It seems some people have something bad to say about Facebook, the social media website that now has attracted more than 300 million members. To them I have only this to say: Stop please!

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal blamed Facebook’s ability to ruin friendships, saying that it limits communication to typing and encourages people to spend far too much time with friends they have never met.

Having used Facebook since its first year, I find these arguments false. The simple truth is that the problems are only a symptom of Facebook abuse. Like many things, it is only as harmful to your life and relationships as you allow it to be. Consider arguments against watching too much TV and overeating.

Try using Facebook to find friends who may have long ago changed their e-mail addresses and phone numbers, to find out what your old college friends are up to, to congratulate your friends on their latest birthdays, to share pictures and articles you find interesting, and to join in the discussion about them with your friends.

Sure, I had days when I wasted a little more time on Facebook than I should, but I’m not going to blame Facebook for my own laziness. If Facebook wasn’t there, I would have found something else to waste time on. To my “friends”: if you don’t feel like broadcasting your life stories on your Facebook, don’t. If you tire of my personal updates, ignore them. If you don’t want to join in the popular online games, don’t. It is a fun tool at your fingers that can be used for both good and bad. If you don’t like using Facebook, don’t.

I am now a consultant at the Department of State. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues who live and work all over the world.

1.Why did the article in the Wall Street Journal blame Facebook?

A．Because it makes people spend too much time online.

B．Because it can make people lose their real-life friends.

C．Because it is as harmful to people’s lives as watching TV.

D．Because it encourages people to make friends with strangers.

2.What does the author suggest using Facebook to do?

A．To find out lost e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

B．To arrange appointments with our old college friends.

C．To collect interesting pictures and articles from our friends.

D．To keep in touch with friends who we haven’t called for long.

3.We can imply from the passage that by using Facebook we can ____.

A．read other’s personal updates

B．write our life stories online secretly

C．decide who can read our life stories

D．refuse to join in popular online games

4.The author writes the last paragraph to ____.

A．prove that Facebook can be well used

B．gain support from the Department of State

C．show that Facebook is used all around the world

D．introduce how she uses Facebook in her work as a consultant

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

There was a boy who was walking home from school when he saw a large, tempting (attracting) apple on one of the branches of an apple tree hanging out over a tall fence. The  boy wasn’t much of a fruit-eater, _36_ a bar of chocolate if given the choice, _37_, as they say, the forbidden fruit can be tempting. Seeing the apple, the boy wanted it. The more he looked at it, the _38_ he felt and the more he wanted that apple.

He stood on tiptoe, _39_as high as he could, but even at his tallest _40_he was unable to touch it. He began to _41_ up and down, as high as he could, at the _42_of each jump stretching his arms to get the apple. Still it remained out of _43_.

Not giving up, he thought, if only he had something to _44_on. His school bag wouldn’t give enough height and he didn’t want to _45_the things inside, like his lunch box, pencil box, pencil case, and Gameboy. Looking _46_, he hoped he might find an old box, a rock, or, _47_ luck, even a ladder, but it was a tidy neighborhood and there was nothing he could use.

He had tried everything he could think to do. _48_seeing any other choices, he gave up and started to walk_49_. At first, he felt angry and disappointed thinking about how hungry he had become from his _50_, and how he really wanted that apple. The more he _51_like this, the more unhappy he became.

_52_, the boy of our story was a pretty smart guy, even if he couldn’t get what he wanted. He started to say to himself, “This isn’t_53_.I don’t have the apple and I’m feeling sad as well. There is _54_ more I can do to get the apple— that is unchangeable —but we are supposed to be able to _55_our feelings. If that is the case, what can I do to feel better?

2.A so             B then            C. or              D. but

5.A. strength       B. height              C length           D. range       

Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.

Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露）to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风）within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物）were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” (良好）quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.

The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.

1.The text mainly discusses the relationship between        .

A．heart problems and air quality

B．heart problems and exercising

C．heart problems and smoking

D．heart problems and fatty food

2.The underlined word “modest” in Paragraph 3 most probably means.

