Soaring divorce rates around the globe are taking a toll on the environment, American researchers suggested in a study released on a Monday.

Michigan State University researcher Jianguo “Jack” Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy. They said housing units require space, construction materials and fuel to heat and cool, regardless of the number of inhabitants.

For example, in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water. An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households.

That costs $6.9 billion in extra utility costs per year, Liu said, plus an added $ 3.6 billion for water, in addition to other costs such as land use.

“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household,” Liu said. He said that in cohabitating(同居) household, people will watch the same television, share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator. All things use energy at a regularly stable rate, regardless of the number of users.

 Liu said he was not condemning divorce, “Some people really need to get divorced.” He said cohabitation—whether by a family or friends—was simply a more environmentally friendly option. Additonally, the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures, such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer.

“People’s first reaction to this research is surprise, and then it seems simple.” Liu said in a press release. “But a lot of things become simple after research is done. Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify(量化) their relationships. People have been talking about how to protect the environment and fight against climate change, but divorce is a factor that people don’t notice and it needs to be considered”.

He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies.

The research was published in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This passage is mainly meant to _______ .

  A. inform the readers of the increasing rates of divorce in America

  B. emphasize the importance of protecting the environment

  C. appeal to married people to maintain their marriage longer

  D. tell people the impact divorce has on the environment

According to the passage, what’s the attitude of Mr. Liu towards divorce?

  A. Critical   .             B. Indifferent.               C. Objective.                D. Negative.

We are told that ______ .

  A. divorced households will use fewer resources than married households

  B. married households are more willing to protect the environment

  C. divorced households contribute more to rapid economic development

  D. divorce is rarely considered when people think about protecting the environment.

The underlined phrase “taking a toll on” in Paragraph 1 probably means _____ .

  A. taking efforts to improve                         B. having a bad effect on 

  C. preventing the pollution of                        D. benefiting from

How is the passage organized?

  A. Main idea →Comparison → Supporting details

  B. Comparison→Argument→Explanation

  C. Main idea→Supporting details→Conclusion

  D. Example → Explanation → Conclusion


Soaring divorce rates around the globe are affecting the environment, American researchers suggested in a study released Monday.
Michigan State University researcher Jianguo “Jack” Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy. They said housing units require space, construction materials and fuel to heat and cool, regardless of the number of inhabitants.
For example, in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water. An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households.
“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household”, Liu said. He said that in cohabitating households, people will watch the same television, share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator, all things that use energy at a regularly stable rate regardless of the number of users.
Liu said he was not condemning divorce, “Some people really need to get divorces.” He said that cohabitation was simply a more environmentally friendly option. Additionally, the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures, such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer.
“People’s first reaction to this research is surprise, and then it seems simple.” Liu said in a release, “But a lot of things become simple after research is done. Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify their relationships. People have been talking about how to protect the environment and refuse climate change, but divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered.”
He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies.
This passage is mainly meant to ____.
A. inform the reader of the increasing divorce in America
B. emphasize the importance of protecting the environment
C. tell people the effect divorce has on the environment
D. appeal to married people to keep their households
According to the passage, what’s the attitude of Mr. Liu towards divorce?
A. Supportive       B. Objective.       C. Indifferent.       D. Unclear.
It can be inferred from the passage that ____.
A. divorced households will promote the sales of products
B. married households are more willing to protect the environment
C. divorced households contribute more to the society’s development
D. divorce is not taken into account when people are protecting the environment
From this passage we can find that ____.
A. divorce rates are quickly rising globally these years
B. cohabiting households will increase consumption of water and energy
C. to divorce is a wise option according to the passage
D. the end of multi-generations of a family will save energy

Remind children that bad things don’t last. It may sound simple, but the message is extremely important. “Children often don’t have the experience to know that when something bad happens—they lose an important game or their best friends lets them down—it’s not the end of the world,” explains Nancy Leffert, a senior research scientist with the Research Institute, an American adolescents’(青少年) and children’s research group. “They think their bad feelings will last for ever, or that one failure will ruin everything.”
Unfortunately, that kind of thinking discourages motivation(动机).“If a child believes that the cause of her upset is lasting, or that nothing she does will make a difference, it decreases her ability to keep on trying,” says Dorothy Rich, president of the Mega Skills Education Center of the Home and School Institute, based in Washington. Any time you can help your child see that a situation is not lasting, that a result can be changed, or that one opinion does not reflect reality, you give her reason to hope.
Case in point: “When my daughter Kathy was eight,art was one of her favorite subjects,”says Beth,a mother of two. “Then she got an art teacher who gave a great deal of praise to one student and barely noticed the rest.Kathy was ready to give up until I explained to her,‘Never stop doing your best just because one person doesn’t give you praise.’” Beth had to repeat the advice often,and finally her daughter got the message.“Kathy is twelve now, and art is still one of her strongest subjects.”
62. According to the passage we know many children_____.
A. know how to face a failure
B. try their best to avoid a situation of failure
C. don’t want to stay in bad feelings for ever
D. tend to take a failure as the end of the world
63. Which of the following can a parent say to his children to show that one’s opinion does not reflect reality?
A. “If you call your friend and apologize,he won’t stay mad at you.”
B. “That may be what your teacher thinks, but I see it differently.”
C. “You have lost today, but you can try again tomorrow.”
D. “Go ahead. Don’t care what other people think.”
64. It can be inferred from the passage that_____.
A. teachers’ praise is very important to students
B. good teachers can give students useful advice
C. teachers should not praise their students in class
D. good teachers can find each student’s favorite subject
65. The best title of the passage is_____.
A. Help Children Promote Problem Solving Ability
B. Tell Children Not to Let Failure Ruin Them
C. Set Reasonable Hopes for Your Children
D. Teach Your Children to Be Happy

