Adventure Vacations

People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahan or the Louver.

Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure--a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of hardships, but they’re a lot of fun. One organization, Earth watch, sends small groups of volunteers to different parts of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.

Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Mormons, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day.

Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball.” They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “killer Whale”, but they’re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin. This beautiful animal travels together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earth watch is studying how this happens.

Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorum. This explosion was more terrible than Karate or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompeii. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.

Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earth watch vacation is for you.

1.The Tai Mahan may be _______.

A．a shopping center                       B．a hotel　

C．a dancing hall                          D．a place of interest

2.From the passage, on an adventure trip, people ______.

A．may not spend much time on sightseeing

B．won’t meet some difficulties or hardships

C．can’t enjoy them

D．can’t learn something

3.If you want to learn something about people of the past, you can _______.

A．join the team to Hawaii

B．join the team to the Far North

C．join the team to Washington

D．join the team to Greece

4.Which of the following is false?

A．Some people find sightseeing trips boring.

B．Earth watch is planning all these special adventures.

C．The number of orcas is decreasing.

D．3 volcano explosions in all broke out 3, 500 years ago in Greece.

 

There are many older people in the world and there will be many more. A little-known fact is that over 60 percent of the older people live in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, by 2020 there will be 1 billion, with over 700 million living in developing countries.

　It is a surprising fact that the population ageing is particularly rapid in developing countries. For example, it took France 115 years for the rate of older people to double from 7 percent to 14 percent. It is estimated to take China a mere 27 years to achieve this same increase.

　What are the implications of these increased numbers of older folk? One of the biggest worries for governments is that the longer people live, the more likelihood there is for diseases and for disability. Attention is being paid to the need to keep people as healthy as possible, including during old age, to lessen the financial burden on the state.

　Another significant problem is the need for the younger generations to understand and value the older people in their society. In some African countries, certainly in Asia, older people are respected and regarded as the ones with special knowledge. Yet traditions are fading away daily, which does not make sure the continued high regard of older people. As society changes, attitudes will change.

　Much needs to be done to get rid of age discrimination in employment. Life-long learning programs need to be provided to enable older people to be active members in a country's development.

　Social security policies need to be established to provide adequate income protection for older people. Both public and private schemes are vital in order to build a suitable safety net.

1.The rate of older people________.

A．is bigger in developed countries than in developing countries

B．is one-seventh of the population in developing countries

C．will increase much faster in China than in France

D．will be sixty percent in developing countries by 2020

2.According  to passage, which of the following are governments most worried about

A．Thediseasesanddisabilityofolderpeople.

B．Thelongerlifeandgoodhealthofpeople.

C．Thelossoftaxesonolderpeople.

D．Theincreasingrespectforolderpeople.

3. It is stated directly in the passage that older people should ________.

A．be treated differently in different cultures

B．enjoy a similar lifestyle

C．be ignored as society changes

D．be valued by the yonger generations

4.Which of the following measure is NOT mentioned to solve the population ageing problem?

A．Getting rid of age discrimination in employment.

B．Supplying life-long learning programs to older people.

C．Making sure adequate income protection for older people.

D．Providing free health care for sick older people.

5.The author concludes in the last paragraph that ________.

A．governments have spent lots of time in solving the ageing problem

B．population ageing is a hard problem, but it needs to be solved urgently

C．people are too busy to solve the population ageing problem

D．much time and effort will be lost in solving the ageing problem

 

An Ofsted (英国教育标准办公室）study reports that teachers are discouraging students who want to leave school and work as apprentices (学徒）in beauty salons (美容中心）or hair dressers.

　　Inspectors questioned 105 young people for a report on apprenticeships published on Wednesday. They found several examples of young people who felt they had been laughed at by their teachers for wanting to progress to work-based learning, particularly in care or hairdressing, rather than stay on at school.

