Beijing today, first published in May, 2001, is the capital’s only English weekly newspaper and is published with the help of the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government and run by Beijing Youth Daily. Its readers include English-speaking foreigners living in Beijing and local Chinese who have great interest in English or take English as a working language.
The paper’s main content deals with metropolitan life, explaining the differences and similarities between Eastern and Western culture. Its culture and lifestyle part is regarded as a guide to metropolitan life in Beijing.
The paper has 24 pages in four main sections:
NEWS: Select stories that discuss cultural differences.
COMMUNITY: Reports on developments related to foreigners in the city and a platform(平臺)by which they can communicate with a bigger audience.
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE: Highlights from international lifestyle and fashion trends in Beijing
STUDY: Cheerful and humorous pieces to help English-language students improve their skills
Beijing Today circulates 50,000 copies published every Friday. It is one of Beijing’s most authoritative(權(quán)威的) English media sources, and is sold at post newsstands and distributed in hotels, apartment complexes, etc.
Price: 2 yuan per issue
【小題1】Which of the following sections would be the best choice to exchange thoughts with others？

A．NEWS

B．COMMUNITY

C．CULTURE and LIFESYLE

D．STUDY

【小題2】If you want to subscribe to Beijing Today for half a year, you need to pay ________.

A．52 yuan

B．24 yuan

C．104 yuan

D．48 yuan

【小題3】What CANNOT you read in Beijing Today?

A．News abou foreign cultural festivals

B．fashion trends in Paris.

C．Discussions with foreigners

D．Skills in improving English

A heartless thief is believed to have crashed a fund-raiser and made off with a bag of cash meant to help a New York City firefighter pay for life-changing surgery for his 9-year-old son. But little Aidan Sullivan -- who was born with a facial defect and no right ear -- yesterday put up a brave front, with a message for the crook(thief): "I'm going to kick your butt!"
"I want to look normal," said Aidan, whose father, Tim, is a firefighter in the Bronx. The third-grader has hemi facial micro soma, in which one half of the face doesn't develop correctly.
Last weekend, family friend Peter Drake, a Ridgefield, Conn., firefighter, hosted a fund-raiser, collecting between $8,000 and $9,000. But when the party at a Danbury, Conn., Irish cultural center was over, the money had disappeared.
"At the end of the night, all the money that was donated was put in a zippered bag," said Tim Sullivan. "A bartender gave the bag to Pete... He had it in his hands. He put it down to go do something, and when he came back, he saw that it was missing."
Sullivan said his longtime friend -- who has had fund-raisers to pay for Aidan's 10 previous surgeries -- is "devastated."
"Pete was so upset. He kept saying, 'I let Aidan down, I let Aidan down,” Colleen Sullivan, 40, recalled.
"We even went Dumpster diving, in case it was thrown out."
The Sullivans plan to go ahead with the March 1 surgery led by specialists at NYU's Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. The money would have offset the $10,000 to $15,000 that insurance doesn't cover. Yesterday, Aidan said he's not a fan of hospitals and doesn't like to be away from his sister, Kaylee, 4. But he's willing to do it. "I'm excited," he said. "Finally, an ear."
【小題1】 Where do you probably read this text from?

A．A magazine.

B．A newspaper.

C．A book.

D．An advertisement.

【小題2】 How did little Aidan Sullivan feel when he knew the money was missing.

A．He felt excited.	B．He felt surprised.
C．He felt upset.	D．He felt annoyed.

【小題3】What is the money used for according to this text?

A．To help Aidan Sullivan to have another operation.

B．To help pay for Aidan Sullivan’s life insurance.

C．To return the money the Sullivans owed to the hospital.

D．To help a firefighter who got hurt in the ear.

【小題4】 What is true of little Aidan Sullivan?

A．He hates going to hospital.

B．He will go to New York for the surgery.

C．He didn’t care too much about the lost money.

D．He has received 10 surgeries before.

【小題5】 What can we infer about Pete from the text?

A．He was heartless.	B．He was kind.
C．He was caress.	D．He was a firefighter.

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most reliable gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
【小題1】The project is meant to ______.

A．increase the world’s food output in the future

B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

C．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

D．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

【小題2】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.

C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the threat unclear war forever.

D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

【小題3】We can infer from the text that _______.

A．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture

C．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 30 years before.

D．There haven’t been any seed storage centers in the world before.

【小題4】What is probably the best title of the passage?

