You never played the video dance game? Now such games are used to help lose weight!

Like many other teenage boys, Jones loves sports. But at 5 feet, 175 pounds, he found his weight in trouble. His doctor wanted him to lose 50 pounds so that he may be a good football game player by the end of the summer.

Jones chose the popular Dance Revolution video game at home to increase his activity. He had lost about 10 pounds by changing his diet. Now, after two weeks’ playing the game, he has lost another 10!

A health study is being done by an insurance company. The company hopes that the game will lead to better health and lower costs. “Obesity claims last year cost us $ 77 million. We have to cut those costs,” said a member of the insurance group. The company provides a game console (游戏主机), a dance mat and software for the six-month, $ 60,000 study.

The study is more than a commercial thing of an insurance company. It is widely supported by physical education and health professionals.

In West Virginia, 43% of the nearly 6,000 children examined for heart disease risk were considered over-weighted; more than 25% were too fat. “We are in a crisis of childhood obesity not only in West Virginia but in America,” said a researcher.

Researchers are now looking at the potential for improving effects by using the game. A teacher in West Virginia has been using the video games in her classes since last fall. She reported that the game does improve heart health as well as eye-hand coordination (协调能力), and her students take the video game as a great alternative to jumping rope or ball games.

The US Education Department is putting the game in 20 schools to control childhood obesity. Well, are you going to try such to dance away your extra weight?

1.The underlined part is trying to tell us _____.

A. the study involves many insurance companies

B. the study is only an insurance company’s business

C. the study is less important than the insurance company’s money

D. it’s not only the insurance company that is concerned about the study

2.It can be inferred that _____.

A. the government thinks highly of the dance game

B. in West Virginia, more than 25 % of the adults were too fat

C. a teacher is a failure in using the video game in her classes

D. the US Education Department isn’t interested in the game

3.The most suitable title of the passage is _____.

A. Dance Away Your Weight

B. Play the Video Dance Game

C. Solve the Problem of Obesity

D. Cut the Cost of Obesity Claims

The African elephant, the largest land animal remaining on earth , is of great importance to African ecosystem(生态系统). Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great extent the builder of its environment. As a big plant-eater, it largely shapes the forest-and-savanna(大草原)surroundings in which it lives, therefore setting the terms of existence for millions of other animals that live in its habitat(栖息地).

It is the elephant's great desire for food that makes it a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and underbushes, and pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in both deep tropical forests and in the woodlands that cover part of

the African savannas. In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth that attract a variety of other plant-eaters.

Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants make open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations, the forests become suitable for large hoofed plant-eaters to move around and for small plant-eaters to get their food as well.

What worries scientists now is that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant disappears, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole ecosystem.

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A. Disappearance of African elephants.

B. Forests and savannas as habitats for African elephants.

C. The effect of African elephants' search for food.

D. The eating habit of African elephants.

2.What does the underlined phrase “setting the terms” most probably mean?

A. Fixing the time.

B. Worsening the state.

C. Improving the quality.

D. Deciding the conditions.

3.What do we know about the open spaces in the passage?

A. They result from the destruction of rain forests.

B. They provide food mainly for African elephants.

C. They are home to many endangered animals.

D. They are attractive to plant-eating animals of different kinds.

4.The passage is developed mainly by________.

A. showing the effect and then explaining the causes

B. pointing out similarities and differences

C. describing the changes in space order

D. giving examples

Have you ever seen a real night sky that looks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night? I hope not! So, why would an artist paint the sky this way? Perhaps I can answer that with another question. When you’re happy, why do you sing instead of speaking? Or when you’re in love, why do you speak of roses and honey? When we do these things, we, too are artists. We’re using something that goes beyond a mere scientific description in order to communicate our feelings more powerfully than straightforward words can. So consider for a moment that Van Gogh might not have been hallucinating on the night he painted this. Maybe he felt something so powerful that he had to go beyond the familiar to express it.

I hope I’m reminding you of something you already know as I describe the experience of being outside at night under a crystal clear sky that makes everything seem clean and refreshing. So you look up. And suddenly you see the sky that you’ve seldom seen before. It’s not just the same old dark night sky tonight. Instead, the blackness is a deep, rich blue that is more bottomless than any ocean. The stars are not spots of light but brilliant, magical diamonds that dance like tiny angels. In just this special moment, the sky is somehow alive, and it seems to speak to you silently about the meaning of infinity.

Now look at the painting again. Can you see something of what makes this such a famous and well-loved image? But there’s more here than that. Van Gogh painted this while he was quite struck down by a mental disease. It is natural to imagine that he frequently battled the fear that he would never escape his prison to true freedom. It is natural for us to imagine this because each of us has faced our own personal prison, whether it be disease, the loss of a loved one, serious financial problems … In such moments it is tempting to give up to despair and collapse in hopelessness.

