Most, if not all, Chinese have become richer thanks to 28 years of reform and opening up. But are we any happier?

　　Various surveys attempt to answer this question. Though experts have presented varying percentages based on different standards, their answers tend to find we are generally happier, and the number of optimists rises each year. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ 2006 Blue Book on social progress says 70 per cent of rural and urban citizens surveyed in 2005 reported a feeling of happiness and were optimistic about their futures.

　　But each survey shows a worrisome fact that 10 per cent, at the lowest, of citizens were not content with their lives or not hopeful about the future. We cannot be content with the fact that at least 130 million of our countrymen are not happy.

　　Although a sense of happiness remains a luxury（奢望）for many of our countrymen because of poverty, we agree wealth is not the only factor of happiness. For most of us, except the extremely rich and naturally born optimists, there simply are too many variables (可变物) that may kill the feeling of happiness. These include, but are not limited to, rising housing prices, tight and instable job market, back-breaking schooling expenses and medical bills.

The most common one, however, is a low sense of security (安全). Some experts pointed that in the low-and-middle income group there was too much uncertainty regarding employment, income, housing, medical situations, and education. How can you feel happy when you always have to prepare yourself for the unexpected?

It may be beyond the government’s reach, not to mention duty, to guarantee (保证) higher income for every citizen. But it does have a burden to create an environment where all citizens can feel a reasonable level of security.

1.From the second paragraph we learn _____________________.

2.The following factors of happiness are mentioned in the passage EXCEPT _________.

3.The underlined word “countrymen” in Paragraph 3 refers to ___________.

4. According to the passage, the author tends to hold the view that _________.

Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to electronic products that are no longer usable. This can include TVs, cell phones and computers and other office electronics, electronic toys and videos machines. Today, the average turnover（更换）rate for a computer in the United States is every two years, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The group's Dai Yun says e-waste is a global problem. "The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The high speed of growth in this industry means more and more electronic products are being wasted and thrown away. If no one decides to retrieve the old products and process them properly, the electronic waste will sweep over the earth like the huge wave behind me and pollute the Earth seriously."

Greenpeace works out that 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally each year. The components（部件）in many electronic products contain harmful chemicals that pollute ground water and the environment.

At present , the U.S. has no federal law for the disposal (处理) of e-waste although a few states have e-waste recycling programs in place, but there is no law. The U.S. exports much of its e-waste to third world countries, such as India and China, where workers took apart computers for valuable parts, hoping to sell them for money. But harmful wastes expert, Dr. Bakul Rao, says that's a dangerous practice. "From now on, the recyclers are not very educated. All they know is they can retrieve copper or gold out of it. So, the easiest way to do that is leach (过滤) it out in an acid or burn it off to retrieve it. So, that's where they don't know how to deal with it, neither do they have any health systems in place. So, their exposure is more."

What does the underlined word "retrieve" (paragraph 2) probably mean?

A. look into   B. take apart   C. get back   D. throw away

What of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A. The U.S. has strict national laws for dealing with e-waste.

B. Third world countries import e-waste to get valuable parts, which is a safe and easy way to make money.

C. The way uneducated workers deal with old computers does great harm to the environment as well as to their own health.

D. More and more electronic waste is being wasted and thrown away mainly because of people's bad habits.

What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A. To attract more people's attention to e-waste.

B. To call on people not to throw away e-waste anywhere.

C. To tell people what e-waste is and how to deal with it well.

D. To warn people to break away from the electronic industry.

The next paragraph probably concerns ___.

A. how to deal with e-waste properly

B. how to protect ourselves from harm by e-waste

C. How to slow down the development in the electronic industry

D. how to make full use of e-waste

We can begin our discussion of “population as a global issue” with what most person mean when they discuss “ the population problem”: too many people on earth and a too rapid increase in the number added each year. The facts are not in dispute. It was quite right to employ a similar matter that linked demographic(人口统计学）growth to “ a long, thin power fuse that burns steadily from time to time until it finally reaches the limit, and explodes”.

To understand the current situation, which is characterized by rapid increases in population, it is necessary to understand the history of population trends. Rapid growth is a comparatively recent phenomenon. Looking back at the 8,000 years of demographic history. We find that population have been really stable or growing very slightly for most of human history. For most of our ancestors, life was hard, often nasty, and very short. For most of human history, it was seldom the case that one in ten persons would live past forty, where infancy and childhood were especially risky periods. Often, societies were in clear danger of extinction because death rates could exceed their birth rates. Thus, the population problem throughout most of history was how to prevent extinction of the human race.

This pattern is important to know. Not only does it put the current problems of demographic growth into a historical perspective, but it suggests that the cause of rapid increase in population in recent years is not a sudden enthusiasm for more children, but an improvement in the conditions that traditionally have caused high rate of death.

