【题目】Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Ban the Bag!

Standing in line at the grocery store last week, I watched the woman in front of me buy a tube of toothpaste. As the clerk placed her purchase in a plastic bag, I couldn’t help wondering how long it would take for that bag to end up in the trash. Then I noticed the big purse the woman was carrying and wondered why she had needed a plastic bag at all.

People have come to rely on plastic bags as everything from shopping bags for groceries to trash-can bags. Although plastic bags can be recycled, only about one percent of those used in the United States are. Instead, after helping people transport items from one place to another, most are thrown away. They end up in landfills, where it can take a plastic bag up to a thousand years to decay. Some bags end up elsewhere in the environment, sticking to trees and fences, blocking rivers and oceans, or floating along city sidewalks.

Plastic bags harm the environment in several ways. First, they break down into particles that pollute our soil and water. Because most plastic bags are made of polyethylene, a product derived from crude oil (原油) or natural gas, they waste nonrenewable resources. Plastic bags can also harm animals. Scientists estimate that more than one million sea animals, including whales, seabirds, and turtles, die each year from intaking or becoming stranded in plastic.

People all over the world are starting to recognize the problems associated with plastic bags. Countries such as China, South Africa, Switzerland, and Uganda are taking action and banning the bags. Other nations, including Italy and Ireland, have been trying to restrict the use of plastic bags by taxing them. In the United States more and more communities are ridding themselves of plastic bags. Now more and more people are also purchasing inexpensive, reusable bags and using them when they shop. If we all take this simple step, we can be a part of a “green” revolution.

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【题目】 Not too big, not too small. Not too hot, not too cold. A newly discovered planet looks just right for life as we know it, according to an international group of astronomers.

Circling a star about 500 light years away, the planet called Kepler-186f is about the same size as Earth. It goes round its star at the right distance for liquid water on the surface. That is a necessary condition for life. But it is not exactly like Earth, it’s more of an Earth’s cousin. It’s not an Earth’s twin. It shares the same characteristics as Earth, but their parent stars are very different.

Kepler-186f circles a star that is smaller and cooler than our sun. But the planet appears to be a closer relative than most of the hundreds of others discovered so far. Some are huge gas-covered giants with thick atmospheres. Others circle too closely to their stars and are too hot for life. For the first time, we can actually say we now have a planet that is both Earth-sized and circles in its star’s livable zone.

The next step would be to look for signs of life in the atmospheres of these distant world. That would take a more advanced telescope. But budget cuts threaten that task, says University of California at Los Angeles astrophysicist Ben.

“In theory, we could do this in the next couple of decades. But in practice, because there’s no money, it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen in my lifetime, for example, ”said Ben. However, NASA’s Elisa Quintana believes that when the next-generation space telescope is used, it will find that we are not alone in the universe. In the meantime, the search continues for other worlds where life may find a home.

1What do we know about the newly discovered planet?

A. It was discovered by chance.

B. It has some form of life on it.

C. It has suitable conditions for life.

D. It is an ordinary planet like others.

2The difference between Earth and Kepler-186f is that   .

A. they circle different parent stars

B. they came into being at different times

C. they move in space at a different speed

D. they orbit their stars at a different distance

3The discovery of Kepler-186f is remarkable because   .

A. man has discovered a new home

B. it caused people’s interest in the universe

C. man has found a familiar planet like Earth

D. it can help man know more about Earth

4What does Ben worry about in the future research?

A. Lack of money. B. No cooperation.

C. His coming old age. D. His weak influence.

【题目】 Many years ago, a French naturalist, the Count de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history. 1.

Thomas Jefferson did not like what the Count had said about the natural wonders of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that the Count had gone out of his way to speak of natural wonders in America as if they were unimportant. 2. He, too, was a naturalist, as well as a historian, writer and politician. He had seen the natural wonders of Europe. To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.

In 1788,Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia. While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Count de Buffon. 3. He said, “The Count de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic.”

4. However, in 1872, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle has no chance of becoming English. And as more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it, the sooner it is forgotten, the better.”

5. Today, belittle is used, not only in the United States and England, but in other countries where the English language is spoken. It seems that efforts to belittle the word did not stop people from using it.

A.The books were a great success even though some people did not like them

B.They talked about the great cultural relics of different countries

C.Americans had already accepted Jefferson’s word and started to use it

D.The Count de Buffon was thought highly of at that time

E.At that moment, Jefferson created a new word -- belittle

F.This expert failed to kill the word

G.This troubled Thomas Jefferson

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