英语考试需要的课文.docx

1、英语考试需要的课文1. Climate Change War Is Fought at the Local LevelClean energy projects are a central issue in small-town AmericaBy Kent Garber Posted April 19, 20101. In mid-March 2008, Bill Kovacs pulled into a Holiday Inn in Fargo, N.D. Kovacs works in Washington, D.C., about 1,300 miles away. Hes the t

2、op energy lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents some of the biggest businesses in the country. And there he was, traveling around the country, stopping off at a Holiday Inn here, a Radisson there, in North Dakota, Montana, and a number of other states, holding forums or dialogu

3、es with community leaders and local townspeople on climate change.2. In North Dakota, Kovacs came in several weeks early for a day and took a plane around with the leader of one of the community business chambers, popping into different towns. He went on local radio, where he stressed the importance

4、 of fossil fuels in the states economy and drummed up publicity for the forum. Hoping to give the event a local flavor, he recruited partners from the Fargo area to serve on a panel. We werent there to proselytize, he says of the chambers role. Nonetheless, he came prepared with 18 or 19 studies to

5、describe, in his view, the higher energy costs and loss of jobs that would occur if the Senate passed the climate legislation it was considering.3. Hometown quarrel. Afterward, organizers praised the event as a monumental success, in part because it generated an enormous media push, with dozens of a

6、rticles, news segments, and radio interviews from local sources. The planners were optimistic that the states two Democratic senators, Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, were watching and would reconsider their support for climate legislation. The bill died two months later, drowned out by the presidenti

7、al campaign.4. The chamber staged 11 such events that year, most in swing states, before the economy collapsed and before President Obama gave climate advocates hope that someone would finally take serious action on reducing greenhouse gases. The chambers strategy, though, was in some ways prescient

8、. Energy and climate legislation passed the House this year but is stuck in the Senate, and its impossible for anyone to predict what will actually happen. Its now clear that Washington is only one place where this fight is playing out, and arguably not the most important place, either. The real fig

9、ht, increasingly, is at the local level, in chain hotels, on radio shows, in manufacturing and agricultural districts that hold the balance of political power.5. Nowhere is this clearer today than in Virginias Fifth District, which covers southern and central parts of the state. Its current represen

10、tative to Congress is Tom Perriello, a Democrat who came into office in 2008 after beating the Republican incumbent by only 727 votes. Perriello grew up near Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, and knowing both the universitys energy research capacity and the districts history in ag

11、riculture and manufacturing, he has been a huge proponent of clean energy. Last June, he voted in favor of the Houses now stalled energy and climate bill, which would have provided incentives for renewable technologies and put a cap on the countrys carbon emissions.6. Around the time the House debat

12、e started, Perriellos office began seeing attacks from opposition groups. A Washington-based lobbying firm forged letters alleging to be from minority groups in his district, urging him to vote against the bill because of its purported economic impact. I went on every conservative radio station in m

13、y district, says Perriello. I swung back. Since then, the Republican Party has been trying to remind voters of Perriellos vote, sensing what it sees as widespread opposition among voters to the Democratic Partys plan for regulating carbon emissions. In February, when Virginia and much of the mid-Atl

14、antic were hit by major snowstorms, the states Republican Party put up an ad, 12 Inches of Global Warming, mocking Perriello for his vote.7. But Perriello hasnt changed his position. If anything, his reaction represents the other narrative that has formed around the issue: the response to the U.S. C

15、hamber of Commerce and other groups that claim that capping greenhouse gases in the manner Democrats have proposed will kill jobs and hurt the economy. This is an area that has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing and agriculture jobs over the last 20 years, he says. So this latest recession was

16、just that for usthe latest recession. It didnt come out of nowhere. Weve been thinking about how to rebrand the Southside of Virginia as a future energy capital for years.（From US News and World Report ）3. Childrens Sleep Problems May Be Tied to Headaches, Stomach PainBy Nancy Shute Posted: December

