Our age is witnessing a profound political change.我们的时代是深刻政治变革的见证。

m 18 to 21. The measure is part of a larger package of laws aimed at reducing tobacco use. If Gover-nor Jerry Brown signs the bill, California will become the second state, after Hawaii, to raise the age limit for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products. More than 100 cities in the U. S., inclu-ding New York and Boston, have already raised the age limit.

A week ago, the Caiifomia Assembly approved the measure, which--in addition to raising the age limit--treats electronic cigarettes the same as tobacco products, expands smoke-free areas, in-creases smoking bans and allows counties to collect higher taxes on cigarettes than the 87-cent per pack state tax. The Assembly&39; s vote came a few days after the city of San Francisco increased the age to buy tobacco products to 21.

California lawmakers passed the bill despite lobbying (游说)from tobacco interests. The meas-ure also faced opposition from many Republicans, who said the state should not be involved in po-licing people&39; s personal choices. "I don&39; t smoke. I don&39; t encourage my children to," said Re-publican Assemblyman Donald Wagner. "But they&39; re adults, and it&39; s our job to treat our citizens as adults. "

But supporters of the bill say raising the age to 21 moves legally purchased tobacco that much farther from younger kids. " This will save the medical system millions of dollars," said Democratic Assemblyman Jim Wood. (76 ) "It will save thousands of lives. " A 2015 study by the Institute of Medicine "found that if the minimum legal age to buy tobacco were raised to 21 nation-wide, tobacco use would drop by 12 percent by the time today&39; s teens reached adulthood. In addi-tion, there would be 223,000 fewer premature (过早的) deaths and 50,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer. "

Which of the following is the first state to raise smoking age to 21？

A.California

B.Hawaii

C.New York.

D.Washington.

The California law includes all the following measures EXCEPT__________.A.enlarging no-smoking areas

B.allowing counties to collect higher taxes on cigarettes

C.increasing smoking bans

D.punishing parents who encourage their children to smoke

The word policing in Paragraph 3 probably means__________.A.enriching

B.controlling

C.understanding

D.protecting

Who is against the bill？A.Governor Jerry Brown.

B.Assemblyman Donald Wagner.

C.Assemblyman Jim Wood

E.The mayor of San Francisco.

Which of the following is an appropriate title for the passage？A.Calitbrnia Lawmakers Vote to Raise Smoking Age to 21

B.San Francisco Increased the Age to Buy Tobacco Products to 21

C.Hawaii Has Already Raised the Age Limit to Buy Tobacco

D.A California Bill Faces Opposition from Many Republicans

请帮忙给出每个问题的正确答案和分析，谢谢！

re faced with today. According to an official report, in Shanghai alone, since 1986, nearly 1,000,000 adult workers have lost their jobs because of factory closings and cutbacks-----either temporarily laid off or permanently forced to retire.

Many people, especially the policy makers, believe that forcing adult workers, those who are over 45, to retire is an effective means to relieve the tension of unemployment, for it can provide more job opportunities for the jobless young. But they fail to notice that forcing a person who is still able to work and has a family to support to retire brings serious financial problems as well as emotional and physical ones. They also fail to realize that actually workers aged 45-60 tend to be more stable, more skillful and more experienced than workers of any other ages, that to some extent this age is the prime time for one’s productivity and creativity. To force them to retire is a huge waste of the nation’s best resources. On the contrary, if we turn our attention to the other end of the age problem, a more effective way might emerge. Today, only 30% of school- leavers are allowed to go to college, leaving the majority of the young people under 18 and without adequate preparation to join the labor force. If, however, more of them are able to attend college and begin full-time employment at a later age, more job opportunities will be created as the number of years that an average person works full time shrinks.

Most importantly, we should not be content merely to solve the problem of unemployment, but rather, we should improve the quality of the workforce at the same time by retaining the skilled adults and recruiting(补充，招收) the well-educated young.

（1）The best title for this passage might be（）.

A. How to Solve the Problem of Unemployment？

B. Should People Be Forced to Retire？

C. Why Don’t We Educate the Young？

D. Are the Policy Makers Wise？

（2） Forcing a middle-aged person to retire might cause（）.

A. financial problems

B. a huge waste of the nation’s talent resources

C. emotional and physical problems

D. all of the above

（3）The word “prime” in Paragraph 2 Line 6 can be best replaced by “ （）”.

