By Zhan Lisheng

Updated: 2008-09-27 07:50

GUANGZHOU -- At least 13 people were killed and nine left missing after Typhoon Hagupit swept through the country’s southern region on Wednesday, authorities said.

More than 11.5 million people in Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi provinces were affected by the disaster, with direct economic losses reaching 13.46 billion yuan ($1.97 billion), Ministry of Civil Affairs figures showed.

Hagupit, the strongest typhoon to hit Guangdong and its Pearl River Delta region in 12 years, reportedly headed south toward Vietnam on Thursday.

The typhoon killed nine people and left nine missing in Guangdong alone, causing direct economic losses of more than 7.7 billion yuan, Yang Minyi, a press official with the provincial flood, drought and wind prevention office, said yesterday.

Direct losses to agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in the region were estimated at 4.2 billion yuan; industrial and transport sector, 1.5 billion yuan; and water conservancy infrastructure, 1 billion.

A total of 6.52 million people in 344 towns in the cities of Maoming, Yangjiang, Zhanjiang, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Jiangmen in the Pearl River Delta region and in the west of Guangdong bore the brunt of the typhoon in the province.

More than 15,300 houses fell down and 365,800 hectares(公顷) of farmland were affected, authorities said.

Wang Yugui, a pig farmer in Maoming city, said Hagupit proved fatal to his business.

About two-thirds of his 4,000-odd pigs had drowned or were left missing in the typhoon.

“The typhoon has landed me in huge debt and I really don’t know how to weather the losses,” Wang told China Daily yesterday.

Wang said many others in the city suffered similar losses when Hagupit hit the city on Wednesday morning.

Hagupit also hit a South Korean freight ship, named Zeus, in the waters off Jiangmen. All 17 sailors onboard were still missing, the Yangcheng Evening News reported on Friday.

46. This passage most probably appears _______.

A. in a newspaper                       B. on the Internet 

C. in a magazine                         D. a travel guide

47. We can know from the report that ______.

A. at least 13 people were killed in Guangdong.

B. Guangxi and Hainan suffered more economic losses than Guangdong.

C. so far Hagupit has been the strongest typhoon to hit Guangdong in this century.

D. Hagupit hit South Korea before it landed in Guangdong.

48. The underlined word “bore the brunt of” can be best replaced by “_____”

A. received the main force of

B. suffered similar economic losses from

C. shared the losses caused by

D. stood the test of

49. The example of the pig farmer Wang Yugui is used to show ______.

A. that pig farmers suffered the most losses in the disaster.

B. That many others in Maoming suffered similar losses.

C. How difficult it will be for people to go through the disaster.

D. How seriously the disaster affected people.

50. Altogether ___ people are reported missing in the passage.

A. 9                                  B.18                          C. 35                  D. 26

Research by Scotland Yard published in a London newspaper, has proven that knife crime in London is a serious non – white phenomenon, with 165 of the 225 under- 18s accused of knife crime in the past three months being from the black or other non – white groups．

According to Scotland Yard, only 60 of the 225 crimes were white．Despite being a small minority of the knife holding criminals, whites did, however, make up the single largest group of victims of knife crime．

According to the Scotland Yard report, whites made up 222 of the 637 victims of knife crime over the last three months．This number could probably be higher, as 292 victims were not identified by race．

This month Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson suggested knife crime has replaced drug selling as the top concern for London police．

Sir Paul said so as he announced a specialist knife crime unit to deal with teenagers carrying knives in the capital．It will use a team of 75 specialist officers to find criminal group members and their supporters．

Detective Inspector, George Rhoden, president of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives said, “In the black community we have all noticed that there is major concern about gun and knife crime．Clearly we are not the only part of the community affected by the problem of children who have no fathers, but parental responsibility should be of major concern.”

Around 59 percent of black Caribbean children and 54 percent of mixed – race youngsters are looked after by a lone parent．In the white British population, the number is 22 percent．

From the above, we can see that       in knife crimes in London．

A．there are more whites than blacks as victims

B．there are more blacks than whites as victims

C．blacks make up the smallest group of criminals

D．blacks make up the second largest group of criminals

What Sir Paul Stephenson said suggests that      ．

A．drug selling has replaced knife crime as the top concern for London police

B．drug selling had been the top concern for London police in the past

C．knife crime used to be the top concern for London police

D．London police now pay no attention to drug selling

What measure has the government taken to deal with the problem of knife crime?

A．Punishing the parents of teenagers carrying knives．

B．Arresting the teenagers carrying knives．

C．Forming a specialist knife crime unit．

D．Fining the teenagers carrying knives．

According to George Rhoden, which of the following factors contributes to so many young blacks turning to crime?

