Does your pet have a slim figure? According to the Association of Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP), about half of all dogs and nearly 60% of all indoor cats are overweight. Larry Kornegay, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, says he sees an overweight pet nearly every day, and unusually the owner is overweight. So talking about the topic can be touchy. “I talk about their pet’s health. Still, some clients take it personally.”

   Here are some tips for pet weight loss:

   See the vet(兽医). Have your vet put together a plan and treat any existing medical problems. Pain relief and diet changes may be required for arthritic(患关节炎的) pets, which will allow for exercise to at least begin.

   Skip the crash diet (an attempt to lose weight quickly by strictly limiting the diet). A special weight-loss diet may be suggested. For example, look for the supplement which burns fat and builds muscle mass in foods. Never place any pet on a crash diet, especially cats, which can suffer a potentially fatal liver disease as a result. There’s a safe weight-loss drug for dogs you can ask your vet about.

   Dine alone. “Cut out treats and resist temptation by keeping pets out of the room you’re dining in,” says Chicago vet Sheldon Rubin. You can buy low-calorie treats for dogs and cats. Rubin also recommends mini carrots, small apple slices or blueberries for dogs. What’s important is finding other ways, aside from food, to show your love. Play with your cat using an interactive toy, and take your dog for walks. Walks are great for bonding, and good for you. Studies show people are actually more willing to lose weight themselves if it also will help their pet.

   Feed pets at special times. Pre-measure food carefully—don’t give them a larger meal than ever—and leave it in various places, so pets sniff it out and use the stairs. It’s fun, and it’s good exercise.

1.. The underlined word “touchy” in Paragraph 1 probably means__________

A. sensitive            B. exciting           C. moving          D. pleasant

2.. What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Overweight people usually like overweight pets.

B. Pets’ weight is easier to lose than humans’.

C. Cats have a greater chance of serious liver disease.

D. Overweight people often ignore their pets’ weight.

3. Which of the following methods is healthy for your pets?

   A. Providing them with mini carrots or blueberries.

   B. Keeping them with you when you’re dining.

   C. Supplying them with larger meals or drinks.

   D. Leaving the food in a fixed place for your pets.

4.. What does the passage mainly tell us?

   A. How to feed pets without a crash diet.

   B. The importance of pet weight loss.

   C. How to help pets lose weight.

   D. The problems that pets will meet.

  With the popularity of Harry Potter novels, the number of children applying to boarding schools has risen, many of them hoping to find their own version of Hogwarts. However, others have interpreted this trend as a reaction to longer working hours and the break up of more marriages. The boarding schools of fiction are presented as one long midnight feast with pillow fights making firm friendships. However, some people say the reality is children having more homesickness and a lack of individual attention. Modern boarding schools have done much to get rid of the image of the mass dormitories with 40 or more beds in one room, some going as far as providing private rooms with bathrooms. Similarly, they make great announcements for their academic advantage, particularly in light of the increase in exams, homework and university entrance requirements facing children wishing to succeed in the modern world.

   Alongside these more conventional schools, two types of boarding schools have also become more popular recently. Sports academies and stage schools seek to cater for children with particular interests and talents, while so-called troubled-teens have been able to turn to a range of religious or wilderness schools to solve their problematic behavior.

   Boarding schools allow children a safe space in which to accomplish greater control and independence over their daily lives. Teachers and staff can look after and support but they are unlikely to be over-protective. This can be a great preparation for university or for working away from home in later life as it provides an intermediate step between childhood and full independence.

   However, Parents are a child’s most natural support and best role models to learn from. If they are separated from them for long periods of time, this may damage their relationship and leave the child feeling anxious or alone. Schools are unlikely to be able to copy the detailed knowledge of each individual child that a parent has and therefore cannot be as effective in supporting the child.

   To sum up, boarding schools have both their advantages and disadvantages, so it is up to you to decide whether to send your children to boarding schools or not.

1.. What do we know from the passage?

