Electric ears are dirty.In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.

    People in California love to talk about "zero-emissions vehicles", but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Aside from the new folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something---usually coal, oil,but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.

    In other words, those "zero-emissions" cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just because the coal is burned somewhere else that it looks clean. It is not. It's as if the California Greens are. covering their eyes---"If I can't see it, it's not happening." Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it.But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat---at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.

    A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far---so electric cars bum more fuel than gas-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes; or geothermal,or hydro, or solar, or wind,then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical,and economic reasons,we don't use much of those energy sources.

    In addition,electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill.And finally, When cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.

1. What does "clueless" mean in paragraph 2?

    A. People are seeing the California Greens everywhere.

    B. People in California love to talk about zero-emissions vehicles.

    C. People in California love to have their roofs covered with solar cells.

D. People there have no idea that so far electricity mainly comes from burning

   coal, oil,etc.

2. What is the main idea of the passage?

    A. Electric cars are not clean at all

    B. Electric cars are better than gasoline-powered ones.

    C. People cast doubts on electric cars' batteries.

    D. Gasoline is an efficient way to powera vehicle.

3. The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our ear run         

    A. not less than 25 miles            B. more than 25 miles

    C. no more than 25 miles             D. not more than 25 miles

4. According to the passage, electric cars                  .

    A. do not burn fuel and more environmentally-friendly

B. are toxic because it is difficult for nature to clean it up when their

   batteries are buried in one spot.

    C. are very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated

    D. are poisonous for a long time and will eventually end up in a landfill

5. It can be inferred from the passage that                 

    A. being green is good and should be encouraged in communication

B. electric cars are not clean in that we get electricity mainly by burning

   something

    C. zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment

D. electric cars are now the dominant vehicle compared with gasoline-powered

   cousins

Almost all cultures celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another in some way. Different cultures celebrate the beginning of a new year in different ways, and at different times on the calendar.

In western countries, people usually celebrate New Year at midnight on January 1st. People may go to parties, dress in formal clothes—like tuxedos(小礼服)and evening gowns, and drink champagne at midnight. During the first minutes of the New Year, people cheer and wish each other happiness for the year ahead. But some cultures prefer to celebrate the New Year by waking up early to watch the sun rise. They welcome the New Year with the first light of the sunrise.

It is also a common Western custom to make a New Year’s promise, called a resolution. New Year’s resolutions usually include promises to try something new or change a bad habit in the new year.

Many cultures also do special things to get rid of bad luck at the beginning of a new year. For example, in Ecuador, families make a big doll from old clothes. The doll is filled with old newspapers and firecrackers. At midnight, these dolls are burned to show the bad things from the past year are gone and the new year can start afresh (again). Other common traditions to keep away bad luck in a new year include throwing things into rivers or the ocean, or saying special things on                the first day of the new year.

Other New Year traditions are followed to bring good luck is to eat grapes on New Year’s Day. The more grapes a person eats, the more good luck the person will have in the year. In France, people eat pancakes for good luck at New Year. In the United States, some people eat black– eyed peas(豇豆)for good luck——but to get good luck for a whole year you have to eat 365 of them!

Which culture celebrates New Year in the morning?

A. The United States.                       B. Spain.

C. France.                                D. The passage doesn’t say.

According to the third paragraph, what is a resolution?

A. Something you burn.                    B. Something you eat.

C. Something you say.                      D. Something you wear.

What is the topic of the fourth paragraph?

A. Bringing good luck.                             B. Keeping away bad luck.

C. Planning for the next year.                     D. Remembering the past.

Which is probably true about eating black – eyed peas on New Year?

A. Black-eyed peas taste bad.               B. The peas are very difficult to cook.

C. One pea brings one day of luck.              D. It is bad luck to eat a lot of black-eyed peas.

When nature is left alone, a balance is reached among the animals and plants living in one area. But when man starts his work in nature, the balance is likely to be destroyed. He grows a crop and takes it away to eat ;then there are no dead leaves to fall on the ground, holding water while it sinks into the surface, or decaying (腐烂) and adding humus (腐殖质) to the soil. Unless a farmer acts with knowledge and skill, he is therefore most likely to make the land poorer. To take the place of the useful matter in the crops that he removes, he uses some kind of fertilizer (肥料). Chemical fertilizers are of great help, but the waste products of animals and decaying remains of plants should also be put on the land. In some places, it is a habit to burn waste material lying about, but such burning destroys the useful matter in the dead plants. Although the ashes that are left are valuable when put on the land, a better practice is to bury the waste so that it decays and increases the humus in the soil.

In the past, when the world population was much lower than it is now, a man had little difficulty in ordinary times in growing the food that was needed. When a field had been used some years and had become tired, the farmer could move to another place. The tired land then slowly recovered. By and by grasses and other plants would appear on it and its productive power would slowly return to normal through their decay. But nature, left alone, would take a long time to bring back the land to its former state; the length of time required would depend on local conditions, but it might well be ten years.

It is a bad practice to grow the same crop in a field year after year. If the crop is changed, the land will suffer less because it is treated and used in a different way. Different plants have different effects on the soil. Therefore, a change of crop will do less harm than the growing of the same crop year after year and a regular change to grass will do good to the soil. Much will therefore be gained if different crops are grown one after another, a method known as the rotation (轮作) of crops.

