Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy．After all, you probably sing when you are happy．
Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy．However they sing most of the time for a very different reason．Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory．
Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims (聲稱(chēng)) as its own．Only he and his family are welcome there． No other families of the same species are welcome．Your house is your territory where only your family and friends are welcome．If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout．Probably this would be enough to frighten him away．
If so, you have actually frightened the stranger away without having to fight him．A bird does the same thing．But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting (筑巢) season．So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not．This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away．
【小題1】Some scientists believe that most of the time bird’s singing is actually ______．

A．a(chǎn)n expression of happiness	B．a(chǎn) way of warning
C．a(chǎn)n expression of anger	D．a(chǎn) way of greeting

【小題2】What is a bird’s “territory”?

A．A place where families of other species are not accepted.

B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice．

C．An area for which birds fight against each other．

D．An area which a bird considers to be its own．

【小題3】Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?

A．Because they want to invite more friends．

B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away．

C．Because they want to find outsiders around．

D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears．

【小題4】How does the writer explain birds’ singing?

A．By comparing birds with human beings．

B．By reporting experiment results．

C．By describing birds’ daily life．

D．By telling a bird’s story．

One reaction to all the concern about tropical deforestation（毀林） is a blank stare that asks the question, "Since I don't live there, what does it have to do with me?"
The answer is that your way of life, wherever you live in the world, is tied to the tropics in many ways. If you live in a house, wash your hair, eat fruits and vegetables, drink soda, or drive a car, you can be certain that you are affected by the loss of tropical forests.
Biologically, we are losing the richest regions on earth when, each minute, a piece of tropical forest, the size of ten city blocks, disappears. As many as five million species of plants, animals, and insects (40 to 50 percent of all living things) live there, and are being lost faster than they can be found and described. Their loss is immeasurable.
Take rubber for example. For many uses, only natural rubber from trees will do. Synthetics are not good enough. Today over half the world's commercial rubber is produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, while the Amazon's rubber industry produces much of the world's four million tons. And rubber is an important material in making gloves, balloons, footwear and many sporting goods. Thousands of other tropical plants are valuable for their industrial use.
Many scientists strongly believe that deforestation contributes to the greenhouse effect -- or heating of the earth from increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As we destroy forests, we lose their ability to change carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Carbon dioxide levels could double within the next half-century, warming the earth by as much as 4.5 degrees. The result? A partial melt-down of polar ice caps, raising sea levels as much as 24 feet; even 15 feet could threaten anyone living within 35 miles of the coast. Unbelievable? Maybe. But scientists warn that by the time we realise the severe effects of tropical deforestation, it will be 20 years too late.
Can tropical deforestation affect our everyday lives? Now, you should have got the answer.
【小題1】The underlined word "synthetics" probably means_________.

A．natural rubber	B．tropical materials
C．man-made material	D．commercial rubber

【小題2】According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

A．The forests are losing their function in turning carbon dioxide into oxygen.

B．Many of our daily uses are related to the tropical forests.

C．Tropical plants can be used to make industrial products.

D．High carbon dioxide levels will make the earth warmer.

【小題3】The author's attitude towards the tropical deforestation is _________ .

A．puzzling

B．cold

C．supporting

D．opposed

【小題4】Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Tropical Forests	B．The Value of Tropical Forests
C．Tropical Forests and Our Life	D．The Greenhouse Effects

It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.
The most famous hyper-polyglot was Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th century Italian cardinal, who was said to speak 72 languages. This claim sounds absurd. If you assume each language had 20,000 words, Mezzofanti would have to learn a word a minute, six hours a day, for eleven years—an impossible task. But Mezzofanti was tested by critics, and they were all impressed.
Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through hard work?
U.S. linguist Stephen Drashen believes that outstanding language learners just work harder at it and then they acquire unusually strong language ability. As an example, he mentions a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the 20th century. When she was 86, she could speak 16 languages and was still working on learning new languages. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks.
Some researchers argue to the contrary. They believe that there is such a thing as a talent for learning languages. In the 1930s, a German scientist examined parts of the preserved brain of a hyper-polyglot named Emil Krebs, who could speak 60 languages fluently. The scientist found that the area of Krebs’s brain called Broca’s area, which is associated with language, looked different from the Broca’s area in the brains of men who speak only one language. However, we still don’t know if Krebs was born with a brain ready to learn dozens of languages or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.
Although it is still not clear whether the ability to learn many languages is in born, there’s no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in a second, third, or even fourth language by putting our mind to it.
【小題1】What does the underlined sentence imply?