   A. More and more children go and visit Hogwarts on their own.

   B. Pillow fights in boarding schools make firm friendships in reality.

   C. More children want to go to boarding schools because of Harry Potter novels.

   D. There aren’t special schools for the particularly talented children.

2. What kind of schools may be the most suitable for the so-called troubled-teens?

   A. sports academies                        B. Wilderness schools

   C. Conventional schools                     D. Stage schools

3.We learn from Paragraph 4 that __________.

   A. teachers of boarding schools are the best examples for children to learn from

   B. children can be more independent if they are separated from their parents

   C. parents know their children better than teachers of boarding schools

   D. schools are much more effective than parents in supporting children

4. What is the author’s opinion of boarding schools?

   A. Neutral         B. Negative         C. Positive         D. Critical

   For about three years now, I have been writing poetry. It was not until my junior year in high school that I developed an interest, love and skill for writing poetry.

   Back in elementary school, I loved to write stories. I would write stories on post-it notes and anywhere I could. Yet when I had to write a limerick(五行打油诗) for an assignment, I could not wrap my head around poetry. I had a very hard time figuring out how to rhyme words and have the words make sense. I eventually tossed the paper with the attempted limerick in the trash. I did not try my hand at poetry again until several years later.

   Many years later in my freshman year of high school, my English teacher gave my class a poetry project as an assignment. I still remember my limerick assignment and was afraid of doing the poetry project. For the project, we had to analyze a poem and write a response to it. I chose to respond to Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice. I also wrote my own poem first. I became really excited when writing the poem.

   Two years later, I started writing poetry as a hobby and for fun. To learn how good or bad my poems were, I handed them in to some magazines and contests. I won second place in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Sherry Pruitt Award Contest with a poem called The Ocean, and had my two poems published as high merit(优等) poems. I have continued to write poetry, and have even self-published three collections of poetry in both print and e-book formats, which can be found at my store on Lulu.

   Now, I love writing poetry, but I don’t hate writing short stories. I just find it more difficult and not my style of writing, even though I still write short stories occasionally.

1.When the author was a pupil, he ___________.

   A. liked writing stories

   B. was good at writing poetry

   C. could understand poetry well

   D. was often praised by his teacher

2.When given the poetry project in high school, the author was___________.

   A. excited        B. annoyed       C. confident       D. worried

3.The author took up writing poetry as a hobby when he____________.

   A. was in Grade Three in high school

   B. worked as a storekeeper

   C. was in Grade One in high school

   D. was at college

4.How did the author increase his confidence in writing poetry?

   A. He wrote a lot of poems and asked advice from his teacher.

   B. He published three collections of poetry by himself.

   C. He submitted his poems to magazines and contests.

   D. He gave up writing stories and only wrote poetry.

Down on the beach of Dover, 56-year-old Channel swimmer Jackie Cobell bravely set off for Calais. The time was 6:40 am. 28 hours and 44 minutes later the exhausted, successful mother from Kent crawled (爬行) to the shore and walked proudly into the record books. After five years in training, Mrs Cobell became the slowest person to cross the Channel under her own steam. The previous record for the slowest crossing, set by Henry Sullivan at 26 hours and 50 minutes, has stood for 87 years before Mrs Cobell started at Dover Saturday morning.

   She had struggled through changing tides that swept her first one way, then the other. It turned the 21-mile crossing into a 65-mile one. She declared, “Time and tide wait for no man—and they certainly didn’t wait for me. I was fully expecting it to get dark before I got to Calais but I never imagined I’d also see the dawn again. But I wasn’t going to give up.”

   Her feat(壮举) raised more than $2,000 in charity sponsorship for research into Huntingdon’s disease, a sum that was continuing to grow as news of her achievement spread. That was why she did it. “I don’t really know myself,” she said. “ I just kept thinking of all the people I’d be letting down if I stopped.”

