A 7.0 magnitude（级）earthquake killed more than 230,000 people in Haiti. Then an 8.8 magnitude quake killed more than 900 people in Chile. And few weeks later, a 6.0 magnitude quake struck rural eastern Turkey, killing at least 57 people.
The earthquakes kept coming hard and fast.   1 It’s not. The problem is what’s happening above ground, not underground, experts say.
  2 They’re rapidly putting up buildings that can’t stand up to earth quakes, scientists believe.
And news reports and better earthquake monitoring make it seem as if earth quakes are increasing all the time.
On average, there are 134 earthquakes a year that have a magnitude between 6.0 and 6.9. So far this year there have been 40 earthquakes—more than in most years for that time period. But that’s because the 8.8 quake in Chile caused a large number of strong aftershocks.
Also, it’s not the number of quakes, but their destructive effects that gain attention. The death is largely due to building standards,   3  Paul Earle, a US seismologist, called for better building standards in the world’s big cities.
Of the 130 cities worldwide with populations of more than I million, more than half are likely to be hit by earthquakes.   4 “If you have a problem feeding yourself, you’re not really going to worry about earthquakes,” said Paul.
The earthquakes made everyone start to think   5  “People are paying attention to the violent planet we’re always lived on. Come back an another six moths if there has been no earthquakes, most people will have forgotten it again,” said US disaster researcher Dennis Mileti.

A punctual person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.

The unpunctual man, on the other hand, never does what he has to do at the proper time. He is always in a hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name. A lost thing may be found again, but lost time can never be regained. Time is more valuable than material things. In fact, time is life itself. The unpunctual man is for ever wasting and mismanaging his most valuable asset as well as others’. The unpunctual person is always complaining that he finds no time to answer letters, or return calls or keep appointments promptly. But the man who really has a great deal to do is very careful of his time and seldom complains of want of it. He knows that he can not get through huge amount of work unless he faithfully keeps every piece of work when it has to be attended to.

Failure to be punctual in keeping one’s appointments is a sign of disrespect towards others. If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time, he keeps all the other guests waiting for him. Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present.

Unpunctuality, moreover, is very harmful when it comes to doing one’s duty, whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time. A man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men. 

5. What is an unpunctual person like?

A. He always does a thing when it should be done.       B. He is always very busy.

C. He always does a thing at the wrong time.            D. He always keeps the appointments.

6. Why is unpunctuality very harmful?

A. Because it makes a man lose many chances of doing important affairs.

B. Because it makes a man lose friends.

C. Because it makes a man work quickly.

D. Because it makes a man be more respected by others.

7. According to the passage, which is right?

A. The punctual person has no much work to do.

B. The unpunctual person is very rich. (from www.nmet168.com)

C. The unpunctual person is often respected by his friends.

D. The unpunctual person loses what can’t be regained again.

8. According to the passage, what are good manners when you are invited to a party?

A. Arriving at the appointed time.     B. Arriving before all other guests.

C. Arriving after all other guests.     D. Keeping all other guests waiting.

9. Why is a person always unpunctual?

A. He is too busy.                  B. He has too much work to do.

C. He does care much about time.   D. He doesn’t manage his time properly.

 A friend of mine was sitting in the living room one day when his cat dragged in a little “gift” in its mouth—a dead animal of some sort. Taking a closer look, he was surprised to  36 it as the bunny(小兔子) that  37 Mary, the young daughter of the family next door. My friend felt  38 , believing his cat had killed Mary’s bunny.
My quick-thinking friend came up with a plan.  39  from the cat’s mouth the dead animal, which by now was a     40 mess, he put it in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to  41 the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer and blowdried the bunny  42 it looked pretty good.
Finally, under the cover of darkness, he crept into the next-door garden and placed it  43 in the cage. He managed to make the bunny look very  44 there in his little box.
The next morning, my friend looked out of the window and noticed a crowd of people  45 around the rabbit hutch(笼). Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. My friend  46 to go over and act like any normal  47 neighbor and find out what was going on.
When he got there, Mary’s mother said to my friend, “You won’t believe this! It’s a(n)   48 thing! Mary’s bunny  49 a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there…”
Have you ever tried to cover up one wrongdoing with another? Covering up only makes matters  50 .
When we get caught doing something  51 , for example, we may  52 to cover it up with a lie. But just like Mary’s bunny, the result is  53 what we expected. We  54 looking foolish. We would have been better off admitting we were wrong and accepting the  55 . What do you think of it?

A certain student passed all his examinations. Then he went to college to  16  his studies. There he wrote down his  17  for a course (课程) in English, but after the first  18  , he didn’t go to it any more.
The English lecturer  19  this student was always absent (缺席的) and thought he had  20  another course, so he was   21  when he saw the boy’s name on the list of students who wanted to take the English  22  at the end of this year.
The lecturer had  23  a difficult paper, which followed his  24  closely, and he was eager (热切的) to see  25  this student would answer the questions. He  26  the boy’s answers would be very bad, but when they  27  him and he examined them  28  , he was able to find only one small mistake in them. As this surprised him greatly, he  29  the paper repeatedly but still couldn’t find more than one mistake, so he  30  for the student to question him about it.
When he came and sat down, the lecturer asked him, “I  31  you came to my first lecture and you’ve been absent from all the others. But I’ve examined your  32  carefully and I’ve found only one small mistake in it. I’m curious (好奇的) to know your  33  .”
“I’m very  34  about that mistake,” answered the student. “After the examination, I 35  what I should have done. I would not have made that mistake if I had not been confused by your first lecture.”
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A certain student passed all his examinations. Then he went to college to  1  his studies. There he wrote down his  2  for a course in English, but after the first 3 , he didn’t go to it any more.
The English lecturer  4  this student was always absent (缺席的) and thought he had  5  to another course, so he was  6  when he saw the boy’s name on the list of students who wanted to take the English  7 at the end of this year.
The lecturer had  8  a difficult paper, which followed his  9 closely, and he was eager (急切的) to see  10  this student would answer the questions. He  11  the boy’s answers would be very bad, but when they  12  him and he examined them  13 , he was able to find only one small mistake in them. As this surprised him greatly, he  14  the paper repeatedly but still couldn’t find more than one, so he  15  for the student to question him about it.
When he came and sat down, the lecturer asked him, “I  16  you came to my first lecture and you’ve been absent from all the others. But I’ve examined your  17  carefully and I’ve found only one small mistake in it. I’m curious (好奇的) to know your  18 .”
“I’m very  19  about that mistake,” answered the student. “After the examination, I  20  what I should have done. I would not have made that mistake if I had not been confused by your first lecture.”