【推荐1】OTTAWA—Canada's western city of Calgary is the world's best city when it comes to healthy living，local press reported Monday.
According to an   international   survey   by   Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a London­based consulting firm, Calgary was top of a list of 144 cities. It scored 121 points, just above Honolulu's score of 120. Helsinki and Ottawa followed at 119.5 and 118.5 respectively.
Three other Canadian cities came in the top 20. Montreal and Vancouver tied for ninth and Toronto came in at 18th. The   scores   are   based   on   air   pollution   levels, availability and quality of hospitals and medical supplies, as well as the efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems.
In America, the lowest scoring city was Atlanta, which was ranked 76th. Athens was the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, ranking 120th because of its air pollution. London was ranked 59th.
1. How many Canadian cities are in the top 20?

A．3.

B．4.

C．5.

D．6.

2. Which of the following is NOT taken into account when the cities were scored?

A．Weather conditions.

B．Air quality.

C．Waste removal.

D．Medical supplies.

3. Put the following cities in order according to the score in the survey. Which one is right?
①Calgary ②Atlanta ③Helsinki ④London

A．①②③④	B．①③②④
C．①③④②	D．①④③②

【推荐3】Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest, Mount Qomolangma’s peak is no longer a lonely place and is turning into a trash heap.

So far, more than 350 climbers have successfully reached the peak. And they have complained about waiting for hours in the bottlenecks (狭窄路段) on the way to the peak, a situation that isn’t just uncomfortable — it’s cold and windy up there — but downright dangerous. If bad weather strikes, climbers can die.

As a matter of fact, the dangerous crowds aren’t the only problem on Qomolangma. All those climbers need to bring a lot of gear—and much of them ends up being left on the mountain, sometimes even the peak itself. Mount Qomolangma is becoming the world’s largest dump. Here’s mountaineer Mark Jenkins writing in National Geographic about the state of Qomolangma: “The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are disgustingly polluted with oxygen cans and torn tents everywhere.”

But the good news is that some mountaineers are taking it upon themselves to clean up Qomolangma. Mountianeer Paul Thelen and his friend Eberhard Schaaf are part of the annual Eco Everest Expedition, which has been cleaning up rubbish from base camps to the peak since 2008. So far they’ve collected over 13 tons of garbage.

Some of that rubbish is even being used for a higher purpose. As part of the Mount Everest 8844 Art Project, a group of 15 artists from Nepal collected 1.5 tons of garbage brought down the mountain by climbers. They’ve transformed the cans and oxygen tanks—and in one case, part of the remains of a helicopter—into 74 pieces of art that have already gone on exhibition in Nepal’s capital. Part of the profit from sales will go to the Everest Peakeers Association, which has helped collect tons of rubbish on the slopes of the mountain.

1. What do we learn about the bottlenecks on the way to Mount Qomolangma's peak?

A．They are relatively safe.

B．They are often crowded.

C．They are very easy to pass.

D．They are sites of base camps.

2. What does the underlined word “gear” mean?

A．Equipment for climbing mountains.

B．The food climbers brought onto the mountain.

C．Some important machines used for the bottle necks.

D．Some rubbish found on the mountain.

3. The group of 15Nepali artists       .

A．created works of art using rubbish from Qomolangma.

B．were employed by the Everest Peakeers Association.

C．climbed Qomolangma and collected 1.5tons of trash.

D．painted 74beautiful pictures of Mount Qomolangma's peak.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Eco Everest Expedition Proves Successful

B．Qomolangma Has Become A Huge Mess

C．Test Yourself Against Qomolangma

D．Recycle Rubbish On Qomolangma

【推荐1】Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as “all too human,” with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance(不满,不平). But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.

The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than males.

Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan’s and Dr. de Waals study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.

In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber(without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment(愤恨)in a female capuchin.

The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation(愤慨), it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

1. In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ________.

A．making a comparison	B．justifying an assumption
C．making a conclusion	D．explaining a phenomenon

2. The statement “it is all too monkey” (Last line, Paragraph I) implies that ________.

A．resenting unfairness is also monkeys nature

B．monkeys are also outraged by slack rivals

C．monkeys, like humans, tend to be jealous of each other

D．no animals other than monkeys can develop such emotions

3. Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys ________.

A．prefer grapes to cucumbers

B．will not be co-operative if feeling cheated

C．can be taught to exchange things

D．are unhappy when separated from others

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Monkeys can be trained to develop social emotions.

B．Cooperation among monkeys remains stable only in the wild.

C．Animals usually show their feelings openly as humans do.

D．Human indignation evolved from an uncertain source.

【推荐2】Regrets are often painful. A study suggests that some people can overcome them, said Jia Wei Zhang, a psychology graduate at the University of California. But this isn’t the case for everyone, he said.

