We often hear the phrase:“You’ve a greater chance of being struck by lightning.” It is used to describe something that hasn’t got much chance of happening. However, the common saying undermines(掩盖) the very real dangers of lightning. Last Friday, at least 5 people were killed by lightning in Nepal. Lightning strikes are the second most common cause of deaths during natural disasters in the US. The first is floods. Around 400 people nationwide are struck by lightning each year, and of those73 people die. That means more people are killed by lightning than by tornadoes and hurricanes. Because lightning kills only one or two people at a time, its danger does not receive as much attention as other disasters.

So to raise awareness, the US has made June 22 to 28 National Lightning Safety Week. It aims to warn the public of the dangers of lightning and provide safety tips during thunderstorms. “If you hear thunder , you are in danger from lightning,” said Rocky Lopes, a disaster educator at the American Red Cross.“Thunder means that lightning is close enough to hit you at any minute, so you should move indoors immediately and stay there until after the storm has ended. The single most important thing to remember is to seek hiding place,”Lopes said.

Summer is the high time for lightning storms, so when lightning strikes across the sky, remember these safety tips:

Stop working, fishing, swimming or playing in open fields.

If you can count less than ten seconds between a thunder and a lightning flash, take cover inside the nearest building.

Do not stand under a tree.

Get off bicycles or motorcycles.

Crouch down(蹲下)if there is no hiding place.

Avoid open spaces, wire fences, metal objects and electrical objects such as hair driers.

 

1.The popular opinion about being struck by lightening is that 　　　.

A. there is a greater chance for being killed by lightening than any other natural disaster

B. it is the most dangerous among all the natural disasters

C. the chance for a person to be struck by lightening is very small

D. it is impossible for people to be killed by lightening

2. The average death rate of being struck by lightening in US is about 　　.

A.18%　　　　　　　B.50%　　　　　C.30%　　　　D.73%

3. Among all the safety tips, the most important one is that when you hear thunder in the open air， 　　　.

A. just stand by your bicycles and motorcycles

B. quickly find a place to go inside

C. count ten seconds between a thunder and a lightening

D. don’t have a hair drier in your hand

4. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A. There are more people killed by tornadoes and hurricanes than by lightening in US each year.

B. There are on average 5 persons killed by lightening in Nepal each day.

C. The death rate of being stuck by lightening is much higher than by other natural disasters.

D. The National Lightening Safety Week is made to warn the public against lightening.

 

 

 

This is a dangerous world we live in. The number of murders goes up every year, people are dying of cancer, more people contract HIV, more teens are using drugs, ect. You know this because you’ve heard all the statistics on the news and in the paper. But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are going up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background statistics mean very little.

This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous. For example, several years ago a high school student reported the dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors, is often found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once. After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statement is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth. The students made a mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical’s full background.

The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said. When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths. Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave our information that is different from his view. For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe. Only 32 people die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightening strikes, but which is really more dangerous? If you think more about it, you will realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people in danger of a lightning strike. When you think about it again, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at the statistics. If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another’s. to be warned is just to be prepared.

1.What’s the author’s attitude towards the growing trend of reporting only part of the___________ information?

A.sapproving   B. Positive       C. Indifferent     D. Dangerous

2.In the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest?

A.We are now living in a dangerous world.

B.We get a lot of false statistics from the media.

C.There are around us more and more murders diseases, ect.

D.Statistics alone without full background don’t give us an accurate picture of things.

3.What’s the purpose of the writer’s using the two examples in the second paragraph?

A.To argue that high school students are easily persuaded.

B. To prove what is necessary to us might be dangerous.

C.To show the danger of reporting only part of the information.

D.To warn us of the harmful substance around us.

4.Relative information is often left out because ___________________. 

A.it is not important

B.the author is trying to show what he or she says is true

C.readers will consider other important information

D.readers are able to form an opinion with half-truths

5.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Some measures must be taken to protect our dangerous world.

B.The growing trend of reporting only half-truths is getting out of control.

C.Teenagers ought to improve their ability of telling right from wrong.

D.We should learn to think critically and look at problems from all sides.

 

Australia’s Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to perform euthanasia(安乐死)—that’s to say, doctors are permitted to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die. Word that the law was passed by the vote of 15 to 10 immediately flashed on the Internet and was picked up by John, the director of the Right to Die Society of Canada, who posted it on the group’s homepage online, saying, “This isn’t merely something that happened in Australia. It’s world history.”
The NT Rights of the Terminally Ill Law has left physicians and citizens trying to deal with its moral and practical influence. Some have breathed sighs of relief; but others, including churches, right to life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the law. But the tide is unlikely to turn back. In Australia--where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part—other states are going to consider making a similar law. In the U. S. and Canada, where the right to die movement is gathering strength, observers are waiting for the dominoes (多米诺骨牌) to start falling.
Under the new Northern Territory law, an adult patient can request death--probably by a deadly injection or pill--to end suffering. The patient must be diagnosed as incurably ill by two doctors. After a "cooling off" period of seven days, the patient can sign a certificate of request. After 48 hours the wish for death can be met. For Lloyd, a 54-year-old Darwin resident suffering from lung cancer, the NT Rights of Terminally Ill Law means he can get on with living without the disturbing fear of his suffering: a terrifying death from his breathing condition. "I' m not afraid of dying from a spiritual point of view, but what I was afraid of was how I'd go, because I've watched people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen and clawing at their masks," he says.
【小题1】According to the text, which of the following statements is TURE?

A．Patients will ask their doctors for euthanasia if they are afraid of illness.

B．Australia, Canada and the US speak highly of the law of euthanasia.

