This is time of year when we think about giving and receiving presents. Can you find a little extra to give? On this page we suggest a few organizations you might like to help.

       Littleton Children’s Home

       We don’t want your money, but children’s toys, books and clothes in good condition would be very welcome.

       Also—we are looking for friendly families who would take our children into their homes for a few hours or days as guests. You have so much—will you share it?

       Phone Sister Thomas on 55671.

       Children’s Hospice

       We look after a small number of very sick children. This important work needs skill and love. We cannot continue without gifts of money to pay for more nursing staff. We also need story books and toys suitable for quiet games.

       Please contact The Secretary, Little Children’s Hospice, Newby Road.w.^w.k.s.5*u.c.#o@m

       Street Food

       In the winter weather, it’s no fun being homeless. It’s even worse if you’re hungry. We give hot food to at least fifty people every night. It’s hard work, but necessary. Can you come and help? If not, can you find a little money? We use a very old kitchen, and we urgently need some new saucepans. Money for new ones would be most welcome indeed.

       Contact Street Food, c/o Mary’s House, Elming Way, Littleton. Phone 27713.

       Littleton Youth Club

       Have you got an unwanted chair?—a record player?—a pot of paint?

       Because we can use them!

       We want to get to work on our meeting room!

       Please phone 66231 and we’ll be happy to collect anything you can give us.

       Thank you!

       The Night Shelter

       We offer a warm bed for the night to anyone who has nowhere to go. We rent the former Commercial Hotel on Green Street. Although it is not expensive, we never seem to have quite enough money. Can you let us have a few pounds? Any amount, however small, will be such a help.

       Send it to us at 15, Green St, Littleton. Please make check payable to Night Shelter.

Reading the passage, you might like to help these organizations which work for     

       A．homeless and sick children    

       B．less fortunate members of our society   

       C．hungry people who have no beds to sleep in 

       D．friendly members of our society to help others

If you like children and can offer a happy family to a homeless child, you may go to      .

A．Street Food  B．Night Shelter     C．Children’s Home   D．Children’s Hospice

We can infer that       .

       A．there are too many social problems in this country      

       B．people are very poor during the time for giving presents     

       C．warm-hearted people like to give away money     

       D．this passage is taken from a local newspaper

If your child has grown up, you may take the child’s things to        .         

       A．Children’s Home and Children’s Hospice  B．Youth Club and Children’s Home     

       C．Children’s Hospice and Night Shelter     D．Youth Club and Night Shelter

A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh.2011. Japan's Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami（海啸） warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

There are more than four thousand Seismic Intensity Meters in place throughout Japan to measure earthquake activity. These meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening. Information about the strength and the center of the earthquake can be learned within three minutes.

There are also concrete(混凝土) sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Costas Synolakis ，a tsunami expert at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles said，"Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not expected the size of this event."

He says there are two reasons for this. Japan has not had any event anywhere near as big as this one in the last one hundred fifty years. And scientists had not expected such a large earthquake happening off the coast of Japan.

The nine point zero magnitude earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst earthquake ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves that followed were reported to have reached as high as thirteen meters in some areas.

Costas Synolakis says Japan's concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves.

Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted

Where can this passage probably be adapted from?

    A．A magazine on science       B．A fairy Tale 

C．A scientific fantasy book     D．A newspaper  

Which of the following statements NOT true ?

    A. A terrible earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan

    B. It was also the worst earthquake in Japan

C. The 9.0 earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan

D. Japan's concrete sea walls was unable to handle such high waves.

According to Costas Synolakis, why did Japan suffer such a loss?

  A. The country has never experienced any event as big as this one over the past 150 years

B. Japan has the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

C. There are not concrete sea walls around all of the Japanese coastline

D. The government didn’t announce its first tsunami warnings three minutes earlier.

A latest national survey has found that over half of China's netizens (网民) are suffering from various mental problems although some 62 percent of them claim at the same time that they are happy on the whole anyway.

This is the result of China's first White Paper on Netizens’ Health Conditions issued on Wednesday by 39.net, China's largest authoritative website on health sciences. It is the first most comprehensive health survey on netizens’ health situation ever conducted in China in ten years’ time. The white paper came out after two months of online and offline research that involved over 150 thousand netizens, covering topics and questions on health knowledge, mental situation, sense of health, and living habits.

According to the white paper, more than 70 percent of China's netizens say they are suffering from mental problems such as bad memory, anxiety, depression, and a lack of confidence. And a similar 72 percent of them also say they are often suffering from diseases like insomnia, dizziness, joint degeneration and achings. Meanwhile, another 53 percent of netizens believe that white collar employees who have bigger work pressures are more likely to catch mental problems.

The white paper adds, doing almost no sports and spending long time surfing online lead to the above mentioned health problems among netizens. Only 9 percent of netizens take up sports on weekends while over 40 percent stay home, surfing. And only 16 percent netizens can assure more than eight hours’ sleeping daily.

