In recent years, the world has made progress in reducing deaths among children under the age of five. A new report says an estimated 6.9 million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. That compares to about twelve million in1990.
The report says child mortality rates have fallen in all areas. It says the number of deaths is down by at least 50 percent in eastern, western and southeastern Asia. The number also fell in North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ties Boerma is head of the WHO’s Department of Health Statistics and Informatics. He says most child deaths happen in just a few areas.
TIES BOERMA: “Sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia face the greatest challenges in child survival. More than eighty percent of child deaths in the world occur in these two regions. About half of child deaths occur in just five countries—India, which actually takes twenty-four percent of the global total; Nigeria, eleven percent; the Democratic Republic of Congo, seven percent; Pakistan, five percent and China, four percent of under-five deaths in the world.”
Ties Boerma notes that, in developed countries, one child in one hundred fifty-two dies before his or her fifth birthday. But south of the Sahara Desert, one out of nine children dies before the age of five. In Asia, the mortality rate is one in sixteen.  
The report lists the top five causes of death among children under five worldwide. They are pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and problems both before and during birth.
Tessa Wardlaw is with the U-N Children’s Fund. She is pleased with the progress being made in Sub-Saharan Africa. The area has the highest under-five mortality rate in the world. But she says the rate of decline in child deaths has more than doubled in Africa.
TESSA WARDLAW: “We welcome the widespread progress in child survival, but we importantly want to stress that there’s a lot of work that remains to be done. There’s unfinished business and the fact is that today on average, around nineteen thousand children are still dying every day from largely preventable causes.”
The World Health Organization says one way to solve these problems is to make sure health care services are available to women. In this way, medical problems can be avoided or treated when identified.
【小题1】Since 1990, the number of the children who died before 5 in the world has dropped by about__________.

A.6,900,000B.12,000,000C.1,200,000D.5,100,000
【小题2】 What does the underlined word “mortality” ( in Paragraph 2)mean?
A.illnessB.reductionC.deathD.problem
【小题3】According to the passage, the readers are likely to believe that __________.
A.child mortality rates have fallen just in five areas
B.Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest under-five mortality rate in the world
C.in developed countries, no children die before the age of five
D.the world has made little progress in reducing the rates of child mortality
【小题4】______ is the top-one cause of death among children under five worldwide.
A.Global warming B.MalariaC.PneumoniaD.Diarrhea
【小题5】What will be probably referred to in the following paragraph?
A.Women do not want to have babies.
B.How more health care services are available to women.
C.Medical problems are completely solved.
D.The World Health Organization.

“It is never too late and you are never too old to start something new!” says Englishtown       Ellen Rema. Ellen began to learn English at the age of 50, and in just a few years, she has made      progress!

Ellen chose to study at Englishtown because no evening classes were       in the German countryside where she lives. At Englishtown, she joins       classes online and speaks with live native English-speaking teacher.

In 2010, Ellen began with the first level of Englishtown and quickly     . “I spent hours and hours studying,” she said “Maybe I wanted too much in a short time. I finished all my       after 2 years and studying English isn’t all about hard work. It should also be       ! I really like the online conversation classrooms, in which I can learn so much about other cultures and traditions. I am open for all      .”

Ellen has been able to        her English to use by visiting England five times! “I am very thankful to Englishtown because most of the English I know now was learned here,” Ellen says. “My life has       with Englishtown.”

1.A. professor   B. friend   C.student  D.reporter

2.A. amazing     B. challenging   C. discouraging         D. disturbing

3.A. satisfied     B. offered C. attended       D. represented

4.A. conversation      B. composition  C. listening         D. reading

5.A. dropped    B. brushed         C. awarded        D. progressed

6.A. channels    B. schedules      C. courses          D. papers

7.A. fun     B. waster  C. weakness      D. wonder

8.A. measures   B. topics    C. timetables     D. fashions

9.A. take   B. set         C. make     D. put

10.A. ruined      B. started  C. changed        D. Turned

 

It’s really a tough job for automakers doing marketing and sales in China, where competition is acute and customers have little loyalty. They have tried a range of tricks in recent years.

But there should be a moral bottom line. Unfortunately, a Buick dealership used the tragedy of a two-month-old infant to advertise its cars last week on Weibo – Micro blog. And Hyundai Motor followed suit.

On March 4, an SUV was stolen with the infant left inside alone in the northeastern city of Changchun. The news spread widely on Weibo after the baby’s father called the local police and radio station for help. The next day it was revealed that the infant was choked to death and buried in snow by the thief. The online community expressed its deeply felt sympathy and condolences.

The Buick dealership posted a photo of the baby and two of its cars on its official Weibo account to advertise its GPS system that can locate the stolen car. “A few thoughts on the Changchun stolen car and baby incident: when buying a car it’s entirely OK to choose a brand with advanced technology,” said the post. Though the post was made before tragic fate of the infant was known, the action generated a storm of outrage on Weibo. Some online commentators said it is “marketing at the cost of lives” and “extremely despicable.”

Worse was the post on Hyundai’s official Weibo account that advertised the anti – theft system on its new SUV Santa Fe, an entry made after the child was known to have died. The action also enraged micro bloggers.

Both posts were soon deleted. The Buick dealership made an apology on Weibo to the family of the victim and the public. But screenshots saved by users continued to be posted and the negative impact on both brands persists.

The two brands probably didn’t expect such a firestorm of fury from the Internet community, but they really made a big mistake sinking below the moral bottom line. They certainly ruined their own brand images.

