B
The world is not coming to an end on December 21, 2012, the US space agency insisted Monday in a rare campaign to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie．
The latest big screen offering from Sony Picture, 2012, arrives in theaters on Friday, with a 200-million-dollar production about the end of the world supposedly based on myths backed by the Mayan calendar．It is claimed that the end of time will come as a Planet X---or Nibiru---heads toward or collides with the Earth．
Some websites accuse NASA of hiding the truth on the planet’s existence, but the US space agency condemned such stories as an “Internet hoax”．“There is no factual basis for these claims,” NASA said in a question-and-anwser posting on this website．“If such a collision were real, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye．Obviously, it does not exist．Credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012,” it insisted．“After all, our planet has been getting along just well for more than four billion years,” added NASA．
There is another planet, Eris, floating in space．But the small planet similar to Pluto will remain safely fixed in the outer solar system and it can come no closer than four billion miles to the Earth, according to NASA．
Earlier theories set the disaster for May 2003, but when nothing happened the date was moved forward to the winter in 2012 to coincide with the end of a cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar．
NASA insisted the Mayan calendar in fact does not end on December 21, 2012, as another period begins immediately afterward．
And even if the planets were to line up as some have forecast, the effect on our planet would be “negligible（unimportant）”, NASA said．
“And while comets and asteroids （小行星） have always hit the Earth, big hits are very rare,” NASA noted．The last major impact was believed to be 65 million years ago, resulting in the end of dinosaurs．
“We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs,” the space agency said．
49．______ played a key role in the spread of the rumors．
A．A new book               B．The Internet and a new Hollywood movie
C．NASA                   D．An Indian calendar
50．We can infer that ______．
A．people didn’t take the rumor seriously
B．Planet X --- or Nibiru does exist
C．a(chǎn)stronomers have been tracking Planet X for over ten years
D．the rumor caused a panic among some people
51．NASA thinks that Eris ______．
A．might have a threat to the Earth     B．doesn’t have any threat to the Earth
C．is too far away to be visible       D．is similar to our planet, where life might exist
52．Which of the following is the best title?
A．New Hollywood movie 2012
B．December 21, 2012, Not the end of the world
C．End of the ancient Mayan calendar
D．How rumors came into being
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：完形填空


第三部分任務(wù)型閱讀（滿分10分）
Romantic novelists rarely fail to include in their writings that special moment when two strangers look into each other's eyes across a crowded room and feel the tingle of desire. Now these writings have now been validated（證實）by science, for experts have discovered that eye-to-eye contact in fact leads to a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain.
Neuroscientists at University College London asked eight female and eight male volunteers to look at photos of the faces of 40 different people who were either looking at the camera or gazing to one side.
While the volunteers looked at the pictures, they were given a scan with functional magnetic resonance imaging（磁性共振成影儀器）, which measures increased blood flows to the various parts of the brain and thus provides a "map" of cerebral activity（大腦活動）.
The volunteers were then asked to rate the attractiveness of each face, and their score was matched against the scan.
The result: when volunteer had direct eye contact with the face, there was an increase of activity in the ventral striatum（腹面紋狀體）, a central part of the brain that anticipates reward or pleasure. But if the eyes did not meet, there was no activity in that brain area at all. The activity increase occurred regardless of the gender of the face in direct eye contact.
However, there was a bigger-than-usual increase if the person giving the eye was found to be attractive. Activity in the ventral striatum surged. But if the cute person gazed to one side, the ventral striatum remained dormant, apparently disappointed that the stranger was clearly not interested.
Interestingly, the ventral striatum also perked up if a plug-ugly person gazed to one side, rather than looked at the volunteer right in the eyes.
Origin of the experiment
Romantic novelists like to describe in their writings that two strangers look into each other's eyes across a crowded room and feel the tingle of desire in a special ____71____.
__72__ of the experiment
Investigate whether eye-to-eye contact ____73____ a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain.
 
Procedure of the experiment
◆Ask ____74____ volunteers（8 female and 8 male）to look at photos of the faces of 40 different people who were either looking at the camera or gazing to one side.
◆____75____ blood flows to the various parts of the volunteers’ brain and thus provides a "map" of cerebral activity.
◆Ask the volunteers to rate the attractiveness of all ____76____,
◆____77____ their score against the scan.
 
____78____ of the experiment
◆As long as the eyes meet ____79____, there must be activities in the brain area. On the other hand, there is no activity at all.
◆The activity of the brain is also ___80_____ with the people’s appearance closely.
 

