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Around four years ago, I received a call from the principal of our school as to the “Parents View” talk the next morning. He asked me to speak to the group. After the call, my whole body became feverish and panicky. The time from his call to the next morning seemed like years. The whole night, I could not sleep with many ominous apprehensions in mind. One of them was to call the principal with regret and tell him that I could not come. Finally, I gathered some courage. I thought, “If I miss this opportunity, surely the school will never invite me again to any of the
ir programs.”
I reached the school in time. Before my turn came, my whole body was trembling. When my turn came and I started speaking, my heartbeat increased and my mouth went dry. I wasn’t even able to read the written speech properly. I was not aware of where I was standing and what I was reading. That was the day when I realized my biggest weakness, Public Speaking.
After my speech, I met with the principal and explained what happened to me. He told me that this happens to everyone. Even great speaker, faced the same things when they started. He suggested that I come again next time.
Around one month later, I was invited to refer to a topic on Motivation. This time I was feeling comfortable. My speech was not only appreciated by the principal as well as the teachers, because I was able to get my idea across to them. They encouraged and praised my efforts.
After delivering is successfully, I became more confident .l said to myself, “If I can speak in front of such a learned audience, like the principal who educates others, I can now speak in front of others too.”
I started delivering lectures in my plant, on various topics like Self Motivation, Personality Development, Personal Excellence, Spoken English and Presentation Skills. This has become a passion for me. I learned that everything is possible if we have the courage to take the first step.
1.Which of the following is the hest title for the passage?
A. Practice Makes a Man a Better Speechmaker
B. 
Public Speaking Makes a Man Embarrassed.
C. Principal Provides the Best Chances.
D. Spoken English Develops in Malting Speeches.
2.The author had bad feelings before the speech because______.
A. he disliked the idea of giving a lecture
B. he had got a high fever before that
C. he regretted accepting the invitation
D. he feared he couldn't perform it properly
3. What does the underlined part ominous apprehensions in the first paragraph mean?
A. Unlucky opportunities.
B. Negative ideas.
C. Curious views.
D. Happy comments.
4.What can we conclude from the passage?
A. Nothing is to be got without pains but poverty.
B. Knowledge makes humble, ignorance makes proud.
C. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
D. Necessity is the mother of invention.
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For light sleepers
Millions of people have trouble falling asleep each night, which is why Light Sleeper was created.
Developed in the United Kingdom, Light Sleeper's makers say it can help a person fall asleep and also help a person fall back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night.
Light Sleeper works by projecting (投射) a light onto the ceiling while the person is lying down. The idea is to watch the light, because the light moving in a circle has a relaxing effect.
One of the advantages of the product is that it won't disturb other people in the room. The product can be easily moved and will switch itself off after 30 minutes to save power.
Stop the snoring (打鼾)
Here's a new product designed to slow down the frequency and level of your snoring. The Snore Stopper has a sensitive instrument that will detect when you're snoring. Once it does tha
t, it will send a very mild electronic signal to your wrist. This consequently changes your sleeping position to stop you from snoring. The Snore Stopper; won't cause any damage to your body.
Get your true colors
Photoshop features a pen that will copy the color settings of what you are monitoring onscreen to use as a color in your program. Now an off-line product allows you to pick a color when not using the computer software.
The Color Picker is a concept pen. After placing the pen against an object, the user just presses the scan button. Color sensors (感应器) inside the pen send information to a box, which then mixes red, green and blue to produce the desired ink color.
Keep it fresh
More high technology products are showing up in the kitchen. A new Bagel dome (圆顶形物) advertises that it will keep your baked goods fresher for longer periods of time. The product, which is able to remove air, works for bread rolls, cakes and other perishables. To use it, you just push a button at the top.
1.How can Light Sleeper help a person fall asleep?
A. Its light makes people feel calm.
B. It doesn't make any noise.
C. It is fixed on the ceiling.
D. Its light moves fast.
2.What do we know about the Snore Stopper?
