Using too much water or throwing rubbish into our rivers are clear ways that humans can put our water supply in danger, but we also affect our water supply in less obvious ways. You may wonder how paving(铺砌) a road can lead to less useable fresh water. A major part of the water we use every day is groundwater. Groundwater does not come from lakes or rivers. It comes from underground. The more roads and parking lots we pave, the less water can flow into the ground to become groundwater.
Human activity is not responsible for all water shortages(缺乏). Drier climates are of course more likely to have droughts(干旱) than areas with more rainfall, but in any case, good management can help to make sure there is enough water to meet our basic needs .
Thinking about the way we use water every day can make a big difference, too. In the United States, a family of four can use 1.5 tons of water a day! This shows how much we depend on water to live, but there’s a lot we can do to lower the number.
You can take steps to save water in your home. To start with, use the same glass for your drinking water all day. Wash it only once a day. Run your dishwasher only when it is full. Help your parents fix any leaks(滴水) in your home. You can even help to keep our water supply clean by recycling batteries instead of throwing them away.
1.Which of the following is most likely to lead to less groundwater?
A. Using river water. B. Throwing batteries away.
C. Paving parking lots. D. Throwing rubbish into lakes.
2.What can be inferred from the text?
A. All water shortages are due to human behavior.
B. It takes a lot of effort to meet our water needs.
C. There is much we can do to reduce family size.
D. The average family in America makes proper use of water.
3.The last paragraph is intended to ________________.
A. show us how to fix leaks at home
B. tell us how to run a dishwasher
C. prove what drinking glass is best for us
D. suggest what we do to save water at home
4.The text is mainly about _________________.
A. how human activity affects our water supply
B. how much we depend on water to live
C. why droughts occur more in dry climates
D. why paving roads reduces our water
Today most Chinese teenagers are happy to be favored by two parents and four grandparents in their families. But have you ever thought about how to take care of four to twelve old people when you grow up and get married? This could be a problem for most Chinese youths as China is entering a new stage of an aging society.
An aging society refers to one where 10 percent or more of its population is over 60. By the end of 2007, Chinese over 60 years old have made up 11.7 percent of the nation’s total population. “China is getting old before becoming rich,” said Cai Chuang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The population increase that has powered Chinese growth for three decades will give way over the next ten years to a rapid aging of the society. This will lead to weaker economic growth, because of a lack of labor resources.
As a result of the family planning policy, it is expected that the country's total working population will decrease after 2015.
China is not the only country getting old. More than 60 countries have become aging societies and one in three people in the European Union is a senior citizen.
However, experts said that China doesn't have a highly developed social security network to support the old. Social security is an insurance program protecting those in need, including the old, the disabled and others.
1.An aging society is a society that ___________.
A. less than 10% of its population is over 60
B. 10% or more of its population is over 60
C. there are four old people in a family
D. most of its population is over 60
2.If China enters an aging society, ___________.
A. there will not be enough labor resources
B. the family planning policy will be ended
C. everyone needs to take care of four to twelve old people
D. China will have a highly developed social security network
3.The passage mainly talks about ___________.
A. an aging society B. Chinese social problems
C. family planning policy D. aging problem in China
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取)to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.
In 1849, after graduation from medical school, she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.
Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children. Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital, she also set up the first medical school for women.
1.Why couldn’t Elizabeth Blackwell realize her dream of becoming a surgeon?
A. She couldn’t get admitted to medical school.
B. She decided to further her education in Paris.
C. A serious eye problem stopped her.
D. It was difficult for her to start a practice in the United States.
2.What main obstacle(障碍) almost destroyed Elizabeth’s chances for becoming for a doctor?
A. She was a woman.
B. She wrote too many letters.
C. She couldn’t graduate from medical school.
D. She couldn’t set up her hospital.
3.How many years passed between her graduation from medical school and the opening of
her hospital?
A. Eight years B. Ten years
C. Nineteen years D. Thirty-six years
4.According to the passage, all of the following are “firsts” in the life of Elizabeth Blackwell, except that she ______.
A. became the first woman physician.
B. was the first woman doctor
C. and several other women founded the first hospital for women and children
D. set up the first medical school for women
1.There are many m_________ stories aabout the Egyptian pyramids.
2.You’d better polish up the o_______ version before sending it to the publishing house.
3.The writer, k________ to us students, will finish his third book next month, which many fans are looking forward to.
4.You see, there are many s________ between our school life and theirs.
5.After having finished the draft, I’m totally b______ out.
6.The factory is in charge of removing waste p_______.
7.The job of a scientist, which is a c___________ profession, is to find out the truth in the field of science.
8.After the earthquake, she lay t _______under the building for three days.
9.The doctor c________ his terminal lung cancer.
10.The m_________ of the work has been finished.
Less is more. This is why we say: reduce things by half instead of doubling them, relax instead of stressing, and slow down instead of speeding up. Apply these principles(原则) in your everyday life. You will then find yourself well along on your journey to simplification.
