In modern society there is a lot of disagreement about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is good for social progress. Others say that competition is bad. It sets one person against another. And it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who believe that their self-worth depended on how well they did at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death matters. In their single-minded dream of success, the development of many other human qualities（品質(zhì)） is sadly forgotten.

However, while some seem to be lost in the desire（渴望） to succeed, others take a different attitude. In a culture which values only the winners, they are strongly against competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who are under competitive pressures（壓力） from their parents or society. They are always told to be the top ones, but they think it’s really hard. When I teach these young people, I often find them in a desire to fail. They seem to search for failure（失�。� by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try. If I had tried and lost, that would mean a lot. ”

Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief. They think one’s self-respect depends on how well one does compared with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this fear begins to dissolve (消除) can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1.Why do some people welcome competition according to the passage?

A. It pushes society forward.

B. It improves one’s abilities.

C. It develops human qualities.

D. It builds up friendly relationship.

2.The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means _____.

A. those who try their best to win

B. those who value competition most highly

C. those who depend on others most for success

D. those who are against competition most strongly

3.Which of the following may the writer agree to?

A. Every effort should be paid back.

B. Competition should be encouraged

C. Winning should be a life-and-death matter.

D. Fear of failure should be taken away in competition.

4.What does this passage mainly talk about?

A. Competition helps to set up self-respect.

B. Competition is bad for social development.

C. Ideas about competition are different among people.

D. Failures are necessary experiences in competition.

Imagine you’re at a party full of strangers. You’re nervous. Who are these people? How do you start a conversation? Luckily, you’ve got a thing that sends out energy at small chips（芯片） in everyone’s name tag（標簽）.The chips send back name, job, hobbies－whatever. Making new friends becomes simple.

This hasn’t quite happened in real life. But the world is already experiencing a new age of using RFID technology.

An RFID tag with a small chip can be fixed in a product, under your pet’s skin（皮膚）, even under your own skin. Some RFID tags have no energy source because they do not need it. The energy comes from a scanning device（掃描裝置）, which sends out energy and starts up the tag immediately.

Such a tag carries information to that object, and the information can be renewed. Already, RFID technology is used for recognizing（識別） each car or truck on the road and it might appear in your passport. Doctors may put a small chip under the skin to get a patient’s medical records. At a nightclub in Paris or in New York the same chip might get you to pay for the bill with the wave of an arm.

Take a step back: 10 or 12 years ago, you would have heard about the coming age of computing. One example always seemed to surface: Your refrigerator would know when you needed to buy more milk. The idea was that computer chips could be put everywhere and send information in a smart network that would make life simpler.

RFID tags are a small part of this situation. “The world is going to be a connected set of personal small devices.” predicts Dr. J. Reich. But some people are nervous about the possibilities of such technology. It goes too far tracking（跟蹤）school kids through RFID tags, they say.

When Marconi invented radio, he thought it would be used for ship-to-shore communication, not for pop music. Who knows how RFID and other technologies will be used in the future. Here’s a wild guess: Not for buying milk.

1.The article is intended to______.

A. warn people of the possible risks in adopting RFID technology

B. explain the benefits brought about by RFID technology

C. convince people of the uses of RFID technology

D. predict the applications of RFID technology

2.We know from the passage that with the help of RFID tags, people_____.

A. will have no trouble getting data about others

B. will have more energy for conversation

C. will have more time to make friends

D. won’t feel shy at parties any longer

3.Passive RFID tags chiefly consist of____.

A. scanning devices B. radio waves

C. batteries D. chips

4.Why are some people worried about RFID technology?

A. Because children will be tracked by strangers.

B. Because market competition will become fiercer.

C. Because their private lives will be greatly affected.

D. Because customers will be forced to buy more products.

There were two McDonald’s – Mac and Dick – and they were brothers. In 1948 they owned a restaurant in California. They liked working in the restaurant, but they got tired of the customers(顧客) ordering so many different things to eat.

“If we gave customers a smaller menu(菜單), we could make some of the food before they came, and they wouldn’t have to wait so long for their meals,” said one of the brothers. The other brother agreed and said, “If we made the customers come to the counter(柜臺), we wouldn’t need any waiters and waitresses(女服務(wù)員). We could also use plastic plates so there wouldn’t be any washing-up.”

These were such good ideas that the McDonald’s brothers used them, and the customers were very pleased. They got their meals very quickly – in less than a minute – and they paid only 15 cents(分) for hamburgers and 10 cents for fries(油炸食品). The first McDonald’s restaurant had no seats for customers to sit on. This meant that people had to take their food away, and that no one had to clean up any tables after them.

