For those who are tired doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can
tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app(application).
     Strange though it may seem - "my wife already does that" was a common response among attendees
viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week - Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install (安裝) a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them "smart".
     Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it's Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.
     The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owners is at work or on the bus.
     Samsung says it's not just something new - the app connection actually has some practical uses.
     "If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go," said
spokesperson Amy Schmidt.
     The company also says that with electricity rate (電價) varying depending on the time of day, more
control over when the machines are used can help save money.
     Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do -enable
laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on
their phones while watching TV.

1. What can be inferred from the common response of the attendees at the CES?

A. The machine will be a big success.
B. their wives like doing the laundry.
C. The machine is unrelated to their life.
D. This kind of technology is familiar to them.

2. What can we learn about the new laundry machines?

A. They can tell you when your clothes need washing
B. They can be controlled with a smartphone
C. They are difficult to operate
D. They are sold at a low price

3. We can conclude form Samsung's statements that ___________.

A. the app connection makes life easier
B. it is better to dry clothes in the morning
C. smartphone can shorten the drying time
D. we should refresh clothes back at home

4. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A. The laundry should be frequently checked
B. Lazy people like using such machines
C. Good technologies also cause problems
D. Television may help do the laundry.

     In his 1930 essay "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren ", John Keynes, a famous economist, wrote that human needs fall into two classes: absolute needs ,which are independent of what other have ,
and relative needs ,which make us feel superior to our fellows. He thought that although relative needs may indeed be  insatiable (無止境的) ,this is not true of absolute needs.
    Keynes was surely correct that only a small part of total spending is decided by the desire for
superiority .He was greatly mistaken ,however ,in seeing this desire as the only source of insatiable
demands 
    Decisions to spend are also driven by ideas of quality which can influence the demand for almost all
goods, including even basic goods like food. When a couple goes out for an anniversary dinner, for
example ,the thought of feeling superior to others probably never comes to them. Their goal is to share a
special meal that stands out from other meals.
     There are no obvious limits to the escalation of demands for quality. For example ,Porsche, a famous
car producer, has a model which was considered perhaps the best sport car on the market. Priced at
over $120,000,it handles perfectly well and has great speed acceleration. But in 2004 the producer
introduced some changes which made the model slightly better in handling and acceleration. People who
really care about cars find these small improvements exciting. To get them, however, they must pay almost four times the price.
     By placing the desire to be superior to other at the heart of his description of insatiable demands,
Keynes actually reduced such demands. However, the desire for higher quality has no natural limits.

1. According to the passage, John Keynes Believed that_______.

A. desire is the root of both absolute and relative needs
B. absolute needs come from our sense of superiority
C. relative needs alone lead to insatiable demands
D. absolute needs are stronger than relative needs

2.What do we know about the couble in Paragraph 3?

A. They want to show their superiority
B. They find specialty important to meals
C. Their demands for food are not easily satisfied.
D. Their choice of dinner is related to ideas of quality. 

3. What does the underlined word "escalation" in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A. Understanding.
B. Increase
C. Difference
D. Study

4.The author of the passage that ______.

A. absolute needs have no limits
B. demands for quality are not insatiable
C. human desires influence ideas of quality
D. relative needs decide most of our spending

People often don' t do what they really want to for fear
of failure. You don't apply for a job    1   case you don't
get it. You don't perform at the school concert b   2   others
might laugh at you. A lack of confidence can l   3    to a lot
of suffering. The key to o   4   this problem is to believe in
yourself. This might be  5  (容易)said than done, but there
are many w  6   to help you do this. Talk about your problem
with a friend or look    7   advice on the Internet. Imagine
yourself being  8   (成功)and practise breathing techniques
to keep you calm when you get nervous. And the   9   important
thing is: believe you can do it. When you've   10   (學會)to do
that, you are well on your way.