Separate Your Actions
When you concentrate on one task, you find you have energy that you didn’t even know you had. Just imagine: you have to carry two heavy pigs over 100 yards. If you carry two, it will take forever. But if you tie one pig in a place, pick up the other, gather all your strength and make a dash for the finish line, pause for a moment, run back and get the other one, and carry the second pig to the finish line, then you can be sure of success.
Say “No” Firmly
If you have the feeling that 24 hours per day are not enough for all the things you need to do, then it’s not because the day has too few hours, but because you have too many activities. The solution is equally simple: say no to accept so much work in your private life or your working life.
Allow Yourself to Be Weak
“I can deal with stress” is regarded as a positive statement in the world of work. People who can deal with stress are given more and more to --- until one day they break.
Pay careful attention to the signs that tell you that you are under more stress than you can deal with. If you become ill, or your work efficiency decreases, change your life goals. Say quite openly, “I can’t manage that.”
Stop Expecting Everything to Be Perfect
“If only I were slimmer, more beautiful, richer, more clever, then I would be happier.” This is a dream that makes a lot of people ill, and unhappy. Life is imperfect. Only those who accept this reality can lead a really full life.
Of course there are activities in which errors are dangerous: driving a car; crossing the road. But life doesn’t entirely have these things. In among them there is possibility that you may make small and large mistakes.
Escape Now and Then
Successful people all have their own places where they can be left alone in order to work. Find out which places improve your creativity. For me it’s the train. When I know that I’m going to be traveling for four hours without phone calls or people knocking on my door, I find my mind is free and I can read or write articles.
| |
Theme | Less is more, which helps you 2. a simpler life. |
3. to apply | Concentrate on one task, and you will find you are more 4. than you know and achieve 5. more easily. |
6. to accept too much work in your life. | |
Change life goals if you are under more stress than you can 7.. | |
8. yourself to make mistakes since life is not perfect. 9., you will be unhappy. | |
Find out where you can be left 10. to improve your creativity. | |
Exercise may help to safeguard the mind against depression through previously unknown effects on working muscles, according to a new study involving mice.
Mental health experts have long been aware that even mild, repeated stress can contribute to the development of depression and other mood disorders in animals and people. Scientists have also known that exercise seems to cushion against depression. But precisely how exercise, a physical activity can lessen someone’s risk for depression, a mood state, has been mysterious. So for the new study, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied the brains and behavior of mice in a complicated and novel fashion.
We can’t ask mice if they are feeling cheerful or in low spirits. Instead, researchers have pictured certain behaviors that indicate depression in mice. If animals lose weight, stop seeking out a sugar solution when it’s available — because, probably, they no longer experience normal pleasures — or give up trying to escape from the cold-water zone just freeze in place, they are categorized as depressed. And in the new experiment, after five weeks of frequent but low-level stress, such as being lightly shocked, mice displayed exactly those behaviors. They became depressed.
The scientists could then have tested whether exercise blunts (延缓) the risk of developing depression after stress by having mice run first. But, frankly, from earlier research, they wanted to know how, so they bred pre-exercised mice. A wealth of earlier research by these scientists and others had shown that aerobic exercise, in both mice and people, increases the production within muscles of an enzyme (酶) called PGC-1alpha. The Karolinska scientists suspected that this enzyme somehow creates conditions within the body that protect the brain against depression. Then, the scientists exposed the animals, which without exercising, were in high levels of PGC-1alpha to five weeks of mild stress. The mice responded with slight symptoms of worry. But they did not develop depression. They continued to seek out sugar and fought to get out of the cold-water zone. Their high levels of PGC-1alpha appeared to make them depression-resistant. Finally, to ensure that these findings are relevant to people, the researchers had a group of adult volunteers complete three weeks of frequent endurance training, consisting of 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cycling or jogging. The scientists conducted muscle biopsies (活体检查) before and after the program and found that by the end of the three weeks, the volunteers’ muscle cells contained substantially more PGC-1alpha than at the study’s start. The finding of these results, in the simplest terms, is that “you reduce the risk of getting depression when you exercise,” said Maria Lindskog, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute.
1.The researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm conducted the new study hoping to know______.
A. if exercise cushions against depression
B. what can lead to depression in animals and people
C. if stress can contribute to the development of depression
D. how exercise contributes to reducing someone’s risk for depression
2.We can infer from the new experiment conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute that mice are depressed except when ______.
A. they stand still in place
B. they stop searching for the sugar water
C. they attempt to escape from the cold-water zone
D. they can’t experience normal pleasures any longer
3.Researchers asked a group of adult volunteers to complete three weeks of frequent endurance training in order to ______.
A. know if exercise can help to safeguard the mind against depression
B. know if they can endure 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cycling or jogging
C. confirm the findings above are also relevant to people
D. ensure they can lose weight after moderate cycling or jogging
4.It can be concluded from the passage that______.
A. the enzyme called PGC-1alpha helps to ease depression
B. athletes are more likely to develop depression than ordinary people
C. the mice with high levels of PGC-1alpha are easier to develop depression
D. in the past mental health specialists didn’t know exercise could help reduce depression
