随着哥本哈根世界气候大会的召开，越来越多的人关注气候变化。请写一篇120—150词的英语短文，简要描述二氧化碳（carbon dioxide）过量排放的危害（严重的风暴、干旱、全球变暖……），并提出具体建议，号召人们选择低碳生活（low – carbon life）方式。

阅读下面的短文，并根据短文的要求答题。（请注意问题后的词数要求）

The rise of the so – called “boomerang generation （回巢族）” is reported in official figures showing that almost one in five graduates in their late 20 s now live with their parents. By contrast, only one in eight university graduates had failed to fly the nest by the same age 20 years ago, research from the Office for National Statistics （ONS） shows.

It also found that grown – up sons are twice as likely as their sisters to still be living with their parents in their late 20s.

With nearly a quarter of men approaching 30 still living at home, the findings are bound to lead to claims of a “generation of mummy’s boys”.

Rising housing prices, increasing student debts and the effects of depression on the job market have forced a wave of young people to move back into the family home at an age when they would normally                 .

Young professionals in their late 20s or early 30s have been called the “boomerang generation” because of the trend toward returning to the family home.

Recent research has suggested that young people in Britain are twice as likely to choose to live with their parents in their late 20s than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.

But experts warned that the phenomenon may have more to do with young people facing dark future than simply a desire to save money.

While the percentage of those of university or college age moving out from the family home has continued to rise in the last 20 years, among those in their mid and late 20s the trend has reversed.

Overall 1.7 million people aged from 22 to 29 now share a roof with their parents, including more than 760,000 in their late 20s, the ONS figures suggest.

1．What is the main idea of the passage? （Please answer within 15 words.）

2．Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?

    The survey showed that the number of young men living in the family home probable doubles that of young women in their late 20s.

3．Fill in the blank in the fourth paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence. （Please answer within 5 words.）

4．List three factors that have driven young people back home again based on the passage.（Please answer within 5 words each）.

5．Translate the underlined sentence in the seventh paragraph into Chinese.

Canadian experts have found that so – called self – help books may actually do more harm than good to people who really need help. Researchers say that individuals （个人） with low respect felt much worse after repeating positive statements about themselves.

In their study, psychologists Joanne Wood and John Lee sought to determine how positive thinking affected people with different levels of self – confidence. They questioned dozens of people both make and female, analyzed their self – worth and optimism by means of the standard psychological methods and then asked them to write down their thoughts and feelings. The scoring system ranged from 0 to 35.

During the experiment, the researchers asked a total of 68 participants to repeat the self-help book phrase, “I am a lovable person.” After that they measured the participants’ moods and their feelings about themselves. The results revealed that the participants in the low self – respect group who repeated the mantra （颂歌）, were feeling much worse afterwards, when compared to other participants in low self – respect group who did not repeat the phrase. Those with low self – respect who repeated the phrase scored an average of 10 points. Their counterparts （对比者） with equally low self – respect who were not asked to repeat the statement, were able to score a little higher average of 17 points.

However, individuals with high self – respect reported feeling better after repeating the positive self – statement – but only slightly. They scored an average of 31 points, compared with an average of 25 for those with equally high self – respect who did not repeat the phrase.

Professor Wood urged those who promote self – help books, magazines and television shows to stop telling people that simply repeating a positive mantra could change one’s life. First, people start following this idea and feel like they are not alone. They are told that all they have to do is just to read that book and then to repeat these positive statements in a hope that things will be better, and when it does not work for them and they realize that nothing gets better, then it is really frustration to people.

Researchers concluded: “Repeating positive self – statements may benefit certain people such as individuals with high self – respect but discourage the very people who need confidence the most.”

1．The experts tried to find out, when repeating positive self – statements,         .

       A．the different influences on people with different levels of self - confidence

       B．whether males or females will get more benefit from self – help books

       C．which group of people self – help books will do the greatest harm to

       D．who will get the least benefit from self – help book

2．How many points did the low self – respect participants get after repeating the self – help book phrase?

       A．An average of 10 points.                       B．An average of 17 points.

       C．An average of 31 points.                       D．An average of 25 points.

3．So – called self – help books do some good to          .

       A．people lacking confidence

       B．people with high self - respect

       C．people with problems to settle urgently

       D．people repeating positive self – statements

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

       A．The positive self – statement can greatly encourage people with high self – respect.

       B．All the participants will slightly benefit from the positive self – statement.

       C．Believing in positive self – statements will result in great failures in the end.

