My house is made of wood, glass and stone. It is also made of software.
If you come to visit, you'll probably be surprised when you come in: Someone will give you an electronic PIN to wear. The PIN tells the house who you are and where you are. The house uses this information to give you what you need. When it's dark outside, the PIN turns on the lights near you, and then turns them off as you walk away from them. Music moves with you, too. If the house knows your favorite music, it plays it for you. The music seems to be everywhere, but in fact other people in the house hear different music or no music. If you get a telephone call, only the nearest telephone rings.
Of course, you are also able to want something. There is a home control console (控制臺(tái)) which is a small machine that turns things on and off around you.
The PIN and the console are new ideas, but they are in fact like many things we have today. If you want to go to a movie, you need a ticket. If I give you the key to my car, you can use my car. The car works for you because you have the key. My house works for you because you wear the PIN or hold the console.
I believe that in ten years from now, most new houses will have the systems that I've put in my house. The systems will probably be even bigger and better than the ones I've got.
I like to try new ideas. I know that some of my ideas will work better than others'. But I hope that one day I will stop thinking of these systems as new, and ask myself instead, ”How did I live without them?”
【小題1】The writer’s house is made of the following EXCEPT_________.

A．bamboo

B．wood

C．glass

D．software

【小題2】What is the writer most likely to be according to the passage?

A．An IT expert.	B．A famous doctor.
C．A sportsman.	D．An experienced teacher.

【小題3】The writer's new house is different from ordinary ones mainly because______________.

A．it has your favorite music following you

B．you can make a telephone call anywhere

C．the writer is able to change his new idea into practice

D．it is controlled by computers

【小題4】What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．How to develop a new system.	B．The function of the PIN.
C．How great the computers are.	D．Easy life in the future.

Every year in late spring at Wild Friends, the wildlife health center, workers receive baby animals, including songbirds and rabbits. This is the busiest time when workers care for and raise all the little ones before sending them back into the wild.
There are many reasons for these little animals' coming to the center. First of all, street cats or dogs catch, injure or take away little birds from their nests. Sometimes people catch baby animals and keep them at home, giving them food that they are not used to. It would make them sick. Most people don't realize that it's against law to get live animals out of their nests.
As for songbirds, people often find them on the ground in their yards, thinking they have no other choice but to leave them on the ground to die. This is because many people wrongly believe that once a bird is touched by a person, its mother will not accept this child bird. But that's not true.
If a little bird falls out of the nest, you should check whether it is injured. If not, you should put the bird back in the nest. If the bird is injured, call your local wildlife center quickly.
As for the progress of protecting wild animals, people at Wild Friends devote all their energy to this work. Over the last weeks, they have been able to send many of the birds and rabbits that came here earlier this spring back to nature.
【小題1】Which is the busiest season for workers at Wild Friends?

A．Spring

B．Summer.

C．Autumn.

D．Winter.

【小題2】Which of the following will probably injure young birds?

A．Giving them food they don't like.	B．Letting them play with children.
C．Leaving them on the ground.	D．Bringing them to the center.

【小題3】If a young healthy bird is lying on the ground, you should ________.

A．wait for its mother	B．help it go back home
C．touch it with your hands	D．call workers at Wild Friends

Life on Mars could become a reality and it could happen in your lifetime.
A welcoming planet
Scientists say Earth’s neighbor Mars, a bright red planet about half Earth’s size, is the most likely to support human life. Mars even has frozen water on its surface.
Since the late 1990s, NASA has been exploring Mars using remote-controlled vehicles（裝置）. Most recently Curiosity, a car-size vehicle, traveled through space on an unpiloted spacecraft(航天器) and landed on Mars in August 2012. Directed by NASA scientists , the vehicles move on the surface, taking pictures , collecting and analyzing soil, and looking for signs of life.
But what about human explorers? Plans are already in the works to send astronauts to Mars as soon as the mid-2030s.
_____________________________________
But before you start packing your bags, let’s consider the challenges. For starters, Mars is far away. Just getting there could take up to 10 months.
Scientists already know that time away from Earth’s gravity harms the human body. Bones and muscles get weaker. The body produces less blood. What damage would months and months of living in space do?
And then there is the matter of water, oxygen, food and fuel. Scientists will have to find solutions to these problems, or the first humans on Mars won’t survive very long in their new home.
Tiny Dangers
There’s another tinier risk. It’s so tiny that you can’t even see it: germs.
Some scientists believe that our germs could pollute the whole planet of Mars. Potentially killing Martian life before we have the chance to discover it. Worse, there is a small but terrifying chance that any microscopic life already there might be harmful to us .
Worse still, if any of those Martian germs(火星細(xì)菌) were brought back to Earth, the result could be disastrous. Animals, plants, and people could be wiped out.
Worth the $$$?
A more practical concern is the cost. The price could approach $ 1 trillion(萬億). How can we justify spending that much when so many problems—poverty, disease—could use the cash here on Earth?
【小題1】Which of the following is TRUE according to the “A welcoming planet” part?

