A new study suggests that the roundtheclock(24小時(shí)的)availability that cell phones
have brought to people's lives may be taking_a_toll_on family life.The study,which followed
more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently used a mobile phone
throughout the study period were more likely to report negative "spillover" between work and
home life-and,in turn,less satisfaction with their family life.
     Spillover essentially(本質(zhì)上)means that the line between work and home begins to become
unclear.Work life may invade home life when a parent is taking jobrelated calls at home,for
instance-or family issues may start to take up work time.For example,a child may call mum at
work,telling her "microwave exploded",explained Noelle Chesley,an assistant professor of
sociology at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee and the author of the study. The problem
with cell phones seems to be that they are allowing for even more spillover between work and
home.
      This may be especially true for working women,the study found. Among men,consistent use
of mobile phones seemed to allow more work issues to creep (潛入)into family time.But for
women,the spillover tended to go in both directions. Being "connected" meant that work cut into
home time,and family issues came into work life.
       Cell phones seem to be opening more lines for stressful exchanges among family members.
But there may be ways to control the spillover,according to Chesley.Employers, she said,could
look at their policies on contacting employees after hours to make sure their expectations are
"reasonable"．For their part,employees could decide that cell phones go off during family time,
Chesley said.

1．What does the underlined phrase "taking a toll on" probably mean in Paragraph 1

A．Explaining.  
B．Founding.
C. Damaging.  
D．Extending

2．According to Chesley,what is the best solution to the problem caused by cell phones?

A．Refuse to use cell phones.
B. Separate work hours from family time.
C. Ignore coming calls during family time.
D. Encourage women to stay at home.

3．We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．cell phones make the line between work and home unclear
B．cell phones seem to be convenient to families
C．cell phones affect men as much as women
D．we can do nothing to solve the problem

4．What is the main idea of the passage?

A．How to control the negative spillover caused by cell phones.
B. Cell phones cause negative "spillover" between work life and home life.
C. Consistent use of cell phones makes people feel less satisfied with their work.
D. How work life invades home life.

     A Northern Ireland team is leading a research to develop a thinking computer which can
sense a user's mood.Researchers at Queen's University in Belfast hope to complete the 10
million Euro project for an emotionsensitive computer within four years.
     The aim is to enable computers to think and behave more like humans.The Europewide
project is being led by the university's School of Psychology and involves 160 researchers
from 27 institutions.The university's researchers developed the scheme and signed the
contract with the European Commission.The academics said the work will build upon attempts
to create "multimodal interfaces (多模式界面)" which allow machines to sense and respond
to the moods of the user.
     Programme leader Professor Roddy Cowie said while it sounds like science fiction, computers
which respond to human emotion will appear in the future."At the moment, our use of computers
is limited by the fact that we need a keyboard and a screen to access them," he said."It would make
a big difference if we could interact with them by speaking normally-perhaps through a microphone
and a transmitter (傳感器)．" But emotion is part of normal speech, and experience has shown that
most users are deeply uncomfortable with speech interfaces that ignore it-too uncomfortable to use
them very much."If we can make computers more intuitive (富于直覺的) and expressive, and also
less challenging to use, there is great potential to let people make fuller use of information technology."
     The emotionsensitive computer would have its own "personality" and establish a social relationship
with the user."It's a fair bet that in 30 years' time, emotionsensitive interfaces will be as much part of
life as windowandmouse interfaces are now," said Professor Cowie.The project team believes such
computers will play a major role in teaching and learning.

1．Which of the following statements is TRUE about the project?

A．It aims to create an emotionsensitive computer.
B．It can create a 10 million Euro profit.
C．It is led by a Southern Ireland team.
D．It has been completed within four years.

2．How will computers sense users' moods?

A．Through a screen.
B．Through a keyboard.
C．Through the voice of users.
D．Through multimodal interfaces.

3．We can infer from the passage that a person's emotion________.

A．varies from time to time
B．is determined by his own personality
C．plays an important role in normal speech
D．makes people uncomfortable when one is speaking

4．What conclusion can we draw from the last paragraph?

A．Emotionsensitive computers can talk freely as human beings.
B．It will be difficult for people to use emotionsensitive computers.
C．Emotionsensitive computers have been widely used in teaching.
D．It will be common for people to use emotionsensitive computers in the future.

1. The Solar PlugIn Station is used as part of the bid to host the Olympics mainly because ________.

A. it's environmentally friendly    
B. it makes up for the lack of electricity
C. it’s a new idea and attracts people's attention
D. it brings convenience to electric vehicle users

2. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A. to recharge the electric vehicles takes a long time
B. the Solar PlugIn Station will come into use in 2016
C. the Solar PlugIn Station has gone on show internationally
D. Chicago is promoting the use of electric vehicles

3. According to the passage，how many of the following statements are TRUE?
a. Tesla Roadster is a kind of plugin electric vehicle.
b. The Solar PlugIn Station uses solar power to charge all of the cars.
c. Chicago is a city, which is rich in oil.
d. The Solar PlugIn Station consists of underground battery packs.
e. Scott Emalfarb is optimistic about the future of plugin electric vehicles.

