Do people ever consider the possibility that, if they’re exposed to increased reports about a social problem, it’s the reporting that has increased rather than the problem? It’s increasingly clear that this is the case with school bullying（欺凌）：Only news reports about it have increased, not the behavior itself. In fact, both bullying and fear of it are down among US middle school students
The rate of students who reported fearing an attack or harm at school at all has dropped dramatically, from nearly 12% in 1995 to less than 4% in 2011. For black and Hispanic students, it’s an even more encouraging shift—from more than 20% of both groups of students worried about being attacked at school to less than 5% in 2011.
The decline in actual physical violence in schools is even more dramatic: It was down 74% between 1992 and 2010, according to the latest US Department of Justice data.
What about cyberbullying? Online harassment increased from 6% in 2000 to 9% in 2005 to 11% in 2010 between, and it’s interesting to note that it increased less between 2005 and ’10 than in the first 5 years tracked. Because social media is very much a reflection of school social life for young people, the peer aggression seen in social media is a lot like the peer aggression seen on school bathroom walls. So once it finds its “dead level,” it will probably decline in the same way verbal and written aggression have.
Besides education and crime prevention at the social level, medicine treatment and better access to mental healthcare also contribute to this downward trend in victimization of self and others.
The rise of social media is what people don’t typically think of as a positive force in society. But Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire says, “These technologies might have prevented crime and bullying by providing more ways of help, more forms of social supervision, and interesting activities that destroy forms of alienation(异化) that lead to crime”.
1.From the first paragraph we learn that __________.
A. school bullying has increased because of increased reports
B. school bullying has decreased because of increased reports
C. the number of reports on school bullying has increased
D. the number of reports on school bullying has decreased
2.The underlined word is closest in meaning to "_________".
A. crime B. aggression C. surfing D. communication
3.The cyberbullying is still increasing probably because ________.
A. it isn't as easy to control as the other school bullying
B. it hasn't been concerned by the governments
C. it isn't part of school social life
D. it hasn't come to its top level
4.Finkelhor believes that social media have a ________ influence on the falling trend of school bullying.
A. positive B. negative C. major D. slight
A towering South American plant that is believed to kill animals with its spikes(尖刺) and use their rotting bodies as fertilizer is about to bloom(开花) in England. A rare Puya chilensis was planted at a greenhouse in Surrey, a county in the southeast of England about 15 years ago. However, despite its frightening description, the tall, spiked plant is considered a threatened species.
The Royal Horticultural Society has been feeding the plant a diet of liquid fertilizer. “In its natural habitat in the Andes it uses its razor sharp spikes to snare and trap sheep and other animals, which slowly starve to death and rot at the base of the plant, providing it with a bag of fertilizer,” reads a description on the RHS website, which adds that the plant gives off a “gruesome scent.”
But does the plant actually trap and eat sheep? Other sources have simply said it is “believed” that the plant traps small animals with its spikes. After the animals die of starvation, the plant is "believed" to then use their rotting bodies as fertilizer to feed itself.
"I'm really pleased that we've finally persuaded our Puya chilensis into producing flower," horticulturalist Cara Smith said in a press release on the RHS site. Regardless of whether it actually traps sheep, the plant does have sharp spikes that can grow up to 12 feet high and 5 feet wide. However, it’s not all death and danger for this plant. Its flowery blooms reportedly provide nectar(花蜜) for bees and birds.
The Puya chilensis blooms annually in its native land of Chile, but this is the first time it has done so after more than a decade of cultivation efforts from the RHS. "We keep it well fed with liquid fertilizer as feeding it on its natural diet might prove a bit problematic,” Smith said. "It's growing in the dry section of our glasshouse with its deadly spines well out of reach of both children and sheep alike."
1.From the passage we learn that in England the Puya chilensis _____.
A. feeds on man-made liquid fertilizer
B. often kills sheep and other animals
C. has once bloomed 15 years before
D. uses animals' rotting bodies as fertilizer
2.The underlined word “snare” in the second paragraph probably means“_________”.
