A growing number of workers at Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and other employers are trading in their sit-down desks for standing ones, saying they feel more comfortable and energized. They also are motivated by medical reports saying that sitting for too long leads to increased health risks.
A standing desk sits high off the floor so a worker can either stand at it or sit on a high stool to use it. Officials at Palo Alto-based Facebook say a number of employees asked about standing desks after news articles were published about the health risks of sitting all day.
The stories cited medical studies that tied excessive sitting to increased obesity and other health problems because of factors including a drop in physical activity. A 2010 study by the American Cancer Society found that women who sat more than six hours a day were 37% more likely to die prematurely than women who sat for less than three hours, while the early-death rate for men was 18% higher. The American College of Cardiology released a study in January that found increased mortality (死亡率) among people who sat longer at home than those who didn't.
No one seems to compile statistics on the standing-desk trend. But anecdotal reports suggest Silicon Valley is embracing the movement.
Facebook officials say they have seen an upsurge in requests for standing desks to five to eight a week with a total of between 200 and 250 deployed (配置) at the company of more than 2,000 employees. Facebook also is trying out a treadmill station ─ where a worker can walk or run on a treadmill while tapping at a computer.
Google spokesman Jordan Newman said that 'many employees at Google opt for standing desks, and we offer them as part of our wellness program' though he said he didn't know the exact number.
Greg Hoy, 39 years old, asked for a standing desk shortly after joining Facebook seven months ago as a design recruiter. 'I don't get the 3 o'clock slump anymore,' he said. 'I feel active all day long.'
【小题1】The underlined word “motivated” in paragraph 1 can be replaced by          .

A．frightened

B．inspired

C．missed

D．discouraged

【小题2】According to paragraph 3, we can know that          .

A．a drop in physical activity was the only reason why excessive sitting caused increased obesity.

B．women who sat longer were more likely to die prematurely according to a 2010 study by American College of Cardiology

C．according to the study, the early-death rate for men was 18% higher than that for women.

D．the mortality among people who didn’t sat long at home was lower than that among people who did.

【小题3】According to paragraph 5, which of the following statements is true about a treadmill station          ?

A．is a computer that a worker can take along when he walks or runs

B．has been tried out by Facebook and now is very popular with other companies

C．is a place where workers can exercise while working.

D．is a treadmill on which workers can run or walk only after work

【小题4】The passage mainly talks about          .

A．sitting for too long leads to increased health risks

B．standing desks have replaced sit-down ones in Facebook Inc.

C．more and more workers choose standing desks instead of sit-down ones

D．many employees at Google opt for standing desks

A recent report on online education, made by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a serious academic (学术的) title, but a most interesting conclusion: “ Students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

The report examined the research on online and traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the studies were in colleges and adult continuing education programs.

Over the 12 years, the report found 99 studies in which there were comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The result of the Department of Education’ s research showed that usually, students doing some or all of the course online would rank a little higher than the classroom students with little but meaningful difference.

“The importance of the study lies in showing that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than traditional instruction.” said Barbara Means, the study’ s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

This hardly means that we’ll be saying goodbye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to develop sharply over the next few years.

Until fairly recently, online education totaled to little. That has really changed with the arrival of webbased video, instant (即时的) messaging and teamwork tools.

The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more suitable for individual (个体的) students than is possible in classrooms. That allows more “learning by doing,” which many students find more attractive and useful.

“We are at a turning point in online education,” said Philip R. Regier, the leader of Arizona State University’ s Online and Extended Campus program.

The biggest near-term growth, Mr. Regier predicts, will be in continuing education programs.

1.What do we know from the passage?

A．Most of the studies were done in high schools.

B．The report was based on more than 100 studies.

C．The studies were carried out for more than 20 years.

D．The difference between online and traditional teaching is not big.

2.We can learn from the passage that __________.

A．traditional education will come to an end

B．traditional education is not popular any longer

C．online education didn’ t develop rapidly until recently

D．middle schools are facing the choice between online and traditional teaching

3.Which is NOT the reason why many students prefer online learning?

A．Online teaching is more suitable for individuals.

B．Classroom teaching is not practical and useful.

C．Students can learn by doing in online courses.

D．Online teaching is more interesting.

4.Which do you think is the best title for the passage?

A．Study finds that online education beats the classroom

B．Why is online education on the rise?

C．A report on online education

D．Classroom teaching is out

 

C

Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together, they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: international competitions encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred（憎恨）. There is probably some truth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sport encourages international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident including the murder of athletes, but the Games were also ruined by incidents caused mainly by smaller national contests.

    One country received its second-place medals with visible anger after the hockey(曲棍球) final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the losers objecting to the final decisions. They were sure that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair. Their manager was in great anger when he said, “This wasn’t hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished.” The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension（停赛） of the team for at least three years.

Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for the love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals, or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that

encourages  aggressive patriotism(爱国主义).

36. According to the author, recently the Olympic Games have ______.

    A. created goodwill between the nations   

    B. brought about only false national pride

    C. hardly showed any international friendship

    D. put an end to misunderstanding and hatred

37. The underlined word “disallowed”(in Paragraph 2) means “______”.

    A. permitted to pass     

    B. considered as reasonable

    C. won by the other side        

    D. refused to accept

38. What did the manager mean by saying, “Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished”?

    A. His team would no longer take part in international games.

    B. Hockey and the Federation are both ruined by the unfair decisions.

    C. There should be no more Hockey matches organized by the Federation.

    D. The Federation should break up.

39. The author gives the example in paragraph 2 to show ______.

    A. how false national pride led to undesirable incidents in international games

    B. that sportsmen are often against the final decisions

    C. that competitiveness in the games discourages international friendship

    D. that unfair decisions are common in the Olympic Games

40. What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?

    A. The organization of the Olympic Games must be improved.

    B. Athletes should compete as individuals in the Olympic  Games.

    C. A game should be played competitively rather than for the love of the game.

    D. More and more athletes will compete for their own honor.

A Chinese couple tried to name their baby“@”，saying the character best represents their love for the child, according to an official trying to whip the national language into shape. The unusual name stands out especially in Mandarin（普通话），which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke（多笔画的）characters to represent words. “The whole world uses it to write emails, and translated into Chinese it meanshe A. None               ‘love him’”, the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the

State Language Commission Li Yuming.

While the @ symbol is familiar to Chinese email users,they often use the English word “at” to sound it out. With a drawn-out “t”, this sounds something like “ai ta”, or “love him”, to Mandarin speakers. Li says the name is an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Mandarin, as commercialization and the Internet break down conventions（习俗）.

Another couple tried to give their child a name that in English sounds like “King Osrina”.

Li did not say if officials accepted the“＠”name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals and foreign languages. Sixty million Chinese face the problem that their names use ancient characters so uncommon that computers cannot recognize them and even fluent speakers are left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript on the government website. One of them is the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name has a rare “rong” character that gives newspaper editors headaches.

56. Why did the Chinese couple try to name their baby“@”？

  A. Because they wanted their baby to have a special narne．

  B. Because they wanted their baby to haw an international name.

  C. Because the @ symbol is familiar to email users all over the world.

  D. Because die＠symbol sounds something  like “ai ta”,which means “love him” in Chinese.

57. It can be inferred that       .

  A. Li Yuming is in favor of the baby's name

  B. many Chinese people use Arabic numerals in their names

  C. a majority of the Chinese people are having longer names

  D. there is little possibility for the“@”name to be officially accepted

58. The underlined part in the passage probably means“       ”.

  A. even native speakers find it hard to accept these strange names

  B. even native speakers can't find these characters in their computers

  C. even those who are expert at Chinese can't recognize these characters

  D. even those who are expert at Chinese find it hard to accept these names

A man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspapers. “Last week,” said he, “my umbrella was stolen from a London church. As it was a present, I spent twice its worth in advertising ,but didn’t get it back ”

 “How did you write your advertisement ?”asked one of the listeners ,a merchant .

“Here it is,” said the man ,taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper. The other man took it and read, “Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening a black silk umbrella .The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No 10 Broad Street .”

“Now ,”said the merchant, “I often advertise ,and find that it pays me well .But by the way in which an advertisement is expressed is of extreme importance .let us try your umbrella again ,and if it fails ,I will buy you a new one. ”

The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote :“If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesn’t wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No. 10 Broad Street .He is well known .”

This appeared in the paper ,and on the following morning ,the man was astonished when he opened the front door. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colors that had been thrown in and his own was among the number. Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser not to say anything about the matter

This is a story about ________.           

       A．how a man lost and found his umbrella.

       B．how to make an effective advertisement.

       C．how to find lost things.

       D．how to put an advertisement in the newspaper.

“If it fails, I will buy you a new one ” suggested that _______.

       A．he was rich enough to afford an umbrella

      B．he was not sure he would get the umbrella back

      C．he was quite sure of his success .

      D．he was ready to help others .

The result of the first advertisement was that ________.

      A．the man got his umbrella back .

      B．the man wasted some money advertising .

      C．the man found his umbrella   

      D．someone found his umbrella .

According to the first advertisement ,anyone who ___would receive ten shillings.

      A．left the umbrella in the City Church                    

      B．found the umbrella at No. 10 Broad Street

      C．gave the message to the man

      D．left the umbrella at No. 10 Broad Street