A．The Best Place to Store Seeds

B．Noah’s Ark（諾亞方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

C．Concerns of World Food Supply

D．A New Way to Feed the World

Six Chinese surveillance ships have entered waters near islands claimed by both China and Japan.
China said the ships were carrying out "law enforcement" to demonstrate its jurisdiction(管轄權(quán)) over the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
At least two of the vessels left after the Japanese coast guard issued a warning, Japanese officials say.
The move came after Japan sealed a deal to buy three of the islands from their private Japanese owner. Japan controls the uninhabited but resource-rich East China Sea islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan.
The Japanese Coast Guard said the first two Chinese boats entered Japan's territorial waters at 06:18 local time (21:18 GMT Thursday), followed by another fleet of four other ships just after 07:00. The first two ships then left the area. A third ship left later on Friday morning, one report said. No force was used, Japanese officials added. "Our patrol vessels are currently telling them to leave our country's territorial waters," the coastguard said in a statement.
The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that its ships were there. “These law enforcement and patrol activities are aimed to demonstrate China's jurisdiction over the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated(附屬的) islets and ensure the country's maritime(海事的) interests,” a statement said.
The US has called for ''cooler heads to prevail'' as tension intensifies between China and Japan over the islands, which lie south of Okinawa and north of Taiwan. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is due to visit both Japan and China from this weekend as part of a tour of the region that also includes New Zealand.
The dispute has seriously marred diplomatic relations between China and Japan and threatens to damage the strong trading relationship, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Beijing. The row(爭端) has also generated strong nationalist sentiment on both sides that observers say now makes it very difficult to be seen to be backing down, says our correspondent.
The Japanese government says it is buying the islands to promote their stable and peaceful management. Its move followed a bid by right-wing Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to buy the islands using public donations - an action that would likely have further provoked(觸怒) China.
China, on the other hand, says the islands have historically been its territory and fishing grounds.
Meanwhile Japan's newly-appointed ambassador to China, Shinichi Nishimiya, remains in hospital in Tokyo after he was found unconscious near his home in Tokyo on Thursday. No details have been given on his condition. He was appointed on Tuesday to replace Uichiro Niwa, who has been criticized for his handling of one of the worse diplomatic rows between Japan and China in recent years.
【小題1】The Diaoyu Islands are actually inhabited by           .

A．Japan

B．China

C．America

D．Nobody

【小題2】Which of the following is true?

A．Japan fired at the 6 Chinese ships to warn them to leave the waters.

B．China admitted that the 6 ships had been forced to leave the waters.

C．The US called on both sides to calm down.

D．Shinichi Nishimiya was unconscious in the hospital because somebody attacked him.

【小題3】Why was Uichiro Niwa replaced?

A．He is not iron enough in handling the diplomatic rows between Japan and China.

B．His health condition is not good enough to work there.

C．He didn’t do a good job in dealing with the dispute about the Diaoyu Islands.

D．He criticized the Chinese government publicly in an improper way.

【小題4】This news report is most likely to be selected from the          newspaper.

A．British

B．Chinese

C．Japanese

D．American

Most children, even the youngest of children, are delighted to be around cats and dogs. But these pets carry plenty of germs and allergens（過敏原）, prompting researchers to ask: Are cats and dogs really safe for children？
A study finds that, contrary to many parents’ fears, owning cats or dogs does not increase a child’s risk of developing allergies, and in fact, may actually protect them. The study’s lead author, Dr. Dennic Ownby of the Medical College of Georgia, says that even he was “very surprised” by the results. Ownby and colleagues followed more than 470 children from birth to age 6 or 7, comparing those exposed to cats and dogs during their first year of life to those who were not.
By using skin-prick(刺) tests for detecting common allergies, the researchers found that, contrary to what many doctors had been taught for years, children who had lived with a pet were not at greater risk.
Even more remarkable, children who had two or more dogs or cats had an even greater reduction, up to 77 percent, in risk of allergies. Researchers suggest this protective effect may be the result of early exposure to lots of bacteria that are carried by dogs and cats. Exposing young children to these bacteria helps" exercise" their immune systems early in life so that they're better able to resist allergic diseases later.
There's something very important in that first year of life when the immune system is developing that we can retrain it away from an allergic response, said Dr. William Davis.
And while researchers are not encouraging parents to buy dogs or cats just to reduce a child’s allergy risk, they say if a family already has one or more animals, there's no need to get rid of them.
【小題1】Why do the researchers feel “very surprised” by the results of the study?

