Old-fashioned carpooling (拼车) where a group of people take turns driving each other to work has always faced a resistance. In a study by ABC News, 84％of those who drive to work say that they still do it alone. 1. For example, sometimes they simply cannot find anyone to share a ride with.
2. NuRide, a company providing online carpooling service, offers daily travelers not just a web-based list of would-be carpoolers but also a way to arrange a trip online. Here’s how it works: rider seekers enter the positions where their trip will begin and end, the time they want to leave and if they’re willing to drive or just ride in someone else’s car. The website’s search engine then looks for matches and makes lists of the names of traveling companions, along with the car model and the exact time and place to meet for each trip. 3. Then they meet their car mates when it’s time to go.
4. They are required to provide the name of their employer and a work e-mail address. Both need to be checked before being listed on the website.
So far, NuRide has arranged more man 50,000 rides on the website. 5.
A. NuRide users aren’t riding with total strangers.
B. It has resulted in 1.4 million fewer miles driven.
C. They insisted that carpooling is just too inconvenient.
D. Now technology makes carpooling easier and more fun.
E. It is an environmentally friendly and economical way to travel.
F. Carpooling reduces travel cost, such as fuel cost and stress of driving.
G. People who want to share the ride can show their interest in joining in online.
Alaska’s state fair, which runs until September 5th, began as a celebration among residents of the Mantanuska Colony, a project under which 200 farm families were moved to Alaska to see whether agriculture could be possible in the coldest state. The state fair lives on, but little more than a decade after the start of the project most of the participants had abandoned their farms. The project was widely seen as a flop.
In this state, glaciers cover 300 times more acres than farms. Only 5% of the food consumed is grown locally, compared with 81% nationwide. The growing season is short and summer temperatures chilly. Tomato plants wither(凋谢). Fruit trees, in most parts of the state, are just a dream.
Enter the high tunnel: a greenhouse consisting of a metal frame with plastic stretched across it. Its few millimeters of plastic separate crops inside from the great outdoors. But this is enough for Alaskan growers to produce tomatoes as well as sweetcorn, peaches and kiwi fruit, and to boost production of crops by a quarter or more.
In a place where no one blinks(眨眼) if you call yourself a fisherman, boat captain or gold miner, an increasing number of Alaskans are thinking of themselves as people who grow food. Since the start of the programme, the number of farms registered(登记)with the state has nearly doubled. Local restaurants have begun shaping their menus around what neighboring farms can grow.
Eight decades ago, the Mantanuska Colony tried to turn farmers into Alaskans. Today, the high tunnels are turning Alaskans into farmers.
1.Which can replace the underlined word “flop” in Paragraph 1?
A. failure B. surprise
C. worry D. problem
2.How did the Matanuska project try to help Alaska’s agriculture?
A. By planting trees.
B. By moving farmers.
C. By building high tunnels.
D. By holding nationwide fairs.
3.What can we infer about Alaska today?
A. Few people are needed for farming.
B. Fishing industries are being ignored.
C. Locally-grown tomatoes are on menus.
D. Most agricultural fields are abandoned.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. Alaska’s new residential programme.
B. Alaska as a chilly and barren state.
C. A dream realized in Alaska.
D. Food sources of Alaska.
A crisis is on the way. Global warming? The world economy? No, the decline of reading. People are just not doing it anymore, especially the young. Who’s responsible? What is responsible? The Internet, of course, and everything that comes with it—Facebook, Twitter, etc.
There’s been a warning about the coming death of literate civilization for a long time. In the 20th century, first it was the movies, then radio, then television that seemed to end the written world. None did. Reading survived; In fact, it not only survived, but it has developed better. The world is more literate than ever before — there are more and more readers and more and more books.
The fact that we often get our reading material online today is not something we should worry over. The electronic and digital revolution of the last two decades has arguably shown the way forward for reading and for writing. Interconnectivity allows for the possibility of a reading experience that was barely imaginable before. Where traditional books had to make do with photographs and illustrations(插图), an e-book can provide readers with an unlimited number of links：to texts, pictures, and videos.
On the other hand, there is the danger of trivialization(碎片化).One Twitter group is offering its followers single-sentence-long“digests”of the great novels. War and Peace in a sentence? You must be joking. We should fear the fragmentation(碎片)of reading. There is the danger that the high-speed connectivity of the Internet will reduce our attention span(时间)—that we will be incapable of reading anything of length or which requires deep concentration.
In such a fast-changing world, in which reality seems to be remade each day, we need the ability to focus and understand what is happening to us. This has always been the function of literature and we should be careful not to let it disappear. Our society needs to be able to imagine the possibility of someone entirely in pace with modern technology but able to make sense of a dynamic, confusing world.