17、 16, 20091. Childrens sleep problems are a huge headache for families; now it looks as if the sleep problems themselves could be linked to headaches.2. Children who have trouble falling asleep or wake up often at night are much more likely to have headaches or to regurgitate food, according to resea

18、rch published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Headaches were twice as likely to occur in children with sleep problems; 24 percent of those kids reported pain, compared with 13 percent of children without disturbed sleep. And 19 percent of children with insomnia had problems with regurgita

19、tion, compared with 7.5 percent of children without sleep problems.3. The good news is that treating the medical condition that causes the headaches or stomach problems may well improve childrens sleep. This study, conducted by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa., examined

20、700 children ages 5 to 12 years and included a physical, an overnight sleep study, and neuropsychological testing. Apnea, bed-wetting, and psychiatric and behavioral disorders were also examined as possible causes of sleep problems, but a significant connection was found only to gastrointestinal reg

21、urgitation and headaches .4. The big caveat is that its impossible to tell from this study if the sleep problems are causing the headaches and stomach problems, or vice versa. But Ravi Singareddy, an assistant professor of psychiatry who led the study, says parents should get the medical complaints

22、treated first. Only if the sleep problems dont improve when the medical problem diminishes should the sleep disturbance be assessed and treated.5. If your child still needs help with sleep problems, behavioral therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, offer significantly better treatment than

23、 sleeping pills, according to a 2006 analysis by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.13. Houston Charter Sends 100 Percent of Grads to Four-Year CollegesBy Kenneth Terrell Posted September 3, 20101. When Hurricane Ike struck Houston in September 2008, it dropped another hurdle in Samantha Marquez

24、s path to college. Her mother lost her job at a storm-shuttered business, forcing Marquez to get a part-time job at Chuck E. Cheeses to help the familys finances. We had to use the money we had been saving for college for just starting over, she says.2. Hard times didnt stop YES Prep grad Samantha M

25、arquez.3. The late hours at the pizza parlor ate away at her time to study for the three Advanced Placement courses she was taking at YES Prep, an innovative Houston free public charter school that requires students to attend longer school days (7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), take some Saturday classes, and

26、do community service. Marquez could have gone to a less demanding school, but YES Preps track record made it worth the sweat. In the past 10 years, 100 percent of its graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges. Marquez was not about to break that track record. Im going to college, says the f

27、reshman at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. A lot of my other friends cant say that.4. The success rate would be remarkable for any public high school, but the composition of YESs student body makes the achievement even more extraordinary. More than 80 percent of students at YES Prep schools are fr

28、om economically disadvantaged households, 90 percent will be the first in their families to attend college, and 95 percent are Hispanic or African-American. By traditional expectations, these are the students least likely to succeed in the classroom, much less enroll in highly selective universities

29、 such as Stanford, Yale, and Wake Forest. But through a rigorous academic course load and a hands-on approach to the college admissions process, YES Prepwhich operates eight campuses in the Houston areahas proved it possible for nontraditional students to march off to the nations elite college campu

30、ses.5. After spending six years teaching in a Houston middle school (two through the Teach for America service program), Chris Barbic, YES Preps founder and CEO, realized that even the most dedicated teachers have a limited impact. Academic skills a child picks up one year can be lost the next schoo

31、l year if the next teacher is not just as dedicated. Year after year, youre by yourself working very hard just to have a great year for that kid, Barbic says. That just wasnt enough to move the needle or give the kids what they needed.6. So Barbic decided to start a charter school with smaller class

32、es that would permit teachers to build relationships with students. Its very small, so everybody knows each other and the teachers were available all of the time, says graduate Sussy Aguirre, 18, a freshman at Rice University in Houston.7. But perhaps the real revolution Barbic created was the promise his schools made to the state of Texas as a requirement of their operating agreement: Every student from YES Prep (for Youth Engaged in Service) will go to a four-year college. That was the guarantee we needed to hold the kids and ourselves accountable, Barbic