A. It will cause slight damage to a person's body.
B. It will wake a person up once he starts snoring.
C. It can make sure a person doesn't snore all night.
D. It can make a person snore less by changing his sleeping position.
3.The Color Picker will probably be used while you're .
A. using the computer
B. drawing pictures
C. collecting information
D. designing a program
4.The underlined word "perishables" in the last paragraph refers to foods which .
A. are easy to keep
B. go bad easily
C. are rich in vitamins
D. keep you thin
5.It can be learned from the passage that .
A. the Color Picker is convenient to use
B. Light Sleeper was designed by an American
C. the Bagel dome mainly serves as decoration
D. few people would like to try the Snore Stopper
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If you bought some candy months ago but never ate it, how can you tell whether it’s still safe to eat? The easiest way is to check the “expiration date (保质期)” printed on the wrapper. If that date has already passed, you’re likely to throw the candy away. But is that really necessary?
According to a new report from the US Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), tons of food is wasted each year, largely because people don’t fully understand what expiration dates, or use-by dates, actually mean.
Food dating was introduced in 1970s because customers wanted more information about the things that they were eating. When they first showed up, use-by dates were only supposed to indicate freshness because producers wanted their products to be tasted in their best conditions.
But the truth is that these dates arent related to the risk of food poisoning or food-born illness, according to Time News. However, most customers misinterpreted use-by dates and related them to the safety of the food, and they still largely do now.
Eggs, for example, can still be eaten three to five weeks after purchase even though the use-by date is much earlier. When their use-by dates pass, strawberry juice may lose its red color and biscuits may lose their crunch（松脆的口感）, but they are not harmful.
“It’s a confusing subject, the difference between food quality and food safety,” said Jena Roberts, vice president of National Food Lab, a US food testing company. “Even in the food industry I have colleagues who get confused.
This is why scientists are calling for a standard explanation to be printed following the use-by dates. We want this to be clearly communicated so customers are not misinterpreting the date and contributing to a lot of waste, said Dana Gunders, a staff scientist with the NRDC.
But this wont be a mistake that is easy to correct since people have believed it for so long. Another problem is that the quality levels of different foods change differently-some are still eatable long after their use-by date while others are not.
As a result, food industry officials are now thinking of changing the use-by date to a date indicating when food is most likely to throw away.
1.According to the text, use-by date 
was first intended to ________.
A. reduce the waste of food
B. show whether the food was fresh
C. show the safety of food
D. give a warming of food poisoning
2.Which of following is TRUE?
A. Most customers understand what use-by date mean.
B. Biscuits cant be eaten when not as crunchy as they were bought.
C. Use-by dates have existed for more than 50 years.
D. Even after their use-by dates pass, some food are still safe to eat.
3.Scientists are calling for a standard explanation to be printed together with the use-by dates because________.
A. Most consumers often misunderstand use-by dates
B. use-by dates are not helpful or reliable
C. more consumers get worried about food safety
D. the quality level of different foods changes differently
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American kids are taking more tests than ever before, and they're stressed out. Is help on the way? Just the sight of a test booklet makes some kids sweat. For others, it is a blank answer sheet. Then there are the dreaded words, "Take out your Number 2 pencil." All these fill 10-year-old Chelsea Logo with fear. "I start to tap my pencil on the desk," says the fifth grader from Toluca Lake Elementary, near Los Angeles, California. "Then I feel the butterflies in my stomach."
Chelsea is not alone. In a recent survey by Kids Health£.org, more than 70% of kids aged 9 to 13 said they worry about tests. It's no wonder. Across the United States, public schools give more than 250 million standardized tests each year.
Why do kids have to take so many tests? The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law requires that students in grades 3 through 8 be tested each year. The law's goal is for all students to be at grade level by 2014. Students must pass the tests and meet other requirements or their schools may be shut down.
The U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants to change NCLB. But that doesn't mean he favors getting rid of tests. Duncan believes tests should be used mainly to evaluate kids' strengths and weaknesses. Tests, Duncan says, should not be used to punish kids or their schools for failure. "The goal is to focus on great teaching and learning," Duncan said.
