SCOTS Secretary Jim Murphy is on a mission（使命...

SCOTS Secretary Jim Murphy is on a mission（使命）to recover ￡46 million of council cash．

He has travelled to Iceland for high-level talks with Prime Minister Geir Haarde．

Mr Murphy has vowed（发誓）to do“whatever it takes”to ensure the return to local auth orities（管理机构）of the millions of pounds which are locked in crisis hit Icelandic banks．

He also wants to see the return of money deposited（存款）there by a number of Scottish charities（慈善事业）．

Mr Murphy said Scots councils and charities had invested in Icelandic banks in good faith．before the country’s banking system was severely hit by the global financial crisis．

He said：“Our relationship with Iceland has traditionally been a very good one．But of course。there are pressures at the moment．particularly because of the international credit crisis and the collapse of the Icelandic banks．”

There is Scottish council and Scottish charity money invested in some of those banks and I’m making efforts to persuade the Icelandic government that money should be returned．

“We’ve made very clear，we’ll do whatever it takes to support Scottish people to get their money out of the Icelandic banking crisis．”

The Scottish Secretary’s move has been welcomed by the Holyrood Parliament．

The UK Government is Currently trying to save￡4 billion in deposits held by customers in the failed Icelandic bank Icesave，at risk after its parent firm（母公司）Lands banki folded（重组） ．

The bank’s collapse caused a diplomatic arguement after ministers froze assets （资产）of other Icelandic banks．

1.According to the passage，which of the following is TRUE？

A．Scots councils and charities had invested in Icelandic banks in bad faith．

B．The relationship with Iceland has traditionally been a very good one，so don’t worry about it forever．

C．The UK Government and people can’t be satisfied with Iceland’s ministers’measures．

D．The UK Government supports scottish people to fight with the lceland．

2.Which of the following words is the closest in meaning to the underlined word'?

A．straight         B．seriously            C．suddenly             D．slightly

3.Jim Murphy will pay a visit to Iceland in order to________．

A．strengthen their cooperation and promote economical progress between two countries

B．persuade the Icelandic government to give back the money that are locked in crisis-hit Icelandic banks

C．travelled to Iceland for high-level talks with prime minister Geir Haarde and wanted to break away from the crisis together

D．represent the government to help Iceland to recover economy

4.What is the best title for the passage?

A．Iceland Banking crisis                   B．Murphy’s lcelandic mission

C．The influence of the crisis              D．A friendly visit

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

An extraordinary new restaurant in Semarang, Indonesia is on a mission (使命) to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whom are earning less than $25 a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food.

The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located in an unexpected place for an eatery — Jatibarang Landfill. The landfill is a mountain of purifying waste, where poor locals spend their days collecting plastic and glass to sell. Meanwhile, the couple, who spent 40 years collecting waste before opening the restaurant, is busy cooking.

What makes the restaurant unusual, aside from its location, is that no cash is required to pay for meals. Poor people have the option to pay for their food with recyclable waste instead of cash. Sarimin weighs the plastic customers bring in, calculates its worth, and then deduct that value from the cost of the meal, giving any extra value back to the customer. The scheme is part of the community’s solution to reduce waste in the landfill and recycle non-degradable plastics.

“I think we recycle 1 ton of plastic waste a day, which is a lot. This way, the plastic waste doesn’t pile up, drift down the river and cause flooding,” said Sarimin in an interview with Channel News Asia. “It benefits everyone.”

The restaurant seats about 30 people and serves meals that cost between $0.40 and $0.80 each. Since opening the canteen Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen their daily income more than double to $15 a day.

“I’m happy to see our customers enjoying their meals,” Sarimin told NHK World. “The poor must also have the right to enjoy healthy eating. I want to give them that chance as much as possible.”

1.What do we know about Jatibarang Landfill?

A.An unusual restaurant for people to eat free meals.

B.A mountain where the locals live on selling waste.

C.A place where poor locals collect waste to sell.

D.A plant where waste is recycled.

2.Why did Sarimin and Suyatmi open their restaurant?

A.To double their daily income and profit.

B.To prove waste is a valuable thing.

C.To provide food for locals trying to survive.

D.To help settle the issues of poverty and trash.

3.What does the underlined word “deduct” in paragraph 3 mean?

A.Increase B.Replace

C.Remove D.Equal

4.What is the text mainly about?

A.An unusual way to pay for meals.

B.A local mission to help get rid of poverty.

C.A different scheme to reduce waste.

D.A new restaurant getting double income.

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

A new restaurant in Indonesia is on a mission (使命) to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whom are earning less than $25 a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food.

