The baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert (警覺). Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze(凝視) starts to lose its focus - until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns; she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?
Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects(a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise(同樣地) when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.
小題1:The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby’s ______.
A．sense of hearing.
B．sense of sight.
C．sense of touch.
D．sense of smell.
小題2:Babies are sensitive to the change in ______.
A．the size of cards.
B．the colour of pictures.
C．the shape of patterns.
D．the number of objects.
小題3:Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?
A．To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.
B．To see how babies recognize sounds.
C．To carry their experiment further.
D．To keep the babies’ interest.
小題4:Where does this text probably come from?
A．Science fiction.
B．Children’s literature.
C．An advertisement.
D．A science report.

小題1:B
小題2:D
小題3:C
小題4:D

【文章大意】本篇是一篇說明文。文章對(duì)剛出生一天的嬰兒做實(shí)驗(yàn)，通過變化紙上的黑點(diǎn)及鼓的敲打次數(shù)對(duì)嬰兒的視覺、聽覺進(jìn)行的一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)。
小題1:根據(jù)文章第一段文中的She stares it carefully. Her gaze starts to lose its focus.可知，本段是對(duì)孩子的視覺實(shí)驗(yàn)。故選B。
小題2:根據(jù)文章第二段中的Babies pay more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two.可知D正確。
小題3:根據(jù)文章第一段得知對(duì)孩子的視力進(jìn)行試驗(yàn)，接下來用鼓來對(duì)孩子的聽力繼續(xù)試驗(yàn)。所以選C。
小題4:縱觀文章，這是一篇醫(yī)學(xué)試驗(yàn)報(bào)告，所以選D。
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand---a system of rapid handwriting, and now it's threatening to finish off handwriting as a whole. When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2011, just 15% of the most 1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive (草寫字母）.The rest? Block letters.
And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of US students who no longer get much handwriting instructions in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.
At Keene Mill Elementary School in Springfield, all their poems and stories are typed. Children in Fairfax County schools are taught keyboarding beginning in kindergarten. Older students who never mastered handwriting say it doesn't affect their grades.
There are those who say the culture is at a crossing, turning from the written word to the typed one. If handwriting becomes a lost form of communication, does it matter?
It was at University of Virginia that researchers recently discovered a previously unknown poem by Robert, written in his unique script. Handwritten documents are more valuable to researchers, historians say, because their authenticity (真實(shí)性）can be confirmed. Students also find them more fascinating.
The loss of handwriting also may be a cognitive (認(rèn)知的）opportunity missed. Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better-a lifelong benefit.
It doesn't take much to teach better handwriting skills. At some schools in Prince George's County, elementary school students use a program called Handwriting Without Tears for 15 minutes a day. They learn the correct formation of manuscript letters through second grade, and cursive letters in third grade.
There are always going to be some kids who struggle with handwriting because of their particular neurological (神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的)wiring, learning issues or poor motor skills. Educators often point to this factor in support of keyboarding.
小題1:What is the author concerned about after 2011 SAT exams?
A．Keyboarding.B．Shorthand
C．Handwriting.D．Block letters.
小題2:A poem by Robert mentioned in the passage is used to _________.
A．prove how valuable handwriting is
B．explain what a famous poet he is
C．show how unique his poem is
D．stress how fascinating the documents are
小題3:The example of Handwriting Without Tears helps to argue that_________.
A．the schools are responsible for the loss of handwriting
B．the loss of handwriting is a cognitive opportunity missed
C．it doesn't take much to teach better handwriting skills
D．the culture is turning from the written word to the typed one
小題4: According to the author, when is a perfect time to learn handwriting?
A．Kindergarten.B．Primary school.C．High school.D．College.
小題5:What is the author’s attitude towards this debate?
A．Devotion.B．Encouragement.C．critical.D．Objective.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