Then a man called Ray Kroc came to the brothers and asked to buy their business. They agreed to sell it to him for $27 million. After that, people paid Ray Kroc to open their own restaurants using the McDonald’s name and menu. Before long, there were McDonald’s restaurants all over the United States, and nowadays, they are all over the world – even in China and Russia. The most successful McDonald’s business is in Hong Kong of China. The Hong Kong McDonald’s sells more hamburgers every day than any other McDonald’s anywhere else in the world.

McDonald’s restaurants are so successful because children love going to them. They like the food, and they like the toys and games they can get at McDonald’s.

【小題】The McDonald brothers offered customers fewer kinds of foods so that _____.

A． they didn’t need waiters or waitresses

B． they could use plastic plates

C． customers could get their meals quickly

D．customers would pay less.

【小題】Customers“paid only 15 cents for hamburgers”means the hamburgers were___.

A. expensive B. new

C. cheap D. worth a lot less

【小題】The first McDonald’s customers took their food away because_____.

A． They wanted to eat it quickly

B． they did not want a large menu

C． There were no seats in the restaurant

D． they wanted to eat at home

【小題】Nowadays, the owners of McDonald’s restaurants pay for ____.

A． the McDonald’s name and menu

B． children to play games

C． people to take the food away

D． customers to eat quickly

【小題】This story mainly tells us ____.

A． a restaurant in California in 1948.

B． how Ray Kroc made money for the McDonald brothers.

C． where McDonald’s restaurants are in the world.

D． how the McDonald’s business started and grew.

New rules and behaviour standards for middle school students came out in March Middle School is going to use a new way to decide who the top students are. The best students won't only have high marks. They will also be kids who don't dye（染）their hair, smoke or drink. The following are some of the new rules.

Tell the truth. Have you ever copied someone else's work on an exam? Don't do it again! That's not something an honest student should do. If you have played computer games for two hours in your room, don't tell your parents you have done homework.

Do more at school. Good students love animals and care for other people. April is Bird-Loving Month in China. Is your school doing anything to celebrate? You should join! That way, you can learn more about animals and how to protect them. When more people work together, it makes it more fun for everyone.

Have you ever quarreled with your teammates when your basketball team lost? Only working together can make your team stronger. Be friendly to the people you are with. Try to think of others, not only yourself.

Be open to new ideas. Have you ever thought that people could live on the moon? Maybe you'll discover Earth II someday. Don't look down on new ideas. Everyone's ideas are important. You should welcome them, because new ideas make life better for everyone.

Protect yourself. Has someone ever taken money from one of your classmates? Don't let it happen to you. If you have to go home late, you should let your parents know.

Use the Internet carefully. The Internet can be very useful for your studies. But some things on the Internet aren't for kids, so try to look at Web pages that are good for you. You can use the Web for fun or homework. Can't you find any good Web sites for children? Here are some:

http://kids.eastday.com.

http://www.chinakids.net.com

http://www.cycnet.com

1.The school new rules will help kids by telling them ______.

A. how they can study well

B. what they should do at school

C. what is right and what is wrong

D. how they can protect themselves

2.According to the passage, which of the following is not true?

A. Keep some animals to protect them.

B. Tell the truth, even when you are wrong.

C. Take care of yourself when you are out.

D. Use the Internet, but keep away from bad things.

3.Good Web sites for children can ______.

A. be a waste of time

B. make life easier

C. do homework for them

D. help them with their studies

Honesty comes in many forms. First there’s self-honesty. Is what people see the real article or do you appear through smoke and mirrors? I find that if I try to be something I’m not, I feel unsure of myself and take out a part from my PBA (personal bank account). I love how singer Judy Garland put it, “Always be a first-class version (版本) of yourself, instead of a second-class version of somebody else.”

Then there’s honesty in our actions. Are you honest at school, with your parents, and with your boss? If you’ve ever been dishonest, I think we all have. Try being honest, and notice how well it makes you feel. Remember, you can’t do wrong and feel right. This story by Jeff is a good example of that: In my second year of study, there were three kids in my math class who didn’t do well. I was really good at it. I would charge them three dollars for each test that I helped them pass. I’d write on a little piece of paper all the right answers, and hand them off.