A．Mars is a little bigger than Earth.

B．There are flowing rivers on Mars.

C．People haven’t been to Mars so far.

D．Scientists have discovered signs of life on Mars.

【小題2】Which of the following can best fill in the blank in the passage?

A．Living in space.	B．Limited resources.
C．Extreme conditions.	D．Interesting challenges.

【小題3】By “Tiny dangers” the author means ________________.

A．there is no serious danger

B．people won’t be in any danger

C．it’s difficult for people to realize the danger

D．the danger may be caused by very small things

【小題4】Which may cause the biggest danger?

A．Martian germs may be different from those on Earth.

B．Martian germs may be brought back to Earth.

C．People may carry germs to Mars.

D．There may be germs on Mars.

【小題5】Which section of a newspaper is the passage most probably taken from?

A．People

B．History

C．Science

D．Business

The relationship between humans and animals has always been complex. Some cultures have developed entire belief systems around favored animals. Even in cultures with less formal belief systems, connections between people and animals still lead to commonly accepted opinions about animals.
These belief systems usually develop around the animals that interact (互動(dòng)) with humans most frequently. Therefore, it should not be surprising that so many stories surround the most common of animals: rats. Rats live side by side with humans all over the world and regularly interact with people. Human-rat coexistence may be common all around the world, but different cultures respond to that closeness in different ways.
In the United States and Europe, one typical attitude is that the rat is a pest. This could be due to the common belief that rats spread disease. Actually, they don’t, at least not directly, but many people don’t know that. The Pied Piper of Hamlin, a well-known children’s story, is one example of how rats have been described in Western literature: in that story, rats cause such a problem that a town has to hire a piper to call them all away.
In many Latin American countries, the rat is described in a very different way. The story of the tooth fairy (a fairy believed by children to leave money while they sleep in exchange for a tooth that has come out) is common all over the world, but in Latin America, the “fairy” is a rat! Rats do have very strong teeth, which could explain the association. Clearly, this shows another attitude toward rats that is much more positive.
Yet another attitude toward the rat can be seen in the Chinese Zodiac (生肖). The Rat is one of the animals of the Zodiac. Like the other zodiac animals, the Rat is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. It’s described as clever and friendly, but also tricky and not entirely honest. That may be the most accurate description of the rat so far. Whether you like rats or not, it’s hard to deny their reputation for cleverness.
As many people are discovering these days, rats can even make excellent pets, so long as you remember to close the cage carefully!
【小題1】What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．A trend of keeping rats as pets.

B．How different cultures look at rats.

C．How humans get along with animals.

D．Favored animals in different cultures.

【小題2】The rats in The Pied Piper of Hamlin appear______.

A．unpleasant

B．honest

C．smart

D．unusual

【小題3】The tooth fairy in Latin America mentioned in Paragraph4 is to show______.

A．the tooth fairy is lovely

B．rats look very frightening

C．rats are welcome in Latin American countries

D．the story of the tooth fairy is common all over the world

【小題4】According to the author, rats______.

A．don’t spread disease

B．should be treated as pests

C．a(chǎn)re fairly described in the Chinese Zodiac

D．a(chǎn)re kept as pets by more and more people

【小題5】The passage is probably taken from a ______.

A．travel guide

B．news report

C．nature magazine

D．history textbook

 Waste can be seen everywhere in the school. Some students ask for more food than they can eat and others often forget to turn off the lights when they leave the classroom. They say they can afford these things. But I don’t agree with them.
Waste can bring a lot of problems. Although China is rich in some resources(資源), we are short of(缺乏) others, for example, fresh water(淡水). It is reported that we will have no coal(煤) or oil to use in 100 years. So if we go on wasting our resources, what can we use in the future and where can we move? Think about it. I think we should say no to the students who waste things every day. Everybody should stop wasting as soon as possible.
In our everyday life, we can do many things to prevent waste from happening, for example, turn off the water taps(水龍頭) when we finish washing, turn off the lights when we leave the classroom, try not to order more food than we need, and so on. Little by little, everything will be changed. Waste can be stopped one day, if we do our best.
【小題1】From the passage we know that some students often _______ in the school.