Looking at this painting, I imagine Van Gogh in just such a moment of despair, when he is struck by the memory of one of those amazing night skies. He recalls the sense that he is not alone, that there is a living, infinite world with rich colorful creatures and scenes all around.

And so the sky flows across the canvas full of vitality and power. The stars don’t just sparkle; they explode. Looking closer, we notice that the earth itself seems to respond to the movement in the sky, forming its own living waves in the mountain and rolling trees. In the sleepy village, the windows of the houses glow with the same light that brightens the universe. The giant trees at the left seem to capture the joy by stretching upwards toward the sky.

What a tremendous message of hope there is in this masterpiece! Even if our troubles persist, the world around us assures us that life is worth living. That’s what the angels sing about. Doesn’t it make you want to sing, too?

1.Looking at the painting Starry Night, we can see all the following except ________.

A. the singing angelsB. the giant trees

C. the sleeping villageD. the sparkling stars

2.Van Gogh does NOT describe a feeling of ________ through the Starry Night.

A. happinessB. vitalityC. powerD. despair

3.What is the main purpose of this passage?

A. To explain how Van Gogh painted the Starry Night.

B. To tell us how to appreciate the Starry Night.

C. To prove Van Gogh was in a hallucinating state of mind while painting the picture.

D. To show us the beauty of the sky on a Starry Night.

Owning a smart phone may not be as smart as you think. They may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are… but they also turn you into a workaholic(工作狂), it seems.

A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the smart phone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles. The study shows the average UK working day is between 9 and 10 hours, but a further 2 hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls.

Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers confess they are on call almost 24 hours a day. Nearly two-thirds say they often check work emails just before they go to bed and as soon as they wake up, while over a third have replied to one in the middle of the night. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 7 am, with more than a third checking their first email in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11pm and midnight.

Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said: “The ability to access millions of apps has made smart phones invaluable for many people. However, there are disadvantages. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smart phones mean that people cannot get away from work. The more constantly in contact we become, the more is expected of us in a work capacity.”

1.With a smart phone the average UK working day is ________.

A.2 hoursB.8 hoursC.9 to 10 hoursD. 11 to 12 hours

2.It could be inferred from the text that the British people ________.

A.prefer to check emails in the morning

B.are crazy about different smart phones

C.work extra hours with smart phones

D.shorten their normal working hours

3.What does Ghadi Hobeika feel about smart phones?

A.They are unimportant for most of people.

B.They have disadvantages for some companies.

C.They are useful to improve a work ability.

D.They make it impossible for people to rest.

4.What can we conclude from the text?

A.Every coin has two sides.

B.All that glitters is not gold.

C.It never rains but pours.

D.It’s no good crying over spilt milk.

It is not only praise or punishment that determines a child’s level of confidence. There are some other important ways we shape our kids—particularly by giving instructions and commands in a negative or positive choice of words. For example, we can say to a child “Don’t run into traffic!” or “Stay on the footpath close to me.” In using the latter, you will be helping your kids to think and act positively, and to feel competent in a wide range of situations, because they know what to do, and aren’t scaring themselves about what not to do.

Why does such a small thing make a difference? It is all in the way the human mind works. What we think, we automatically rehearse. For example, if someone offered you a million dollars not to think of a blue monkey for two minutes, you wouldn’t be able to do it. When a child is told “Don’t fall off the tree,” he will think of two things: “don’t” and “fall off the tree”. That is, he will automatically create the picture of falling off the tree in his mind. A child who is vividly imagining falling off the tree is much more likely to fall off. So it is far better to use “Hold on to the tree carefully.”

Clear, positive instructions help kids to understand the right way to do things. Kids do not always know how to be safe, or how to react to the warning of the danger in negative words. So parents should make their commands positive. “Sam, hold on firm to the side of the boat” is much more useful than “Don’t you dare to fall out of the boat?” or worse still “How do you think I’ll feel if you drown?” The changes are small but difference is obvious.

Children learn how to guide and organize themselves from the way we guide them with our words, so it pays to be positive.

1.Positive choice of words helps kids to ________.

A. do things carefully

B. build up their confidence

C. improve their imagination

D. learn in different situation

2.What can we infer from Paragraph 2?

A. A child will act on what is instructed.

B. One can’t help imagining what is heard.

C. A child will fall off the tree when told not to.

D. One won’t think of a blue monkey when given money.

3.Which of the following commands helps kids to be safe?

A. Fasten your seat belt.

B. Don’t play by the lake.

C. How do you think I’ll feel if you get hurt?

D. Don’t you dare to walk through the red light.

4.The main idea of the passage is that ________.

A. praise makes kids confident

B. right instructions keep kids safe

C. clear commands make kids different

D. choice of words can make a difference

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