1 . What is the greatest threat to mankind? Maybe different people come up with different answers. However, there is no denying the fact that the only threat to humankind, apart from humankind itself, is, without any doubt, the nature. Natural disasters are the result of natural environmental processes that have a damaging effect on people. Natural disasters can come in many forms: such as geological events like earthquakes, tsunamis or mud-rock flows, climatic events like storms, hurricanes or tornadoes and fire events like forest fires and wildfires.
The damage done by natural disasters is mainly as a result of our inability to predict exactly when they will happen. Although great progress has been made in designing and developing forecasting models for some natural disaster, complete certainty is still impossible. Even to be pessimistic there is a possibility that human beings will never achieve accurate prediction of the happening of all natural disasters.
What's more, even though we were able to predict these disasters from nature, preventing them is equally impossible. So we only have two ways to both prevent injuries or deaths and reduce economic losses to the least. These two methods are to prepare before a natural disaster comes to hit, and to manage the necessary resources and public services after a natural disaster strikes.
These two things have always been at the leading position of the projects of both national governments and international organizations. In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is responsible for the "preparedness, response and recovery planning" of both man-made and natural disasters.
Most natural disasters cannot be prevented, and both emergency preparation and good disaster management are the best ways to deal with them. Although natural events may appear to serve no purpose but simply to punish and destroy, natural disasters, a perfect symbol of the great power of the nature, are display of our planet's evolution and its state of change.
1. Which can't be regarded as a similarity between tornadoes and earthquakes?| A．They can not be prevented. |
| B．They are both geological events. |
| C．They cause damage to people. |
| D．They are both the result of natural environmental processes. |
| A．it is very difficult to predict when exactly they will happen |
| B．our forecasting equipment is too old for many natural disasters |
| C．we don't do enough preparation before natural disasters strike |
| D．we don't have the necessary public services to use after natural disasters strike |
| A．natural disasters can not be predicted at all |
| B．human beings are pessimistic to the future |
| C．being well-prepared can avoid economic losses |
| D．good preparation and disaster management are advisable. |
| A．a symbol of the power of nature | B．the greatest threat to mankind |
| C．Natural disasters and mankind | D．reduce losses to the least |
2 . Long school holidays help students clear their heads, relax a little and stretch their brains in different ways.
Traditionally, schooling schedules have long been based more on the needs of society than on education strategies(策略). For example, in Iceland it was traditionally arranged to allow children to help out with harvest. Other countries have long summer vacations because it is simply too hot to study. In other areas where religion plays an important role in the holiday season, the religion calendar then calls for the break, so that students can have enough time to participate in the religious ceremonies(仪式) and traditions of seasonal holidays.
There are some obvious advantages to a vacation that lasts longer. Families who live a long distance from relatives are able to travel together, sometimes across the ocean, in order to connect with their loved ones. Even if there is no visiting family far away, a long holiday is a great opportunity for kids to interact with the people. From an educational point of view, a child that is able to experience another culture can gain valuable language, history, and social skills.
Long school holidays are also needed in schools that have become overly academic and too exam-focused in recent years, which requires a considerably longer holiday break from such a “marathon pumping (灌输) of knowledge,” and it makes great sense!
Great psychologists, like Freud and Piaget, have stressed play’s central role in the formation of fully-rounded (全面发展的) individuals, so the long holiday achieves this by allowing students to explore the world outside school. The students get to participate in activities that would be difficult to do during a normal school term.
As a consequence, long school holiday can be quite useful to our students!
1. What traditionally determines the arrangement of school holidays?| A．Local needs. | B．Cultural activities. |
| C．Religious customs. | D．Academic performance. |
| A．Students run away from exams. |
| B．Family bonds are strengthened. |
| C．Fewer courses are required at school. |
| D．Children can learn science and history. |
| A．holiday activities are necessary |
| B．schools need longer holidays |
| C．play is more important than learning |
| D．students should travel around the world |
| A．Traditional School Holidays |
| B．Activities for Long Holidays |
| C．Benefits of Long Holidays |
| D．Advice from Psychologists |
3 . I have a neighbour we call “Happy”．I have never seen her angry at anything and never heard her say a harsh (苛刻的) word to anyone or about anyone.
Happy and her husband Ben, 70，have a huge garden. They spent many happy hours together working on it. Most of the neighbours watched interestingly as Ben doubled the size of their garden. As the cost of food climbed faster than Ben’s beans，we all wished we also had such a large garden. As the rest of us spent our dollars at the market，Happy could be seen picking beans in her back yard.
Last month，Happy and Ben invited most of the neighbourhood over for an “all-day food fest”．We were told to bring gloves and arrive very early in the morning. We didn’t know what was about to take place.
