4、Soaring divorce rates around the globe are taking a toll for the environment, American researchers suggested in a study released Monday .

Michigan State University researcher Jianguo “Jack ”Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing  number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy .They said housing units require space ,construction materials and fuel to heat and cool ,regardless of the number of inhabitants .

For example, in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water, An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households .

“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household ”, Liu said ,He said that in cohabitating households ,people will watch the same television ,share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator ,all things that use energy at a regularly stable rate regardless of the number of uses .

Liu said he was not condemning divorce ,” Some people really need to get divorces ”He said cohabitation ---- whether by a family ,friends or even in a commune ------ was simply a more environmentally friendly option ,Additionally ,the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures ,such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer .

“People’s first reaction to this research is surprise, and then it seems simple”: Liu said in a release “But a lot of things become simple after research is done .Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify their relationships People have been talking about how to protect the environment and combat climate change, but divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered.”

He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies.

1.This passage is mainly meant to __________

       A．inform the reader of the increasing divorce in America

       B．emphasize the importance of protecting the environment

       C．appeal to married people to keep their households

       D．tell people the impact divorce has on the environment

2．According to the passage, what’s the attitude of Mr. Liu towards divorce?

       A．Critical             B．Indifferent       C．Objective          D．Unclear

3．It can be inferred from the passage that ___________

       A．divorced households will stimulate the sales of products

       B．married households are more willing to protect the environment

       C．divorced households contribute more to the society’s development

       D．divorce is not taken into account when people are protecting the environment

4．The underlined phrase “take a toll for” in the first paragraph roughly means ________

       A．promote            B．influence         C．strike                  D．decrease

5．From this passage we can find ______

       A．divorce rates are quickly rising globally these years

       B．cohabiting households will increase consumption of water and energy

       C．to divorce is a wise option accordingly

       D．the end of multi –generations of a family will save energy

3、Don’t you find that it is getting increasingly darker every day when you wake up for school? As winter comes, days become shorter while the nights become longer, in the past people slept more in winter, but in modern times we just use more electric light instead of sunlight to continue our normal routines.

But scientific research is finding that manhandling of electric light is making us sick.

Electric light is fooling the body’s biological clock into releasing awaking hormones ( 荷尔蒙)at the wrong times ,scientists say .This might be leading to seasonal fatigue (疲乏)and depression .

Much more than mental health is at stake, recent scientific studies have found that women, who work at night, have higher chances of getting breast-cancer.

“Electric lights are wonderful ,but as with a lot of other things ,we really mess ,things up ”said David Avery ,a psychiatrist (精神病专家).” Our ancestors evolved in a very regular light –dark cycle ,and our bodies just work better that way .”

Researchers have known for a long time that all living things have a biological clock that is linked to light ,Being of the natural day-night cycle can cause fatigue ,mood change and depression ,This is known as seasonal affective disorder ,or SAD.

Scientists disagree on the cause of SAD, Some say it is caused by winter’s late sunrises, others blame the early sunsets.

However, they all agree the perfect solution to SAD is to give up artificial light; it will quickly bring someone into a cycle of long, restful nights and easy awakenings at dawn.

But realistically most people need to use electric light in their everyday life. Ironically the next best solution is to use more bright lights to reset the body’s biological clock.

By getting bright light first thing in the morning it simulates (模拟)an earlier dawn and shifts the body clock forward ,according to Alfred Lewy ,a psychiatrist at Oregon Health & Science University .

A 2005 study done by the American Psychiatric Association showed that daily exposure to bright light was about as effective as medicine used to treat several forms of depression .

1． According to the text, electric light is bad for health mainly because __________

       A．is shortens people’s sleeping time

       B．it makes people upset and unable to concentrate

       C．it releases radiation and increases people’s chances of getting sick

       D．it stimulates the body to release awaking hormones at the wrong time

2． A person suffering from SAD may experience all of the following symptoms EXCEPT ___________

       A．weight loss        B．depression         C．fatigue                D．mood change

3．It can be inferred from the text that ___________

       A．women are more likely to suffer SAD than men

       B．SAD is a reaction to the lack of sunlight in winter

       C．scientists are still unclear about the cause of SAD

       D．all living things have a biological clock related to electric light

4．What is the best solution to treat people with SAD?

A．Using bright lights to reset the body’s clock

       B．Getting bright light in the morning to shift the body clock forward

       C．Daily exposure to bright light .

       D．Giving up artificial light

5．From the passage , we can find ________

A．people will sleep less and less as time goes on

B．hormones are important to your body

C．even though your biological clock is out of order ,you still feel OK

D．daily exposure to the bright light is as effective as medicine

1、孟详斌，解放军某部军官，山东齐河人，2007年11月30日在浙江金华为救跳水轻生女子不幸牺牲，献出了年仅28岁的生命，他的事迹感动了全社会。 请以“Heroism in economic society ”为题用英语写一篇字数为120-150的短文，发表自己的看法。

Heroism in economic society

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

28、Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A – F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

1．

    European television had the idea of taking ordinary people and turning them into “stars” by putting them in unusual situations. “Big Brother” (created in Holland) was one of the first. A group of people were locked in a small house with cameras running 24 hours a day. It was called a “watch and dial” show because viewers vote by telephone to decide who should leave or stay.

2．

    “Big Brother” was probably the first of the new reality shows, bus such a programme has developed. Many have found appeal by having a theme to them, but most are based on the principle of “survival of the fittest” by eliminating participants as the series progresses. So we have the dating shows where winners either pair off or stay true to their partners outside the TV studio. Then there are those that test people’s abilities for specific jobs like running a kitchen, becoming an interior designer or a top model.

3．

    Critics say these programmes are basically bad television, but people watch them. So why are there so many of them? For the viewer it’s an opportunity to “people watch”. It’s natural to like watching other people. They’re interesting. We can imagine what we would do in that situation. We get to know the characters and see them grow and develop week after week. And of course, television is the perfect place to watch people. Like the theatre or cinema we can look at other people and they can’t look back. But with television, we can watch in the privacy of our own homes. We watch, but we don’t have to admit it to anyone.

4．

    The TV companies like reality shows because they are cheap to produce and attract younger viewers, which advertisers like. The last “Big Brother” in Britain attracted enormous advertising revenue. They aren’t dependent on “star” actors with enormous salaries. And your actors won’t go on strike. And why do people participate in them? Well, for fame and money of course. In the past, appearing on television wasn’t for ordinary people. You had to be good at something, like sport, or reading the news, or acting. But not any more.

5．

It seems that most shows do well at the beginning but then the viewing figures begin to fall. And it varies from country to country too. For example, one show had an adopted child try to guess the identity of her real father, and another had a family arguing over an inheritance. Both were cancelled after one episode. Perhaps the novelty has worn off. Certainly, reality TV seems to appeal much more to the younger audience. And now there are so many shows around even the young have become more critical. Reality shows will probably survive – it’s just no longer so easy to make a successful one.

26、Many fast-growing countries are less concerned with protecting       against climate change.

A．one          B．oneself      C．them        D．themselves