A small town in southwest Britain is banning(禁止) plastic bags in an attempt to help the environment and cut waste－a step that environmentalists believe is a first for Europe.

       Shopkeepers in Modbury population 1,500, agreed to stop handing out disposable plastic bags to customers on Saturday. They said paper sacks and cloth carrier bags would be offered instead.

       Last month, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags. Internationally, Laws to discourage the use of plastic bags have been passed in parts of South Africa and Ireland, where government either tax shoppers who use them or fine companies that hand them out. Bangladesh already bans them, and so do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.

       Modbury, about 225 miles southwest of London, has also declared a bag amnesty(宽限期), allowing local people to hand in plastic bags that have piled up at home. They will be sent for a recveling.

       The Modbury ban was the idea of Rebecca Hosking, who saw the effect of bags on manne life while working in the Pacific as a wildlife camerawoman. She said response(反应) in the town so far had been “really positive”.

       “Modbury is quite an old-fashioned town and a lot of people have wicker baskets to go out shopping anyway,” Hosking told Sky News Television.

The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research agency, states that 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the United States alone. More than 500 billion are used yearly around the world.

1. What was Rebecca Hosking?

A. A lawyer.                                                            B. An environmentalist.        

C. A sailor.                                                              D. A photographer.

2. The underlined word “disposable” in the passage probably means        .

A. acceptable                B. valuable                           C. throw-away              D. long-lasting

3. It can be inferred from the passage that         .

A. most of the people in Modbury continue to use plastic bags

B. fewer and fewer plastic bags will be used in the world.

C. San Francisco is the first city to ban plastic bags in the world

D. most countries in the world have passed laws to ban plastic bags

4. Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A. Environmental Protection                                    

B. Big Cities Banning Plastic Bags

C. Effect of Plastic Fags on Sea Animals                   

D. British Town Banning Plastic Bags

More than one million children in the United States do not go to school. Instead, they learn at home. Most often, their parents are their teachers. Educational companies, libraries and the Internet provide many families with teaching materials.

    Parents choose home schooling for several reasons. Some choose it because of their religious beliefs. Others say it provides more time for the family to be together. They say the home offers a better place for learning. Some parents believe home schooling avoids learning. Some parents believe home schooling avoids problems of national schools. Critics, however, say children need to attend school with other children.

    All fifty American states and the District of Columbia permit home schooling. Some states do not require much preparation by parents or testing of children. Other states have more requirements for home schooling. Home schooling in the United States began when the country was established. In farm areas, people often lived far from a school. Widespread home schooling took place until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, in 1852, the state of Massachusetts passed the first law requiring children to attend school.

    Over the years, the American public education system strengthened and grew. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, some Americans believed that traditional education was not helping their children. So a number of parents began home schooling.

    Home schooling expert Linda Dobson says many people have helped the movement grow. She says many kinds of people have joined the movement. These include rich people and poor people. They represent many races, religions and political beliefs. Ms. Dobson says the number of home-schooled children has increased an estimated fifteen to twenty percent each year during the last fifteen years.

Teaching materials for home schooling do NOT come from _______.

   A. parents                                  B. libraries       

C. the Internet                            D. educational companies

Which of the following is one of the reasons why parents choose home schooling?

A. it makes parents and their children have less time together.

  B. Some people have different religious beliefs from the others.

   C. It can’t provide a comfortable place for children to be in.

   D. There are too many students in a home classroom.

Home schooling was started in ________.

   A. the 1960s                 B. the 1970s       C. the 1850s          D. the 1776

Home schooling in the United States now is __________.

   A. facing many difficulties             B. struggling

   C. growing fast                      D. decreasing in large numbers 

阅读下列短文，根据以下提示：1）汉语提示，2）首字母提示，3）语境提示，在每个空格内填入一个适当的英语单词，并将该词完整地写在右边相对应的横线上。所填单词要求意义准确，拼写正确。

   Body language is used by people for sending messages to one another. In many

countries in the world, people k____ each other when they meet.    101.______

In Britain, people usually shake________ when they meet some one 102.______

for the first time. They are not comfortable touching______(陌生人) 103.______

French people kiss each other ______ and goodbye on the        104._______

______(脸颊)more often than the British people. People from     105._______

Arabian countries stand ______ than people from Britain         106._______

when they are talking. They might move very close to you

as you i_______ yourself to them. Body language              107._______

is very_______(广泛的) and not all members of a culture        108._______

b_______the same way. Using body language in a correct way    109._______

will help you to better c_________ with other people.           110._______