Hanutha was found killed in the forest in a national park. |
【推荐2】You wake up,ready to seize the day,when an unexpected breakfast is served your way-a classic sandwich.Someone has decided to park their rust-bucket in your driveway,blocking you in.Is it illegal to park in front of a driveway?Yes,absolutely.But some folks love to"stick it to the man”.And now,you can stick it to them.We have a general disgust toward tow trucks( 拖 车 ),their drivers,and the industry as a whole.However,it's a necessary evil,and in certain applications,completely justified.This is one of those times.Take delight in it!
But remember this:if you want to have someone's car towed,call the police and have them handle it.Why call the police first?Because in the event that the owner loses his/her car and tries to sue(起诉)for damages or lost wages,you're removed of the situation and free of any responsibility.If you call a tow company directly,they may give the owner your information.And building a backyard Thunderdome(雷霆)to settle your differences in"the old-fashioned way”can be costly.
So,can you park in front of your own driveway?Unfortunately,parking in front of your own driveway is still technically illegal.The sidewalk and curb in front of your house is still city property,and determining who exactly is parking in front of the driveway is next to impossible for parking enforcement ( 执 法 ).There are reports of many neighborhoods only receiving a ticket for parking in a driveway if someone calls to report it,so it depends how risky you're feeling.Here in L.A.,I see a handful of cars on my block consistently block their own driveway.I have rarely seen them ticketed or towed,but if it were me,I'd keep searching for a real spot.
1. What's the tone of Paragraph 1?| A．Humorous. | B．Serious. |
| C．Sympathetic. | D．Modest. |
| A．Call the police. |
| B．Turn to a tow company. |
| C．Sue the owner. |
| D．Use the old-fashioned way. |
| A．It is technically allowed. |
| B．It is not against the law. |
| C．They like taking risks. |
| D．Finding a parking spot is hard. |
【推荐3】Up until a few decades ago, our expectation of the future were largely positive. Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives of satisfaction and opportunity for all.
Now the utopia (乌托邦) has grown unfashionable, as we have gained deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from natural disasters to deadly flu to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that human beings have little future to look forward to.
But such negative attitude doesn’t make sense. The fossil record shows that many species have existed for millions of years- so why shouldn’t we? Take broader look at our species’ place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years.
So what does our deep future hold? Perhaps it may be easier to think about the question in long time periods than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today’s technology, and its social consequences, is astonishingly complicated, and it’s’ perhaps best left to science fiction writers and futurologists (未来学家) to explore the many possibilities we can merely imagine. That’s one reason why we have launched Arc, a new publication dedicated to the near future.
But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our future generations will find themselves.
This makes the negative predictions of our future seem more likely to be temporary and unreliable. To be sure, the future is not all rosy. But we are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to prevent the lot of those to come.
1. What used to inspire our expectation of the future?| A．Our desire for lives of satisfaction. |
| B．Our faith in science and technology. |
| C．Our awareness of potential risks. |
| D．Our belief in equal opportunity. |
| A．Are limits the range of futurological studies. |
| B．Technology offers solutions to social problem. |
| C．The interest in science fiction is on the rise. |
| D．Our near future is comparatively hard to predict. |
