Every time you go to the supermarket you come away with your purchases packed in plastic bags. But wouldn’t it be kinder to the environment if you asked for paper bags instead?

   The answer is not as easy as it might seem. Environmentalists say there are drawbacks to using both plastic bags and paper bags.

   80 percent of groceries in the US are packed in plastic bags and the numbers are becoming huge. Consumers use between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags per year worldwide.

   Some experts believe that all these bags harm the environment. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down and, as it does so, poisonous materials are released into the water and soil.

   Further damage is caused if plastic bags enter the sea. For example, endangered sea turtles cannot tell the bags from jellyfish, their main source of food, and often choke on them.

   However, this kind of bag does have its advantages.

   Paper bags use more energy and create more waste than plastic bags. Plastic bags require 40 percent less energy to produce and cause 70 percent less air pollution. They also release as much as 94 percent less waste into the water than paper ones do.

   But paper bags do break down more quickly than plastic bags. They don’t endanger wildlife, either.

   So what should we do? One possible solution would be to use biodegradable plastic bags. “Biodegradable” means that the bags break down naturally just like a piece of banana peel when it is left outside.

   But until biodegradable technology improves, it might be easier to pack things you buy in reusable cloth bags.

1.Compared to paper bags, plastic bags ______.

A. produce 6 percent more waste

B. can be made biodegradable more easily

C. can be used as a source of food

D. save 40 percent of the energy

2.By saying “The answer is not as easy as it might seem,” (in paragraph 2) the writer means _____.

A. biodegradable plastic bags can compete with paper

B. paper bags seem to be kind to environment

C. it’s difficult to say whether plastic or paper bags are better for the environment

3.What does the author suggest people use at the present time?

A. Paper bags          B. Plastic bags

C. Biodegradable plastic bags.   D. Cloth bags.

A few weeks after my first wife, Georgia, was called to heaven, I was cooking dinner for my son and myself. For a  36 , I had decided on frozen peas. As I was cutting open the bag, it 37  from my hand and crashed to the floor. The peas, like marbles,   38 everywhere. I tried to use a broom(扫帚),   39 with each sweep they just rolled across the kitchen.

For the next week, every time I was in the  40 , I found a pea—in a corner, or behind a table leg. They kept  41  . Eight months later I pulled out the refrigerator to clean behind it, and  42 12 frozen peas hidden underneath.

At the time I found those few remaining 43 , I was in a new relationship with a wonderful 44 I’d met in a support group. After we married, I was reminded 45 those peas under the refrigerator, and realized that my  46 had been like that bag of frozen peas. It had shattered(破碎). My wife had died; I was in a new city with a busy job, and with a son having trouble  47  his new surroundings and the  48 of his mother. I was a bag of spilled(洒落) frozen peas; my life had come apart and scattered(撒开).

When life gets you  49 , when everything you know comes apart, and when you think you’ll never 50 , remember that it’s just a bag of scattered frozen peas. The peas can be 51 , and life will move on. You’ll find all the peas  52 , including the ones that are hardest to find. And when you’ve got them  53 you’ll start to feel whole again.

The life you know can break apart at any time. But you’ll have to  54 , and how fast you collect your peas depends on you. Will you keep scattering them around with a broom,   55 will you pick them up one by one and put your life back together?

1.                A．drink          B．fruit           C．meat D．vegetable

2.                A．slipped         B．walked         C．ran  D．moved

3.                A．rubbed         B．rolled          C．grew D．existed

4.                A．so             B．and            C．although  D．but

5.                A．bedroom       B．living room      C．kitchen   D．storeroom

6.                A．getting up       B．taking up        C．turning up D．using up

7.                A．found          B．ate            C．left  D．planted

8.                A．peas           B．cans           C．vegetables D．presents

9.                A．man           B．child           C．woman   D．boy

10.               A．for            B．with           C．in    D．of

11.               A．wife           B．life            C．son   D．friend

12.               A．adapting to      B．leading to       C．turning to  D．adding to

13.               A．thank          B．love           C．help  D．loss

14.               A．wide           B．near           C．down D．close

15.               A．get it          B．make it         C．take it D．leave it

16.               A．grew          B．collected       C．bought    D．frozen

17.               A．eventually      B．fortunately      C．properly   D．specially

18.               A．both           B．either          C．all    D．each

19.               A．call on         B．put on         C．bring on   D．move on

20.               A．while          B．or             C．since D．because

Either out of confusion or discomfort we sometimes express our feelings in an unclear way. One key to making your feelings clear is to realize that you most often can shorten them in a few words: hurt, glad, confused, excited, angry, and so on. In the same way, with a little thought you can probably describe very briefly any reasons you have for feeling a certain way.

