Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of areas for burying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to connect packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.
【小题1】What does the underlined phrase “that over-consumption” refer to?

A．Using too much packaging.

B．Recycling too many wastes.

C．Making more products than necessary.

D．Having more material than is needed.

【小题2】 The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.

A．the tendency of cutting household waste

B．the fact of packaging overuse

C．the rapid growth of supermarkets

D．the increase of packaging recycling

【小题3】What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A．Unpackaged products are of bad quality.

B．Supermarkets care more about packaging.

C．It is improper to judge quality by packaging.

D．Other products are better packaged than food.

【小题4】 What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Needless material is mostly recycled.

B．Fighting wastefulness is difficult.

C．People like collecting recyclable waste.

D．The author is proud of their consumer culture.

  When you have a question about something, where do you go? For many people the answer is simple as they can go online to a search engine like Google or Yahoo. But what about people in rural or underdeveloped areas who may have no way to get on the Internet?
A business and international development professor in California, Rose Shuman, found an answer for them: Question Box. Question Box is a service that provides answers---free of charge--- for people who cannot search the Internet directly. The users of Questions Box might be those who might not be able to read, or simply have no access to the Internet.
Question Box began three years ago in India. People used a metal call box with a push-to-talk button to connect a live operator. Rose Schuman explained,” You just need to push a big green button on the box which will connect you directly to our operators who are sitting in front of computers, and speak your language. You can ask them any sort of question you want, and they’ll look it up in English or in Hindi, or whatever the main language is, and translate the answer back for you.”
The service is currently offered in two villages. The latest version of the box uses mobile phone technology, and solar panels in case the electrical power fails. Rose Shuman says the aim was to make the box as easy as possible for users, “It is very efficient (效率高的). Rather than try to bring a lot of difficulties to them and expect them to spend a lot of time to learn how to use the Internet, the idea was to make a technology that even Grandma could use.”
In April 2009, Question Box was introduced to Uganda. Forty community workers with mobile phones connected villagers to call center operators in Kampala. The community workers went around telling people about the service. They wore T-shirts that said “Ask me.” But Internet service in Uganda proved slow and undependable. So Question Box teamed up with a local technology company to store information on a local server. That way, the researchers in Kampala could quickly search the database for answers.
【小题1】 The best title for the passage is __________.

A．Question Box ----taking the place of the Internet

B．Needing an answer? ----asking Question Box

C．Question Box ----A great invention in the world

D．Rose Shuman----- A professor helping the poor

【小题2】 In Rose Schuman’s opinion, the greatest advantage of Question Box is that______.

A．It is the most advanced in the world

B．It is more convenient to carry.

C．It is much easier to use

D．it saves much more energy

【小题3】The underlined word “them” in the fourth paragraph refers to______.

A．the users	B．the operators
C．the researchers	D．Question Box workers

【小题4】What can we know from the passage?

A．Question Box costs the users much less than the Internet.

B．Question Box operators can look for information in any language.

C．Question Box is more efficient in solving problems in underdeveloped areas.

D．Question Box can work without the help of the Internet in Uganda.

Sublet.com is not just for sublets (转租，分租) and subleases（转租入，转租出）! If you are searching for a place to live or just need temporary rental housing, you will find the rental you need at Sublet.com. Sublet.com is a full service rental website where landlords(房东), tenants(房客) and roommates come together to rent apartments, houses and rooms.
At sublet.com tenants can search and find every type of rental housing. Sublet.com landlords rent and sublet apartments, houses, townhouses, rooms, hotels, Bed and Breakfasts, mobile homes, vacation rentals and dormitory rooms. Sublet.com rentals and sublets meet every demand: pet friendly rentals and subleases, furnished or unfurnished rentals, short term or long term rentals, roommates, rentals and sublets for tenants with bad credit and obviously rentals for tenants with good credit. At Sublet.com tenants can search for rentals in many different ways. Search rentals by location neighborhood, by zip code(区号), by specific rental needs like doorman, pets, high speed internet, no smokers and more.
If you are a landlord and you have an apartment, house, townhouse or room to rent, post it for free at Sublet.com. Post your apartment or house for a 1 year lease, for a one week rental or even for a 1 day rental. Whatever your rental goals are, sublet.com will help by sending quality rental leads(线索). Sublet.com also offers landlords a complete tenant screening service. At Sublet.com you can conveniently run credit reports, employment reports, criminal background checks to evaluate the quality of a tenant..
Sublet.com does not share personal information. Even email addresses are not accessible to landlords or tenants. Sublet.com does not save credit card information. Sublet.com posts a TRUSTED logo(专用标识) for landlords that have been screened and checked. And tenant reviews of landlords are posted with each listing to express the quality of a rental or a landlord. Since all landlords with tenant complaints are blocked, the length of time a landlord has been posting is shown to indicate the quality of the landlord.
【小题1】At Sublet.com, _________.

