In November of 2007, NBC Universal launched（发起） its first official Green Week. Throughout the week, NBC Universal presented over 150 hours of environmentally themed content across multiple platforms.

Now, NBC Universal is proud to present Green Week 2009. With a new theme and message of "Green Your Routine," Here at NBC and NBC.com we celebrate our talent in the "The More You Know" PSA campaign, presenting green-themed tips in several of our daytime life, among several other features here on the "Green Your Routine" site.

Fashion & Beauty

Throw a clothes swap party! Dying for that sweater your friend wore the other day? Well, maybe she'll trade for that old T-shirt you have. Here's a website that helps you organize a swap party (www.swapstyle.com), or just plan your own!

Go natural with organic make-up. Applying unnatural products directly on your skin wasn't exactly what nature intended. Try switching to a line of organic make-up and cosmetics for a different way to bring out your natural beauty.

Home

Drop a brick in your toilet tank! Literally! According to the EPA, flushing（冲洗）makes up 30 percent of a household's water use (about three to six gallons per flush). By placing a brick in your toilet tank, you can help to conserve the amount of water used during each flush.

Work

Print smarter. Printing and copying can be one of the most costly operations in any office. To save on ink and paper costs, print double-sided and try to fit more than one page on a sheet. More printing tips can be found here: lifehacker.com

Turn off your computer. Do you leave your computer on overnight? If so, you're using up a good amount of electricity. When you can, try turning off your computer and the power strip it's connected to. If you can't, at least shut off your monitor.

Transportation

Organize a carpool. There are many benefits to carpooling. You save on gas, reduce wear and tear on your car, and you get to ride in the HOV lanes. Get connected with your neighbours and co-workers to start sharing rides and check out this website for more tips: www.erideshare.com.

Lose the car, get a bike. If you live close to where you work, try taking a bike instead of driving. You'll keep in shape and save on gas!

Every small step and effort makes a difference! Be sure to GREEN YOUR ROUTINE!

1.NBC Universal holds Green Week activities ___________.

       A. in a university          B. in a park           C. in an office          D. on the internet

2.This year, Green Week welcomes ____________.

A. advice on how to improve the website                  

B. suggestions about how to make their activities more interesting

C. tips on what to do to make our life greener

D. opinions on whether we should have campaigns

3.If you want to carpool with somebody, you can find more advice and information at______.

       A. www.swapstyle.com                                            B. www.erideshare.com

       C. www. lifehacker.com                                           D. www. NBC.com

4.Which is NOT recommended by Green Week this year?

       A. Using things like cucumbers to beautify your skin.

       B. Reducing the room of your toilet tank to save water when flushing.

       C. Giving away your old clothes to those in need of them.

       D. Printing and using computers in an economical way.

Are you the type of person who always says“yes”？I’ve come to learn that it is very im-portant to learn to say NO！It’s okay. People are still going to like you. They may even respect you more because they know you are honest.

I，m not saying to say“no" to someone who really needs your help. I’m talking about re-fusing that meeting that you really do not want to attend or that birthday party that you don’t want to be a guest at.

Think for a moment how you feel when you say YES to something that you really don’t want to do. If you’re like I once was，you can’t sleep at night and you think about it too much. It weighs on your mind. You try to find ways out. Whatever you’re saying to yourself，if you really wanted to go，you wouldn’t have all of these thoughts.

So，why not just say NO from the beginning? Maybe you feel like if you don’t show up at the meeting（by the way，it is not one you must attend) your boss isn’t going to like you or your co-workers won’t respect you. Maybe you feel as if your mom，dad or sisters won’t love you as much if you don’t do everything for them that they ask every occasion.

If these people are your true friends，family members，or a good boss，they will like or love you the same no matter what. People treat you the way you teach them to，and if you’re some-one who always says“yes" then that’s what they，re expecting.

You need to do what is right for you. Of course we do have real obligations in life to ful-fill，but we do not have to do everything others want us to do.

1.Which of the following statements would the writer agree with？

A．We should try to do what our friends ask us to do.

B．We should help others in need.

C．Always saying“yes" means you are dishonest.

D．Always saying“no" means you are brave.

2.What does the underlined word，’ It" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Saying "yes"．

B．A friend's birthday party.

C．Something you’re unwilling to do.

D．Something you think difficult to do.

3.The writer believes that if you say“no" to your family members，you’11＿·

A．have the same relationship with them as before

B．have a loose relationship with them

C．disappoint them

D．upset them

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Learn to Make a Right Choice              B．To Be Yourself

C．Do What You Want to Do                  D．Learn to Say No

When times get tough, we all look for ways to cut back. When we’re hungry, we eat at home instead of going out. We take buses instead of taxis. And we wear our old designer jeans just a few months longer. With college expenses at all-time highs, high school students are eager to do anything to cut the cost of a university education.

One cost-cutting proposal is to allow college students to get a bachelor’s degree in three years instead of four. Educational institutions have been actively exploring ways to make the learning process more efficient. But there’s a question: Would the quality of undergraduate(本科生)education suffer? Few US universities have formally approved a “three-year degree” model.

I doubt that mainstream North American colleges will carry out a three-year curriculum(课程) any time soon. For one thing, most universities already allow highly qualified students to graduate early by testing out of certain classes and obtaining a number of college credits(学分). In addition, at famous universities, the committee who determine which courses are required and which courses are electives are unlikely to suddenly “throw out” one quarter of the required credits. Professors will resist “diluting(稀释)” the quality of the education they offer.

