“One thing I enjoy about my job is that I can work on something that is actually active,” says Game McGimsey, an American volcanologist(火山学家). Part of his job includes keeping an eye on Alaska’s many active volcanoes and giving people a heads-up when a volcano might erupt(喷发).
Like most jobs in the science, volcanology requires a lot of education. McGimsey received an undergraduate degree in geology at the University of North Carolina, then landed an internship(实习期) with a geologist at the USGS(美国地质勘探局) whose work field was about volcanoes. After earning a graduate degree at the University of Colorado, McGimsey accepted a job with the USGS and has been with the Alaska Volcano Observatory for 25 years.
Volcanoes can influence the world in ways we might not think about. For example, on Dec.15 1989, a 747 jetliner (a large airplane) flew through a thick ash cloud produced by Mount Redoubt, an Alaskan volcano that hadn’t erupted in 25 years. The ash caused all four engines to die, and the plane’s electronics went dead.
“The plane was within several thousand feet of flying into the mountains below when the pilots got a couple of engines restarted and landed safely in Anchorage,” McGimsey says. It cost nearly $80 million to repair the damage to the plane.
Such situations show just how dangerous volcanoes can be. However, volcanologists know the risks and are prepared to protect themselves.
McGimsey admits, “There is certainly a higher danger level in volcanology than some other jobs. We understand how serious the danger is, and we don’t like taking unnecessary chances. We avoid getting too close to an erupting volcano, because it is not worth injury or death simply to get a rock or a photograph.”
1.Before working for the USGS, McGimsey ________.
A.had been a pilot for 25 years
B.knew nothing about the organization
C.had taught at the University of North Colorado
D.had studied at the University of Colorado
2.On Dec.15,1989, a 747 jetliner ________.
A.had all its engines restarted
B.flew into a volcano in Europe
C.survived an air accident luckily
D.disappeared in a huge ash cloud
3.What McGimsey says in the last paragraph shows his ________.
A. prideB. carefulnessC. lonelinessD. doubt
4.What would be the best title for the text?
A.Game McGimsey: a man of his word
B.Game McGimsey: a volcano watcher
C.The eruption of Mt Redoubt
D.Lost land of the volcano
Cancer researchers urged people on Wednesday to take more vitamin D to lower risk of cancer, saying studies showed a clear link. “Our suggestion is for people to increase their intake, through diet or a vitamin supplement. ” Dr.Cedric Garland said in a telephone interview.
Garland’s research team reviewed 63 studies, including several large long-term ones, on the relationship between vitamin D and certain types of cancer worldwide between 1966 and 2004.
“There’s nothing that has this ability to prevent cancer,” he said, urging governments and public health officials to do more to fortify foods with vitamin D. Garland is part of a University of California at San Diego Moores Cancer Center team that published its findings this week online in the American Journal of Public Health. Vitamin D is found in milk, as well as in some fortified orange juice, yogurt and cheeses, usually at around 100 international units(IU) a serving. People might want to consider a vitamin supplement to raise their intake to 1000 IUs per day, Garland said, adding that it was well within the safety guidelines established by the National Academy of Sciences.
The authors said that taking more vitamin D could be especially important for people living in northern areas, which receive less vitamin D from sunshine.
African Americans, who don’t produce as much of the vitamin because of their skin colour, could also benefit significantly from a higher intake, the authors said.
1.According to the passage, people are advised to take more Vitamin D because ________.
A. it is nutritious
B. it can’t harm people’s health
C. it can lower cancer risk
D. it is not taken enough every day
2.Who can Garland probably be?
A. A health researcher.
B. A doctor.
C. A scientist.
D. A public health official.
3.Which of the following food can lower people’s chance of getting cancer?
A. Milk.
B. Fortified orange juice.
C. Fortified yogurt.
D. All of the above.
4.People from which area should take more Vitamin D according to the passage?
A. Asian people.B. African people.
C. American people.D. European people.
When milk arrived on the doorstep
When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr.Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note-“Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery”—and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically appear.