This year’s Newsweek list of the top 100 high schools shows that today those with fewer students are rising.
Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek Top School List based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22.
Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern high schools outside the cities with thousands of students. Big schools meant economic efficiency, a greater choice of courses, and better football teams. But only years later did we understand that it involved the difficulty of strengthening personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping; on average, 30% of students did not complete high school in four years, a figure that rose to 50% in poor city neighborhoods. High schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress.
Size isn’t everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable trend toward smaller schools. This has been partly due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools — most of them with about 400 kids, each with an average enrollment of only 150 students per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred.
Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, is one of those ranking No.423 — among the top 2% in the country. In 2003, Hillsdale remade itself into three “houses”. 300 students arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents. Along with the new structure came the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95.”It was rough for some. But by senior year, two-thirds have moved up to physics,” says Jeff Gilbert. “Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them.”
But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution.
Ranking schools is always controversial. Over the years this system has been criticized for its simplicity — list of top U.S. high schools was made merely according to the proportion of students taking college-level exams. This year a group of 38 superintendents (地區(qū)教育主管) from five states wrote to ask that their schools should be excluded from the calculation. “It is impossible to know which high schools are ‘the best’ in the nation,” their letter read. “Determining whether different schools do or don’t offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students’ overall academic accomplishments, their later performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities.”
小題1:What can we learn about the schools sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
A．They are often located in poor neighborhoods.
B．They are popular with high-achieving students.
C．They are mostly small in size.
D．Another 150 schools invested by the Foundation are planned to be set up.
小題2:According to Jeff Gilbert, the classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could ______.
A．tell their teachers what they did on weekends
B．experience a great deal of pleasure in learning
C．maintain closer relationships with their teachers
D．deal with the demanding biology and physics courses
小題3:Newsweek ranks high schools according to ______.
A．their students’ academic achievement
B．the number of their students admitted to college
C．the size and number of their graduating classes
D．their college-level test participation
小題4:What attitude does the author have towards the present trend in high school education?
A．Subjective.B．Objective.C．Indifferent.D．Disapproving.
小題5:Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A．Providing Good Education for Baby Boomers
B．Top School List Winning National Support
C．Small Schools Rising in popularity
D．Students Meeting Higher Academic Standards

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

When someone says “SHARK” most people think of a big, toothy, underwater animal; basically we are imagining a Great White. In fact sharks come in all shapes, sizes and even colors! Follow me please; I’d like to show you a very special small shark commonly known as horn sharks, only found in the coastal waters of north-west North America.
Look at this shark, and you can easily see the horns on it and you will know the reason why it is called the horn shark is that it has the broad, flattened head and two large horn-like spines(脊椎) found behind its eyes and makes it one of the hardiest of all shark species. What makes it unique is that as its enemy attempts to swallow it, the spines on its back will stick into the enemy’s mouth and give a good chance for it to get away.
The horn shark is brown in color with black spots all over its body. The adults can reach up to a length of 4 feet and weigh up to 10 kg. An interesting fact about the horn shark is that it has five gills(鰓). The horn shark is a clumsy swimmer using its flexible pectoral fins(胸鰭)to push itself along the bottom of the ocean. The maximum distance that has ever been recorded for a horn shark to have traveled out from its habitat is 10 miles.
Today, as so little is known about its population off the Californian coast, they have been listed as being “Data Deficient” in the World Conservation Union. The horn shark is being threatened both by water pollution and commercial fishing in the area. Though they are not among those sea creatures hunted primarily for food, but they often get caught as a by-catch in fishing expeditions.
小題1:The horn shark gets its name for______.
A．its small sizeB．its large eyes
C．its two large spinesD．its brown color with spots
小題2:How is paragraph 3 mainly developed?
A．By giving descriptionsB．By following time order
C．By analyzing causesD．By making comparisons
小題3:Which factors contribute to the horn shark’s being on the “Data Deficient” list?
①That people like hunting them for pets       ②That people fish them for fun
③Water pollution off the coast               ④Knowing little about them
A．①②B．②③C．①④D．③④
小題4: According to the passage, all of the following are unique to the horn shark EXCEPT that_____.
A．it doesn’t travel far
B．it is good at swimming
C．its spines can be used to attack the enemy and escape
D．it is only found in the coastal waters of north-west North America

