1 . Is a picture worth a thousand words? We think so! Take a digital (数码的) photograph that answers this question: Why is Earth Day important to our planet?
The winning photographer will receive a digital camera, and the photo will be published in TIME for Kids magazine. Get details below.
●The competition is open to students from 8 to 13 years of age.
●Judges will look for originality (原创性), creativity, photo composition (构图) and relation to the Earth Day theme.
●Students must include their first name only; their e-mail address; a parent’s or a teacher’s e-mail address(very important), a caption (说明文字); the location in the photo; and the date when it was taken (must be between June 1, 2018, and December 20, 2019).
●Competition begins: October 9, 2019
●Competition closes: December 20, 2019
●To enter, students should visit timeforkids.com/2019earthdaycontest and follow instructions to provide an original digital photo.
●The winner will receive a digital camera.
●All entries must follow the official rules for consideration.
1. Who can take part in the Earth Day Photo Competition?| A．Students aged from 8 to 13. | B．Professional photographers. |
| C．Students and their teachers. | D．Students and their parents. |
| A．include their full name | B．post the photo on the Internet |
| C．provide information about the photo | D．provide parents’ email address |
| A．An exhibition guide. | B．An announcement. |
| C．An environment review. | D．An official report. |
2 . Do you always agree to do things that you are unwilling to do? Are you the type of person who always says "yes"? I've come to learn that it is very important to learn to say NO! It's okay. People are still going to like you. They may even respect you more because they know you are honest.
I'm not saying to say "no" to someone who really needs your help. I'm talking about refusing that meeting that you really do not want to attend or that birthday party that you don't want to be a guest at.
Think for a moment how you feel when you say YES to something that you really don't want to do. If you're like I once was，you can't sleep at night and you think about it too much. It weighs on your mind. You try to find ways out. Whatever you're saying to yourself，if you really wanted to go，you wouldn't have all of these thoughts.
So，why not just say NO from the beginning? Maybe you feel like if you don't show up at the meeting (by the way，it is not the one you must attend) your boss isn't going to like you or your co-workers won't respect you. Maybe you feel as if your mom，dad or sisters won't love you as much if you don't do everything for them that they ask every occasion.
If these people are your true friends，family members，or a good boss，they will like or love you the same no matter what. People treat you the way you teach them to, and if you're someone who always says "yes", then that's what they're expecting.
You need to do what is right for you. Of course we do have real obligations in life to fulfill，but we do not have to do everything others want us to do.
1. Which of the following statements would the writer agree with?| A．We should try to do what our friends ask us to do. |
| B．We should help others in need. |
| C．Always saying "no" means you are brave. |
| D．Always saying "yes" means you are dishonest. |
| A．Saying "yes". |
| B．A friend's birthday party. |
| C．Something you're unwilling to do. |
| D．Something you think difficult to do. |
| A．upset them |
| B．disappoint them |
| C．have a loose relationship with them |
| D．have the same relationship with them as before |
| A．Learn to Make a Right Choice |
| B．To Be Yourself |
| C．Learn to Say No |
| D．Do What You Want to Do |
3 . The place of exposure to the greatest amount of allergen（过敏原）for the longest time is in the bedroom. Up to 60% of the dust mites（螨虫）found in the home are actually living in your bed and you spend about one-third of your life in the bedroom! And, bedrooms are the easiest area to control as an allergen free zone. Your cleaning professional will first vacuum the mattress（垫子）, carpeting and furniture using a vacuum cleaner.
The mattress is then thoroughly cleaned on all surfaces using the Responsible Care cleaning agents and a special low moisture cleaning tool designed to leave the mattress as dry as possible. Following cleaning, Allergy Relief Treatment is applied to all mattress surfaces using a fine mist application. The mattress is then placed in a drying position and a special air mover used to speed the drying process, which, depending upon temperature and humidity, normally takes about an hour.
The same safe cleaning agents are used to clean the bedroom carpeting and if desired, any furniture or rugs. This is also followed by an application of Allergy Relief Treatment. Once again, a speed drying system is set up to dry the cleaned items as quickly as possible and bring the humidity down to normal levels. Baseboards and windowsills are cleaned as well. While the cleaning and treatment service is being performed it is highly recommended that the bedding and pillows be washed in hot water and that two cups of Allergy Relief Treatment be added to the washing cycle.
While servicing the bedroom is the highest priority（优先）, significant benefits may also result from cleaning and treating other areas where allergy sufferers spend lots of time. These areas include the furniture and carpeting in rooms where time is spent watching television, reading and so on. Also, carpeted areas that pets have access to should be cleaned and treated.
A test for the presence of dust mites in quantities requiring treatment is also available from our company. But we will only test dust mites and will not provide information on pet allergen.