A. 2.        
B. 3.            
C. 4.              
D. 5.

4. The passage implies that when the Solar PlugIn Station becomes popular，________.

A. more visitors will come to Chicago
B. the citizens of Chicago will be able to go to work faster
C. more space for electric vehicles will be needed
D. the cost of electric vehicles will be lower than traditional cars

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

A. Chicago Will Soon Be Full of Electric Vehicles
B. Chicago Calls on People to Buy Electric Vehicles
C. Chicago Fights for Its Bid to Host the 2016 Olympics
D. Chicago Shows Its Solarpowered Recharging Stations

1. According to the study sponsored by RSA Data Security, two thirds of the subjects _______.

A. had most of their company data stolen    
B. depended on wireless computer networks
C. were exposed to drive-by hacking        
D. were unaware of the risk of wireless hacking

2. Whichof the following is NOT considered in the study?

A. The number of computer hacking incidents.
B. The number of wireless computer networks identified.
C. The way in which data are sent and received.
D. The way in which data are hacked and stolen.

3. Most wireless network technology has_________.

A. data encryption program    
B. password security programs
C. illegal-user detection
D. firewall

4. Raymond Kruck most probably agrees that wireless network security involves ________.

A. wireless signal administration  
B. changes in user's awareness
C. users' psychological health      
D. stronger physical walls

5. The passage is most likely to be seen in a __________            

A. book review   
B. science fiction  
C. textbook  
D. computer magazine

     The plan: turn Mars into a blue world with streams and green fields, and then fill it with creatures(生物) from the earth.This idea may sound like something from a science fiction (科幻小說(shuō)), but it is actually
being taken seriously by many researchers.
     This suggested future for the "red planet" will be the main topic for discussion at an international
conference hosted by NASA (美國(guó)宇航局) this week. Leading researchers as well as science fiction
writers will attend the event. It comes as NASA is preparing a multibilliondollar Mars research
programme. "Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction," said Dr Michael
Meyer, NASA's senior scientist for astrobiology (太空生物學(xué)). "Now, with scientists exploring the
reality, we can ask what are the real possibilities of changing Mars."
     Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money
would be needed to achieve this goal.
     But many experts are shocked by the idea.“We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable
speed and now we are talking about ruining another planet, ” said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of
Astronomy, Cambridge, UK. Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they
will find Martian life forms.Europe and America's robot explorers have found proof that water, mixed
with soil, exists in large amounts on the planet.
     In addition, two different groups of scientistsannounced on March 28 that they had found signs of
methane (甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere (大氣). The gas is a waste product of living creatures and
could be produced by microbes (微生物) living in the red planet's soil.
     But scientists such as Dr Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be
put in danger by the little earth project. "Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are
talking about carrying out projects that would destroy all these native life forms, all the strange microbes
that we hope to find buried in the soil,"  said Dr Pratt.This view is shared by Monica Grady, a planetary
scientist at the Natural History Museum, London. "We cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for." she said, "This is just wrong."

1. The passage is about________.

A. a plan turning Mars into a little earth
B. the necessity of changing Mars
C. Mars supporting life
D. finding water in the Mars

2. Which of the following is NOT the reason why some scientists are against the plan?

A. The project would wipe out all the native life forms on the Mars.
B. The project will cost too much money and work.
C. We would ruin Mars.
D. We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed.

3. We can infer from the passage that________.

A. water is a crucial factor for life
B. the project will have little effect on the native life forms supposed to live on the Mars
C. Monica Grady is in favour of carrying out the little earth project
D. the idea turning Mars into a little earth is nothing but a science fiction

4. Which of the following supports the conclusion of microbes living in the Mars soil?

A. Scientists found liquid water in the Mars.
B. Scientists found signs of methane in the Martian atmosphere.
C. Scientists found a lot of good soil on the Mars.
D. Scientists found some creatures living on the Mars.

     The latest research suggests that the key factor separating geniuses from the merely
accomplished is not IQ, a generally bad predictor of success. Instead, it's purposeful
practice. Top performers spend more hours practising their craft. If you wanted to
picture how a typical genius might develop, you'd take a girl who possessed a slightly
above average language ability. It wouldn't have to be a big talent, just enough so that
she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a
novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar qualities. Maybe the writer was from
the same town, had the same family background, or shared the same birthday.
     This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would give her some
idea of a fascinating circle she might someday join. It would also help if one of her parents
died when she was 12, giving her a strong sense of insecurity and fuelling a desperate need
for success. Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and life stories of writers
without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her field. She'd be able to see
new writing in deeper ways and quickly understand its inner workings.
     Then she would practise writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and errorfocused.
By practising in this way, she delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious,
newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. By practising slowly, by
breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, she forces the brain to internalize a better
pattern of performance. Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream
of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing
her to take on tougher challenges. By now she is redoing problems-how do I get characters into
a room-dozens and dozens of times. She is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order
to understand or solve future problems.
     The primary quality our young writer possesses is not some mysterious genius. It's the ability to
develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine. The latest research takes some of the
magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is
affected by genetics and what we're "hardwired" to do. And it's true that genes play a role in our
capabilities. But the brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behaviour.

1．The passage mainly deals with ________.

A．the function of IQ in cultivating a writer
B．the relationship between genius and success
C．the decisive factor in making a genius
D．the way of gaining some sense of distinction

2．By reading novels and writers' stories, the girl could________.

A．come to understand the inner structure of writing
B．join a fascinating circle of writers someday
C．share with a novelist her likes and dislikes
D．learn from the living examples to establish a sense of security

3．In the girl's long painstaking training process, ________.

A．her adviser forms a primary challenging force to her success
B．her writing turns into an automatic pattern of performance
C．she acquires the magic of some great achievement
D．she comes to realize she is "hardwired" to write

4．What can be concluded from the passage?

A．A fuelling ambition plays a leading role in one's success.
B．A responsible adviser is more important than the knowledge of writing.
C．As to the growth of a genius, IQ doesn't matter, but just his/her effort.
D．What really matters is what you do rather than who you are.