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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

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
(392 words)
小題1:The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.
A．they had no model in their mind
B．they did not have sufficient time
C．they had no ready-made components
D．they could not assemble the components
小題2:It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly __________.
A．consists of a flight device and a control system
B．can just fly in limited areas at the present time
C．can collect information from many sources
D．has been put into wide application
小題3:Which of the following can be learned from the passage?
A．The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.
B．Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.
C．There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.
D．Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.
小題4:Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A．Father of Robotic Fly
B．Inspiration from Engineering Science
C．Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect
D．Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解



If a diver surfaces too quickly, he may suffer the bends. Nitrogen (氮) dissolved (溶解) in his blood is suddenly liberated by the reduction of pressure. The consequence, if the bubbles (氣泡) accumulate in a joint, is sharp pain and a bent body—thus the name. If the bubbles form in his lungs or his brain, the consequence can be death.
Other air-breathing animals also suffer this decompression (減壓) sickness if they surface too fast: whales, for example. And so, long ago, did ichthyosaurs. That these ancient sea animals got the bends can be seen from their bones. If bubbles of nitrogen form inside the bone they can cut off its blood supply. This kills the cells in the bone, and consequently weakens it, sometimes to the point of collapse. Fossil (化石) bones that have caved in on themselves are thus a sign that the animal once had the bends.
Bruce Rothschild of the University of Kansas knew all this when he began a study of ichthyosaur bones to find out how widespread the problem was in the past. What he particularly wanted to investigate was how ichthyosaurs adapted to the problem of decompression over the 150 million years. To this end, he and his colleagues traveled the world’s natural-history museums, looking at hundreds of ichthyosaurs from the Triassic period and from the later Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
When he started, he assumed that signs of the bends would be rarer in younger fossils, reflecting their gradual evolution of measures to deal with decompression. Instead, he was astonished to discover the opposite. More than 15% of Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs had suffered the bends before they died, but not a single Triassic specimen (標(biāo)本) showed evidence of that sort of injury.
If ichthyosaurs did evolve an anti-decompression means, they clearly did so quickly—and, most strangely, they lost it afterwards. But that is not what Dr Rothschild thinks happened. He suspects it was evolution in other animals that caused the change.
Whales that suffer the bends often do so because they have surfaced to escape a predator (捕食動(dòng)物) such as a large shark. One of the features of Jurassic oceans was an abundance of large sharks and crocodiles, both of which were fond of ichthyosaur lunches. Triassic oceans, by contrast, were mercifully shark- and crocodile-free. In the Triassic, then, ichthyosaurs were top of the food chain. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous, they were prey (獵物) as well as predator—and often had to make a speedy exit as a result.
小題1:Which of the following is a typical symptom of the bends?
A．A twisted body.
B．A gradual decrease in blood supply.
C．A sudden release of nitrogen in blood.
D．A drop in blood pressure.
小題2:The purpose of Rothschild’s study is to see ______.
A．how often ichthyosaurs caught the bends
B．how ichthyosaurs adapted to decompression
C．why ichthyosaurs bent their bodies
D．when ichthyosaurs broke their bones
小題3:Rothschild’s finding stated in Paragraph 4 ______.
A．confirmed his assumptionB．speeded up his research process
C．disagreed with his assumptionD．changed his research objectives
小題4:Rothschild might have concluded that ichthyosaurs ______.
A．failed to evolve an anti-decompression means
B．gradually developed measures against the bends
C．died out because of large sharks and crocodiles
D．evolved an anti-decompression means but soon lost it

