Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older. 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.

The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress. They also 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.

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.

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.

1.When will people become happier and experience less worry?

A. 18 years old     B. 80 years old     C. 50 years old    D. 25 years old

2.What does the underlined word“emotions”mean in Paragragh Two?

A. 體力           B. 情感          C. 智力         D. 目標

3.Who has the most sadness, stress and worry?

A. a fifty-year-old man             B. a fifty-year-old woman

C. a twenty-five-year-old woman       D. a twenty-five-year-old man

4.According to the last paragraph, why may people be happier at an older age?

A. They are more thankful for what they have

B. They have better control of their emotions

C. They spend less time thinking about their bad experiences

D. All of the above.

根據(jù)下列句子及所給漢語注釋，寫出空缺處各單詞的正確形式
【小題1】Nancy is too young to look after ________(她自己).
【小題2】 Many students think that teenagers should be ________(允許) to choose their own clothes.
【小題3】 I want to be a reporter because I enjoy________(交談) with people.
【小題4】 The number of magazines at the library was________(減少) from 50 to 40.
【小題5】 -----I passed the last exam yesterday.
-----Oh, you’re really a ________(幸運的) dog.

Carmen Arace Middle School is situated in the pastoral town of Bloomfield, Conn., but four years ago it faced many of the same problems as inner-city schools in nearby Hartford: low scores on standardized tests and dropping enrollment（入學(xué)注冊）. Then the school’s hard-driving headmaster, Delores Bolton, persuaded her board to shake up the place by buying a laptop computer for each student and teacher to use, in school and at home. What’s more, the board provided wireless Internet access at school. Total cost: $2.5 million.

Now, an hour before classes start, every seat in the library is taken by students who cannot wait for getting online. Fifth-grade teacher Jen Friday talks about different kinds of birds as students view them at a colorful website. After school, students on buses pull laptops from backpacks to get started on homework. Since the computer arrived, enrollment is up 20%. Scores on state tests are up 35%.

Indeed, school systems in rural Maine and New York City also hope to follow Arace Middle School’s example. Governor Angus King had planned using $50 million to buy a laptop for all of Maine’s 17,000 seventh-graders – and for new seventh-graders each fall.

In the same spirit, the New York City board of education voted on April 12 to create a school Internet portal（入口）, which would make money by selling ads and licensing public school students. Profits（盈利）will also provide e-mail service for the city’s 1.1 million public school students. Profits will be used to buy laptops for each of the school system’s 87,000 fourth-graders. Within nine years, all students in grades 4 and higher will have their own computers.

Back in Bloomfield, in the meantime, most of the kinks have been worked out. Some students were using their computers to visit unauthorized（非法的）websites. But teachers have the ability to keep an eye on where students have been on the Web and to stop them. “That is the worst when they disable you,” says eighth-grade honors student Jamie Bassell. The habit is rubbing off on parents. “I taught my mom to use e-mail,” says another eighth-grader, Katherine Hypolite. “And now she’s taking computer classes. I’m so proud of her!”

1.The example of Carmen Arace Middle School in the passage is used to ______.

A. show the problems schools are faced with today

B. prove that a school without high enrollment can do well

C. express the importance of computers in modern education

D. tell that laptops can help improve students’ school performance

2.According to the writer, students in New York City’s public schools will ______.

A. enjoy e-mail service in the near future

B. make money by selling ads on websites

C. all have their own laptops within nine years

D. become more interested in their studies with laptops

3.The underlined word “kinks” in the last paragraph most probably means ______.

A. plans         B. projects       C. problems      D. products

4.From the passage we learn that ______.

A. a school Internet portal is the key to a laptop program

B. the laptop program also has a good influence on parents

C. students slowly accept the fact their online activities controlled

D. the laptop program in public school is mainly for the eighth-graders

閱讀理解

Henry was a carpenter（木匠）of our village. Once I asked him to make a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I arrived home that evening, Henry was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill for his work.。

My wife said to me，quietly , “ That’s his ninth cup of tea today . ” But she said loudly, “It’s a beautiful table，dear，isn’t it?”

“I won’t decide about that until I see that bill.” I said.

Henry laughed and gave me his bill for the work. It said：

BILL One dining table June 10 , 1995Cost of wood 17.00Paint（油漆）1.50Work，8 hours（1 an hour） 8.00Total（總計）36.50

When I was looking at the bill , Henry said , “it’s been a fine day，hasn’t it? Quite sunny.”

“Yes , ” I said. “I’m glad it is only the 10th of June.”

“Me too，” , said Henry. “You wait一it’ll be a bit hotter by the end of the month.”

“Yes. Hotter一and more expensive. Dining tables will be 20 more expensive on June 30^th , won’t they , Henry?”

Henry looked hard at me for half a minute. There was a little smile in his two blue eyes. I gave his bill back to him.

“If it isn’t too much trouble , Henry , ” I said , “ Please add it up again. You can forget the date.”

I paid him 26. 50 and he was happy to get it.

1.Why did Henry talk about weather when the writer was looking at the bill?

2. Why did the writer say that dining tables would be 20 more expensive by the end of June?

3. The writer thought Henry would ask for ______ if he made a dining table on the last day of June.

4. When the writer gave him the money，Henry was happy because_______ .

5. From the story we know that_______ .

閱讀理解
Young people and older people don’t always agree. They sometimes have different ideas about living, working and playing. But in one special programme in New York State, adults and teenagers live together in a friendly way.
Each summer 200 teenagers and 50 adults live together for eight weeks as members of a special work group. Everyone works several hours each day. They do so not just to keep busy but to find meaning and enjoyment in work. Some teenagers work in the woods or on the farms near the village. Some learn to make things like tables and chairs and build houses. The adults teach them these skills.
There are several free hours each day. Weekends are free, too. During the free hours some of the teenagers learn phototaking or painting. Others sit around and talk or sing. Each teenager chooses his own way to spend his free time.
When people live together, rules are necessary. In this programme the teenagers and the adults make the rules together. If someone breaks a rule, the problem goes before the whole group. They talk about it and ask, “Why did it happen? What should we do about it?”
One of the teenagers has this to say about his experience, “You stop thinking only about yourself, You learn to think about the group.”
【小題1】 In one special programme in New York State, young and older people _______ .