House Sitting
In many countries of the world people do what is called house sitting. It means that if owners of the house are going away, they want someone to come into their home and look after the house and maybe pets while they are away.
In Australia, many people travel. After people retire, they might buy a van and travel all over the country. 1.
So if someone wants to travel or go away for some reason, they might want someone in their home to care for it and keep the gardens tidy. House sitters might have to care for pets. Also, quite a few people have swimming pools in their back yard and they need cleaning. 2. I feel it is a great way of seeing the country, because you go and stay in a new city, get to meet new people, and have time to go sightseeing in a new area.
3. There are websites where you find the advertisements by people who want to travel, and by replying to the advertisement, you can make arrangements to go and look after their home.
There are some requirements to be a house sitter. You must be a trusted person, so that the home owner knows you will not steal anything. You must be able to go when the house owner wants you to go, so you need lots of free time. 4. You need to be good with pets, able to care for cats and dogs, or other pets they may have.
Some house sitting jobs are just for a few days or a couple of weeks while the house owners have a short holiday. Sometimes it is for much longer. We have had one house sit for six months, while the home owner travelled to Europe.
5. Then you can travel to many different countries and stay there. One of the important things to get is references from the home owners where you have stayed. A reference is a written letter to say that you are trustworthy and have looked after their home well. You can show these letters to possible house sitting jobs and they know you will do a good job.
A. I have done house sitting many times.
B. Thousands of people do this all the time.
C. It is also possible to do house sitting in other countries.
D. Generally you have many opportunities to get a house sitting job.
E. You must take a little care over what your description says about you.
F. This is an international house sitting service for all city and country areas.
G. You must have a good car, so you can travel to different parts of the country.
A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.
Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program 
also included health foods for the children.
The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.
Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.
The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.
A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.
The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.
The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.
1.The Abecedarian Project has lasted _______.
A. almost one year
B. about five years
C. more than 20 years
D. no more than 15 years
2.Those who had been in the child-care center _______ compared with those who hadn't.
A. have their children at later ages
B. get more help from other people
C. have no parenting or social skills
D. are poorer at reading and mathematics
3.What don't we know about the Abecedarian Project after reading the text?
A. What the children learned at the child-care center.
B. How important early education is for poor children.
C. How many children are involved in the Abecedarian Project.
D. Whether lawmakers will spend money on public early education.
4.The study of the Abecedarian Project shows that early education _______.
A. costs a lot of money
B. leads to a lower birthrate
C. can improve the life of poor children
D. is not important for later development
Starting the day on an egg could keep your blood pressure under control, research suggests. Scientists have shown that eggs produce proteins with a function similar to that of powerful blood pressure-lowering drugs.
The research, from the University of Alberta in Canada, showed that when eggs come in contact with stomach enzymes (酶) they produce a protein that acts in the same way as Ace inhibitors, but more work is needed to show the effects outside a lab and in the human body.
Earlier this month, British researchers declared that, contrary to popular beliefs, it is healthy to go to work on an egg. They concluded that the type of cholesterol (胆固醇) found in eggs has little effect on increasing heart disease risks.
Researcher Professor Bruce Griffin, from the University of Surrey, said, "The wrong beliefs linking egg eating to high blood cholesterol and heart disease must be corrected. The amount of fat in our diet has an effect on blood cholesterol that is several times greater than the relatively small amounts of cholesterol found in eggs. The UK public do not need to be limiting the number of eggs they eat. They can be encouraged to include them in a healthy diet as they are one of nature's most nutritious foods."
The British Heart Foundation dropped its three-egg-a-week limit in 2005. However, almost half of Britons believe the limit still applies.
1.From the text we know that Ace inhibitors are ________.
A. a kind of protein B. a kind of food
C. a kind of medicine D. a kind of illness
2.According to what Professor Bruce said, eggs ________.
A. are the most nutritious food
B. can be included in a healthy diet
C. have no effect on blood cholesterol
D. are forbidden to be eaten in the UK
3.We can infer from the text that ________.
A. stomach enzymes mixed with eggs can cure heart diseases
B. drugs to lower blood pressure will be replaced by eating eggs
C. most Britons agree the three-egg-a-week limit should be dropped
D. about 50% of Britons think eating an egg a day is bad for their health
4.The text is meant ________.
A. to introduce a medicine made from eggs
B. to introduce scientific findings about eggs
C. to tell people how to lower their blood pressure
D. to advise people to eat as many eggs as possible
When important events are happening around the world, most people turn to traditional media sources, such as CNN and BBC for the news. However, during the war in Iraq in 2003, many people followed the war from the point of view of an unknown Iraqi citizen who called himself "Salam Pax" (Salam Pax means peace).
Salam Pax wrote a diary about everyday life in Baghdad during the war, and posted it on his website. Pax's online diary was a kind of website known as a "blog". Blogs are online diaries, usually kept by individuals, but sometimes by companies and other groups of people. They are the fastest growing types of website on the Internet.
A blog differs from a traditional website in several ways. Most importantly, it is updated much more regularly. Many blogs are updated every day, and some are updated several times a day. Also, most blogs use special software or websites, which can help ordinary people easily set up and start writing their own blogs.
