Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to electronic products that are no longer usable. This can include TVs, cell phones and computers and other office electronics, electronic toys and videos machines. Today, the average turnover（更换）rate for a computer in the United States is every two years, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The group's Dai Yun says e-waste is a global problem. "The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The high speed of growth in this industry means more and more electronic products are being wasted and thrown away. If no one decides to retrieve the old products and process them properly, the electronic waste will sweep over the earth like the huge wave behind me and pollute the Earth seriously."

Greenpeace works out that 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally each year. The components（部件）in many electronic products contain harmful chemicals that pollute ground water and the environment.

At present , the U.S. has no federal law for the disposal (处理) of e-waste although a few states have e-waste recycling programs in place, but there is no law. The U.S. exports much of its e-waste to third world countries, such as India and China, where workers took apart computers for valuable parts, hoping to sell them for money. But harmful wastes expert, Dr. Bakul Rao, says that's a dangerous practice. "From now on, the recyclers are not very educated. All they know is they can retrieve copper or gold out of it. So, the easiest way to do that is leach (过滤) it out in an acid or burn it off to retrieve it. So, that's where they don't know how to deal with it, neither do they have any health systems in place. So, their exposure is more."

What does the underlined word "retrieve" (paragraph 2) probably mean?

A. look into   B. take apart   C. get back   D. throw away

What of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A. The U.S. has strict national laws for dealing with e-waste.

B. Third world countries import e-waste to get valuable parts, which is a safe and easy way to make money.

C. The way uneducated workers deal with old computers does great harm to the environment as well as to their own health.

D. More and more electronic waste is being wasted and thrown away mainly because of people's bad habits.

What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A. To attract more people's attention to e-waste.

B. To call on people not to throw away e-waste anywhere.

C. To tell people what e-waste is and how to deal with it well.

D. To warn people to break away from the electronic industry.

The next paragraph probably concerns ___.

A. how to deal with e-waste properly

B. how to protect ourselves from harm by e-waste

C. How to slow down the development in the electronic industry

D. how to make full use of e-waste

Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to electronic products that are no longer usable. This can include TVs, cell phones and computers and other office electronics, electronic toys and videos machines. Today, the average turnover（更换）rate for a computer in the United States is every two years, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The group's Dai Yun says e-waste is a global problem. "The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The high speed of growth in this industry means more and more electronic products are being wasted and thrown away. If no one decides to retrieve the old products and process them properly, the electronic waste will sweep over the earth like the huge wave behind me and pollute the Earth seriously."

Greenpeace works out that 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally each year. The components（部件）in many electronic products contain harmful chemicals that pollute ground water and the environment.

At present , the U.S. has no federal law for the disposal (处理) of e-waste although a few states have e-waste recycling programs in place, but there is no law. The U.S. exports much of its e-waste to third world countries, such as India and China, where workers took apart computers for valuable parts, hoping to sell them for money. But harmful wastes expert, Dr. Bakul Rao, says that's a dangerous practice. "From now on, the recyclers are not very educated. All they know is they can retrieve copper or gold out of it. So, the easiest way to do that is leach (过滤) it out in an acid or burn it off to retrieve it. So, that's where they don't know how to deal with it, neither do they have any health systems in place. So, their exposure is more."

Which of the following is most likely not to be a form of e-waste?

 A. A mobile phone B. A radio  C. An e-bike        D. A table

What does the underlined word "retrieve" (paragraph 2) probably mean?

 A. look into   B. take apart   C. get back   D. throw away

What of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A. The U.S. has strict national laws for dealing with e-waste.

B. Third world countries import e-waste to get valuable parts, which is a safe and easy way to

make money.

C. The way uneducated workers deal with old computers does great harm to the environment as well as to their own health.

D. More and more electronic waste is being wasted and thrown away mainly because of

people's bad habits.

What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A. To attract more people's attention to e-waste.

B. To call on people not to throw away e-waste anywhere.

C. To tell people what e-waste is and how to deal with it well.

D. To warn people to break away from the electronic industry.

The next paragraph probably concerns_______.

A. how to deal with e-waste properly

B. how to protect ourselves from harm by e-waste

C. How to slow down the development in the electronic industry

D. how to make full use of e-waste

Back those photos up

The images were striking. Homes on the East Coast were washed away by Superstorm Sandy. People were in tears, picking up faded photographs, among their only remaining possessions.

If that doesn’t move you to get serious about safekeeping your lifetime of memories, what will? The digital age offers tools never imaginable before—including one-click access to a lifetime of family photos.

Here is a brochure on how to back up (存) your photos and save them online, where they can live forever and be accessible in good times and bad.

Scanning

The first step for those old photos is to scan them and save them to a digital format. Most printers come with scanners these days, so that’s an easy but extremely time-consuming step.

Storing the photos

With your scans in place, import the photos into your computer, and back them up.

You could make multiple copies of the disks and spread them to loved ones. Or you could choose external(外接的) hard drives or USB thumb drive, and add your photo and video collection from your computer. 

Online backup

If you need lots of space, look at a pure online backup service, Caronite.     

Caronite backs up 300 million files daily. Once you sign up, it starts to pick up everything you have on your hard drive. But photo collection on your computer’s main hard drive charges for $59 a year.

