E

Water and its importance to human life are the center of the world’s attention. March 22 is World Water Day, which has the theme “Water and culture ”this year. Ther are more than one billion people in the world who live without safe drinking water. The United Nations hopes to cut this number in half by 2015.

Solving such a big problem seems like an unreal challenge. But everyone, even teenagers, can do something to help. A teenage girl in the U.S. has set an example to others of her age around the world. Rene Haggerty, 13, was awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize for her work of collecting deserted batteries which pollute water.

In 2003, Haggerty went on a field trip to the Great Lakes Science Centre in Ohio. There, she saw an exhibit about how chemicals in old batteries harm the water of Lake Erie. Haggerty learnt that recycling the batteries was an easy solution. “I think everybody can do it, because everyone uses batteries, and it can make a big difference.”With these words, she began to increase awareness in her area.

She talked to her county government and school board. She got permission to start a recycling programme in schools as well as the public libraries, hospitals, and churches. With the help from her family, friends and local waste-management officials, she gathered containers, arranged transportation, and made an educational video.

Over the past two years, she collected four tons of batteries and drew the attention of officials, who were in charge of a battery recycling programme but had made little progress. When asked if she feels like a hero, Haggerty is quite modest. “Not really. Well, maybe for the fish I saved!”

Every year the Gloria Barron Prize honors young Americans aged 8 to 18 who have shown leadership and courage in serving the public and the planet. Each year ten winners receive ＄2,000 each, to help with their education costs or their public service work.

68.According to the passage, how many people probably can’t drink safe drinking water in 2015?

A.About I billion.                                            B.About 2 billion.

C.About 500 million.                                        D.About 5 million.

69.In order to collect used batteries, Rene Haggerty did the following things EXCEPT_______.

A.gather some containers                                  B.arrange the transportation

C.make an educational video                             D.go on a field trip

70.The best title for this passage should be_______ .

A.A girl awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize

B.A girl acts to clean the world’s water

C.We should protect our environment

D.A girl collecting batteries

April 22,2010 will be the 18th celebration of the annual Take Our Daugluers to Work Day （TOD）, a project the National Ms．Foundation for Women of America （NFW） developed to expose girls to expanding opportunities for women in the workplace．

The program offers, millions of girls a first - hand view of the many career opportunities available in their futures．Now that women make up 46 peroent of the U．S．workforce, girls can find role models in every occupational field-from politics to molecular biology to professional athletics, to name just a few．TOD encourages girls to focus on their abilities and opportunities, not just their appearance．

The NFW developed the project more than a decade ago to address the self - esteem problems that many girls experience when they enter adolescence．At school, boys often receive more encouragement in the classroom, especially in math．science and computer science, the academic fields that tend to lead to the highest salaries．Women receive on average only 73 cents for every dollar that men are paid．and remain vastly underrepresented （数量不足） in top executive positions and technology fields．TOD aims to give girls the confidence and inspiration they need to develop successful careers, particularly in non-traditional fields．

Perhaps because the program had become so widespread and successful, TOD had been criticized for excluding boys．and it was expanded in 2003to include boys．The program’s official website states that the program was changed in order to provide both boys and girls with opportunities to explore careers at an age when they are more flexible in tenns of gender stereotyped roles．"We should also show boys that becoming a child care provider is as acceptable a choice as becoming a police officer or CEO," added Sara K．Gould．executive director of the NFW．

1.The purpose for having a Take Our Daughters to Work Day is ____

2.Why are women underrepresented in some fields such as technology?

3.TOD was criticized because some people ____．

4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

5.What can we learn from Sara K．Gould's words?

Today, there’s hardly an aspect of our life that isn’t being upended by the tons of information available on the hundreds of millions of sites crowding the Internet, not to mention its ability to keep us in constant touch with each other via electronic mail. “If the automobile and aerospace technology had exploded at the same pace as computer and information technology,” says Microsoft, “a new car would cost about $ 2 and go 600 miles on a small quantity of gas. And you could buy a Boeing 747 for the cost of a pizza.”
Probably the biggest payoff, however, is the billions of dollars the Internet is saving companies in producing goods and serving for the needs of their customers. Nothing like it has been seen since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when power-driven machines began producing more in a day than men could turn out in nearly a year. “We view the growth of the Internet and e-commerce as a global trend,” says Merrill Lynch, “along the lines of printing press, the telephone, the computer, and electricity.”
You would be hard pressed to name something that isn’t available on the Internet. Consider: books, health care, movie tickets, construction materials, baby clothes, stocks, cattle feed, music, electronics, antiques, tools, real estate, toys, autographs of famous people, wine and airline tickets. And even after you’ve moved on to your final resting place, there’s no reason those you love can’t keep in touch. A company called FinalThoughts.com offers a place for you to store “afterlife e-mails” you can send to Heaven with the help of a “guardian angel”.
Kids today are so computer literate that it in fact ensures the United States will remain the unchallenged leader in cyberspace for the foreseeable(能预测的) future. Nearly all children in families with incomes of more than $75,000 a year have home computers, according to a study by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Youngsters from ages 2 to 17 at all income levels have computers, with 52% of those connected to the Internet. Most kids use computers to play games (some for 30 hours or more a week), and many teenage girls think nothing of rushing home from school to have e-mail chats with friends they have just left.
What’s clear is that, whether we like it or not, the Internet is an ever growing part of our lives and there is no turning back. “The Internet is just 20% invented,” says cyber pioneer Jake Winebaum. “The last 80% is happening now.”
【小题1】What can we learn from the Microsoft’s remark?

A．Today’s cars and airplanes are extremely overpriced.

B．Information technology is developing at an amazing speed.

C．Information technology has reached the point where improvement is difficult.

D．There’s more competition in information technology industry than in car industry.

Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.

Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressiveness permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.

It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural backgrounds in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.

1.What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?

2.The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that a smile can ________.

3.What should we do before attempting to “read” people?

4.What would be the best title for the test?

Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.
Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressiveness permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.
It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural backgrounds in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.
【小题1】What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?