By 9：00 am，there were nine of us in the garden picking tomatoes，beans，okra and squash. By 10：00 am，there was lots of laughter. We shared a lot of stories. By five o'clock，everyone was a little drunk from the wine and beer. After dinner，we played games. As we were leaving，Happy and Ben handed each of us a shopping bag filled with the bounty (收成) of the day，already packaged and frozen. What a delightful gift!
Well，the point wasn’t so much about the food. The true gift was a day of friends enjoying one another’s company. None of it would have happened if it had not been for Happy and Ben’s garden. Now they have a blog about gardening in case we decide to plant a garden. And I am so proud of my tomato plants!
1. We can infer that Happy and her husband Ben .| A．are a generous and warmhearted couple |
| B．sometimes quarrel with each other |
| C．live on the food they grow in their garden |
| D．don’t like spending time with others |
| A．they didn’t have to spend so much money on food |
| B．they could grow vegetables and sell them at the market |
| C．they could invite their neighbours and hold parties in it |
| D．they could spend happy time together with their family in it |
| A．To ask them to attend a birthday party. |
| B．To help them get to know each other. |
| C．To let them enjoy what they grew in the garden. |
| D．To ask them to share some interesting stories. |
| A．The writer used to have a big garden. |
| B．The writer didn’t like the food he received. |
| C．It was the first time for the writer to stay with so many people. |
| D．The writer has also started to grow vegetables. |
4 . Earlier research had suggested we're best at learning grammar in early childhood. Then we hit a dead end around age 5. It's supposed to be much harder for older kids. The time when people can learn the rules and structure of a language well appears to last until around age 17 or 18. “But that's not so, ”says psychologist（心理学家）Joshua Hartshorne.
Hartshorne asked friends to take an online English grammar test. After completing the test, volunteers answered questions about where they had lived, the languages they had spoken from birth and the age at which they first started learning English. Hartshorne also asked how long they had lived in an English-speaking country. As he had hoped, people shared the test widely online. This let Hartshorne's group study the answers from 669, 498 native and non-native speakers of English. The researchers used statistics to find out when people with different English-speaking experiences reached their top grammar ability.
If people moved to a new country and began speaking English by age 10 to 12, they finally spoke it as well as folks who had learned both English and another language from birth. But both groups scored a little worse than people who spoke English only, the researchers found. The test results showed that around age 17, people's ability to learn grammar took a sharp drop. And those who started learning English after age 10 or 12 never reached the same level of English skillfulness as people who started younger. Why？The researchers think it's because they had fewer years to practice before their skills dropped off at surprise：Language learning did not end at 17. People's English skills kept improving a little until around age 30, the new study found. And this was true among both native speakers and those who learned English as a second language. Still, most language learning happened by age 20, the new study decided.
1. What age period is best for grammar learning according to earlier research？| A．From 17 to 20. | B．From 5 to 12. |
| C．Before age 5. | D．From 20 to 30. |
| A．By experimenting in the lab. | B．By making an online survey. |
| C．By studying historical records. | D．By collecting earlier study results. |
| A．Language learning needs much practice. |
| B．Language learning ends at the age of 17. |
| C．The more languages you learn, the better. |
| D．It is best to learn language after 20 years old. |
| A．How native speakers learn English？ |
| B．What's the best age to learn a language？ |
| C．What's the best way to learn a foreign language？ |
| D．Why non-native speakers can never master a second language？ |
5 . We all have one shirt in the closet that we don’t want to get rid of, yet keeping around because we can’t bear to just throw it in the garbage. We don’t wear it anymore. Being a little out of style, your old T-shirt needs a new home where it can be appreciated. One city in Toronto has started a project to give it one.
Earlier this year the Toronto suburbs of Markham introduced a new program encouraging its residents and residents of nearby suburbs to donate their old unwanted clothing. The program is exceptional because unlike most of those second-hand stores, they are accepting old clothing that isn’t quite in perfect condition. It is breathing new life into these typically-trashed items. Contrary to common belief, textiles（纺织品）are not only used for clothing, and these items are being re-purposed in a variety of interesting ways.
The city has set up many different donation centers around the suburbs and residents are encouraged to donate any unwanted textiles they happen to have lying around their house. It’s volunteers’ duty to divide the donations into different sorts. Those items in usable and good condition are donated to local homeless shelters and other aid centers. Those which are not are shipped off to be used for industrial purposes. Only when there is no more industrial need for fabric and textiles will they begin to use their last place — a landfill outside the city.
The program isn’t the city’s only green initiative (倡议). It has already had one of Canada and the world’s largest solar panels, and it is said that they are steadily working towards a shift to 100% renewable energy. The city also has subsidized (补助) farmers’ markets and over 125 miles of bike paths. As a result, Markham also has a much lower rate of obesity than other Canadian cities. Now, it’s working towards another goal — 100% recycling of unwanted textiles.