A．tenants with bad credit can not find their rentals

B．tenants can not find the rentals which provide Bed and Breakfasts

C．landlords can post a flat or a room to rent without paying any money

D．landlords and tenants are informed of each other’s email addresses

【小题2】This passage is probably_________.

A．an ad for a housing rental website	B．a guide for people to rent houses
C．a direction of making rental deals	D．a collection of rental information

【小题3】People can do all the following at Sublet.com EXCEPT_________.

A．buy a well-furnished apartment

B．find a place to stay with their pets

C．evaluate the quality of a tenant

D．post their apartment or house for a short term or long term rental

【小题4】The purpose of the last paragraph is probably to_________.

A．attract more tenants

B．prove that sublet.com is the best

C．refuse people with bad credit

D．convince landlords and tenants of their privacy and security

The Golden Gate Bridge, the first sight for many people arriving in the United States by ship, is a well-recognized landmark, which spans(横跨) the Golden Gate Strait.
The idea for a bridge across the strait had been around for many years, but it was not easy to get the project started. The construction of the bridge finally began in 1933. The construction work set new standards for safety----workers were among the first required to wear hard hats, and an innovative（革新的） safety net saved the lives of nineteen men while the bridge was built. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937, which was finished ahead of schedule.
Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer in charge of the bridge project. However, he had little experience with the construction of suspension（悬浮）bridges. For this reason, other engineers, architects, and designers made great contributions to the design and construction of the bridge. For example, the bridge owes its art style and unique orange color to the architects Irving and Gertrude Morrow. Charles Alton Ellis was the main engineer on the project and did much of the technical work necessary to build the bridge.
Today, the Golden Gate Bridge has a main span of 4,200 feet and a total length of 8,981 feet, making it one of the longest bridges in the world. The bridge is 90 feet wide, and its span is 220 feet above the water. The towers supporting the huge cables (巨缆) rise 746 feet above the waters of the Golden Gate Strait, making them 191 feet taller than the Washington Monument. About 40 million cars cross the bridge every year. There are foghorns（雾角）to let passing ships know where the bridge is, and aircraft beacons（信号灯）on the tops of the towers to stop planes from crashing into them.
【小题1】The purpose of the passage is to _______.

A．describe the construction work of the Golden Gate Bridge

B．introduce the Golden Gate Bridge

C．tell us the history of the Golden Gate Bridge

D．introduce the engineers in charge of the Golden Gate Bridge

【小题2】Safety innovations during the construction of the bridge included ________.

A．hardhats and a safety net	B．aircraft beacons
C．foghorns	D．all of the above

【小题3】 It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A．Joseph Strauss was skilled in the construction of suspension bridges

B．it took the construction workers three years to build the Golden Gate Bridge

C．about 100 thousand cars cross the Golden Gate Bridge every day

D．the Golden Gate Bridge is the longest bridge in the world

【小题4】The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 4 refers to ________.

A．towers

B．cables

C．waters

D．bridges

Another food which is closely associated with Americans is apple pie．Apple pie is often served hot with a spoon of ice cream or a slice of cheese at the end of the biggest meal of the day—dinner, and it is a favorite dessert throughout the nation, if a person is typical of Americans, we can say, "He is as American as apple pie．"
It is true that the apple and apple pie do not originate in America, but the expression "as American as apple pie" is not the product of a pure imagination．As early as 1625, the English colonists, having brought orchards （果园） on this new land and in most of the colonial times, the apple was a main material of both plain and fancy cooking．The first Massachusetts governor, William Endicott, was one of many keen apple planters who helped to lay the foundations for today' s apple-growing industry in America．
A major attraction of the apple for the colonists was that it could be made into cider （苹果酒）. Like most Europeans, English colonists held a strong suspicion （怀疑） of drinking water, and since grapegrowing was hindered by plant peats, cider became an alternative to wine．Cheap and easy to produce, it was the American drink of first choice well into the nineteenth century． Whether it was dried, raw or cooked, the apple also found its way into numerous colonial dishes, including apple sauces, pudding, stuffings and many desserts．Therefore, the conclusion to be drawn here is obvious．The apple pie became known as American, not because it was invented on this land （since it was proved that Europeans had been eating apple pies for centuries）, but because, thanks to the huge orchards in the states of Washington and New York, America became the world's largest apple-producing nation．
【小题1】If a person is said to be as American as apple pie, it means that _______．

A．he always prefers apple pie as a dessert	B．his favourite pie is apple pie
C．he behaves and thinks in the American way	D．he is good at making American apple pie