A．Mezzofanti could remember 360 words a day.

B．Mezzofanti had a special way to learn languages.

C．Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous.

D．Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing.

【小題2】The Hungarian woman became a hyper-polyglot mainly because of her __.

A．good memory

B．unique brain

C．hard work

D．learning methods

【小題3】The German scientist’s findings showed that Krebs ___.

A．had an unusual brain

B．was born with great talent

C．had worked hard at languages

D．expected too much of himself

【小題4】The author seems to agree that ___.

A．it is not hard to learn foreign languages

B．hard work plays a part in language learning

C．there is no such thing as a talent for languages

D．hyper-polyglots have an inborn talent for language

All too often, a choice that seems sustainable(可持續(xù)的)turns out on closer examination to be problematic. Probably the best example is the rush to produce ethanol(乙醇) for fuel from corn. Corn is a renewable resource —you can harvest it and grow more, almost limitlessly. So replacing gas with corn ethanol seems like a great idea. 
One might get a bit more energy out of the ethanol than that used to make it, which could still make ethanol more sustainable than gas generally, but that’s not the end of the problem. Using corn to make ethanol means less corn is left to feed animals and people, which drives up the cost of food. That result leads to turning the fallow land –including, in some cases, rain forest in places such as Brazil—into farmland, which in turn gives off lots of carbon dioxide (CO) into the air. Finally, over many years, the energy benefit from burning ethanol would make up for the forest loss. But by then, climate change would have progressed so far that it might not help.
You cannot really declare any practice “sustainable” until you have done a complete life-cycle analysis of its environmental(環(huán)境的) costs. Even then, technology and public keep developing, and that development can lead to unforeseen and undesired results. The admirable goal of living sustainably requires plenty of thought on an ongoing basis.
【小題1】What might directly cause the loss of the forest according to the text?

A．The growing demand for energy to make ethanol

B．The increasing carbon dioxide in the air

C．The greater need for farmland

D．The big change in weather.

【小題2】The underlined word “it” in the second paragraph refers to “           ” 

A．the energy benefit	B．the forest loss
C．climate change	D．burning ethanol

【小題3】The author thinks that replacing gas with corn ethanol is           . 

A．impractical

B．a(chǎn)cceptable

C．a(chǎn)dmirable

D．useless

【小題4】What does the author mainly discuss in the text? 

A．Technology	B．Sustainability
C．Ethanol energy	D．Environmental protection

Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties. Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
The researchers considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
【小題1】What is the best title of the passage?

A．The older a person is, the more stressed he feels.

B．The more lighthearted a person is, the happier he is.

C．The older a person is, the more clever he grows.

D．The older a person is, the happier he grows.

【小題2】We can learn from the research that _________.

A．only when people get older, will they feel happier

B．older people usually have no worries in their life

C．stress levels among the youngest are the highest of all

D．older people are more likely to be thankful in life

【小題3】According to the researchers, what is probably the reason why people grow happier when they get older?

A．When people get older, they can’t remember bad experiences.

B．When people get older, they have no young children to care about.

C．When people get older, they learn to adjust their feelings.

D．When people get older, they don’t care about their feelings.

【小題4】What do you think the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is?

A．A Gallup organization.

B．A popular science magazine.

C．A university in New York.

D．A research institution

【小題5】What would the writer probably deal with in next paragraph?

A．Advice to the young people on how to keep happy.

B．Advice to the old people on how to live longer.

C．Why women at all ages are more sad, stressed and worried.

D．Why people will grow happier with their ages.

Thirteen vehicles lined up last March to race across the Mojave Desert, seeking a million in prize money. To win, they had to finish the 142-mile race in less than 10 hours. Teams and watchers knew there might be no winner at all, because these vehicles were missing a key part—drivers.
DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, organized the race as part of a push to develop robotic vehicles for future battlefields. But the Grand Challenge, as it was called, just proved how difficult it is to get a car to speed across an unfamiliar desert without human guidance. One had its brake lock up in the starting area, Another began by throwing itself onto a wall. Another got tied up by bushes near the road after 1.9 miles.
One turned upside down. One took off in entirely the wrong direction and had to be disabled by remote (遠(yuǎn)距離的) consol. One went a little more than a mile and rushed into a fence; another managed to go for six miles but stuck on a rock. The “winner,”if there was any, reached 7.8 miles before it ran into a long, narrow hole, and the front wheels caught on fire.
“You get a lot of respect for natural abilities of the living things,” says Reinhold Behringer, who helped design two of the ear-size vehicles for a company called Sci-Autonics, “Even ants (螞蟻) can do all these tasks effortlessly. It’s very hard for us to put these abilities into our machines.”
The robotic vehicles, though with necessary modern equipment such as advanced computers and GPS guidance, had trouble figuring out fast enough the blocks ahead that a two-year-old human recognizes immediately. Sure, that very young child, who has just only learned to walk, may not think to wipe apple juice off her face, but she already knows that when there’s a cookie in the kitchen she has to climb up the table, and that when she gets to the cookie it will taste good. She is more advanced, even months old, than any machine humans have designed.
【小題1】DARPA organized the race in order to ______.

