【推荐2】If you were given a chance to choose your favorite life metaphor(比喻), what would it be? Do you agree with Forrest Gump’s mother that life is “a box of chocolates” because “you never know what you’re going to get”? Or do you prefer the phrase from the 1930’s song that “life is just a bowl of cherries(樱桃)”? Though simply stated, each conveys a very different view. A “box” implies mystery, because we don’t know what is in a closed box. Meanwhile, a “bowl” of cherries is completely in view.
For many centuries, the metaphor of life that probably burst into most people’s mind was the one suggested by Shakespeare: “All of life is a stage…” On that stage, we take seven roles. More recently, psychologist Erik Erikson took up the idea of life as a stage. Erikson regarded development as a “powerful unfolding” in which we are driven from one stage to the next as our bodies, minds, and social roles develop.
Stage metaphors fit with many of our common-sense ideas about change, but the problem with the stage metaphor is that it isn’t particularly accurate. None of the studies that try to clarify the universality of adult life stages actually studied people as they developed over time. All of them were based on performances of their samples(样本) at one point in time. People’s actual lives don’t fit into these stage metaphors. They don’t automatically transform when people reach a certain age. Instead, people’s real lives are messy, unpredictable, and full of surprises.
Today, I’d like to focus on an even longer study, an 80-year study which is the subject of a recent book by Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin. Their final chapter summarizes the “many changes of healthy and unhealthy pathways” that their participants took over the course of their lives. As I too discovered in my research, the pathway provides a perfect metaphor of human development. We don’t all go down the same road marked with the same signposts based on age. People travel through diverse routes as they track the years of adulthood. Friedman and Martin use health and long life as their measure; I’ve used sense of achievement. In both cases, we are in perfect agreement in evaluating development not according to age but “the key features of life”.
The paths that Friedman and Martin describe seize the changes that characterize people as they age. Some examples are “The High Road” (reliable, full of plans); “Not Easy Street” (exposed to high stress throughout life), “Catastrophe Lane” (a downwardly twisty life); “Happy Trails to You” (cheerful, sociable), “The Road to Resilience” (able to handle stress with a strong will). Though I haven’t yet been able to follow my participants for 80 years, I too saw some of these pathways among my samples: “The Minding Way” , “The Downward Slope” , “The Straight and Narrow Path” , and “The Successful Trail”.
The pathway metaphor gives you hope for changing the direction of your life if you are unhappy with it so far. You can’t stop the clock from ticking the minutes between one birthday and the next, but you can adjust the road that you’re on by changing yourself, your situation, or both.
1. The author introduces the topic of the passage in the first paragraph by ______.

A．making comparisons	B．giving examples
C．describing scenes	D．providing explanations

2. According to the passage, the “stage metaphor” ______.

A．leads to misunderstandings

B．is used in memory of Shakespeare

C．doesn’t exactly reflect one’s real life

D．hasn’t enough stages to clarify life changes

3. The author is convinced of the life metaphor Friedman and Martin suggest because she ______.

A．spent less time on her research	B．has found their book a bestseller
C．considers their measure more scientific	D．got a similar finding to theirs

4. When a person is facing difficulties bravely, which metaphor can best describe him?

A．“Not Easy Street”	B．“Happy Trails to You”
C．“Catastrophe Lane”	D．“The Road to Resilience”

5. What does the passage focus on?

A．The pathway as a perfect life metaphor.

B．Various views on life metaphors.

C．The stage as a common life metaphor.

D．Different kinds of life metaphors.

【推荐3】Every four or five years, vast quantities of warm water build up along the west coast of South America. This phenomenon, El Nino, creates storms that cause destructive floods. The result is costly.

Modern farmers come to terms with El Nino. They use money saved in good years to rebuild in bad ones. But history suggests it need not be like that. In a paper published recently, Ari Caramanica, an archaeologist at University of the Pacific, in Lima, shows how it used to be done. And the answer seems to be, “better”.

Dr Caramanica and her colleagues have been studying the Pampa de Mocan, a coastal desert plain in northern Peru. Pampa de Mocan is not suitable for farming. Its soil contains little organic matter and the annual rainfall in non-Nino years is usually less than two centimeters. Today’s farmers therefore depend on canals to carry water from local rivers to their fields.