【小题2】The apple can be used to make into all of the following except _______．

A．wine

B．sauces

C．pudding

D．cider

【小题3】The underlined word hindered in Paragraph 3 means．________．

A．promoted

B．prevented

C．improved

D．enlarged

【小题4】It can be concluded from the passage that_______．

A．the apple pie was first served in America

B．the English colonists developed a taste for the apple only after they, arrived at the New World

C．the expression "as American as apple pie" is a pure imagination

D．the apple pie is traditionally associated with Americans due to their large apple production

How Many Lies Do the Children Tell You?
Mothers who feel their children don’t appreciate them can add another complaint to the list: half the time, their children are lying to them. A study designed to expose the truth about lying shows that undergraduates lie to their mothers in 46% of their conversations. Still, mums should feel better than-total strangers, who are told lies an astonishing 77% of the time.
Bella DePaulo and a team of psychologists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, asked 77 undergraduates to keep a record of all their conversations for a week, and write down whether they lied at any time. DePaulo named lying broadly, as “when you intentionally try to mislead someone”, so she would catch the smallest of lies.
The students told an average of two lies a day. They said they had been studying when they had been out drinking. One told his parents that a textbook cost $50 rather than $20 so that they would send him extra money. Female students constantly told their plain-looking roommates that they were pretty. “They are everyday lies,” says DePaulo.
DePaulo and her colleagues conclude that people tend to tell fewer lies to those they feel closest to. College students lied to their best friends 28% of the time but lied to acquaintances 48% of the time. In close relationships, people were more likely to tell “kind-hearted” lies, designed to protect feelings, rather than self-serving lies.
DePaulo finds that unmarried lovers can expect less honesty than best friends because of the insecurity that comes with romance.
Mothers can take heart from one other finding. They may have been lied to, but at least their children talked to them. The students were recorded telling few lies to their fathers because they had little interaction with them.
【小题1】 Female students lied to their roommates to ________.

A．get money from them	B．offer them the services
C．gain more security	D．make them happy

【小题2】 According to the passage, college students told fewer lies to ________.

A．mothers	B．best friends
C．acquaintances	D．romantic partners

【小题3】 Which of the following statements is correct ?

A．Undergraduates lie to their mothers in 77% of their conversations.

B．Strangers become very annoyed when children tell lies to them.

C．Compared with mothers, students’ fathers are told fewer lies.

D．Best friends can expect more insecurity than unmarried lovers.

【小题4】What is the purpose of this article ?

A．To present a fact.	B．To argue an idea.
C．To tell a story.	D．To explain a theory.

One of the greatest sources of unhappiness, in my experience, is the difficulty we have in accepting things as they are.
When we see something we don’t like, we wish it could be different -- we cry out for something better. That may be human nature, or perhaps it’s something that’s ingrained（根深蒂固的）in our culture.
The root of unhappiness is that we decided we didn’t like it in the first place. We’ve judged it as bad, rather than saying, “It’s not bad or good, as it just is.”
An example: in my recent post（帖子）, A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of Mind, quite a few commentators thought my outlook was negative, pessimistic, or fatalistic（听天由命的）... because I said you should expect people to mess up, expect things to go differently from what you planned. Above all, you should embrace that.
It’s too negative to expect something to go wrong, they said. However, I think it’s only negative if you see it as negative, or if you judge it as bad.
Instead, you could accept it as the way the world works -- as the way things actually are. And try to understand why they are that way.
Does it mean you can never change things? Not at all. But changing things is not because you can’t accept things as they are, but because you enjoy the process of change of learning and growing.
Can we make this world a better place? Again, that’s an assumption that it’s a bad place fight now. But instead, you could say the world is just what it is -- and that’s neither good nor bad. You can say that you’ll continue to try to do things to help others, to grow as a person, to make a difference in this world -- not because you’re such a bad person now, but because that’s the path you choose to take, because you enjoy that path.
As you catch yourself judging, and wishing for different -- try a different approach: accept, and understand. It might lead to some interesting results.
【小题1】 Which of the following statements is correct according to the author?

A．We can never change things because we can’t accept them.

B．We shouldn’t try to do whatever we can to help others and make a difference.

C．It’s wrong of you to expect things to go differently.

D．There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

【小题2】 What’s the main idea of the whole passage?

A．The world is a good place for us to live in.

B．Unhappiness comes from what we want to be different.

C．You might as well accept the world as it is and try to embrace it.

D．Let’s make the world more beautiful.

【小题3】Where does the passage probably come from?

A．A novel.

B．A news story.

C．A travel guide.

D．A magazine.

Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of tricks each time we reach out for that particular brand（品牌）of product on the shelf.
Colouring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell. Health foods are packaged（包装）in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colours. Ice cream packets（包装） are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold or silver.
When some kind of pain-killer （止痛药） was brought out recently, researchers found that the colours turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective. Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package — blue because we think of it as safe, and white as calm.
The size of a product can attract a shopper. But quite often a bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to.
It is believed that the better-known companies spend, on average, 70 percent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!
The most successful producers know that it’s not enough to have a good product. The founder of Pears Soap, who for 25 year has used pretty little girls to promote（促销）their goods, came to the conclusion: “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius（天才） to sell it.”
【小题1】. Which of the following may trick a shopper into buying a product according to the text? 

A．The cost of its package	B．The price of the product
C．The colour of its package	D．The brand name of the product

【小题2】. The underlined part “the colours turned the customers off” (in Para.3) means that the colours ________ .

A．attracted the customers strongly	B．had weak effects on the customers
C．tricked the customers into shopping	D．caused the customers to lose interest

【小题3】. Which of the following is the key to the success in product sales?

A．The way to promote goods.	B．The team to produce a good product
C．The discovery of a genius.	D．The brand name used by successful producers.

【小题4】. Which of the following would be the best title for this text?

A．Choice of Good Products.	B．Disadvantages of Products.
C．Effect of Packaging on Shopping.	D．Brand Name and Shopping Tricks.

The first MP4 player was born years ago. Soon many music fans were wondering how fantastic it is! If you have been into technology enough, perhaps you may have a knowledge of the MP4. If not, you do need to know something before buying one, even if you are familiar with MP3. MP3 is the CD-like disc with greater capacity. How about MP4? This small digital product will really enrich the joy from listening to music. You can even feel the “touch” of music to your soul!
Now, some similar digital products advertised as “MP4 player” are simply MP3 players, which do not play video and MPEG format and also lack other particular functions. These products confuse some buyers, as they may think the “MP4” players simply mean they can do more than MP3.
What is MP4?
It is a multimedia container. It is not only used to store digital audio and digital video streams, especially those of MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and pictures. As a most modern container format, it allows streaming over the Internet.
With the help of a piece of MP4 video equipment, you can change various programs such as MPEG to MP4, ASX to MP4, AVI to MP4 and so on, which can be done very quickly and easily without any effect on the sound quality. By installing DVD-MP4 software, you can transfer particular music from a DVD to an MP4 video file. It really excites your listening music experience.
Then, there is MP4 advanced and you can set your own collection of all the programs—TV shows, games, and music. You can even see movies which are still running in cinema. What else digital product could you possibly ask for?
【小题1】. It is suggested here that you should ______ before buying an MP4 player.

A．first be a music fan	B．have a knowledge of MP4
C．get familiar with MP3	D．buy a CD-like disc

【小题2】. From the passage, we can see that MP4 is ______ MP3.

A．much bigger than	B．just as advanced as
C．not so particular as	D．more functional than

【小题3】.Which function of MP4 is NOT directly mentioned in this passage?
A.Storing digital audio and video streams.
B.Recording some movies in cinema.
C.Playing TV shows, games and movies.
D.Transferring particular music from a DVD.
【小题4】.From the last sentence, it’s clear that the writer tries to tell us it is ______.

A．reasonable to buy other digital products

B．impossible to buy something else

C．a very wise choice to buy an MP4

D．an exciting experience to buy an MP3

Are you interested in country music? I like it very much! It will take me away for a while after I am tired .The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields.
Country music usually talks of everyday life and feelings. It’s the spirit of America, easy to understand, slow and simple.
Country music developed in the Southern United States. It was the folk music of American countryside. Many of songs tell about the lives of famers .They talk about love, crops or death.
The life of the countryside can be hard, so the words in country music are often sad. At first, people played the music only at family parties. But it became more popular later. In the 1920s, people played country songs on the radio, and they made them into records.
When people in the countryside moved to towns and cities to look for work, they took their music with them. Country music continued to change and became popular across America.
John Denver was one of America’s most famous country singers in the 1970s.His song “Take Me home, Country Roads” is well-known and people still play it today.
【小题1】Country music is usually about _______.

A．everyday life and feelings

B．farmers’ feelings

C．the lives of workers

D．the lives of farmers

【小题2】People began to make country song records _______.

A．in the 1920s	B．in 1920
C．in the 1970s	D．in 1970

【小题3】 Why did Country music become popular in America?

A．Because city people liked the music.
B．Because farmers moved to cities with their music and it continued to change.	C．Because country music talked about city people’s lives.
D．Because country music developed in the Southern Africa

【小题4】Who is famous for the song “Take Me Home, Country Roads”?

A．A farmer in the countryside.

B．A person who moved to towns

C．John Denver.

D．John Denver’s brother