GUANGZHOU-At least 13 people were killed and nine left missing after Typhoon Hagupit swept
through the country's southern region on Wednesday, authorities said.
     More than 11.5 million people in Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi provinces were affected by the
disaster, with direct economic losses reaching 13.46 billion yuan ($1.97 billion), Ministry of Civil Affairs
figures showed.
     Hagupit, the strongest typhoon to hit Guangdong and its Pearl River Delta region in 12 years, reportedly headed south toward Vietnam on Thursday.
     The typhoon killed nine people and left nine missing in Guangdong alone, causing direct economic losses of more than 7.7 billion yuan, Yang Minyi, a press official with the provincial flood, drought and wind
prevention office, said yesterday.
    Direct losses to agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in the region were estimated at 4.2
billion yuan；industrial and transport sector,1.5 billion yuan；and water conservancy infrastructure,1
billion.
    A total of 6.52 million people in 344 towns in the cities of Maoming, Yangjiang, Zhanjiang, Zhuhai,
Zhongshan and Jiangmen in the Pearl River Delta region and in the west of Guangdong bore_the_brunt_
of the typhoon in the province.
    More than 15,300 houses fell down and 365,800 hectares(公頃) of farmland were affected, authorities said.
    Wang Yugui, a pig farmer in Maoming City, said Hagupit proved fatal to his business.
    About twothirds of his 4,000odd pigs had drowned or were left missing in the typhoon.
     "The typhoon has landed me in huge debt and I really don't know how to weather the losses, " Wang
told China Daily yesterday.
     Wang said many others in the city suffered similar losses when Hagupit hit the city on Wednesday
morning.
     Hagupit also hit a South Korean freight ship, named Zeus, in the waters off Jiangmen. All 17 sailors
onboard were still missing, the Yangcheng Evening News reported on Friday.

1．We can know from the report that ________.
A．a(chǎn)t least 13 people were killed in Guangdong
B．Guangxi and Hainan suffered more economic losses than Guangdong
C．so far Hagupit has been the strongest typhoon to hit Guangdong in this century
D．Hagupit hit South Korea before it landed in Guangdong

2．The underlined word "bore the brunt of" can be best replaced by "________"．
A．received the main force of
B．suffered similar economic losses from
C．shared the losses caused by
D．stood the test of

3．The example of the pig farmer Wang Yugui is used to show ________.
A．that pig farmers suffered the most losses in the disaster
B．that many others in Maoming suffered similar losses
C．how difficult it will be for people to go through the disaster
D．how seriously the disaster affected people

4．Altogether ________ people are reported missing in the passage.
A．9        
B．18        
C．35        
D．26

     London  taxis,  with their friendly drivers who actually know where they are going,  are ranked best in
the world, according to an annual taxi poll (民意調(diào)查).
     The survey by  travel   website   hotels.com  found London taxis, despite being the most expensive,
beat others across the globe to head the list for the third consecutive  (連續(xù)的) years, scoring a total of
59 percent in votes on several  categories  by  travelers.
     London taxi drivers were voted both friendly and  most  knowledgeable, Drivers in the English capital
must pass an examination called The Knowledge to earn their taxi license.
     New York's yellow  taxis came second in the list, scoring  27  percent which was  up  10 percentage
points from last year even though Manhattan's cab drivers were tied with Parisian taxi drivers as the rudest. Travelers  said  New York  had  the most available taxis.
     Cabbies in Rome were voted the worst drivers in the world with almost one in 10 travelers thinking 
the Italian capital had  the world's  worst  taxi drivers when it came to the quality of driving.
     "Traveling by taxi is one of the first experiences that many travelers have upon arrival in a new city. In
fact, the research found that cabs are by far the most popular method of traveling from the airport
to their hotel." a spokesman for hotels.com said in a statement.
     The global poll scored city taxis for theirlevels of cleanliness, value, quality of driving, knowledge of the area, friendliness, safety and availability.
     Rounding out the  top  five were Tokyo  with  total  score of 26 percent, Berlin with 17 percent, and
Bangkok famed for its scoring 14 percent.

1. Why were London taxi drivers voted the best in the world? Because ______.

A. they were the friendliest  
B. taxi' fares were the lowest there
C. London had the most available taxis    
D. they were the most hardworking

2. What was the score of New York's yellow taxis last year?

A. 17 percent      
B. 26 percent        
C. 27 percent          
D. 59 percent

3. The worst drivers in the world were from Rome because of ______.

A. being dirty                
B. irregular charges
C. the poor quality of driving        
D. lacking knowledge of the area.

