Parts of Africa are covered by a dark cloud. But this is no rain cloud. It is a living cloud made of billions of locusts (蝗虫) and they are eating everything in their path.
And now in order to fight against this disaster, a radio station in Senegal, West Africa, is offering listeners 5 kilograms of rice if they can catch and kill 50 kilograms of locusts. “We think this idea will get more people to take part in the fight against the locusts,” said Abdoulaye Ba, from Sud-Fm, a radio station in one of Senegal’s worst affected area.
This is West Africa’s biggest locust disaster in 15 years. Now it is moving east and it leads to the loss of crops. When they move, they have babies, so their number is getting bigger. and will soon threaten (威胁) Sudan in the northeast of Africa. Some say it may reach Asia.
Experts say many people in the areas will go hungry because of this disaster. What’s worse, governments in the areas don’t have enough things to fight the locusts.
Although leaders of 12 countries have agreed on a plan, it is not enough. ‘We are now treating 6,000 hectares (公顷) per day with pesticide (杀虫剂), but we need to treat 20,000 hectares per day in order to have any hope of controlling this disaster,’ said Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Babah, leader of locust control(控制) in Mauritania.
【小题1】What does“dark cloud”mean in the first para­graph, the writer of the article ___________.

As a volunteer teacher, I traveled a long way to a small village school in Longzhou, Guangxi. On my way there, I thought about the village, school and the children there. However, my heart sank when I arrived there. It was out of what I expected.1.________It has only three rooms; One is for Grade1,2and 3;One is for Grade4,5,and 6;And the third one is for me.

2._______They asked me a lot of questions, and I told them stories about myself and my life in Shanghai. The next day, I gave them a test to find out their levels. To my surprise, though the test was very easy, over half of the students failed, yet they all wanted to learn new things.3._______.

I was busy preparing lessons and reading test papers every night. I enjoyed teaching these lovely and hard-working children, and I could see that they were making progress with my help.4._______.I understand their lives more, and we are now good friends.

5._______.I’m very happy and the experience has been very useful to me. I love the small village and the children. In fact, I would like to go on working there.

A.I have also learnt a lot from them.

B.I wanted to leave as quickly as I can.

C.I knew they needed me.

D. The children seemed to know everything about me.

E. It didn’t look like a school at all.

F.I have worked in Longzhou for a year now.

G. The children welcomed me warmly on my first day.

I remember that when I was in my teens，I used to refuse to follow the many “dos” and “don’ts” of my parents．For example，when I planned to sleep with my pet dog，they immediately said，”   1 “because they thought it was dangerous．This was just an example of the things I thought my parents were    2  about.       

Today，however，I am the father of a boy aged 15，and I find that I too，am pressuring my son with a lot of    3   that are hard for him．

The   4   day，I noticed that my son was wearing giant pants that could    5  three teenagers. No one should wear them．I commanded him to take them off at once .Usually，he  6  me，but this time he put his foot down．”What’s wrong with giant pants?  7  classmates wear them. And I don’t think you have the right to ask me to remove them，  8 you are my father!” said he．I    9   realized that we are now living in a society with more freedom，and that my son’s strong will on wearing giant pants was just an  10 of the generation gap(代沟) between us．Therefore，I gave in and now he is still wearing giant pants．

Having a cheetah as a pet in the house? Does it sound scary to you? But for a family in South Africa, one cheetah is treated as a VIP (Very Important Person) in the house.
The big cheetah is named Jolie, after the film star Angelina Jolie.      【小题1】     She can often be found eating from the kitchen table, taking a short sleep on the sofa, or even sleeping on Lucy and Jeff’s bed. The big cat also sleeps and plays with the Browns’ other pet, the more usual one — a sheepdog (牧羊犬).      【小题2】
Having a cheetah as a pet is unusual. At first, Mrs Brown wasn’t willing to keep a cheetah as a pet. She said, “    【小题3】     But we are now happy that we did it — she is part of the family.”
Just like her name, four-year-old Jolie has achieved a celebrity status (名人地位) in the Browns’ hometown. Fans often come to their home to take pictures of her.      【小题4】
However, a cheetah is always a cheetah.      【小题5】    “She makes a lot of mess in the house, urinating (小便) everywhere and chewing everything. It’s her wild instincts (本能),” said Mrs Brown.
There might be some problems of having a cheetah as a pet in the house, but some unusual fun must also be waiting ahead.

Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost mention recycling, which is the process (过程) of treating used things, such as paper or steel so that they can be used again. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more things than we need. We are now dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the possible greenest way, but it would be far better if we did not bring so many things home in the first place.

Here is an example. In the UK, the total of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a household’s waste. In many supermarkets, foods are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.

Too much packaging causes serious environmental problems. The UK is running out of different kinds of ways for dealing with this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect (效果). Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The best way of avoiding this problem is to stop producing such unnecessary things in the first place. Food waste is another serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers (消费者) to buy more than they need. They seldom encourage customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue.

But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to connect packaging with quality (质量). We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. Is it true for all the products? In fact, more and more companies realized the importance of protecting the environment. They try to package what really should be packaged, including products in good quality.

As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize how many unnecessary things are being collected. We need to face the waste of our daily life. Although many people have taken action to recycle, we have a high mountain to climb.

1.What does the underlined word “over-consumption” mean?

2.What is the main purpose of the second paragraph?

3.What can be inferred from the fourth paragraph?

4.What does the passage mainly talk about?