British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow. in soil con??taining salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive farms once more.

Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo, from Sussex University’s School of Biological Sciences,. have spent several years researching how crops, such as rice, could be made to grow in water that has become salty. The pairs have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology and Bio??logical Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty condi??tions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops, starting with rice.

It is estimated that each year more than 10 million hectares (公顷) of agricultural land are lost because salt gets into the soil and stunts(防碍生长) plants. The problem is caused by several factors. In the tropics, mangroves that create swamps (沼泽) and traditionally formed barriers to sea water have been cut down. In the Mediterranean, a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop, allowing sea water to seep (渗透) in. In Latin America, irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated by the heat, leaving, salt deposits behind.

Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally. Heavy concentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.

To overcome these problems. Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants’ growth. They have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop, but it will take about eight harvests before the resul??ting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.

Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known, Flowers and Yeo will try to breed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants. Land that has been abandoned to nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food for the poorer countries of the world.

4. Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true?

A. They are students at Sussex University.  B. They are rice breeders.

5. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the problem discussed in the passage?

A. Natural barriers to sea water have been destroyed.

B. The water table has gone down after droughts.

C. Sea level has been continuously rising.

D. Evaporation of water leaves salt behind.

6. The word "affect" in Paragraph 5 could be best replaced by________.

A. influence                B. effect                 C. stop                     D. present

7. The attitude of the author towards the research project is________.

A. positive                 B. negative             C. suspicious             D. indifferent

I like these English songs and they ________many times on the radio.

A. taught         B. have taught         C. are taught        D. have been taught

These pictures will show you ________.

1. A.
   what does our hometown look like
2. B.
   what our hometown looks like
3. C.
   how does our hometown look like.
4. D.
   how our hometown looks like.

Finding summer jobs for teenagers has not always been easy, but now you no longer have to worry about what your kid can do to earn their own money. Recently I found some different sites online that offer information about what kids can do. Below is some of that information, along with questions to think about to help you come up with your own ideas.

Ideas for summer work:

● Parks and Recreation Programs.

● Babysitting (当临时保姆) during the day of school.

● Working part-time at a day care for the summer.

● Car washing.

● Working at local vegetable stands.

The easiest way for you to find ways for your child to make money is to think about others’ inconveniences (不方便). Think of things you need done, or would like to have done, and what you would consider paying for these things to get done. Once you have some ideas, you can sit down with your child and talk to them about what they would be interested in doing. Then once you have an idea of what they want to do you can help them come up with fair prices.

Preferably you would want to only have your child working with people you know and trust, or in the least bit you could have your child pick a partner. That way with each of them carrying cell phones, even those without service can call 911, they will be much safer.

       You can find out more information and many more ideas for kids to use to make money during their summer holidays by visiting http://www.kidswantmoney.com.

The author wrote the passage to _____.

A. share his discoveries online        B. introduce jobs for teenagers

C. advertise a website for teenagers    D. talk about his summer work experience

Which of the following is NOT considered when teenagers look for summer jobs?

A. Who they’d better work for.       B. How much should be charged.

C. Whether the jobs are safe.         D. Where the workplace is.

What can we learn about http://www.kidswant-money.com?

A. The author set up the website.

B. It gives information about educating children.

C. People need to pay to visit the website.

D. It offers ideas for children to make money. 

If you know exactly what you want, the best way to get a job is to get specialized training. A recent report shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training.

That’s especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers. At Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor's degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high to low and plenty of chances for rapid advancement. Large companies especially like a background of formal education coupled with work experience. But in the long run, too much specialization does not pay off. Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval. The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the impact of a degree washes out after five years.

As further evidence of the erosion of corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State’s Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices. Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management. This sounds like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts(文科) graduate. Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems. David Birch, manager of the Boston Red Sox, says that he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree. “I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things,” says Birch.

For a liberal – arts degree, students focus on some basic courses that include literature history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior and a computer course or two. With these useful and important courses, you can feel free to specialize, “A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace,” says Scheetz.

The job market is in great need of people with          .

A. special training in special fields       B. a bachelor’s degree in education

C. formal schooling and work experience     D. an MBA degree from top universities

The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 means         .

A. an MBA degree does not help in future promotion

B. MBA programs will not be as popular as they are now

C. people will not forget the degree the MBA graduates have got

D. most MBA programs fail to provide students with a foundation

David Birch says that he only hires liberal – arts people because          .

A. they will follow others’ ways of solving problems

B. they can do better in bundling changing situations

C. they are well trained in a variety of specialized fields

D. they have attended special programs in management

The author supports the idea that          .

A. on – the – job training is less costly in the long run

B. formal schooling is less important than job training

C. specialists are more expensive to hire than generalists

D. generalists will do better than specialists in management