A．That they are poorly educated．

B．That they are influenced by their fathers．

C．That many of them come from incomplete families．

D．That their parents are too busy to take care of them．

Playing with toy blocks (积木) may lead to improved language development in young children, a new study reported.
Early childhood is an important period in the development of young minds. The newborn brain grows three times in size between birth and age 2. Scientists have said that certain activities during this important period may promote (促进) healthy development while others may hold it back, and development of memory and language may especially be helped by imaginative play.
After six months, language scores among half of the 175 children aged 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 who were sent plastic blocks were 15 percent higher than a matched group that did not receive the free blocks, according to the study by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Parents were given ideas about how to help their children play with the blocks, then were told to keep diaries of their children’s activities over four days. Finally, all the parents filled out questionnaires that judged their children’s vocabulary, grammar, and other language abilities. Study author Dimitri Christakis said unstructured play with blocks motivated children’s thinking, memory and physical skills at a time when a child’s brain is growing rapidly. “They are the foundation of thought and language,” he wrote of the skills learned from building blocks. “Older children begin to make up stories for these objects .”
Such play may also take the place of less helpful activities such as watching TV, he said, adding parents ought to have doubts about some toy-makers’ words. “An increasing number of media-based products are making ungrounded (无根据的) claims that they can make children smarter, more literate, and more musical,” Christakis said.
【小题1】What can we learn from the second paragraph?

Research by Scotland Yard published in a London newspaper, has proven that knife crime in London is a serious non – white phenomenon, with 165 of the 225 under- 18s accused of knife crime in the past three months being from the black or other non – white groups．
According to Scotland Yard, only 60 of the 225 crimes were white．Despite being a small minority of the knife holding criminals, whites did, however, make up the single largest group of victims of knife crime．
According to the Scotland Yard report, whites made up 222 of the 637 victims of knife crime over the last three months．This number could probably be higher, as 292 victims were not identified by race．
This month Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson suggested knife crime has replaced drug selling as the top concern for London police．
Sir Paul said so as he announced a specialist knife crime unit to deal with teenagers carrying knives in the capital．It will use a team of 75 specialist officers to find criminal group members and their supporters．
Detective Inspector, George Rhoden, president of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives said, “In the black community we have all noticed that there is major concern about gun and knife crime．Clearly we are not the only part of the community affected by the problem of children who have no fathers, but parental responsibility should be of major concern.”
Around 59 percent of black Caribbean children and 54 percent of mixed – race youngsters are looked after by a lone parent．In the white British population, the number is 22 percent．
【小题1】From the above, we can see that       in knife crimes in London．

A．drug selling has replaced knife crime as the top concern for London police

B．drug selling had been the top concern for London police in the past

C．knife crime used to be the top concern for London police

D．London police now pay no attention to drug selling

Research by Scotland Yard published in a London newspaper, has proven that knife crime in London is a serious non – white phenomenon, with 165 of the 225 under- 18s accused of knife crime in the past three months being from the black or other non – white groups．

According to Scotland Yard, only 60 of the 225 crimes were white．Despite being a small minority of the knife holding criminals, whites did, however, make up the single largest group of victims of knife crime．

According to the Scotland Yard report, whites made up 222 of the 637 victims of knife crime over the last three months．This number could probably be higher, as 292 victims were not identified by race．

This month Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson suggested knife crime has replaced drug selling as the top concern for London police．

Sir Paul said so as he announced a specialist knife crime unit to deal with teenagers carrying knives in the capital．It will use a team of 75 specialist officers to find criminal group members and their supporters．

Detective Inspector, George Rhoden, president of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives said, “In the black community we have all noticed that there is major concern about gun and knife crime．Clearly we are not the only part of the community affected by the problem of children who have no fathers, but parental responsibility should be of major concern.”

Around 59 percent of black Caribbean children and 54 percent of mixed – race youngsters are looked after by a lone parent．In the white British population, the number is 22 percent．

1.From the above, we can see that       in knife crimes in London．

A．there are more whites than blacks as victims

B．there are more blacks than whites as victims

C．blacks make up the smallest group of criminals

D．blacks make up the second largest group of criminals

2.What Sir Paul Stephenson said suggests that      ．

A．drug selling has replaced knife crime as the top concern for London police

B．drug selling had been the top concern for London police in the past

C．knife crime used to be the top concern for London police

D．London police now pay no attention to drug selling

3.What measure has the government taken to deal with the problem of knife crime?

A．Punishing the parents of teenagers carrying knives．

B．Arresting the teenagers carrying knives．

C．Forming a specialist knife crime unit．

D．Fining the teenagers carrying knives．

4.According to George Rhoden, which of the following factors contributes to so many young blacks turning to crime?

A．That they are poorly educated．

B．That they are influenced by their fathers．

C．That many of them come from incomplete families．

D．That their parents are too busy to take care of them．