A．eat too much

B．don’t work hard

C．waste things

D．throw rubbish everywhere

【小題2】Which is not mentioned in this passage?

A．Fresh water.

B．Forest.

C．Oil.

D．Coal.

【小題3】What may happen in 100 years?

A．We may still have enough oil.	B．We may still have enough coal.
C．We may have a little oil.	D．We may have no coal or oil to use.

【小題4】Which is the best title of this passage?

A．Stop Wasting	B．School life
C．Waste in the School	D．Rich Resources in China

Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.
【小題1】What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption” refer to?

A．Using too much packaging.	B．Recycling too many wastes.
C．Making more products than necessary.	D．Having more material than is needed.

【小題2】The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.

A．the tendency of cutting household waste	B．the fact of packaging overuse
C．the rapid growth of super markets	D．the increase of packaging recycling

【小題3】According to the text, recycling ______.

A．helps control the greenhouse effect	B．means burning packaging for energy
C．is the solution to gas shortage	D．leads to a waste of land

【小題4】What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A．Unpackaged products are of bad quality.	B．Supermarkets care more about packaging.
C．It is improper to judge quality by packaging.	D．Other products are better packaged than food.

【小題5】What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Fighting wastefulness is difficult.	B．Needless material is mostly recycled.
C．People like collecting recyclable waste.	D．The author is proud of their consumer culture.

The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological（生態(tài)的） disaster area. Nauru’s heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru’s real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸鹽)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine（帶狀礦）. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer（層） of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.
【小題1】What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To seek help for Nauru’s problems.	B．To give a warning to other countries.
C．To show the importance of money.	D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war.

【小題2】What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?

A．Rich and powerful.	B．Modern and open.
C．Peaceful and attractive.	D．Greedy and aggressive.

【小題3】The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from           .

A．soil pollution	B．phosphate over mining
C．farming activity	D．whale hunting

【小題4】Which of the following was a cause of Nauru’s financial problem?

A．Its leaders misused the money.	B．It spent too much repairing the island.
C．Its phosphate mining cost much money.	D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war.

【小題5】What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?

A．The phosphate mines were destroyed.	B．The leaders will take the experts’ words seriously.
C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans.	D．The ecological damage is difficult to repair.

Electrical devices(儀器)could soon use power made by human energy. Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking , British scientist Max Donelan and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.
The device connects to a person’s knee. As the person walks ,the device captures energy each time the person slows down. To do this ,the device helps with the slowing sown movement of the leg, the movements of the walking person push parts of a small machine that produces electricity. Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute. Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.
There are several possible uses for the device. Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers. The device could also he used in hospitals to operate heart pacemakers(起博器), it could even be used to assist in the movement of robotic arms and legs.
The experimental version of the device weighs about one and a half kilograms, but it is too costly for most people to buy, but the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version, An improved version should be ready in one year.
The developers hope the device will one day help developing countries; nearly twenty five percent of people around the world live without electric power.
A similar product was invented in 2005 by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania, He created a bag carried on a person’s back that also produces power from walking. The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag, but the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms.
【小題1】. The second paragraph mainly talks about    

A．who developed the device	B．how the device works
C．several possible uses for the devices	D．how much electricity the device can produce

【小題2】. What is the disadvantage of the experimental version of the device?

A．It is too heavy for the walker to bear	B．It is too complex for people to use
C．It is too expensive for most people to afford	D．It will slow down one’s walking speed

【小題3】. Compared with the device designed by Larry Rome, this new device    

A．produces power without adding more loads to the walker

B．can produce more power in a much shorter time

C．needs to be equipped with a battery

D．can help the walker walk faster

【小題4】. From the passage, we can learn that the electrical device can    

A．help housewives operate the washing machine

B．make it much easier for us to go online

C．produce more electricity than that invented by Larry Rome

D．be applied in medical fields to operate heart pacemakers

【小題5】. What would be the best title for the passage
A. First device powered by walking will soon be on the market
B. Advanced technology brings in a new way to operate heart pacemakers
C. Device gives new meaning to the idea of power walking
D Human energy will become a main source of electricity

閱讀下面短文，從各題A、B、C、D四個(gè)選項(xiàng)中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)。
Your brain isn’t a muscle, but you can treat it like one
Many people focus on physical fitness, but few know that brain fitness is also something you can work on. In fact, you can exercise your brain as often as you do to your arms or legs —and the results can be positive and empowering.
To improve your brain, you can’t simply repeat the same exercises over and over. Just as lifting a two—pound weight will stop challenging you, so will repetitive exercises such as crosswords or Sudoku. Once you master easy exercises, you must move on to harder ones in order to push your brain —like your muscles —to a new level.