The Chinese have the same proverb as the English language – a little leak will sink a great ship. It takes decades to build the great ship of a respectable brand but it can take just a moment of negligence to make it fail completely.

For those in corporate marketing, two lessons should be learned: first, be careful in the era of social media when one wrong can be easily magnified and have disastrous impacts in just a few clicks.

Second and more importantly, think with your brain and heart. Never break the moral bonds of respect for human life and sympathy for our fellow man.

1.Who is to blame for the tragedy of Changchun infant according to the passage?

A.The baby’s father                      B.Buick and Hyundai dealership

C.Weibo                                D.Not clear

2.Which of the following statements is correct?

A.The missing infant was found alive in the stolen car.

B.Micro blog marketing of tragic infant death fuels firestorm of criticism.

C.People can’t see the two posts any more because they were deleted.

D.The two car brands mentioned in the passage spoiled their own reputation by selling the stolen car.

3.What does the underlined word – “despicable” in paragraph 4 mean?

A.Immoral          B.Important         C.Distinguished       D.Considerable

4.The reason why Hyundai’s post was worse than Buick’s is that _________.

A.Hyundai dealership didn’t make an apology on Weibo

B.Buick dealership expressed its deeply sympathy and condolences

C.Hyundai’s post was made after people knew the infant had died

D.Buick’s car was more advanced on its GPS system

5.In the last paragraph, the author encourages people _____________.

A.not to sink below the moral bottom line

B.not to sympathize our fellow man

C.to think twice before making decision

D.to magnify the mistakes people make

 

Whenever anyone measures educational success, East Asian countries are always top scorers. But in a recent league table, a European country, Finland, was top of the class. South Korea was still in second place, though. Britain was at number 6.

In Korea the school day is long—typically 7 or 8 hours, followed by hours of private tutoring in the evenings. All this hothousing leaves Korean students so tired, they sometimes fall asleep in class next day. Worries about the effects of late night cramming(填鸭式) led the government to force cramming schools to close by 10 pm. Finnish children spend the least time in class in the developed world, often finishing just after lunch, with about one hour of homework a day. Private tuition is uncommon. The British and American school day is quite long in comparison, around 6 hours, and secondary school pupils do 2 or 3 hours of self-study a night.

The Korean education system, like many in Asia, is intensely competitive, with students even competing to get into the best cramming schools, to help them get ahead. Finnish education is far less cut-throat. Classes are all mixed ability, and there are no league tables. British schools again occupy the middle ground, with quite high levels of competition for places at university, and schools and universities battling to come top of league tables for everything from exam results to student satisfaction. Korea and Finland both do well, yet their education systems are so different.

However, there are some similarities in Korea and Finland. In those countries, teachers have high status in society, and education is very highly valued. Those attitudes can't change quickly. But it can be done. They might be the star pupils now, but until the l970s, Finland's educational system was poor. Their thoroughly different approach to schooling has taken them to the top in just a generation.

1.The students spend the least time in school in         .

A.the UK            B.Finland            C.the USA           D.Korea

2.According to the text, we think in Korea         .

A.students spend more time in studying

B.students are tired of studying in class

C.students leave their school early

D.students are always top scorers

3.The underlined phrase “all this hothousing” in Paragragh 2 probably refers to         .

A.private evening tutoring                  B.self-study at home

C.long-hour study                         D.school study

4.From Paragragh 3, we can know that         .

A.Finnish students are less stressed in study

B.there're also many cramming schools in Britain

C.students in Korea are the most competitive in Asia

D.British schools are less competitive than universities

5.According to the author, the key to improving education is         .

A.the attitude                            B.the schooling time

C.star pupils                             D.new teaching approach

 

We’d been flying for hours, deeper and deeper into the desert of southeastern Niger. The mission: to find what is probably the last wild population of the great Saharan antelope called the addax (旋角羚)—the most endangered animal of its size in Africa.

Pilot Peter Ragg flew our bright red helicopter low over two parallel dunes (沙丘). The pale sand below us was dotted by the black bushes, the plants that are favorite food for the addax. Then, almost as if the dune extruded (使突出) them, two perfect addaxes appeared. Their long tails swung from side to side as they ran, heads held high on thick necks, horns reaching for the sky. We made a few turns in the plane, then let them be. In just a few seconds they were swallowed again by the Sahara. Soon they could just as easily disappear from the planet.

In September 2004 the government of Niger and a small NGO called SOS Faune du Niger surveyed this last known pocket of wild addaxes. They counted 128 individuals. Since then, the number has dropped as hunters have taken more for meat. How many addaxes remain in the Sahara is anybody’s guess, but those that do survive could be considered the living dead: There may not be a viable (能生存的) population left to reproduce.

I’m now helping to make an emergency plan for the last wild addaxes. With a few hundred thousand dollars, some trucks, and a strong group with the local Toubou guides, we may just be able to save these guys from extinction.

36. What do the addaxes in the passage usually eat?

A. Vegetables. B. Black bushes.       C. Grass.                    D. Fruits.

37. All of the following descriptions of the addax are true EXCEPT that ____.

A. its tail is long                                    B. its neck is thick   

C. its legs are short                             D. its horns are long

38. What does the writer probably mean by saying that “There may not be a viable population left to reproduce”?

A. Wild addaxes will die out soon unless effective measures are taken.

B. The number of wild addaxes will increase if they are not hunted.

C. Wild addaxes cannot support themselves any longer.

D. Humans cannot survive without enough addaxes.

39. It can be inferred that the writer of the passage might be ____.

A. a journalist  B. an official    C. an engineer                D. a zoologist

 

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