Australians have been warned they face a life or death decision over their water —— drink recycled sewage(污水) or die.

     With the drought(干旱) continuing, the country is set to be forced to use purified waste water for drinking, even if there is great opposition to the measure

Queensland has become the first state to introduce the policy after a warning from its premier.

“I think in the end, because of the drought, all of Australia is going to end up drinking recycled purified water,” said former Premier Peter Beattie. “These are difficult decisions, but you either drink water or you die. There’s no choice. It's liquid gold; it a matter of life and death.”    

     Beattie said Australia's second largest state would become the first to use recycled water for drinking.

     Water is recycled in Britain and parts of northern Europe along with the US and Israel.

     But Australians have never liked the idea.

To try to change the way Australians think, John Howard  and  Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull have Supported Queensland’s move.

“I am very strongly for recycling and Mr Beattie is right and I agree with him completely,” Howard said.

“Australian cities, all now facing water shortages because of the worst drought on record, must start to use recycled water,” added Turnbull. “All of our big cities have to widen the range of water sources to include sources which are not dependent on rainfall.”

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A. Australians face the choice of life and death.

  B. Continuing drought forces Australians to drink recycled sewage.

C. Mr Beattie is worried about his people’s health.

D. We should avoid drinking recycled water to keep healthy.

2.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A. The drought is the worst one in the droughts recorded in Australian history.

B. Australia’s largest state has become the first state to introduce the policy.

C. No other countries but Australia decides to drink recycled water.

D. Nobody disagrees to the idea of drinking recycled purified water.

3.It can be inferred from what Peter Beattie said that_________.

   A. he gives orders to drink purified waste water.

B. if the decision is made, people won't survive the drought

C. it is painful for him to see his people drink recycled sewage

  D. it's up to you to make a life or death decision

 

When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at ‘bed and breakfast’ houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

    “We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”

    I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought ‘VACANCIES’ meant ‘holidays’, because the Spanish word for ‘holidays” is ‘vacaciones’. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCLES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

    We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ‘DIVERSION’ means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION’ on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.

    English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more. coffee, I said ‘Thank you’ in French. I meant that I would like some more, However , to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you’ in French means ‘No, thank you.’

1.My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.

   A. learning English                     B. finding places to stay in England

   C. driving their car on English roads  D. going to England by car

2.I suggested that they stay at bed and breakfast houses because ______.

   A. they would be able to practise their English

   B. it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels

   C. it would be convenient for them to have dinner

   D. there would be no problem about finding accommodation there

3.“NO VACANCIES” in English means ______.

A. no free rooms                  B. free rooms     

C. not away on holiday             D. holidays

4.If you see a road sign that says ‘Diversion’, you will ______.

   A. fall into a hole

   B. have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself

   C. find that the road is blocked by crowds of people

   D. have to take a different road

5.When someone offered me more coffee and I said ‘Thank you’ in French,

I ______.

   A didn’t really want any more coffee  B. wanted them to take the coffee pot away

   C. really wanted some more coffee    D. hadn’t finished drinking my coffee

 

“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”

This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 52 wrote it.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

But have all these developments really improve the quality of our lives?

Picture this: You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead a simpler life.

One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10, and Tomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandmother, Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.” She believed life was less materialistic. “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” She said. The boys said they found less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy(时髦的), beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”

Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

Don’t be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day.

Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying.

Don’t worry too much about life—laugh more.

1.The passage is mainly about     __    .

    A. problem with technology    

    B. improvements of our life with technology

    C. the important roles technology plays in our everyday life

    D. major changes which will be likely to happen to technology

2. The writer quoted(引用)what a citizen in ancient Rome said at the beginning of the story in order to      __   .

    A. share a truth about life      

    B. tell us what life was like long time ago

    C. make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen

    D. point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same

3.

4.

 

To get an extra 14 years of life, don't smoke, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly and drink alcohol in a proper amount.That is according to a study published this Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine Journal.

After tracking more than 20,000 people aged 45 to 79 years in the United Kingdom from about 1993 to 2007, Kay-Tee Khaw of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues found that people who adopted these four healthy habits lived all average of 14 years longer than those who didn't.