       In addition to avoiding too long expressions, a second way to prevent confusion is to avoid downplaying your feelings by saying“I’m a little unhappy”or“I’m pretty excited”.Of course, not all feelings are strong ones. We do feel degrees of sadness and joy, for example, but some communicators have a tendency to downplay almost every feeling. Do you?

       A third danger to avoid is expressing feelings in an indirect or coded manner. This happened most often when the sender is uncomfortable about showing his or her feeling in question. Some codes are verbal ones, as when the sender hints more or less subtly at the message. For example, an indirect way to say“I’m feeling lonely”might be“I guess there isn’t much happening this weekend, so if you’re not busy, why don’t you drop by?”such a message is so indirect that the chances that you real feeling will be recognized are small. For this reason, people who send coded messages stand less of a chance of having their feeling understood and their need met.

       Finally, you can express yourself clearly by making sure that both you and your partner understand that your feeling is centered in a specific（特定）set of environments rather than being indicative of the whole relationship. Instead of saying“I hate you”,say“I hate you when you don’t keep your promises”. Rather than“I’m bored with you”, say“I’m bored when you talk about your money.”

1．According to the first sentence, we sometimes express our feelings in an unclear way because

              .

       A．we are not clear what it is                    

       B．we have just get rid of a discomfort

       C．we are in a very bad feeling                 

       D．we do not want to tell anyone about it

2．We downplay our feeling if       .

       A．we don’t like it and try to hold it from anyone

       B．we control our anger without letting it out

       C．we use weak words to express a strong feeling

       D．we are confused an feel uncomfortable about it

3．The writer points out that if we express our feelings in a coded manner       .

       A．we will make them harder to be understood                          

       B．we will feel all the more confused

       C．we will feel uncomfortable                   

       D．we will make the listener uncomfortable

4．If you use very general words to express your feelings       .

       A．you tend to be downplaying them         

       B．you tend to be strengthening them

       C．you will make yourself well understood 

       D．your listener will not understand you well

5．According to the writer,“I’m bored with you”is an expression       .

       A．that strengthens our feelings                 B．that downplays our feelings

       C．that will make our listener confused       D．that is made in a coded manner

Tell a story and tell it well,and you may open wide the eyes of a child,open up lines of communication in a business,or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.
People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them.For example,most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources,cultures,and times.They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education,but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,”American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says,“Cinderella(灰姑娘),or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness,appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”
Working with students in schools,Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories.She works with prisoners too,helping them know who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write,direct,and act in their own lives.If they don’t like the story they are living,they can rewrite the story.Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers.“For every advance in business,”she says,“there is a greater need for communication.”Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship,she says.
Pugh spent several years in Nigeria,where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there.The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere,she says.
“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,”she says.“What I do is to focus on the value of stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs.We are all storytellers.We all have a story to tell.We tell everybody’s story.”
【小题1】What do we learn about American storytellers from Paragraph 2?

Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.

People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them．For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times．They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.

“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,” American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, “Cinderella (灰姑娘), or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”

Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories．She works with prisoners too, helping them knowing who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives．If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story．Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers．“For every advance in business,” she says, “there is a greater need for communication.” Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.

Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there．The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says.

“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,” she says, “What I do is to focus on the value of the stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs．We are all storytellers．We all have a story to tell．We tell everybody’s story.”

1.What do we learn about American storyteller from Paragraph 2?

  A．They share the same way of storytelling．

  B．They prefer to tell the stories from other cultures.

  C．They learn their stories from the American natives.

  D．They find storytelling useful for both children and adults.

2.The underlined sentence (Paragraph 4) suggests that prisoners can _____.

  A．start a new life                                    B．settle down in another place

  C．direct films                                         D．become good actors

3.Pugh has practised storytelling with _____ groups of people.

  A．2                      B．3                         C．4                      D．5

4.What is the main idea of the text?

  A．Storytelling can influence the way people think.

  B．Storytelling is necessary to the growth of business.

  C．Storytelling is the best way to educate children in school.

  D．Storytelling helps people understand themselves and others．