COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A group of black parents and civil rights activists presented a petition(请愿书) Thursday calling for officials to drop charges against a 16-year-old South Carolina high school student who was videotaped being dragged from her desk and thrown to the floor by a police officer in her classroom.

The group said it was unfair and unacceptable that the student and her 18-year-old classmate at Spring Valley High School who taped the incident were the only people charged that day when authorities already knew Richland County Deputy Ben Fields had tossed the girl from her desk to the ground.

They also said their petition had hundreds of thousands of names from around the country asking prosecutor Dan Johnson to drop the "disturbing schools" charges against the teens. The students in the case are black; Fields is white.

Johnson issued a statement Wednesday saying he won't do anything with the case until the FBI finishes its investigation into Fields, who was fired after the video became public. "I do not simply decide cases based upon feelings, public opinion or sentiment, nor do I decide them based on political pressure," Johnson said in the statement.

Disturbing schools is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or 90 days in jail. The students' lawyer did not respond to telephone messages.

The video spread quickly across the country, prompting questions about when police officers should get involved with classroom discipline. Fields was called to the classroom after the student refused to stop using her cellphone, and then she would not leave the classroom for a teacher or administrator.

In the days after the incident, the teacher turned her class over to a substitute and the administrator was placed on leave. Richland two officials didn't respond to an email asking about their current status. The students were allowed back in school.

Organizers of the protest said they plan to be at South Carolina's Statehouse next year, calling for legislators to change the law that allows police officers to arrest students for misbehaving at schools. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott blamed that law for escalating the situation. "Let's find a way where we don't saddle students with arrest records," said EfiaNwangaza from the Malcom X Center for Self Determination. "Let's get ahead of the schoolhouse-to-jailhouse train in South Carolina."

1.What are the teens charged with?

A. Playing cellphones in class

B. Disobeying the teacher

C. Disturbing schools

D. Fighting with the police officer

2.What is Don Johnson's attitude towards the case?

A. Indifferent B. Ambiguous

C. Subjective D. Cautious

3.According to the passage, people are now concerned about the following except_____.

A. whether the incident reflects a racial issue

B. when police officers should get involved with classroom discipline

C. whether students can play cellphones in class

D. whether the law that allows police officers to arrest students for misbehaving at schools should be changed

4. Which of the following could be the best title for the passage?

A. Police officer fired for tossing student

B. Black parents protest charge for teen tossed from desk

C. Charged teens allowed back in school

D. Violence at school

No one would much like the idea of eating 61 pounds of tomatoes a day. But if their goodness was put into an easy-to-swallow pill that you were told might prevent strokes(中风) and heart attacks you would probably be putting in an order tomorrow.

Researchers believe they may have come up with just that after trials. The daily pill contains a chemical called lycopene (番茄红素) which makes tomatoes red and is known to break down fat in the vessels(血管). A Cambridge University study found taking the pills improved blood flow and the lining of vessels in patients with pre-existing heart conditions. It also increased the flexibility(灵活性) of their vessels by 50 percent. The scientists believe it could limit the damage caused by heart disease-responsible for 180,000 deaths a year, and help cut the 49,000 deaths a year from strokes. They also hope it could benefit those with arthritis(关节炎), diabetes(糖尿病) and even slow the progress of cancer.

Each pill is equal to eating around 61 pounds of ripe tomatoes. Studies have shown eating a Mediterranean-style diet rich in tomatoes fish, vegetables, nuts and olive oil can significantly reduce cholesterol(胆固醇) and help prevent cardiovascular disease.

Preliminary (预先的) results from a two-month trial, in which the pill was given to 36 heart disease patients and 36 healthy volunteers with an average age of 67, were presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association. It was shown to improve the function of the layer of cells lining blood vessels. It also improved their sensitivity to nitric oxide(氧化氮), the gas which causes the enlargement of the vessels in response to exercise.

Ian Wilkinson, head of Cambridge University’s clinical trials unit, said “These results are potentially very significant and it meets the goal, but we need more trials to see if they translate into fewer heart attacks and strokes.”

Further studies are planned, with researchers hoping it could offer a choice for heart disease sufferers who can not take the cholesterol-lowing drugs.

Mike Knapton, head of the British Heart Foundation, said, “Although this showed lycopene improved blood flow in people with heart disease, that’s a long way from demonstrating that taking it could improve outcomes for people with heart disease. The best way to get the benefits of a good diet is to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.”

1.What can we infer from Paragraph 1?

A. We can eat too much tomato food.

B. Tomatoes are helpful to strokes and heart attacks.

C. Tomatoes will lose healthy elements when were put into pills.

D. We had better not eat tomatoes.

2.We can learn from the passage that the pills ____.

A. are at the experiment stage

B. can cure all the disease

C. are widely used among patients

D. cost patients so little money

3.Who were the volunteers by taking part in the trial?

A. Children. B. Youth.

C. Working people. D. old healthy people.

4.What Was Ian Wilkinson’s opinion on the trial?

A. Disappointing. B. Surprising.

C. Satisfactory. D. Terrible.

Elizabeth Freeman was born about 1742 to African American parents who were slaves. At the age of six months she was acquired, along with her sister, by John Ashley, a wealthy Massachusetts slaveholders. She became known as “Mumbet” or “Mum Bett.”

For nearly 30 years Mumbet served the Ashley family. One day, Ashley’s wife tried to strike Mumbet’s sister with a spade. Mumbet protected her sister and took the blow instead. Furious, she left the house and refused to come back. When the Ashleys tried to make her return, Mumbet consulted a lawyer, Theodore Sedgewick. With his help, Mumbet sued(起诉) for her freedom.

While serving the Ashleys, Mumbet had listened to many discussions of the new Massachusetts constitution. If the constitution said that all people were free and equal, then she thought it should apply to her. Eventually, Mumbet won her freedom---- the first slave in Massachusetts to do so under the new constitution.

Strangely enough, after the trial, the Ashleys asked Mumbet to come back and work for them as a paid employee. She declined and instead went to work for Segdewick. Mumbet died in 1829, but her legacy lived on in her many descendants(后裔). One of her great-grandchildren was W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founder of the NAACP, and an important writer and spokesperson for African American civil rights.

Mumbet’s tombstone still stands in the Massachusetts cemetery where she was buried. It reads, in part: “She was born a slave and remained a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write, yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal.”

1.What do we know about Mumbet according to Paragraph 1?

A. She was born a slave

B. She was a slaveholder

C. She had a famous sister

D. She was born into a rich family

2.Why did Mumbet run away from the Ashleys?

A. She found an employer

B. She wanted to be a lawyer

C. She was hit and got angry

D. She had to take care of her sister

3.What did Mumbet learn from discussions about the new consititution?

A. She should always obey her owners’ orders

B. She should be as free and equal as whites

C. How to be a good servant

D. How to apply for a job

4.What did Mumbet do after the trial?

A. She chose to work for a lawyer

B. She found the NAACP

C. She continued to serve the Ashleys

D. She went to live with her grandchildren

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