Under NCLB, each state sets its own standards for students to meet. The result, Duncan says, is that states are making the tests easier. To fix this problem, 48 states are now working together to create common standards. "I want to set a high bar for kids, " Duncan says, "so they'll be in great shape to achieve their 
dreams."
Like them or not, tests are here to stay. So how can you handle test nerves? Schools are teaching students to relax through. deep breathing. and stretching (伸展运动) . In Oakland, California, Principal Zarina Ahmad of Piedmont Avenue Elementary leads her students in a cheer to get them excited about learning.
"Kids are under high pressure," says Ahmad. "There has to be time for kids to be kids. Still, we need tests to help us assess what students have yet to learn."
1.The underlined part "the butterflies in my stomach" can be replaced by .
A. nervous B. guilty C. exciting D. proud
2. According to the passage, the NCLB law .
A. is focusing on teaching methods in schools
B. is requiring schools to make the tests more difficult
C. is trying to make schools be responsible for students
D. aims to evaluate kids' strengths and weaknesses by means of tests
3. We can learn from the last two paragraphs that .
A. it's possible to get rid of tests
B. schools have no good way to deal with students' stress
C. tests help assess what students have to learn
D. schools are aware of students' stress caused by tests
4.What would be the best title of the passage?
A. Why kids are more stressed than before?
B. Kids' tips for test success
C. How to deal with test stress
D. Put kids to the standardized test
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Scientists are fond of running the evolutionary clock backward, using DNA analysis and the fossil record to figure out when our ancestors stood straight and split off from the rest of the primate evolutionary tree. But the clock is running forward as well. So where are humans headed? Here's a thoughtless assessment of possible paths, ranging from similar humans to alien-looking hybrids bred for interstellar (星际的) travel.
Different populations of a species have to be separated from each other in order for those populations to diverge into separate species. Populations are increasingly in contact with each other， leading to greater gene-mixing. It's believable that separate species would appear. Evolution is still at work and the trend may well be accelerating. Cultural diversity is fading as human society becomes more interconnected globally.
The radical king of evolution moves much more quickly than biological evolution. High-tech improvements are ranging from Supermen, to camera-equipped flying drones（遥控飞机）, to pills that keep soldiers going without sleep or food for days. To date, genetic medicine has focused on therapies that work on only one person at a time. The effects of those therapies aren't carried on to future generations. Tinkering with the germline could conceivably produce a superhuman species in a single generation-but could also conceivably create a race of monsters.
Today the rapid pace of cybernetic(计算机控制论的) change has led to worry that artificial intelligence may outpace human’s natural smarts. In some fields, artificial intelligence has already bested human. We're already making machines that can be assimilated (同化) including artificial limbs, mechanical hearts, and artificial retinas (视网膜).
If humans survive long enough, there's one sure way to grow new branches on our evolutionary family tree by spreading out to other planets. If humans established a permanent settlement on other planets, the radically different living conditions would change the evolutionary equation (方程式) What will be inconceivable millions of years from now? Two intelligent species, human and machine, definitely work together to spread life through the universe.
1.Scientists study the evolution according to .
A. different populations of a species
B. DNA analysis and the fossil record
C. cultural diversity and greater gene-mixing
D. high-tech enhancements and biological evolution
2. Which is NOT true about human beings' evolution?
A. New species will appear.
B. Human's evolution is faster than biological evolution
C. Cultures will become more colorful.
D. The evolution might create a race of monsters.
3.What might bring threat to human beings?
A. Supermen. B. Monsters.
C. Alien. D. Artificial intelligence.
4.Which of the following must happen in the future?
A. Humans survive long enough.
B. Humans spread out to other planets.
C. Human and machine work together.
D. Living conditions change the evolutionary equation.
D. genius
Public Speaking Makes a Man Embarrassed.
t, it will send a very mild electronic signal to your wrist. This consequently changes your sleeping position to stop you from snoring. The Snore Stopper; won't cause any damage to your body.