The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located in an unexpected place for an eatery — Jatibarang Landfill. The landfill is a mountain of purifying waste, where poor locals spend their days collecting plastic and glass to sell. Meanwhile, the couple, who spent 40 years collecting waste before opening the restaurant, is busy cooking.

What makes the restaurant unusual, aside from its location, is that no cash is required to pay for meals. Poor people have the option to pay for their food with recyclable waste instead of cash. Sarimin weighs the plastic customers bring in, calculates its worth, and then deduct that value from the cost of the meal, giving any extra value back to the customer. The scheme is part of the community’s solution to reduce waste in the landfill and recycle non-degradable plastics.

“I think we recycle 1 tonne of plastic waste a day, which is a lot. This way, the plastic waste doesn’t pile up, drift down the river and cause flooding,” said Saimin. “It benefits everyone.”

The restaurant seats about 30 people and serves meals that cost between $0.40 and $0.80 each. Since opening the canteen Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen their daily income more than double to $15 a day.

“I’m happy to see our customers enjoying their meals,” Sarimin told NHK World. “The poor must also have the right to enjoy healthy eating. I want to give them that chance as much as possible.”

1.What do we know about Jatibarang Landfill?

A. It is a good place for people to eat meals

B. It is a place where locals collect plastic and glass to sell

C. It is a mountain which attracts many tourists

D. It is a modem plastic recycling plant.

2.What makes the Methane Gas Canteen different?

A. Its location and the way to pay for meals.

B. The delicious food and the kind-hearted owner.

C. Its location and those strange customers.

D. Its customers and the way to pay for meal.

3.What does the underlined word mean?

A. Increase B. Replace

C. Remove D. Equal

4.Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Sarimin and Suyatmi recycle plastic waste only to make money.

B. The plastic waste may cause flooding.

C. The restaurant seats around 30 people at present.

D. Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen an increase in their income.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Mathew White, an environmental psychologist, is on a mission to give Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of illnesses common in the world. Experimental work has demonstrated various physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments: blood pressure drops, heart rate decreases, immune function improves, and the nervous system directs the body to rest and digest.

As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments. But before doctors can start advising their patients to head to the nearest park, there is an important outstanding question, says White: How much time in nature do you need to generate these apparent benefits? Most of the research that has linked health outcomes with exposure to the natural world didn’t use frequency or duration of park visits, but rather the amount of green space within a certain distance of a person’s home, White says. But “it’s not so much where you live; it’s whether you use it or not.”

So he collected data to estimate what dose（剂量） of nature was needed to show benefits to a person’s health. White’s group found the answer he was after: Spending at least two hours in nature per week was strongly correlated with self-reports of being in good health or having high wellbeing. “I was very surprised, to be honest,” says White, who had been expecting a much longer time. “We had no idea that such a clear threshold of time per week would emerge from the data.”

He was further surprised to learn that it didn’t seem to matter how many trips to a park people took, so long as they got in their two hours per week. It could be a long visit one day, a couple of hour-long trips, three visits of 40 minutes, or four half-hour excursions. He and his colleagues speculate that, if nature’s apparent health benefits are a result of being able to de-stress, then whatever pattern of green space exposure fits one’s schedule is probably the best way to achieve that goal.

Health-care recommendations for people to spend time in nature are probably years away, but the movement has begun. Several organizations around the world are working to promote awareness of nature’s contribution to health. Some researchers have used the term “a dose of nature” to evaluate the amount of exposure needed to gain benefits. “That was kind of the deliberate medicalization of the language around nature and health,” says White.

1.White’s research focused on_______.

A.required amount of green space

B.benefits from the exposure to nature

C.necessary time length of nature visits

D.physical responses to outdoor activities

2.What does the underlined phrase “threshold of time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A.Maximum time. B.Minimum time.

C.Adequate time. D.Average time.

3.From the last paragraph, we can infer that White______.

A.is confident about his mission

B.is willing to cooperate with others

C.has persuaded others to accept his idea

D.has adopted the term for his research result

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A.Respect for Nature B.Nature as Medicine

C.Present from Nature D.Mission in Nature

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

_____the damage is done, it will take many years for the farmland to recover.

A. Until　 　　　　　　　　 B. Unless

C. Once　 　　　　　　　　　 D. Although

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

_____the damage is done, it will take many years for the farmland to recover.

A. Until　　 　　　　　　 　 B. Unless

C. Once　　 　　　　　　　 　　 D. Although

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Will Robots Put Us All on the Unemployment Line?