A. catch B. stop C. fight D. kill
3.We can infer from the passage that _____.
A. it's dangerous to feed the plant
B. it's certain that the plant kills sheep
C. it's difficult for the plant to bloom in England
D. it's rare for the plant to bloom in South American
4.What does the writer mainly tell us?
A. A new plant is discovered in Chile.
B. How a rare plant is fed in England.
C. A rare plant is going to bloom in England.
D. How a plant traps animals in South America.
When Marilynne Robinson published her first novel, Housekeeping, in 1980, she was unknown in the literary world. But an early review in The New York Times ensured that the book would be noticed. “It’s as if, in writing it, she broke through the ordinary human condition with all its dissatisfactions, and achieved a kind of transfiguration（美化）,” wrote Anatole Broyard, with an enthusiasm and amazement that was shared by many critics and readers. The book became a classic, and Robinson was recognized as one of the outstanding American writers of our time. Yet it would be more than twenty years before she wrote another novel.
During the period, Robinson devoted herself to writing nonfiction. Her essays and book reviews appeared in Harper’s and The New York Times Book Review, and in 1989 she published Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution, criticizing severely the environmental and public health dangers caused by the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in England—and the political and moral corruption(腐败). In 1998, Robinson published a collection of her critical and theological writings, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, which featured reassessments of such figures as Charles Darwin, John Calvin, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Aside from a single short story—“Connie Bronson,” published in The Paris Review in 1986—it wasn’t until 2004 that she returned to fiction with the novel Gilead, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, Home, came out this fall.
Her novels could be described as celebrations of the human—the characters in them are unforgettable creations. Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her sister Lucille, who are cared for by their eccentric（古怪的）Aunt Sylvie after their mother commits suicide. Robinson writes a lot about how each of the three is changed by their new life together. Gilead is an even more close exploration of personality: the book centres on John Ames, a seventy-seven-year-old pastor(牧师) who is writing an account of his life and his family history to leave to his young son after he dies. Home borrows characters from Gilead but centers on Ames’s friend Reverend Robert Boughton and his troubled son Jack. Robinson returned to the same territory as Gilead because, she said, “after I write a novel or a story, I miss the characters—I feel like losing some close friends.”
1.Robinson’s second novel came out ____.
A. in 1980 B. in 1986 C. in 1998 D. in 2004
2.What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?
A. Robinson’s achievements in fiction.
B. Robinson’s achievements in nonfiction.
C. Robinson’s influence on the literary world.
D. Robinson’s contributions to the environment.
3.According to Paragraph 3, who is John Ames?
A. He is Robinson’s close friend.
B. He is a character in Gilead.
C. He is a figure in The Death of Adam.
D. He is a historian writing family stories.
4.From which section of a newspaper can you read this passage?
A. Career. B. Lifestyle. C. Music. D. Culture.
Fannie Cratty wasn’t really my aunt. I only referred to her as “My Aunt Fannie” because the name always made my father laugh and gave my mother cause to look angrily at both of us---at me for being disrespectful of my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior.
As a young woman, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large Victorian farmhouse owned by Fannie Cratty. During those years my mother helped Aunt Fannie make the best blueberry jam ever tasted by anyone in Glenfield. Aunt Fannie was well known for her jam and for never sharing the recipe with another living soul. Even though my mother knew the recipe by heart, as long as Aunt Fannie was alive (and she lived to be ninety-six!), she never made the jam without Ms. Cratty in our kitchen to direct the process and preserve the secret.
Each August, when blueberry season would roll around, my mother would prepare me for Aunt Fannie’s visit. It was vital that I should be on my best behavior. After all, the woman was old, wealthy, very strict with children. Whenever she was at the house, I didn’t need to be reminded to guard my thoughts and watch my tongue.