“We've known for a long time that these behaviors are good things to do, but we've not seen this benefit before, ”said Susan Jebb, head of Nutrition and Health at Britain's Medical Research Council.“The benefit was also seen regardless of whether or not people were fat and what social class they came from.”

Study participants(参与者)scored a point each for not smoking, regular physical activity, eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and moderate alcohol intake.

Public health experts said they hoped the study would inspire governments to introduce policies helping people to adopt these changes.But because the study only observed people rather than testing specific changes, it would be impossible to conclude that people who suddenly adopted these healthy behaviors would surely gain 14 years.

“We can't say that any person could gain 14 years by doing these things, ”said Dr.Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization.“The 14 years is an average across the population of what's theoretically(理论上地)possible.”

“Most people know that things like a good diet matter and that smoking isn't good for them, ”Susan Jebb said.“We need to work on providing people with much more practical support to help them change.”

1.Which of the following DOESN'T belong to the four healthy habits?

A.Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

B.Do proper exercise in the morning every day.

C.Drinking alcohol in the proper amount every day.

D.Having a cigarette before going to bed every day.

2.We can learn from the passage that            

A.Susan Jebb did not take part in the study.

B.the study observed people as well as tested specific changes.

C.there's no need for people under 45 to adopt these good habits.

D.only those from first class can benefit from these healthy behaviors.

3.What can be inferred from the passage?

A.All the people are well aware of the harm of their bad habits.

B.People aged 45 to 70 have bad habits in the United Kingdom.

C.Governments should take measures to help people change their bad habits.

D.People have adopted the four healthy habits after knowing they're good.

4.What would be the best title for this passage?

A.Smoking and Drinking Cuts You 14 Years

B.How to Live a Much Healthier Life

C.Healthy Habits May Give Extra 14 Years

D.How to Make Your Life Longer Than Others

 

 

 

  F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896, an American novelist, was once a student of St. Paul Academy, the Newman School and attended Princeton. University  for a short while. In 1917 he joined the army and was posted in Alabama, where he met his future wife Zelda Sayre. Then he had to make some money to impress her.

  His life with her was full of great happiness, as he wrote in his diary:“ My own happiness in the past often approached such joy that I could share it even with the person dearest to me but had to walk it away in quiet streets and take down parts of it in my diary.” 

This side of paradise, his first novel, was published in 1920. Encouraged by its success, Fitzgerald began to devote more time to his writing. Then he continued with the novel the Beautiful and Damned (1922), a collection of short stories Thales of the Jazz Age (1922), and a play The Vegetable (1923). But his greatest success was The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, which quick brought him praise from the literary world. Yet it failed to give him the needed financial security. Then, in 1926, he published another collection of short stories All the Sad Young Men.

However, Fitzgerald’s problems with his wife Zelda affected his writing. During the 1920s he tried to reorder his life, but failed. By 1930, his wife had her first breakdown and went to a Swiss clinic. During this period he completed novels Tender Is the Night in 1934 and The Love of the Last Tycoon in 1940. while his wife was in hospital in the United States, he got totally addicted to alcohol. Sheila Graham, his dear friend, helped him fight his alcoholism.

1.How many novels written by Fitzgerald are mentioned in the passage?

A. 5            B. 6            C. 7                D. 8

2.Which of the following is the correct order to describe Fitzgerald’s life according to the passage?

a. He became addicted to drinking.

b. He studied at St. Paul Academy.

c. He published his first novel This Side of Paradise.

d. The Great Gatsby won high praise.

e. He failed to reorder his life.

f. He joined the army and met Zelda.

A. f-c-e-a-b-d       B. b-e-a-f-c-d        C. f-d-e-c-b-a      D. b-f-c-d-e-a

3.We can infer from the passage that Fitzgerald            .

A. had made some money when he met Zelda in Alabama.

B. was well educated and well off before he served in the army

C. would have completed more works if his wife hadn’t broken down

D. helped his friend get rid of drinking while his wife was in hospital

4.The passage is probably followed by a concluding paragraph about          .

A. Zelda’s personal life

B. Zelda’s illness and treatment

C. Fitzgerald’s friendship with Graham

D. Fitzgerald’s contributions to the literary world

 

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