The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru’s heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru’s real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸盐)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.
【小题1】What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?

I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “ full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence(吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.

At the first home, the son of the deceased(已故的)woman said to me, “ If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It’s my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “ If only I hadn’t insisted on my mother’s going to Florida, she would be alive today.That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It’s my fault that she’s dead.”

You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course—keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens that leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.

The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens , especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believe that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.

A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him , and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.

1. What is said about the two deceased elderly women?

A. They lived out a natural life.

B. They died of exhaustion after the long plane ride.

C. They weren’t used to the change in weather.

D. They died due to lack of care by family members.

2. The author had to conduct the two women’s funerals probably because ______.

A. he wanted to comfort the two families

B. he was an official from the community

C. he had great pity for the deceased

D. he was minister of the local church

3. People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because _____.

A. they couldn’t find a better way to express their sorrow

B. they believe that they were responsible

C. they had neglected the natural course of events

D. they didn’t know things often turn in the opposite direction

4. According to the passage, the underlined part in paragraph 4 probably means that_____.

A. everything in the world is predetermined

B. the world can be explained in different ways

C. there is an explanation for everything in the world

D. we have to be sensible in order to understand the world

5. What’s the idea of the passage?

A. Life and death is an unsolved mystery.

B. Every story should have a happy ending.

C. Never feel guilty all the time because not every disaster is our fault.

D. In general, the survivors will feel guilty about the people who passed away.

My parents operated a small restaurant in Seattle. It was open twenty-four hours a day, six days a week. And my first real job，when I was six years old，was   36    the diners’ shoes. My father had done it when he was young，so he taught me   37   to do it efficiently(有效地)，telling me to   38   to re-shine(再擦亮) the shoes if the customer wasn’t    39 .
Working in the restaurant was a cause of great   40  because I was also working for the good of the family. But my father   41  that I had to meet certain standards(标准) to be part of the team. I   42   to be punctual(守时的)，hard-working，and polite to the    43 .
I was   44   paid for the work I did at the restaurant. One day I made the mistake of advising Dad that he   45  give me $10 a week. He said,“OK. How about you paying me for three meals a day you have here? And for the times you bring    46  your friends for free soft drinks?” He   47   I owed him about $40 a week.
I remember returning to Seattle after being    48  in the US Army for about two years. I had just been promoted(升迁) to Captain at that time. And full of pride，I walked into my parents’ restaurant，but the   49  thing Dad said was，“How about your   50   up tonight?” I couldn’t   51  my ears! I am an officer in the Army! But it didn’t   52   as far as Dad was concerned，I was just   53   member of the team. I reached for the mop(拖把). Working for Dad has taught me the devotion to a   54    is above all. It has nothing to do with   55   that team is involved in a family restaurant or the US Army.
36
A. cleaning          B. shining        C. removing       D. keeping
37.
A. why                B. what           C. when           D. how

C
Being able to multitask—doing several things at the same time—is considered a welcome skill by most people. But if we consider the situation of the young people aged from eight to eighteen, we should think again.
What we often see nowadays is that young people juggle an ever larger number of electronic devices(电子产品)as they study. While working, they also surf on the Internet, send out emails, answer the telephone and listen to music on their iPods. In a sense, they are spending a significant amount of time in fruitless efforts as they multitask.
Multitasking is even changing the relationship between family members. As young people around them. They can no longer greet family members when they enter the house, nor can they cat at the family table.
Multitasking also affects young people’s performance at university and in the workplace. When asked about their opinion of the effect of modern gadgets(器具)on their performance of tasks, many young people gave a positive response(反应). However, the response from the worlds of education and business was not quite as positive. Educators feel that multitasking by children has a serious effect on later development of study skills. They believe that many college students now need help to improve their study skills. Similarly, employers feel that young people entering the job market need to be taught all over again, as modern gadgets have made it unnecessary for them to learn special skills to do their work.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “juggle” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?

It seems like every day there's some new research about whether our favorite drinks are good for us.  One day,  science says a glass of red wine a day will help us live longer. The next day, maybe not.  It seems journalists are pretty interested in wine research and the same might be said for coffee.  Now there's been a lot of research into whether coffee's good for our health "the results have really been mixed"，admits Neal Freedman who led the coffee study and published his findings in a medical journal recently.   "There's been some evidence that coffee might increase the risk of certain diseases and there's also  been  maybe  more recent evidence that coffee  may protect against other diseases as well".

Freedman and his colleagues undertook the biggest study yet to look at the relationship between coffee and health.  They analyzed data collected from  more than  400，000 Americans ages 50 to 70 participating in the study.  "We found that the coffee drinkers had a modestly lower risk of death than the non-drinkers， he said.  Here's what he means by "modestly": those who drank at least two or three cups a day were about 10 percent or 15 percent less likely to die for any reason during the 13 years of the study when the researchers looked at specific causes of death, coffee drinking appeared to cut the  risk  of  dying from  heart  disease, lung  disease injuries,  accidents  and infections.

Now, Freedman stressed that the study doesn't prove coffee can make people live longer .A study like this can never prove a cause-and-effect relationship.  All it can really do is to point researchers in the right direction for further investigation. And even if it turns out that coffee is really good for you, scientists have no idea why.

1.According to the first paragraph，reporters  would like to  know  the research findings of_______.

A． tea             B． beer            C． coffee           D． wine

2.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A． Freedman and his colleagues hired 400，000 Americans to collect date.

B． People who took part in Freedman's research are about 50 to 70 years old.

C． About 400, 000 Americans worked for Freedman's team for 13 years.

D． People who are 50 to 70 years old seldom drink wffee.

3.According to the author, scientists________.

A． have already proved that coffee is good for human health

B． have a long way to go before they find a way to study coffee

C． have avoided the cause-and-effect approach to study coffee

D． are still unable to figure out why coffee is good for us

4.Which of the following can be the best title?

A． The Magical Effects of Coffee

B． Neal Freedman and His Research

C． Can Coffee Help You Live Longer?

D． A Cup of Coffee A Day Makes Diseases Away