One year, after I had been particularly helpful with the jam process, Aunt Fannie gave me a quarter(25分硬币) and then made me promise that I would never spend it. “Hold onto this quarter,” she said, “and someday you will be rich. I still have my very first quarter, given to me by my grandfather.” It had obviously worked for her. So, I kept the 1938-quarter into a small box, put it in my dresser drawer, and waited to become rich.
I now have the blueberry jam recipe and the quarter from Aunt Fannie. In people’s eye Aunt Fannie’s success was due to that secret recipe. But to me, it was just a common recipe. Neither has significantly contributed to my wealth, but I keep them as reminders to hold onto the valuable things in life. Money can make you feel rich for a while, but it is the relationships and the memories of time spent with friends and family that truly leave you wealthy. And that is a fortune that anyone can build.
1.Paragraph 2 implies that my mother .
A. used to forget the secret blueberry jam recipe
B. wanted to show off her excellent cooking skills
C. was unable to make the jam without Aunt Fannie’s direction
D. tried to convince Aunt Fannie that she would keep the secret
2.According to Paragraph 4, the author believed that Aunt Fanni was rich because .
A. she had kept her first quarter
B. she had never wasted money
C. she had worked very hard
D. she had kept her promise
3.The author thinks that we can feel wealthy if we .
A. share our wealth with others
B. have good fortune and money
C. know the secret of a jam recipe
D. own lasting love and friendship
4.Which would be the best title for this passage？
A. An old quarter B. Valuable Things
C. Blueberry Jam Recipe D. Memories of old time
阅读下面短文，从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I have a friend who had a stammer (口吃) in his childhood, but he dreamed of becoming a missionary(传教士). When he told his own desire to his friends and relatives, some of them laughed at him, and some even held down his enthusiasm .
"I must change it." said the boy angrily, “I believe I can speak very , I will do!"
When it was possible, he would spend an hour to chickens. He viewed the chickens as living persons, himself to be the person in the speech.
"In the beginning, the chickens looked so , then they watched me curiously, putting down the food in the mouths and listening to my words. It seemed as if they had been by my powerful and effective language. Sometimes they seemed to be listening to me . Gradually, the effect of this practice became more and more and I had a better understanding of the exact of my stammer, so I found the ability to speak more."
"You may not know that my father was always tyrannical(专横的). He believed in the old saying: 'Young man should be more knowledgeable, but should not much.' During the whole childhood, I spoke or commented, he criticized me seriously, which my shy personality. I used to worry about being at, so I became a stammerer. From then on, I kept in front of everyone because they didn't want to see my embarrassment. But later I found myself talking in front of chickens, stammers disappeared , therefore I regained my ."
Now, the previous boy is the best at speaking and one of the most missionaries. You can hardly imagine he used to have a serious language . So when you come across disadvantages, you should believe you can them by yourself.
1.A. sincerely B. impolitely C. strangely D. privately
2.A. frequently B. fluently C. obviously D. completely
3.A. contributing B. seeing C. turning D. speaking
4.A. imagining B. considering C. declaring D. finding
5.A. satisfied B. pleased C. frightened D. surprised
6.A. attracted B. beaten C. bothered D. influenced
7.A. casually B. carefully C. luckily D. cautiously
8.A. obvious B. slight C. crucial D. common
9.A. effect B. benefit C. cause D. harm
10.A. originally B. personally C. doubtfully D. stubbornly
11.A. think B. listen C. play D. talk
12.A. since B. before C. whenever D. unless
13.A. applied to B. led to C. referred to D. owed to
14.A. amazed B. studied C. laughed D. looked
15.A. silent B. active C. noisy D. upset
16.A. logically B. typically C. equally D. naturally
17.A. strength B. dream C. confidence D. freedom
18.A.
successful 
B.
intelligent C.
modest D.
responsible
19.A. gift B. barrier C. ability D. study
20.A. arrange B. exchange C. reduce D. change
-- What did he say ________ his stupid behavior?
-- He admitted having made a serious mistake.
A. in front of B. in explanation of C. in case of D. in fear of