The science behind brain training
Scientists once believed that your mental abilities were fixed in adulthood. Since studies have shown just the opposite, millions of people around the world have adopted the new practice of brain training. The most popular of these brain training products is made by the San Francisco—based Lumosity. Lumosity's scientists with an experienced team of game designers have developed a fun，effective online brain training program that measures，tracks，and adapts to your progress，so you'll always be challenged.
Promising studies on the effects of brain training
In a 2013 Stanford study，a treatment group of 21 breast cancer survivors used 12 weeks of Lumosity training to work on processing speed，mental flexibility，and working memory tasks. On average，those who trained improved on tests of these abilities，compared to a group that did not train with Lumosity.
There is even some evidence suggesting that Lumosity may be beneficial to normal，healthy adults. In a 2011 study by Lumosity and San Francisco State University researchers. 13 people who trained over 5 weeks improved working memory scores by 10％and attention scores by 20％.
Brain training is designed to meet real-life needs
The design of brain training is targeted at real-life benefits instead of improving game scores. Better attention，for example，can mean greater focus in the classroom or at an important business meeting. With improved processing speed，you might react and adapt faster to the demands of a busy life. And a better memory could mean stronger，longer relationships with the people closest to you.
【小題1】We can learn from the passage that _________.

A．brain training speeds up the recovery of breast cancer

B．your brain is like a muscle because it gives you power

C．people's mental abilities can't develop after they grow up

D．Lumosity can measure，track and suit your level as you improve

【小題2】Which skill may brain training not improve?

A．Better attention.	B．A better memory.
C．Better writing skills.	D．Higher processing speed.

【小題3】What can we infer from the passage?

A．People should care more about physical health instead of mental health.

B．Brain training has been proved effective through scientific researches.

C．A bad memory is the only reason for weak relationships with people.

D．Playing online games is the best way of brain training.

【小題4】What's the best title for the passage?

A．Brain Training Makes a Difference	B．Train Your Brain like a Muscle
C．Lumosity，Your Best Choice	D．How to Train Your Brain

Getting kids to share their toys is a never-ending battle, and forcing them to do so never seems to help. New research suggests that allowing children to make a choice to sacrifice their own toys in order to share with someone else makes them share more in the future. The new findings are published in Psychological Science.
These experiments were conducted by psychological scientists, Nadia Chernyak and Tamar Kushnir of Cornell University. They found that sharing things with others when they are given a difficult choice leads children to think of themselves as people who like to share. It also makes them more likely to act in a pro-social （親社會(huì)的）manner in the future.
Previous research has explained why rewarding children for sharing can backfire. Children come to think of themselves as people who don't like to share since they had to be rewarded for doing so. Because they don't view themselves as "sharers", they are less likely to share in the future.
Chernyak and Kushnir were interested in finding out whether freely chosen sacrifice might have the opposite effect on kids' willingness to share. To test this, the researchers introduced five-year-old children to Doggie, a sad puppet. Some of the children were given a difficult choice: Share a precious sticker（貼紙） with Doggie, or keep it for themselves. Other children were given an easy choice between sharing and putting the sticker away, while children in a third group were required by the researcher to share.
Later on, all the children were introduced to Ellie, another sad puppet. They were given the option of how many stickers to share (up to three). The kids who earlier made the difficult choice to help Doggie shared more stickers with Ellie. The children who were initially faced with an easy choice or who were required to give their sticker to Doggie, on the other hand, shared fewer stickers with Ellie. Therefore, children did not benefit from simply giving something up, but rather from willingly choosing to give something up of value.
“You might imagine that making difficult, costly choices is demanding for young children or even that once children share, they don’t feel the need to do so again,” Chernyak says. “But this wasn't the case: once children made a difficult decision to give up something for someone else, they were more generous, not less, later on.” Chernyak concludes.
【小題1】_______ helps children to share more in the future.

A．Rewarding children for sharing

B．Forcing children to share

C．Allowing children to share precious things willingly

D．Allowing children to share what they don’t need

【小題2】The underlined word “backfire” means _______.

A．have an opposite effect	B．serve as a push
C．cause anger	D．a(chǎn)void taking things back

【小題3】Those who were required to share give fewer stickers to Ellie because _______.

A．they regret what they did	B．it’s not their own choice
C．Ellie is not as sad as Doggie	D．they like to share with a real person

【小題4】We can conclude from the passage that _______.

A．parents will never find a way to get children to share toys

B．a(chǎn) gift should be given to make up for children’s sacrifice

C．children pretend to be generous when they are being observed

D．making difficult choices may influence sharing behavior