Accidents happen, but when they destroy the delicate balance of nature and cause the whole world to suffer, they become disasters, and we  should do all we can to prevent them from happening again.
Bhopal chemical leak, December 1984, Bhopal, India
An explosion in the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, released a deadly gas called methyl (甲基) isocyanate(异氰盐酸), which is used to make pesticides. The gas formed a cloud that killed 2500 people; another 50000- 100000 people became ill. Trees and plants in the area became yellow and brittle. The explosion was caused by a mechanical failure that was not noticed in time to stop it.
Exxon Valdez oil spill, March 1989, Alaska, U.S.
On March 24, 1989, 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound from the tanker Exxon Valdez when its hull hit a reef and tore open. The oil, which is not yet cleaned up after billions of dollars have been spent and the millions of birds, fish, and other wildlife have died, was caused by human error and could have been avoided.
Chernobyl, April 1986, USSR
At 1:23 A.M. on Saturday, April 26, 1986, the reactor blew at nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, ripping open the core, blowing the roof off the building, starting more than 30 fires, and allowing radioactive material to leak into the air. Some 31 people were killed and 200 people were treated for radiation poisoning. Still at risk are 135000 people from the 179 villages within 20 miles, of the plant who were exposed to the radiation before being evacuated. Glaring violations of safety rules were at the bottom of this tragic event.
Love Canal, 1953, New York, U.S.
Love Canal, a small town in upstate New York near Niagara Falls, was destroyed by waste from chemical plants. Beginning in 1947, chemical companies could legally dump their waste products into the canal. The area developed a foul smell, trees lost their bark, and leaves fell throughout the year. A health survey found that the drinking water contained excessive levels of 82 industrial chemicals, 7 of which were thought to cause cancer. The people of Love Canal had an unusually high rate of cancer and birth defects. Eventually, many of the houses had to be abandoned. Today, the town has been partly cleaned up and some families have moved back to the area.
Three Mile Island, 1979, Pennsylvania, U.S.
On March 28, 1979, the worst accident in U.S. nuclear reactor history occurred at the Three Mile Island power station, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. No one was killed, and very little radioactivity was released into the air when coolant (the fluid that keeps a machine cool) escaped from the reactor core due to a combination of mechanical failure and human error. After 10 years and $ 1 billion in cleanup costs, the lower extremes of the reactor are still so radioactive that workers must use remote - control equipment to remove the remaining fragment of fuel core.
【小题1】This passage mainly discusses_______.

I can still remember the first day when I met my best friend. She had just moved into the neighborhood and her grandmother brought her down to 1   me. I hid behind my mother and she hid behind her grandmother,  2  to look at each other. Soon, we lost the shyness and started playing with each other. In 7^th grade, I first lost 3   with her. She was  4   family problems and I deserted her.  5   of my new friends liked her 6  they knew she had “problems”.

It was last year when I noticed the 7  . I guess I was just to catch up in high school to realize she 8  someone there for her. I didn’t know 9, but she started cutting herself!

She was 10  from clinical depression(抑郁), and had to go to a 11  during the day. I was very upset at first but with the late night 12 , and meeting each other at midnight. I wanted to be there for her since her new best friend once 13  her since people were calling her crazy.

Yesterday she came to me and said this:“I never knew what a best friend was 14  you were the only person that would 15 me from cutting; the only person that ever made me feel better about myself and my problems. You don’t know this but I was trying to 16  myself that night you called me. You didn’t even know you were 17  me. I owe you so much.”

We both cried. And I guess a kind of 18  from my life is:“never give up on your friends”. Even if they aren’t as cool as others, or people think they are 19 , they need someone there. If you desert them, you will only be 20  yourself. So if a friend needs you, and you care for them, you can never desert them.