At first I felt like I was making money, kind of a nice job. I wasn’t thinking about how it could hurt all of us. After a while I realized I shouldn’t do that anymore, because I wasn’t really helping them. They weren’t learning anything, and it would only get harder down the road. Cheating certainly wasn’t helping me.

It takes courage to be honest when people all around you are getting away with cheating on tests, lying to their parents, and stealing at work. But, remember, every act of honesty is a deposit (儲蓄) into your PBA and will build strength.

1.The black words “appear through smoke and mirrors” in the first paragraph means “______”.

A. to be honest

B. to be unreal

C. to become clear

D. to come from an imagined world

2.Which of the following can best explain Judy Garland’s words?

A. Be your true self rather than follow others.

B. Don’t copy others or you can’t be the first class.

C. Make efforts to be the first instead of the second.

D. Don’t learn from others unless they’re excellent.

3.What does the author expect to show by Jeff’s story?

A. Honesty can be of great help.

B. A bad thing can be turned into a good one.

C. Helping others cheat can do good to nobody.

D. One should realize the wrong in his bad deeds.

4.In the last paragraph the author mainly wants to express ______.

A. one must be brave to be honest

B. it’s difficult to be honest when others are not

C. one should be honest when making a deposit

D. honesty in one’s actions can help him in the future

As we become richer and richer, we are producing more and more rubbish. The Asian Development Bank（ADB） says that our largest cities produce 760 000 tons of solid waste every day. It predicts（預(yù)料） that there will be an increase—to 1.8 million tons—by 2025. It seems too much to deal with. “The growing waste is simply trying to cover our cities,” says Michael Lindfield, a specialist of ADB in Manila.

The proper treatment of rubbish is beyond the financial resources（金融資源）of many countries. The World Bank says some governments are spending as much as half of their budgets（預(yù)算） dealing with rubbish. And even so, it is common that half of all the waste goes uncollected.

Much of the added difficulty is packaging from consumer（消費者）products and the products themselves—all of which need years, even centuries to decompose（化解）. Lindfield believes that four of every five products we buy are thrown away after a single use. It all makes the work to deal with solid waste much more expensive.

The rubbish is more than just an environmental problem—it also influences national economies（經(jīng)濟） by disturbing the world market, discouraging tourism and slowing down industrial development.

Lots of rubbish also influences the look of our cities. As he walks to work from his home in Bangkok every day, Chatchat Mutita, a 36-year-old advertising specialist, must pass a lot of ugly, smelly rubbish that isn’t collected until late at night. He says things get worse when it rains because some yellow water will stream from the rubbish to the sidewalk.

Modern technology can make the problems of open dumps less serious. But Chettiyappan Visvanathan, a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Pathumthal, Thailand, believes that there are no engineered facilities（設(shè)備） in nine of every ten dumps all over the country. Some countries depend on most solid waste to produce energy, but there’s a growing problem of air pollution. Burning is far more dangerous than open dumps. The ADB says the growing rubbish must be dealt with by the “3Rs” —reducing the waste, reusing things that are being thrown away and recycling materials.

1.What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．What our environment looks like.

B．How important to clean our cities.

C．What a serious problem we have.

D．How difficult to remove rubbish.

2.Which of the the following can be the most serious problem rubbish brings to us?

A．It causes a lot of difficulty cleaning up our cities.

B．It stops our nation economies from developing.

C．It makes our environment uglier and dirtier.

D．It brings air pollution, water pollution and diseases.

3.What does the underlined sentence mean in the passage?

A．Many countries are short of proper methods to deal with rubbish.

B．Many countries are not rich enough to deal with rubbish properly.

C．Many countries are short of proper resources to deal with rubbish.

D．Many countries are not wise enough to deal with rubbish properly.

4.Which of the following is true, according to the passage?

A．There are both hope and difficulty in our future.

B．It’s impossible for us to make our cities clean.

C．We may find some ways but things will be worse.

D．The problem is not serious if everyone knows it.

It’s hard to believe how times have changed since the first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, on 6th April 1896. Over one hundred years ago, there was very little reliance（dependence）on modern technology. There were no landing mats（海綿墊）, no stopwatches and no photo finishes. In fact, cameras and stopwatches were not used until the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the USA.

Today technology has completely revolutionized（changed） sports. Take sports equipment（裝備）for example. Starting blocks are now equipped with electronic pressure sensors（傳感器）, which provide exactly correct race time and also help to catch runners who “jump the gun”. As athletes cross the finishing line, special digital cameras can also easily decide the winner. The clays of “dead heats” are gone.

