1 . What do you think of your Chinese? If you think your Chinese is good enough, you can take part in the competition named Chinese Characters Dictation Competition（中国汉字听写大会）.
Today teenagers are using more and more smart phones. They spend too much time in shopping, chatting, playing games and so on. Many of them cannot stop using smart phones to help with their study. Overuse of smart phones will make students too lazy to think and write. Some of them even forget how to write Chinese characters by hand. Teachers and parents are very worried about it.
In order to draw people’s attention to the problems above, in 2013 CCTV held the first Chinese Characters Dictation Competition. About 200 students from 32 teams took part in it. They stood on the stage to write down Chinese characters by dictation. Lu Jialei, a 14-year-old girl from Zhejiang, got first place.
Since then, the competition has been popular among teenagers. Many people are interested in this kind of competition, too. They like to write down the characters while the competitors（参赛者）are writing them.
Can you be the next winner?
1. From Paragraph 2, we know that teenagers are using more and more _____．| A． cars | B．money | C．books | D．smart phones |
| A．eating too much | B．walking too much |
| C．using too much | D．singing too much |
| A．About 400. | B．About 300. | C．About 200. | D．About 100. |
| A．Lu Jialei, a girl from Zhejiang. | B．Lu Jialei, a girl from Guangxi. |
| C．Liao Yilin, a girl from Zhejiang. | D．Liao Yilin, a girl from Guangxi. |
2 . Once the temperatures rise to full-on summer highs, life becomes difficult for pet parents. Long walks, the lunchtime run and road trips, things you enjoy together quite safely for the rest of the year, can become dangerous because too much exercise in hot sun or leaving animals in a car, even in the shade, can cause heatstroke (中暑) which can be deadly.
“Heatstroke is a condition where a dog’s temperature rises to the point where damage to internal organs (器官) can occur,” warns Dr. Cindy Bressler. “This is usually seen during the summer months or in warm climates, and is caused primarily because the dog cannot cool itself quickly enough.”
Because of their fur coats, dogs can’t cool via sweating through the skin like humans and they cool themselves by breathing heavily, quickly pulling cool air into the lungs and pushing hot air out. Overweight dogs are more likely to suffer heatstroke. Signs of heatstroke include breathing difficulty, vomiting (呕吐), high body temperatures and a bright red tongue.
“Dogs do not sweat like humans, and without this natural body cool-off response, they are more vulnerable than humans in high temperatures,” says Bressler. “To help prevent heatstroke, you should always have cool water available for your dog and never leave your dog alone in a car, especially in hot weather. Pets who are outdoors should always have access to a shaded area.”
If heatstroke occurs, Bressler advises cooling your pet with cool water, wet towels, fans and cold air.
“Do not cool them too quickly because that can be dangerous,” she adds. “Bring them to the doctor immediately.”
Cats also run the risk of overheating: “With cats,” says Bressler, “it’s important to include water in their diet as they do not seek out water like dogs do. Cats should always have access to fresh and clean water.”
1. Heatstroke is caused to dogs mainly because ___________.| A．dogs are not able to cool off via sweating |
| B．the temperatures are too high for dogs to bear |
| C．dogs can’t pull cool air into the lungs quickly |
| D．dogs can’t cool themselves by breathing heavily |
| A．It can be harmful to internal organs. |
| B．It can pull cool air into the lungs. |
| C．It only occurs during the summer months. |
| D．It happens to dogs more often than to cats. |
| A．Leave it alone in a car. | B．Have cool water available for it. |
| C．Bring it to the doctor frequently. | D．Cool it with cold air quickly. |
| A．changeable | B．comfortable | C．likely to survive | D．easily hurt |
3 . July 27th, 2010 was a typical English summer’s day — it rained for 24 hours! As usual, I rushed home from work at midday to check on the house. Nothing was amiss. By the time I left work at 5pm, however, the road into our village was flooded. Our house had never been flooded but, as I opened the front door, a wave of water greeted me. Thank God the kids weren’t with me, because the house was 5 feet deep in water. We lost everything downstairs.
At first we tried to push on through. We didn’t want to move the children out of home, so we camped upstairs. We put a sheet of plastic across the floor to protect us from the damp. But after three months, we felt very sick, so we moved to a wooden house in a park. The house was small, but at first we were all just delighted to be in a new place. Unfortunately, things took longer than expected and we were there for 10 months. The life there was inconvenient. What surprised me most was how much I missed being part of a community (社区). We had lived in a friendly village with good neighbours, and I’d never thought how much I’d miss that.
Although our situation was very hard, it’s difficult to feel too sorry for yourself when you look at what’s happening elsewhere. I watched a news report about floods in Northern India and thought, “We didn’t have a straw hut (茅草房) that was swept away, and our house is still standing. We’re lucky.”
We moved back home in August. With December coming, there’s still reconstruction work to be done, so it’s difficult to prepare for Christmas. But I can’t wait — I’m going to throw a party for our friends in the village to say thanks for their support. This year, I won’t need any gifts — living away from home for months has made me realize how little we actually need or miss all our possessions. Although we are replacing things, there’s really no rush — we have our home back, and that’s the main thing.
1. The underlined word “amiss” in the first paragraph means| A．Wrong. | B．Missing. | C．Right. | D．Difficult. |
| A．Because they were able to move to a new place. |
| B．Because many other places were flooded. |
| C．Because their straw hut was not swept away. |
| D．Because some others suffered even more. |
| A．She valued human feelings more than before. |
| B．She realized she almost didn’t need possessions. |
| C．She found Christmas gifts no longer badly needed. |
| D．She thought her own home was the most important. |
