初二英语假期阅读.docVIP

(A) What fuels city smog? 北京查出雾霾“元凶” WHAT has caused the smog (雾霾) in Beijing? The answer might not be too surprising to you – coal burning (烧煤).Last month the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released the results of a study on PM2.5. The scientists found that about 40 percent of Beijing’s PM2.5 is the result of coal burning, from both local and outside the city. Beijing is surrounded by Hebei, which has many coal-burning power plants (发电站) and steel (钢铁) factories. According to the CAS, each year Beijing burns 23 million tons of coal while Tianjin burns more than 70 million tons and Hebei a huge 270 million tons. About 20 percent of Beijing’s pollutants come from outside the city.“Coal burning is a primary source (来源) of sulfur oxide (SO2, 二氧化硫) which is the primary cause of PM2.5,” said Wang Yuesi, a scientist at CAS. According to the state air pollution plan, the Jingjinji area (Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei) should reduce its PM2.5 levels by 25% by 2017. To meet these standards (标准), the coal use in the area needs to be greatly cut. The CAS report says that cities should work together to solve the problem instead of working on their own. (B)You don’t want to break rules at my school 你知道英国学校的惩罚制度吗？EVERY school has some rules for students to follow. But what happens when students break the rules? In the UK, when students don’t behave well at school, they will be given a warning (警告). But if they go on behaving badly – like talking over the teacher – they’ll be punished (惩罚). And there are a lot of ways for students to be punished! Generally speaking, there are five punishments in UK schools: detention (课后留校), isolation (隔离) education unit (IEU), supervision (监管), suspension (停学) and exclusion (开除). If you receive a detention, you’ll find yourself sitting in a room with your teacher during break, lunch or even worse, after school. The longest time for a detention is two hours. Depending on how naughty you’ve been, you can get two detentions in one day! If y