It had been assumed that ancient farmers had a similar arrangement — and so they did. But Dr Caramanica also found eight canals that could carry water far beyond the range of modern farms. She thinks that they were intended to guide the floodwaters arriving during Nino years. Around a quarter of the ancient agricultural infrastructure of this area seems to have been built only for managing Nino-generated floodwaters.

Evidence from pollen supports this theory, revealing that Pampa de Mocan produced lots of crops in some years, while remaining nearly barren in others. The team also uncovered two cisterns in the area serviced by the extended canals. These, probably, were used to store extra flood-water.

These findings suggest that, rather than resisting El Nino, early farmers in Pampa de Mocan were ready to make use of it when it arrived. Modern farmers might do well to learn from them.

1. What does the recent study focus on?

A．Living with El Nino.	B．Effects of El Nino.
C．Farming on desert.	D．Water shortage in Peru.

2. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Ancient farmers.

B．Rivers.

C．Farms.

D．Canals.

3. What lesson can be learned from early farmers?

A．Every advantage has its disadvantage.	B．In every difficulty lies an opportunity.
C．Sharp tools make good work.	D．It’s never too late to mend.

4. In which section of a website may this text appear?

A．Education.

B．Travel.

C．Business.

D．Science.

【推荐1】A shark that walks in water instead of swimming might sound strange. However, that is precisely how the four new species of the fish-found in the waters of the Indo - Australian islands-move across the seafloor. The unique ocean animals were discovered by a team of scientists,led by Dr.Christine Dudgeon from Australia's University of Queensland.

The newly-found species belong to the genus Hemiscyllium, the same family as the previously known five species. At less than a meter long on average, much shorter than most known species,walking sharks are incredibly cute little animals and present no threat to people. They have all evolved(进化） to survive in low oxygen environments, enabling them to hunt during low tides. The researchers believe their ability to live in low oxygen environments gives them a remarkable advantage over the unsuspecting smaller animals they mainly feed on.

A DNA analysis of skin piece from the live fish suggests that walking sharks broke away from their swimming brothers and sisters about nine million years ago and became a distinct species. Though that may appear to be a long time ago, it is relatively recent given that sharks have been around for more than 400 million years. In fact, Dudgeon and her team believe walking sharks are the youngest kind of sharks on Earth!

The scientists say that the sharks' small number and shallow habitat make them extremely vulnerable to natural disasters and overfishing.Three of the nine walking shark species, all of which live in the waters off Northern Australia,eastern Indonesia, and near the island of New Guinea, are currently on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List,which lists species at risk. Dudgeon and her team believe sensible conservation management plans are urgently needed to protect the walking sharks and other endangered animals from further threats.

1. What's a characteristic of the newly-found shark species?

A．They're dangerous to human.

B．They swim across the seafloor.

C．They can survive without oxygen.

D．They're smaller than many other species.

2. What can we infer from the third paragraph?

A．People have long known walking sharks.

B．Walking sharks are the oldest of their kind.

C．Researchers learn a lot from the sharks' habitats.

D．Walking sharks are closely linked to swimming sharks.

3. What does the underlined word “vulnerable" in the last paragraph mean?

A．Easy to be hurt.

B．Hard to get along with.

C．Fond of attacking.

D．Picky about the environment.

4. What's the purpose of the text?

A．To educate.

B．To inform.

C．To advertise.

D．To argue.

【推荐2】When I was a little child, my parents divorced, making my mother a single parent. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life, “Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it.”

At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I wanted to do it badly enough. She sent that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school — walking on my own!

When the Great Depression (大萧条) happened, my mom lost her job. Then I left school to support the family. At that moment, I was determined never to be poor again.

My real change took place on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951. I was angry that the second-class hotel charged an extra $2 for each child. That was too expensive for the common American family. I decided to open a motel (汽车旅馆) for families that would never charge extra for children.

Not surprisingly, mother was one of my strongest supporters. We experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother’s words deeply rooted in my mind, I strongly believed we would succeed. Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world — Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.

You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.

1. When Kemmons was a little child, what his mother usually told him was _____.

A．funny.	B．sad.
C．worrying.	D．encouraging.

2. In the writer’s view, who made Kemmons walk back to school again?

A．Mother.	B．Teachers.
C．Friends.	D．Classmates.

