For example, there are public advertisements, which
Welcome to Shangri-La (香格里拉) . Although located in Yunnan, it has many old
3 . What if someone told you about a kind of grass as tall as the tallest trees? A grass as strong as steel? Would you believe that person? You should, for that grass is bamboo (竹子), which has more than 1,000 uses. It is not just a material for making useful products. Young bamboo is eaten, often mixed with other vegetables.
Bamboo grows in many parts of the world. In the USA it grows in many states like Virginia and Florida. Most bamboo, however, is found in wet and warm climates, especially in Asia and on the islands of the South Pacific Ocean.
In most Asian countries, bamboo is nearly as important as rice. This unusual material is used to not only build large buildings but also make water pipes, musical instruments and paper. There are over 1,000 kinds of bamboo. No wonder the lives of nearly half the people on earth would change greatly if there were no longer any bamboo.
1. According to the text, bamboo is actually a kind of .| A．grass | B．steel | C．tree | D．vegetable |
| A．Only in Asia. | B．Only in the USA. |
| C．In wet and warm climates. | D．All over the world. |
| A．Build large buildings. | B．Make water pipes. |
| C．Make musical instruments and paper. | D．All of the above. |
| A．Over 1,000. | B．Over 800. | C．Over 600. | D．Over 400. |
4 . When you’re on a fishing boat, you may see flocks of birds following your tracks, hoping to catch a snack. Now scientists say they can use those birds’ behavior to track illegal fishing boats.
Here’s how it worked: Researchers attached data recorders to the backs of 169 albatrosses (信天翁) in the Southern and Indian oceans. The devices weighed only an ounce and a half, but they included a GPS and were able to detect the presence and intensity of radar signals coming from boats. That information was then transmitted by satellite, so the researchers could track the locations of the birds — and thus the radar-emitting boats — in real time.
The scientists then cross-checked the data against the known locations of boats, gathered from a system that boats use to declare themselves, called the Automatic Identification System (AIS). And differences appeared frequently.
More than a third of the times the birds’ recorders detected radar signals, and therefore a boat, no such boat appeared in the official log — meaning that the vehicles had likely switched off their Automatic Identification Systems — something the researchers say probably happens in illegal fishing operations.
The work suggests birds could be an effective boat-monitoring tool, as long as illegal fishing operations don’t target the birds. Fortunately, such a task would be difficult.
“Around fishing boats, you can get hundreds of birds at any one time that are all flying around. So it’s not really possible to target a specific bird. And the birds with recorders on are not marked in any way. So it’s difficult for fishermen to pick out a specific bird,” said study author Samantha Patrick, a marine biologist at the University of Liverpool.
Patrick’s bigger concern is that albatrosses are often trapped by fishing lines. And though regulations have been established to prevent that happening, illegal boats don’t necessarily obey.
1. What behavior of albatrosses can be used to track illegal fishing boats?| A．Seeking snacks on a boat. | B．Following a boat to catch food. |
| C．Monitoring the locations of the boats. | D．Keeping an eye open for illegal activities. |
| A．To carry a GPS. | B．To record the birds’ behavior. |
| C．To detect radar signals from boats. | D．To help satellite transmit information. |
| A．They needn’t declare themselves. |
| B．They were probably fishing illegally. |
| C．They didn’t want to send radar signals. |
| D．They wanted to avoid being followed by albatrosses. |
| A．Birds — Humans’ Friends |
| B．Data Recorders — A Helper to Albatrosses |
| C．AIS — A System to Locate Illegal Fishing Boats |
| D．Albatrosses — A Tool to Monitor Illegal Fishing Boats |
5 . Have you ever heard of agritourism where you can experience the farm life? If not, Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliott will tell you the real story of Foot Print Farms.
The original concept of building Foot Print Farms was simple. When Ayers Elliott returned to her hometown after graduation, she didn’t have to look any further than her state’s alarming health statistics to find a mission. Everywhere she turned, there were reports of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and heart disease. “The problem was already identified,” explains Ayers Elliott. “Too many Mississippians were seriously unhealthy and it didn’t do research to see that. And many of the state’s greatest health challenges could directly result from poor diet.”
These days, Foot Print Farms, which started with a few raised beds of herbs and vegetables, is making fresh , naturally grown food. “Speaking of the key to my success, the co-op(合作商店) model works because we share the work and rewards,” notes Ayers Elliott. “A perfect example is the Wingfield High School football team. To earn the money for equipment and other items, players committed to working five hours a week on the farm, and by the end of the summer they produced 1,000 melons and the profits from their sales helped to buy weights, T-shirts, sweatsuits and pregame meals. But the lessons they learned about the rewards of hard work and working together to accomplish something were even more valuable products of their efforts.”
“It’s a model that can easily be learned in other places and I’m looking forward to seeing some of our current partners do just that — to take what they have learned here and spin it off in other communities,” Ayers Elliott remarks. She is now looking forward to developing an agritourism area, where visitors can experience the farm life, learn new skills and take with them seeds of inspiration they can sow in their own communities when they return home.
