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 . Tired of your quiet day-to-day life? How about leaving your computer games behind and taking up an extreme sport?
You can ride a bicycle, right? In that case you’re halfway to becoming a mountain biker. All you have to do is take your bike off the road and try some hilly areas. Mountain biking was developed in California in the 1970s and became an Olympic sport in 1996.
Not challenging enough? Skydivers jump from planes at a height of 1,000 to 4,000 meters. You have to be fit but there’s no age limit with this sport. For example, Dilys Price from Cardiff went on her first jump aged 54. The minute she came down, she wanted to go up again. She said: “It was so attractive”.
Some adventures have invented base jumping, in which people jump from tall structures, such as buildings or bridges, with a parachute. Many of their jumps aren’t legal, especially in the cities.Dan Witchalls has jumped off The Shard —London’s 310 meter-high building four times.He says, “Base jumping is scarier than jumping out of a plane. In a plane there is no sense of height, but when you are standing on the edge of the building you can see people and cars, the experience makes it very real.”
It seems there’s no shortage of imagination when it comes to risking life to look cool and get the heart beating wildly. Surfing, diving, rock climbing ...And how about extreme ironing? That is, pressing your clothes on top of a mountain! Extreme ironing is said to have been created in the 1990s in England by a man who saw a large amount of wrinkled clothes and felt bored when doing the cloth ironing. That man was Phil Shaw. For him, the excitement of this sport comes from looking at the viewers’ faces. Shaw says, “Sometimes they look confused; sometimes they laugh. It’s fun to see how people react to it.”
1. What does the author think about mountain biking?| A．A bit boring. | B．Challenging indeed. |
| C．Great fun. | D．Not very hard. |
| A．Skydivers have to be very healthy. | B．Skydiving is not challenging enough. |
| C．Elderly people can also take up skydiving. | D．People can easily become crazy about skydiving. |
| A．The sense of height. | B．Base jumping experience. |
| C．The edge of the building. | D．Jumping out of a plane. |
| A．He liked ironing clothes. | B．He wanted to make clothes ironing more fun. |
| C．He enjoyed different looks on people's faces. | D．He had a good view standing on top of a mountain. |
3 . Todd wore the same clothes every day for the first three weeks of school. He was laughed at because of this. But there was little Todd could do. His mother simply couldn’t afford to buy him new clothes. Two of the kids laughing at Todd were Garrett and Graham, a pair of football players. But over time, they realized that their disparaging words seemed to be slowly destroying Todd’s spirit.
“I felt like I needed to do something,” Graham told CBS News. So he and Garrett created a plan. They went home and hunted through their own drawers and closets. The next day at school, they met Todd at their third-period class and asked him to come into the hall. Todd was understandably worried about being called out by the larger boys.
“He wasn’t smiling or anything, and I was like, ‘I think this is going to make you smile,’” Graham says. “I told him, ‘We’re in the same third period, and I apologize for laughing at you, and I want to give something to you to make it up’” He then handed Todd a large bag. Inside were clean shirts and shorts, as well as a brand-new pair of sneakers.
Todd was wild with joy. “I was very happy,” he told CBS News. “Shocked, completely.” And Todd got much more than some new clothes. He no longer sits alone at lunch. Now he cats with his new friends, Garrett and Graham.
Garrett and Graham say they just want to inspire others to help those in need.
1. What can we know about Todd?| A．He came from a poor family. | B．He wasn’t used to school life. |
| C．His taste for clothes was single. | D．His behavior brought others laughter. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Encouraging. | C．Unkind. | D．Selfish. |
| A．Garrett beat Graham in a competitive game. |
| B．Garrett and Graham became friendly to him. |
| C．Garrett and Graham apologized to each other. |
| D．Garrett and Graham gave away clothes on TV. |
| A．Many hands make light work. | B．The early bird catches the worm. |
| C．Where there’s a will, there’s a way. | D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