3. According to the passage, what made Kemmons start a motel by himself?

A．His successful business.	B．His terrible experience in the hotel.
C．His mom’s support.	D．His wife’s advice.

4. In your opinion, which of the following best describes Kemmons’ mother?

A．Honest and hard-working.	B．Careful and beautiful.
C．Loving and supportive	D．Strict and helpful.

【推荐3】Studying the DNA of 300 mice has flagged up genes which have been linked to hereditary (遗传的) sight loss for the first time. Researchers say because mice’s genes are so similar to humans’, their findings could lead to the treatment of more genetic diseases.

Scientists at the University of California, Davis studied information from a data bank of mice’s genetic material. They found 347 genes linked to eye problems, with just 86 of them having been studied in the past.

Only around 50 to 75 percent of hereditary eye diseases in human can be explained with present science. The researchers believe these hundreds of new genes found in mice could be a key to explaining-and therefore being able to treat the other 25-50 percent.

“This is extremely valuable for people with hereditary eye disease,” said researcher Professor Ala Moshiri. “All researchers are going to start using these data. In the past, we knew the problem was there but we didn’t know where to look. Now eye centers can call back patients and screen them for these new genes. We expected that more and more of these genetic diseases will be treatable.” Also, the fact is that more than 60 percent of eye problems at birth are ones resulting from the baby’s parents!

Thanks to data from the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), which is trying to work out what every single gene in a mouse is responsible for, with the aim of translating it to humans, scientists are moving closer to figuring out all genetic causes of blindness. To do this, scientists separate a single gene from other ones at a time and then observe what effect it has on the mouse for a long time. This has so far been done more than 7,000 times and has achieved great success. Researchers are now working alongside eye care centers in Texas and Iowa in order to compare the mice’s genes to those of patients.

1. How many hereditary-sight-loss-related genes were newly found?

A．86.	B．261.
C．300.	D．347.

2. Why is the percentage of genetic eye problems mentioned in paragraph 3?

A．To show the significance of studying mice’s genes.

B．To prove mice’s genes are similar to humans’.

C．To warn the high risk level of suffering them.

D．To explain how common they are among people.

3. What should scientists do first to unlock secrets of genetic blindness?

A．Compare humans’ genes with mice’s.

B．Recognize each gene’s role of humans.

C．Set apart a gene of a mouse each time.

D．Figure out each gene’s function of a mouse.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．New Ways to Cure Sight Loss

B．Genes Found Behind Eye Problems

C．Genetic Diseases Discovered in Mice

D．Humans Genes Causing Eye Diseases

【推荐1】Global warming is the increase of the earth’s average surface temperature due to the effect of greenhouse gases, for example, carbon dioxide, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from the earth. After the trees are cut down and more greenhouse gases are released, the “blanket” around the earth called the ozone layer (臭氧层), will get thicker. This catches more heat and makes the earth hotter. Luckily, there are many things that every citizen of the earth can do to help reduce the effects of global warming, and it’s never too late or too early for children to take action.

The children should learn what a carbon footprint is. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon and greenhouse gases people make as they lead the daily life and go about the normal activities. In other words, the carbon footprint is a measure of the environmental impact (冲击) the life has. To live an environmentally friendly life that doesn’t contribute to global warming, people want to have the smallest carbon footprint possible.

Almost everything people do contributes to global warming and is related to fossil fuel consumption. These can be direct uses of fossil fuels, like riding in a gasoline-powered car, or indicrect contributions to greenhouse gases, such as eating fruits or vegetables that had to be shipped from far way to reach their tables.

If a child wants to make a contribution to reducing global warming, he should ride a bicycle to the near park, school, his friend’s house, or anywhere else instead of taking the car. Or he may try to walk or jog, which is also helpful. In addition, although trains and buses often run on fossil fuels, on average, each person uses less energy and produces less pollution to run. Next time if children with their parents have to get around town or it’s too far to walk or bike, take the bus or other public transportation instead of asking for a ride.

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A．A brief description of carbon footprint

B．The serious water pollution.

C．The protection of ozone layer.

D．The causes of global warming

2. Which of the following can describe the carbon footprint?

A．Useless.	B．Expensive.
C．Helpful.	D．Attractive.