Athletes have also benefited（受益） from technological developments. Body-hug-ging suits, which reduce（減少） wind drag, can help cut up to one-tenth of a second from runners’ race times. Top athletes are even provided with tailor-made sports shoes. These shoes are made to fit the athlete exactly—and there are even air compartments in the shoes that can be filled to meet each runner’s individual needs.

Technology has also changed the way that many sports are performed. Take one example—the pole vault（撐桿跳）. The inclusion of a landing mat obviously made a big difference to the vaulting style（方式）as athletes no longer needed to worry about hurting themselves as they fell. Without these worries, athletes could obviously jump higher. These days, polevaulters do not even need to worry about the crossbar as the uprights are now fitted with light-emitting diodes（LEDs） that measure（測量） how high the athlete vaulted. Technology has even been to the advantage of swimmers. New pools have been designed to reduce wave interference and sports scientists have even developed a new style of swimming that increases buoyancy and reduces drag in the water.

The increasing importance of these technological developments has led many sportsmen to suggest that the “Olympic spirit” is being lost in a rush to break records and win medals. Many developing countries say that technology has become too important in sport and that athletes from developing countries that cannot afford such technology are disadvantaged. There are no easy answers but one thing is sure—we cannot turn back time. Technology cannot go backwards.

1.How many pieces of high-tech sports equipment are mentioned in paragraph 2 and 3？

A．One. B．Two.

C．Three. D．Four.

2.The underlined phrase “dead heats” means “________”.

A．sports equipment which was out of date

B．runners who jumped the gun while running

C．diseases which killed runners in hot weather

D．races in which runners finished at the same time

3.What can be inferred from the fourth paragraph？

A．LEDs can measure the speed of swimming.

B．The pole vault was not quite safe in the past.

C．Polevaulters jump higher with landing mats.

D．New pools have changed the style of swimming.

4.The purpose of the writer in writing this article is ________.

A．to suggest we should keep up with the times

B．to show us the future of modern Olympics

C．to prove that the athletes have done better

D．to introduce high-tech sports equipment

Ever since we became pen pals, Julien has sent me strange things. Once, she sent her sneeze in a jar.（“I have a cold, can you tell?” she wrote.） Then she sent her fingerprint.（“So you’ll recognize me in a crowd.”）

Julien sent me breakfast, all right: cornflakes. Soggy, milky, grainy, crumbly, limp cornflakes scraped from the bottom of her cereal bowl. I lost my appetite, but I read the letter.

“She’s mistaken,” I told my mom. “No one can send a sunset, not even Julien. It’s impossible.”

“I don’t know,” Mom said. “Julien might find a way. After all, she did send you her sneeze.”

A week later I checked the mail and found a box with air holes and the words “FRAGILE—THIS SIDE UP” printed in bold black letters on the top. It was from Julien.

I stroked the box with my fingers. It was perfectly dry. I smelled it. It didn’t smell. I held my breath and started opening the package. What if sunbeams spring out and hit me in the face like those fake snakes in a can? I thought.

My hands shook as I lifted the last flap and peeked inside. Where in the world was the sunset? All I could find was a letter and a twisty, gray, papery shell. It looked like a submarine. I read the letter.

I looked again at the gray shell. That’s no sunset, I thought. “You must mean the submarines at your house, Julien,” I said. Without reading the postscript, I laid the letter and the submarine on the kitchen table. Then I left the room to find a pen so that I could cross out “sunset” and write “submarine” above it.

When I returned, I stared in shock at the submarine. A creature was oozing out of it! Was it a sea monster? I looked closer. It was a winged creature... an insect... a butterfly. An orange, blue, purple, red, and gold butterfly. It looked like... a sunset!

While the sunset opened and closed its wings to dry them, I read Julien’s postscript. It said, “P. S. Next week I’m sending you Japan.”

1.What does the underlined word“ oozing” probably mean?

A．Moving. B．Jumping.

C．Swimming. D．Flying.

2.What did Julien really want Caitlin to see in the fourth mail?

A．The setting sun. B．Colors of a sunset.

C．A colorful butterfly. D．A new submarine.

3.We can learn from the passage that Julien was ________.

A．strange and clever B. honest and friendly

C．creative and giving D. funny and inventive

4.What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Caitlin was from Japan and had never seen Julien.

B．Caitlin’s mom thought Julien’s gifts were fantastic.

C．Caitlin was pleased with the cornflakes that Julien sent.