A．Because the results are contrary to their expectation．

B．Because so many children are playing with cats and dogs．

C．Because parents are so much worried about their children．

D．Because children with animals may develop allergies easily．

【小題2】Compared with children who have pets，those who haven’t  ______.

A．will lose the chance to develop immune system

B．may suffer allergic diseases more often

C．will reduce the harm from bacteria

D．can keep doctors away

【小題3】It can be inferred from the passage that ______．

A．pets are ill-treated by their owners

B．less families would like to own cats and dogs

C．keeping pets is a good way to keep children healthy

D．the results of the study can make families with pets feel at ease

【小題4】The underlined word “it” in the fifth paragraph refers to________.

A．the early life	B．a(chǎn)n allergic disease
C．immune system	D．something important

【小題5】What may be the best title of the passage?

A．How to protect your kids from allergies

B．Your pets may be helping your kids

C．Bacteria do good to your kids

D．Advantages of owning pets

The koala is one of Australia’s most treasured creatures, which is a lovely little creature. But now, it is in big trouble.
Affected by habitat (棲居地) loss and climate change, like many other uniquely Australian animals, koalas are being squeezed into smaller regions. But at present, it is a deadly disease, a somewhat silent killer that causes a further decline in the koala population,  that is worrying many scientists about the fate of the koala.
The killer is Chlamydia, which has caused symptoms in up to 50 percent of the wild koalas, with probably even more infected (感染) but not showing symptoms. It has been particularly severe in Queensland, where nearly all koalas are infected. The disease causes many symptoms including eye infections, which can lead to blindness, making it difficult for them to find their primary food.
Treating Chlamydia in wild koalas is a challenge. There is no treatment available for it. Only a small percentage of the animals can be treated successfully and returned to the wild. Besides, there is no national plan in Australia to save the koala；it is up to each region to make management plans for its koala population.
The good news is that researchers are working to test a vaccine (疫苗) that would help prevent further spread. If all goes well, plans can be carried out to distribute the vaccil1e more widely. But it’s impossible to vaccinate all wild koalas.
Another possibility would be to make vaccine distribution a routi11e part of treatment for the thousands of koalas brought into care centers every year after they are injured by cars or dogs.
While it is a combination of problems that are affecting the wild koala population, many experts believe this vaccine would be an important step in helping koalas survive longer. It may buy enough time to give researchers a chance to solve some of the other problems facing Australia’s koalas.
【小題1】Which isn’t considered the main cause of koala’s population decline?

A．Habitat loss.	B．Injuries from cars and dogs.
C．Climate change.	D．A deadly disease.

【小題2】The third paragraph mainly tells us     .

A．the serious result Chlamydia has caused to the koala

B．Chlamydia affected the koala only in particular regions

C．the most serious symptom of Chlamydia is eye infections

D．Chla1nydia can seriously affect koala’s primary food

【小題3】The underlined word “it” in the fourth paragraph probably refers to     .

A．the koala

B．Chlamydia

C．national plan

D．eye infection

【小題4】 We can learn from the text that the vaccine     .

A．would cure the killer Chlamydia quite effectively

B．would only be distributed in koala care centers

C．has already been put into practical use in Australia

D．cannot be distributed to all the infected koalas

【小題5】It can be inferred from the text that     .

A．a(chǎn) national plan for saving koalas will be made soon in Australia

B．koala population is declining only in a few regions

C．researchers need enough time to so1ve the koala problems

D．experts have lost the best chance to save the infected koalas

With the start of the new term, students around the country exchange their fun and fashionable clothes for boring school uniforms. But not all campuses are fashion deserts. Colorful sports shoes, school bags, T-shirts and even drink containers are breathing life into campuses.
“The uniform makes us look like a bunch of clones, especially when we are doing morning exercises on the playground,” and Qing Pei, a Senior 2 students from Shanghai Qibao High School. “But boys wear different sports shoes and girls have different decorations(裝飾品) in their hair. These are the areas where you can express yourself,” said Qing.
Although it might be strange for boys to talk about fashion, they do care about what they wear in school, especially shoes, according to Qing.
“Nike and Adidas basketball shoes, although they are still the must-have items for many of my friends, are becoming out-of-date,” Qing added. He explained, “Since Liu Xiang ran so fast in Athens, running shoes are becoming popular in this autumn.”
“Still in fashion are the various baseball caps and American-style T-shirts with some English words printed on them,” said Qing. Besides sports shoes and T-shirts, styles and colors of schoolbags are another chance for students to express their taste in fashion. Some bags are made more eye-catching by decorating them with small dolls.
Other fashionable items are colorful drink containers, which are now popular with girls this term.
“Some teachers are surprised to see a teenager sucking a bottle like this at school and criticize it as childish regression(退化). But some girls just love it,” said Yang Rui, a Senior 3 student.
【小題1】What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．All the students are clones.