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：完形填空

 完形填空（共20小題；每小題1.5分，滿分30分）
閱讀下面短文，從短文后所給各題的四個選項(A、B、C和D)中，選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項。
Since my family were not going to be helpful, I decided I would look for one job by myself and not tell them about it till I'd got one.               
I had seen an agency advertised in a local newspaper. I rushed out of the   21_   in search of it. I was wildly excited, and as    22_  as if I were going on the stage. Finding the    23_  quite easily, I ran breathlessly through a door which said " Enter without knocking, if you please. "
The simple atmosphere of the office    24_  me. The woman looked carefully at me   25_  through her glasses, and then    26_  me in a low voice. I answered softly. All of a sudden I started to feel rather   27_  . She wondered why I was looking for this sort of   28_  . I felt even more helpless when she told me that it would be   29  to get a job without    30_  . I wondered whether I ought to leave,   31_   the telephone on her desk rang. I heard her say:
“   32_  , I've got someone in the   33_  at this very moment who might    34_   . " She wrote down a   35_   . and held it out to me, saying: "Ring up this lady. She wants a    36   immediately. In fact, you would have to start tomorrow by cooking a dinner for ten people."
"Oh yes, " said I——   37_   having cooked for more than four in my life. I   38_  her again and again, and rushed out to the   39_  telephone box. I collected my thoughts, took a deep breath, and rang the number. I said confidently that I was just what she was looking for.
I spent the next few hours   40_   cook books.
21． A．bed        B．house      C．a(chǎn)gency      D．office
22． A．proud       B．please        C．nervous     D．worried
23． A．family       B．door      C．place        D．stage
24． A．calmed       B．excited       C．frightened    D．disturbed
25． A．a(chǎn)s usual      B．for a while   C．in a minute   D．once again
26． A．a(chǎn)dvised      B．examined     C．informed    D．questioned
27． A．encouraged   B．dissatisfied   C．hopeless     D．pleased
28． A．place        B．job            C．a(chǎn)dvice       D．help
29． A．difficult      B．helpless       C．possible      D．unusual
30． A．a(chǎn)bility       B．experience     C．knowledge   D．study
31． A.  after      B．since       C．until         D．when
32． A． Above all   B．As a matter of fact   C．As a result   D．In spite of that
33． A． family     B．house        C．office        D．restaurant
34． A． hire       B． accept      C．suit          D．offer
35． A． letter      B．name    C．note        D．number
36． A． cook       B．help      C．teacher      D．secretary
37． A． almost      B．never        C．nearly       D．really
38． A． answered    B．promised     C．thanked     D．told
39． A.  outside    B． local       C．closest       D．nearest
40． A． burrowing   B．buying         C．reading      D．lending

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

There is no doubt that adults, and even highly educated adults, vary greatly in the speed and efficiency of their reading. Some proceed very lowly throughout; others dash along too quickly and then have to regress. Poor readers in particular may lack the ability to vary their manner of reading according to the type of reading matter and to their intentions in reading it. A good reader can move at great speed through the text of a novel or similar light reading matter. He may be able to skim a page, picking up a word or two here and there, and gain a general idea of what the text is about without really reading it. In reading more difficult material, with the intention of taking in the whole of it, he will proceed more slowly, but even then he will vary his pace, concentrating on the key words and passages, perhaps re-reading them several times and pass more quickly over the remainder. A less efficient reader tends to maintain the same speed whatever the material he reads. Consequently, even light reading matter gives him little pleasure because he reads so slowly. But this pace may be too fast for really difficult material which requires special concentration at difficult points.
A type of reading which necessitates(需要) careful attention to detail is proofreading, in which the reader, in order to detect misprints in a sample print, has to notice not so much the meaning of what he reads as the exact shape and order of letters and words in the text. This is extremely difficult for most people, since they are accustomed to overlooking such details. In fact, considerable practice is required to practise this task efficiently and it can be done only by reading very slowly, and by paying comparatively little attention to the general meaning of the text.
68．This article is mainly concerned with ________.
A．the ability to read fast      
B．difference in the speed and efficiency of reading
C．different reading skills      
D．the reading speed of highly educated adults
69．According to the article, there is a difference in reading speed ________.
A．a(chǎn)mong adult readers
B．a(chǎn)mong young educated people
C．a(chǎn)mong readers who have different experiences
D．between the poorly educated and the highly educated
70．The underlined word "regress" can be best replaced by "________".
A．regret         B．stop   C．move slowly       D．go back
71．The author believes a good reader should ________.
A．a(chǎn)lways read at great speed      
B．read carefully and catch every detail
C．a(chǎn)lways review the text he has read 
D．change his speed according to the type of text

