(A)
Among my experiences as a college president is the all-too-frequent phone call in the night that begins:“One of your stu- dents is in the emergency room with alcohol poisoning.”The whole country got a similar wake-up call in June when it was reported that alcohol abuse on college campuses is on the rise,especially for women,and that college students drink far more than non- students.One statistic showed that college students spend more money on alcohol while in college than on books.Alcohol abuse,although tragic,is but one symptom of a larger campus crisis.A generation has come to college quite fragile ,not very secure about who it is,fearful of itslack of identity and without confidence in its future.Many students are ashamed of themselves and afraid of relationships.
Students use alcohol as an escape.It's used as an excuse for bad behavior;the insanity defense writ large(显然被夸大的)on
campus.This diminished sense of self has caused a growth in racism,sexism,attempted suicide,theft,property damage and cheating on most campuses.
This is not the stuff of most presidents' public conver-sations.Nor can it be explained away as an“underclass”problem;it is found on our most privileged campuses. It is happening because the generation now entering college has experienced few au- thentic connections with adults in its life-time.I call this the“Culture of Neglect,”and we—parents,teachers,professors and adm inistrators—are the primary architects.
It begins at home ,where social and economic factors—such as declining incomes requiring longer work hours—result in less fam- ily time.Young people have been allowed to or must take part-tim e jobs rather than spending tim e in school,on homework or with their families.More children and youths are being reared in a vacuum ,with television as their only supervisor,and there is litle expectation that they learn personal responsibility.Immersed in themselves,they are left to their peers.
Questions:
1.What's the reason for“one of your students is in the em
ergency room”?
A)He is drunken.
B)He has an accident.
C)He got a severe cold.
D)He fell down.
2.What is increasing on college cam puses?
A)Too frequent phone calls.
B)Alcohol abuse.
C)Student's insanity.
D)Culture neglect.
3.What is the m eaning of the word“fragile” here?
A)Strong-willed. B)Fearful.
C)Weak physically.D)Lacking self-confidence.
4.Who is responsible for the“Culture of Neglect”?
A)Students. B)Educators.C)Racism.D)Supervisors.
5.More work leads to ________ .
A)more incomes B)less family time
C)a happy life D)less responsibilities
(B)
Whether trying to live with the depressing spectacle of draught or battling rampaging floods or suffering with adebilitating(使衰弱)disease caused by polluted drinking supplies,people in almost every corner of the world have had their problems with unpredicta-ble changes of water.Although water covers much of our planet, more than 97% is in the oceans.Another 2% is unusable ice.And much of the remainder is polluted.So much for the supposed abundance!Developed and developing countries alike are now talking about a crisis.
What of the future?Will water needs reach a peak?Unhappily,UN experts expect demands to double in the next 25 years. This will coincide with increasing population and industrialization—and the attendant risk of factory and human wastes further contam- inating rivers,lakes,and ground water.So,is there any hope of a solution? The answer,fortunately,is that the problem is being tackled.
Specialists in many countries are developing methods to improve supply and conservation and protect quality,and a num ber of am- bitious programmes havebeen undertaken.Good forecasting—including predictions of snow,rain,river levels and soil loss—can help scientists head off,or at least cope with floods.Canals can ease one of the major water-related problems: drought.With something like three quarters of the world's fresh water tied up as ice, plans to drag icebergs to drought areas have been around for a long time:attempts to overcome drawbacks—a GREat deal of energy would be needed to tow the ice and pump the water island,and the ice might melt before reaching its destination—are still being made.In addition,research into desalting sea-water continues withnew and im proving desalting methods although no method can yet prom- ise truly low-cost fresh water.Fossil water—underground water dating back to ice age—could be drilled for in some areas but supplies are non-renewable.Work continues in all these areas.It is obvious that a lot of time,money and research is going into finding solutions for some of the problems.
However,worldwide,the ugly fact remains that something like 250 million new cases of water-borne diseases are discovered every year—and 25,000 people die from them every day.Pollution conti-nues to plague us—all of us.So,whether polluted by industrial waste,sewage or otherpollution,unreliable water supplies fre-quently create breeding grounds for deadly water-borne diseases when safeguards and purification are inadequate.
Millions of people,therefore,continue to be affected by water-related problems and,contrary to popular belief,future water supplies are not inexhaustible.So the situation is serious,especialy in view of UN estimates of demand.Although projects to provide ever-increasing supplies of water indicate that a growing number of countries are aware of the present problems and of those to come,these more often than not are highly expensive and not practical—and very time-consuming when time is a commodity in short supply.So,while research in these areas is important,the eventual solution would definitely appear to be worldwide conservation and pollution control—in other words,a GREater respect for our most valuable natural resource.
Questions:
6.Which of the following statem entswould be the central theme
of the passage?
A.Much of the earth is covered with water and so we have lim-
itless water resources in the future.
B.A lot of effective m ethods have been used to im prove water
supply.
C.Water is scarce and m uch of what is available is polluted.
D.Iceberg is the best of water resources.
7.According to the passage ,water-related problem s refer to
________ .
A.drought,floods and contamination
B.time,money and pollution
C.rain,snow and river
D.floods,icebergs and underground water
8.What is the author's attitude towards the solutions to the
problem s of water crisis?
A.They are feasible and efficient.
B.They are expensive,im practical and time-consuming.
C.They are cheap,profitable and easily performed.
D.They are effective,possible and ambitious.
9.According to the passage,water needs will reach a peak
because of ________ .
A.drought and pollution
B.increasing population and industrialization
C.less rain and snow
D.birth boom
10.According to the passage,the possible solution to water
scarcity is that ____ . A.people in the world should
GREatly cherish water resources
B.a lot of m oney and tim e will be spent in the research of
water problem s
C.icebergs will be dragged to drought regions
D.people should m ake full use of underground water
Keys:(A)1.A2.B3.D4.B5.B
(B)6.C7.A8.B9.B10.A