　　Right or wrong, is it any surprise that this is happening? From 2014，the government will measure schools according to the rate of their pupils who go to university. Brian Lightman , general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says the government has already put teachers under “very great pressure to focus on academic subjects”

　　On the other hand, the Education Act 2011，which came into force in November, places schools under a duty to give fair career advice to pupils. This advice must include information on all post-16 education and training choices, including apprenticeships. This doesn’t appear to be happening in several schools, according to Ofsted9S report. Many of the young people the inspectors talked to said the advice they had received on apprenticeships was “unsatisfactory”.

　　Schools were also blamed for lack of work experience courses, which are particularly important for teenagers considering an apprenticeship. They help students decide whether they enjoy a line of work and enable employers to see whether those on work experience have the potential to be hired as apprentices in future years.

　　But there is a good reason why they can’t do this: they’d be unable to adapt to GCSE (英 国齊通中等教育证书）exams if they did. Sometimes, it seems, schools just can’t win.

1.Why do teachers oppose the students’ leaving school and working as apprentices?

A. The government urges teachers to concentrate on academic subjects.

B. The students are only wasting time working as apprentices.

C. Employers are under great pressure of taking GCSE exams.

D. Employers don’t give students chances to work as apprentices

2.Pressure for schools to provide pupils with career advice comes from ______. 

A. Association of School and College Leaders

B. Education Act 2011

C. GCSE exams

D. OFSTED

3.The underlined word “They” in Paragraph 5 refers to _____.

A. schools

B. employers    

C. work experience courses

D. teenagers considering an apprenticeship

4.What does the author think of teachers’ discouraging students working as apprentices?

A. Surprising               B. Understandable

C. Wrong           D. Right

 

Adventure Vacations
People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahan or the Louver.
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure--a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of hardships, but they’re a lot of fun. One organization, Earth watch, sends small groups of volunteers to different parts of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Mormons, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day.
Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball.” They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “killer Whale”, but they’re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin. This beautiful animal travels together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earth watch is studying how this happens.
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorum. This explosion was more terrible than Karate or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompeii. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earth watch vacation is for you.
【小题1】The Tai Mahan may be _______.

A．a shopping center	B．a hotel
C．a dancing hall	D．a place of interest

【小题2】From the passage, on an adventure trip, people ______.

A．may not spend much time on sightseeing

B．won’t meet some difficulties or hardships

C．can’t enjoy them

D．can’t learn something

【小题3】If you want to learn something about people of the past, you can _______.

A．join the team to Hawaii

B．join the team to the Far North

C．join the team to Washington

D．join the team to Greece

【小题4】Which of the following is false?

A．Some people find sightseeing trips boring.

B．Earth watch is planning all these special adventures.

C．The number of orcas is decreasing.

D．3 volcano explosions in all broke out 3, 500 years ago in Greece.

People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahan or the Louver.

Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure--a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of hardships, but they’re a lot of fun. One organization, Earth watch, sends small groups of volunteers to different parts of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.

Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Mormons, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day.

Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball.” They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “killer Whale”, but they’re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin. This beautiful animal travels together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earth watch is studying how this happens.

Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorum. This explosion was more terrible than Karate or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompeii. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.

Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earth watch vacation is for you.

The Tai Mahan may be _______.

A. a shopping center      B. a hotel       　

C. a dancing hall    D. a place of interest

From the passage, on an adventure trip, people ______.

A. may not spend much time on sightseeing

B. won’t meet some difficulties or hardships

C. can’t enjoy them

D. can’t learn something

If you want to learn something about people of the past, you can _______.

A. join the team to Hawaii

B. join the team to the Far North

C. join the team to Washington

D. join the team to Greece

The word intelligent in paragraph 4 means _______.

A. exciting     B. beautiful

C. large   D. clever

Which of the following is false?

A. Some people find sightseeing trips boring.

B. Earth watch is planning all these special adventures.

C. The number of orcas is decreasing.

D. 3 volcano explosions in all broke out 3, 500 years ago in Greece.