D．Caitlin was expecting another unusual gift from Julien.

Around twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could not find a satisfying job and I found this especially difficult as I had a lot of experience and a Master’s degree.

To my shame I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say I did not get the job.

Later that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet neighborhood I had an internal（inside）wave—like a scream（尖叫）—come up from deep inside me and I thought “Why has my life become so hard?”...

Immediately after this internal scream I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl and as she passed she handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody looked for it. The earring was stamped with words “BE HAPPY”.

At first I got angry. Then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I decided then and there to make a list of 50 things I was thankful to.

At first it was hard, then it got easier. One day I decided to up it to 75. That night there was a phone call for me, asking if I would do a one-day training for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the job.

My day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing welcome and many more days of work. To this day I KNOW that it was because I changed my attitude（態(tài)度）to gratitude.

By chance, the day after I found the earring the girl asked me if anyone had looked for it. I told her no and she said “I guess it was meant for you then.”

I spent the next year doing training workshops all around the Seattle area and then decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived before. I closed my one man business and bought a plane ticket. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful house in Scotland.

“THE ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE” has been my motto（座右銘） for years now and yes, it completely changed my life.

1.What is the underlined word it in the passage？

A．To make a list of things he was thankful to.

B．The words“ BE HAPPY”.

C．To forget that his life became so hard.

D．The special earring the girl gave to the writer.

2.The word gratitude means “being ________”.

A．thankful B．open

C．careful D．kind

3.Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage.？

A．The writer made a list of 75 things he was thankful to.

B．The writer’s wife has been his best friend for 15 years.

C．The writer has lived in Seattle since 20 years ago.

D．The writer did the training for 200 hospital workers.

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Attitude and Gratitude B．The Girl and I

C．Be Happy D．The Earring

Fashion always keeps at least one eye on the future. Now scientists are lending a hand, developing tomorrow’s super-powered（超能）clothing such as coats that can recharge（再充電） your MP3 player and make you stronger.

For example, electronics could get recharged in the future simply by plugging（插上插座） them into your outer wear, because Australian researchers are designing clothing that can collect energy from a person. The coats would include small things that change vibration energy（動能）from a person’s movements into electricity. High-tech fabrics（纖維品）would carry this energy to batteries（電池）.

“It will look like an ordinary（common）coat but have super energy,” said Adam Best, an Australian head research scientist. “This kind of technology has important uses for soldiers in the field and could mean they no longer need to carry heavy batteries,’’ Best added. “Above all, they’d be wearing the battery, not carrying it.” Besides helping soldiers, these coats could also have common uses for common people, such as powering radios, mobile phones, MP3 players or medical things. Solar-powered handbags could do the same thing.

Thanks to self-cleaning fabrics developed by scientists working for the U. S. Air Force, underwear and sports clothing could go weeks without washing. The general idea of clothes that never get dirty can be found in the 1951 film The Man in the White Suit. The new technology helps keep off water, oil and bacteria（細菌）.

High-tech fabrics could also help serve as protection. For example, future fabrics could lead to soft helmets（頭盔）that turn hard in an accident.

Not all the possible fabrics of tomorrow are necessarily high-tech. For example, chicken feathers（羽毛） and other things of the farming industry could get changed into wool-like fabrics or cotton-like ones, helping use fewer fabrics made from oil.

Scientific development is also creating wool that doesn’t become bigger or smaller after washing. And future clothing could help soldiers shoulder heavy bags and help people walk. But not all electronic coats have such uses—some might serve as video game players with high technology and the latest fashion joined together perfectly.

The world of fashion is set to be taken by high-tech clothing that works as you wear!

1.“This kind of technology” means “________”.

A．clothing that makes you stronger

B．self-cleaning clothing

C．clothing that helps people walk

D．self-powered clothing

2.How can high-tech fabrics protect people from danger?

A．We will no more get hurt because of heavy batteries.

B．High-tech fabrics serve as a kind of protection for soldiers.

C．A soft helmet will become strong when you hit into something.

D．Future clothing keeps us away from dirty things and bacteria.

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the article?

A．You can get electronic energy from your clothes in the future.

B．Self-cleaning coats are developed for American scientists.

C．We will no longer use fabrics made from oil in the future.

D．The future high-tech clothing will be used only for soldiers.

4.What would be the best title of the passage?

A．Fashion Changes with Technology

B．Tomorrow’s High-tech Clothing

C．New Technologies Change the World

D．What We Will Wear in the Future