     Britain's most popular lie has been discovered, with one in four people admitting using "Sorry
I had no signal" when returning a missed mobile phone call, a survey found.
     According to a recent survey people usually use this little white lie after they hit the "ignore"
button when their mobile rang. The second most common fib is "I haven't got any cash on me"
when asked for money by beggars. Modern technology is a major excuse in many of our lies with
"I didn't get your text" in 18th, "Our server was down" in 20th and "My battery died" in 26th place.
     Researchers found the average Briton tells on average four lies every day or almost 1500 every
year. One in three Britons have lied about their weight, a quarter have fibbed about the amount of
debt they are in and 30 percent have bent the truth about the amount of exercise they do.
     Almost a quarter of men have told their wife or girlfriend they look good in an outfit, despite
thinking the opposite. More than 40 percent of women have admitted lying about how much new
clothes actually cost while 30 percent have fibbed about how much they've had to drink.
     Three quarters of people think women are better liars. The research found 46 per cent of girls
have been caught lying, compared to 58 of men. Men tell the most fibs, coming out with five every
day compared to women who lie just three times.
     A spokesman for one poll, which carried out the research of 4,300 adults, said, "As a nation we
are obsessed with trying to be nice and not upsetting people. Often little white lies are used to cover
what we actually want to say."
     "Most of these were considered either completely harmless or necessary depending on the situation
in which they are delivered." He added, "It was sad to see a string of compliments in the top 50, but
once again in many cases perhaps it is better to compliment(恭維) with a lie than destroy someone
with the truth."

1. What is the best title for the passage?

A. The most popular British lies
B. British people like to lie
C. The reasons British people lie
D. Technology makes us lie  

2. According to the research, what do women most frequently lie about?  ______

A. Their weight.
B. The amount of their debt.
C. Their drinking habits.
D. The cost of their clothing.  

3. Which of the following statement is true according to the research?  ______

A. Three quarters of women are better liars.
B. Men lie more often than women.
C. More men are better liars than women.
D. More women lie than men.  

4. The underlined phrase "obsessed with" is closest in meaning to ______.  

A. very concerned with
B. surprised about
C. opposed to
D. not interested in  

5. Why do people usually lie according to the one poll?  ______

A. To prevent argument with their partners.      
B. To avoid speaking with others on the phone.
C. To avoid hurting others.
D. To destroy others.

     When my brother and I were young, my mom would take us on Transportation Days.
     It goes like this: You can't take any means of transportation more than once. We would start from
home, walking two blocks to the rail station. We'd take the train into the city center, then a bus, switching
to the tram, then maybe a taxi. We always considered taking a horse carriage in the historic district, but
we didn't like the way the horses were treated, so we never did. At the end of the day, we took the
subway to our closest station, where Mom's friend was waiting to give us a ride home-our first car ride of
the day.
     The good thing about Transportation Days is not only that Mom taught us how to get around. She
was born to be multimodal (多方式的). She understood that depending on cars only was a failure of
imagination and, above all, a failure of confidence-the product of a childhood not spent exploring subway
tunnels.
     Once you learn the route map and step with certainty over the gap between the train and the platform,
nothing is frightening anymore. New cities are just light-rail lines to be explored. And your personal car, if
you have one, becomes just one more tool in the toolbox-and often an inadequate one, limiting both your mobility and your wallet.
     On Transportation Days, we might stop for lunch on Chestnut Street or buy a new book or toy, but
the transportation was the point. First, it was exciting enough to watch the world speed by from the train
window. As I got older, my mom helped me unlock the mysteries that would otherwise have paralyzed
my first attempts to do it myself: How do I know where to get off? How do I know how much it costs?
How do I know when I need tickets, and where to get them? What track, what line, which direction,
where's the stop, and will I get wet when we go under the river?
     I'm writing this right now on an airplane, a means we didn't try on our Transportation Days and, we
now know, the dirtiest and most polluting of them all. My flight routed me through Philadelphia. My
multimodal mom met me for dinner in the airport. She took a train to meet me.

1. Which was forbidden by Mom on Transportation Days?

A. Having a car ride.
B. Taking the train twice.
C. Buying more than one toy.
D. Touring the historic district.

2. According to the writer, what was the greatest benefit of her Transportation Days?

A. Building confidence in herself.
B. Reducing her use of private cars.
C. Developing her sense of direction.
D. Giving her knowledge about vehicles.