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together.
An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.
Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin.
This suggests that plants, though lacking recognition and memory, are capable of complex social interactions.
“Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life，” Dudley said.
The study found plants from the same species of beach­-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their families.
Sea rocket, a North American species, showed stronger and healthier root growth when planted in pots with strangers than when raised with relatives from the same maternal(母系的) family, the study found.
This is an example of kin selection, a behavior common in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to succeeding in their environment, the researchers said.
Kin selection also applies to competition, because if family members compete less with each other, the group will do better overall. “Everywhere you look, plants are growing right up next to other plants，” Dudley said，“ Usually it’s a case of each plant for itself. But sometimes those plants are related, and there are benefits to not wasting resources on being competitive, and there is not really a cost to not being competitive as long as your neighbor is also not being competitive.”
Learning and memory appear to be important for kin recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.
Some researchers speculate(猜測(cè)) that plants communicate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
小題1:What’s the main idea of the message?
A．Studies find plants can recognize, communicate with relatives.
B．Kin selection is important for plants.
C．Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.
D．Competition asks plants to recognize their relatives.
小題2:Which of the following is NOT right about animals’ social skill?
A．Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.
B．Animals’ social skill is to cooperate and share resources.
C．Animals’ social skill can recognize close relatives in order to work together.
D．Animals’ social skill is no use at all.
小題3:Plants’ kin selection is to ________.
A．grow wellB．compete with other kinds of plants
C．strengthen the relationship among siblingsD．find which one is the best
小題4:From the passage，we learn that ________.
A．sea rocket is a South American species
B．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors
C．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside its siblings
D．sea rocket is a kind of bush without flowers
小題5:How can the plants communicate with each other according to experts’ suppose?
A．Plants communicate by using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
B．Plants communicate with each other through their roots.
C．Plants communicate with each other by their leaves.
D．Plants communicate with each other with their flowers.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

The sea horse is a magical animal, which has puzzled （使困惑） people for thousands of years. In ancient Rome sea horses were believed to be the babies of Neptune’s horses. And Neptune was the god of the ocean. Now we know they are not horses at all — they are a kind of fish. They still seem as magical as ever, especially to divers who have watched them horsing around(瞎闖) in the sea. But today, sea horse populations face an uncertain future. Fishermen are catching too many of them, and their undersea habitats （棲息地） are being destroyed.
At least 20 million sea horses are taken from the ocean each year. More than 95% are used for traditional medicines in Asian countries. The sea horses are usually dried and then made into powder which is used to treat such problems as asthma（哮喘）, throat infections, skin diseases and cuts. How well the medicines work is unclear.
Sea horses are also bought and sold in large numbers as pets. Sea horse expert Amanda Vincent warns against buying pet sea horses. “A lot of people treat them as if they’re goldfish,” she says. But sea horses require very special care and live food. Most captive (被獵取的) sea horses pick up diseases and die.
Sea horse experts are trying to teach fishermen to become sea horse farmers. Instead of pulling nets of sea horses from the ocean, fishermen could learn to raise them in specially designed saltwater “farms”. That way, fishermen would have sea horses to sell, but ocean populations would not be hurt.
Vincent and her team have only discovered the 35 different species of sea horses, and they still have plenty of sea horse secrets left to unlock. That is why, Vincent told TFK, protecting future sea horse populations is especially important: “I promise your readers that by the time they grow up to be marine biologists, we’ll still have a lot to learn.”
小題1:In the past, Romans thought the sea horse to be ______.
A．a(chǎn) kind of horseB．a(chǎn) kind of fish
C．the god of the ocean D．one of Neptune’s pets
小題2:Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A．People in Asian countries hunt sea horses for food.
B．Most sea horses caught are used as medicine.
C．The effects of the powder of sea horses are uncertain.
D．35 different kinds of sea horses have been discovered.
小題3:The underlined phrase “pick up” in Paragraph 3 probably means “______”.
A．followB．collectC．getD．create
小題4:It can be inferred that the best way to protect sea horses is to ______.
A．do more research on sea horses
B．teach fishermen how to farm sea horses
C．stop hunting sea horses
D．ban the sea horse trade

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