【推荐1】You can’t hide a natural disaster from children, so how do we prepare them for it? First of all, you should explain to them that acts of nature aren’t necessarily disasters but can become one. These may include floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, wild fires, and earthquakes. The way to prepare children for these disasters is to educate them about what each type is and then make it fun by making them “Disaster Masters” or whatever title you can think of.

Making them a Disaster Master won’t be easy. They must know what’s in a disaster emergency kit(工具箱) and why it’s included. You can get your friends involved, too. If your friends have children, they may want to be involved in your emergency preparations. Make it a group project. This is the opportunity for everyone to become familiar with the equipment.

We have to be aware of our conduct and the way we react to stress. The children will be easily influenced by your attitude and demeanor. The calmness, steady manner, and good humor of your spouse (配偶) and you will go a long way toward the easing or the reduction of stress.

Explain to them what they’re likely to encounter or see and describe how people may react. Disasters can come and go very quickly and generally don’t last long. If you must stay away from home, try to get into a routine quickly and encourage them to make new friends. Let them know they can look to their parents and other adults if they become scared or confused. And it’s important to let them know it’s OK to cry during a disaster.

It’s sometimes helpful to let the children draw pictures of what they’ve experienced. Encourage them to write what they learned and what could have been done better. Save the story. Make it part of a documented family history!

1. This passage was written mainly to tell us about ______.

A．the importance of mutual help in disaster preparation

B．tips for preparing children for a natural disaster

C．the importance of educating children about natural disasters

D．ways to raise children’s courage in natural disasters

2. It is a must that a Disaster Master knows ______.

A．when a natural disaster will come

B．why there are natural disasters

C．how to use a disaster emergency kit

D．how to teach others about emergency preparations

3. The underlined word “demeanor” in Paragraph 3 can be replaced by “______”.

A．personality	B．lifestyle
C．emotion	D．behavior

4. When they meet with a natural disaster, children ______.

A．must write down what they see and how they feel

B．should believe that the disaster will never last long

C．can cry if they are frightened

D．should help other children despite the danger

5. The author wrote the passage mainly for ______.

A．parents	B．young children
C．teachers	D．college students

【推荐3】The tornado came without any sign—the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first alert my husband, Jimmy, 67, and I, 65, got came around 9 p.m., from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching. He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom, and we changed the channel to our local Pensacola, Florida, station.

No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. Pink insulation（绝缘材料） flew into the room from a trapdoor to the attic, and the wind began to roar through the house. We had three flights of steps to navigate to get to the relative safety of the first floor. Because the closet down there is wedged （塞进） underneath a brick staircase, it seemed like the sturdiest(坚固的) place in our town house to wait things out.

I didn’t know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped the banister(楼梯扶手) and tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place. In those seconds of stillness, I could hear everything around me rattling.

As we reached the last flight of steps, our front door blew out. Shards of glass that looked like broken ice flew everywhere. Suddenly, a three-foot-long tree branch whipped through the doorframe. It flew over our heads, missing us by inches. Had we been one step up, it would have impaled us. The back wall of the house followed suit and tore off into the darkness outside.

Instantly I reached the closet, Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind. I gripped Jimmy’s arm as the tornado sucked the door open and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees and scalp were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out and into the bay. “Hold on! Hold on!” he yelled. But there was nothing in this closet to hold on to.

All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over. Jimmy said he’d go outside to check. “No,” I said. “Don’t leave me.”

Our neighbor says the storm lasted four minutes. In that time, four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed. Of the houses left standing, ours suffered the most damage. Amazingly, none of us were severely injured.

1. Paragraph 2—4 mainly tell us______.

A．the tornado was on top of us

B．the tornado caused great damage

C．the coverage of the tornado became a reality

D．the tornado was so strong that it lifted the author off her feet

2. The underlined words “this intense pressure” in Paragraph 3 refer to______.

A．the author’s nervousness about the tornado

B．the force from the tornado on the author

C．the stress the author felt from her life

D．the pressure the banister gave the author

3. From the passage we can know that ______.

A．Neither the author nor her husband was injured.

B．the author’s house was completely destroyed.

C．they were aware of the tornado before it came.

D．it became dark outside when the tornado hit the town

4. The author wrote the passage to _______.

A．share with us her experience of surviving a tornado

B．warn us of the danger caused by tornados

C．show us how to fight against a tornado

D．tell us tornados are dangerous and how to protect us from them

【推荐1】By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.

At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms (海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.

Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.

Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model thatprojectschanges to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 39C, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener.” Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing,” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”

And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.

Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “ but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”

1. What directly makes the change of the ocean’s appearance?

A．The increase of phytoplankton.

B．The way light reflects off the organisms.

C．The type and concentration of phytoplankton.

D．The decline of phytoplankton.

2. What does the underlined word “project” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Control.	B．Use.
C．Predict.	D．Discover.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Phytoplankton are sensitive to the ocean’s warming trend.

B．Phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide at the bottom of the ocean.

C．Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear bluer

D．Data have been found to show the change in the colour of the ocean

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton.

B．To explain the effect of climate change on oceans.