 Mrs Cobell took to the water so well at school. But after bringing up two daughters, she started to gain weight. Five years ago she took up swimming again and decided to prepare for the Channel challenge to lose weight. She became much fitter. Then came the big swim. “I practiced on Windermere lake,” she said. “it’s about half the distance of the Channel so I just doubled it, added some extra time, and worked out I could probably get to Calais in about 16 hours.”

Her husband David, trainer, official observer and friend sailed alongside her on a boat. She said, “I sang to keep myself going. When they told me I was a record breaker I thought they were just having a joke—until I realized it was the record for the slowest crossing. But maybe next time I might be a bit quicker.”

1.According to Paragraph 1, Mrs Cobell_____________.

   A. started to learn swimming five years ago

   B. arrived at Calais on late Sunday morning

   C. wanted to break the record for the slowest crossing

   D. was too exhausted to move after crossing the Channel

2. Why did Mrs Cobell spend so much time crossing the Channel?

   A. Because the tides changed her direction.

   B. Because she was not in good condition.

   C. Because she wasn’t good at swimming.

   D. Because the winds kept her from swimming fast.

3.Mrs Cobell crossed the Channel for the main purpose of____________.

   A. taking a risk

   B. losing more weight

   C. raising money for charity

   D. becoming famous worldwide

4.How did Mrs Cobell feel about the record she set?

   A. Dissatisfied        B. Excited         C. Annoyed         D. Proud

Invention is a creative process. An open and curious mind enables one to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, a new connection or relationship can spark(引发) an invention. Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different fields that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors skip over the boundaries between separate fields. Ways of thinking, materials, processes or tools from one field are used as no one else has imagined in a different field.

  Play can lead to invention. Childhood curiosity like playing in a sand box, imagination can develop one’s play nature—an inner need according to Carl Jung. Inventors feel the need to play with things that interest them, and to explore, and this internal drive brings about interesting creations.

  Inventing can also be an obsession(痴迷). Inventors often imagine a new idea, seeing it in their mind’s eye. New ideas can arise when the conscious mind turns away from the subject or problem; or when the focus is on something else; or even while relaxing or sleeping. An unusual idea may come all of a sudden! For example, after years of working to figure out the general theory of relativity, the solution came to Einstein suddenly in a dream “like a giant die making an unforgettable impress, a huge map of the universe summarized itself in one clear vision”.

  Invention can also be accidental. Insight(洞察力) is also an important element of invention. It may begin with questions or doubt. It may begin by recognizing something unusual. It may be useful and it could open a new way for exploration. For example, the odd metallic color of plastic made by accidentally adding too much catalyst(催化剂) led scientists to explore its metal-like properties(性能). They then invented electrically conductive plastic and light emitting(散发) plastic—an invention that won the Nobel Prize in 2000 and has led to new kind of lighting, display screens, wallpaper and much more.

Title:    1  

假设你是某校高三学生李华，自从进入高三以来，学校取消了高三课外体育活动课，你班同学对这一事进行了讨论。请根据下表中的提示，给《21世纪报》投稿，介绍有关情况，并谈谈你的看法。

注意：

1.  层次清晰，包含所给要点，不要简单翻译，表达连贯；

2.  可适当发挥,不要涉及具体校名等真实信息；

3.  词数：100字左右。开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。

参考词汇：课外体育活动  extra-curricular sports activities

Dear Editor,

   I’m writing to tell you about the debate on whether the extra-curricular sports activities should be cancelled. Different people have different ideas.______________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

   _______________________________________________________________________________

Best wishes!

 Yours,

                                                                    Li Hua

__________ printed, this science fiction will be popular among the students.

A. Before              B. Unless              C. Although        D. Once

Only by practising constantly__________ greater progress.

A. we can make                      B. then we will make         

C. can we make                      D. we must make

He is__________as a leader but he hasn't__________in teaching.

    A. success; many experiences                B. a success; much experience

    C. great success; an experience         D. a great success; any experiences

 This is the biggest lab__________we have ever built in our university.

A. which            B. what             C. that             D. Where