【题目】Northern California’s national parks appear pure and clean, almost untouched. But scientists are finding that there is more to this wild area than one can see. Even in the deep forests and on the mountain tops, animals may be poisoned by pesticides (杀虫剂) used in valley farms far below.

Researchers with the United States Geological Survey (美国地质勘探局) are working late into the night. They are searching for and catching frogs in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada. The Pacific chorus frog (拟蝗蛙) breeds in the high mountains just as the snow melts. The pools basically fill with meltwater, and as soon as the ponds melt the chorus frogs begin breeding there. Some Pacific chorus frogs in the mountains of California have tested positive for farming pesticides.

Gary Fellers is a researcher who once worked for the USGS. He and other team members are collecting the frogs to test them for agricultural poisons. No one farms in these forested national parks. However, winds carry chemicals from the Central Valley farming area into the mountains.

Kelly Smalling was the lead writer of the USGS study. “The decline of amphibians (两栖动物) has been documented for decades and decades. Some populations have gone extinct. And why these populations are declining is still a mystery.” Ms. Smalling says pesticides could be harming frogs and other amphibians.

The researchers tested pond water and soil from the bottom of the ponds. They were clean or almost free of pesticides. But tests on the bodies of the frogs showed the presence of 12 agricultural pesticides.

The concentration on the frog becomes greater than the concentration that is present on the water or some other part of the environment. Kelly Smalling says the next step is to find a way to deal with the pollution. “The first thing we need to do is understand how these chemicals that we’re finding harm the frogs. We have to understand the problem before we can fix it.”

1Animals in Northern California’s national parks ________.

A. are well protected

B. are killed by air pollution

C. are harmed by pesticides

D. will be sent to the farms in the valley

2According to the text, the Pacific chorus frogs ________.

A. breed when it snows

B. are only found in the ocean

C. are studied by the scientists

D. are free from the farming pesticides

3What will the researchers do next?

A. Keep the pond clean.

B. Deal with the pollution.

C. Find new homes for the frogs.

D. Search for and catch the frogs.

【题目】 When you set a foot outside of your door to drop trash, go to a social event or go for a walk, thoughts like “I hope I don't see anyone I know” or “please don’ t talk to me” may run through your mind. I’ ve also said such things to myself. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is talk with someone, especially someone new.

Why do we go out of our ways to avoid people? Do we think meeting new people is a waste of time? Or are we just lazy, thinking that meeting someone new really is a trouble?

Communication is the key to life. We have been told that many times. Take the past generations, like our parents, for example. They seem to take full advantage of that whole “communication” idea because they grew up talking face to face while Generation-Y grew up staring at screens. We spend hours of our days sitting on Facebook. We send messages to our friends and think about all of the things we want to say to certain people that we don't have the courage to actually do in reality.

Nowadays, we are so caught up in our little circle of friends — our comfort zone. We love it that they laugh at our jokes, understand our feelings and can read our minds. Most importantly, they know when we want to be alone. They just get us.

Holding a conversation with someone new means agreeing with things that you don’t actually believe and being someone you think they want you to be — it is, as I said before, a trouble. It takes up so much energy, and at some point or another, it is too tiring.

But meeting new people is important. Life is too short, so meet all the people you can meet, make the effort to go out and laugh. Remember, Every “hello” leads to a smile — and a smile is worth a lot.

1What do we learn about the author?

A.He likes to be alone.

B.He feels stressed out lately.

C.He's active in attending social events.

D.He's afraid of talking to others at times.

2What's the problem of Generation-Y in the author’s eyes?

A.They rely on the Internet to socialize.

B.They are less confident in themselves.

C.They have difficulty in communicating.

D.They are unwilling to make new friends.

3Why do many young people avoid meeting new people?

A.They think it troublesome.

B.They are busy with their study.

C.They fear to disappoint their old friends.

D.They want to take time to do meaningful work.

4Why does the author write the text?

A.To tell about the importance of friends.

B.To give tips on how to meet new people.

C.To encourage people to meet new people.

D.To introduce the disadvantages of Generation-Y.

【题目】If he’d survived his sudden illness in 1990, Jim Henson might be turning 79 years old on September 24, 2015. He would probably still be at work. We can only guess where his imagination would have taken him — and us — in the 25 years we missed. There’s no doubt that he would have broken new ground, for Henson was a neverstopping innovator (创新者).

His long career began far back in 1955, when he created Sam and Friends for a Washington D.C. television station. The programmes were just five minutes long and scheduled in the noman’sland between afternoon and evening programming. Yet the show won an Emmy for best local entertainment programme in 1958.

When it ended in 1961, Henson struggled to find work. He could only get brief appearances on other programmes like The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live. Only in 1976 did a British producer finally give Henson the green light to start a fullscale television show. The Muppet Show was produced and broadcast in Great Britain before finally arriving on prime time (黄金时间) US television. The network continued to identify it as a children’s programme, though the programme won a wide following of adult viewers.

One reason for its appeal to grownups was the obvious skill in catching the imagination. Henson’s talent was so great that it’s difficult to think of Kermit or Miss Piggy as nothing more than piles of cloth when they aren’t being operated. But Henson himself never forgot how much work went into creating his characters.

Way back in his early days, Henson created Kermit the Frog. His body was made from a green coat his mother had thrown away and his eyes were two halves of a pingpong ball. Over the years, his shape became more expressive. “Kermit is the character through whose eyes the audience is viewing the show. He’s a nice guy,” Henson said.

1Which of the following programmes marked the start of Jim Henson’s career?

A. The Tonight Show. B. Sam and Friends.

C. Saturday Night Live. D. The Muppet Show.

2It can be inferred from the passage that Miss Piggy was ________.

A. a character Jim Henson created

B. Jim Henson’s close friend

C. a television programme

D. Kermit’s girlfriend

3From the passage, we can infer that ________.

A. it was easy for Jim to create his characters

B. Jim Henson died of illness at the age of 54

C. the Muppet Show was broadcast in the US first

D. the programme Sam and Friends was not popular locally

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