任務型閱讀（共10空, 每空1分，滿分10分）(每空一詞)
What do you think is the most important invention in the world? The TV? The printer? The telephone? Or the computer? A report shows that they are not the only important inventions. Here are three other important inventions.
One of the simplest inventions is the toilet. Before toilets, people poured or dumped waste into rivers from people’s houses. Illnesses were common in big cities, and it was often difficult to find clean drinking water.
Animal food is another important invention. Before the invention, most animals were killed every autumn because there was not enough food for them in winter. After hay(干草) became a kind of common animal food, animals could live through the long winter.
The third great invention is glasses. Glasses help people read, write and do “close work” after the age of 45. Without glasses, the word would be difficult for the people above 45.

The world has many beautiful sounds. We can hear the songs of birds and the laugh of people. We can listen to cool music and news reports. And it’s all because of our ears! They bring us a world of sounds.
But some people can’t hear any sound at all. Some are born deaf. Others can hear well in their childhood, nut too many loud sounds hurt their ears later on.
Many people in China can’t hear ordinary sounds clearly. Lots of them are children. Most of them are born with good hearing. But six children of every 1,000 have hearing problems when they are born. And if a children has hearing problems, he or she usually will also have some learning problems at school.
A lot of things can cause fearing problems, like, too much earwax is not good for our hearing. And noise louder than 85 decibels (分貝) can hurt our ears and make us lose our hearing for a short time or even for ever.
Hearing is important for all of us. So we should do our best to give our ears special care. Don’t forget to do the following:
◎ Try to stay away from places with too much noise. If you have to go, wear earplugs.
◎ When swimming, remember to put earplugs into your ears to stop water from getting in.
◎ Never put anything sharp into your ears. If you think you have too much earwax, ask your parents to help you clean it out.
Keep these things in mind. Then you won’t be saying “WHAT? WHAT?” when you are older.
【小題1】What does the underlined word “earwax” mean in the passage?

Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Therefore animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us.
If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and non-flowering(不開花的) plants.
Flowering plants can make seeds(種子). The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed, some have two, three or four, and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit.
Most non-flowering plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores(孢子). Spores are very, very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as seeds. When these spores fall on wet and shady(陰涼的) places, they usually grow into new plants.
【小題1】What fact does the passage lead you to believe?

Many of us don’t pay much attention to the importance of eye care. It is said if you take care of your body, then you can surely be healthy. That is why our eyes should be given a lot of care. Natural eye care should be put in a number one place.
There are several causes leading to poor eyesight like not enough food, genes（基因）and aging(老化). Televisions, computers and reading are also the causes of having poor eyesight. If you happen to work in front of the computer, it is best to take a break every once in a while. Something dirty can cause redness and they will make you feel uncomfortable. It is bad for your eyes, too. If this happens, the best way is to clean your eyes by using cold water. You must also try your best to protect your eyes from harmful things. For example, sunglasses are not just for fashion but they can also serve as a great way to protect your eyesight from UV rays.
Eating healthy foods will do good to your eyesight. Remember that vitamins A, C and E are good for eyes. Try to eat food groups that have these vitamins. And you should do eye exercise protects your eyesight, too. If a person exercises regularly (定期的) and eats the right kind of food, his eyes will stay in good condition for a long time.
All above are natural ways of eye care that help us keep healthy eyes. Being happy all the time can be helpful to a person’s eyesight, too. All in all, eye care is very important, no matter how old a person is.
【小題1】____ is the most important way to protect our eyes.

April 22 is Earth Day. Everyone on Earth should care about and protect the earth!
The earth has warmed by about 1°F (華氏度) over the past 100 years, but why and how?
Well, scientists are not quite sure. Maybe the earth gets warmer and warmer on its own. But many scientists say that people are doing many things which makes the earth warmer.
First, greenhouse effect (溫室效應) is a very important reason for the change of the earth. People give out too much energy into the air every year. It makes the earth warmer. Climate (氣候) change is another important reason. Sometimes it becomes too hot and sometimes too cold. Sometimes there is too much rain and sometimes too little. The change of the climate makes the earth warmer. In turn, the warmth of the earth changes the climate, too.
When the earth becomes warmer, there may be more rain and a rise in sea level. It will affect the growth of plants, animals and people. On a Pacific island, 100 people have to move to higher ground because the sea is rising. These people can no longer live on the coast. Before that, two islands without people went underwater in 1999. Scientists say that the seas can rise by nearly one metre by 2100.
People can affect the earth's air, land and water. As for us, we can do many things to protect the earth. For example, we can use fridges less. We can tell more people about protecting the earth.
【小題1】Earth Day is probably set for people to ______.

