1 . The grocery store might not be your favorite place to visit when you're at home, but is it ever fun when you're in another country? Honestly speaking, they're one of those strange little destinations that I like to sniff out everywhere I go, much as other travelers head toward clothing stores, libraries, coffee shops or galleries.
The greatest beauty of the grocery store –– whether it's a supermarket or a tiny shop –– is that it gives you a glimpse into what local people buy to cook their own meals. This offers clues into their lifestyles and preferences, and into the agricultural and cooking practices of the country. I stare at the strange fruits and vegetables, the seafood, the cheese, the spices, the bread, and oh, the chocolate...always the chocolate!
Being the environmental nerd（呆子）I am, I like paying attention to packaging, which can reflect people's attitudes towards environmental protection. Italy, for example, has a habit of requiring customers to bag their fruits and vegetables in plastic for weighing, while Sri Lanka leaves everything loose in bins. In Brazil, everything is prepackaged in a layer of plastic.
People in grocery stores tend to be friendlier. They smile, say hello, and sometimes ask questions, which can lead to great conversations. I had a further discussion with a teenaged cashier in Sri Lanka, over which bag of crunchy（松脆的）mix to buy. He insisted that the one labeled “spicy” would be too hot for me, but I told him I was willing to risk it. He laughed and we ended up talking about my favorite Sri Lankan foods for ten minutes.
It's interesting then to come home and look at one's own local grocery store through new eyes. What would a visitor think? What stands out, and what do the food displays say about us as a culture? You might be surprised by what you realize.
1. According to the author, what is the key benefit of visiting foreign grocery stores?| A．Learning to cook foreign dishes. | B．Making friends with local people. |
| C．Buying cheaper food and souvenirs. | D．Knowing local people and the country. |
| A．People's special lifestyles. | B．People's shopping habits. |
| C．People's environmental awareness. | D．People's packaging methods. |
| A．Sri Lankans know a lot about food. |
| B．Grocery stores are good social places. |
| C．Grocery stores vary in different countries. |
| D．Sri Lankans like to give strangers suggestions. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
2 . Rivers are the veins of the Earth, transporting the water and nutrients (营养物) needed to support the planet’s ecosystems, including human life. While many nutrients are essential to the survival of life, there is one element transported by water in rivers that holds the key to life and to the future of our planet — carbon.
Carbon is everywhere and understanding the way it moves and is either released or stored by the Earth system is a complex science in itself. Carbon starts its journey downstream when natural acid rain, which contains carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, melts minerals in rocks. This helps transform carbon dioxide to bicarbonate (碳酸氢盐) in the water that then flows in our rivers. This is a very long process, which is one of the main ways carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. Carbon is transported by rivers to oceans and once that carbon reaches the ocean, it is stored naturally in deep sea sediments (沉淀物) for millions of years.
As carbon travels down a river, different processes may impact whether it continues to flow downstream or whether it is released into the atmosphere. For example, human engineering, like extensive dam construction, will result in dramatic changes to how water and sediments travel down the river. Some carbon that fails to reach the sea may return to the atmosphere in some way, which causes more warming.
Earth’s climate is closely related to the carbon cycle. We all know about the essential role of plants in consuming carbon dioxide, but do we know enough about rivers? Changing the chemistry and the course of rivers may have significant impacts on how they transport carbon. Remember: wherever we live, we all live downstream.
1. Where is the carbon in rivers originally from?| A．The atmosphere. | B．The rocks. |
| C．The acid rain. | D．The upstream areas. |
| A．To show how important to life carbon is. |
| B．To explain how necessary it is to build dams. |
| C．To show how a natural process is interrupted. |
| D．To explain how humans fight global warming. |
| A．We’d better move upstream to live. |
| B．We should protect plants along rivers. |
| C．We’d better seek more help from plants. |
| D．We should be cautious about river management. |
| A．What Humans Do with Rivers |
| B．How Rivers’ Transporting Carbon Counts |
| C．What the Carbon Cycle Means to Us |
| D．How Living Downstream Affects the Earth |
3 . A survey said the average Asian dad spent one minute a day with his children. I was shocked. I mean, a whole minute? Every day? Get real. Once a week maybe. The fact is, many Asian males are terrible at kid—related things. In fact, I am one of them.
Child—rearing (养育) doesn’t come naturally to guys. My mother knew the names of our teachers, best friends and crushes. My dad was only vaguely aware there were short people sharing the apartment. My mother bought healthy fresh food at the market every day. My dad would only go shopping when there was nothing in the fridge except a jar of capers and a bay leaf. Then he’d buy beer. My mother always knew the right questions to ask our teachers. My dad would ask my English teacher if she could get us a discount on school fees. My mother served kid food to kids. My dad added chili sauce to everything, including our baby food.
The truth is, mothers have superpowers. My son fell off a wall once and hurt himself all over. I demanded someone bring me a computer so I could google what to do. My wife ignored me and did some sort of chanting phrase such as “Mummy kiss it better,” and cured l7 separate injuries in less than 15 seconds.
