I was 9 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1994. But I can remember my mother’s words as if were yesterday: “Kerrel, I don’t want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him.”

AIDS wasn’t something we talked about in our country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 12, his condition worsened. My father’s other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.

We couldn’t afford all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had no money for school supplies and often couldn’t buy even food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher’s words muffled as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage.

I did not share my burden () with anyone. I had seen how people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would put his food on the bedside table even though he was too weak to feed himself.

I had known that he was going to die, but after so many years of keeping his condition a secret, I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at a nonprofit National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. She saved my life.

I was 15 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn’t want to call attention to AIDS. I do.

49. What does Kerrel tell us about her father?

       A. He had stayed in the hospital since he fell ill.

B. He depended on the nurses in his final days.

C. He worked hard to pay for his medication.

D. He told no one about his disease.

50. What can we learn from the underlined sentence?

   A. Kerrel couldn’t understand her teacher.

   B. Kerrel had special difficulty in hearing.

   C. Kerrel was too troubled to focus on the lesson.

   D. Kerrel was too tired to hear her teacher’s words.

 51. Why did Kerrel keep her father’s disease a secret?

A. She was afraid of being looked down upon.

B. She thought it was shameful to have AIDS.

C. She found no one willing to listen to her.

D. She wanted to obey her mother.

52. Why die Kerrel write the passage?

   A. To tell people about the sufferings of her father.

   B. To show how little people knew about AIDS.

   C. To draw people’s attention to AIDS.

   D. To remember her father.

Special Bridges Help Animals Cross the Road

——Reported by Sheila Carrick

    Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.

    Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more worried about how the grizzly bear and mountain lion can cross the road.

     “Millions of animals die each year on U.S. roads,” the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today. The main reason? Roadkill.

     “Ecopassages” may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over and under roads. “These ecopassages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid road accidents,” said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Protection Society.

    But do animals actually use the ecopassages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an ecopassage that went under a highway. This showed that the lions used the passage.

    Builders of ecopassages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses.

    The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animals overpass!

1. The writer uses the example of “ocelots” to show that ______.

  A. wild animals have become more dangerous

  B. the driving conditions have improved greatly

  C. the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work

  D. an increasing number of animals are killed in road accidents

2. From the news story, we know an ecopassage is ______.

  A. an underground path for cars                                  

B. a fence built for the safety of the area

  C. a bridge for animals to get over a river                    

D. a pass for animals to cross the road

3. When the writer says that animals seem “to be catching on”, he means ______.

  A. animals begin to realize the dangers on the road 

B. animals begin to learn to use ecopassages

  C. animals are crossing the road in groups                    

D. animals are increasing in number

4. The writer asks visitors and drivers to look around when traveling because ______.

  A. wild animals may attack cars                                  

B. wild animals may jam the road

  C. they may see wild animals in the park               

D. they may see wild animals on ecopassages

When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter(炼铜厂), and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on, something happened inside him.

Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was “No.”

Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. He was told everyone knew that even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn't get his idea accepted.

Paul later got married and had some kids. But, his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. Under the cover of darkness, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.

And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against the plain common sense. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.

Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow(誓言) he made to himself as a child.

1.When Paul was a boy, _________.

A．he had decided never to leave his hometown

B．the economy of Utah depended on the copper smelter

C．he had determined to stop the copper smelter polluting the area

D．no laws were made to protect the environment against pollution

2.Why did Paul go to college to study the science of plants?

A．He wanted to find out the best way to save the area himself.

B．He was interested in planting trees since he was young.

C．He wanted to get more knowledgeable people to help him.

D．He thought his knowledge would make his advice more persuasive.

3.What does the underlined phrase “the plain common sense” in paragraph 5 probably refer to?

A．That his normal work and life would be greatly affected.

B．That it was impossible for trees to grow on the wasteland.

C．That no one would like to join him in the efforts.

D．That he had to keep everything he did secret.

4.The message of the passage is that ___________.

A．perseverance(持之以恒) will work wonders

B．action speaks louder than words

C．God helps those who help themselves

D．many hands make light work.

