Transport Guide
The Brisbane City Council (BCC) is
responsible for bus and ferry services
 within the city limits and suburbs. Most buses will  either arrive at the city or an interchange where connecting buses can be caught. BCC buses operate from 530 a．m. to 1100 p．m. Monday to Thursday and 530 a．m. to 1200 a．m. on Fridays. On weekends and public holidays buses operate less frequently. Pre－paid bus tickets can be purchased from the QUT

(Queensland University of Technology) bookshop, the campus newsagency, most other newsagencies and general stores, and any BCC Customer Service Centre. Short－term students at QUT cannot use their ID cards to gain a discount fare on BCC public transport. You will need to buy an adult ticket to travel. Bus fares are dependent on the number of zones you have to travel. several types of tickets：

Single: one way ticket to reach your destination, including transfers within 2 hours.
Daily: unlimited travel within the zones.
Off－peak Daily: discounted unlimited travel between 900 a．m. and 330 p．m. and after 700 p．m. Monday to Friday, and all day on   weekends and public holidays.
Weekly: unlimited travel within the zones for one week from the date of issue.
Monthly: unlimited travel within the zones for one calendar month from the date of issue.

Ten－trip Saver: 10 trips at any time within the zones on buses and ferries only.
Transport routes, timetables and fare information are available from：
Public Transport Information Centre
69 Ann Street (corner of George St)
Brisbane City
Phone 13 12 30(Transport Information Service)

1．The transport  guide above is most likely provided by ________.
A. Public Transport Information Centre
B. the Brisbane City Council
C. Queensland University of Technology
D. BCC Customer Service Centres

2．We can learn from the passage that ________.
A. buses are scheduled as usual on weekends and public holidays
B. regular students at QUT need to buy adult tickets
C. pre－paid tickets can be bought from the Public Transport Information Centre
D. ten－trip Savers can be used at off－peak time

3．An exchange student staying at QUT for five days has to travel between zones every day. What type of ticket would he probably buy?
A. Single.             B. Weekly        C. Off－peak Daily.     D. Ten－trip Saver.

 “Fingers were made before forks.” When a person gives up good manners, put aside knife and fork, and dives into his food, someone is likely to repeat that saying.

The fork was an ancient agricultural tool, but for centuries no one thought of eating with it. Not until the eleventh century, when a young lady from Constantinople brought her fork to Italy, did the custom reach Europe.

By the fifteenth century the use of the fork was wide-spread in Italy. The English explanation was that Italians were unwilling to eat food touched with fingers, “seeing all men’s fingers are not alike clean.

Anyone who used a fork to eat with was laughed at in England for the next hundred years. Not until the late 1600’s did using a fork become a common custom.

1. The custom of eating with a fork was ________.

A. brought to Europe from America    B. begun when forks first invented

C. brought to Europe from Constantinople   D. thought of by the Italians

2. By the fifteenth century, forks were used________.

A. all over Italy                    B. only in Constantinople

C. by the kings and queens of Europe   D. in England

3. The English thought that Italians used forks in order to________.

A. imitate（模仿）the people of the East       B. keep their food clean

C. impress visitors with their good manners    D. amuse (逗笑) the English

4. The best title of the passage is “_________’.

A. Eating with a Fork             B. The History of Eating with a Fork

C. A Way of Eating               D. A Custom of Eating

Mr. Peter Green, aged twenty-five, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Green took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱).

   Mr. Green’s car had finished up in a ditch(溝渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Green said. “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the wells of the ditch and dared not open the window because I knew water would come flooding in.”

   Mr. Green, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape.

   Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying or make someone hear, but no help came.”

   It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Green found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chanced I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”

   His hands and arms cut the bruised(擦傷), Mr. Green got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lily Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.

1. Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Green?

A. The hammer.  B. The coin.  C. The screw.  D. The horn.

2. Which statement is true according to the passage?

A. Mr. Green’s car stood on its boot as it fell down.

B. Mr. Green could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam.

C. Mr. Green’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road.

D. Mr. Green struggled in the pouring due to the slippery road.

3. “Finally it gave”(Paragraph 5) means that _______.