Yes, mothers are incredible people, but they are not always right. Yet honesty forces me to record the fact that mothers only know best 99.99 percent of the time.Here are some famous slip-ups.
The mother of Bill Gates: “If you’re going to drop out of college and hang out with your nerdy friends, don’t come running to me when you find yourself penniless.” The mother of Albert Einstein: “When you grow up, you’ll find that sitting around thinking about the nature of time and space won’t pay the grocery bills.” The mother of George W. Bush: “You’ll never be like your dad, who became President of the United States and started his own war.”
1. The tone for the writer to write the passage is ___.| A．cruel | B．humorous | C．disapproving | D．critical(批评的) |
| A．females love kids more than males | B．males are not good at child—rearing |
| C．Males are not interested in child-rearing | D．child-rearing is difficult both for females and males |
| A．stories | B．shortcomings | C．mistakes | D．advantages |
| A．providing different examples | B．following the order of space |
| C．making comparisons | D．analyzing causes |
4 . As far back as the age of dinosaurs millions of years ago, turtles(海龟) wandered around the Earth. Even nowadays, it is generally assumed that turtles are the world's steadiest creature.
However, a new research shows 61 percent of the 356 species of turtles are already threatened or no longer exist. The destruction of their homes, disease, climate change and other reasons have caused their population to drop sharply. In a new study published in the journal BioScience, a team of scientists from various institutions claims that turtles are one of the most threatened among the major vertebrate(脊椎动物) groups.
This could, the authors say, have serious consequences for the ecology. Turtles contribute to the health of many environments, including desert, wetland, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and the decline may lead to bad effects on other species, including humans, they explain. Whit Gibbons, seruor author and professor at the Utuversity of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, says in a statement that the intention of the study is to inform people about the vital ecological roles of turtles.
One of the important qualities of turtles is how diverse they are when it comes to food. This allows them to have a major impact on food webs of their homes all over the world. In some areas, the density(密度) of the turtle population makes them an important part of the ecosystem. With their gathering, other species that feed on them and their eggs are sure to have a large pool of food.
For plants, turtles are also extremely important as they distribute the seeds of many plant species. When they eat some seeds are not destroyed by the digestive process and instead make their way out of the animals' body. Some turtles are the main dispersal(传播 ) agents of certain plants and their seeds.
These are only a few yet very vital roles that turtles play in the ecological landscape. Unfortunately, many species are in serious decline and in danger of disappearing completely.
1. What does the new study aim to do?| A．To save the grand vertebrate groups on earth. . |
| B．To warn people of turtles' terrible situation. |
| C．To make the importance of turtles' roles known. |
| D．To claim turtles may be related to dinosaurs. |
| A．Speed up these plants' disappearing. |
| B．Put an end to these plants' seeds spreading. |
| C．Allow more. seeds to grow into plants. |
| D．Give these plants no chance of survival. . |
I:Introduction P:Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点 ) C:Conclusion
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Turtles Are Sure to Stop Existing. |
| B．The Ecology Will Change with Turtles. |
| C．Decline of Turtles Threatens the World. |
| D．Turtles' Dying Out Worldwide Matters a Lot. |
Lyrics are not easily forgotten. You listen to them over and over again throughout your life. Once you learn them, they are going to stay with you, and you are going to review them repeatedly because you enjoy them. If you learn just one song per week for a year, those are 52 songs full of new vocabulary and phrases that you will never forget.
Songs give you perfect pronunciation models. As you learn to sing them, you are practicing your pronunciation, you are imitating native speakers, and you are learning how to speak better. The rhythm naturally leads to better pronunciation, better intonation（声调）, and more fluency.
When you start paying attention to the lyrics, your listening skills naturally improve. Once you learn a few songs, you’ll start gathering a lot of songs and vocabulary. A larger vocabulary usually means better listening comprehension. Just the fact that you start caring about the lyrics will activate your listening skills and listening to music in English will become an enjoyable learning exercise.
Another hugemeritis that you get to practice your grammar. Some of the most intelligent grammar questions my students bring to me come from songs. You can probably even map the entire language into pop songs and greatly improve your grammar by learning the lyrics to your favorite songs.
Now we can conclude that listening to English songs can really help you learn the language well. So listen to more English songs in your free time. You can put the lyrics on your ipod or iphone and read them as you listen. Believe me, and you’ll benefit a lot.
1. Paragraph 2 mainly shows that by listening to English songs, you can _____.
| A．improve your memory |
| B．have a larger vocabulary |
| C．gather a lot of English songs |
| D．go over words you have learned |
| A．advantage | B．consideration | C．cause | D．surprise |
| A．What people can do to improve their English. |
| B．Why English learners like listening to English songs. |
| C．What songs people can listen to so as to improve English. |
| D．Why listening to English songs helps improve our English. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