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

  Language is always changing. In a society where life continues year after year with few changes, the language does not change, either. The earliest known languages had difficult grammar but a small, limited vocabulary. Over the century, the grammar changed, and the vocabulary grew. For example, the English and Spanish people who came to America during the sixteenth century gave names to all new plants and animals they found. In this way, hundreds of new words were introduced into English and Spanish vocabularies. Today life is changing very fast, and language is changing fast too.
 There are several major language families in the world. Some scientists say there are nine main families, but other scientists divide them differently. The languages in each family are connected, and scientists think that they came from the same parent language About 3 percent of the people in the world speak languages that are not in these major families.
60. The early language had ______.
A. a lot of problems                                      B. words and easy grammar
C. words but no grammar                                    D. grammar but not many words
61. In the next few hundred years we can expect language to ______.
A. stay exactly the same                             B. change a great deal
C. change only a little                                  D. add more words and drop some grammar
62. What this article shows is that ______.
A. languages change fast             B. languages really don’t want to change
C. language changes with changes of society     D. Spanish and English change
63. From this article we can see that ______.
A. language can change very slowly or very quickly
B. if we don’t change, then our language won’t change, either
C. we should give our plants new names
D. English and Spanish are the only languages that have changes

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解


E
Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows—and future warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war. US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in unusually warm years.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they suggest conflict arises when the food supply is not enough in warm conditions. Climatic factors have been mentioned as a reason for several recent conflicts. One is the fighting in Darfur in Sudan that has killed 200,000 people and forced two million more from their homes. Previous research has shown an association between lack of rain and conflict, but this is thought to be the first clear evidence of a temperature link.
The researchers used databases of temperatures across sub-Saharan Africa for the period between 1981 and 2002, and looked for connections between above average warmth and civil conflict in the same country that left at least 1,000 people dead. "Studies show that crop output in the region is really sensitive to small shifts in temperature, even of half a degree or so," research leader Marshall Burke, from the University of California at Berkeley, told BBC News.
"Our findings provide strong motivation to increase investments in African adaptation to climate change by such steps as developing crop varieties less sensitive to extreme heat and promoting insurance plans to help protect farmers from negative effects of the hotter climate," said Dr Burke. "If the argument is that the trend towards rising temperatures will increase conflict, then we need to do something around climate change, but more fundamentally we need to resolve the conflicts in the first place."
If the sub-Saharan climate continues to warm and little is done to help its countries better adapt to high temperatures, the human costs are likely to be unimaginable. If temperatures rise across the continent as computer models project, future conflicts are likely to become more common, researchers suggest. Their study shows an increase of about 50% over the next 20 years.
When projections of social trends such as population increase and economic development were included in their model of a future Africa, temperature rise still emerged as a likely major cause of increasing armed conflict. At next month's UN climate summit (峰會) in Copenhagen, governments are due to debate how much money to put into helping African countries prepare for and adapt to negative effects of climate change.
57．According to the passage, which of the following is one of the reasons for the fighting in Darfur in Sudan?
A．Shortage of drinking water.                         B．Racial discrimination.
C．Rising temperature.                                     D．Demand for planting land.
58．What can we know from the research done by the US researchers?
A．There is no close relation between rainfall and conflict.
B．Temperature greatly affects crop production in sub-Saharan Africa.
C．Temperature will rise by about 50% in Africa over the next two decades.
D．With world cooperation, conflicts in Africa will be reduced by half 20 years later.
59．What can be inferred from the passage?
A．Something must be done to help sub-Saharan countries with better adaptation to climate change to avoid disaster.
B．Conflicts in sub-Saharan countries are sure to be on the rise in future.
C．Temperature in sub-Saharan countries will rise at a faster speed.
D．High temperatures will make sub-Saharan countries unfit to live in.
60．What's the best title for this passage?
A．World cooperation against African conflict
B．Africa's sufferings from climate change
C．Food shortages lead to African conflict
D．Climate drives African conflict