4. What are the top five in the annual taxi poll?

A. London -- New York -- Rome -- Tokyo-- Berlin
B. London -- New York - Tokyo -- Berlin -- Bangkok
C. London -- New York -- Tokyo -- Paris -- Bangkok
D. London -- New York -- Tokyo -- Bangkok -- Berlin

     I am truly saddened about what is going on in my school district, especially in the school where I am
currently working.
    Why are so many students not doing well? Why is there such a huge achievement gap between urban
and suburban students? Just this week, in my school the seventh grade team leader called a meeting to
discuss academic detention (放學后留校). The purpose of the detention is to allow students who are
doing poorly a second chance to redo the work. Now if a student did not understand an assignment I
have no trouble allowing that student to redo a test or give some extra credit work, but if a student did
poorly because he/she opted(選擇) not to do the work out of sheer laziness, that student should not be
given a second chance.
    And parents should be held accountable for their children. That is another reason why there is such a
huge achievement gap. All children should be monitored at home in order to achieve great success in
school. Perhaps it might be a great idea for urban school districts to offer free classes to parents on how
to help their students at home. Of course this idea is far fetched, after all we do not want to offend the
parents. What we will do instead is to spend a fortune on teacher training because if the kids are not
doing well it must be the fault of the teacher. That kind of mindset, if allowed to continue will be a perfect
recipe for greater achievement gaps.
     I started working at my current school in August and I have been in the teaching field for 25 years.
What I believe is that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make that  horse drink. You can't
force kids to change bad habits over  night, nor can we afford to lower standards just so a kid can  pass
a class.

1. The seventh grade team leader in the author's school called    a meeting to ________.
A. analyse the reason for the huge achievement gap between students
B. find out who is to blame for the huge achievement gap between students
C. talk about giving students who are doing poorly a second  chance to redo the work
D. discuss how to narrow the huge achievement gap between students

2. The author believes that a student can be given a second chance ________.
A. if he did poorly the first time
B. for whatever reason he did poorly the first time
C. if he failed the first time in spite of his efforts
D. if he comes from a suburban area

3. In the last paragraph, the author intends to tell us that ________.
A. a student can make improvement only when he is willing to
B. teachers are to blame if his students are doing poorly
C. the school should force those students to work harder if   they're doing poorly
D. the school should treat different students with different standards

Beijing - The public has responded with vigorous support for an NPC deputy’s proposal to extend the
Spring Festival holiday from three days to 10.
     More than 78 percent of about 27,600  respondents to a poll on www.people.com.cn <http://www.
21cnjy.com/> voted in favor of the idea of Li Jing, who is also the mayor of Meishan city in South-west
China's Sichuan province.  Li   said the lunar new year festival holiday was too short for family reunions,
especially fog the nation's  220  million migrant workers.
     With hundreds of millions of people on the move during such a short time span,the holiday puts great
stress on the public transport system and suppresses tourism,  he added. He suggested the ho1iday be
extended and cover the three adjacent (毗連的) weekends, which means  the public could take a total
of 16 days off and floating population could spend the Lantern Festival,which falls on the 15th day of the
lunar new year, with their families.
     People would  then have sufficient time to fully enjoy the  traditional  holiday with their families, Li said
during an interview with People's Daily Online on Friday.
     Most online voters agreed that extending the holiday  will ease the burden on public transport and
strengthen family ties. "The Spring Festival is an occasion for family reunions and should be longer than  
the  National  Day holiday," one responder said  in an online post.  "Every year,  I wish I could spend
more time at home for  the Spring Festival,  but I always have to go back to work. I hope the NPC will
approve this  proposal.
     " Another online comment read:   "Extending the Spring Festival holiday could prevent  the  annual  
transportation crush, which has in recent years resembled an exodus (出走) of fleeing refugees (難民)''.
     Most of the about 13 percent  who  opposed the idea citied difficulties readjusting to work after the
break. Some pointed out that office moral (士氣) was generally low during the first week after the holiday. "After thesix-day holiday, many people come back to work feeling absent-minded," one respondent said. Some who opposed the extension suggested adding the Lantern Festival as an official holiday.
     Another 10 percent said lawmakers should carefully study the impacts before they make any decisions
on holidays.