Driving a car is not just handling controls and judging speed and distance. It requires you to predict what other road users will do and get ready to react to something unexpected. When alcohol is consumed, it enters your bloodstream and acts as a depressant (抑制藥), damaging eyesight, judgment and co-ordination(協(xié)調)，slowing down reaction time and greatly increasing the risk of accidents. Even below the drink driving limit, driving will be affected.
Alcohol may take a few minutes to be absorbed into the bloodstream and start action on the brain. Absorption rate is increased when drinking on an empty stomach or when consuming drinks mixed with fruit juice. To get rid of alcohol from the body is a very slow process and it is not possible to speed   it  up with any measures like taking a shower or having a cup of tea or coffee.
The present Road Traffic Ordinance states clearly that the limit of alcohol concentration is:
50 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood; or
22 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath; or
67 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of urine(尿液).
Drivers who cause traffic accidents, or who commit a moving traffic offence or are being suspected of drink driving will be tested.
Any driver found drinking beyond the limit will be charged. The driver declared guilty may be fined a maximum of HK $25,000 and be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison and punished for 10 driving-offence points; or temporarily banned from driving.
The same punishment applies to failing to provide specimens(樣本)for breath, blood or urine tests without good excuse.
Drink driving is a criminal offence. Be a responsible driver, think before you drink. For the safety of yourself and other road users, never drive after consuming alcohol.
【小題1】The first paragraph is mainly about______.

A．the introduction of driving skills

B．the damage of drinking to your body

C．the effect of drinking on driving

D．the process of alcohol being absorbed

【小題2】The underlined Word“ it” in the second paragraph refers to “______ ”.

A．a(chǎn)lcohol

B．a(chǎn)bsorption

C．blood

D．process

【小題3】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Drinking below the drink driving limit has no effect on driving.

B．Alcohol is taken in more quickly when drunk with fruit juice.

C．Having a cup of tea helps to get rid of alcohol from the body.

D．50 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of breath is below the drink driving limit.

【小題4】A driver suspected of drink driving ________.

A．should provide specimens for testing

B．will be forbidden to drive for 3 years

C．will be punished for 10 driving-offence points

D．should pay a maximum fine of HK $ 25,000

An idea that started in Seattle's public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.
In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched (發(fā)起）the "If All of Seattle Read the Same Book " project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has since expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.
In Chicago, the mayor appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the "One Book, One Chicago" program. As a result, reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, stories emerged of parents and children reading to each other at night and strangers chatting away on the bus about plot and character.
The only problem arose in New York , where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity(一致）can be achieved .Or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.
As Nancy points out, the level of success is not measured by how many people read a book, but by how many people are enriched by the process or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not otherwise have shared a word.
【小題1】What is the purpose of the project launched by Nancy?

A．To invite authors to guide readers

B．To encourage people to read and share.

C．To involve people in community service

D．To promote the friendship between cities.

【小題2】Why was it difficult for New Yorkers to carry out the project?

A．They had little interest in reading.

B．They were too busy to read a book.

C．They came from many different backgrounds.

D．They lacked support from the local government.

【小題3】According to the passage, where would the project be more easily carried out?

A．In large communities with little sense of unity

B．In large cities where libraries are far from home

C．In medium-sized cities with a diverse population

D．In large towns where agreement can be quickly reached

【小題4】The underlined words “shared a word” in Paragraph 5 probably mean       .

A．exchanged ideas with each other

B．discussed the meaning of a word

C．gained life experience

D．used the same language

【小題5】According to Nancy, the degree of success of the project is judged by        .

A．the careful selection of a proper book

B．the growing popularity of the writers

C．the number of people who benefit from reading

D．the number of books that each person reads

Medicine comes in lots of different packages. Painkillers in a tablet can make your headache go away. Antibiotic cream (抗菌素膏) from a tube can prevent your cuts from becoming infected. But can medicine come packaged in chicken eggs?
A team of scientists from Scotland say “yes”. They’ve engineered special chickens that lay eggs with disease-treating drugs inside. 
These eggs come from chickens that have been engineered to produce certain drugs inside their egg whites.
These drugs are made of molecules called proteins(蛋白質). Animals make thousands of proteins — they’re the main element in skin, hair, milk and meat. Since animals can make proteins easily, they’re good candidates (候選者) for making protein drugs.
Researchers have already made cows, sheep and goats produce protein drugs in their milk. But chickens are cheaper to take care of, need less room, and grow faster than these other animals. Those qualities could make chickens a better choice to become living drug factories, says Simon Lillico of the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Lillico and a team of researchers changed chickens’ DNA — the code that tells cells how to make proteins — so that the birds’ cells made two protein drugs. One drug can treat skin cancer, and the other treats a nerve disease called multiple sclerosis (多發(fā)性硬化).
The scientists changed the chickens’ DNA so that the birds made these drugs only in their egg whites. This protects the chickens’ bodies from the drugs’ possible harmful effects and makes it easy for scientists to collect the drugs.
【小題1】If you cut your finger, you may use ________ to cure it.