1. What does the underlined word “one” in paragraph refer to?| A．A shirt. | B．A city. |
| C．A home. | D．A closet. |
| A．Sell them in good condition. | B．Sort through the donations. |
| C．Share them with poor kids. | D．Send them for industrial use. |
| A．The city has been the best place to live in Canada. |
| B．The program is more successful than expected. |
| C．The citizens have fallen in love with the city. |
| D．The city is working hard to be a green one. |
| A．One Canadian city is giving old clothing a new life. |
| B．Old clothes are becoming more useful in Canada. |
| C．Rubbish has been put into wide use in Canada. |
| D．Donation centers become popular in Canada. |
6 . When you are travelling, whether on business or for pleasure, you often need to stay in a hotel. The kind of hotel you choose probably is decided above all according to how much money you want to spend. There are small hotels with very few services,where the prices are low, or there are large hotels with all the very latest comforts,where you could spend all the money you have in the bank for one very comfortable night.
There are several different kinds of people who go to hotels. Some want to live, rather than just stay in a hotel. The hotels which are designed to meet their needs are called residential hotels(公寓旅馆). However, most people who stay in hotels are either business people or tourists on holiday.
In most hotels, there are two kinds of rooms: single rooms, for the use of one person, and double rooms, for the use of two people. In addition, in large hotels, there are also suites (套房) , which include two or more rooms connected together - perhaps a bed-room and a living room. They are for people who are very rich or very important.
1. One's choice of a particular hotel is made mainly according to ____.| A．how much one is willing to pay for a night |
| B．whether one is travelling on business or for pleasure |
| C．whether the hotel is in the central part of a city |
| D．how good the services of the hotel are |
| A．live in a new hotel with a suite |
| B．stay in a single room of a hotel |
| C．stay in a double room of a hotel |
| D．stay in a suite of a modern hotel |
| A．he will become poor |
| B．he has to pay a lot of money |
| C．he has to spend all the money he was in the bank |
| D．he has to pay some money |
7 . “The price of books for our students is just getting higher and higher and，combined with the rising cost of tuition，it’s killing these students，”said Peter Jason，a college professor. “Remember，students are one of the poorest groups of people in America. Almost half of them have at least one part-time job. In fact，one of my students has three jobs. And she still manages to have high scores and go to school full-time. ”
Textbook prices are traditionally high. Adding to that problem, many college teachers change textbooks year after year; they either upgrade to a new edition or switch to an entirely different textbook. This further hurts students because if an instructor no longer uses a particular textbook，that book has no resale value.
Dr. Jason decided to make reading a little easier and a lot cheaper for his students by writing his own book on public speaking. “Many books have an increased price because of CD-ROMs，lots of color photographs and pictures. I talked to my students，and many of them，like me，prefer to keep things simple! So，a few years ago，I wrote my own textbook. Compared to most other public speaking books，mine is half the number of pages，and one-third the price. That is，$30 instead of $90. When I wrote a second edition last year，students only had to buy the 35 new pages, For only $7. 00，they had almost a new book. Now my loose-leaf textbook enjoys great popularity among the students. Maybe in the future more writers and publishers will try it. ”
1. What did Dr. Jason say about students at college?| A．They are short of money. |
| B．They need better textbooks. |
| C．They should do part-time jobs. |
| D．They are trying to get high scores. |
| A．To choose cheaper textbooks. |
| B．To write a textbook himself. |
| C．To speak to his students. |
| D．To use old textbooks. |
| A．About 7 dollars. | B．About 30 dollars. |
| C．About 37 dollars. | D．About 90 dollars. |
| A．Dr. Jason’s textbook has CD-ROMs and nice pictures. |
| B．More writers and publishers will write simpler textbooks. |
| C．Dr. Jason teaches public speaking at a college. |
| D．Dr. Jason’s textbook is not well received. |
8 . Macinley Butson was just 16 years old when she first had the idea to try and protect women from more — than — necessary radiation during breast cancer treatments—and now, her invention could be a game-changer in the medical field.
Butson, whose father works in medical physics, has always been interested in science. But she only began researching the harmful side effects of radiation treatment after her father discussed his experience with ineffective cancer treatments in his work. Since Butson had also recently lost a relative to breast cancer, she felt inspired to conduct her own research on the subject. She tried to begin her medical research by consulting scientific journals, but she found their academic terms almost impossible to understand.