A. first

B. early

C. major

D. spring

（4）Which of the following suggestions does the writer make？

A. Young people should work harder in order to go to college.

B. Colleges should be open to more high school-leavers.

C. The old should be allowed to work as long as they want to.

D. Policy makers should create more job opportunities.

（5）What is the writer’s attitude to the described situation？

A. Concerned.

B. Hopeless

C. Indifferent

D. Content.

h more or less plausible speculations. We do not even know for certain when language arose, but it seems likely that it goes back to the earliest history of man, perhaps haft a million years ago. We have no direct evidence, but it seems probable that it took the earliest forms of human cooperation. In the Ice Ages of the Pleistocene(更新世) period, our earliest human ancestors established the Old Stone Age culture; they made stone tools and, later, tools of bone, ivory, and antler; they made fire and cooked their food; they hunted big game, often by methods that called for considerable cooperation and coordination. As their material culture gradually developed, they became artists and drew pebbles as well as wonderful paintings of animals on the walls of caves. It is difficult to believe that the makers of these Paleolithic(旧石器时代的) cultures lacked the power of speech. It is a long step, admittedly, from other earliest flint weapons to the splendid spear of the late Stone Age: the first crude flints date back perhaps to 500,000 B.C., while the finest achievements of Old Stone Age man are later than 100,000 B. C.; and in this period we can envisage a corresponding development of language, from the most primitive and limited language of the earliest human groups to a fully developed language in the flowering time of Old .Stone Age culture.

How did language arise in the first place？ There are many theories about this, based on various types of indirect evidence, such as the language of children, the language of primitive societies, the kinds of changes

that have taken place in language in the course of recorded history, the behavior. of higher animals like chimpanzees, and the behavior. of people suffering from speech defects. These types of evidence may provide us with pointers, but they all suffer from limitations.

When we consider the language of children, we haw to remember that their situations are quite different from those of our earliest human ancestors because the child, growing up in an environment where there is al- ready a fully developed language, is surrounded by adults who use that language and are teaching it to him. For example, it has been shown that the earliest words used by children are mainly the names of things and people ("doll," "spoon," "Mummy"), but this fact does not prove that the earliest words of primitive man were also the names of things and people. When the child learns the name of an object, he may then use it to express his wishes or demands.

"Doll!" often means,. "Give me my doll!" or "I've dropped my doll. Pick it up for me!" The child is us- ing language to get things done, and it is almost an accident of adult teaching that the words used to formulate the child's demands are mainly nouns instead of words like "Bring!" "Pick Up!" and so on.

Theories of the origin of language include all of the following EXCEPT______.

A．communication among primitive men

B．the need to communicate

C．the language of children

D．the first man's extensive vocabulary

urselves and the world about us. When humans first【C1】______, they were like newborn children, unable to use this【C2】______tool. Yet once language developed, the possibilities for mankind's future【C3】______and cultural growth increased.

Many linguists believe that evolution is【C4】______for our ability to produce and use language. They【C5】______that our highly evolved brain provides us【C6】______an innate language ability not found in lower【C7】______. Proponents of this innateness theory say that our【C8】______for language is inborn, but that language itself develops gradually,【C9】______a function of the growth of the brain during childhood. Therefore there are critical【C10】______times for language development.

Current【C11】______of innateness theory are mixed; however, evidence supporting the existence of some innate abilities is undeniable.【C12】______, more and more schools are discovering that foreign languages are best taught in【C13】______grades. Young children often can learn several languages by being【C14】______to them, while adults have a much harder time learning another language once the【C15】______of their first language have become firmly fixed.

【C16】______some aspects of language are undeniably innate, language does not develop automatically in a vacuum. Children who have been【C17】______from other human beings do not possess language. This demonstrates that【C18】______with other human beings is necessary for proper language development. Some linguists believe that this is even more basic to human language【C19】______than any innate capacities. These theorists view language as imitative, learned behavior.【C20】______, children learn language from their parents by imitating them. Parents gradually shape their child's language skills by positively reinforcing precise imitations and negatively reinforcing imprecise ones.

【C1】

A．generated

B．evolved

C．born

D．originated

, achievements, and self-sacrifice made most for the benefits of others-they are people against whom we measure others.They are men and women recognized for shaping our nation’s consciousness and development as well as the lives of those who admire them.Yet, some people say that ours is an age where true heroes and heroines are hard to come by, where the very idea of heroism is something beyond us-an artifact of the past.Some maintain, that because the Cold War is over and because America is at peace, our age is essentially an unheroic one.Furthermore, the overall crime rate is down, poverty has been eased by a strong and growing economy, and advances continue to be made in medical science.

