say 100 million more could go hungry this year because of the food and financial crises.
To deal with the situation, the UN World Food Program has started a project to help small farmers.
These farmers are mainly women.Many cannot produce enough food even to feed and support their own
families.
The new effort is called Purchase for Progress, or P4P.It aims to connect local farmers with
dependable markets.That way, they could get a chance to sell their surplus (剩余) at competitive prices.
P4P will be tested in as many as 21 countries during the next five years.
The biggest contributor to the project is Bill Gates, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Another donor (捐款者) is the Howard Buffett Foundation, led by a son of the American investor
Warren Buffett.The government of Belgium is also supporting the project in a former colony (殖民地),
now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Together these donors have provided more than 76 million dollars for projects in Africa and Central
America.
Purchase for Progress will work with United Nations agencies, governments and nongovernmental
organizations to help increase crop production.The World Bank Group and other partners are to help
train farmers in better crop management and marketing skills.
The World Food Program says it expects to buy 40,000 tons of food in the first year using methods
carried out by the project.That will be enough to feed 250,000 people.
P4P is expected to develop food cooperatives and longterm agreements for buying corn, wheat and other
food crops.About 350,000 farmers could be assisted.
Officials say the project will change the way the World Food Program buys food in developing
countries.Executive Director Josette Sheeran says this is the first time her agency will buy a large amount
of food from small farmers.The agency has traditionally bought most of its food from developing
countries, but through larger trading organizations.
1. From the passage, we know that________.
A. in all 900 million people worldwide lack food
B. a project has been started to help women farmers
C. there are only two donors to help the project
D. some farmers still cannot support their families
2. According to the passage, ________will work hard to deal with the situation.
A. the United Nations
B. the combined efforts
C. some governments
D. some nongovernmental organizations
3. Which of the following will NOT be done to help small farmers?
A. To donate money.
B. To reform the way of food purchase.
C. To provide them with food.
D. To buy a large amount of food from them.
4. What"s the best title for this passage?
A. Project to Help Small Farmers
B. Contribution to Small Farmers
C. Food Problems
D. P4P Is Being Carried Out
often indicate that there is indeed a shortage.
One symptom is the vacancy rate, or the percentage of budgeted positions that are unfilled. New
England"s hospitals currently report that an average of 7 to 12 percent of their registered nurse positions
are vacant, the highest level since the last shortage in the late 1980s. Vermont has a relatively low
vacancy rate, at 7.8 percent. But its vacancies were at 1.2 percent just five years ago.
Another symptom is the increased use of stopgap measures to fill empty positions. For instance, many
nurses report an upswing in how frequently they are asked to stay past their shifts. According to Murphy, working in the St. Elizabeth"s Hospital, "The shortage has definitely created a lot of opportunities of
overtime for our nurses, whether they want them or not." Similarly, a national survey of registered nurses
shows that in an average week, nurses in the U.S. work 2.4 more hours than they are scheduled to.
Much of this extra time is voluntary, as nurses earn overtime pay when they stay to fill in blanks in the
schedule.
When they can"t fill open positions by more traditional means, health care providers hire temporary
staff to tide them over. Travelling workers are the largest part of the temporary health care workforce,
hired for thirteen-week reduction at health care facilities facing short-term lack of workers. Temporary
workers, mainly nurses, cost hospitals $ 7.2 billion in 2000.
"Any successful solution to the shortage depends on convincing more people to become nurses, and
that is not an easy goal to reach. To achieve it," says Buerhaus, "society needs to place more value on
nursing. Legislation (法规) can"t do that - it should come from people." And if this continues, we might
have to learn to care for ourselves in the hospital.
B. meet the need for nurses in the hospital for a short time
C. should work on a weekly basis and on a scheduled timetable
D. ought to work passively for thirty continuous weeks
B. To ask the government for help to work out specific legislation.
C. To publicize the past achievements of nurses.
D. To make people aware of the importance of being a nurse.
B. Decrease
C. Increase
D. Figure
B. Indifferent
C. Doubtful
D. Optimistic
So much to do, so little time. So much information, so little time to read it. In this age there is more
information than ever before. There is not enough time to read everything we want to read. However, you can consume more information in shorter time through speed-reading. This article will not make you read. 3,000 words per minute, but it will show you how to increase your speed significantly. You will also learn
the basic techniques of speed-reading, along with the dos and don"ts of speed-reading.
When you first learned to read, you would say the word out loud and sound it out. Then you might
whisper the word because people can become annoyed when you read aloud. The stage you are now at is saying the word in your head. Most people tend to read this way. Saying the word in your head will cut
your reading speed tremendously (极大地).
How do you calculate your reading speed? The speed is measured by how many words per minute you can read. Get some reading material, preferably a book. Find out how many words are on the page. Time yourself for one minute. Start your timer and start reading. When the timer beeps, stop. If you counted 500 words on the page and you read half of the page, and then you are probably reading at 250 words per
minute.
The first thing about speed-reading is looking at the word and recognizing it. Don"t say the word in your mind, just look at it and recognize its importance. Later you will recognize clumps of four words or more to increase your speed. This is the first and most important step in speed-reading.
