【推荐1】How to improve our life? Many people think that they have to accept whatever life throws at them. They’ll say, “This is my destiny(命运). I cannot change it.”
Of course not! You don’t have to suffer needlessly. Your life depends on you, not on other factors.
I know a woman who says she just accepts what life gives her because she has done everything she can to improve it. Guess what her lifestyle is? She wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes back home, relaxes, chats with people, watches TV, and then goes to sleep. Next day, the same routine cycle follows.
Huh! Is this what she calls “doing her best”? She believes she has tried her best and just accepts it in her heart that this is the life that has been intended for her and that her luck can only change if God wills it. She hasn’t realized that we have to do our share of making the effort to live the life of our dreams.
Remember that you harvest what you sow. You have to get off the sofa, get your eyes off the TV screen, get your hands off the phone (unless it’s helpful to your success), and get your mind and body to work! Don’t expect your luck to change, unless you do something about it. If something goes wrong, don’t just regard it as a temporary(暂时的) problem; Instead, learn your lesson, make the most of the situation, and do something to solve the problem. It’s not enough to think positively; you also have to act positively.
If someone’s life is in trouble, do you just hope and pray that things will turn out fine? Of course not! You get to do anything you can to save the person. So it is with your own life. It is not enough to hope for the best, but you have to do your best. In other words, don’t just stand (or sit) there, do something to improve your life.
1. According to the woman mentioned in Para.3, her life________.

A．doesn’t need improving

B．couldn’t be improved

C．will be better some day

D．will be worse in the future

2. What does the author think of the woman’s life?

A．Positive.	B．Passive.
C．Disturbing.	D．Colorful.

3. In Para.5, the author emphasized the importance of ________.

A．positive action	B．positive thinking
C．hope for the best	D．intention to succeed

4. The text is mainly written to advise you to _________.

A．understand yourself	B．believe in yourself
C．improve your life	D．change your normal way

【推荐3】Dear Mr. Rupp,
The day I met you was the first day of high school. We liked each other immediately. You gave me a lot of advice over the next four years, like how I should get my ass to Berkeley where I belonged. I’m still there, by the way. I wish you were still around, too.
I remember your laugh, which would start with a rough guffaw(狂笑) and end with a hacking smoker’s cough that would make even the most rebellious (叛逆的) teenager decide to____ the cigarettes. I remember the way you didn’t lower your standards, yet still refused to give up on us. You were tough on us, and we were tough on you. Love is tough sometimes.
The last time I wrote you a letter, it was 2005---four years after I graduated. I had just become a teacher, like you, and it had given me a new appreciation for the work you did with countless high school students over the years.
It’s hard to say what I’ll miss the most about you. There are simply too many memories to sort through those four years, and it hurts to think you’ll never read this letter. I want to believe that you knew how much you meant to your family , your students, your community, and your colleagues, but that would be a lot of realization to handle, even for you.
You changed the lives of everyone around you. Even now, you are reminding me to cherish life and its brevity and beauty, and to tell the people I love how much they mean to me before it is too late.
Dear teacher, dear mentor, and dear friend----I miss you and all that is about you. God bless you in Heaven.
To infinity and beyond,
Teresea
1. What does the underlined phrase “lay off” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?

A．like

B．get into

C．give out

D．throw away

2. When did the author meet her teacher---Mr. Rupp?

A．In 1997

B．In 2001

C．In 2005

D．In 2009

3. Why did the author write a letter to her teacher in 2005?

A．She wanted to tell her teacher that she had become a teacher.

B．She had some difficulties in study and needed her teacher’s help.

C．She wanted to be a teacher and needed her teacher’s instruction.

D．She wanted to borrow some books from her teacher.

4. When the author wrote this letter, her teacher—Mr. Rupp was_______.

A．about to die	B．seriously ill
C．dead	D．in good shape

【推荐1】When you walk on a sandy beach, it takes more energy than walking down a sidewalk, because the weight of your body pushes into the sand. It turns out that the same thing is true for vehicles driving on roads.

