【推荐1】As the school year barely starts in Denver, French teacher Melanie is filled with worry that her students are always absent-minded. Yet, the problem isn’t messaging, enjoying video games or delivering notes. Surprisingly, the problem is about the ongoing heat wave in Denver.

“Today was a little bit hot, so I noticed kids were very sleepy and they were having to get up to drink water quite often.” said Melanie, who works at Denver’s East High School. “If you lose too much water, and you have to keep going to the water fountain, that can take away from their classroom experience.” While nodding off in class on a warm day may seem acceptable for the average teen, Melanie’s observation carries a bigger consequence than dry lips.

“There have been quite a few media reports about teachers noticing that students weren’t able to focus on hotter days,” said R Jisung Park, a researcher, “Does a hotter climate during the school year actually affect the rate of learning?” The drops in academic achievement couldn’t be explained by hotter weekends or hotter summers, but the trend was connected to higher temperatures on school days alone.

The connection between lost learning and a greater number of hot days is one more example of how climate change is already affecting our lives — and it’s an alarm bell for what we stand to lose in the future. Humans still have time to lessen the worst consequences of continued global warming. Without the unlikely important changes in the next 10 years, the globe will be trapped in an unavoidable era of heat waves that were unprecedented (前所未有的) for human beings.

1. What may cause students absent-minded according to the text?

A．Video games.	B．Text messages.
C．Heat waves.	D．Classroom notes.

2. What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

A．Kids often go to the water fountain for lack of water.

B．Extreme heat may lower a kid’s ability to learn.

C．Nodding off in class is a sign of respecting teachers.

D．Kids are more interested in drinking water than sleeping.

3. How does the author feel about dealing with the future global warming?

A．Optimistic.

B．Uncertain.

C．Worried.

D．Indifferent.

4. What does the text mainly talk about?

A．The way that global warming continues.

B．The reasons why kids are absent-minded in class.

C．The hotter it grows, the more focused kids become.

D．The hotter it grows, the harder it will be for kids to learn.

【推荐3】Children are more creative when they learn in natural surroundings, according to new research from Curtin University. Primary school students in Australia and England were put to the test to see whether writing poetry in a natural outdoor setting produced more creative outcomes than writing in a classroom, and the answer was yes.

Dr Paul Gardner and Sonja Kuzich from Curtin’s School of Education ran relative trials with 10-year-old students in both countries and the results, recently published in the Cambridge Journal of Education, gave a big thumbs-up to the positive influence of natural settings. “We found that students who had direct contact with nature by immersing (沉浸) themselves in a bush or forest setting were much more descriptive and vivid in the language they used than the classroom-based writers who ‘imagined’ being in nature through photos,” Dr Gardner said.

In total, 97 students took part in the study, divided into four classrooms, including two based at an English primary school and two from a primary school in Western Australia. In each country one class visited a natural bush or forest before writing a poem based on what they saw, smelt and felt. The other class viewed a pile of images of the same bush or forest setting.

Ms Kuzich said the difference in creative language used between the classes was obvious with twice as many UK forest students using figurative (比喻的) language compared with the class-based students. In Australia that figure rose to more than four times when comparing the poetry of the forest-based students with those who remained at school.

The researchers say further studies of larger groups are now recommended to a gain greater understanding of the influence of natural spaces and “green learning” in schools.

1. Why were the students placed outdoors in nature according to the first two paragraphs?

A．To get more outdoor exercise.

B．To experience nature in depth.

C．To understand poems about nature better.

D．To prove nature’s effect on creativity.

2. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．The specific steps of the experiment.	B．New findings about students’ writing.
C．The steps of training the children.	D．The purpose of performing the test.

3. What can we infer about the result of the study?

A．Students indoors are not good at poetry.

B．Students in Australia prefer to study poetry.

C．Students are more creative in a natural environment.

D．Students in the UK and Australia have different writing skill preferences.

4. What does the last paragraph imply?

A．Green learning is becoming a trend.

B．Further studies are to be carried out.

C．Green learning has been applied in school.

D．Future research is of little significance.

【推荐1】My father died when I was nine, and I remember doing the household chores to help my mother. I hated changing the vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器) bag and picking up things the machine did not suck up.