B．All the exercises are the same.

C．All the students look the same in uniform.

D．All the students have similar fashions.

【小題2】How do girls express themselves on campus?

A．They wear different spots shoes.

B．They wear school uniforms.

C．They have different decorations in their hair.

D．They drink coffee from colorful drink containers.

【小題3】What are becoming fashionable for schoolboys according to the passage?

A．Nike and Adidas basketball shoes.

B．Baseball caps and Korean-style T-shirts.

C．Colorful drink containers.

D．Running shoes.

【小題4】The writer wants to               .

A．call for people to pay attention to students’ wear

B．report students’ great love for fashion

C．criticize childish regression on campus

D．discuss about school uniforms

A South African farmer is receiving phone calls from his sheep after equipping them with cell phones to keep tabs on the flock amid recent livestock thefts, according to local press Wednesday.
When the sheep call, it is always bad news for farmer Erard Louw of the Cape Town suburbs, as the phones around their necks are only set to switch on when the sheep start running, a sign that thieves have cut through the fences.
"As they run it gives me a phone call and says 'Sheep One' or 'Sheep Two' and so on, so at least I know where to start looking because the farm is 750 hectares (1,850 acres)," Louw told the Cape Times daily.
Louw attached the phone-like security device to the collars of four sheep in separate flocks after thieves sneaked in and stole 27 sheep and 13 lambs a couple of weeks ago, driving Louw to rack his brains for ways to protect his animals.
He said there was no use calling nearby police, as they were stationed too far away and in his experience they either lacked an available car or the vehicle was out of fuel or missing tyres -- also the work of thieves.
According to Louw, the cell phones have already proved their worth, with one sheep-snatcher caught thanks to the device.
Still, with theft attempts currently at their peak, given long winter nights and early nightfall, a few sheep-robbers managed to get away in spite of the device.
"The phone did start ringing that night and I went out," he said, but added that he was too late.
【小題1】Why did Erard Louw attach the phone-like device to the sheep he raises?

A．Because he thought it was fun to do.

B．Because the police there didn’t care about animals.

C．Because he liked hi-tech very much.

D．Because he wanted to protect them against thieves.

【小題2】What does the underlined expression in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Try very hard to remember or think of something.

B．Have a headache.

C．Make the brain bigger.

D．Shake the brain from side to side.

【小題3】You can most probably read this passage______.

A．in a book

B．in a dictionary

C．in a newspaper

D．in a novel

HOUSTON (AP) --- A 10-year-old boy fatally shot his father Friday, striking him several times as he sat in the front seat of a SUV to pick up the boy from his mother's home for a weekend visit.
The incident happened about 3pm on a cul-desac（死胡同）in the 1700 block of Cedar Cove Court, said Sgt. Williams of the Harris County Sheriff's Department.
An investigation found that Rick James Lohstroh, 41, was shot by his son, who was sitting in the back seat of the man's Toyota 4-Runner, said Sgt. Williams. The shooting took place outside the home of Lohstroh's ex-wife, where the boy lives with his mother and a 7-year-old brother.
"We're not certain of anything until we finish our investigation," Williams said. "The information we have at this time is that the 10-year-old did fire the weapon."
The mother and the 7-year-old were inside the house when the shooting occurred, said Williams.
Williams said the gun belonged to the boy's mother. After firing shots through the back seat, the boy exited the back of the vehicle and continued to fire at the car.
The man died on the way to Memorial Herman Hospital.
Lohstroh was a doctor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The man and woman shared custody（監(jiān)護）of the children.
Williams said the mother and the boy were still in the home talking to investigators Friday night.
Neighbors described the family as being quiet and keeping to themselves.
Justin Gray, 17, was walking in the neighborhood when he heard gunshots. "We've had a suicide in this neighborhood once, but never anything like this," Gray said.
【小題1】The best title for the news should be __________.
A. A Boy Shot His Father
B. Shooting Kill a Father
C. An Unbelievable Tragedy
A Ten-Year-Old Boy's Cruelty
【小題2】 Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the news?