Cultural icons are hard to define, but we know them when we see them.They are people who manage to go beyond celebrity, who are legendary, who somehow manage to become mythic,.But what makes some figures icons and others mere celebrities？ That’s hard to answer.In part, their lives have the quality of a story to tell.For instance, the beautiful young Diana Spencer who at 19 married a prince, renounced marriage and the throne, and died at the moment she found true love.Good looks certainly help.So does a special indefinable charm, with the help of the media.But nothing confirms an icon more than a tragic death—such as Martin Luther King, Jr., John F.Kennedy, and Princess Diana.

1.The passage mainly deals with ________.

A.life and death

B.heroes and heroines

C.heroes and icons

D.icons and celebrities

2.Heroes and heroines are usually ________.

A.courageous

B.good examples to follow

C.self-sacrificing

D.all of the above

3.Which of the following statements is wrong？()

A.Poverty in America has been eased with the economic growth

B.Superstars are famous for being famous

C.One’s look can contribute to being famous

D.Heroes and heroines can only emerge in war times

4.Beautiful young Diana Spencer found her genuine love ________.

A.when she was 19

B.when she became a princess

C.just before her death

D.after she gave birth to a prince

5.What is more likely to set an icon’s status？()

A.Good looks

B.Tragic and early death

C.Personal attraction

D.The quality of one’s story

sion that Jerry was the most important and had the greatest effect upon my life. His family moved to my block when I was only 10. Jerry was 15 at the time, but the fact that he was so much older than me seemed to make no difference to him. I was very glad that he liked me. We took long walks together, on which he would tell me stories he had heard form. TV and radio programs.

But as months went by, a change came into our friendship. Jerry almost stopped coming by the house, and every time I went to his house or telephoned, he put me off with some excuses such as "I'm studying now" or "I've got some jobs to do for Mum". When we passed on the street, he would still give me a warm smile and friendly wave with a "Hi, kid", but he would hardly ever stop to talk. Finally I realized that he was no longer interested in me and that his，taste had changed. I noticed him with a girl once in a while and several times saw him going out in his family's car on a Friday or Saturday night. I simply couldn't understand what was so great about girls and parties.

But I was hurt when he finally made me know that our friendship was at an end. Of course he didn't really mean to hurt me, but it was a long time before I realized that it was an age problem that caused the break. There were a world of differences between the ideas and interests of a 17-year-old and a 12-year-old. Now that I'm over sixteen myself, I realized this, and the hurt I got then has become happy memories of the good times we were once together. I wonder if millions of other boys and girls have had a similar experience.

(1)、When the writer and Jerry first met, Jerry was ______.

A：10 years old

B：5 years older than the writer

C：of the same age as the writer

D：the writer's classmate

(2)、Their friendship lasted for ______.

A：a few years

B：a few weeks

C：a few months

D：a few hours

(3)、Jerry stopped playing with the writer because ______.

A：the writer had changed

B：he was busy with his study

C：he has some jobs to do

D：he was not interested in the writer

(4)、When a change came in their friendship, the writer ______.

A：accepted it at once

B：couldn't understand his friend for a long time

C：stopped visiting his friend

D：started going to parties with girls

(5)、The main idea of the passage is that ______.

A：the age difference plays a part in friendship

B：friendship is the most important thing for children

C：many boys and girls have a similar experience as the writer

D："friends are made in wine and tested in tears"

essarily mean that something has become stronger, wiser, or better. It simply means changing it from being one thing to another and sometimes it turns out to be worse than before.

Consider medicine, for instance. No one can deny that medical progress has enriched our lives tremendously. Because of medical advances, we eat better, live easier and are able to take care of ourselves more efficiently. We can cure disease with no more than one injection or a pill. If we have a serious accident, surgeons can put us back together again. If we are born with something defective, they can repair it. They can make us happy, restore our normality, ease our pain, replace worn parts and give us children. They can even bring us back from the dead. These are wonderful achievements, but there is a price we have to pay.