3. What can kids do if they want to help reduce global warming?

A．Go to the near park by bus.

B．Walk or cycle as much as possible.

C．Keep staying at home or school.

D．Go around the town with parents by car.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．What Can People Do to Use Less Energy?

B．How Can Kids Help Reduce Global Warming?

C．How Does Carbon Footprints Measure Pollution?

D．Why Global Warming Affects Humans’ Life?

【推荐2】You might be surprised that dollar stores typically have a variety of products that can be found at a better price than regular stores—though, there are some things you should never buy at the dollar store.

A dollar store is a variety store, meaning they sell a wide range of products. Party supplies, cleaning supplies, and paper products are some of the great, cheap finds you can find at dollar stores. But, not every product is always priced at just one dollar. In fact, dollar stores often have a wide range of products at prices between $1 and $10.

“Dollar stores are able to profit, in part because operating costs are kept low by employing only a handful of people, and by limiting the amount of cold chain storage in their stores (which is necessary for fresh foods like produce),” says Minovi, a policy associate, focusing on healthy retail policies.

Dollar stores can provide a lot of items at a cheaper price, but that doesn’t mean the item will last longer or function at the best quality. With that in mind, these are the things you should have been buying from the dollar store this whole time.

“Dollar stores in the United States typically seek to open locations in economically disadvantaged communities that lack a full-service grocery store,” adds Minovi. “Unfortunately, the food on offer is largely calorie-dense (高热量) and nutrient-poor, so this model depends on selling nutritionally poor food to mostly low-income customers.”

1. What’s the obvious advantage of dollar stores?

A．Varieties of goods are sold cheaply.

B．Customers can get cheap but perfect goods.

C．Goods never bought at regular stores are offered.

D．All the products in the store are sold at one dollar.

2. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．What goods a dollar store sells.	B．How a dollar store makes money.
C．Why a dollar store employs people.	D．How a dollar store keeps cold foods.

3. Which of the following does Minovi agree with?

A．Dollar stores make money by cutting down employees.

B．Much cold frozen food can be bought in dollar stores.

C．Food from the dollar stores is nutritional and healthy.

D．Dollar stores are popular with low-income customers.

4. What is probably the best title for the text?

A．Locations of Dollar Stores	B．The Service of Dollar Stores
C．The Operation of Dollar Stores	D．Disadvantages of Dollar Stores

【推荐3】Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new material that can move heat out of buildings and send it into space. The researchers say the material can cool buildings even on hot days. The cooling material is a very thin sheet with many layers that could be placed on a roof like solar panels (板). However, instead of turning sunlight into energy as solar panels do, the material turns heat into radiation.

Shanhui Fan is an electrical engineering professor at Stanford University. He says that the panels have a layer of material that is like sand. The panels act like a mirror. They take heat out of buildings and reflect the light from the sun. And he says both the heat and sunlight are sent 100 kilometers into outer space. It’s a structure that cools itself without electricity input, even under the sun. So, what it does is basically radiate heat to outer space and also reflect the sunlight so it doesn’t get heated up by the sun. Mr. Fan says it is like having a window into space. The heat is sent directly into space without warming the air.

He says buildings in developing countries that do not have electricity or air conditioning could use the panels. “In areas where electricity is out of reach for many people, there is a significant potential benefit for storing medicine or even food. In many of these situations, being able to reduce the temperature is important. And this would provide a way to do it.”

The researchers say the main problem is creating actual cooling systems using the high-tech panels. They say it may be possible to develop a cooling spray (喷涂) that could be used on existing solid structures. They believe the cooling spray technology could be developed in the next three to five years. They say as much as 15 percent of the energy used in the United States is spent providing power to air conditioning systems.

1. The first paragraph mainly tells us       .

A．living on hot days is no longer a big problem now

B．new material is created to cool the buildings

C．researchers are developing new solar panels on roofs

D．the new material is a very thin sheet with many layers

2. How does the panel work?

A．It absorbs the heat and cools it down.

B．It uses a mirror to reflect the sunlight.

C．It sends heat away right into space.

D．It has a window to let out the heat.

3. The new material is especially useful in areas that       .

A．suffer high temperature	B．have poor air conditioning
C．have plenty of food	D．are short of power

4. What can you infer from the passage?

A．The appliance of the new panel is still under research.