Demographic history can be divided into two major periods: a time of long, slow growth which extended from about 8000B.C. till approximately 1650 A.D. And a period of rapid growth since 1650. In the first period of some 9,600 years, the population increased form some 8 million to 500 million in 1650. Between 1650 and the present, the population has increased from 500 million to more than 4 billion. And it is estimated that by the year 2020 there will be 8 billion people throughout the world. One way to appreciate this dramatic difference in such abstract numbers is to reduce the time frame to something that is more manageable. Between 8000B.C. and 1650, an average of only 50,000 persons was being added annually to the world’s population each year. At present, this number is added very six hours. The increase is about 80,000,000 persons annually.

1.According to the passage, “population as a global issue” ____.

A. is quite unlike the population problem and thus doesn’t need our concern

B. focuses on tracking down the reason of rapid population growth

C. deals with the same problem aroused by the population problem

D. will manage the population growth problem from global perspectives

2.It can be inferred from the example of a power fuse that _____.

A. too much population will one day lead to the doom of human beings

B. the trend of population growth will keep unsteady until the destruction of Earth

C. demographic growth will follow a certain pattern of ups and downs

D. it is likely in the near future that population will reduce gradually

3.What leads to a stable growth of population for most of human history?

A. Species competition??? B. Low fertility???? C. Tribal fights? D. High rate of death

4.The reason for a rapid growth of population lies in the fact that ______.

A. people are permitted to have more children???

B. people can live better than before

C. newborn babies die less than before??????????

D. we have found the secret of longevity

5.How many people are born every six hours at present, according to the author?

A. Eighty million.?? B. Eight thousand?

C. Fifty thousand?? D. Five million

Not long ago the movie 2012 came into screen．The people were threatened by those scenes of destroying flood, severe earthquake, terrifying hurricane and constructions representing human civilization being destroyed and even swallowed by disaster．Luckily, they are just the director' s imagination, but the present situation is not heading a positive direction, either．
Take my own experience in Alaska as an example．Once I took a trip to the glacier．Along the way there stood signposts marking the snow lines of different years．They started from the foot of the mountain, but it was at the top that I finally saw melting glaciers（融化的冰川）．My heart ached seeing the beautiful blue ice melting at every second．
Sad but true, they are the effects of global warming and the result of our human impact．Furthermore, each year the rising sea level will kill 56 million people, and that' s about the population of the entire Italy．According to studies, if the temperature keeps on rising like this, by the year 2050, some islands and coastal cities including New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney will be drowned in water．
Our fortune is in our own hands．It depends on us to shape our future, to reduce future human impact and find ways to form a peaceful relationship with our environment. Therefore, it's time for actions to be taken right now．Contribute a little to energy saving by using more efficient light bulbs and less hot water．Let recycle become our habit by thinking twice before throwing something away．Let us take public transportation as our first choice when going to a certain place．It might cost more time for now, but it' s to the benefit of a permanent future．Take care of every tree and grass around us by watering them or simply just avoid destroying them．
In a word, small drops of water make a big ocean． The earth does not belong to us．On the contrary, we belong to the earth． Please bear in mind that the earth is our home．It is our responsibility to build a brighter and better future of our planet and prevent what happened in the movie 2012 from becoming reality．                
【小题1】Why does the author talk about the movie 2012 in the passage ? __________.

Students who date (约会）in middle school have significantly worse study skills, are four times more likely to drop out of school and report twice as much alcohol and tobacco use than their single classmates, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

"Romantic relationships are a trademark of adolescence, but very few studies have examined how adolescents differ in the development of these relationships," said Pamela Orpinas, study author and professor in the College of Public Health and head of the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior.

Orpinas followed a group of 624 students over a seven-year period from 6th to 12th grade.

Each year, the group of students completed a survey indicating whether they had dated and reported the frequency of different behaviors, including the use of drugs and alcohol. Their teachers completed questionnaires (调查表）about the students* academic efforts. He found some students never or hardly ever reported dating from middle to high school, and these students had consistently the best study skills according to their teachers. Other students dated infrequently in middle school but increased the frequency of dating in high school.

"At all points in time, teachers rated the students who reported the lowest frequency of dating as having the best study skills and the students with the highest dating as having the worst study skills,” according to the journal article. Study skills refer to behaviors that lead to academic success such as doing work for extra credit，being well organized, finishing homework, working hard and reading assigned chapters.

"Dating a classmate may have the same emotional complications of dating a co-worker," Orpinas said, "when the couple break up. they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this could be linked to depression and divert (转移）attention from studying.”

Dating should not be considered a ceremony of growth in middle school，”Orpinas concluded.

1.When doing his study, Orpinas_____.

A．followed a group of students of 6th and 12th grade

B．completed a survey and a report each year

C．completed questionnaires about the students’ academic efforts

D．found that the students’ study skills have connection with their frequency of dating

2.Study skills may include the following behaviors and qualities Except_____

A．being diligent                          B．being well organized

C．being kind and helpful                    D．finishing assigned schoolwork

3.What can possibly happen to the school couples after they break up?

A．They don’t want to see each other any longer.

B．Their attention to studying will be affected.

C．They will miss their ex-partners sometimes

D．They will think it’s reasonable to get depressed.

4.Orpinas’attitude towards dating in middle school is_____

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