Because medicine has reduced infant mortality and natural death so significantly, the population has been rising steadily, in spite of serious efforts to reduce the rate of population growth. Less than a century ago in the United Stales, infant mortality claimed more than half of the newborn within the first year of life. Medical advances, however, have now reduced that rate to nearly zero. A child born in the United States today has better than a 90% chance of survival. Furthermore, medical advances have ensured that most of these infants will live to be seventy years of age or more, and even that life expectancy increases every year. The result of this progress is an enormous population increase that threatens the quality of life, brought about by progress in the medical profession.

According to this passage, " progress" doesn't always mean that______.

A．something has become stronger and better

B．something has been changed from being one thing to another

C．something has become funny

D．something turns out to be worse than before

ression, a research has shown.

Leeds University researchers, writing in the Psychopathology journal, said a small proportion of Internet users were classed as Internet addicts and that people in this group were more likely to be depressed than non-addicted users.

The article on the relationship between excessive Internet use and depression, a questionnaire-based study of 1,319 young people and adults, used data gathered from respondents to links placed on UK-based social networking sites.

The respondents answered questions about how much time they spent on the Internet and what they used it for; they also completed the Beck Depression Inventory--a series of questions designed to measure the severity of depression.

The six-page report, by the university's Institute of Psychological Sciences, said 18 of the people who completed the questionnaire were Internet addicts.

"Our research indicates that excessive Internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes flint--are depressed people drawn to the Internet or does the Internet cause depression？" the article's lead author, Dr.Catriona Morrison, said. "What is clear is that, for a small part of people, excessive use of the Internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies."

The age range of all respondents was between 16 and 51 years, with a mean age of 21.24. The mean age of the 18 Internet addicts, 13 of whom were male and five female, was 18.3 years. By comparing the scale of depression within this group to that within a group of 18 non-addicted Internet users, researchers found the Internet addicts had a higher incidence of moderate to severe depression than non-addicts. They also discovered that addicts spent proportionately more time browsing sexually pleasing websites, online gaming sites and online communities.

"This study reinforces the public speculation (推测) that over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction," Morrison said. "We now need to consider the wider societal implications of this relationship and establish clearly the effects of excessive Internet use on mental health."

Internet addicts are people who______.

A．use the Internet more than enough

B．feel depressed when using the Internet

C．seldom connect to the Internet

D．feel depressed without the Internet

e in industrialized nations that they would be much healthier if they ate more of the same kind of food eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago.

The scientists say that the human body has changed very little since human first appeared on the earth, but the way we live has changed greatly.Our body has not been able to deal with these changes in life style. (方式) and this has led to new kinds of sicknesses.These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times (古代).So they are called “diseases of civilization”.Many cancers and diseases of the blood system (系统),including heart attacks and stroke (中风) are examples of such diseases.

Scientists noted that people in both the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age enjoyed very little alcohol (酒精) or tobacco (烟草),probably none.Ancient people also got a great deal of physical exercise, but a change in food is one of the main differences between life in ancient times and that of today.

Stone-age people hunted wild animals for their meat, which had much less fat than domestic or tame ones (家畜).They also ate a lot of fresh wild vegetables and fruits.They did not have milk or any other dairy products, and they made very little use of grains.But today, we eat a large amount of these.We eat six times more salt than our remote ancestors.We eat more sugar.We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein (蛋白质) and much less vitamin.(维生素) C.

People today probably do not want to live the way people thousands of years ago did, but scientists say that we would be much healthier if we ate much the same way our remote ancestors did ,cutting the amount of fatty, salty and sweet food.

1.According to the passage, people in industrialized nations would be much healthier if they eat()

A.more food as human living 10,000 years ago did

B.as human living 10,000 years ago ate

C.more kinds of food eaten by people living over 10,000 years ago

D.more of the same kind of food eaten by people over 10,000 years ago

2.New kinds of sicknesses have been found because().

A.the human body has changed compared with(同……比较) human first appeared on the earth

B.the way we live has changed a little

C.our body can't deal with the changes in life style

D.the way we live today is proper for the human body

3.What is the main cause that people suffer from a lot of new sicknesses？ ()

A.Ancient people did a great deal of physical exercise

B.People today have a lot of alcohol

C.People today have more tobacco

D.Food today is quite different from that of ancient times

4.Which of the following belongs to the dairy product？()

A.Milk

B.Corn

C.Pork

D.Flour

5.According to some scientists, Stone-age people were much healthier than people today because they ate a lot of ______.

A.milk and other dairy products

B.wild animals, fresh.wild vegetables and fruits

C.salt and sugar

D.grain foods