A. luckily the door was torn away in the end

B. at last the wrench went broken

C. the lock came open after all his efforts

D. the chance was lost at the last minute

4. It may be inferred from the passage that _______.

A. the ditch was along a quiet country road

B. the accident happened on a clear warm day

C. the police helped Mr. Green get out of the ditch

D. Mr. Green had a tender wife and was well attended

 A gentle breeze blew through Jennifer’s hair. The golden red sun was setting. She was on the beach, looking up at the fiery（火紅的）ball. She was amazed by its color, deep red in the middle, softly fading into yellow. She could hear nothing but the waves and the seagulls flying up above in the sky.

The atmosphere relaxed her. After all she had been through, this was what she needed. “It’s getting late,” she thought, “I must go home. My parents will be wondering where I am.”

She wondered how her parents would react, when she got home after the three days she was missing. She kept on walking, directing herself where she spent every summer holiday. The road was deserted. She walked slowly and silently. Just in a few hundred meters she would have been safe in her house.

It was really getting dark now. The sun had set a few minutes before and it was getting cold, too. She wished she had her favorite sweater on— it kept her really warm. She imagined having it with her. This thought disappeared when she finally saw her front door. It seemed different. Nobody had taken care of the outside garden for a few days. She was shocked: her father was usually so strict about keeping everything clean and tidy, and now... It all seemed deserted. She couldn’t understand what was going on.

She entered the house. First, she went into the kitchen where she saw a note written by her father. It said, “Dear Ellen, there is some coffee ready. I went looking.” Ellen was her mother but — where was she? On the right side of the hallway was her parents’ room. She went in. Then she saw her. Her mother, lying on the bed, was sleeping. Her face looked so tired, as if she hadn’t slept for days. She was really pale. Jennifer would have wanted to wake her up but she looked too tired. So Jennifer just fell asleep beside her. When Jennifer woke up, something was different... she wasn’t in her mother’s room and she wasn’t wearing the old clothes she ran away in. She was in her snug bed in her pajamas（睡衣）.

It felt so good being back home. Suddenly she heard a voice, “Are you feeling better now, dear? You know you got us very, very scared.”

1. What does “This thought” in the fourth paragraph refer to?

A. The idea of going back home.

B. Her anxiety about her parents.

C. The feeling of being warm in her favorite sweater.

D. The feeling of getting back home safely.

2. Her father didn’t take care of the garden because _______.

A. he was busy looking for her                 B. he had to look after his wife

C. he was not strict in his job                  D. he no longer enjoyed working there

3. How did Jennifer probably feel when she came back home?

a. worried  b. crazy  c. tired  d. disappointed  e. shocked  f. excited

A. a, b, c        B. a, c, e            C. b, c, e             D. d, e, f

4. What can we conclude from this passage?

A. In fact Jennifer’s mother had been sick for days.

B. As Jennifer walked towards home, she became increasingly scared.

C. When she found the garden deserted, she realized she got cross.

D. Having experienced a lot outside, Jennifer felt home was really warm and safe for her

One day a few years ago a very funny thing happened to a neighbor of mine. He is a teacher at one of London’s big medical schools. He had finished his teaching for the summer term and was at the airport on his way to Russia to give a lecture.

   He had put a few clothes and his lecture notes in his shoulder bag, but he had put Rupert, the skeleton(人體骨架) to be used in his lecture, in a large brown suitcase. At the airport desk, he suddenly thought that he had forgotten to buy a newspaper. He left his suitcase near the desk and went over to the shop.

   When he got back he discovered that someone had taken his suitcase by mistake. He often wonders what they said when they got home and found Rupert.

Who wrote the story?

Rupert’s teacher.

The neighbor’s teacher.

A medical school teacher.

The teacher’s neighbor.

Why did the teacher put a skeleton in his suitcase?

He needed it for the summer term in London.

He needed it for the lecture he was going to give.

He wanted to take it to Russia for medical research.

He wanted to take it home as he had finished his teaching.

What happened at the airport?

The skeleton went missing.

The skeleton was stolen.

The teacher forgot his suitcase.

The teacher took the wrong suitcase.

Which of the following best tells the teacher’s feeling about the incident?

He is very angry.

He thinks it rather funny.

He feels helpless without Rupert.

He feels good without Rupert.

Which of the following might have happened afterwards?

