March, April and May are months full of festivals and events all over the world. Here are some wonderful festivals around the world that happen in spring.

SongKran--Thailand

Dates: 13th-15th, April

In Thailand, it’s time to celebrate the coming monsoon season, which will bring the rain many people have been looking forward to. They celebrate it with a festival called Songkran，when people head out to the streets with water guns to spray(喷，洒）everyone who walks past. If you walk on the streets where the festival is celebrated, prepare to get soaked!

Naghol--Vanuatu

Dates: Every Saturday from April to May

Every year, villagers come together to celebrate the harvest of yams, an important part in the people’s diet in Vanuatu. The festival is most famous for its “land di ving ceremony”. During the ceremony men and boys dive to the ground from high wooden towers with only two thin vines(藤条) attached(附于)to their ankles(脚踝）. The divers’ heads have to lightly touch the ground when they jump---something very dangerous if the vines are not measured（测量）properly.

Cherry Blossom Viewing ---Japan

Dates: The cherry blossom season is different from year to year depending on the weather forecast.

The cherry blossom season has huge importance to the people of Japan, who celebrate the days when the flowers finally blossom. Only a few days later, the petals(花瓣） fall to the ground, like pink snowflakes. This is one of the most beautiful things to see. In Japan, almost everyone has picnics in the parks to view the flowers.

Sinhalese New Year--Sri Lanka

Dates: 13th or 14th, April

Just like in many other countries in South an South East Asia, this is the time when the Sinhalese celebrate the traditional New Year, an ancient celebration which marks the end of the harvest season and is one of two times of the year when the sun is straight above Sri Lanka. There are a lot of delicious foods during the celebration.

1.What does the underlined word “soaked” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A. tired       B. wet      C. crazy       D. interested

2.The writer thinks that the “land diving ceremony” can be dangerous for the divers because ___________.

A. the divers may fall onto the ground if the thin vines break

B. the divers may bump into （撞在…上）the wooden tower on the way down

C. the divers’ ankles may get injured if the vines are tied too tightly

D. the divers may injure their heads if the vines aren’t measured properly

3.. We can learn from the passage that__________________.

A. the Cherry Blossom Celebration usually lasts a  long time in Japan

B. the Cherry Blossom Celebration is the most important festival in Japan

C. the time for the Cherry Blossom Celebration in Japan can be different yearly

D. people usually stay at home for celebration during the cherry blossom season

 

We’ve heard about radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan reaching American shores. Experts say so far there is no reason to worry, and point out that we meet radiation every day. Where and how? NPR’s Renee Montagne posed that question to Peter Caracappa, a radiation safety officer and professor of nuclear engineering.

MONTAGNE: How many things emit radiation?

Dr CARACAPPA: Well, radiation and radioactive material is a part of nature. So everything that’s living has some amount of radiation coming from it—a very small amout. Plus there’s radiation in the ground and the air.

So the extremes are uranium in the soil to bananas?

Yes.

By the way, why do bananas have radiation?

Bananas have a lot of potassium(钾). And a small amount of potassium naturally is called potassium 40, which is radioactive

What’s the difference between radiation that’s harmful and not harmful?

Well, the term radiation can apply to a lot of different things. But the harmful radiation is ionizing(离子)radiation. It has enough energy that it can make chemical changes in material. We could get ionizing radiation from an X-ray, for example. It’s the kind of radiation that causes cancer.

The broader definition of radiation includes a lot of things that we call non-ionizing radiation. That includes everything like radio waves and visible light and your microwave.

So what then is the largest contributor of ionizing radiation?

For the natural sources of ionizing radiation, actually the biggest chunk of that tends to come from radon(氡), which is a radioactive material that is present in the air. It can become a concern when it builds up in low-lying areas of homes like basements.

Would it be fair to say that most people do not need to worry about the danger of being exposed to radiation?

I would say that the everyday exposure to radioation that we meet contributes an extremely tiny risk to our life or to our health compared to all of the other risks that we meet in our day-to-day life.

1.We can infer from the first paragraph that radiation is______.

A．rare

B．powerful

C．dangerous

D．common

2.The passage may be _______.

A．an interview

B．an argument

C．a talk show program

D．a science report

3.Whether radiation is harmful or not depends on______.

A．whether it has a small amount of potassium

B．whether it changes chemical in materials.

C．whether it has energy to change materials

D．whether it is visible in life

4.The purpose of writing this passage is to _______.

A．advise on how to protect us from radiation

B．analyze what causes radiation in daily life

C．warn people of the danger of radiation

D．expect people not to fear everyday radiation

 

Good afternoon, and welcome to England. We hope that your visit here will be a pleasant one. Today, I would like to draw your attention to a few of our laws.

The first one is about drinking. Now, you may not buy alcoho(酒) in this country if you are under 18 years of age, nor may your friends buy it for you.

Secondly, noise. Enjoy yourselves by all means, but please don’t make unnecessary noise, particularly at night. We ask you to respect other people who may wish to be quiet.

Thirdly crossing the road. Be careful. The traffic moves on the left side of the road in this country. Use pedestrian crossings (人行横道) and do not take any chances when crossing the road.

My next point is about litter ( throwing away waste material in a public place). It is an offence (违法行为) to drop litter in the street. When you have something to throw away, please put it in your pocket and take it home, or put it in a litter bin.

