Using too much water or throwing rubbish into our rivers are clear ways that humans can put our water supply in danger, but we also affect our water supply in less obvious ways. You may wonder how paving(铺砌) a road can lead to less useable fresh water. A major part of the water we use every day is groundwater. Groundwater does not come from lakes or rivers. It comes from underground. The more roads and parking lots we pave, the less water can flow into the ground to become groundwater.

Human activity is not responsible for all water shortages(缺乏). Drier climates are of course more likely to have droughts(干旱) than areas with more rainfall, but in any case, good management can help to make sure there is enough water to meet our basic needs .

Thinking about the way we use water every day can make a big difference, too. In the United States, a family of four can use 1.5 tons of water a day! This shows how much we depend on water to live, but there’s a lot we can do to lower the number.

You can take steps to save water in your home. To start with, use the same glass for your drinking water all day. Wash it only once a day. Run your dishwasher only when it is full. Help your parents fix any leaks(滴水) in your home. You can even help to keep our water supply clean by recycling batteries instead of throwing them away.

1.Which of the following is most likely to lead to less groundwater?

A. Using river water. B. Throwing batteries away.

C. Paving parking lots. D. Throwing rubbish into lakes.

2.What can be inferred from the text?

A. All water shortages are due to human behavior.

B. It takes a lot of effort to meet our water needs.

C. There is much we can do to reduce family size.

D. The average family in America makes proper use of water.

3.The last paragraph is intended to ________________.

A. show us how to fix leaks at home

B. tell us how to run a dishwasher

C. prove what drinking glass is best for us

D. suggest what we do to save water at home

4.The text is mainly about _________________.

A. how human activity affects our water supply

B. how much we depend on water to live

C. why droughts occur more in dry climates

D. why paving roads reduces our water

What is waste and why does it matter?

Waste or rubbish is something that people throw away because they no longer need it or want it. Almost everything we do creates waste and as a society we are currently producing more waste than ever before. We do this at home and at work. The fact that we produce waste, and get rid of it, matters for the following reasons.

When something is thrown away we lose the natural resources, the energy and the time which have been used to make the product. The vast majority of resources that we use in manufacturing products and providing services cannot be replaced. The use of these resources cannot go on indefinitely— we would run out.

When something is thrown away, we are putting pressure on the environment's ability to cope— in terms of the additional environmental impacts associated with extracting the new resources, manufacturing and distributing the goods, and in terms of the environmental impacts associated with getting rid of our rubbish.

When something is thrown away, we are not able to see it as a resource. It is well understood that what is waste to one person may not be viewed as waste by another. A good example of this is scrap metal(金属废料)which has been recycled for many years. Increasingly people are realizing that it makes economic sense as well as environmental sense to use "waste" rather than just throw it away.

The process of using up the earth's natural resources to make products which we then throw away, sometimes a very short time later, is not "sustainable" — in other words, it cannot continue indefinitely.

The way we consume materials will affect whether we have a sustainable society that leaves resources available for future generations to use. As consumers and producers, we are central to the concept of sustainability. We need to think about how we can get more out of less, how we can use less and throw away less and how we can do better things with our so-called "waste" than throw it away. We need to see "waste" as a "resource".

Title

The problem with waste

1.

Waste or rubbish is what people throw away when they do not need it or want it any longer.

Important 2.on society

The natural resources, the energy and the time used to make the product become 3.when something is thrown away. The vast majority of resources can’t be replaced and they would be 4.up.

The environment's ability to extract the new resources, manufacture and distribute the goods and get rid of rubbish is 5. pressure.

People 6. to see it as a resource. Increasingly, people are realizing that it makes both economic sense and environmental sense to use "waste" 7.of just throwing it away.

Result

We’ll leave fewer resources 8. for future generations to use.

9.

People should have the 10. of sustainability, thinking about getting more out of less, using less, throwing less and doing better things with it.

People should see "waste" as a "resource".

If you have a cat, you already know that a cat isn’t a dog that doesn’t have to be walked. If you’re about to bring a cat into your family, you need to understand that basic fact. The common wisdom is that dogs are friendlier than casts.

In recent years, scientists who have done DNA studies have offered a better way to understand cats. Unlike other animals that people feed, cats domesticated themselves, and, in a way, trained humans. Cats decided to live close to humans because doing so benefited the casts themselves.

