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Conor Grennan was unwilling to be a volunteer(志愿者). The 29-year-old American was not sure if he had the skills or a strong feeling for it.However, he went to work at an orphanage(孤儿院) in Nepal. His first thought was to make people impressed.
"I thought that if I volunteered just once. I could retell the story over and over," Grennan said in a Huffington Post article.However, his three-month stay it the orphanage turned into in unusual experience. It was 2004 and Grennan had given up his job to begin a year-long around-the-world trip, His first three months were spent in Nepal.
When he arrived in the village, he knew nothing about the children or the local culture. When he opened the gate of the Little Princes Children's Home, he was faced by the excited children.
The young American ended up caring for 18 children. He later discovered that they were trafficked(被拐卖的)children. So he walked through the mountains with great difficulty to find the kids' families, "I started walking with photos of the kids." he told the Reuters reporter. "I would show up in villages and show photographs around. I went with 24 photos, and I found 24 families." At the same time, he put his heart into Nepalese culture.
Grennan said, “Volunteering is the single best way to see how the rest of the world lives.”
He also encouraged others to do what he had done. He believes that volunteering needs only making decisions to show up.
Grennan's fight against child-trafficking has changed him. His book, Little Prince, came out last week.
1.At first, Grennan simply wanted to _______by volunteering in Nepal.
A. write travel stories B. impress people
C. help the kids there D. learn the skills
2.When Grennan came to the Little Princes Children’s Home. _______.
A. the children there felt excited B. 18 children were ill in bed
C. he decided to give up his job D. he’d lived in Nepal for a year
3.From the passage we can learn that Grennan _______.
A. found the kids’ families easily B. was good at taking pictures
C. wrote the book Little Princes D. asked others to go to Nepal
4.Which is the best title for the passage?
A. Volunteer travels in Nepal B. Volunteer is with the kids
C. Volunteer becomes a writer D. Volunteer changes a lot
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.
The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay rise and he does not.
1.A greenhorn now refers to ____.
A. a cow without horns B. a new solider
C. a young horse D. a person who is new in a job
2.A person who has a green thumb is a person ____.
A. whose garden is greener than others’
B. whose thumbs are of green color
C. who is good at growing plants
D. who is younger than his neighbors
3.The author is actually talking about ____.
A. language B. colors
C. politics D. agriculture
4.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. In about the 16th century, a greenhorn meant an experienced soldier.
B. The Green Revolution may have some connection with green thumbs.
C. The green-eyed monster was probably created by William Shakespeare.
D. The green-eyed monster can be used to describe a person who is jealous.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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In London's art gallery six or seven men, mostly in their 30s, are busy painting the walls with new designs in colorful lettering and clever tricks. Tins of spray paint and beer stand on the ground. The atmosphere is not unlike that of a golf course: a mix of concentration and relaxation.
Graffiti(涂鸦) painting is traditionally a daring hobby. Teenagers avoid security guards to put their names on trains and buses. But over the past decade that has almost disappeared from Britain's cities. Between 2007 and 2017 the number of incidents of graffiti recorded by the British Transport Police fell by 63%. A survey by the environment ministry shows that fewer places are damaged by tags(绘名) than ever. Graffiti are increasingly limited to only a few walls. In time the practice may die out entirely.
The most obvious reason for the decline in tagging and train-painting is better policing, says Keegan Webb, who runs The London Vandal, a graffiti blog (博客). Numerous cameras mean it is harder to get away with painting illegally. And punishments are more severe. A generational change is apparent, too. Now teenagers prefer to play with iPads and video games. Those who do get involved tend to prefer street art to graffiti. And the internet helps painters win far more attention by posting pictures online than they can by breaking into a railway yard.
Taggers and graffiti artists mostly grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. Those men are now older and less willing to take risks. "We can't run away from the police any more," says Ben Eine, who turned from tagging to street art. The hip-hop culture that inspired graffiti in the first place has faded. Video games and comic books provide more inspiration than music.
Graffiti may eventually disappear. But for now the hobby is almost respectable. Mr Eine says he has lots of friends who used to paint trains. Now with wives and children, they paint abandoned houses at the weekend. It has become something to do on a Sunday afternoon—a slightly healthier alternative to sitting watching the football.
1.How do the painters feel while painting graffiti according to the first paragraph?
A. Free but stressed. B. Free and focused.
C. Particular and respected. D. Nervous but satisfied.
2.Why is graffiti painting traditionally considered as a daring hobby?
A. It's at the risk of being caught.
B. It takes much hard training.
C. It's dangerous to paint in trains.
D. It needs a great deal of knowledge.
3.hat does the underlined word “decline” in the third paragraph refer to?
A. Ban of government. B. Reduction of graffiti.
C. Disappearance of graffiti. D. Better policing of government.
4.What conclusion can we draw from the fourth paragraph?
A. The early graffiti had something to do with music.
B. Graffiti artists like to be the focuses in public.
C. Graffiti artists regret over what they did in the past.
D. Painting is much healthier than watching football.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Disposing(处理) of waste has been a problem since humans started producing it. As more and more people choose to live close together in cities, the waste-disposal problem becomes increasingly difficult.
During the eighteenth century, it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dumpsite. Residents or trash haulers(垃圾托运者) would transport household rubbish, rotted wood, and old possessions to the site. Periodically(定期的) some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried. The unpleasant sights and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by.
Factories, mills, and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of. Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water. Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem.
Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modern society. The first problem is space. Dumps, which are now called landfills, are most needed in heavily populated areas. Such areas rarely have empty land suitable for this purpose. Property is either too expensive or too close to residential(住宅区的)neighborhoods. Long-distance trash hauling has been a common practice, but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere, cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is almost nonexistent.
Awareness of pollution dangers has resulted in more strict rules of waste disposal. Pollution of rivers, ground water, land and air is a price people can no longer pay to get rid of waste. The amount of waste, however, continues to grow.
Recycling efforts have become commonplace, and many towns require their people to take part. Even the most efficient recycling programs, however, can hope to deal with only about 50 percent of a city's reusable waste.
1.The most suitable title for this passage would be ______.
A. Waste Disposal Problem B. Waste Pollution Dangers
C. Ways of Getting Rid of Waste D. Places for Disposing Waste
2.During the 18th century, people disposed their waste in many ways EXCEPT for ______.
A. burying it B. burning it
C. recycling it D. throwing it into rivers
3.What can be inferred from the fourth paragraph?
A. Farm areas accept waste from the city in modern society.
B. There is cheap land to bury waste in modem society.
C. Ways to deal with waste in modem society stay the same.
D. It is difficult to find space to bury waste in modem society.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
C. turn out D. get around
friendship and I hope it will last forever.