Barack Obama urged congressional leaders on Monday to act quickly to pass a huge stimulus package for the U.S. economy. He met with a bipartisan (concerning or involving two different political parties) group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Later he met individually with Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and spoke to a bipartisan leadership gathering. In comments to reporters early on Monday, he emphasized the urgency of finalizing economic legislation (立法). “We have got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us,” he said, “We are expecting a sobering job report at the end of the week. Nancy Pelosi and her staff have been extraordinarily helpful in working with our team so that we can shape an economic recovery and reinvestment plan that starts putting people back to work.”
Mr. Obama wants tax cuts for individual Americans and businesses to make up a significant portion of expected legislation. This could involve as much as $300 billion of a bill that is likely to go beyond $700 billion and include aid to cash-poor U.S. states, and money for alternative energy and a range of infrastructure (基础设施) projects. Later, Mr. Obama said he expects to be able to sign legislation as soon as the end of this month, adding that quick action is necessary to “break the drive of the U.S. economic depression”.
Emerging later from bipartisan talks with Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers discussed with the president how to pass a stimulus package as quickly as possible. “An economic recovery package that will create jobs immediately and will grow the economy and that is what we talked about today,” said Nancy Pelosi. “How we could do this fast, deliberatively and to act upon it soon.” Just how soon that would be, Pelosi would not say.
How much support Democrats can obtain from Republicans will depend on the details. But the severity of the U.S. economic depression has created considerable bipartisan backing for quick action. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid said: “There are investments that we need to make on behalf of the American people to turn around this economy. We felt very good about the meeting; we are confident that we can do this and we have to do this.”
“I think the best thing I can do is to decline to comment on what they are going to do going forward,” said Dana Perino. “Obviously, we think that tax cuts were the right way to help our economy get out of the economic depression that this president inherited and we know that tax cuts can stimulate innovation.” Asked by reporters how large the economic stimulus package might be, Senate Majority Leader Reid said Obama indicated that all but one of some 28 economists advising him had said it should range from $800 billion to $1.3 trillion.
【小题1】Barack Obama urged congressional leaders and met with bipartisan leaders to _____.

A.take over the White House
B.end economic decline
C.understand each other better
D.negotiate political issues
【小题2】If the stimulus package is passed quickly and successfully, it can _____.
A.obtain support from Republicans
B.finalize economic legislation
C.enhance America’s international position
D.provide job opportunities
【小题3】What is the bipartisan leaders’ attitude towards this meeting?
A.Uncertain.B.Hopeful.C.Disappointed.D.Indifferent.
【小题4】What can we infer from the passage?
A.The best way out of the economic depression is tax cuts.
B.The Republic Party plays the key role in coping with the economic depression.
C.Democrats and Republicans will team up in the economic depression.
D.When the stimulus package will be passed is known to the lawmakers.

Remind children that bad things don’t last. It may sound simple, but the message is extremely important. “Children often don’t have the experience to know that when something bad happens---they lose an important game or their best friend lets them down---it’s not the end of the world,” explains Nancy Leffert, a senior research scientist with the Research Institute, an American adolescents(青少年) and children’s research group. “They think their bad feelings will last for ever, or that one failure will ruin everything.”

Unfortunately, that kind of thinking discourages motivation(动机). “If a child believes that the cause of her upset is lasting, or that nothing she does will make a difference, it decreases her ability to keep on trying.” says Dorothy Rich, president of the MegaSkills Education Center of the Home and School Institute, based in Washington. Any time you can help your child see that a situation is not lasting, that a result can be changed, or that one opinion does not reflect reality, you give her reason to hope.

Case in point: “When my daughter Kathy was eight, art was one of her favorite subjects,” says Beth, a mother of two. “Then she got an art teacher who gave a great deal of praise to one student and barely noticed the rest. Kathy was ready to give up until I explained to her, “Never stop doing your best just because one person doesn’t give you praise.” Beth had to repeat the advice often, and finally her daughter got the message. “Kathy is 12 now, and art is still one of her strongest subjects.”

1.According to the passage we know many children__________.

A. know how to face a failure

B. try their best to avoid a situation of failure

C. don’t want to stay in bad feelings for ever

D. tend to take a failure as the end of the world

2.Which of the following is RIGHT about Nancy Leffert?

A. She is concerned about children’s attitudes towards failure.

B. She is the president of the Education Center.

C. She strongly believes that bad things won’t last long.

D. She is the director of the Research Institute.

3.Which of the following can a parent say to his children to show that one’s opinion does not reflect reality?

A. “If you call your friend and apologize, he won’t stay mad at you.”

B. “Go ahead. Don’t care what other people think.”

C. “You have lost today, but you can try again tomorrow.”

D. “That may be what your teacher thinks, but I see it differently.”

4.The best title of the passage is__________.

A. Help Children Promote Problem Solving Ability

B. Tell Children Not to Let Failure Ruin Them

C. Set Reasonable Hopes for Your Children

D. Teach Your Children to Be Happy

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网