It was the end of my first day as a waitress in a busy New York restaurant. My cap had gone away, and my feet hurt. The loaded plates I carried seemed to be heavier and heavier. Tired and discouraged, I didn’t seem able to do anything right. As I made out a check for a family with several children who had changed their ice-cream order a dozen times, I was ready to stop. Then the father smiled at me as he handed me my tip. “Well done,” he said, “you’ve looked after us really well.” Suddenly my tiredness disappeared. I smiled back, and later, when the manager asked me how I’d liked my first day, I said, “Fine!” Those few words of praise had changed everything.

Praise is like sunlight to human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. And yet, most of us are only too ready to apply to others the cold criticism, but are unwilling to give out fellows the warm sunshine of praise. Perhaps that is why one word of praise can bring such pleasure.

It’s strange how chary (谨慎的) we are about praising. Perhaps it’s because few of us know how to accept it.It’s especially rewarding to give praise in areas in which effort generally goes unnoticed. An artist gets admired for a glorious picture, a cook for a perfect meal. But do you ever tell your laundry manager how pleased you are when the shirts are done just right? In fact, to give praise costs the giver nothing but a moment’s thought and a moment’s effort.

1. Which of the following can’t describe the writer’s situation before she got her tip?

       A. She was confident     B. She was busy.           C. She was sorry.          D. She was tired.

2. According to the passage, which of the following is least likely to be given praise?

A. An artist                   B. A cook                     C. A laundry manager    D. A waitress

3. What is the best title of the passage?

A. Why Do You Praise Others?                          B. Why do You Criticize Others?

C. Don't Criticize Others!                                  D. Be Generous to Give Others Praise

The cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 is about 160, 140! That doesn’t even touch college tuition. For those with kids, this figure might lead them thinking how much they could have banked. For others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless.

But $160, 140 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into S 896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. Thar’s a mere S24. 44 a day! Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice says don’t have children if you ever want to be “rich”. It is not.

What do you get for your S160, 140?

• Naming rights.

• Giggles under the covers every night.

• More love than your heart can hold.

• Kisses and hugs.

• Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.

• A hand to hold usually covered with jam.

• A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, and building sandcastles.

For $160, 140, you never have to grow up! You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, and never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars.

For $160, 140, you get to be a hero just for taking the training wheels off the bike, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history; to witness the first step, first word, first date, and first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal (不朽的).

You get another branch added to your family tree.

You get an education in nursing, criminal justice and communications that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.

You have all the power to correct a mistake, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a party, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

1. Which of the following is NOT true after you have a child?

A. You enjoy the right to name your children.     B. You never seem to get old.

C. You still need to learn.                                  D. You get admiration as a parent.

2. By In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God, the author intends to say             .

A. you are powerful next to God                        B. you are the one your children love and trust most

C. you need to behave like a God                       D. you keep yourself too far for your children to reach you

3. Which of the following could be the best title of the passage?

A. A dollar, an hour and a child                         B. Children and bank

C. Money and parents                                       D. Fun and children

4. Which of the following could be used as the last sentence to end the passage?

A. Remain childless.                                         B. Enjoy raising your children.

C. Make a bank for your children.                      D. Find a way to be happy.

Technology is making life easier for some dairy farmers. They use robotic systems to milk their cows. Cows are trained to follow a series of paths that lead to milking stations. Only one cow at a time can enter a station.

Once inside, the cow is rewarded with food. As the cow eats, a robotic arm cleans and connects the animal to the milking machine. A few minutes later, milking is complete. The gate is opened, the cow is released and the next cow enters.

The robotic systems are designed to operate 24 hours a day. The cows get to decide when they want to be milked. Cows are milked an average of about three times a day. Some are milked four to six times a day.

The cows wear collars around their necks that identify them to the system. A computer keeps records on their eating and milking. A cow is released from the station if the computer decides it should not be milked.

The automated system also measures the temperature and color of freshly produced milk. Milk is thrown away if it does not pass the tests.

Professor Plaut believes the systems will appeal especially to the next generation of farmers. She means young people who are more interested in technology and less interested in working all the time on the farm. Still, she says the price of robotic milking systems will continue to limit their use.

Doug and Tina Suhr have more than 100 cows on their family farm. Last year it became the fourth farm in southeast Minnesota to get a robotic milking system. A recent story in a local agricultural newspaper said the first robot cost 175,000 dollars. The second cost 150,000.

Doug told AgriNews that wages (工资) that would have been paid for one employee in five years will pay for one robot. He says the increase in milk production reaches a high of more than six kilograms per cow per day.