The teacher got back the suitcase but not Rupert.

The teacher got back neither the suitcase nor Rupert.

The teacher got back Rupert but not the suitcase.

The teacher got back both the suitcase and Rupert.

 A serious problem for today’s society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.

First, employers should take the responsibility for their retired employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life-long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.

Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility, to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years.This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.

In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions. Furthermore, some in situations should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately, as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.

One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some working places especially for the elderly where they are independent.

To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A. The problems faced by the old in society.　

B. Why we should take responsibility for the old?

C. How we can improve the lives of the old?

D. Where the old can go to get their pensions?

2. The underlined word “viable” in the fourth paragraph most probably means “______”.

A. impossible         B. practical          C. useful                 D. successful

3. What can be concluded from the passage?

A. Taking care of the old is mainly an issue of money.

B. Employers should allow their workers to retire at a later age.

C. Becoming independent should be the goal of most old people.

D. There is no single solution to the problems of the old.

4. What is the writer’s MAIN purpose in writing this article?

A. To point out the need for government support for old people.

B. To make general readers aware of the problems of retired people.

C. To discuss some possible solutions to an important social problem.

D. To instruct retired people on how they can have a happier life.

“The more you learn, the more you earn,” said the pop singer Cyndi Lauper as she accepted her high school diploma(證書(shū)) , at the age of 35 ! Although Cyndi made it without a high school degree, most people don't. In the USA today, about 75% of jobs need some education or technical training further than high school. The lowest wage earners in the USA are those without high school degrees; college graduates(畢業(yè)生) outearn those without a college education. People with master's degrees（碩士學(xué)位）outearn those with only a bachelor (學(xué)士學(xué)位); and the highest incomes of all are earned by people with advanced professional or academic degrees. These generalizations explain why most of young Americans go to college. However, despite the averages, more diplomas don't always mean more money. Many skilled blue-collar workers, salespeople business executives, and entrepreneurs outearn college professors and scientific researchers. And great athletes and entertainers outearn everyone else!

1. According to the passage, ______.？

     A. high school diploma and high school degree are the same thing

     B. people can't get both high school diploma and degree

     C. people must get both high school diploma and degree

     D. people can get both high school diploma and degree or either

2. Why do most American young people go to college?

   A. Because their parents force them to go to college.

   B. Because they can't get a job if they don't go to college.

   C. Because the situation of the society make them go to college.

   D. Because they like studying.

3. What may the word “outearn” mean?

   A. Earning more money.      B. Earning less money.

   C. Earning no money.         D. Working better.

When I was a boy, I belonged to the Boy Scouts so I used to go camping every summer, and once something happened which I have never been able to explain.

We were camping in a place above a river. After arriving, we all rushed down to the river and had a swim. Standing by the river, we noticed that it was surrounded(環(huán)繞) by cliffs(懸崖). If someone wanted to reach the river at this point, he had to walk past our camp.

Several days later, the scoutmaster had to be away for a day. That afternoon, we had supper early. We were sitting round the fire, eating and talking, when a man walked past and went down towards the river. We all felt that this man looked very strange, but, because each of us was afraid of looking very stupid, no one said anything.

We ate rather slowly, taking as long as possible. After finishing, we collected our plates together so that we could take them to the river where we always washed them. But no one moved towards the river梬e stood looking at each other ashamed. Then all shouting at once, we began talking about the man who had walked past us. We agreed how strange he looked and we wondered what he could be doing by the river. We knew that he could only return by passing through our camp.

An hour passed. Then one of the boys suggested we should creep(悄悄移動(dòng)) down by the river so that we could see what the man was doing. Moving very slowly and keeping in the shadow, we crept down towards the bank. One boy climbed a tree so that he could see everything clearly. He called to us that there was no one there, so we ran down to the bank, looking everywhere carefully. We could not understand where the man had gone.

When it got dark, we went back to our camp feeling bewildered. We told the scoutmaster what had happened in the evening. Smiling, he doubted that we had seen the man, but finally suggested we go and look again. We did, but there was no one there.

Many years have passed, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday. What did we see? I do not know.

