In the mid-1950s, I was a somewhat bored early-adolescent male student who believed that doing any more than necessary was wasted effort. One day, this approach threw me into embarrassment

In Mrs. Totten’s eighth-grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson, Indiana, we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小數(shù)).

Our teacher typically assigned daily homework, which would be recited in class the following day. On most days, our grades were based on our oral answer to homework questions.

Mrs. Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had appeared on our homework sheets. She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.

Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students, it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer. This particular time, I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.

What I failed to expect was that several students were absent, which threw off my estimate. As Mrs. Totten made her way from the beginning of the class，I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get. I tried to work it out before she got to me, but I had brain freeze and couldn’t function.

When Mrs. Totten reached my desk，she asked what answer I’d got for problem No. 14. “I…I didn’t get anything,” I answered，and my face felt warm.

“Correct,” she said.

It turned out that the correct answer was zero.

What did I learn that day? First, always do all your homework. Second, in real life it isn’t always what you say but how you say it that matters. Third，I would never make it as a mathematician.

If I could choose one school day that taught me the most, it would be that one.

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 indicate?

A.It is wise to value one’s time.

B.It is important to make an effort

C.It is right to stick to one’s belief.

D.It is enough to do the necessary.

2.Usually, Mrs. Totten asked her students to _______.

A. recite their homework together

B.grade their homework themselves

C.answer their homework questions orally

D.check the answers to their homework questions

3.The author could work out which questions to answer since the teacher always _______.

A.asked questions in a regular way

B.walked up and down when asking questions

C.chose two or three questions for the students

D.requested her students to finish their usual questions

4.The author failed to get the questions he had expected because _______.

A.the class didn’t begin as usual

B.several students didn’t come to school

C.he didn’t try hard to make his estimate

D.Mrs. Totten didn’t start from the back of the class

5.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A.An Unforgettable Teacher

B.A Future Mathematician

C.An Effective Approach

D.A Valuable Lesson

The behaviour of a building’s users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions (排放）by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero-carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own — though extremely important- is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behaviour of the people using the building has to change too.

The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency (效率)，which instead focus on architectural and technological developments.

‘Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything,’explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher，‘consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design. ’In other words，old habits die hard, even in the best-designed eco-home.

Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill-payers don’t have the knowledge they need to change their energy-use habits. Without specific information，it’s hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback (反饋） facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors，could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters.

Social science research has added a further dimension (方面），suggesting that individuals’behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted 一 whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat (恒溫器) , for example.

Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them.

1.As to energy use, the new research from UKERC stresses the importance of________.

A.zero-carbon homes B. the behaviour of building users

C.sustainable building designD. the reduction of carbon emissions

2.The underlined word “which” in Paragraph 2 refers to”________.”

A. the waysB. their homes

C.developments D. existing efforts

3.What are Katy Janda’s words mainly about?

A.The importance of changing building users, habits.

B.The necessity of making a careful building design.

C.The variety of consumption patterns of building users.

D.The role of technology in improving energy efficiency.

4.The information gap in energy use _______.

A.can be bridged by feedback facilities

B.affects the study on energy monitors

C. brings about problems for smart meters

D.will be caused by building users’ old habits

5.What does the dimension added by social science research suggest?

A.The social science research is to be furthered.

B.The education programme is under discussion.

C.The behaviour of building users is unpredictable.

D.The behaviour preference of building users is similar.

Many of us invest valuable time，energy and money planning our vacations. We do this because we know for sure that going on vacations must be good for us. Research proves this feeling without a doubt. Vacations help us perform better at work, improve our sleep quality and cushion us against depression.

Yet, despite these benefits, many of us return home with a feeling that our last vacation was OK - but not great. In order to change this, some mistakes should be avoided. A classic one for vacation planners is attempting to maximize value for money by planning trips that have too many components (組成部分)? Perhaps you’re planning a trip to Europe, seven cities in 10 days，and you realize it will cost only a little more to add two more destinations to the list Sounds fine in theory, but hopping from one place to the next hardly gives an opportunity to experience what psychologists call mindfulness - time to take in our new surroundings, time to be present and absorb our travel experiences. Another mistake is that we worry too much about strategic issues such as how to find a good flight deal，how to get from A to B，or which destinations to add or subtract from our journey. These issues may seem important, but our psychological state of mind is far more important.

Actually, vacation happiness is based on the following top rules. First, choose your travel companions wisely, because nothing contributes more significantly to a trip than the right companions. Second，don’t spend your vacation time in a place where everything is too expensive so as to maintain a positive mood. Third, shop wisely, for meaningful experiences provide more long-term happiness than physical possessions.

Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the

information given in the passage.

Kids and Ponds

Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn’t wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.

One day. a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called condominiums. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures (簽名）to stop the development A group of citizens met and decided to support him.

At the meeting of the town planning board (委員會(huì))，the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.

Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build condominiums. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning board. This time as an expert witness, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help improve the development. Finally some condominiums were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a strip of natural land，and are still there today.

1.What did the kids like to do at the local ponds in winter?

(No more than 6 words) (2 marks)

_______________________________________________________________________________

2.How did the boy win the citizens’ support?

(No more than 10 words) (2 marks)

_______________________________________________________________________________

3.What did the boy tell the town officials?

(No more than 16 words) (3 marks)

_______________________________________________________________________________

4.What helped the boy to protect the ponds successfully nine years later?

(No more than 12 words) (3 marks)

_______________________________________________________________________________

學(xué)校正在組織科技創(chuàng)新大賽，你想為日常生活中某件物品（如鋼筆、書(shū)包、鞋子……)設(shè)計(jì)添加新功能來(lái)參賽。請(qǐng)以“My Magic_______”為題寫(xiě)一篇英語(yǔ)短文，介紹你的創(chuàng)意。

內(nèi)容：

1.說(shuō)明設(shè)計(jì)理由

2.介紹新功能。

注意;:

1.詞數(shù)不少于120個(gè)字

2.不能使用真實(shí)姓名和學(xué)校名稱(chēng)。

In some countries, people eat with chopsticks, while in , knives and forks.

A. another B. others C. both D. all

Our club is open to everyone ____ age, sex or educational background.

A. due to B. except for C. along with D. regardless of

—Haven't seen you for ages! Where have you been?

—I went to Ningxia and there for one year, teaching as a volunteer.

A. stayed B. stay C. had stayed D. am staying

With online shopping increasingly popular, the Internet is seen as a(n) way of reaching target customers.

A. temporary B. complex C. accurate D. efficient

It is widely acknowledged that students should be in terms of overall quality.

A. supported B. matched C. evaluated D. controlled