Then one July night, I reached into my third drawer, pulled out my jean shorts, and heard a small thud. I looked down and blinked: It was the tiny jewelry box I thought had been stolen six months earlier.
Inside was the locket with honey Grandma smiling at me, being there for me, telling me not to give up. I started to cry.
1.What did the red tape across the writer’s door mean?
A.There was a burglary here.B.The house couldn’t be entered freely.
C.The rent had to be paid quickly.D.The rental agent advertised for the house.
2.What did the agent promise to do?
A.To fix the locks the next day.B.To report the burglary to the police.
C.To have an iron security gate fixed.D.To pay for missing things for the writer.
3.Which can best show the change of the author’s feeling after she learned of the burglary?
A.puzzled→ anxious→ relaxed.B.shocked→ sorrowful→ nervous.
C.shocked→ desperate→ hopeful.D.puzzled→ relieved→ confident.
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A.Red TapeB.A Jewelry BoxC.“Lost” SmileD.Grandma’s Advice
The tall manchineel tree that is native to the Caribbean, Florida, South America, Central America and the Bahamas, looks particularly attractive. But you may be wise to notice the warning given that the tree holds the Guinness World Record for “the world’s most dangerous tree”.
The deadliness begins with the sweet-smelling fruit. As British radiologist Nicola Strickland and her friend discovered, even a single bite of the green apple-like produce can lead to hours of suffering. The scientist says within minutes of eating the fruit, she and her friend experienced “a strange peppery feeling” in their mouths. A few hours later, the two could barely swallow any solid food. Fortunately, the symptoms started to reduce after about eight hours and the fruit did not cause any long-term damage.
Many plants have poisonous bark and leaves to prevent grass-eating animals. However, the fruits are usually edible allowing animals to feed on them or carry seeds to help with reproduction. But since the manchineel fruits are largely transported by ocean tides, the tree does not need help to reproduce.
The tree’s thick and milky white sap (树液) is equally dangerous. Contact with the skin can lead to symptoms that range from headaches to respiratory(呼吸) problems. Exposure to the eye can even cause “temporary painful blindness”. Given that the sap’s most dangerous toxin is highly water soluble, experts advise not using the tree for shade during a rain shower, as raindrops carrying the sap could easily burn your skin.
The fear has resulted in almost destroying the tree in Florida where it is on the list of endangered species. While removing it altogether may seem like the logical solution, experts argue that the manchineel trees are important for local ecosystems. In addition to protecting against ocean winds, the dense manchineel trees also prevent ocean erosion in Central America. The tree’s wood is very popular with Caribbean carpenters who have learned to neutralize its poisonous sap by drying the bark in the sun. In Central and South America, the locals use the bark to treat body swelling caused by injury and infection.
1.Which of the following best explains “edible” underlined in Paragraph 3?
A.Fit to eat.B.Easy to pick.C.Hard to find.D.Nice to look at.
2.Which of the following about the manchineel tree is true?
A.Its fruits taste sweet.
B.It reproduces by ocean tides.
C.Your eyes may be blind at the sight of it.
D.You have difficulty breathing in its shade.
3.What is mainly talked about in the last paragraph?
A.The medical use of the manchineel trees.
B.The important role of the manchineel trees.
C.The urgent need of protecting the manchineel trees.
D.The way of removing poisonous sap from the trees.
4.Which of the following can best show the structure of the passage?
A.B.C.D.
A knitting factory in Bangladesh brings together the past, present, and the future. On one floor, workers knit by hand. On another, people and machines do the work together. And on a third floor, there are only robots.
This building might seem outdated, given the accepted wisdom that robots will replace humans in textiles and many other industries. But it is actually a wise response to how the Fourth Industrial Revolution will likely play out in Asia. As is the case elsewhere, technological progress is rapidly changing industries and economies across the world.
However, much of Asia isn’t ready for robots, for reasons that go beyond fears of mass unemployment. Poorer countries face great barriers to adopting new technologies. Moreover, the region’s lower wages encourage companies to keep human workers. At the factory in Bangladesh, human workers can step in if power or equipment failures knock the machines offline. At the same time, having a fully automated section allows production to continue if workers go on strike.
Conventional wisdom believes that this dual-track(双轨的)approach isn’t sustainable, and that low-to middle-skilled workers will eventually make way for robots. However, these pessimistic predictions ignore the fact that most jobs consist of lots of tasks, some of which cannot be automated.
Still, robots are gaining foothold in the region, particularly in economies such as China and the Republic of Korea. In 20xx, robot sales in Asia increased by 19 percent－the fourth record-breaking year in a row. When less-developed Asian countries eventually join the technology trend, layoffs will inevitably follow. To soften the blow, governments urgently need to pursue labor-market reforms and examine their education systems, starting with technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Although TVET is becoming increasingly popular in Asia’s developing economies, its quality is often poor. Governments should ensure that TVET courses focus on more relevant skills, while remaining flexible so that students can study without sacrificing income.
1.What does the author think of the knitting factory?
A.Fashionable.B.Complicated.C.Brilliant.D.Wasteful.
2.Why did robots fail to be widely applied in Asia?
A.Power failures often occur in factories.
B.Some countries are not fully prepared.
C.Unemployment has caused many problems.
D.Some countries are too poor to adopt the new technology.
3.What is the reason behind governments’ reforms?
A.To make robots more popular.
B.To raise the quality of education.
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