英语 热门试卷

Hello. I’m Jan from Mrs. Lake’s class. My class wants to work together to help the public. We think we have found a great way to do this. Last month we did a class project on the highways near our town. We learned about the Adopt-a-Highway Program. This program brings people together to pick up litter along the roads. We think it would be a great idea for all students in our school to join the program and adopt a highway.

Adopting a highway is not like adopting a pet. When a highway is adopted, only part of the highway is cared for by a group of people. The group agrees to work every week to keep its part of the highway clean. Each group gets its own sign that has the name of the group printed on it. The sign is put up at the side of the road. This sign lets drivers know who is keeping that area of the road clean.

The Adopt-a-Highway Program is a great way for people to help their environment look nicer. Also, the government does not have to send out as many road workers. This saves money. Finally, people may try harder to keep roads clean if they see people, especially teenagers like us, cleaning them up.

We will need helpers to care for our adopted highway. If you want to feel great and keep our roads clean，please come with your parents to the meeting next week. We will meet in Mrs. Lake’ room on Wednesday at 6:00 P.M. At the meeting, we will talk about which roads are the dirtiest as a result of people's unkind acts. Then we' ll try to pick an area to adopt and clean.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Remember to keep our roads clean!

【语篇导读】本文是一篇演讲，通过介绍了“公路保养”这一项目的措施和进展，说明其目的合一，从而呼吁学生参与其中，提高环保意识。

Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high-tech devices, while driving, walking, shopping, even sitting in toilets. People have been influenced to become technology addicted. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sleep, cigarettes and alcohol.

The main goal of technology companies is to get people to spend more money and time on their products, not to actually improve our quality of life. They have successfully created a cultural disease. Consumers willingly give up their freedom, money and time to catch up on the latest information, to keep pace with their peers or to appear modern.

I see people trapped in a pathological（病态的）relationship with time-sucking technology, where they serve technology more than technology serves them. I call this technology servitude. I am referring to a loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money.

What is a healthy use of technology devices? That is the vital question. Who is really in charge of my life? That is what people need to ask themselves if we are to have any chance of breaking up false beliefs about their use of technology. When we can live happily without using so much technology for a day or a week, then we can regain control and personal freedom, become the master of technology and discover what there is to enjoy in life free of technology. Mae West is famous for proclaiming(声明) the wisdom that “too much of a good thing is wonderful.”  But it’s time to discover that it does not work for technology.

Richard Fernandez, an executive coach at Google acknowledged that “we can be swept away by our technologies.”  To break the grand digital connection, people must consider how life long ago could be fantastic without today’s overused technology.

【语篇导读】本文是一篇记叙文，作者通过描述电子产品对人们生活的影响引出对科技的思考，从而对人类应该如何积极使用科技产品给予了建议，发人深思。

Elizabeth Mitchell’s new “Liberty’s Torch” is the fascinating story of how the Statue of Liberty came to be. The Statue of Liberty’s rough history is explored in “Liberty’s Torch”.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi is an all-but-forgotten figure in American history. He was, however, responsible for one of the most enduring symbols of the United States: the Statue of Liberty. A Frenchman from Alsace, he designed and built the Statue of Liberty which stood on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor. How this statue came to be is the fascinating subject of Elizabeth Michell’s new book “Liberty’s Torch”.

The power of Mitchell’s narrative is convincing(令人信服的). We recognize the Statue of Liberty now as a symbol of hope and opportunity for a nation of immigrants. At the time, though, people could not see that－nor did they even imagine that. Instead, the construction of the statue was born of one man’s desire to set up a great monument.

For this reason, perhaps, “Liberty’s Torch” relies on Bartholdi as the connecting thread. Bartholdi went to Egypt to make photographic copies of the main monuments. On the boat, Bartholdi met and began a lifelong relationship with Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who would build the Suez Canal. Maybe it was this friendship, or maybe it was seeing Egypt’s huge monuments, but finally the trip inspired Bartholdi’s dream to create the largest statue ever built. Failure to bring this to completion in Egypt, followed by his exile (流放) from Paris, led Bartholdi to sail to America.

By explaining the Statue of Liberty’s hard history and showing Bartholdi’s brave spirit, Mitchell has done a great service.

【语篇导读】本文是一篇说明文，讲述Elizabeth Mitchell的作品“自由火炬”中所提及的历史引出自由女神像背后的故事，最后对该书给予了正面评价。

In 1977, Irene Pepperberg of Harvard University began studying what was on another creature’s mind by talking to it. Her first experiments began with Alex. Alex was a one-year-old African grey parrot and Irene taught him to produce the sounds of the English language. “I thought if he learned to communicate, I could ask him questions about how he sees the world.”

At the time, most scientists didn’t believe animals had any thoughts. They thought animals were more like robots but didn’t have the ability to think or feel. Of course, if you own a pet, you probably disagree. But it is the job of a scientist to prove this and nowadays more scientists accept that animals can think for themselves.

“That’s why I started my studies with Alex,” Irene said, “Some people actually called me crazy for trying this.”

Nowadays, we have more and more evidence that animals have all sorts of mental abilities. Sheep can recognize faces. Chimpanzees (黑猩猩) use a variety of tools and even use weapons to hunt. And Alex, the parrot became a very good talker.

Thirty years after, the Alex studies began. Irene was still giving him English lessons until his recent death. For example, if Alex was hungry, he could say “want grape”. Alex could count to six and was learning the sounds for seven and eight. “He has to hear the words over and over before he can correctly say them.” Irene said, after pronouncing “seven” for Alex a few times in a row. Alex could also tell the difference between colors, shapes, sizes, and materials (e.g.wood and metal). Before he finally died, Alex managed to say “seven”.

Another famous pet that proved some animals have greater mental skills was a dog called Rico. He appeared on a German TV game show in 2011. Rico knew the names of 200 different toys and easily learned the names of new ones. When Rico became famous, many other dog owners wanted to show how clever their pets were. Another dog called Betsy could understand 300 words.

One theory for dogs’ ability to learn a language is that they have been close companions to humans for many centuries and so their ability to understand us is constantly evolving (进化). While animals can’t do what humans do yet, some scientists believe that examples like Alex and Rico prove that evolution develops intelligence, as well as physical appearance.

【语篇导读】本文是一篇说明文，开始介绍了Irene Pepperberg关于动物具有思想的实验，引出想说明的内容——动物具有思维能力，之后又举例说明此观点的合理性证明动物具有思考能力。

Brighton is the _ (health) city in Britain with the highest level of personal trainers, yoga clubs and health food stores, according to a survey released on Friday.

The survey, _looks at 19 statistics covering health, _（fit）and environment, says Brighton has the highest number of residents _ (eat) at least five kinds of fruit and vegetables a day.

The survey, _ (conduct) for the Sky Travel channel, has compared 15 cities across the UK. It says Brighton residents live _ an average age of 78 years old. They are twice as likely _ (walk) or cycle to work as the people living in other parts of Britain.

In _（compare）with the national average, Brighton has nearly a third more health food stores and personal trainers than _ in any other city in Britain. It has twice many yoga clubs, and the level of fat residents is below the national average.

Meanwhile, _ survey also finds that Brighton residents have the best levels of cholesterol (胆固醇) and blood pressure in Britain.

【语篇导读】本文是一篇说明文，通过一个调查说明布赖顿居民的健康问题，例如，那里的居民胆固醇含量适当......。