1. The writer in the text mainly tells us _________.

A. the story of his childhood  B. a strange camping experience

C. about a stranger by the river     D. about a good place for camping

2. Why did the boys eat their supper slowly?

A. They wanted to delay going to the river bank.

B. They were sitting for their scoutmaster.

C. They had a supper earlier than usual.

D. They were taking while eating.

3. The word “Bewildered” in the text probably means _________.

A. ashamed            B. nervous 

C. unable to understand  D. eager to know something

4. When he heard what had happened, the scoutmaster _________.

A. realized who the man was B. started to worry about the man

C. went back to look for the man  D. felt it hard to believe the boys

5. The writer still remembers the event because ________.

A. the boys acted foolishly

B. the camping place is beautiful

C. there has been no explanation for the event

D. he particularly enjoyed his camping that summer.

Over the next 20 to 50 years, it will become harder to tell the difference between the human and the machine. All body parts will be replaceable. A computer will function like the human brain with the ability to recognize feelings and respond with emotions. They can then make fake people. We will then be able to create a machine duplicate (復(fù)制品) of ourselves so we will appear to be alive long after we are dead. Maybe a few decades later, a way will be found to transfer our spirit to the new body. Then we can choose to live for as long as we want.

Once one of you is duplicated, you will just have to press Ctrl + D and you will have two of you. If you want 500, select 500. Naturally, when duplicates are running around all over the place, there will be a food problem.

The most practical choice would be garbage. Your modified duplicate will be made to eat garbage like a goat. But don’t worry. Their taste buds and sense of smell will be changed so they will really enjoy it. They will want to eat lots of garbage.

When it becomes possible to do a spirit transfer, you will be able to live within whichever duplicate you want, whenever you want and as long as you want.

Just imagine what it would be like when you are with so many duplicates of yourself. You will be very busy enjoying many things. One duplicate of yourself is in the middle of doing a jigsaw puzzle (拼圖游戲) and another duplicate has almost completed another puzzle. When you become tired of the joy of puzzles, “you” jump to the duplicate that is eating garbage, then to the one that is playing in a rock concert, then to the one

that is scoring the winning goal. You will be so busy enjoying so many things that it could drive you crazy.

When it is predicted that things will be better in the future, it doesn’t necessarily mean that things will be easier!

 1. What is the main idea of the text?

       A. How to duplicate people.           

       B. What it will be like if people are duplicated. 

       C. Duplicating people makes trouble.

       D. What duplicated people eat.

 2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to Paragraph 1?

       A. Our duplicates will be unlike us at all.

       B. If we die, our duplicates will disappear too.

       C. It’s possible that we transfer our spirit to our duplicates.

       D. It’s easy for people to tell apart people and their duplicates.

 3. When you press Ctrl + D, you       .

       A. mean you hasn’t got ready

       B. will get lots of garbage

       C. will get another “you” at once

       D. don’t want to copy yourself

 4. Your duplicates will have to be modified in eating habits because they       .

       A. like a special kind of food

       B. don’t need food

       C. need plenty of vitamins

       D. need a large amount of food

 5. From the last paragraph we can conclude that       .

       A. seeing is believing

       B. actions speak louder than words

       C. saying is one thing but doing is another

       D. a coin has two sides

 Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members, especially their parents, don’t know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for advice. It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or many friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone. This communication is very important in children’s growing up, because friends can discuss something difficult to say to their family members.

However, parents often try to choose their children’s friends for them. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. The question of “choice” is an interesting one. Have you ever thought of the following questions?

Who choose your friends?

Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?

Have you got a good friend your parents don’t like?
1.  Many teenagers think their _______ know them better than their parents do.
    A. friends           B.    teachers        C. brothers and sisters           D.    classmates

2.    When teenagers stay alone, the usual way of communication is to _________.

A. go to their friends                  B. talk with their parents

C. have a discussion with their family    D. talk with their friends on the phone

3.  Which of the following sentences is TRUE?

A. Parents should like everything their chil­dren enjoy.

B. In all families, children can choose everything they like.

C. Parents should try their best to understand their children better.

D. Teenagers can only go to their friends for help.

4.  The main idea of this passage is that ___________.

    A. Teenagers need friends

    B. Friends can give good advice

    C. Parents often choose their children’s friends for them

D. Good friends can communicate with each other