A．raise money for producing more robotic vehicles

B．push the development of vehicle industry

C．train more people to drive in the desert

D．improve the vehicles for future wars

【小題2】From the passage we know “robotic vehicles” are a kind of machines that ______.

A．can do effortlessly whatever tasks living things can

B．can take part in a race across 142 miles with a time limit

C．can show off their ability to turn themselves upside down

D．can move from place to p1ace without being driven by human beings

【小題3】In the race, the greatest distance one robotic vehicle covered was_____ .     

A．a(chǎn)bout eight miles

B．six miles

C．a(chǎn)lmost two miles

D．a(chǎn)bout one mile

【小題4】In the last paragraph, the writer implies that there is a long way to go____ .

A．for a robotic vehicle to finish a 142-mile race without any difficulties

B．for a little child who has just learned to walk to reach the cookie on the table

C．for a robotic vehicle to deal with a simple problem that a little child can solve

D．for a little child to understand the importance of wiping apple juice off its face

What will people die of 100 years from now？ If you think that is not a simple question， you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio­technology(生物技術(shù)). With the help of new medicine， the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents， murder and war. Today's leading killers， such as heart disease， cancer， and aging itself， will become distant memories.
In discussion of technological changes， the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live？ Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things， and until recently， scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells， such as those of brain cells， would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100， medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so， people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs. The medicine， made up of the basic building materials of life， will build new brain cells， heart cells，and so on－in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imaging that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence， but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future. 
【小題1】According to the passage， human death is now mainly caused by____ 　　

A．diseases and aging	B．a(chǎn)ccidents and war
C．a(chǎn)ccidents and aging	D．heart disease and war

【小題2】Humans may live longer in the future because ____　　

A．heart disease will be far away from us

B．human brains can decide the final death

C．the basic materials of cells will last forever

D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine

【小題3】We can learn from the passage that ____

A．human life will not last more than 120 years in the future

B．humans have to take medicine to build new skin cells now

C．much needs to be done before humans can have a longer life

D．we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells

Everyone may all have the experience of feeling anxious and stressed when having a rough day or having some troubles. Different people may choose different ways to deal with it, and for most people a break for a 10-minute walk may be quite useful.www.zxxk.com
Anyway, here is another way around: to get a piece of chewing gum, and chew it. According to a Swinburne University of Technology study, gum-chewing has been found to “relieve anxiety, improve alertness(機(jī)敏性) and reduce stress among individuals in a laboratory setting.”
Some may argue that a laboratory is not the same as an office. But check out the conditions of the study: individuals were monitored while performing “a group of ‘multi-tasking’ activities.” Doesn’t it sound like the situation in the office?www.zxxk.com
Here’s a summary of some of the study’s findings:
Gum chewers showed a reduction in anxiety as compared to non-gum chewers by nearly 17 percent during mild stress and nearly 10 percent in appropriate stress.
Gum chewers showed improvement in alertness over non-gum chewers by nearly 19 percent during mild stress and 8 percent in moderate stress.
Improved Performance: Chewing gum resulted in a big improvement in overall performance on multi-tasking activities.
Although these aren’t major improvements, every little bit works and chewing a piece of gum is a lot quicker and easier than slipping outside for a 10-minute walk. So, how does gum work this magic? In part it does so by lowering the level of cortisol(皮質(zhì)醇)—a steroid(類(lèi)固醇) hormone that is released in response to stress in your system.
A few words of advice before you reach for the gum: don’t crack your gum, and be sure to chew it with your mouth closed. In fact, I’d say keep the gum out of meetings, because it really looks impolite to others around you.
【小題1】From the study in the text we know that_________________.

A．gum chewers may lack alertness

B．gum chewers tend to be less stressed

C．gum chewers can finish many jobs perfectly

D．gum chewers can reduce their anxiety and anger easily

【小題2】How does gum work to reduce stress according to the text?

A．It works by improving alertness.

B．It works by allowing a 10-minute walk.

C．It works by reducing one’s level of cortisol.