At present, China has a netizen population of 162 million, with a monthly consumption of 186 yuan, or about 25 dollars, on Internet surfing.

The national survey on netizens’ health situation ________.

A. was conducted on Wednesday      B. was carried out online and offline

C. is conducted every year      D. covered about half a million netizens

Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined part “white collar”?

A. White clothes.         B. Office workers.     

C. White offices.       D. White people.

All the following factors have been mentioned to cause the health problems among netizens EXCEPT ________.

A. shopping online         B. spending long time online

C. heavy work pressures         D. doing no sports

What’s the main idea of the passage?

A. China has a large netizen population.

B. The Internet has a negative influence on people.

C. Many netizens in China have mental problems.

D. How to surf the Internet safely and healthily.

Some people would go through anything just to achieve their dream. Kasia Siwosz is proof. For the final year student on the university women’s tennis team, the road to Berkeley, University of California was met with poor advice and misinformation from her home country and two unsuccessful stops along the way that fell short of expectations.

    Born in Poland, Siwosz began playing tennis at seven years old and developed the skills that helped her earn a top-50 ranking among the ITF Junior division (国际网球联会青少年赛).. Siwosz wanted to do more with her life than just play tennis, which led her to seek chances that would also allow her to obtain a top education. While most who grow up in the U.S. are naturally accustomed to the American tradition of collegiate (大学的) sports, such a custom is not as familiar in a country like Poland. “There’s no collegiate sports in Poland and no culture of sports and academic (学术的) study there. You can only do one, not both,” Siwosz said.

    Her desire to have a quality education led her to America to follow her dream. While Siwosz was talented enough to begin her collegiate tennis career, she could only attend community college because she missed the deadline to apply to four-year schools, mainly due to misinformation provided in her home country of Poland.

    When she had earned all her credits and was able to transfer (转学), Siwosz made the decision to attend Baylor in Texas. Her friends from Poland put in a good word for the university, saying that it was a good fit because there were many international players at Baylor. “I thought it would be a good idea, but it really wasn’t what I thought it would be,” Siwosz said. “I wasn’t happy at Baylor. The level of tennis was high, but the academic standards were no match and I just wanted more.”

    After one year at Baylor, Siwosz’s luck finally began to change when she made the decision to transfer to Berkeley, which was due in large part to Lee, a former Berkeley student. Lee, who is a keen tennis player himself, met Siwosz four years ago in Texas. “I knew she was unhappy there,” he said. “I saw the opportunity for her to come here.” Siwosz visited Lee in Berkeley. “I ended up loving this place and this school,” Siwosz said. “I came here a lot over the summer, I gave it a shot and I ended up with a Berkeley education and a spot on one of the best college tennis teams in the country.”

 

What does “two unsuccessful stops” (Paragraph 1) refer to?

A. Poland and the U.S.

B. Baylor and Berkeley.

C. The community college and Baylor.

D. The ITF Junior division and the Berkeley tennis team.

Why did Siwosz want to leave her homeland for America?

A. Poland had no culture of sports.

B. Berkeley had always been her dream university.

C. She wanted to play tennis and have a good education.

D. She wanted to improve her tennis skills and get a higher ranking.

Why did she leave Baylor?

A. The level of tennis there was not high.

B. It was not suitable for international students.

C. She couldn’t get along with her friends there.

D. She was not satisfied with the education level there.

What is the main idea of the passage?

A. How Siwosz left Poland.

B. How Siwosz realized her dream.

C. How Siwosz became a top tennis player.

D. How Siwosz transferred from Baylor to Berkeley.

THIS was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, snow storms, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter of a million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.

Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird（古怪的） year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable（脆弱的） buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.

Disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes "are pretty much constant," said Andreas Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re. "All the change that's made is man-made."

The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people - many of them living in poverty - and more poorly built shanties than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010, total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.

In February, an earthquake that was more than 500 times stronger than the one that struck Haiti hit an area of Chile that was less populated, better constructed, and not as poor. Chile's bigger quake caused fewer than 1,000 deaths.

Climate scientists say Earth's climate also is changing, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.

In the summer, one weather system caused oppressive heat in Russia, while farther south it caused flooding in Pakistan that inundated 161,200 square kilometers, about the size of Wisconsin. That single heat-and-storm system killed almost 17,000 people, more people than all the worldwide airplane crashes in the past 15 years.

Scientists have calculated that the killer Russian heat wave—setting a national record of 43.9℃—would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.

What is responsible for the most human deaths in 2010?

A．Natrual disasters.       B．Terrorist attacks.

    C．Poor buildings.      D．Too rapid developrnent.

According to Andreas Schraft,             .

A．earthquakes are happening more often because of human beings

B．earthquakes are causing more damage because of human beings

C．stronger houses should be built to limit storm damage

D．Port—au—Prince is now overpopulated

The main point of the article is to           

A．list the natural disasters that occurred in 2010

B．give the details of some natural disasters of 2010

C．warn that more natural disasters are to strike

D．blame humanity for not helping those affected by the disasters