1. What made Ayers Elliott set up Foot Print Farms?| A．The problems faced by local farmers. | B．Her further research into heart disease. |
| C．The failure of her career after graduation. | D．The health state of people in her hometown. |
| A．To advocate the concept of independence. | B．To stress the importance of teamwork. |
| C．To support the idea of the co-op model. | D．To explore the key to success. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Skeptical. | C．Cautious. | D．Ambiguous. |
| A．Naturally grown food benefits people’s health. |
| B．Food Print Farms is making a difference in Mississippi. |
| C．Ayers Elliott encourages people to keep a healthy diet. |
| D．Agritourism is becoming increasingly popular in America. |
It’s almost a common belief that the best food you can find in a place is not in the fancy restaurants,
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7 . Money Matters
Parents should help their children understand money.
● The basic function of money
Begin explaining the basic function of money by showing how people trade money for goods or services. It is important to show your child how money is traded for the things he wants to have.If he wants to have a toy, give him the money and let him hand the money to the cashier(收银员).
● Money lessons
Approach money lessons with openness and honesty.
●
Begin at the grocery store. Pick out two similar brands of a product—a kind of name-brand butter and a generic (无商标消费品),for example. You can show your child how to make choices between different brands of a product so that you can save money.
| A．Wise decisions |
| B．The value of money |
| C．Permit the child to choose between them |
| D．Tell your child why he can—or cannot—have certain things |
| E．Ask yourself what things that cost money are most important to you |
| F．Talk about how the money bought the thing after you leave the toy store |
| G．The best time to teach a child something about money is when he shows an interest |
8 . How clever can a computer be? Maybe you can get the answer after reading the following passage about a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child.
If you ran into Smarter Child online, you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory. It can remember many facts. For example, Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season and the weather in every city across the US. He also knows every word in the dictionary. However, if you ask Smarter Child other private questions, you will get strange answers. A question about Smarter Child’s age returns, “I’ll be older than you after further study!”, and asking where he lives, you will get, “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”
Smarter Child uses the huge information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank. To answer questions about spelling, for example, Smarter Child goes to www.ahdictionary.com. For the weather, he visits www.intellicast.com. He turns to www.the-scientist.com for scientists and www.moviefone.com for a fantastic movie.
Some scientists believe that by joining many systems of the Internet, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the combined (结合的) knowledge of, say, Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However, Smarter Child has difficulty in discerning whether a behavior is right or wrong, which is obvious to any young child. If he wants to think and learn without any help from the programmers like boy-computer David in the movie Artificial Intelligence (AI), he must solve two problems.
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are sorted in different ways. That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather. It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it by himself. Another problem is that while Smarter Child can deal with information more exactly and faster than any human, he needs programmers to make better systems that allow machines to solve problems of common sense, which is a huge challenge.
1. What may be unknown to Smarter Child?| A．His age. | B．The weather in New York. |
| C．A word in the dictionary. | D．A player’s name of the Boston Redsox. |
| A．www.moviefone.com | B．www.intellicast.com |
| C．www.the-scientist.com | D．www.ahdictionary.com |
| A．Preventing. | B．Copying. | C．Inventing. | D．Telling. |
| A．He has a huge memory. | B．He can think and learn independently. |
| C．He can make a weather forecast. | D．He deals with information fast. |
9 . From Santa Barbara to Scotland, strangers are becoming friends by going on bike rides together. They get paired up by Cycling Without Age, an organization that helps seniors go for bike rides, even if they can’t pedal themselves.
Hugh Lyon and David Lawrence, who are roughly 20 years apart in age, have been riding together for years. The 56-year-old Lawrence serves as a “pilot”, driving the trishaw-a bike with a passenger seat in the front that Cycling Without Age uses for their rides. They go for rides about once a week, often discussing the history of their town.
“Despite my deceased parents, it gives me a connection with people from an older generation,” said Lawrence, “and I enjoy spending time with them and hearing their Stories.” The pair have formed a friendship outside of cycling. Lawrence said he calls Lyon often and goes to the gym with him to help him with exercises he can’t do on his own.
Ole Kassow, who founded Cycling Without Age, said that’s the power of the program. “The truly powerful thing about these bike rides is that they tie people and stories together to create new relationships,” he told CBS News. “In my experience, friendships-and the ability to form new relationships at any age-are what define a good life, and often also a long and happy life.”
John Boettner started the Santa Barbara chapter. He has one rule for passengers. “They say, ‘What does it cost if I’m going to go for a ride?’ I say, ‘Here’s what it costs: You have to wave. If you don’t wave, I’m going to kick you out,’” he joked. He said he likes when they hit red lights, because it gives them a chance to connect with people on the road. “Driving the trishaw is the best advertisement for Cycling Without Age”, Boettner said, “When you take a 101-year-old woman for a bike ride and she holds your hand tight and says thank you and gives you a kiss on the cheek, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
1. What benefit did Lawrence get from Cycling Without Age?| A．Picking up forgotten stories. | B．Improving his health condition. |
| C．Understanding his parents’ love. | D．Creating a relationship with seniors. |
| A．To share the pleasure of cycling. | B．To state the nature of happiness. |
| C．To show the value of the program. | D．To introduce the definition of a good life. |
| A．The program needs to be advertised. | B．Passengers have to pay for their rides. |
| C．Red lights connect people with the pilots. | D．Bike riders feel content by offering rides. |
| A．A true friend is one soul in two bodies. | B．Be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. |
| C．Don’t go through life, grow through life. | D．Happiness is a journey, not a destination. |
A small village in Yunnan Province is
One of the best papermakers is Yan, who was already interested in Dai paper at an early age.
Unlike ordinary papermaking where trees need to be cut down, Dai paper is environmentally friendly. This is
Although Dai paper carries the culture and