According to the passage, the land will become poorer (   )

A. if all the dead leaves are cleared away        B. if the humus is increased after the harvest

C. if dead leaves decay in the soil by themselves  D. if waste plant material lying about is buried

We can learn from the passage that the tired land has slowly recovered (   )

A. when grasses and other plants appear again

B. when the treatment is given by nature alone

C. after new grasses and other plants have decayed again

D. after nature has been left alone for several months

A modern farmer can hardly move to another place as he did before because (   )

A. the productive power of a new field isn't higher than that of an old one

B. there are few free fields left for him to do farming

C. it takes a farmer more than ten years to start farming in a new field

D. there will be too many grasses in a new field to grow crops

It is most likely that the author will go on to (   ) in the paragraph following the passage above.

A. introduce other methods of planting crops     B. deal with how to prevent land getting tired

C. start another topic of how to make use of land  D. further explain what the rotation of crops is

Money, or the lack of it, changes everything, and that includes how people will be working out in 2010.

In these belt-tightening times  1  , cost-conscious workouts（锻炼）at home and at the gym topped the list of fitness trends for this year in a survey, followed  2   by shorter, more time-efficient regimens, such as  3   boot camp（强力集中训练） and circuit training.

"People are looking  4   for ways to accomplish as much as possible with as little  5   time and money as necessary," said Cedric X. Bryant, chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise (ACE), which conducted the online poll of fitness professionals.

"Last year money was on the list but this  6   year the majority of the respondents put  7   it as one of the top," he added.

Bryant said some 600 ACE-certified fitness  8   professionals responded to the annual poll  9  , which the non-profit organization has been conducting for a decade.

Other money-saving measures  10  , such as the shift from personal training sessions to small group training  11   classes and in-home workouts  12   using smaller, more portable equipment, also made the list.

"Personal trainers are seeing they've got to respond to market needs  13  . Working with two to four clients at a  14   time they can charge less  15   but still get their hourly fee," Bryant said.

Boot-camp workouts and circuit training, both of which burn  16   calories while building strength and endurance（持久性）, will be among the most popular trends in 2010, as time-constrained（受压制的） consumers  17   seek shorter, more intense activities.

One bright spot is the rise of exergaming-type systems, like Nintendo's Wii Sports, Wii Fit and the PC-based Dancetown. Bryant says the fitness-based video games are turning up  18   in health clubs and senior centers.

Functional training workouts, which are geared to improving the quality of life and the ability to perform everyday tasks, will remain strong  19  , and the use of computerized tracking and online training and scheduling tools will increase  20   in the coming year.

(   ) 1. A. times           B. years            C. centuries        D. societies

(   ) 2. A. caught          B. followed         C. covered      D. conducted

(   ) 3. A. such like       B. in other words   C. such as      D. that is to say

(   ) 4. A. taking          B. developing   C. opening      D. looking

(   ) 5. A. little          B. much             C. many             D. few

(   ) 6. A. that            B. next             C. this             D. previous

(   ) 7. A. manage      B. put          C. try          D. organize

(   ) 8. A. medicine        B. train            C. economy      D. fitness

(   ) 9. A. poll            B. conference   C. observation D. reception

(   ) 10. A. measures       B. procedures   C. policies         D. systems

(   ) 11. A. speaking       B. training         C. exercising       D. processing

(   ) 12. A. work          B. workouts         C. rest             D. race

(   ) 13. A. changes        B. prices       C. needs            D. habits

(   ) 14. A. some           B. no           C. any          D. a

(   ) 15. A. less           B. fewer            C. more             D. much

(   ) 16. A. produce        B. burn             C. cut          D. add

(   ) 17. A. professionals B. students         C. consumers        D. trainers

(   ) 18. A. turning up         B. turning down     C. turning around   D. turning out

(   ) 19. A. weak           B. useful       C. strong       D. possible

(   ) 20. A. decrease       B. appear       C. increase         D. want

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity,” said the American talk show host Oprah Winfrey. I’ve never watched her show, but when a self-made billionaire gives life advice it’s probably worth listening to.
Her point is that blind luck is very rare. You may have to be lucky to find a good job these days but that does not mean you should sit at home waiting for the opportunity to come to you. If you’re a Chinese, you may already be familiar with the tale of a farmer waiting by a tree stump(树桩) for a rabbit to run out and break its neck.
A book by the UK psychologist Richard Wiseman, called The Luck Factor, argues we can all make ourselves luckier. It’s not about going to a temple to burn some incense(香) hopes that the gods will give you good fortune; it’s practical advice you can follow each day.
Wiseman conducted an experiment as part of his studies. First he divided volunteers into two groups; those who said they were lucky in life and those who said they were not. He gave everyone a newspaper and asked them to look through it to count how many photographs it had inside. On average, the unlucky people took about two minutes to count the photographs while the lucky people took just seconds. Why? On the second page of the newspaper, a command, “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper,” was written in big letters. The unlucky people mostly did not spot the message.
It’s easy to compare this situation to a young person looking for jobs in a local paper. They might search so hard for one type of position that they miss an even better opportunity. People who are “lucky”, in fact, keep an open mind and don’t go through the same routine every day.
I first came to China in 2002 when it was considered a rather strange thing to do. Like many foreigners, my plan was to teach English for one year. Seven years later, and still here, I’ve had many great opportunities such as writing for newspapers and magazines. I did not dream these would have been possible. I’ve also never been sick, had an accident, got into a fight or had problems with the police. Coincidence? After reading about Professor Wiseman’s studies I think not.
As Wiseman advises, I usually trust my own judgment. Your friends and parents may give you advice based on rational thinking, but it’s important to consider how you feel about each choice you make. Your feeling acts as a warning for a potential problem.
Finally, try to turn bad luck into good. Even if you do fall down and break a leg, the time spent at home can be used wisely to study English.
【小题1】Which of the following proverbs most agrees with the writer’s point?