Studies show that cats have lived with humans for about 12,000 years, since people first settled down and started farming. When people started storing grain, mice arrived and started eating the grain. Clever cats figured out that mice settlements where people stored grain were easy for hunting, so they started hanging around. Cats did what they needed to do to get the people to let them stay, but they kept up their independence. Over time, cats allowed humans to get a bit closer to them. Later, the farmers did befriend the cats. Certainly, it didn’t do them any harm because they could see the cats were really helping them out by eating mice.

Today, about a third of American families have cats. In most of those homes, the cats are still more interested in pleasing themselves than in pleasing their human families. A dog may do anything it can to make you happy, but kitty will teach you to make kitty happy.

1.Compared with dogs, cats are______.

A. colder B. friendlier

C. more warm-hearted D. more frightening

2.According to the text, why do cats decide to stay close to humans?

A. To be useful to themselves B. To protect grain from mice

C. To rely on humans for food D. To keep up their independence

3.What may be the best title for the text?

A. A common point between dogs and cats

B. The reasons why people like dogs

C. A disadvantage of raising cats

D. The basic fact about cats.

People have problems

People have to remember passwords for everything, from their email to online banking and internet shopping. 1. A leaked Yahoo database showed that the most popular passwords were still “123456” and “password”.2.

These people are trying to make life easy for themselves. 3. Hackers(黑客) have gotten very good at what they do, with more capable tools than ever, and those tools can work so well because we are still really bad at choosing and remembering passwords.

Researchers from the UK’s Lancaster University, as well as the Peking and Fujian Normal universities in China, tested passwords. 4. They guessed passwords for more than 73 percent of ordinary users, accounts. Hackers could even guess a third of the harder passwords in 100 tries, reported the Daily Mail.

According to researchers from Bloomberg Businessweek, using upper and lower cases(大小写) in your password is a good way to make is safer. Adding numbers and/or symbols to your password can also be of great help. Choose a nine-letter password that includes numbers and/or symbols; this would take a hacker’s computer hundreds of years to break, Also, never use personal information as a password. 5. Experts suggest that a user should change his or her password every 90 days to keep hackers guessing.

A. Passwords were short.

B. Use different passwords for different accounts.

C. A password must be difficult to be guessed by others.

D. Many people used simple combinations of their name, age or birthday.

E. They tried to guess passwords based on people’s personal information.

F. But they are also making it easy for hackers to break into their accounts.

G. So it’s easy to understand why many of us would pick something simple and easy for our passwords.

Not too long ago, our teacher, being a “tree-hugger”(as the kids call her), had us write an essay on an environmental issue. I was eager to start, but something made me stop.

“What is an environmental issue?” one kid asked. “What if we don’t care about the environment?” another complained. “It’s not like it affects me.”

These comments astounded me. I have always cared about the environment and assumed that others did too. From the surprised look on my teacher’s face, I could tell she felt the same way.

In no time, I finished my essay. In my essay I wrote about logging(伐木), which is an important industry, but if we continue to cut down trees without replacing, it will damage the environment.

There are so many things that we can do to save our world. Recycling, of course, is always a good thing, but not everyone has a recycling plant nearby (I don’t). There are other ways to help the environment. Plant a tree. Don’t waste water.

I can’t stand it when a person’s excuse for not caring is “Nothing is going to happen in my lifetime, so why should I care?” Sure, the chances of something terrible happening are slim, but I want people to realize that if we don’t deal with it, someone will have to eventually. Do you want that to be your children? Or your children’s children?

When my teacher told me to read my essay to my class, I was a little embarrassed because I didn’t want everyone to call me “tree-hugger”. I realize now that if being a tree-hugger means you care about the environment, I’m a tree-hugger 100 percent. I just wish more people were.

1.Why do the students call their teacher “tree-hugger”?

A. She likes hugging trees.

B. She knows a lot about trees.

C. She grew up in the countryside.

D. She cares a lot about the environment.

2.At the beginning, the author stopped writing _____ .

A. to ask some questions

B. because of other kids’ comments

C. to listen to the teacher’s instructions

D. because he had no idea about the topic

3.The underlined word “astounded” in Paragraph 3 can be replaced by “_____” .

A. helped B. changed

C. shocked D. interested

4.Paragraph 5 is mainly about _____ .

A. what we can recycle

B. how we can save the earth

C. why we should protect the earth

D. what damage we are doing to the earth

5.We can infer from the passage that _____ .

A. the students don’t like the teacher

B. the teacher liked the author’s essay

C. the author is ashamed of being a tree-hugger

D. the author should have written a better essay

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