"The weight of the vehicles creates a very shallow indentation（凹陷）in the pavement, and it makes it such that it's continuously driving up a very shallow hill," said Jeremy Gregory, a scientist at MIT. He modeled with his teammates how much energy could be saved, and greenhouse gases avoided, by simply hardening the nation's roads and highways.

And they found that hardening 10 percent of the nation's roads every year could prevent emissions equal to 440 megatons of carbon dioxide over the next 5 decades—that amount is equal to how much CO2 you'd spare the planet by keeping a billion barrels of oil in the ground or by growing 7 billion trees for a decade. It reduces 0.5% of projected transportation emissions over that time period.

As for how to harden roads, Gregory says you could combine small amounts of certain fiber with high technology into paving materials. Or you could pave with specially-made concrete, which is harder than ordinary construction materials.

This system could also be a way to shave carbon emissions without some of the usual barriers. "Usually, when it comes to reducing emissions in the transportation department, you're talking about changing policies related to vehicles and also driver behavior, which involves millions and millions of people---as opposed to changing the way we design and preserve our pavements. That's just on the order of thousands of people who are working in transportation agencies." And when it comes to improving our streets and highways, those agencies are where you might say the rubber meets the road.

1. What's the main idea of Paragraph 3?

A．It's valuable to harden roads.

B．It's necessary to reduce carbon dioxide.

C．We should harden roads to protect oil and trees.

D．We should take measures to prevent CO2 emissions.

2. According to Gregory, which could be the possible way to harden roads?

A．Using regular building materials.

B．Creating hi-tech computer models.

C．Changing traditional paving materials.

D．Mixing fiber with special-made concrete.

3. Which of the following is one of the benefits of hardening roads?

A．It profits transportation agencies.

B．It avoids involving too many people.

C．It offers people more job chances.

D．It creates new policies on vehicles.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．How to Harden Roads.	B．Sandy Beaches or Sidewalks?
C．Harden Roads to Save Energy.	D．Ways to Cut Down Carbon Emissions.

【推荐2】Russian police have started a new attempt to get drivers to slow down at zebra crossings by having painted horses as zebras walk across on the busiest streets in some of the big cities in an attempt to improve road safety and raise awareness among Russia’s notoriously (臭名昭著地) careless drivers.

The light grey horses, painted with black stripes, carried signs on their backs reading: “Careful, children are on their way to school.” The police sent the “zebras” to several different locations in the Russian capital, where officials in orange vests walked them over zebra crossings and handed out leaflets (传单) to passing drivers.

Some held up rainbow-coloured umbrellas over the painted animals to protect them from the rain. Russian roads are notoriously dangerous and drivers still rarely take the initiative (主动采取措施) to avoid pedestrians. Nearly half of all traffic accidents in the country’s big cities are caused by cars hitting pedestrians, and a third of those occur on crossings, according to traffic police figures published last month.

In the first six months of this year, 378 people were killed and more than 6, 600 injured on pedestrian crossings in Russia, according to police. In Moscow alone, 43 people were killed, including two children.

Though police officials said that only safe paint would be used on the animals, animal rights activists still disagreed with the idea, accusing the police of “treating animals like garbage”.

“Children understand that paints are bad for animals,” the Interfax news agency quoted president of Vita animal rights group Irina Novozhilova as saying.

Let’s hope this part of the campaign is over and animals are left out of future attempts to raise pedestrians’ awareness.

1. Why do Moscow police have “zebras” walk across on the busiest streets?

A．To make a call on protecting animals.

B．To remind people zebras are in danger of extinction.

C．To tell people it is dangerous to cross streets.

D．To raise drivers’ awareness of road safety.

2. What does the underlined word “them” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．The zebras.	B．The horses.
C．The policemen.	D．The drivers.

3. From the text we can learn that ________.

A．most Russian drivers have realized the seriousness of the problem

B．Russian drivers often ignore traffic lights

C．Russian drivers seldom give way to pedestrians

D．the driving skills of Russian drivers are bad

4. What do animal rights activists think of the new attempt?

A．Drivers must slow down at pedestrian crossings.