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解


C
Geniuses amaze us, impress us and make us all a little jealous．How do they differ from the average person? Scientists are working hard to figure out that answer．Tune in to the National Geographic Channel to find out about the discoveries they’re making in the series My Brilliant Brain.
When Marc Yu was only two years old, he began to play the piano．After a year, he started learning pieces by Beethoven．Now he’s a world-famous concert pianist at age eight．He learns newer and more difficult pieces with ease and can identify any note he hears．He seems to be specially designed for music．In Born Genius, National Geographic looks at the science behind child prodigies (神童) to explain why some children seem to be born without limits.
Genius didn’t come naturally to Tommy McHugh．His came only after he nearly died from bleeding in his brain．After recovering, McHugh’s head was filled with new thoughts and pictures．So, he began to express them in the form of poetry and art．Now, he’s a seemingly unstoppable creative machine．Sufferers of autism and brain injury have shown that great mental ability can sometimes come from damage or disease．Accidental Genius explores this puzzling relationship.
Can normal people be trained to be geniuses? Susan Polger has shown no signs of extraordinary intelligence．Yet, during her childhood, she studied thousands of chess patterns and learned to recognize them immediately．As a result, she was able to beat skilled adult players by age 10 and can now play up to five games at the same time without even seeing the boards．Make Me a Genius examines what it takes to turn an ordinary brain into that of a genius.
If becoming a genius were easy, we’d all be one．Yet, there is much more to super intelligence than simply being born lucky．Learn more about amazing brains this month on National Geographic’s My Brilliant Brain.
51．My Brilliant Brains is most probably from _______.
A．a(chǎn) website           B．the radio               C．a(chǎn) magazine          D．a(chǎn) newspaper
52．The author takes Marc Yu as an example to show that a child prodigy is        .
A．a(chǎn) person who learns something easily
B．a(chǎn) child who is eager to learn new things
C．a(chǎn) student who practices an instrument a lot
D．a(chǎn) kid who works hard to do well in school
53．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A．New things about the brain are still being discovered.
B．People without natural abilities can learn to do things well.
C．Some people naturally have more active brains.
D．People are usually smarter when they recover from brain injury.
54．From the passage, we know that ___________
A．scientists completely understand the brain
B．people can only be born as geniuses
C．there’s no such thing as a true genius
D．there are many factors in being a genius
55．The author develops the passage mainly by ___________.
A．providing typical examples
B．following the natural time order
C．presenting a cause and analyzing its effects
D．comparing opinions from different scientists

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what’s happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons(神經(jīng)元) are responsible for this processing.
　　The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging功能性磁共振造影) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
　　Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen- rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
　　An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
　　The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly, related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
　　 51. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
　　A A small region of the brain.
　　B The central part of the brain.
　　C Neurons in the brain.
　　D Oxygen-rich blood.
　　52. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
　　A Cells in your brain are called neurons.
　　B The more oxygen a neuron consumes, the more blood it needs.
　　C fMRI helps scientists to discover which parts of the brain process information.
　　D fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
53. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
　　A "marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　B "giving light to the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　C "putting the parts of the brain to work"
　　D "stopping the parts of the brain from working"
　　54. What did the researchers experiment on?
　　A Animals, objects, and fruits.
　　B Two volunteers.
　　C fMRI machines.
　　D Thousands of pictures.
55.What is the best title for the passage?
A Mind-reading Machine
B A Technological Dream
C Device that can Help You Calculate
D The Recent Development in Science and Technology

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解


D
The Harvard Student-led Walking Tour
Let a student show you Harvard …on a free walking tour.
We welcome our neighbors to stop by the Harvard University Even & Information Centre, located in the Holyoke Centre Arcade at 1350 Massachusetts Avenue in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge.
Let a student take you and your family, school, or organization on an engaging, hour-long free historical tour of the Harvard Campus. The tours leaves form be Events & Information Centre. Not only will you discover the location of fascinating exhibition and  programmers on campus, you will also see Harvard’s rich sampling of American history and architecture from the Colonial period to the present. Schedule of Tours.
Schedule of Tours
Tours leave the Events & Information Centre at 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. Monday through Friday, and at 2 p. m. on Saturday through the academic year(February 4 through May 2; September 23 through December 16). Summer tours (June 24 through August 15) are offered at 10 a.m. , 11:15 a.m., 2p.m., and 3:15 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Reser-vacations for special tours of 20 or more people may be made b calling the Events & Information Centre at (617) 495-1583 or emailing icenter@ camail. harvard, edu. Tours are suspended March 23 trough April 2 for Spring Break, May 3 through June 23 for Spring intercession（禱告）,and August 16 through September 22 for Summer intercession.
NOTE: Prospective（未來的）students may take tours originating at the Harvard Admission Office, located at Byerly Hall on 8 Garden Street in Cambridge. Form April through August, the Admissions staff conducts an information session at 10 a. m. , followed by an 11 a. m. tour. Monday through Friday. On Saturdays, there is no information session but the 11 a. m. tour is still scheduled. Another session is held year-round at 2p. m. with a 3 p.m. tour following. For more information on tours for prospective students, please call at (617)495-1551.
Harvard University Events & Information Centre.
Location: Holyoke Centre Arcade. 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138
Phone: (617) 495-1537
53．A person can join in a tour at________on Saturday through the academic year.
A．10 a. m.   B．2  p. m.   C．11:15 a. m.      D．3:15 p. m.
54．If you want to go for an information session, you can go on__________.
A．May 2      B．June 23    C．August 20 D．September1
55．A student who wants an information session may___________for more information.
A．call (617) 495-1573                 B．call(617) 495-1551
C．email iceter@ camail. Harvard, edu          D．go to the Events & Information Centre
56．The above ad. is mainly intended for________ .
A．foreign visitors          B．freshmen
C．high school students    D．those living near Harvard University

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