C．All people in Australia don’t share the positive attitude to euthanasia

D．If a patient requests death, he should sign a certificate after 48 hours.

【小题2】The underlined sentence in Para 2, “observers are waiting for the dominoes to start falling.” means that observers are prepared to learn the news that         .

A．some other countries pass similar laws

B．Australia has to put an end to euthanasia

C．people begin to change attitudes to euthanasia

D．different effects result from the game of dominoes

【小题3】Which is NOT the reason for Australia to become the first country to pass the law of euthanasia?

A．Australia has advanced technology of extending life.

B． Australians realize suffering from a terrible disease is worse than death.

C．Australia is faced with a growing ageing population.

D．Australians find it easy to deal with the moral and practical influence.

【小题4】It can be inferred from the text that          .

A．Australia passed the law of euthanasia by the vote of 15 to 10

B．John and his group are in favor of the law of euthanasia in Australia.

C．an adult patient can request euthanasia by a deadly injection or pill

D．Lloyd has seen many people die in the hospital fighting for oxygen.

【小题5】What’s the author’s attitude to euthanasia?

A．Negative

B．Critical

C．Doubtful

D．Positive

As people slowly learn to cure diseases, control floods, prevent hunger, and stop wars, fewer people die every year. As a result, the population of the world is becoming larger. In 1925 there were about 2 billion people in the world; today there are over 6 billion.

When the number rises, extra mouths must be fed. New lands must be brought under development, or land already farmed must be made to produce more crops. In some areas the land is so over-developed that it will be difficult to make it provide more crops. In some areas the population is so large that the land is divided into too tiny units to make improvement possible with farming methods. If a large part of this farming population went into industrial work, the land might be farmed much more productively (多产地) with modern methods.

There is now a race for science, technology, and industry to keep the output of food rising faster than the number of people to be fed. New types of crops, which will grow well in bad weather, are being developed, so there are now farms beyond the Arctic Circle in Siberia and North America. Irrigation (灌溉) and dry-farming methods bring poor lands under the plough. Dams hold back the waters of great rivers, which can provide water for the fields in all seasons and provide electric power for new industries. Industrial chemistry provides fertilizer to suit different soils. Every year, some new methods are made to increase or to protect the food of the world.

1.The author says that the world population is increasing because _____.

A. there are many rich valleys and large fields

B. farmers are producing more crops than before

C. people are living longer due to better living conditions

D. new lands are being made into farmlands

2.The author says that in areas with large populations, land might be more productively farmed if _____. 

A. the land was divided into smaller pieces

B. people moved into the countryside

C. industrial methods were used in farming

D. the units of land were much larger

3.We are told that there are now farms beyond the Arctic Circle. This has been made possible by _____. 

A. growing new types of crops

B. irrigation and dry-farming means

C. providing fertilizers 

D. destroying pests and diseases

4.Why is the land divided into tiny units in some areas?

A. There are too many people living there.

B. It saves more natural resources there. 

C. It prevents crops from serious diseases there.

D. Farmers can grow various kinds of crops there.

5.Why do some people use dams to hold back waters from great rivers? 

A. To develop a new kind of dry-farming methods.        

B. To prevent crops from floods.

C. To provide water and electricity in all seasons.           

D. To water poor lands in bad weather. 

 

Back in old times, people had little knowledge about the universe and nature. Things we now consider to be common sense were mysteries to our ancestors.

Over the years, major breakthroughs have been made in science and many phenomena have been explained. But still, there are always questions we can't yet answer, and The Guardian has listed some of them.

1. What makes us human?

Just looking at your DNA won't tell you - human DNA is 99 percent identical to that of the chimpanzee and, believe it or not, 50 percent identical to a banana's! A lot of the things we once thought were unique about us - language and tool use, recognizing ourselves in the mirror and so on – have since been seen in other animals. Perhaps it's our culture that makes the difference or maybe our ability to use fire. It's also possible that our capacity (能力) for co-operation and our trading skills are what make us unique.

2. Why do we dream?

Given the fact that we spend around a third of our lives sleeping, shouldn't we know everything about it? Unfortunately, scientists are still searching for a complete explanation of what happens when we sleep and why we dream.

Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud believed dreams were the expressions of wishes that we can't fulfill in our real lives. Others have wondered whether dreams are just random "noise" coming from a sleeping brain.

3. Could we someday live forever?

Apart from accidents, most people die because of diseases that can be treated and aging. And since many diseases, such as diabetes（糖尿病） and cancer, are diseases of aging, treating aging itself could be the key to extending our lives.

Our knowledge of what causes us to age - and what allows some animals to live longer than others - is expanding rapidly. And though we haven't quite worked out all the details, we've worked out some pieces of the puzzles such as DNA damage and metabolism (新陈代谢), which are all leading to the invention of drugs that can slow down the aging process.

If we're lucky enough to lengthen our lives, we might even get to see the day when all of these questions are answered.

1.The main point of the passage is ______.

A. to inform people of the knowledge about the universe and nature

B. to introduce major breakthroughs that have been made in science

C. to present some questions we can't yet answer

D. to explain what were once mysteries to our ancestors

2.Chimpanzees and bananas are mentioned as examples to prove that ______.

A. human beings are actually not different from other animals

B. animals have completely different DNA from that of plants

C. both animals and plants share the same amount of DNA

D. DNA alone is not good enough to make humans different

3.The underlined word "identical" is closest in meaning to ______.

A. mysterious          B. unique     C. advanced             D. same

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. What were mysteries to our ancestors are considered to be common sense now.

B. Now we know much more about dreams than our ancestors did in the past.

C. With the invention of new drugs people can possibly live even longer.

D. If all the diseases can be treated people can theoretically live forever.