Cloud Storage

For folks who don’t need automatic backup, but instead want to take a more active approach, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive let you store files online by yourself, share and instantly access them. All offer free options—2GB of free storage for Dropbox, 5GB for Google and 7GB for SkyDrive. But if you want more, you need to pay.

Bottom Line

The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and easiest. But drives can fail. Online services are more expensive, but more secure. With more of us switching back and forth between our computers, such services are the best way to get access to our data from wherever we are.

1.Why does the author mention Superstorm Sandy?

A．To tell the background of the scanning photos.

B．To describe a severe natural disaster.

C．To attract the readers’ interest in the backups.

D．To win the readers’ sympathy.

2.What can we know from the passage?

A．Scanning photos take little time but costs a lot.

B．Caronite charges for backing up photos from hard drive.

C．Google Drive offers unlimited free photo storage on line.

D．The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and safest.

3.Which of the following allows storing files automatically?

A．Dropbox.          B．SkyDrive.          C．Caronite.          D．Flash drive.

4.The main purpose of the passage is to _____.

A．introduce some of the storage services

B．tell real stories about storage services

C．describe the functions of storage services

D．argue about the advantage of storage services

Back those photos up
The images were striking. Homes on the East Coast were washed away by Superstorm Sandy. People were in tears, picking up faded photographs, among their only remaining possessions.
If that doesn’t move you to get serious about safekeeping your lifetime of memories, what will? The digital age offers tools never imaginable before—including one-click access to a lifetime of family photos.
Here is a brochure on how to back up (存) your photos and save them online, where they can live forever and be accessible in good times and bad.
Scanning
The first step for those old photos is to scan them and save them to a digital format. Most printers come with scanners these days, so that’s an easy but extremely time-consuming step.
Storing the photos
With your scans in place, import the photos into your computer, and back them up.
You could make multiple copies of the disks and spread them to loved ones. Or you could choose external(外接的) hard drives or USB thumb drive, and add your photo and video collection from your computer. 
Online backup
If you need lots of space, look at a pure online backup service, Caronite.     
Caronite backs up 300 million files daily. Once you sign up, it starts to pick up everything you have on your hard drive. But photo collection on your computer’s main hard drive charges for $59 a year.
Cloud Storage
For folks who don’t need automatic backup, but instead want to take a more active approach, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive let you store files online by yourself, share and instantly access them. All offer free options—2GB of free storage for Dropbox, 5GB for Google and 7GB for SkyDrive. But if you want more, you need to pay.
Bottom Line
The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and easiest. But drives can fail. Online services are more expensive, but more secure. With more of us switching back and forth between our computers, such services are the best way to get access to our data from wherever we are.
【小题1】Why does the author mention Superstorm Sandy?

D
The cost of rice is expected to go up in the coming moths, as an improving global economy raises demand, and drought(旱灾) cuts production in countries such as India. Some economists say prices for rice, the main food for the world’s population, could be returning to levels that caused inflation(通货膨胀)fears in much of Asia last year.
Charuk Singhapreecha is dean of the faculty(系)of economics at Thailand’s Kasetsart University, Hesays prices-especially for Thai nice-are being pushed higher by new customers coming into the market after the economic slowdown of the past year. “They expect that the world demand will increase and we expect that the price of rice will increase next year,” Charuk said. “There are many new markets fro the Thai rice and also we still have for our old customers-China, some Arab countries-they will increase the demand.”
Prices on the global market could again near the record of $1,000 a ton set in the middle of 2008. This month, export prices for Southeast Asian rice have jumped from about $550 a ton to more than $650.
Vichai sriprasert, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, says further weakness in the US dollar and concerns over drought add to pressure on prices. Market experts say next year India is likely to try to import three million tons of rice-entering the world market for the first time in 21 years-because of a drought.
Vichai also warns that increasing demand for bio-fuels(生物燃料)from grain could reduce food crops, forcing the price of grains higher. “this is very serious. That’s why the price of rice will not go back to the level that we used to see,” Vichai said. “It will have to be raised at a higher level, but I don’t know where.”
The Philippines this week said it is cutting rice imports due to high prices, even though the country lost more than a million tons of grain to typhoons this year. officials from veetnam, a leading export competitor with Thailand, predict prices will reach about $800 a ton by the middle of 2010. This week the Philippines’ National Food Authority offered almost $665 a ton for 600,000 tons of Vietnamese rice.
Economists say higher food prices will only increase the problems faced by the region’s poor, who are highly dependent on rice as a staple food.
63.   Which of the following is NOT true according to Paragraph 1?
A. Drought reduces production of rice in India.
B. Prices for rice were lower all the time in 2008.
C. Rice is a major food for the world’s population.
D. the improving global economy increases the need for rice.
64.   How many reasons did Vichai mention about rice price’s going up?
A.1.                  B.2.                 C.3.           D.4.
65.Why does the Philippines plan to cut rice imports?
A. Because of high prices.                      B. Because of typhoons.
C. Because of civil war.                        D. Because of drought.
66.What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Higher food prices will increase problems
B. There are many new markets for the Thai rice
C. The global economy is improving
D. Prices for rice are expected to rise