A．painkillers in a tablet	B．a(chǎn)ntibiotic cream from a tube
C．chicken eggs	D．protein drugs

【小題2】Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．Scientists from Scotland have succeeded in packing medicine into chicken eggs.

B．The drugs are made of molecules called proteins.

C．Scientists chose chickens for their experiments because chicken eggs taste delicious.

D．The animals are good candidates for making protein drugs.

【小題3】The drugs in special chicken eggs can ________.

A．treat lung cancer	B．help reduce headache
C．change people’s DNA	D．treat multiple sclerosis

【小題4】We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．eating eggs is the best choice for the patients now

B．scientists changed the chicken’s DNA and put all the drugs in chicken eggs

C．we may eat special eggs as drugs when we are sick in the future

D．the drugs produce harmful effects on the chicken’s bodies

【小題5】The best title for the passage is ________.

A．Chicken Eggs to Replace Medicine	B．Chicken Eggs as Drug
C．Chicken Eggs and Medicine	D．Chicken Eggs and Animal Milk

The rat is named Lola and she’s at the top of her class of risk-running animals being trained to smell out landmines (地雷) in Colombia, home to the world’s highest number of mine-related deaths and injuries last year. Of the victims, many are children who died in the accidents while walking to school or playing in the countryside.
The smartest rat among the first six that the government is teaching to locate landmines equipment planted by rebels(叛亂者) has a 90 percent success rate in locating landmines material in her lab training.
Police animal trainers, tired of seeing their landmines-smelling dogs blown up by stepping on mines, hope the white-furred, pink-eyed creature will lead her classmates through coming open field tests and then into the country mine fields before the end of the year. It takes about 400 grams of pressure to detonate (引爆) a mine while Lola only weighs about 220 grams. “The dogs can easily set off the landmines, sometimes killing people nearby,” they said.
Police animal trainer Jose Pineda says that rats have more sensitive noses than dogs, which should allow them to better smell out mines in difficult terrain (地形).
Plus, it takes the police about six months to train mine-smelling dogs. Training the rats is expected to take about half that time once the program is established.
Trainers think that they are much smarter than the dogs. The second-best scorer in the laboratory is Lucrecia, with an 83 percent success rate. Males, such as one named   Runcho, have fallen behind until now but may do better in the coming field tests. Pineda said that the next step of training will present new challenges to the rats as they are sure to meet distractions (分心的事) in the open.
【小題1】What do the underlined words “the accidents” in the first paragraph mean?

A．Children were shot while playing outside.

B．A buried landmine was walked on and set off.

C．A rebel blew up a landmine and killed children.

D．Children got hurt in traffic accidents on the way to school.

【小題2】Which of the following is NOT a reason why rats are chosen to find buried landmines?

A．They have a good sense of smell.

B．They are too light to set off buried landmines.

C．They can smell all kinds of explosive materials.

D．They cost people less time in terms of training

【小題3】What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Rats will perform as well in the open air as in the lab.

B．Until now, female rats are better than the male ones.

C．Trainers should have chosen only female rats for the program.

D．Because they are foolish, dogs are not preferred for the program.

【小題4】What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Dogs Bring Peace to the People in Colombia

B．Colombia Develops a New Way to Reduce Deaths

C．Buried Landmines are a Great Danger to Colombians

D．Colombian Police Train Rats to Sniff Out Landmines

Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.
【小題1】A good title for this reading passage is______.

A．Popeye the Sailor	B．The Truth About Spinach
C．A Mistake with Numbers	D．Folic Acid Makes You Strong

【小題2】Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?

A．They thought spinach made them strong.

B．They thought Popeye was funny.

C．Spinach had a lot of iron.

D．People liked folic acid.