C．To analyze the consequences of ocean colour changes.

D．To analyze the composition of the ocean food chain.

【推荐3】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.
1. What do most people think causes bad behavior?

A．Being forced by others.	B．Enjoying their first experiences.
C．Not having enough will power.	D．Following the examples of their friends.

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

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

A．without self-control, no one can succeed

B．applying self-control correctly is important

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

D．people can develop wisdom from bad behavior

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

【推荐1】A new study suggests some language learning can take place during sleep. Researchers from Switzerland’s University of Bern say they discovered people were able to learn new language words during deep levels of sleep.

Much of the earlier research found that memories made when awake were strengthened during sleep. This supported the idea that information learned while awake is replayed and deeply embedded in the sleeping brain.

The researchers theorized that, if replay during sleep improves the storage of learned information while awake, the processing and storage of new information should also be possible during sleep.

They carried out experiments on a group of young German-speaking men and women, which centered on periods of deep sleep called “up-states”. They identified these slow-wave peaks as the best moments for sleep-learning.

The researchers observed individuals in a controlled environment during brief periods of sleep. Brain activity was recorded as pairs of words were played for the study subjects. One word in the pair was a real German word. The other was a made-up foreign word. For later identification purposes, the German words chosen were things clearly larger or smaller than a shoebox.

Each word pair was played four times, with the order of the words changed each time. The word pairs were played at a rhythm that is similar to actual brain activity during deep sleep. The goal was to create a lasting memory link between the false word and the German word that individuals could identify while awake.

When the subjects woke, they were presented with the false language words—both by sight and sound. They were then asked to guess whether the false word played during sleep represented an object smaller or larger than a shoebox. Results of the study found that a majority of subjects gave more correct answers about the sleep-learned words than would be expected if they had only guessed at random.

The researchers said they measured increased signals affecting a part of the brain known as the hippocampus. This brain structure is very important for building relational memory during non-sleep periods. The researchers also said memory was best for word pairs presented during slow-wave peaks during sleep.

The study suggests that memory formation in sleep appears to be caused by the same brain structures that support vocabulary learning while awake. The researchers say more studies are needed to support their findings. However, the experiments do provide new evidence that memories can be formed and vocabulary learning can take place in both conscious and unconscious states.

1. The underlined word “embedded” in Paragraph 2 probably means _____.

A．covered

B．moved

C．affected

D．rooted

2. In the experiments, the word pairs were played at a rhythm to _____.

A．pick out the made-up words	B．measure increased signals
C．copy brain activity	D．create a memory link

3. In the new study, the researchers discovered that _____.

A．new words can be learned during deep sleep

B．word guessing ability can be improved during sleep

C．information learned when awake is strengthened during sleep

D．the hippocampus determines the efficiency of language learning

4. The passage is mainly developed by _____.

A．giving typical examples and data

B．presenting research process and results

C．making detailed comparisons and contrasts

D．analyzing potential problems and solutions

【推荐2】The documentary “Under the Dome” went viral online just before Chinese lawmakers opened their yearly meeting. The film examines the health effects of China’s massive air pollution, or smog problem. It also presents the difficulties environmental officials face in enforcing laws.

A former reporter for China’s state-run television, Chai Jing, produced the documentary. It argues that state-run businesses, especially energy companies, are part of China’s pollution problem.

At the end of National People’s Congress meeting, a reporter asked Prime Minister Li Keqiang whether he thought the film was correct. Are big oil companies barriers to environmental law enforcement? Mr. Li said under this year’s Environmental Protection Law officials are committed to taking legal action against those who add to the pollution problem. He said anyone involved in acts of illegal production and emissions will be brought to justice. He said the government must make businesses that illegally emit and dump pay a price too heavy to accept.

Others also commented on the film before it was banned, including former basketball star Yao Ming. Mr. Yao served as a representative at the legislative meetings. He said he had watched the film and was thankful for the information film producer Chai Jing made public. He said the film expressed the feelings in many people’s hearts.

A respiratory expert and representative at the legislative meetings also spoke to VOA about “Under the Dome.” Zhong Nanshan said Chai Jing’s film takes a good look at where smog comes from, how harmful it is and the efforts being taken to deal with it. Previously, Mr. Zhong said that China’s smog is an even scarier problem than the serious illness SARS.

1. The documentary “Under the Dome” suggests that ______.

A．water pollution in China has very bad effect on people’s health.

B．energy companies take all the blame for China’s pollution.

C．all the state-run companies know nothing about environment protection.

D．China’s environmental departments face troubles when dealing with pollution.

2. From Para. 3, we can infer that ______

A．The Chinese government will take more measures to deal with air pollution.

B．Companies must pay a lot of money before they cause some pollution.

C．Prime Minister Li praised environmental officials.

D．Prime Minister Li doesn’t think highly of the film.

3. What does the underlined phrases “be brought to justice” probably mean?

A．Be questioned

B．Be removed

C．Be grounded

D．Be punished

4. What is Yao Ming’s attitude to the film “Under the Dome”?

A．Indifferent

B．Supportive

C．Doubtful

D．Negative