D．It works by being chewed in a laboratory setting.

【小題3】Which one may the author probably agree with?

A．People should chew gum with their mouths closed in a meeting.

B．It is impolite to chew gum in a meeting with people around you.

C．People can crack gum freely when meeting friends.

D．People should be careful when chewing gum at home.

【小題4】What does the text mainly talk about?

A．How to chew gum.	B．How to relieve stress.
C．Why people love chewing gum.	D．Chewing gum can relieve stress.

Retail therapy（購(gòu)物療法）has long been considered as a good way to let off stress. Now, US scientists have discovered not only does retail therapy exist，but that it could be caused by an individual's fear of sudden death.
Researchers found materialistic people thought terrorism and war more stressful than others.
Psychologists believe the rise of materialism around the world and its treatment effect on extreme stress might be a response to fear of death caused by acts of terrorism, disease and natural disasters.
The scientists from Michigan State University said people with possession obsessions（妄想）often have lower self-esteem than others so are more likely to shop as the result of severe psychological suffering.
Ayalla Ruvio，a business professor studying people's shopping habits while rockets fell in Israel, said, "When the going gets tough, the materialistic people go shopping. This stress spending is likely to produce even greater stress and lower well-being. Essentially, materialism appears to make bad events even worse.
Dr Ruvio led a two-part study of Israeli citizens living in a town that came under extreme rocket attacks for about six months in 2007. She compared 139 residents of the southern town with 170 from another town that was not under attack to see how their symptoms of post-traumatic stress and shopping habits varied. Dr Ruvio found that, when faced with a deadly threat, those who are highly materialistic suffered much higher levels of stress，while their tendency to shop was increased.
Dr Ruvio said, "The relationship between materialism and stress may be more harmful than commonly thought.”
The second stage of their research surveyed 855 Americans about their materialistic nature and fear of death. They found shopping was used to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety about death but this was in response to fear of a variety of life-threatening events like car accidents, criminal attacks and natural disasters.
【小題1】Which of the following opinion is NOT right according to the text?

A．Terrorism is believed to easily cause the rise of materialism.

B．The materialistic find terrorism and war more stressful than others.

C．The scientists think possession obsessions help people get self-respect.

D．The scientists think people with possession obsessions suffer a lot mentally.

【小題2】Why did Dr Ruvio choose to study the two groups of Israeli citizens mentioned in the passage?

A．They enjoy the special shopping culture.

B．The stresses they face are usually deadly.

C．They are in different situation in terms of war.

D．They are usually active participants for researchers.

【小題3】What's the result about Dr Ruvio's research?

A．Impulsive spending does good to people's health.

B．Shopping can't lower one's stress as it is expected.

C．Faced with great stress, people feel hopeless for life.

D．Faced with threat，people's wish to shop will decrease.

【小題4】Which of the following events threaten people's life?
①Greater stress; ②Car accidents; ③Criminal attacks；. ④Natural disasters;

A．①②③

B．②③④

C．①②④

D．①③④

【小題5】What's the main idea of the passage?

A．Greater stress can lead to shopping.

B．Greater stress can cause a lot of diseases

C．Shopping is very important in people's life.

D．Can shopping reduce the stress and relieve the fear of death?

Black Box
You never see them, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you're going,how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to resist almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic (漫畫(huà))  book.They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best method for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine(潛水艇)  discovered its homing signal five days later, it marked a huge step toward determining the cause of the disaster in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958. Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first model for a black box, which became a requirement on all US commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to resist crashes, however, so in 1965 it was completely redesigned. That same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to be easier to see.
Modem airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help experts reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. The boxes can resist powerful force and temperatures up t0 2,OOOoF. They're also able to send out signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447 ,  which crashed near Brazil on June 1 , 2009 ,  are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小題1】What can we leam about the black box from the passage?

A．It helps an airplane function normally.

B．Its ability to avoid disasters is amazing.

C．It is necessary equipment on an airplane.

D．The idea for its design comes from a comic book.

【小題2】From the black box on the Yemeni airliner we can get information about _____.

A．the scene of the crash and the damage

B．data for analyzing the cause of the crash

C．the total number of passengers on board

D．homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash

【小題3】The Federal Aviation Authority required the black boxes be painted orange or yellow to

A．make them easily identified

B．meet the international standards

C．caution people to handle them with care

D．distinguish them from the color of the plane

【小題4】What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?

A．They have stopped sending homing signals.

B．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.

C．There is an urgent need for them to be restructured.

D．There is still a good chance of their being recovered.