There are many different kinds of blogs. The most popular type is an online diary of links where the blog writer surfs the Internet and then posts links to sites or news articles that they find interesting, with a few comments about each one. Other types are personal diaries, where the writer talks about their life and feelings. Sometimes these blogs can be very personal.
There is another kind of blogging, called "moblogging", short for "mobile blogging".
Mobloggers use mobile phones with cameras to take photos, which are posted instantly to the Internet. The use of mobile phones in this way made the headlines in Singapore when a high school student posted a movie he had taken of a teacher shouting at another student on the Internet. Many people were shocked by what the student did, and wanted phones with cameras to be banned from schools.
Many people think that as blogs become common, news reporting will rely less on big media companies, and more on ordinary people posting news to the Internet. They think that then the news will be less like a lecture, and more like a conversation, where anyone can join in.
1.Which statement about Salam Pax was true?
A. He worked for CNN.
B. Salam Pax was not his real name.
C. He was famous as a host in BBC.
D. He used a mobile phone for his blog.
2.What is the biggest difference between blogs and traditional websites?
A. Blogs use special software.
B. Blogs contain personal information.
C. Blogs are updated much more often.
D. Blogs contain links to other websites.
3.According to the passage, in the future it is likely that ________.
A. everyone will have a blog
B. blogging technology will be banned
C. large media companies will be unnecessary
D. people will be able to learn the news from other points of view
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. The war in Iraq. B. New types of media.
C. The history of the Internet. D. The increase of using computers.
My husband hasn't stopped laughing about a funny thing that happened to me. It's funny now but it wasn't at the time.
Last Friday, after doing all the family shopping in town, I wanted a rest before catching the train, so I bought a newspaper and some chocolate and went into the station coffee shop － that was a cheap self-service place with long tables to sit at. I put my heavy bag down on the floor, put the newspaper and chocolate on the table to keep a place, and went to get a cup of coffee.
When I went back with the coffee, there was someone in the next seat. It was one of those wild-looking youngsters, with dark glasses and worn clothes, and hair colored bright red at the front. Not so unusual these days. What did surprise me was that he'd started to eat my chocolate!
Naturally, I was annoyed. However, to avoid trouble － and really I was rather uneasy about him － I just looked down at the front page of the newspaper, tasted my coffee and took a bit of chocolate. The boy looked at me closely. Then he took a second piece of my chocolate. I could hardly believe it. Still I didn't dare to start an argument. When he took a third piece, I felt more angry than uneasy. I thought, "Well, I shall have the last piece." And I got it.
The boy gave me a strange look, and then stood up. As he left he shouted out. "This woman's crazy!" Everyone stared. That was embarrassing enough, but it was worse when I finished my coffee and got ready to leave. My face went red － as red as his hair － when I realized I'd made a mistake. It wasn't my chocolate that he'd been taking. There was mine, unopened, just under my newspaper.
1.The woman telling the story ________.
A. always went shopping with her family on Fridays
B. had been very busy and needed some time to recover
C. bought some chocolate so that she could keep a place at the table
D. wanted a newspaper and some chocolate to take home to her family
2.When the woman saw the boy go on eating the chocolate, she felt ________.
A. too tired to start an argument
B. more and more angry with the boy
C. too shy to look in the boy's direction
D. more and more disappointed at losing the chocolate
3.The woman's face turned red ________.
A. because she hated being shouted at
B. because she saw everyone staring at her
C. because she realized that the boy was poor and angry
D. because she realized that she had been quite wrong about the boy
4.From the story we can see the woman ________.
A. was crazy
B. was being careless
C. often made mistakes
D. was careless and selfish
The following are three advertisements from different newspapers. Read them carefully and answer the following questions.
(China Daily, May 3) The biggest shopping center will open on May 8. Everybody with today's China Daily will get a small present that day. You are welcome.
Telephone: 38990688; Address: No. 6 Xidan Road.
(ENGLSIH NEWSPAPER, May 19) English Newspaper needs a foreign editor. He or she must have worked in China for more than 2 years. British nationality is necessary. The salary is $100,000 a year. The term is 3 years. In ten days this piece of advertisement will not be useful. Telephone: 3890666; Address: No. 6 Xinling Road.
(CHINA FOOTBALL, September 25)
Shanghai Shenhua Team——Dalian Shide Team
TIME: September 25, Sunday (15: 30)
PLACE: Hongkou Stadium
TICKET PRICE: RMB 25 yuan (for adults); RMB 15 yuan (for students)
NAME: China Football Super League
COACHES: Farinha & Valeri Nepomniatchi
1.If the customer has a China Daily of May 3, he will get a small present ________.
A. every day B. from China Daily
C. on May 8 D. on May 3
2.If an Englishman who has worked in China for 3 years comes to English Newspaper office to ask for the job in April, he will ________.
A. get the job B. not get the job
C. be a good editor D. not be useful
3.When and where will the football match be held?
A. In Dalian Shide on September 19.
B. In Hongkou Stadium on September 25.
C. In Hongkou Stadium on September 19.
D. In Shanghai Shenhua on September 25.
4.If three adults and six students want to watch the match, the tickets will cost RMB ________ yuan.
A. 165 B. 135
C. 195 D. 225