All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practiced to have a delivery service.
Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home and planted it on the back porch. Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.
1.Mr.Basille gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer ________.
A.to show his magical power
B.to pay for the delivery
C.to please his mother
D.to satisfy his curiosity
2.What can be inferred from the fact that the milkman had the key to the boy’s house?
A.He wanted to have tea there.
B.He was fully trusted by the family.
C.He was treated as a family member.
D.He was a respectable person.
3.Why does home milk delivery no longer exist?
A.It has been driven out of the market.
B.Nobody wants to be a milkman now.
C.Its service is getting poor.
D.It is forbidden by law.
4.Why did the author bring back home an old milk box?
A.He planted flowers in it.
B.He wanted to tell interesting stories.
C.He needed it for his milk bottles.
D.He missed the good old days.
One day, Mr. Arnold was teaching a lesson, and things were going as normally as ever. He was explaining the story of human being to his pupils. He told them that, in the beginning, men were nomads (游牧); they never stayed in the same place for very long. Instead, they would travel about, here and there, in search of food, wherever it was to be found. And when the food ran out, they would move off somewhere else.
He taught them about the invention of farming and keeping animals. This was an important discovery, because by learning to cultivate (耕作) the land, and care for animals, mankind would always have food steadily. It also meant that people could remain living in one place, and this made it easier to set about tasks that would take a long while to finish, like building towns, cities, and all that were in them. All the children were listening attracted by this story, until Lucy jumped up:
“And if that was so important and improved everything so much, why are we nomads all over again, Mr. Arnold?”
Mr. Arnold didn’t know what to say. Lucy was a very clever girl. He knew that she lived with her parents in a house, so she must know that her family were not nomads; so what did she mean?
“We have all become nomads again,” continued Lucy, “The other day, outside the city, they were cutting the forest down. A while ago a fisherman told me how they fish. It’s the same with everyone: when there’s no more forest left the foresters go elsewhere, and when the fish run out the fishermen move on. That’s what the nomads did, isn’t it?
The teacher nodded, thoughtfully. Really, Lucy was right. Mankind had turned into nomads. Instead of looking after the land in a way that we could be sure it would keep supplying our needs, we kept developing it until the land was bare. And then off we would go to the next place! The class spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what they could do to show how to be more civilized (文明的).
The next day everyone attended class wearing a green T-shirt, with a message that said “I am not a nomad!”
And, from then on, they set about showing that indeed they were not. Every time they knew they needed something, they made sure that they would get it using care and control. If they needed wood or paper, they would make sure that they got the recycled kind. They ordered their fish from fish farms, making sure that the fish they received were not too young and too small. They only used animals that were well cared for, and brought up on farms.
And so, from their little town, those children managed to give up being nomads again, just as prehistoric men had done, so many thousands of years ago.
1.Why would early humans travel about in the beginning?
A.To experience different lifestyles.
B.To go sightseeing in different places.
C.To find what they could to feed themselves.
D.To do more exercise to build themselves up.
2.From Paragraph 2, we can know that ________.
A.people got tired of living in the same place
B.people gradually got used to living in cities
C.people spent a long time in learning to keep animals
D.people tended to settle down after learning farming and keeping animals
3.The teacher thought Lucy’s argument was ________.
A. reasonableB. unbelievable
C. puzzlingD. shocking
4.Which of the following agrees with the message “I am not a nomad” (Paragraph 7)?
A.People eat young fish for its delicious taste.
B.People use recycled materials as much as possible.
C.Fishermen move elsewhere when there is no fish left.
D.Foresters leave the place where there is no wood left.
5.The writer tries to make us believe that ________.
A.mankind has been progressing mainly through traveling about
B.it’s unwise for mankind to use the land in an uncontrolled way
C.it’s quite good for students to learn more about the history of mankind
D.teachers should encourage students to voice their own opinions bravely
I arrived late one night on a business trip, so I decided to have dinner in the hotel I stayed in. As I was finishing my meal, an elderly couple came in. They were holding hands and had lovely smiles on their faces. They sat three tables from me. I was amazed at the love they showed for each other. It struck me because it was shortly after ending a 20-year marriage and I still had pain in my heart.