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is blamed for saying he’s “not worried at all” about robots displacing American workers. Yet he’s spot on: Robots will soon launch a productivity boom, leading to improved economic growth, higher wages and a higher standard of living. Just what America needs after a decade dragging along at 2 percent growth.

Scaremongers (危言耸听者) who warn that robots steal jobs are failing to predict the jobs of the future. A hotel worker who makes room-service deliveries today may instead be monitoring or repairing delivery robots. Not to mention the new jobs in every field that will come with a booming economy, predict PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants. Robots are our friends.

And there’s no going back^ contrary to the view of Bill Gates. The tech billionaire wants to put the brakes on the next innovation boom. He’s suggesting a heavy tax to punish robots in the workplace. Complete foolishness.

Economists have been complaining about the poor world economy, declaring what’s needed is a technological breakthrough. Well, here it is — assuming politicians don’t try to kill it.

Robotics has already taken hold in manufacturing, especially the auto industry. These machines are so efficient (高效的) that US factories are producing more with fewer workers on the assembly (装配) line. That gain in productivity translates into higher wages for the remaining factory workers and lower prices for consumers.

If President Trump succeeds in bringing auto jobs back to the United States, they won’t be the same routine, repeated tasks that assembly line workers had in the past. These new jobs will require knowledge of computer-aided design and other complex engineering issues.

The same goes for the service field, like supermarket and warehousing. A surprising 94 percent of CEOs using robots say they’ve increased productivity. The end result: fewer jobs for unskilled workers, though in all possibility more jobs overall as the economy grows, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Message to politicians: Focus on workplace readiness. It beats trying to block technological progress—a vain attempt to protect yesterday’s jobs.

The economy booms when businesses, not politicians, call the shots on technology. Welcoming robots will create more goods and services, a bigger pie for all to share. Skills training will help everyone get a piece of the pie.

1.Who may agree that robots won’t put us all on the unemployment line?

A. Steven Mnuchin.　　 B. Scaremongers.

C. Bill Gates.　　 D. Politicians.

2.Why are robots widely used in manufacturing?

A. They are productive.　　 B. They are our friends.

C. Workers will earn more money.　　 D. Workers can’t do skilled tasks.

3.What does PricewaterhouseCooper indicate?

A. More workers will lose their jobs.

B. Everybody should be retrained to gain new skills.

C. More jobs will be created due to the growth of economy.

D. High productivity leads to higher wages for all people.

4.What’s the author’s attitude towards the application of robots?

A. Supportive.　　 B. Respectful.

C. Doubtful.　　 D. Negative.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The secretary is so outstanding and popular _____ she knows how to get on well with other colleagues and balance the relationship between them.

A.as though B.even though

C.in case D.in that

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

“All ______ present, and all ______ going on smoothly.” Said the secretary.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Hundreds of years ago，a Roman army came north from England to make war on Scotland. The Scots, a brave people, loved their country very much. They fought hard to drive the enemy out of Scotland, but there were too many Romans. It looked as if the Romans would win.

One night, the leader of Scots marched his soldiers to the top of a hill. “We will rest here tonight, my men,” he said. “Tomorrow we will fight one more battle. We must win or we will die.”

They were all very tired, so they ate their supper quickly and fell asleep. There were four guards on duty, but they were very tired, too, and one by one, they fell asleep.

The Romans were not asleep. Quickly they gathered at the foot of the hill. Slowly they climbed up the hillside, taking care not to make a sound. Closer and closer they came to the sleeping Scots. They were almost at the top. A few minutes more，the war would be over. Suddenly, one of them put his foot on a thistle(蓟). He cried out and his sudden cry woke the Scots. In a moment，they were on their feet and ready for a battle. The fighting was hard but it did not last long. The Scots wiped out the Romans and saved their country.

The thistle is not a beautiful plant. It has sharp needles all over it. Few people like it. But the people of Scotland liked it so much that they made it their national flower.

1.The result of the war is that ________.

A.the Scots defeated the Romans

B.the Romans killed all the Scots

C.the Scots were defeated

D.the Scots were driven out of Scotland

2.At the shout of a Roman soldier, all the Scots who were asleep at the hill ________.

A.woke and rose immediately, ready to fight

B.put their feet into their shoes at once and were ready to fight

C.stood up without putting on their shoes and began to fight

D.began to fight the Romans hard

3.The Scots made thistle their national flower because thistle ________.

A.gave them happiness

B.had so many sharp needles all over it

C.helped the Scots in wiping out the Romans

D.is lovely, though not beautiful

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析