1. Which place has the most dust mites in your room?| A．Bed. | B．Carpet. |
| C．Furniture. | D．Floor. |
| A．The use of cleaning agents. |
| B．The surfaces of mattress. |
| C．Cleaning the mattress. |
| D．Drying the mattress. |
| A．It is a cure to allergy. |
| B．It is a tool to kill mites. |
| C．It is the name of a company. |
| D．It is a chemical to prevent allergy. |
| A．A magazine about furniture. |
| B．The website of a cleaning company. |
| C．The website of a hospital. |
| D．A newspaper on public health. |
4 . Living with your parents has its advantages… at least when it comes to raising your kids—their grandkids. Because two new studies add to the evidence that grandmothers can improve the survival of grandchildren. That is, unless Grandma’s too old or lives too far away.
Humans are unusual in that women live long past the age at which they stop having babies. “We don’t really see that in nature. Most of the organisms (生物) will reproduce up to their very last moment,” says Patrick Bergeron, a teacher at Bishop’s University in Quebec. This increase in post-reproductive longevity (寿命) is often explained by the so-called “grandmother effect (效应)”.
To explore the “grandmother effect”, Bergeron and his researchers examined nearly 200 years’ worth of French-Canadian population records from the 17th and 18th centuries. At the time, life was hard. In some years, a third of the kids were not even making it to one year of age. But the researchers found that having a grandmother still alive was an advantage. Families with grandmothers alive were larger by about two and the survival of these grandchildren to age 15 was much improved.
This good effect was only seen when the grandmothers lived nearby, which suggests that grandmothers help by playing an active role in their grandchildren’s lives.
Unluckily, that role is harder for them to achieve as they get older, which brings us to the second study. Researchers at the University of Turku in Finland used church records from the 18th and 19th centuries. They found that the advantages connected with having a grandmother on hand depended on her age. Once grandmothers hit 75, the grandchild survival advantages disappeared. In other words, it was better for grandchildren to have no living grandmother at all than it was to live with an old one or one that was in poor health. So a healthy grandma helps make for a healthy grandchild
1. What’s “grandmother effect”?| A．Having a grandmother alive is an advantage. |
| B．Grandmothers are helpful to their children whatever their age. |
| C．Grandmothers are helpful for the survival of their grandchildren. |
| D．Healthy grandmothers living nearby are good for grandchildren’s health. |
| A．Researchers used French-Canadian population records. |
| B．Researchers used church records from the 17th and 18th centuries. |
| C．It was done by researchers from the University of Turku in Finland. |
| D．It found that it was good for grandchildren to have no living grandmother. |
| A．A science report. | B．A diary |
| C．A storybook. | D．A textbook. |
5 . I never saw my father home from work late or ill, nor did I ever see my father take a “night out with the boys”. He had no hobbies but just took care of his family.
For 22 years, since I left home for college, my father called me every Sunday at 9:00 am. He was always interested in my life----how my family was doing. The calls even came when he and my mother were in Australia, England or Florida.
Nine years ago when I bought me first house, my father, 67 years old, spent eight hours a day for three days, painting my house. He would not allow me to pay someone to have it done. All he asked was a glass of iced tea, and that I hold a paintbrush for him and talk to him. But I was too busy, for I had a law practice to run, and I could not take the time to hold the paintbrush, or talk to my father.
Five years ago, my 71-year-old father spent five hours putting together a swing set (秋千) for my daughter. Again, all he asked was that I get him a glass of iced tea, and talk to him. But again, I had laundry to do, and the house to clean.
The morning on Sunday, January 16, 1995, my father telephoned me as usual, this time he had seemed to have forgotten some things we had discussed the week before. I had to get to church, and I cut the conversation short.
The call came at 4:40 am. That day my father was sent to hospital in Florida. I got on a plane immediately, and I vowed (发誓) that when I arrived, I would make up for the lost time, and have a nice long talk with him and really get to know him.
I arrived in Florida at 1:00 am, but my father had passed away at 9:12 pm. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or time to wait for me.
In the years since his death I have learnt much about my father, and even more about every single day.
1. We know from the reading that the father_____.| A．liked to paint houses |
| B．had no friends around him |
| C．was not healthy in his youth |
| D．thought of his family as his all |
| A．could only afford a glass of iced tea |
| B．was too busy to talk to her father |
| C．could do nothing but hold a paintbrush |
| D．spent eight hours a day working with her father |
| A．seemed to be a little different |
| B．had no time to phone her as usual |
| C．became interested in church |
| D．had forgotten to discuss some things with her |
| A．Painting Houses |
| B．Daughter’s Family |
| C．Father and I |
| D．Father’s phone calls |
6 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in the United States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier, "Paper or plastic？"Well, which type of bag would you choose？
While both types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, are broken down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true？
Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production.
And the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happen to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly. In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environment friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to recycle paper.
Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered as the more harmful of the two by governments. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.
There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. That may be because they fall apart quickly. If so, cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”
1. The question at the end of Paragraph 1 is used to ________.| A．introduce points for discussion |
| B．tell readers how to save money |
| C．express the author's doubts |
| D．show the kindness of the cashier |
| A．take more time to break down |
| B．require less energy to recycle |
| C．need more water to produce |
| D．have less influence on forests |
| A．share | B．put forward |
| C．discuss | D．give up |
| A．Paper or cloth? |
| B．A new bag or your own one? |
| C．A small bag or big one? |
| D．Paper or plastic？ |