She then turned to the Internet to find videos that taught how to read scientific journals. As she went deeper in her research, she stumbled upon a key bit of information: copper （铜）has been shown to be effective at protecting skin from radiation. An idea hit this Australian teen as she was viewing a film on medieval wars in her 10th grade history class. When she saw the scaled （鳞片） patterns of the mail （盔甲）,she was inspired to create a wearable protective tool out of copper. She then headed back online and watched videos on how to put together tiny scales. She made her own flexible scale-mail which she now calls SMART: Scale Mail for Radiation Therapy.
When her invention was tested in a laboratory setting, it reduced surface exposure to unnecessary radiation by 75%. And now Butson is working on getting her SMART into clinical settings for use.
1. Why did Macinley Butson start her research?| A．To assist her father with his work. | B．To save her relative from cancer. |
| C．To publish some articles in journals. | D．To find effective ways to treat cancer. |
| A．Came across. | B．Missed. |
| C．Passed on. | D．Required. |
| A．Videos online. | B．Scientific journals. |
| C．History textbooks. | D．Soldiers defensive clothes. |
| A．Stubborn. | B．Creative. |
| C．Selfless. | D．Considerate. |
9 . Cambridge Arts Theatre has a diverse range of shows which will supplement and support the national school curriculum(课程). We offer a variety of activities and materials to support the performances, so the experience doesn’t end with the final curtain.
FLARE PATH
28 September-3 October
Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day), Terence Rattigan’s classic play will help students connect with World War II. Set in 1942, Flare Path paints a portrait(描绘)of life in wartime Britain for the Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots and their wives and sweethearts who were left awaiting their return. Suitable for ages 12+
AN INSPECTOR CALLS
6-10 October
Stephen Daldry’s multi-award winning play, written at the end of the Second World War and set before the First, An Inspector Calls is a great detective thriller, perfect for students of English. An in-depth resource pack(资料包)will improve understanding of this brilliant play. Suitable for ages 12+
HORRIBLE HISTORIES
27-31 October
It’s time to prepare yourselves for Horrible Histories live on stage. Using actors and 3D special effects, these two world premieres(首次公演)of Groovy Greeks and Incredible Invaders are guaranteed to thrill you and your children. Historical figures and events will come alive on stage. Activity packs are accessible to further your half-term fun (and secret learning)! Suitable for ages 7+
THE GRUFFALO
10-15 November
Join Mouse on an adventurous journey through the deep, dark wood in Tall Stories’ magical, musical adaptation of The Gruffalo, based on the award-winning picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Online activities are accessible to continue the adventures! Suitable for ages 3+ (and their grown-ups)
1. What is Flare Path mainly about?| A．A portrait lost in Britain. | B．A celebration of VE Day. |
| C．RAF pilots’ life in World War II. | D．The RAF’s achievement in the war. |
| A．Axel Scheffler. | B．Julia Donaldson. | C．Terence Rattigan. | D．Stephen Daldry. |
| A．Flare Path. | B．The Gruffalo. |
| C．Horrible Histories. | D．An Inspector Calls. |
Too much TV-watching can harm children’s ability to learn and even reduce their chances of getting a college degree, new studies suggest in the latest effort to examine the effects of television on children.
One of the studies looked at nearly 400 northern California third-graders. Those with TVs in their bedrooms scored about eight points lower on math and language arts tests than children without bedrooms TVs.
A second study, looking at nearly 1,000 grown-ups in New Zealand, found lower education levels among 26-year-olds who had watched lots of TV during childhood. But the results don’t prove that TV is the cause and don’t rule out that already poorly motivated youngsters(年轻人) may watch lots of TV.
Their study measured the TV habits of 26-year-olds between ages 5 and 15. Those with college degrees had watched an average of less than two hours of TV per weeknight during childhood, compared with an average of more than 2.5 hours for those who had no education beyond high school.
In the California study, children with TVs in their rooms but no computer at home scored the lowest, while those with no bedroom TV but who had home computers scored the highest.
While this study does not prove that bedroom TV sets caused the lower scores, it adds to accumulating findings that children shouldn’t have TVs in their bedrooms.
1. According to the California study, the low-scoring group might ________.| A．have watched a lot of TV | B．not be interested in math |
| C．be unable to go to college | D．have had computers in their bedrooms |
| A．Poorly motivated 26-year-olds watch more TV. |
| B．Habits of TV watching reduce learning interest. |
| C．TV watching leads to lower education levels of the 15-year-olds. |
| D．The connection between TV and education levels is difficult to explain. |
| A．More time should be spent on computers. |
| B．Children should be forbidden from watching TV. |
| C．TV sets shouldn’t be allowed in children’s bedrooms. |
| D．Further studies on high-achieving students should be done. |
| A．Computers or Television |
| B．Effects of Television on Children |
| C．Studies on TV and College Education |
| D．Television and Children’s Learning Habits |
