Mark felt that it was time for him to take part in his community, so he went to the neighborhood meeting after work. The area’s city councilwoman (女议员) was leading a discussion about how the quality of life was decreasing. The neighborhood faced many problems.

Mark looked at the chart taped to the walls. There are charts for parking problems, crime, and for problems in vacant buildings. People were supposed to suggest solutions to the councilwoman.

It was too much for Mark. “ The problems are too big. ” he thought. He turned to the man next to him and said ,“ I think this is a waste of my time. Nothing I could do would make a difference here.”

Mark thought some more on his way to the bus stop. “ People should just take care of themselves.” He decided. “That’s enough to do. I can’t take on all the problems of the world.”

As he neared the bus stop, Mark saw a woman carrying a grocery bag and a baby. She was trying to unlock her car, but she didn’t have a free hand. As Mark got closer, her other child, a little boy, suddenly darted into the street. The woman tried to reach for him, but as she moved , her bag shifted and the groceries started to fall out. Mark ran to take the boy’s arm and led him back to his mother. Then he picked up the groceries while the woman smiled in relief. “ Thanks!” she said. “You have got great timing!”

“ Just being neighborly,” Mark said. As he rode home, he had a quick look at the walls of the bus. On one of them was “Small acts of kindness add up.” Mark smiled and thought, “ Maybe that’s a good place to start.”

1.The underlined word “darted” in paragraph 5 can be replaced by ________.

A. walked B. marched

C. climbed D. rushed

2. Which phrases can’t describe the woman in the passage?

A. at a loss B. at a panic

C. helpless D. scared to death

3.What does “ Maybe that’s a good place to start ” suggest?

A. If you are kind you will be treated in the same way.

B. All small acts will add up to kindness.

C. Everyone can play his part to make things better.

D. It’s a small act to help a person in need.

Whenever we turn on the TV or radio, read the newspapers, surf the Internet, we'll be surrounded by the word "diet" everywhere. We have so easily been attracted by the promise of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically(心理上地)and physically.

It's obvious that diet products weaken us psychologically. They allow us to jump over the thinking stage that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fat. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word "diet" in food labels.

What's more, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves that we don't have to work to get results.Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

As a matter of fact, the danger that diet products bring not only lies in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm they cause. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie. oaly because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products, And they can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are stopping our bodies having basic nutrients. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemicals that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.

Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Think twice before buying diet products. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, 3rd therefore, prevent the psychological and physical harm that comes from using them.

1.From Paragraph 1,we learn that

A. diet products are in our daily life

B. people have trouble choosfng diet products

C. people should put up with diet products

D. diet products are misleading people

2.The psychological effect of diet products is that people tend to

A. hesitate before they enjoy diet foods

B. pay attention to their daily diet

C. watch their weight rather than their diet

D. try out varieties of diet foods

3.The underlined part in Paragraph 3 probably means

A. diet products cause no pain

B. it costs a lot to.lose weight

C. losing weight is effortless

D. diet products are free of fat and calories

4.Diet products indirectly harm people physically because such products

A. are over-consumed B. are short of basic nutrients

C. lack chemicals D. provide too much energy

Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running away, a new study says. Beehives (蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent elephants from damaging farmer’s crops.

In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmer to go to the trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees would scare elephants away.

Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in northern Kenya and set up a recorder. Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next,Lucy searched out elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and put a speaker in a tree close to each family.

From a distance, Lucy switched on the pre-recorded sound of angry bees while at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy played the sound of a waterfall (瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families, the animals were undisturbed. Even after four minutes, most of the groups stayed in one place.

Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn’t tested enough groups yet to know, but her initial (最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are frightened away.

1.We know from the passage that elephants may be frightened of .

A. loud noises B. some crops

C. video cameras D. angry bees

2.As mentioned in the passage, Lucy .

A. works by herself in Africa

B. needs to test more elephant groups

C. has stopped elephants eating crops

D. has got farmers to set up beehives on their farms

3.Why did Lucy throw a stone into a wild beehive?

A. To record the sound of bees.

B. To make a video of elephants.

C. To see if elephants would run away.

D. To find out more about the behavior of bees.

4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Young elephants ignore African honeybees.

B. Waterfalls can make elephants stay in one place.

C. Elephants do not go near trees with bees living in them.

D. Farmers do not allow Lucy to conduct tests in their fields.

Time Travel

If you could travel in time, where would you go? Perhaps you would watch an originalperformance of a Shakespeare’s play in Elizabethan England?

What about hanging out with Laozi in the Spring and Autumn Period? Or maybe you’d voyage far ahead of the present day to see what the future holds.

The possibility of time travel is indeed appealing. Stories exploring the subject have been around for hundreds of years. Perhaps the best known example is science fiction novel The Time Machine, which was written by H.G.Wells and published in 1895 for the first time. It was adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term “time machine”, coined by

Wells, is now universally used to refer to a vehicle transporting people into the far future.

But could time travel actually be possible? Some scientists say yes, in theroy. They propose using cracks in time and space called“wormholes”,which could be used as shortcuts to other periods.Einstein's theory of relativity allows time travel in extreme circumstances.And British physicist Stephen Hawking says you could travel into the future with a really fast spaceship—going at nearly the speed of light.Though building such a spaceship would of course be no simple task.

Even if you could travel into the past, there is something called the “grandfather paradox”.It asks what would happen if a time traveler were to go back in time and have his own grandfather killed for some reason, and therefore prevent himself from being born.If the time traveler wasn't born, how would he travel back in time?

And would you really like to visit the future?In H.G.Wells' book,the main character travels into distant time where he arrives at a beach and is attacked by giant crabs.He then voyages 30 million years into the future where the only living thing is a black object with tentacles(触角).

If that's what's in store, maybe we are better just living in the present day after all.

1.The novel The Time Machine mentioned in Paragraph 2 aims to show___________.

A.People's interest in time travel

B.the special feature of the book

C.the long history of time travel

D.the contribution of H.G.Wells

2.Einstein's and Hawking's theories_________.

A.have similarities in many ways

B.push the invention of the first spaceship

C.have proved wrong by some time travelers

D.suggest the possibility to invent the time machine

3.In Paragraph 4,“grandfather paradox”probably refers to the idea that__________.

A.the traveler is prevented from meeting his grandfather

B.the traveler goes back in time to seek for his grandfather

C.the grandfather's death makes the traveler's birth impossible

D.The reunion of the traveler and his grandfather brings happiness

4.According to the passage, what is probably the author's attitude towards time travel?

A.Unclear. B.Skeptical.

C.Supportive.D.Unconcerned.

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