Finally, as regards smoking, it is against the law to buy cigarettes or tobacco (烟草) if you are under 16 years of age.

I’d like to finish by saying that if you require any sort of help or assistance, you should contact your local police station, who will be pleased to help you.

Now, are there any questions?

The main purpose of this speech would be to ____ .

A．prepare people for international travel

B．declare the laws of different kinds

C．give advice to travelers to the country

D．inform people of the punishment for breaking laws

How many laws are there discussed in the speech?

A．Three.        B．Four.    C．Five.      D．Six

From the speech we learn that ____

A．In this country, if you are under 18 years of age, you may not buy

alcohol, but your friend can buy it for you.

B．You may not buy cigarettes or tobacco unless you are above16 years of age.

C．Because the traffic moves on the left side of he road ,you must use pedestrian crossings when crossing the road.

D．You can’t make noise except at night.

The underlined word “contact” in the seventh paragraph means ____ .

   A．keep in touch with              B．get in touch with   

C．join                        D．report

Who do you think is most likely to make the speech?

A．A policeman       B．A lawmaker         C．A teacher        D．A lawyer

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

　 　 Industrial pollution is not only a problem for the countries of Europe and North America but also an extremely serious problem in some developing countries.１ They want to introduce industries, and so they put few controls on the industries which cause pollution.

　 　 Cubatao, an industrial town of 85 000 people in Brazil, is an example of the connection between industrial development and pollution. In 1954, Cubatao had no industry.２　The people of the town are suffering from the poisonous matter in their environment．３ Birth shortcomings are extremely common. Among children and adults, lung problems are sometimes twelve times more common in Cubatao than in other places.

　　　４ However,  these laws are not strict enough. It is cheaper for companies to take no notice of the laws and pay the fines(罚款) than to buy the expensive equipment that will reduce the pollution. It is clear, therefore, that economic growth is more important to the government than to the health of the workers.

　　　However, the responsibility does not completely lie with the Brazilian government. ５A number of the factories in the town are owned by large companies from France, Italy, and the U. S. They are doing things in Brazil that they would not be able to do at home. If they caused the same amount of pollution at home, they would be severely punished or even put out of business.

A．So the bad effects can be clearly seen.

B．It is true that Brazil has laws against pollution,

C．For these countries, economic growth is a very important aim.

D．The pollution in Cubatao is caused by the changes of the companiess.

Ｅ．The government should play an important role in controlling pollution.

Ｆ．Today it has more than twenty large factories, which produce many pollutants(污染物)．

Ｇ．The example of Cubatao shows that international companies are not acting in a responsible way either.

 

Deep in the Amazon forest, thousands of people still live in isolation from the rest of the world.

In a recent press release, the Brazilian government confirmed the existence of another isolated tribe of about 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The 200 people living in the Vale do Javari reservation. The reservation, located near the Peruvian border, is about the size of Portugal. At least another 14 isolated tribes, with a total population of about 2000, call the area home.

The newly observed group lives on four large straw-roofed buildings and grows corn, peanut and other crops.

Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (BNTF) first noticed the reservation in the forest using satellite maps, but it wasn’t until April that an airplane expedition was able to confirm the tribe’s existence. “The work of finding and protecting isolated groups is part of Brazilian public policy,” said the BNIF officer for Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim. “To confirm something like this takes years of hard work.”

BNIF estimates there are 68 isolated tribes living in the Amazon. The organization uses airplanes to avoid disturbing the tribes through personal contact, but that doesn’t mean others are so respectful of their right to privacy.

Illegal fishing, woodcutting and hunting bring people into the protected area. Oil exploration on the Peruvian side of the border is another threat. All kinds of criminals also invade the lands of the local groups, said Amorim. The outsiders can damage the land and influence the cultures of indigenous(土著的)peoples. They can also bring diseases which can wipe out the whole population that still lack even basic antibiotics(抗生素).

Brazil’s indigenous peoples won the legal right to their traditional lands in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, which stated that all indigenous lands shall be divided and turned over to tribes within five years. Indigenous groups now control 11 percent of Brazil’s territory, including 22 percent of the Amazon.

Allowing indigenous groups the right homelands is not just a matter of human rights. The rest of the world can benefit from their knowledge. Mark Plotkin has spent years living with the people of the Amazon and learning from their traditional healers. In his lecture, he pointed out that many useful materials and knowledge, including numerous drugs, can be gained from listening to the indigenous groups of the Amazon. Besides this, they are also more effective at protecting the land, and less expensive, than hired rangers(护林人).

1.The underlined word in the first paragraph probably means “a state of            ”.

A．separation	B．interaction
C．satisfaction	D．excitement

2.From the passage we can learn that the tribes in the Amazon forest             .

A．only live on a reservation designated for them

B．prefer straw-roofed buildings to wooden ones

C．keep contact with the outside world through airplanes

D．have the legal right to the land they live on

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to Amorim?

A．Privacy violation is common among the Amazon tribes.

B．The laws dividing the lands of the tribes are far from enough.

C．Modern civilization endangers the tribes and their cultures.

D．It is hard to make public policy to protect primitive tribes.

4.The last paragraph is mainly about              .

A．the lost human rights of the indigenous peoples

B．the benefits of protecting the primitive tribes

C．the value of traditional healing

D．the indigenous peoples as guardians of the Amazon forest