【小題3】A research group told people that spinach______.

A．made Popeye strong

B．was a green vegetable

C．had less iron than other green vegetables

D．had more iron than other green vegetables

【小題4】The reading passage says that perhaps Popeye got his strength from______.

A．iron

B．folic acid

C．spinach

D．exercise

Ever since man began to use the telephone, there have been new problems arising from the carrying of messages. At first, each message was carried by a pair of overhead wires. As a result, telephone exchanges were soon surrounded by thousands of wires. The wires were then replaced by cables (電纜)，each containing many pairs of wires. Each cable is capable of carrying many messages. These cables, laid underground, replaced the overhead wires.
The more extensive telephone services have become, the more demand for these services has increased, particularly the demand for long-distance services. In China, for example, this growth is now over 30% every year. Long-distance telephone exchanges are usually in crowded cities, where is not easy to lay new labels for expanding services.
The use of radio to send telephone message and to link all telephone exchanges makes it possible to get rid of overhead wires and some underground cables.
Now man has invented the microwave system ( 微波系統(tǒng) ). In a microwave system messages from various places can be brought together, and then they are sent out and received by radio. After that, the messages are split into their original form. Finally, they are sent to the places where they are going to be sent.
【小題1】The word “message” ( in paragraph 1) is close in meaning to “______”.

A．electricity

B．industry

C．information

D．wave

【小題2】A cable is different from an overhead wire, because it ________.

A．is made of wood

B．needs more exchange

C．carries more messages

D．is much longer

【小題3】What does the word extensive mean？

A．growing

B．using

C．holding

D．understanding

【小題4】The best title for the passage would be “________”.

A．The Telephone and Its Past

B．From the Wire to the Microwave System

C．The Needs for Better Telephones

D．How to Use the Telephone

WASHINGTON—Two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population could be gone by 2050 if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday.
The fate of polar bears could be even worse than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be disappearing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species.
“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat(退卻) farther this month.
That means that polar bears—some 16,000 of them -- will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing(簡報).
Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century’s end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.
“It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.
“Because the observed trajectory(軌跡)of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative(保守的).”
In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food.
Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are poor hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears’ disappearance would probably take place as young cubs(幼獸)failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully.
【小題1】What was the US Geological Survey intended to do?

A．To determine whether the polar bear was in danger.

B．To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic.

C．To check the predictions of the computer models.

D．To find out the exact number of the polar bear.

【小題2】What causes the polar bears to disappear by 2050?

A．The pollution of the Arctic region.	B．The sea ice melting at high speed
C．Fewer food sources being left.	D．The temperature getting colder.

【小題3】The key to preventing polar bears dying out seems to _______________.

A．help young polar bears to survive the cold winter

B．have large number of seals living in the oceans

C．make sure there is enough sea ice in the Arctic

D．provide chances for adult polar bears to reproduce

Most of us are used to seasons. Each year, spring follows winter, which follows autumn, which follows summer, which follows spring. And winter is colder than summer. But the earth goes through temperature cycles over much longer periods than those that we experience. Between 65,000 and 35,000 years ago, the planet was much colder than it is now. During that time the temperature also changed a lot, with periods of warming and cooling. Ice melted during the warm periods, which made sea levels rise. Water froze again during the cold periods.
A new study from Switzerland, sheds light on where ice sheets melted during the ice age. It now seems that the ice melted at both ends of the earth, rather than just in either northern or southern regions.
This surprised the researchers from the University of Bern. Scientists have long assumed that most of the ice that melted was in the Northern hemisphere(半球) during the 30,000-year long ice age. That belief was held because the North Pole is surrounded by land, while the South Pole is surrounded by the Antarctic Ocean. It is easier for ice sheets to grow on land. If surrounded by sea the ice can easily just slip into the ocean instead of building up.
The researchers used a computer model to look at ways the ice could melt and how it might affect sea levels. They compared these results to evidence of how temperatures and currents actually changed during that time. The model showed that if it was only in the Northern hemisphere that ice melted, there would have been a bigger impact(影響) on ocean currents(洋流) and sea temperatures than what actually happened. Studies suggest that melting just in the Southern hemisphere would have been impossible, too. The only reasonable conclusion, the scientists could make, was that ice melted equally in the North and the South.
It is still a mystery as to what caused the temperature changes that caused the ice to melt.
【小題1】The North Pole is surrounded by land, while the South Pole is surrounded by the Antarctic Ocean. So scientists thought that ________.