My waiter was also their waiter. As I paid my bill, I asked what their bill was. He told me, and I gave him $40 to pay their bill. He asked if I knew them and I told him “No, I just wanted to repay them for the love that they were showing to each other,” and then I left. The next day I entered the restaurant again. After I had been seated, the waiter who served me the night before told me that the strangest thing happened after I left the restaurant. When the elderly couple went to pay for their meal, they were told that it had been paid. The waiter just told them what I said. They were amazed. They looked around, asked for the bill of two young couples who were seated together, paid their bill and left.
I smiled and ordered my meal. About 45 minutes later, I finished my meal and was about to head out, but my waiter was nowhere to be found. I explained to the hostess that I needed to pay for my meal and hurry to the airport. She smiled and explained that I would not have to pay, because she felt she should pay for my bill because of the joy brought to the faces of the elderly couple and the amazement of the young couples.
When I told her that they didn’t have to do that, she said with a smile “Love creates Love.”
1.From the first paragraph we know the writer must feel ________.
A. pleasedB. worriedC. sadD. nervous
2.The elderly couple paid the bill of the two young couples because they ________.
A. knew the two young couples
B. were happy to pass the love they got
C. were always ready to help poor people
D. wanted to invite the young people to the meal
3.The writer’s purpose of writing the passage is to ________.
A. suggest true love never dies
B. share an interesting experience
C. encourage us to help people in need
D. prove a show of love really makes a difference
阅读下面短文, 从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、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 was a single parent of four small children, working at a low-paid job. Money was always tight, but we had a ___ over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs, and if not a lot, always ____. Not knowing we were poor, my kids just thought I was ____. I’ve always been glad about that.
It was Christmas time, and although there wasn’t ___ for a lot of gifts, we planned to celebrate with a family party. But the big ___ for the kids was the fun of Christmas ___.
They planned weeks ahead of time, asking ___ what they wanted for Christmas. Fortunately, I had saved $120 for ___ to share by all five of us.
The big ___ arrived. I gave each kid a twenty-dollar bill and ___ them to look for gifts of about four dollars each. Then everyone scattered(散开). We had two hours to shop; then we would ____ back at the “Santa’s Workshop”.
Driving home, everyone was in high Christmas spirits(情绪), ___ my younger daughter, Ginger, who was unusually ____. She had only one small, flat(瘪的) bag with a few candies—fifty-cent candies! I was so angry, but I didn’t say anything ____ we got home. I called her into my bedroom and closed the door, ___ to be angry again. This is what she told me.
“I was looking ____ thinking of what to buy, and I ___ to read the little cards in the ‘Giving Trees.’ One was for a little girl, four years old, and all she ___ for Christmas was a doll(玩具娃娃). So I took the card off the tree and ____ the doll for her. We have so much and she doesn’t have anything.”
I never felt so ____ as I did that day.
1.A. hatB. roofC. cloudD. star
2.A. littleB. lessC. moreD. enough
3.A. politeB. strictC. seriousD. sad
4.A. moneyB. roomC. timeD. date
5.A. angerB. problemC. surpriseD. excitement
6.A. shoppingB. travelingC. partiesD. greetings
7.A. the otherB. each otherC. one by oneD. every other one
8.A. toysB. clothesC. presentsD. bills
9.A. dayB. chanceC. cardD. tree
10.A. benefitedB. remindedC. invitedD. forgave
11.A. drawB. stayC. moveD. meet
12.A. includingB. exceptC. besideD. for
13.A. quietB. excitedC. happyD. healthy
14.A. sinceB. afterC. untilD. while
15.A. readyB. ableC. curiousD. afraid
16.A. outB. overC. forwardD. around
17.A. forgotB. stoppedC. failedD. hated
18.A. wantedB. didC. builtD. played
19.A. madeB. searchedC. boughtD. fetched
20.A. angryB. richC. patientD. terrified