A．relatively high                          B．extremely low

C．relatively low                          D．extremely high

3. What can we learn from the text? 

A．Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart.

B．The EPA conducted many studies on air quality.

C．Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking,

D．Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's greatest art museums. Millions of people have entered its doors to see paintings by the world's fine artists. But if these priceless masterpieces are to be preserved, the Gallery must protect them carefully. The Gallery's 135-man guard force has successfully prevented them from being stolen, but protecting the paintings from nature is a greater problem.

In past times, the owners of paintings did not protect them from damaging changes in humidity (湿度) and temperature. As a result, the life of these paintings were shortened. In the National Gallery, however, humidity and temperature are carefully controlled. The building is air-conditioned in summer and heated in winter. The air-conditioning and heating system are so important to the life of the painting that the Gallery has two of each system. If one should fail, the extra one can take over.

Light is another enemy of paintings. Ultraviolet rays (紫外线) in light cause paintings to fade (褪色).  Long ago, paintings often hung in dark churches and palaces. A coat of varnish (清漆) was a protection from the weak light. But when museums took over the care of many paintings, they were often hung in brighter light than before. Soon they were in danger of fading. The damaging effects of light were increased when the museums removed the varnish coating, yellowed with age.

To protect its paintings, the National Gallery put a special kind of glass in its skylights. This glass allows visible lights to enter the building but it keeps out harmful ultraviolet rays. The Gallery has also developed new and better varnishes which help to keep paintings from fading. Thanks to these new precautions, many of the world's greatest paintings are being well protected for future generations to enjoy.

1.The text mainly tells us about ______.

A．the guard force in the National Gallery

B．protecting great paintings from nature

C．priceless paintings of past times

D．the air-conditioning and heating systems in the National Gallery

2.The underlined word "precautions" in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.  

A．decorations

B．problems

C．suggestions

D．applications

3.From the text we can infer that_______.

A．great artists painted in dark churches and palaces

B．you can touch these paintings while you are in the National Gallery

C．the care of the world's greatest paintings is both a big responsibility and a great challenge

D．the guard force in the Gallery has not done a good job

At least 10 million hectares of cultivated（耕作）land in China are polluted, which makes a grave threat to the country’s food safety, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.

The polluted land，which is mostly in economically developed areas，accounts for one-tenth of the country’s total arable（可耕种的）land，according to an incomplete survey by the State Environmental Protection Administration，China’s top environment watchdog.

Pollution on cultivated land threatens the environment，food safety and the sustainable development of agriculture，the administration said.

Because of continual，too much use of chemical fertilizer, pesticide and agricultural plastic sheeting, as well as irrigation using polluted water, a large amount of contaminants（污染物）remain in the cultivated land.

The contaminants affect the soil’s ecological structure and function，leading to decreased soil productivity, lower crop yield（产量），and lower quality of agricultural products-

It also leads to worse water quality in rural areas.

Less than 9 per cent of drinkable water passed checks for bacteria in243 rural water supply stations across the county.

Another survey, which took samples of drinking water and groundwater an 69 small towns。 in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province of North，China, showed that more than half of the water contains too much nitrate（硝酸盐），which may cause diabetes（糖尿病）and damage the kidney.

The administration estimated at least 1 90 million farmers are drinking water that contains harmful substances.

Many villagers drink unfiltered water taken from shallow water wells or water cellars， which are reported to have poor sanitary conditions·

1.The author writes the passage to            .

A．1et the readers examine their mistakes

B．present the readers a new idea

C．come up with a solution to ending farmland pollution

D．inform the readers of the importance of fighting farmland pollution

2.The underlined word “grave” in Paragraph 1 probably means

A．serious           B．certain            C．big               D．terrible

3.Pollution on cultivated land leads to the following outcomes EXCEPT       .

A．a threat to China’s food safety

B．worse water quality in rural areas

C．a variety of diseases

D．the sustainable development of agriculture