The economic growth that many nations in Asia and increasingly Africa have experienced over the past couple of decades has transformed hundreds of millions of lives – almost entirely for the better. But there’s a byproduct to that growth, one that’s evident – or sometimes less than evident – in the smoggy, smelly skies above cities like Beijing, New Delhi and Jakarta. Thanks to new cars and power plants, air pollution is bad and getting worse in much of the world, and it’s taking a major toll (伤亡人数，代价) on global health.

How big? According to a new analysis published in the Lancet, more than 3.2 million people suffered deaths from air pollution in 2010, the largest number on record. That’s up from 800,000 in 2000. And it’s a regional problem: 65% of those deaths occurred in Asia, where the air is choked by diesel soot (内燃发动机烟雾) from cars and trucks, as well as the song from power plants and the dust from endless urban construction. In East Asia and China, 1.2 million people died, as well as another 712,000 in South Asia, including India. For the first time ever, air pollution is on the world’s top – 10 list of killers, and it’s moving up the ranks faster than any other factor.

So how can air pollution be so damaging? It is the very finest soot – so small that it roots deep within the lungs and then enters the bloodstream – that contributes to most of the public – health toll of air pollution including death. Diesel soot, which can also cause cancer, is a major problem because it is concentrated in cities along transportation zones affecting overpopulated areas. It is thought to contribute to half the deaths from air pollution in urban centers. Fro example, 1 in 6 people in the U.S. live near a diesel – pollution hot spot like a rail yard, port terminal or freeway.

We also know that air pollution may be linked to other non – deadly diseases. Fortunately in the U.S. and other developed nations, urban air is for the most part cleaner than it was 30 or 40 years ago, thanks to regulations and new technologies like the catalytic converters (催化式排气净化器) that reduce automobile emissions. Govemments are also pushing to make air cleaner – see the White House’s move last week to further tighten soot standards. It’s not perfect, but we’ve had much more success dealing with air pollution than climate change.

Will developing nations like India eventually catch up? Hopefully – though the problem may get worse before it gets better. The good news is that it doesn’t take a major technological advance to improve urban air. Switching from diesel fuel to unleaded (无铅燃油) helps, as do newer and cleaner cars which are less likely to send out pollutants. Power plants – even ones that burn mineral fuels like coal – can be fitted with pollution – control equipment that, at a price, will greatly reduce smog and other pollutants.

But the best solutions may involve urban design. In the Guardian, John Vidal notes that Delhi now has 200 cars per 1,000 people, far more than much richer Asian cities like Hong Kong and Singapore. Developing cities will almost certainly see an increase in car ownership as residents become wealthier – and that doesn’t have to mean deadly air pollution. Higher incomes should also lead to tougher environmental regulations, which is exactly what happened in the West. We can only hope it happens before the death toll from bad air gets even higher.

1.What tends to give rise to the highest death toll according to the passage?

A．The lack of tight environmental protection standards.

B．The increasing numbers of the diesel cars and trucks.

C．The frighteningly high death rate from deadly cancer.

D．The world’s serious air pollution such as soot and dust.

2.The “byproduct” (Paragraph 1) most probably refers to     .

A．consequence      B．solution       C．reform         D．design

3.The basic reason why so many people die from air pollution is that       .

A．the diesel soot is too small to be seen

B．the diesel soot is much too poisonous to breathe

C．the diesel soot roots in lungs and gets into blood

D．the diesel soot can also contribute to deadly cancer

4.According to the passage, the writer actually wants to convince the readers that        .

A．the global economic growth is mainly to blame for air pollution and climate change

B．the developing countries are repeating the same mistakes as the developed ones made

C．the ecological situation and air pollution in India are becoming worse and worse

D．the unbeatable air is increasingly becoming a major killer throughout the world

5.By describing urban design as “the best solution” in the last paragraph, the writer means that        .

A．the making of tougher environmental regulations alone is of little use

B．more sever regulations should be made to handle air pollution

C．the urban construction in western developed countries is the best choice

D．the pace of development has to be slowed down to reduce air pollution