1. From the first paragraph, we can infer             .

A. the robotic system is designed to reduce labor B. cows can be raised by robots in the future

C. robots direct cows into milking stations          D. cows are kept clean by robots on some farms

2. Why is the robotic system not popular now?

       A. Because young people have no interest in it.   B. Because it is difficult to learn how to use it.

C. Because people can’t afford to buy it.             D. Because it usually causes the waste of milk.

3. According to Doug, what is the wage of an employee per year?

A.150, 000-170,000      B.750, 000                   C.150, 000-30,000        D.30,000-35,000

4. The best title for the passage may be             .

A. Letting robot milk your cow                         B. Milking cows by hand

C. Improving the quality of milk                       D. Drinking fresh milk every day

Owning a dog is associated with a significantly lower risk of heart disease and death, according to a comprehensive new study published by a team of Swedish researchers on Friday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The scientists followed 3. 4 million people over the course of 12 years and found that adults who lived alone and owned a dog were 33 percent less likely to die during the study than adults who lived alone without dogs. In addition, the single adults with dogs were 36 percent less likely to die from heart disease.

“Dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of heart disease and death than those living in a multi-person household,” Mwenya Mubanga, a Ph.D. student at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, and the lead junior author of the study, said in a statement announcing its findings. The link between dog ownership and lower mortality (死亡率) was less pronounced in adults who lived either with family members or partners, but still present, according to the study. “Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households, ”Mubanga added. “Another interesting finding was that owners of dogs which were intended originally for hunting were most protected.”

The study, which is the largest to date on the health relations of owning a dog, suggested that some of the reasons dog owners may have a lower risk of mortality and heart disease were because dog owners walk more. “These kind of epidemiological (流行病学的) studies look for associations in large populations but do not provide answers on whether and how dogs could protect their owners from heart disease,” Tove Fall, a senior author of the study and a professor at Uppsala University, said in a statement.

“We know that dog owners in general have a higher level of physical activity, which could be one explanation to the observed results,” Fall added. “Other explanations include an increased well-being and social contacts or effects of the dog on the bacterial microbiome (微生物菌群) in the owner.” Fall added that because all participants of dog owners in Sweden or other “European populations with similar culture regarding dog ownership.”

1. Why did the researchers do the study related to 3.4 million people’s health and the dogs?

       A. To help Europeans.                                      B. To find their association.

       C. To protect unhealthy adults.                           D. To reduce risk of heart disease.

2. What does the underlined word “prominent” probably mean in Para.3?

       A. Universal.                B. Confusing.               C. Appealing.                D. Important.

3. What’s the main idea of the text?

       A. Adults living with dogs are less likely to die.  B. Swedish people are very fond of animal pets.

       C. Keeping a dog is a popular and healthy hobby.                                   D Owning dogs reduces the risk of heart disease.

4. What’s the writer’s attitude towards owning a dog?

       A. Positive                   B. Negative.                 C. Objective.                D. Contradictory.

根据短文内容, 从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。           

Causes of sandstorms

In desert areas, dust sandstorms are most common caused by either thunderstorm outflows, or by strong pressure gradients (气压梯度) which cause an increase in wind speed over a wide area. In some cases, dust and sand may set a limit to a shallow depth by a low-lying temperature change,      1      

Drought is another cause of sandstorms, Poor farming practices make dust and sand free of protection from the wind.      2      A sandstorm can transport and carry large amounts of sand. Desert is a key source of sandstorms. Saharan sandstorms have increased about 10 times during the half century since the 1950s, causing topsoil loss in nearby countries. In Mauritania there were just two sandstorms a year in the early 1960s, but there are 80 a year today.

    3      

Sandstorms have also been shown to increase the spread of diseases across the globe. The virus In the dust is blown into the atmosphere by the storms. Some diseases may not be urgent at the very beginning, but they can develop into deadly ones if left untreated.     4     

Sandstorms cause soil loss from the dry lands, doing harm to agriculture. Sandstorms also reduce visibility (能见度) affecting airplanes and road transportation,     5      

Dust can also have good effects. Central and South American rainforests get most of their mineral nutrients from the Sahara; iron-poor ocean regions get iron.

A. Effects of sandstorms.

B. Bad results caused by sandstorms.

C. People know little about the effects of sandstorms.

D. In other cases, dust may be lifted as high as 6, 100 meters high.

E. Dryland farming is one of the most serious practices.

F. For example, a breathing problem can lead to lung cancer, while dry eyes

G. In addition, sandstorms also discourage visitors from visiting these places, which will strike tourism