B．These animals are ill-treated by the police.

C．The paints used on the horses are safe.

D．Road safety should be improved.

5. Which word can best describe the author’s attitude towards the campaign?

A．Critical.	B．Reserved.
C．Doubtful.	D．Positive.

【推荐3】German cities are redrawing road markings to create new cycle paths for the duration of the Covid-19 lockdown, as cyclists demand more space to physically distance on their way to work.

Local authorities in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin trialled（试行）temporary widening of two cycle paths on 27 March, arguing it would help cyclists keep the required 1.5-metre distance apart while car traffic was down owing to Germans' coronavirus（冠状病毒）restrictions.

On Friday, the council declared the plan a success because it had improved cycling safety while not blocking traffic.

The council said it had used removable tape and mobile signs to mark out the widened paths, which can be removed when the current restrictions on movement are lifted.

Residents in 133 other German cities have formally submitted applications for similar pop-up bike paths to their local authorities on the back of a campaign by Environmental Action Germany(DUH), an environmental NGO.

The campaign group cites new research linking air pollution to higher coronavirus death rates as an argument for redrawing road signs across the country. "The coronavirus is showing us that clean air is necessary," said DUH's chair, Jurgen Resch. "It is now especially important to temporarily make it more important for people to move safely on their bikes. This will help improve air quality, enable exercise in fresh air while keeping a safe distance and avoid unnecessary accidents."

In Germany, bike repair shops are allowed to work because of the Covid-19 going on. Three federal states, Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, have allowed bike shops to stay open.

1. Why did German cities decide to widen temporary cycle paths?

A．To avoid traffic jams.	B．To go to work conveniently.
C．To reduce air pollution.	D．To keep proper distance between cyclists.

2. How did the road workers sign the widened paths?

A．By using removable tape and signs.	B．By painting oil lines.
C．By hanging special boards.	D．By pulling up attractive ropes.

3. What does the underlined word "pop-up" in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Substituted.	B．Limited.
C．Expanded.	D．Separated.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Special measures is taken to raise the production of bicycles.

B．All transportation means except bicycling are forbidden.

C．The use of bicycles can stop the Covid-19 from going on.

D．Bicycle riding is encouraged to lower the risk of gathering.

【推荐1】Pingvellir National Park was founded by law in 1930. The Act states that “Pingvellir shall be protected national shrine (圣地) for all Icelanders.” In 2004 Pingvellir was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Facilities At Pingvellir National Park

The National Park Information Center at Leirar can provide advice on camping, fishing and hiking as well as other general information on the park. There is a small and comfortable cafeteria where drinks and light meals can be obtained.

At Hakio Visitor center is an interactive exhibition where the national park’s history and nature comes alive. Guests can also find there souvenir shop and small cafeteria.

Pingvellir National Park Rules

• All nature in the National Park is protected. Don’t disturb any natural or man-made feature.

• Do not damage vegetation. Fires are prohibited.

• Do not litter in the National Park.

•Do not drive off-road or park outside a designated (指定的) parking areas.

• Dogs must be kept on a leash (皮带), and owners must clean up after their pets.

•Note that the Pingvellir area has many rock fissures and cracks. Stay careful.

• Camping is only permitted at designated campsites. Observe quiet between midnight and 8 am.

• Fishing permits are sold at the service center. Note that boats must not be launched from National Park land.

• Park rangers and service center staff will be pleased to provide further information.

• Pingvellir National Park is a haven of peace. Drunkenness is inappropriate here, and disturbs other visitors. The National Park reserves that right to expel drunken visitors.

1. What’s this article probably from?

A．A warning notice.

B．A museum guide.

C．A travel leaflet.

D．An advertisement.

2. How should visitors act according to the Rules?

A．With permission and donation.	B．With freedom and pleasure.
C．With attention and calmness.	D．With caution and respect.

3. What can a visitor to the Park do?

A．Ask for advice at Visitor Center.	B．Walk pet dogs with dog leashes.
C．Fish in the lake without permits.	D．Camp only within the given time.