A．The father is not responsible for the boy.

B．The family don't like being linked to their neighbors.

C．The boy lives with Rick James Lohstroh.

D．The boy has no brother or sister.

【小題3】What can we infer from the text?

A．The tragedy happened because the boy had seen too many films showing violence.

B．The boy killed his father because he hated it that he deserted his mother.

C．Such things often occurred in this neighbourhood.

D．The boy's parents got divorced(="separated)."

【小題4】The reason why the boy shot his father __________.

A．is clear

B．can't be made out

C．is unknown

D．is quite simple

【小題5】The underlined word "suicide" most probably means __________.

A．the act of killing the lives of a whole family

B．a(chǎn)n instance of deliberately killing oneself

C．the situation of getting on smoothly with others

D．the peaceful surroundings

SAN FRANCISCO—A phone app (應(yīng)用程序) in San Francisco gives information about open parking spots. City officials in San Francisco introduced the app to try to reduce traffic jams in the city, but some say it raises safety concerns.
In this city, drivers searching for parking spots lead to 30 percent of all downtown jams, city officials think. Now San Francisco has found a solution—a phone app for spot-seekers that displays information about areas with available spaces. The system, introduced last month, relies on wireless sensors (感應(yīng)器) fixed in streets and city garages that can tell within seconds if a spot has opened up.
Monique Soltani, a TV reporter, said she and her sister spent 25 minutes on Friday trying to park. “We were praying to the parking god that we’d find a spot,” she said. “If we had the app, we would not have to pray to the parking god.” But the system could come with serious consequences.
Some people say that drivers searching for parking could end up focusing on their phones, not the road. “It could be really distracting (使分心的),” said Daniel Simons, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.
City officials acknowledge the potential problem. They are urging drivers to pull over before they use the city’s iPhone app, or to do so before they leave home. Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said safety could actually improve if drivers quickly found a spot instead of circling and getting frustrated.
San Francisco has put sensors into 7,000 parking spots and 12,250 spots in city garages. If spaces in an area open up, the sensors communicate wirelessly with computers that in turn make the information available to app users within a minute, said Mr. Ford, of the transportation agency. On the app, a map shows which blocks have lots of places (blue) and which are full (red).
More than 12,000 people have downloaded San Francisco’s app, which is available now only for the iPhone but which city officials say they hope to bring to all similar devices.
When it is started up, the city’s parking app warns drivers not to use the system while in motion. But safety advocates said that might not be sufficient. After all, they say, texting while driving is illegal in California and in many states, but a number of surveys, including one by the Pew Research Center, show that many Americans do it anyway.
Elizabeth Stampe, executive director of Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group, said she hoped the new parking app would lead to fewer accidents.
“It’s an innovative idea,” she said. “The safe way for people to use the device is for them to pull over, which they know they should do. The question is whether they will.”
But Ms. Soltani, the TV reporter, said using the app would probably join the group of activities already performed by drivers.
“We’re already looking at Google Maps and Facebook on the phone while we drive,” she said. “Aren’t we always looking at something on our phone, or changing the radio, or drinking coffee? You’re always slightly distracted when you’re driving.”
【小題1】What is the phone app mentioned in the text mainly aimed at?

A．Making full use of the parking spots.

B．Making the traffic flow smoothly.

C．Preventing traffic accidents.

D．Benefiting iPhone users.

【小題2】According to the text, San Francisco city officials ______.

A．don’t consider the app distracting

B．a(chǎn)dvise drivers to park cars slowly

C．a(chǎn)re aware of the app’s disadvantages

D．believe more parking spots are needed

【小題3】How do drivers locate the parking spots?

A．Sensors"computers"app.	B．App"computers"sensors.
C．Sensors"app"computers.	D．Computers"app"sensors.

【小題4】The phone app mentioned in the text ______.

A．is a bit slow in reacting

B．hasn’t been put into service

C．was introduced several years ago

D．can’t be downloaded to all phones

【小題5】Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．Daniel Simons thinks the app convenient.

B．San Francisco will put more sensors into use.

C．Most drivers open the app once they start their cars.

D．Nathaniel Ford doesn’t doubt the practical use of the app.