       D．simply repeating a positive mantra couldn’t possibly change one’s life.

5．What do the researchers think of so – called self – help books?

       A．They value them.                                 B．They promote them.

       C．They think little of them.                      D．They get puzzled with them.

Watch out, Yahoo. There’s search engine out there with super speed and accuracy. It’s really cool.

Google is the Web’s largest search engine. In just two years it has gained a reputation for surprising speed and accuracy, delivering exactly what you’re looking for in a second. The site now does this 40 million times a day – a number achieved without spending a penny on a TV or newspaper ad.

Google doesn’t need them. In the past six months alone, the site has won a Webby （the online version of the Oscar） for technical excellence, set a new record for search engines by indexing a billion Web pages.

Yahoo still has 10 times the audience, but Google consistently ranks first in customer satisfaction: 97% of users find what they’re look for most or all the time. “You see people smile when they use it, like they’ve found something no one else knows about,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of an online newsletter.

No one is smiling more than Larry Page, 27, and Sergey Brin, 26, who seem certain to become billionaires when the company goes public, probable sometime next year. They make a great comedy duo. When they first met as Ph. D. students, the pair say, they found each other horrible – “I still find him horrible,” adds Brin – but were driven together by a computer – science project aimed at coming up with better ways of searching the Web.

The idea behind Google is that traditional search engines are stupid. They think relevance is based on repetition; if you type in a request for Tiger Woods, say, you’ll get websites listed according to how many times those words appear. Not only is this no guarantee of quality, but it’s also open to abuse. If you own a Tiger fan site and want to lead more people to it, simply type his name thousands of times in the site’s source code.

1．The first paragraph serves to           .

       A．compare two websites                         B．bring out the topic

       C．put blame on Yahoo                              D．give the background of the topic

2．What does the underlined word “then” in the third paragraph refer to?

       A．40 million times.                                  B．Achievements.

       C．TV and newspaper ads.                        D．Web pages.

3．Which of the following wins greater customer satisfaction?

      A．Yahoo.                B．Google.               C．Page.                  D．Brin.

4．It can be inferred that Page and Brin         .

       A．work for Google                                  B．are Tiger fans

       C．hated each other                                  D．work for Yahoo 

5．We can learn from the last paragraph that         .

       A．Google is open to abuse

       B．Google remains a traditional search engine

       C．Google thinks relevance is based on repetition

       D．Google is better than traditional search engines

Speaking in his first National Day Rally speech on 15 August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien said Singapore’s education system was set for more reforms in the years ahead, particularly for the primary and secondary education. Read the summary of his thoughts on education below.

For a start, the Government is prepared to send and additional 3,000 teachers to Singapore schools, cut the courses of study even further and change the way the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is taught. But, for the changes to be successful, parents need to help.

Singapore has a devoted group of teachers and principals and quite a few of them are outstanding, but the Republic’s schools can be even better. To help the schools make a jump in quality, the Government plans that within the next 6 years, it will send 1,000 more teachers to primary schools, 1,400 to secondary schools and 550 more to junior colleges. Each school would decide how to use its extra teachers. Some may want to make classes smaller so students get more individual attentions while others may have new teachers assist more senior teachers, but the overall goal is to give teachers the time and space to come up with ways to bring out the best in their students.

More teachers must not mean more homework, however. In fact, the Prime Minister wants to see the courses cut down so that there is less pressure on the students. Good grades are important but they should not be the only goal students have. PM Lee is convinced that “we must teach less so that our children can learn more.”

Another change will be in the teaching of the mother tongue so that students can become more fluent. The key is to teach Chinese as a living language not just an academic subject like Latin. Therefore, the focus should be on speaking and reading the language. To do this, there must be an environment outside the classroom that is contributing to strengthening the Chinese lessons.

1．The text is mainly about         in Singapore.

      A．the education reform                            B．adding more teachers

       C．the mother tongue                                                               D．ways of teaching

2．The general goal of using extra teachers is to          .

       A．make classes smaller                            B．assist more senior teachers

       C．teach more                                          D．help teachers improve teaching quality

3．PM Lee holds that the students should         .

       A．do more homework                             B．give up higher grades

       C．study more courses                             D．be given more time to learn more

4．The key to teaching Chinese well is to          .

      A．make it academic                                 B．have a creative environment

       C．give more Chinese lessons                    D．encourage speaking and reading a lot

5．The measures to be carried out will have pressure taken off          .

       A．teachers              B．students              C．parents                D．the Government