Twenty years later, in 1978, I was doing chores at home alongside my wife. One day the vacuum cleaner was screaming away, and I had to empty the bag because I could not find a replacement for it. With this lifelong hatred of the way the machine worked, I decided to make a bagless vacuum cleaner.

Easier said than done, of course. I didn’t realize that I would spend the next five years perfecting my design, a process that resulted in 5,127 different prototypes (设计原型). By the time I made my 15th prototype, my third child was born. By 2,627, my wife and I were really counting our pennies. By 3,727, my wife was giving art lessons for some extra cash, and we were getting further and further into debt. These were tough times, but each failure brought me closer to solving the problem.

I just had a passion for the vacuum cleaner as a product, but I never thought of going into a business with it. In the early 1980s, I started trying to get licensing agreements (许可协议) for my technology. The reality was very different, however. The major vacuum makers had built a business model based on the profits from bags and filters (滤网). No one would license my idea, not because it was a bad one, but because it was bad for business.

That gave me the courage to keep going, but soon after, the companies that I had talked with started making machines like mine. I had to fight legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic to protect the patents on my vacuum cleaner. However, I was still in financial difficulties until 1993, when my bank manager personally persuaded Lloyds Bank to lend me $1 million. Then I was able to go into production. Within two years, the Dyson vacuum cleaner became a best-seller in Britain.

Today, I still embrace risk and the potential for failure as part of the process. Nothing beats the excitement of invention. Go out and brainstorm your ideas. You are not bound to any rules — in fact, the stranger and riskier your idea, the better.

1. According to the article, which of the following statements about James Dyson is NOT true?

A．He lost his father during his childhood and lived with his mother.

B．He decided to develop an innovative vacuum cleaner for his wife while in his thirties.

C．He built over five thousand prototypes of the vacuum cleaner between 1978 and 1983.

D．The vacuum cleaner he reinvented became popular with British customers as soon as it arrived on the market.

2. According to the article, Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner was produced in large numbers _______

A．in the carly 1980s

B．before he obtained a patent on the product

C．after his bank manager agreed to lend him $1 million

D．after he managed to get a S1 million loan

3. It can be inferred from the article that _______.

A．Dyson was a born businessman

B．Dyson's invention might have ended up in failure without his wife

C．Dyson had no confidence in his vacuum cleaner initially

D．Dyson's vacuum cleaner was never recognized by other vacuum makers

4. According to the article, which of the following would most likely be Dyson’s motto?

A．We are all failures — at least the best of us are.

B．The foundation stones for a success are honesty, faith, love and loyalty.

C．It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves.

D．The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

【推荐3】My husband and I used to think we had all we had ever wanted.A beautiful house,three healthy children and one more on the way,two cars,a couple of four-wheelers for entertainment—We really had it all and we loved it. Then,the market turned and my husband's job at a construction company was gone.The company was closing down forever.

We both started looking for jobs right away,but there weren't any to be found.With each passing day we were getting increasingly worried and we continued to work together in order to pull our family through.The more we pulled together,the closer we got.I felt feelings of admiration for my husband that I hadn't felt for years.

That's why it was so hard for me to watch him blame himself for ou present situation.I continually asked him to stop but he seemed to want to punish himself for not having a job.

Finally,one afternoon I pulled him aside and said,"We have four healthy children and each other.That's what's important.That makes you a rich man."

"But what if we lose the house?They will hate me—you'll hate me,"he replied.

I smiled at him and put my hands on both sides of his face to make him look me in the eye."No matter where we live I will be happy—as long as I have you,"I smiled again as I realized that I wasn't just saying that.In all the struggling together I had found that deep love for him that I had on the day we said "I do".

I could see his shoulders and neck relaxed.He held me close and we were able to talk and plan and dream together in a way that we hadn't for quite some time.It was a turning point for us as a couple and a family.

We are still struggling for our better life,but I consider us well-off because we have something that money can't buy and no one can take away from us.

1. We know from the story that       .

A．they both found good jobs at last

B．her husband was out of work for his not working hard

C．both of them felt anxious about their unemployment

D．they didn't love each other any longer after they got married

2. By saying "The more we pulled together,the closer we got",the wife means       .

A．her husband worked harder for being closer

B．they had closer affection as they struggled together

C．their house was closer to the company than before

D．they were closer to another employment as time went by

3. What is their present life like?

A．Hard but warm.	B．Wealthy but annoying.
C．Hard and disturbing.	D．Comfortable and admiring.