1.                A．call            B．find            C．meet D．know

2.                A．scared         B．surprised       C．glad D．eager

3.                A．communication   B．friendship       C．relation   D．touch

4.                A．breaking through B．going through    C．seeing through D．getting through

5.                A．None          B．All             C．Each D．Neither

6.                A．even if         B．however        C．as if  D．because

7.                A．problem        B．coolness        C．assessment    D．sadness

8.                A．had            B．wanted         C．needed   D．expected

9.                A．how           B．why            C．when D．where

10.               A．dating          B．suffering        C．separating D．originating

11.               A．hospital        B．teacher        C．friend D．school

12.               A．comforts       B．conversations    C．persuasions    D．calls

13.               A．liked           B．respected       C．deserted  D．hated

14.               A．when          B．until           C．before    D．after

15.               A．protect         B．support        C．stop  D．warn

16.               A．control         B．kill            C．forget D．enjoy

17.               A．hurting         B．ignoring        C．reminding D．helping

18.               A．fact           B．truth           C．lesson D．experience

19.               A．unfriendly      B．cool           C．strange    D．crazy

20.               A．unhappy        B．foolish         C．impressive D．anxious

A new study suggests that the more teenagers watch television, the more likely they are to develop depression as young adults .
The researchers used a national long-term survey of adolescent（青少年的）health to investigate （调查）the relationship between media use and depression. They based their findings on more than four thousand adolescents who were not depressed when the survey began in 2000.
As part of the survey, the young people were asked how many hours of television or videos they watched daily. They were also asked how often they played computer games and listened to the radio. Media use totaled an average of five and one-half hours a day. More than two hours of that was spent watching TV.
   Seven years later, in 2007, more than seven percent of the young people had signs of depression. The average age at that time was twenty-one.
The researchers say they did not find any such relationship with the use of other media such as movies, video games or radio, etc. But the study did find that every extra hour of television meant an eight percent increase in the chances of developing signs of depression. Young men were more likely than young women to develop depression given the same amount of media use.
The study didn't explore if watching TV causes depression. But one possibility is that it was taking time away from activities that could help prevent depression.
Last December, the journal Social Indicators Research published a study of activities that help lead to happy lives. Sociologists from the University of Maryland found that people who describe themselves as happy spend less time watching television than unhappy people. The study found that happy people are more likely to be socially active, to read, to attend religious services and to vote.
【小题1】The best title for this passage should be____________.

A．Teens, Television and Depression

B．Men Develop Depression Easier than Women

C．Media Use is Harmful to Adolescents

D．Take Great Care of Teenager's Depression

Many famous painters worked in Antwerp during the city’s period of greatest power but Peter Paul Rubens is undoubtedly the most famous one of them. Known as Rubens House, the palace-like residence(大宅) and studio where Rubens worked and lived from 1616 until his death in 1640 is now one of Antwerp’s most visited museums.
Almost all of the works Rubens and his students created in the Rubens House have been dispersed (分散) over major museums across the whole world, but there is still an impressive collection well worth the visit. Besides paintings form the master himself you will find other works of art and furniture of the 17th century as well as paintings from his students, including works by Jacob Jordaens and Anthony Van Dyck.
The Rubens House was not only a studio but also a meeting place for the rich and famous. His clients(委托人) included wealthy merchants, diplomats, and there were also many noblemen who often visited his studio to see how work progressed. The Rubens House even had a special viewing area which allowed visitors to see the artists at work.
Ruben bought the house at the beginning of the 17th century after his eight-year-long stay in Italy. Influenced by Italian architecture, he rebuilt the building into an Italian-styled palace with a beautiful garden and moved in the house in1616.
After his death the building was sold. New owners modified the building greatly and by 1937, when the building was purchased by the city of Antwerp, it hardly resembled the original structure.
The impressive entrance hall, which connected the studio and the residence, is one of the few parts that survived. Other parts have been carefully restored and reconstructed after original plans and paintings of the house.
【小题1】As a museum, the Rubens House is popular because _______.

Cast your mind back to the past twenty years and hardly did anyone have their own email account. The Internet had just taken off in 1991 and people were only using office and PC­based email exchanges.

In the mid 1990s external email providers appeared. The most famous of these was Hotmail, the first free email provider and web­based email service. Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched Hotmail on July 4, 1996. And Microsoft took note of and bought Hotmail for $400 million on December 30, 1997, a nice birthday present for Bhatia who turned 29 that day. It was relaunched as MSN Hotmail and in 2007 was relaunched again as Windows Live Hotmail.

Fast forward the present day and most of us have at least a personal web­based email account. It seems impossible to live without them. One of the biggest advantages of email is the fact that communication has become so much easier, especially with those across different time zones. Email takes seconds to send a message whereas letters, as we used to communicate by, could take weeks. Of course there was the fax, that beeping invention from the 1980s, but it wasn’t as secure as email and you never knew if the person on the other end had picked up your fax or if it had got lost somewhere in the office.

In conclusion, one of the best inventions from the 1990s has to be email. But sometimes people are too closely connected to their email and have a compulsion to check it several times a day. At work, people have become lazy and instead of going to speak to the person sitting next to them, they send an email，causing an in box to pile up with more time spent reading email and responding rather than working. Clearly, an invention that saved time because of its quick and speedy connection can now also cause us to waste a lot of time.

1.The earliest web-based email came into being probably _______.

A. in 1991                            B. in 1996                   C. in 1997                   D. in 2007

2.The author mentions “fax” in the third paragraph in order to tell us that _______.

A. it is exactly as good as email

B. it is much better than email

C. it is less convenient than email

D. it is easier and faster than email

3.The underlined word “compulsion” in Paragraph 4 probably means “_______”.

A. strong desire                  B. common sense               C. special curiosity          D. general idea

4.Which is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A. We should check email boxes frequently.

B. Lazy people like sending an email.

C. Email brings us great convenience.

D. Good inventions also cause problems.