3. The underlined word "paralyzed" (in Para. 5) is closest in meaning to "_______".

A. displayed
B. justified
C. ignored
D. ruined

4. Which means of transportation does the writer probably disapprove of?

A. Airplane.
B. Subway.
C. Tram.
D. Car.

     It was a simple letter asking for a place to study at Scotland's oldest university which helped start a
revolution in higher education. A 140-year-old letter written by a lady calling for her to be allowed to
study medicine at St Andrews University has been discovered by researchers. Written by Sophia
Jex-Blake in 1873, the seven-page document, which urged the university to allow women to study
medicine at the institution, was released yesterday on International Women's Day.
     The document was discovered buried in the university archives (檔案) by part-time history student
Lis Smith, who is completing her PhD at St Andrews Institute of Scottish Historical Research. She said: "We knew that Sophia Jex-Blake and her supporters, in their effort to open up university medical
education for women, had written to the Senatus Academicus (校評議委員會) at St Andrews in an
attempt to gain permission to attend classes there, but we didn't know documentary evidence existed.
While searching the archives for information about the university's higher certificate for women, I was
astonished to come across what must be the very letter Jex-Blake wrote."
     In the letter, Sophia and her supporters offered to hire teachers or build suitable buildings for a
medical school and to arrange for lectures to be delivered in the subjects not already covered at St
Andrews. Although her letter was not successful, it eventually led to the establishment of the Ladies
Literate in Arts at St Andrews, a distance-learning degree for women. The qualification, which ran from
1877 until the 1930s, gave women access to university education in the days before they were admitted
as students. It was so popular that it survived long after women were admitted as full students to St
Andrews in 1892.
     Ms Jex-Blake went on to help establish the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874. She
was accepted by the University of Berne, where she was awarded a medical degree in January 1877.
Eventually, she moved back to Edinburgh and opened her own practice.

1. Sophia wrote a letter to St Andrews University because she wanted _______.

A. to carry out a research project there
B. to set up a medical institute there
C. to study medicine there
D. to deliver lectures there

2. Lis Smith found Sophia's letter to St Andrews University _______.

A. by pure chance
B. in the school office
C. with her supporters' help
D. while reading history books

3. Sophia's letter resulted in the establishment of _______.

A. the London School of Medicine for Women
B. a degree programme for women
C. a system of medical education
D. the University of Berne

4. When did St Andrews University begin to take full-time women students?

A. In 1873.
B. In 1874.
C. In 1877.
D. In 1892.

     How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling
grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely
different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until
the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up
too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a
family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.
     Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others' lives.
Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The
reason for this might be that the later children aren't getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But
that doesn't mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don't
enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between "I"
and "me".
      A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that
helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.
     One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are
typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their
differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper
studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their
parents.

1. The underlined part "in a different family" (in Para. 1) means "_______".

A. in a different family environment
B. in a different family tradition
C. in different family crises
D. in different families

2. In terms of language development, later-borns ________.

A. get their parents' individual guidance
B. learn a lot from their elder siblings
C. experience a lot of difficulties
D. pick up words more quickly

3. What was found about fights among siblings?

A. Siblings hated fighting and loved playing.
B. Siblings in some families fought frequently. 
C. Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships.
D. Siblings learned to get on together from fights.

4. The word "feminine" (in Para. 4) means "_______".

A. having qualities of parents  
B. having qualities of women
C. having defensive qualities
D. having extraordinary qualities

     Boys need friends, suffer when they don’t believe they have any, and worry over the ups and
downs of relationships. Many adults believe that somehow boys need friends less than girls do, in
truth, though, no boy is an island: boys value their friends throughout childhood and adolescence
and are happier and healthier when they have solid relationships with peers.
     Despite the common belief that girls are better at relationships, most boys consider their friends
a very important part of their lives, and boys may actually be better at keeping friendships than
girls are. A recent study of 10-to-15-year-old boys and girls found that girls’ friendships are
actually more fragile（脆弱的）. Girls tend to say and do hurtful things to each other more
frequently than boys, and girls are more hurt by the end of a friendship.
     Boys are the living definition of the phrase “peer group”: they love games with rules, competition,
and doing things together. Boys seem to enjoy, even need the opportunity to test themselves
against others, and many lasting friendships begin in karate(空手道) class or on the basketball
court. Competence and skill are widely respected: being picked last for a team or left out altogether
is an experience that can haunt (縈繞心頭) a boy for years.
     As boys mature, the friendship becomes even more important, and it frequently widens to include
girls. During the teen years, friends can become the most important part of a boy’s life ---and a
part in which his parents are not included. The confusion of being a teenager leads boys to form
close bonds with friends. There is the sense for many boys that a friend is someone who is “always
there for me”, someone he can trust. They may be partners in crime or partners in study, but the
friendship of adolescent boys can run surprisingly deep.

1．The common belief of adults is that boys ______.   

A. don’t care about others as much as girls    
B. don’t value friendships as much as girls
C. have the same friendship as girls          
D. have healthier friendship than girls  

2．According to the passage, ______.   