The researchers wondered why some people report feeling improvement from regrets but others don’t. Does it lie in how people approach their regrets?

In the study, the researchers focused on self-compassion (自我同情) as a potential factor in why some people have an easier time leaving their regrets behind them.

400 people attended an experiment. First, they were asked to write about their biggest regret. Half wrote something they did but wish they hadn’t done; the other half wrote something they didn’t do but wish they had. Then, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: self compassion, self-esteem and a control group. The self-esteem group was asked to respond by “talking to yourself about this regret from the aspect of confirming your positive qualities”.

The control group was asked to write about their favorite hobby rather than their regret. Then, they were asked about their feelings of forgiveness, acceptance and personal improvement following the exercise.

They found that the self-compassion group reported greater feelings of acceptance, forgiveness and personal improvement, compared with the control group and the self esteem group. In other words, focusing on your best qualities is not what helps you feel better about a regret. Rather, being compassionate toward yourself is what may make a difference, the researchers found.

It’s possible that people who practice self-compassion are able to confront their regrets and see what went wrong, so they can make a better choice in the future, Zhang told Live Science. Self-compassion pushes people to accept their regret instead of running away from it.

The researchers used an example of this from a previous study on breast cancer patients who were asked to try thinking about their treatment in a positive light before it began. The women who did so reported greater feelings of personal growth later on.

1. What does the underlined word “confront” in Paragraph 7 mean?

A．Handle	B．Forget.
C．Ignore	D．Show.

2. What were the students in the self-esteem group asked to do?

A．Think of a way out.	B．Write about their regrets.
C．Record their favorite hobbies.	D．Treat their regrets in positive ways.

3. Why were the participants asked about their good qualities?

A．To cover up their regrets.

B．To see if they have weaknesses.

C．To see if they have self compassion.

D．To help them feel better about their regrets.

4. Why self-compassion people reported greater feeling compared with the self-esteem people and self-control people?

A．They tend to focus on their best quality

B．They tend to be compassionate towards themselves.

C．They tend to refuse to make a choice

D．They tent to run away from the regrets.

5. What was the aim of mentioning the researchers’ study on breast cancer patients?

A．To show the method of the research.

B．To show the value of the acceptance.

C．To show the truth of people’s feeling.

D．To show the difficulty of the research.

【推荐3】There are hundreds of grape varieties in Japan, but only one can sell for several hundred dollars per grape. The Ruby Roman was cultivated in Japan’ s Ishikawa Prefecture and is considered one of the world’ s most expensive fruits.

The story of Ruby Roman began in 1995, when Ishikawa grape farmers appealed to the government to create a large red grape variety. 400 experimental vines（葡萄树）were planted into a test field. Two years later; they started bearing fruit. However, out of the 400 vines, only 4 turned out to be red grapes, and only one of them was considered large enough to meet the farmers’ expectations. Over the next 14 years, researchers constantly improved its size, taste, color and ease of planting, and today Ruby Roman is considered a “treasure of Ishikawa”.

In 2008, soon after making its commercial debut（首秀）, the Ruby Roman grape variety made international headlines after a 700-gram bunch sold for 10,000 yen（$910）, or $26 per grape. Eight years later, a 26-grape bunch sold for 1.1 million yen（$11,000）, or roughly $370 per grape.

While the Ruby Roman name is used to describe a type of grapes, every bunch must meet very strict standards. For example, every grape in the bunch must weigh at least 20 grams and have a sugar content of at least 18 percent. There is also a Premium class of Ruby Roman grapes—each grape must weigh over 30 grams, and the whole bunch must be at least 700 grams heavy.

Most bunches of Ruby Roman grapes are sold through auctions（拍卖）, but Premium Ruby Rose are extremely difficult to find. For example, in 2010, only six bunches of grapes were certified Premium, and in 2011 no bunches qualified for it.

And if you’ re wondering how the Ruby Roman name came to be, it was apparently voted by local residents（居民）out of 639 different names.

1. The underlined word“cultivated”in the first paragraph can be best replaced by”_________”.

A．discovered	B．preserved
C．developed	D．promoted

2. According to the second paragraph, Ruby Roman _________.

A．is widely planted in Japan	B．does not come easily
C．used to be a treasure of Ishikawa	D．is more productive than expected

3. What’s the author’s purpose in listing a number of figures in paragraph 3 ?

A．To explain how large Ruby Roman grapes are.

B．To tell how profitable planting Ruby Roman is.

C．To prove how popular Ruby Roman is globally.

D．To show how expensive Ruby Roman grapes are.

4. What does the text say about the Ruby Roman grape?

A．It’s named after its birthplace.

B．It isn’t available in abundance.

C．It doesn’t refer to only one grape variety.

D．Its price has nothing to do with its color.