B．Some people got benefits from producing the panels.

C．People may have problems in using the new material.

D．The new panels may save 15 percent of the energy.

【推荐1】Despite the popularity of school spelling competitions, adults in the US performed poorly in a survey comparing how English speakers on both sides of the Atlantic deal with commonly misspelt words.

Sixty-two percent of Americans got “embarrassed” wrong, against 54 percent of Britons who struggled with the word in a survey last year. Adults in the US performed less well on most of the ten words tested, including millennium (52 percent wrong, against 43 percent in the UK), liaison (61 percent to 54 percent) and “accommodation” (42 percent to 36 percent). Only “definitely” and “friend” were spelt correctly by more Americans.

Jack Bovill of the Spelling Society, which sponsored (发起) the research, said the high inaccuracy rates in both countries showed the need for the English spelling system to be modernized. “When asked, only a quarter of adults thought they had a problem with spelling. The answers in the test prove that this is far from the case”, he said. “What is holding the UK and the USA back is the irregular spelling system.”

Professor Edward Baranowski, one academic consultant for the project, said, “We have different spellings for the same sound, and a system which reflects how English was spoken in the 13^th to 15^th centuries, not how it is spoken today. So many sound changes have occurred in the language, which is not reflected in modern spelling, that we are left with a ‘fossilized (僵化的)’ system.”

The study found that 40 percent of the respondents would support updating words that caused problems while 16 percent opposed the idea. And 31 percent said it didn’t matter.

The US survey involving a sample of 1,000 adults was carried out online by Ipsos MORI last month, with the method based on a survey of 1,000 Britons in April last year.

1. The second paragraph is developed ________.

A．by space

B．by explanation

C．by time

D．by comparison

2. The underlined word “inaccuracy” in Paragraph 3 can best be replaced by ________.

A．success

B．error

C．correctness

D．growth

3. The underlined part “this is far from the case” in Paragraph 3 implies that ________.

A．most of the Americans can spell correctly

B．there are more people having spelling problems

C．adults perform worse in spelling than kids

D．it is difficult to create a new spelling system

4. Professor Baranowski seems to agree that ________.

A．spelling should represent the sound of words

B．we should learn how English was spoken centuries ago

C．different countries should have different spellings

D．sound changes have nothing to do with spelling

5. What would be the most suitable title for the passage?

A．Who is responsible for our spelling

B．The English language to be blamed

C．Americans embarrassed by their spellings

D．Words needed to be modernized

【推荐3】Doctors say you had better use it before you lose it. The more you sit each day, the more chance you have of getting sick.

Richard Rosenkranz of Kansas State University was among the researchers. He said people who sat for long periods were at great risk of diseases when compared with those who sat less. He said that was especially true for some chronic (慢性的) diseases.

Richard Rosenkranz studied the relationship between sitting and chronic diseases in middle-aged Australian men. He worked with researchers from the University of Western Sydney. They examined the heath records of more than 63,000 men from New South Wales. The men were between the ages of 45 and 65. The men reported about what diseases they had, or did not have. And they kept record of the amount of time each day that they sat.

The study also showed that exercising every morning for 30 minutes did not reduce the health risk if you spend the next eight hours sitting at the desk. Mr. Rosenkranz said it was important to make sure you exercise. But he said it was also important to find ways not to sit so much during the day.

Many jobs today require sitting and working at the desk all day. James Levine works at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. He suggests working while standing at high table some of the time instead of sitting at a desk. Dr. Levine also suggests standing while using the telephone or eating. Or he advises walking with the people you work with for an on-foot meeting. And he notes that if you spend more time on your feet, you may have muscle activity that helps burn fats and sugars in your body.

1. The underlined sentence in the first paragraph suggests that ________.

A．doctors should treat all the patients well.

B．doctors should make use of every method.

C．one should depend on himself to keep healthy.

D．one should value his health before he loses it.

2. According to Dr. Levine, in order to avoid the harm of long-time sitting, one should ________.

A．change his job.	B．exercise more often.
C．stand or walk more.	D．stay away from the desk.

3. Where does this text probably come from?

A．A health magazine.	B．A fashion magazine.
C．A biology textbook.	D．A life guide.