閱讀與回答問題(本題共5小題，每小題2分，滿分l0分)

If the temperature rises by 5 degrees tomorrow, you will probably take off just one coat. But such a change in the average world temperature would be a serious problem. Many animals and plants would not be able to deal with these changes, and would die.
The UNEP(聯(lián)合國環(huán)境規(guī)劃署) released（發(fā)布）the Report 2012 on November 21, 2012. It says that if we don’t take action now, the world temperature will have risen by 3 to 5 degrees by the end of this century.
A large rise in temperatures could be terrible for us and for many other living things on Earth. Sea levels will rise because higher temperatures will cause melting ice flow into the sea.Large coastal (沿海的) cities in countries such as the Netherlands and Bangladesh could be flooded.
Some plants such as corn and sugarcane (甘蔗) will not grow well in higher temperatures. Some countries, such as Brazil and parts of Africa, will not have enough food. The change may cause less rain and even make some places very dry.
On November 26, people from around 200 nations and regions gathered again in Doha (多哈) for the annual UN climate talks.“Climate change is coming to all human beings and effective actions need to be taken to deal with it.”president of the conference said at the opening ceremony.  
【小題1】What will you probably do if the temperature rises by 5 degrees tomorrow?
【小題2】When was the Report 2012 released by the UNEP?
【小題3】Why will sea level rise?
【小題4】Where did they attend the annual UN climate talks?
【小題5】As a student, what action will you take to deal with the rising temperatures?（請自擬一句話）

In some science fiction movies, evil robots refuse to die, no matter how hard people fight back.
Now science fiction has become science fact. For the first time, scientists have made a robot that can take a beating(挨打) and keep on going. Scientists from Cornell University made the robot, which looks like a spider with four legs.
Until now, even the most advanced(先進的) robot was almost certain to break down when it was damaged(毀壞). That is because its computer inside simply doesn’t know how to make the machine work after its shape has changed.
To deal with this problem, the scientists put eight motors(發(fā)動機) and two sensors(傳感器) that read how the machine is working. They all give signals to the machine’s software. Using this information, the computer can then figure out the machine’s shape at any moment.
The new technology is a big advance in robot-making, scientists say, and it’s far from scary. It may someday help scientists create better artificial(假的) arms and legs and give new freedom to people who lose them. It might also help scientists understand how people and animals figure out their own sense of place in space.
“It has been difficult to design robots that can work well when the environment changes or when it’s damaged,” says Olaf Sporns of Indiana University in US. “With this work, we are nearer to solving this problem.”
【小題1】Why do robots easily break down when they are damaged?

After spending years searching for a planet with life, scientists may have found one. In September 2010, a team of US scientists discovered a planet called Gliese 581g. It has a surface temperature neither too hot nor too cold for liquid（液態(tài)）water. Scientists think there is a chance that the planet could have life.
The planet Gliese 581g goes around a star called Gliese 581, which is about 20 light-years from Earth. That is about 194 trillion（萬億）kilometres －500 million times farther away from us than the moon.
A spacecraft traveling at a one-tenth of the speed of light would reach Gliese 581g within about 220 years. A human can’t live that long, but robotic explorers could make the job easier. However, our fastest spacec raft don’t come anywhere near that one-tenth light-speed mark.
At present, scientists don’t know what the surface might be like on Gliese 581g. What they know is that the planet is at the right distance from its star to have liquid water. It’s also at the right distance to have an atmosphere that could protect the water if it is on the surface.
Although spacecraft won’t be getting there anytime soon, one way to look for life on Gliese 581g is to turn our radio telescopes（望遠鏡）towards the planet and search for radiation（放射）. By studying the radiation, scientists would find out about the chemicals（化學物質(zhì)）around the planet and discover if Gliese 581g has an atmosphere. If it has one, studying the atmosphere would give us a good idea whether the planet has life or not. But it’ll probably be many years before we can do this properly.
People have been arguing about whether there is alien life on Gliese 581g. Any discussion about alien life is just guessing at this point, according to its discoverers.
【小題1】What did scientists find in September 2010?

Ruby, the artist, is an Asian elephant, She is17 years old. She lives in the zoo. Ruby has produced about 100 paintings since last year. She has made more than $ 40,000 for the zoo. Zoo leaders say Ruby first showed the talent (才能) about four years ago. Zoo workers watched her make the marks in the sand with her trunk. She rubbed (擦掉) out the marks, then made the new ones. The zoo worker gave her brushes and paints. Soon Ruby painted pictures.
Newspaper reporters wrote Ruby, then people asked about buying her pictures. And in this way, she made a lot of money for the zoo. This is how Ruby does the paintings. A zoo worker holds different color paints. Ruby touches the colors she wants. Then the worker gives her brushes with the chosen colors in her trunk and Ruby begins painting.
【小題1】We can most probably read this story_______.

How dangerous it would be if there was a fire! Winter is the time for us to learn a lot more about fire, especially what to do if we are caught in a fire.