4. Which of the following might be the best title?

A．Better Life Comes	B．Hard Time Goes
C．We Have It All	D．We Lose It All

【推荐2】The ex-wife murder

“Who shot her?” cried Mr. Rogers as he rushed into the hospital three minutes after his ex-wife died from a gunshot through her head.

“Just a minute, Mr. Rogers,” said Detective Timo.“We’ll have to ask you a few questions first. Although you have been divorced for the past six months, you still live in the same house with your ex-wife, Mary Ann, right?”

“That’s right,” replied Mr. Rogers.

“Did you have trouble recently?”

“Well… yesterday, when I told her I was going on a business trip, she threatened to kill herself. I had to take a bottle of iodine (碘酒) quickly from her hands because she was about to drink it. When I left last night at seven, I told her I was spending the night with friends in Sewickley. She didn’t argue. And I got back to town this afternoon,” continued Mr. Rogers. “I called home and the maid answered.”

“Just what did she say?”asked Detective Timo.

“She said,‘Oh, Mr. Rogers, they took the poor mistress to St. Ann’s Hospital about half an hour ago. Please hurry to her.’She was crying, so I couldn’t get anything else out of her. Then I hurried here. Where is she?"

“The nurse will show you," said Detective Timo with a nod.

“A strange case," said the police. “This couple is a little too much for me! A man and a woman living together after being divorced six months! ”

“Did anyone tell Mr. Rogers that Mary Ann died from a gunshot before he arrived?” asked Detective Timo, deep in thought.

“Nobody did. I ordered everyone who knows the details of the case not to discuss it. ”

“That’s the point. You’d better detain (拘留) Mr. Rogers. If he didn’t shoot her himself, I’m sure he knows who did.”

1. Where did the police and Detective Timo talk with Mr.Rogers?

A．In the hospital.	B．At the police station.
C．In Mr.Rogers’home.	D．In Mr.Rogers’friend’s home.

2. What is the correct order of the events of the story?
a.Mr.Rogers argued with his wife.
b.Mr.Rogers rushed to the hospital.
c.Mr.Rogers went on a trip.
d.Mr.Rogers’ex-wife was killed.
e.Mr.Rogers called his maid.

A．abced

B．cdeba

C．acdeb

D．bdaec

3. What most probably led Detective Timo to suspect Mr.Rogers?

A．Mr.Rogers argued with Mary Ann before the murder took place.

B．Mr.Rogers still lived with Mary Ann after being divorced for six months.

C．Mr.Rogers went back to town very quickly after Mary Ann was murdered.

D．Mr.Rogers asked“who shot her”though no one told him Mary Ann was shot.

4. What can the passage be taken from?

A．A report.	B．A novel.
C．A collection of poems.	D．A project handbook.

【推荐3】I’ve worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school, but making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning is torture. My friends never seem to understand why I’m so relieved to be back at school or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.

There’re few people as self-confident as a college student who had never been out in the real world. People my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.

The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.

After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other opinions have become only too clear. When I’m back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy rewrites seems too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale now ring true.

These lessons I’m learning, however valuable, are always tinged with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “This job pays well, but it’s hell on the body,” said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.

My experiences in the factories has inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.

1. What does the author think of his summer days while at college?

A．They brought him nothing but torture.

B．They were no holiday for him at all.

C．They were a relief from his hard work at school.

D．They offered him a chance to know more people.

2. What does the author say about college students?

A．They expect too much from the real world.	B．They have little interest in blue-collar life.
C．They have a feeling of trust in themselves.	D．They are not confident of their future.

3. In what important way has the author’s work experience changed him?

A．He learned to be more practical.	B．He acquired a sense of urgency.
C．He came to respect blue-collar workers.	D．He came to appreciate his college education.

4. Why does the author feel somewhat guilty?

A．He realizes there is a great divide between his life and that of blue-collar workers.

B．He looks down upon the mechanical work at the assembly line.

C．He has not done much to help his co-workers at the factory.

D．He has stayed at school just for the purpose of escaping from the real world.