A．most of the ice melted in the Northern hemisphere

B．most of the ice melted in the Southern hemisphere

C．The North Pole is colder than South Pole

D．The South Pole is colder than North Pole

【小題2】We can infer from the passage ________.

A．the ice can easily just slip into the ocean

B．volcanoes caused the ice to melt

C．melting just in the Northern hemisphere would have been impossible

D．researchers often use the computer models help their research work.

【小題3】The scientists are not sure ________.

A．how long the ice age lasted

B．where ice sheets melted during the ice age

C．what caused the temperature changes

D．what the earth is made up of

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

A．A computer model

B．Studies show ice melted equally in the North and the South during the ice age

C．Most of the ice melted in the Northern hemisphere during the 30,000-year long ice age.

D．A survey result

When people first walked across the Bering Land Bridge thousands of years ago, dogs were by their sides, according to a study published in the journal Science.
Robert Wayne of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Jennifer Leonard of the Smithsonian Institute, used DNA material—some of it unearthed by miners in Alaska—to conclude that today’s domestic dog originated in Asia and accompanied the first humans to the New World about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Wayne suggests that man’s best friend may have enabled the tough journey from Asia into North America. “Dogs may have been the reason people made it across the land bridge,” said Wayne. “They can pull things, carry things, defend you from fierce animals, and they’re useful to eat.”
Researchers have agreed that today’s dog is the result of the domestication(馴化) of wolves thousands of years ago. Before this recent study, a common thought about the precise origin of North America’s domestic dog was that Natives domesticated local wolves, the descendents(后代) of which now live with people in Alaska, Canada, and the Lower 48.
Dog remains from a Fairbanks-area gold mine helped the scientists reach their conclusion. Leonard, an evolutionary biologist, collected DNA from 11 bones of ancient dogs that were locked in permafrost(永凍層) until Fairbanks miners uncovered them in the 1920s. The miners donated the preserved bones to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where they remained untouched for more than 70 years. After borrowing the bones from the museum, Leonard and her colleagues used radiocarbon techniques to find the age of the Alaska dogs. They found the dogs all lived between the years of 1450 and 1675 A.D., before Vitus Bering and Aleksey Chirikov who were the first known Europeans to view Alaska in 1741. The bones of dogs that wandered the Fairbanks area centuries ago should therefore be the remains of “pure native American dogs,” Leonard said. The DNA of the Fairbanks dogs would also expose whether they were the descendents of wolves from North America.
Along with the Fairbanks samples, the researchers collected DNA from bones of 37 dog specimens(標本) from Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia that existed before the arrival of Columbus. In the case of both the Alaska dogs and the dogs from Latin America, the researchers found that they shared the most genetic material with gray wolves of Europe and Asia. This supports the idea of domestic dogs entering the New World with the first human explorers who wandered east over the land bridge.
Leonard and Wayne’s study suggests that dogs joined the first humans that made the adventure across the Bering Land Bridge to slowly populate the Americas. Wayne thinks the dogs that made the trip must have provided some excellent service to their human companions or they would not have been brought along. “Dogs must have been useful because they were expensive to keep,” Wayne said. “They didn’t feed on mice; they fed on meat, which was a very guarded resource.”
【小題1】 The underlined word “remains” is closed in meaning to ______.

A．leftover food	B．a(chǎn)nimal waste
C．dead bodies	D．living environment

【小題2】According to the study described in Paragraph 4, we can learn that ______.

A．a(chǎn)ncient dogs entered North America between 1450 and 1675 AD

B．the 11 bones of ancient dogs are not from native American dogs

C．the bones discovered by the gold miners were from North American wolves

D．the bones studied were not from dogs brought into North America by Europeans

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

A．Native Americans domesticated local wolves into dogs.

B．Scientists discovered some ancient dog remains in 1920s.

C．Latin America’s dogs are different from North America’s in genes.

D．Ancient dogs entered North America across the Bering Land Bridge.

【小題4】The first humans into the New World brought dogs along with them because ______.

A．dogs fed on mice	B．dogs were easy to keep
C．dogs helped protect their resources	D．dogs could provide excellent service

【小題5】What does the passage mainly talk about ______.

A．the origin of the North American dogs

B．the DNA study of ancient dogs in America

C．the reasons why early people entered America

D．the difference between Asian and American dogs