1.In Paragraph 2,we can learn .
A. the disappearance of traditional books
B. the development of human civilization
C. the historical challenges for reading
D. the birth of pioneering e-books
2.According to the passage, the advantage of e-books is .
A. 1imited link
B. imaginative design
C. low cost
D. varied contents
3.How does the author feel towards single-sentence-long novels?
A. Doubtful B. Worried
C. Shocked D. Hopeful
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Technology is an opportunity and a challenge for traditional reading.
B. Technology pushes the way forward for reading and writing.
C. Interconnectivity is a feature of new reading experience.
D. Technology offers a greater variety of reading practice.
I had been in the city for some time and was coming home. I missed my boat and decided to travel on an old ship. I knew that it would not be a comfortable journey but I had no time to wait for another boat.
Hardly had we left the port when I saw the dog Gulliver, the captain’s favourite dog, for the first time. What a big dog it was! I had never seen one that could frighten me so much!
On the third day the ship caught fire. Nobody tried to put it out. The ship began sinking and all the men rushed to the life-boats. I saw no chance of getting away in a boat. Suddenly I remembered there was a life-raft on the ship. I had no time to lose, so I immediately rushed towards the raft and pushed it overboard.
In jumping down onto the raft I hurt myself badly and was unconscious for some time. When I came to, I found there was no sign of a life-boat. Every man who had been on board the ship must have gone down with her. I was the only one who was saved.
The I saw Gulliver was coming fast towards the raft. He struggled a long time before he managed to get onto it. I wanted to push him back into the water but did not dare to move. The dog shook himself, went to the other end of the raft and lay down. I didn’t dare to sleep that night. I must watch him. In the moonlight I could see his eyes were open. He was watching, too.
1.In what situation did the author first meet the dog?
A. Upon leaving the port
B. While travelling in the city.
C. While waiting for the boat.
D. Upon getting onto the ship.
2.What did the author manage to do when the ship was going down?
A. Put out the fire
B. Board a life boat.
C. Jump into the water.
D. Get away with a raft.
3.What is implied about the dog in the last Paragraph?
A. It was unfriendly
B. It had a good sleep.
C. It feared the author
D. It enjoyed the moon.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Rescuing a Dog
B. Caught in a Fire
C. A Sleepless Night
D. A Narrow Escape
Zero Waste Awards
Who should enter?
Entries(参赛作品) are welcomed from anyone who processes waste. While we expect
most entries to come from the UK, we welcome international entries, too. Entrants have been split into the following groups: private sector, public sector, community sector and partnerships.
What are the categories?
There’re five categories which are based on the Waste Hierarchy(层级). We appreciate that companies will have different strengths within those categories as they work towards Zero Waste. The broad categories are: waste prevention, re-use, recycle/recover, energy recovery, general.
How do I enter?
Submitting an entry is really easy! Just follow these few simple steps:
1. Carefully read through the category information;
2. Write your entry--it should be a maximum of 1,500 words and a word document;
3.Arrange your supporting material into a single document--maximum six pages long;
4.Complete the simple online entry form.
Important dates
While entries are welcomed all year round, these are key dates—this is to give the judges plenty of time to read through all the entries! These are listed in entry deadlines column below. Don’t worry if you have just missed one of the entry deadlines, your submission will be automatically entered into the next session.
Entry deadlines | Judging dates | Awards presentation dates |
1st March | 12th March | 4th April |
1st June | 12th June | 4th July |
1st Sept. | 12th Sept. | 4th Oct. |
1st Dec. | 12th Dec. | 4th Jan. |
*You can submit a maximum of two entries per year—six months apart.
Awards
We understand that working towards Zero Waste is an ongoing journey and as such the
Zero Waste Awards scheme offers organizations a structure to celebrate their progress along the way. The four awards are: Gold (76-100), Silver (51-75), Bronze (26-50), Highly Commended(0-25).
1.What should you know about your entry when you submit?
A. It should be at least 1,500 words.
B. It must go with filling in an online entry form.
C. It had better not be shorter than six pages.
D. It can be handed in shortly after your previous submission.
2.If you submit an entry on March 4th, it will be judged on _______.
A. March 12th B. April 4th
C. June 12th D. June 1st
3.What is the author’s purpose of writing the text?
A. To report the development of Zero Waste.
B. To introduce Zero Waste Awards in detail.
C. To advocate people to join in the recycling movement.
D. To tell people working at Zero Waste is really difficult.
假如你是李华，想邀请你的外教Andre一起参加学校教师节庆祝会。请给他写封邮件，内容包括：
1.时间和地点；
2.庆祝会内容。
注意：
1.词数 100 左右；
2.词汇：国际化 internationalization；
3.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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