The next step is technique. As with any other skill, speed-reading requires technique. You should first
be sitting up straight with your book flat on a horizontal (水平的) surface, such as a table or desk. Next,
you should be able to see the entire page. This is necessary if you want to recognize clumps of words. Lastly, you should be focused. It"s hard to read with a lot of noise. Find a quiet place to read. This will help
your understanding of the text.
You need something to guide your eyes while reading. That"s right, you should use your hand.
Remember when you were little, you would read using your finger. That is a great technique, only now
you"re using your hand to underline each line. Move your finger smoothly across the page. No need to go
rush, start out slow. Keep your eyes focused on the words as you recognize them while using your hand
as a guide. This will increase your speed.
The third step is practice. Practice makes perfect. Set time interval (间歇) .Read using different
techniques, but make sure you understand what you"re reading.
B. Now conditions ask people to use less time to know more information.
C. Now people can read what they like.
D. The less you read, the more time you will spend.
B. Why we need speed-reading.
C. Now it is much information time.
D. People should practice speed-reading in different kinds of ways.
a. Ask for some techniques.
b. Look at many words and recognize them.
c. Practice more.
B. c, b, a
C. b, a, c
D. a, c, b
B. your feelings will be hurt while reading
C. a person should smooth away difficulties while he reads
D. you should pay attention to your faults while you are reading
B. say every word out loud and sound it out
C. know it is necessary to read quickly
D. underline some important words while you say them
Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more worried about how the grizzly bear and mountain lion can cross the road.
"Millions of animals die each year on U.S. roads," the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U. S. today. The main reason? Road kill.
"Eco-passages" may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over
and under roads. "These eco-passages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid road accidents," said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Protection Society.
But do animals actually use the eco-passages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona
University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an eco-passage that went under a highway. This
showed that the lions used the passage.
Builders of eco-passages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and
around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders(火蜥蜴)and grizzly
bears are using the bridges and underpasses.
The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animals overpass!
B. the driving conditions have improved greatly
C. the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work
D. wild animals have become more dangerous
B. a fence built for the safety of the area
C. a pass for animals to cross the road
D. a bridge for animals to get over a river
B. animals begin to learn to use eco-passages
C. animals are crossing the road in groups
D. animals are becoming safer
B. wild animals may jam the road
C. they may kill the animals
D. they may see wild animals on eco-passages
B. call on drivers to be careful when seeing animals on roads
C. introduce a new way to help protect animals
D. tell us the main reason for the killing of animals in the US
After TV became a product most families could afford,people bought and started to watch their new
TVs.Both adults and children became less creative in problem solving,less able to focus on tasks,and less
tolerant of flexible time.
In my family,we grew up with the TV on.Every weekend,we watched Gun Smoke and Bonanza
together as a family.TV provides us with a comfortable background when we want to learn a foreign
language at home,and it entertains us cheaply with live action sports,incomparable performing arts and
important events of the world.In addition,it educates us about everything from the cells in our body to the
galaxies in the universe.
Perhaps it"s not even practical to live without television unless our views change unexpectedly as we get older.I don"t think that TV damages us so much as it robs us of time that could be spent doing other things such as learning new skills,getting some exercise or doing volunteer work.
I was lucky to have a family that watched TV together.Today there seems to be a TV in every room of the house and there"s no need to agree on a program to watch.To watch TV or not is more of a question
for adults than for us,and even though we all say we want to cut down the time we spend in front of the
tube,we never really do.TV_has_us_hypnotized!
B. how much people like watching TV
C. whether people like watching TV
D. why people give up watching TV
B. found it easier to solve problems
C. became more independent of TV
D. fixed less attention on tasks
B. watching TV too much prevents the author from growing up well
C. TV programmes bring only fun to the author and his family
D. the author and his family get a lot of valuable experience in watching TV
B. We benefit little when we watch TV.
C. It is hard to live without television.
D. We change our views as we live with television
B. watching TV makes us united
C. TV robs us of valuable time
D.TV changes our daily life
rapid expansion of its higher education system,making it the fastergrowing destination for American foreign exchange students.
Recently,according to a study by the Institute of International Education,a research organization based
in New York,the number of American students seeking higher education in China has never been greater,
increasing by 90 percent from 2002 to 2004.Alan Goodman,president of the institute,believes that the_
phenomenon lies in the pace of change in China,which is spending billions of dollars to expend and
transform its higher educational facilities into worldclass institutions.
"China is a job market," said Professor Chou,professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University.
"Twenty years ago,only those interested in Chinese literature would study the Chinese language.Now all
professors have opened up."
China now ranks 9th as a host destination for American students,advancing from the No.12 spot it held a year earlier.The study revealed that Britain continues to be the leading destination,attracting 16.8 percent of all American students who study abroad.On the other hand,in the 2004~2005 academic year,China
sent more than 62,000 students to the United States,nearly 60 percent more than a decade earlier.
According to the study,the Chinese now make up 11 percent of foreign students in the United States,the
secondlargest group behind students from India.
________.
B. it is extremely difficult to get a visa
C. it results in a rapid expansion
D. China becomes a fastgrowing country
B. the pace of change in China during the past few years
C. founding a research organization based in New York
D. expending and transforming its higher educational facilities
B. 55,000
C. 38,750
D. 6,820
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- 1世界许多国家和地区出现水资源不足和用水紧张问题,其原因中错误的是( )A.人口增长B.社会经济发展C.人类造成水污染D
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