In my opinion, a quality four-year education is always superior to a quality three-year education. A college education requires sufficient time for a student to become skilled in their major and do coursework in fields outside their major. It is not a good idea to water down education, any more than it’s not a good idea to water down medicine. If we want to help students find their way through university, we should help them understand early on what knowledge and skills they need to have upon graduation. We should allow students to test out of as many courses as possible. We should give them a chance to earn money as interns(实习生)in meaningful part-time jobs that relate to their university studies, such as the five-year co-op program at Northeastern University.

1.The first paragraph serves as a(n)________．

A. explanation          B. definition      C. introduction         D. comment

2.We can learn from the passage that ________.

A. most American universities are against the “three-year degree” model

B. many famous US universities are considering adopting the “three-year degree” model

C. professors are willing to accept the “three-year degree” model

D. the “three-year degree” model can make college learning more efficient

3.In most US universities，________.

A. college students are offered the co-op program

B. electives’ credits make up one quarter of the required credits

C. all students are required to finish four-year education before graduation

D. some excellent students can graduate ahead of time

4.We can infer that________.

A. the author is a college professor

B. the author thinks the cost of a university education is too high for people to afford

C. the author considers the university education quality very important

D. the author pays special attention to the all-round development of college students

5.Which of the following can be the best title?

A. It’s time to shorten the learning process

B. Best learning takes place over time

C. University education should be watered down

D. College education calls for reform

B
Honesty may well be the policy, but it often deserts us when no one is watching, psychologists report today. Experiments with an honesty box to collect payments for hot drinks show that people are better at paying up when under the gaze(注视) of a pair of eyes. The surprise was that the eyes were not real, but photographed.
Researchers at Newcastle University set up the experiment in secret. They attached a poster to a cupboard of mugs above an-honesty box alongside a kettle, with tea, coffee and milk. Over 10 weeks, they alternated each week between images of eyes and pictures of flowers.
Dr. Bateson, a behavioral biologist and leader of the study, said that even though the eyes were not real they still seemed to make people behave more honestly. They effect may arise from behavioral characteristics that developed as early humans formed social groups that increased their chances of survival. Individuals had to co-operate for the good of the group, rather than act selfishly.
"If nobody is watching us it is in our interests to behave selfishly. But when we think we're being watched we should behave better, so people see us as co-operative and behave the same way towards us, "Dr. Bateson said.
"We thought we'd get a slight effect with eyes, but it was quite striking how much difference they made. Even at a subconscious(潜意识的) level, it seems people respond to eyes, and that might be because eyes send a strong biological signal we have evolved(进化) to respond to."
The finding, which researchers believe sheds light on our evolutionary past, could be turned to practical use. The psychologists say images of eyes could promote ticket sales on public transport and improve monitor systems to prevent antisocial behavior.
45. This passage is mainly about _______________.
A. the policy of honesty            B. an honesty box to collect money
C. evolution on honesty              D. an experiment on honesty
46. The reason for doing the experiment secretly is that the researchers _____________.
A. wanted to get a comparatively more exact result
B. had known they wanted to do something illegally
C. meant to get the co-operation of their colleagues
D. intended to sell the hot drinks at a higher price
47. People behave honestly under watchful gaze of eyes because _____________.
A. they want to leave a good impression   B. they fear to be laughed at by others
C. they've got the nature through evolution D. they take the photo for a real pair of eyes
48. Images of a pair of eyes can be applied to all except _____.
A. tickets sales on public transport        B. cold drink sales in public places
C. places with “No spitting!” signs         D. Christmas decorations in one’s home

Trying to make a big decision while you’re also preparing for a scary presentation? You might want to hold off on that. Feeling stressed changes how people weigh risk and reward. However, an article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests stressed people pay more attention to the positive sides of a possible outcome.
It’s a bit surprising that stress makes people focus on the way things could go right, says Mara Mather of the University of Southern California. She co-wrote the review paper with Nichole R.Lighthall. “This is sort of not what people would think, ” Mather says. “Stress is usually associated with negative experiences, so you’d think, maybe I’m going to be more focused on the negative outcomes.”
But researchers have found that when people are under stress, they start paying more attention to positive information and discounting negative information. “Stress seems to help people learn from positive feedback and impairs（削弱）their learning from negative feedback, ” Mather says.
When people under stress are making a difficult decision, they may pay more attention to the good sides of the alternatives they’re considering and less to the problems. So someone who’s deciding whether to take a new job and is feeling stressed by the decision might focus on the increase in salary more than the longer commute（上下班往返）.
The increased focus on the positives also helps explain why stress plays a role in addictions. People under stress have a harder time controlling their urges. “The compulsion to get that reward comes stronger and they’re less able to resist it,” Mather says. A person who’s under stress might think only about the good feelings they’ll get from a drug, while the downsides shrink into the distance.
Stress also increases the differences in how men and women think about risk. When men are under stress, they become even more willing to take risks; when women are stressed, they get more conservative(保守的). Previous research backs this up — men usually react to difficulties while trying to fight them or escape them; women try to find friends and improve their relationships.
【小题1】By saying “You might want to hold off on that” in the first paragraph, the writer suggests that      .