A. boys usually build friendships by playing competitive games
B. boys like to have small groups of friends
C. boys’ friendships seldom result in anyone being hurt
D. boys’ friendships can hardly end in failure  

3．The author mentions the study in Para. 2 to prove _______.   

A. girls value relationships more than boys
B. most boys consider their friends very important
C. boys may be better at keeping friendships than girls
D. boys may be more active in a friendship    

4．As a boy gets older, he tends to _______.   

A. widen his circle of friends to include his parents
B. shift his focus from his friends to himself
C. leave his parents out of his friends
D. be confused about what a friendship is  

5．What’s the best title of the passage?  _______

A. Friendships Between Boys and Girls        
B. Boys and Their Friendship
C. Childhood and Adolescent Friendship        
D. Tips on Making Friends with Boys

     Suppose you don’t need your car today. And suppose, as it happens, that a stranger in your
area does need a car. Would you be willing to rent yours out?
     Several car-sharing start-ups, including Getaround, RelayRides and JustShareIt, are eager to
connect car owners with renters this way. The companies have different rules, but participatingo
wners receive, generally speaking, about two-thirds of the rental earnings. RelayRides says an
owner of a midsize, late-model sedan who rents out a car for 10 hours a week could expect to
clear about ＄3,000 a year.
     Peer-to-peer car sharing remains in the trial stage; it can be found in San Francisco and a few
other places. It has a long way to go before it becomes the auto equivalent of Airbnb, the surprise
success story for peer-to-peer sharing of space in apartments and houses.
     Shelby Clark, founder of RelayRides, says potential investors in his company have been
concerned that owners will be afraid to hand their car over to strangers. To address that, he points
to Airbnb, saying, “Letting people sleep in your living room is much more of a disturbance into
your personal space than letting someone use your car.”
     All of these companies offer their own insurance coverage for their renters, which are supposed
to put owners’ minds at ease. But only two states-California and Oregon-have passed laws to
clarify that an owner will not suffer any consequences should a car-sharing renter have an accident.
     “In all the other states, legal ambiguity remains,” Shelby Clark says. “If a renter should be
involved in a serious accident in those states, the victim can be expected to go after every party
possible, including the car’s owner.”
     Also to remove the worries of car owners, the driving records of renters are checked for recent
serious violations.

1. What does the underlined word “sedan” in Paragraph 2 probably refer to?______

A. A kind of car.
B. An owner of a car.
C. A renting company.
D. A car-sharing renter 

2. Which of the following is true of Airbnb?  ______

A. It cares little about personal privacy.
B. It deals with house-sharing successfully.
C. It is a very popular car-sharing company.
D. Its ideas are being tried out in some states.  

 3. If a car-sharing renter should have an accident in California, the car’s owner   ___    . 

A. has to take legal responsibility  
B. will not suffer the consequence
C. is not covered by health insurance
D. must pay the insurance for the renter 

4. According to the text, more car-owners will participate in the service, if       _    

A. legal ambiguity is clarified in all the states
B. renters are warned not to violate traffic rules
C. more money is given to participating owners
D. people are aware of the importance of sharing 

5. It can be learned from the text that car-sharing         

A. makes no profit
B. remains in popularity
C. is against the state law
D. is a new business model

［1］Peer tutoring benefits many students in several ways. Peer tutors can help themselves in
understanding materials. They have to master the material themselves and come to a deeper
understanding to teach others rather than getting taught by a teacher.
［2］Peer tutors get communication and social skills by tutoring. In order to communicate the meaning
of material clearly and make it understood, they must practice the necessary skills to communicate with
other people. These skills also carry over socially as it's much easier, especially for shy children to
communicate with someone than to communicate with a large group as in a classroom. It's common for
the tutor and his student to become friends. Developing leadership skills, confidence and a sense of
responsibility is easy for a tutor. The tutor becomes a better student, gains more confidence and
understands the teacher's role better.
［3］Those ___________ can also benefit greatly from peer tutoring. Since the tutors are of the same
age as the students, it's more comfortable for the children who have trouble with the material and in need
of help to get taught by the same age tutors. This will allow them to ask more questions without fear and
to come to a better understanding of the material. The tutor may be able to pass on little tips and tricks
that helped him understand the material better.
［4］The process of peer tutoring works for all the related people. It's easy to relate to someone of the
same age. The tutor learns to improve skills useful later in life. The teacher has more time to concentrate
on students. It's a winning situation for everyone.