Zoo elephants don’t live as long as those in the wild, according to a study sure to cause debate about keeping the giant animals on display. Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Buma. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life expectancies twice than or more of their relatives in zoos.
Animal care activists have urged in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space and small numbers of animals that can be kept in a group.
The researchers found that the median life span for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya’s Amboseli Park. Adding in those elephants killed by people in Africa lowered the median life expectancy there to 35.9 years. For the more endangered Asian elephants, the median life span in European zoos was 18.9 years, compared with 41.7 years for those working in the Burma Timber Enterprise. Median means half died younger than that age and half lived longer.
There is some good news, though. The life expectancies of zoo elephants have improved in recent years, suggesting an improvement in their care and raising, but “Protecting elephants in Africa and Asia is far more successful than protecting them in Western zoos.”
There are about 1,200 elephants in zoos, half in Europe, researchers concentrated on female elephants, which make up 80 percent of the zoo population. One amazing thing was that Asian elephants born in zoos had shorter life spans that those brought to the zoos from the wild.
Zoos usually lack large areas that elephants are used to in the wild, and that zoo animals often are alone or with one or two other unrelated animals, while in the wild they tend to live in related groups of 8 to 12 animals. In Asian elephants, baby death rates are two to three times higher in zoos than in the Burmese logging camps, and then, in adulthood, zoo-born animals die young. People are not sure why.
小題1:What is argued about in this passage?

A．Zoo elephants don’t live as long as those in the wild.

B．Elephants should not be on display.

C．Asian elephants are in danger.

D．Asia is far more successful in protecting elephants in zoos.

小題2:What does the underlined word “median” mean according to the passage?

A．Average

B．Longest.

C．Shortest.

D．Ordinary.

小題3:Which of the following is Not the disadvantage of keeping elephants in zoos?

A．Limited number of relatives.	B．Lack of space.
C．Shorter life expectancy.	D．Less attention.

小題4:Who are expected to pay more attention to the issue addressed?

A．Zoologists.	B．Animal care activists.
C．Zoo visitors.	D．The public.

Love, success, happiness, family and freedom——how important are these values to you? Here is one interview which explores the fundamental questions in life.
Question: Could you introduce yourself first?
Answer: My name is Misbah, 27 years old. I was born in a war-torn area. Right now I’m a web designer.
Q: What are your great memories?
A: My parents used to take us to hunt birds, climb trees, and play in the fields. For me it was like a holiday because we were going to have fun all day long. Those are my great memories.
Q: Does your childhood mean a lot to you?
A: Yes. As life was very hard, I used to work to help bring money in for the family. I spent my childhood working, with responsibilities beyond my age. However, it taught me to deal with problems all alone. I learnt to be independent.
Q: What changes would you like to make in your life?
A: If I could change something in my life, I’d change it so that my childhood could have taken place in another area. I would have loved to live with my family in freedom. Who cares whether we have much money, or whether we have a beautiful house? It doesn’t matter as long as I can live with my family and we are safe.
Q: How do you get along with your parents?
A: My parents supported me until I came of age. I want to give back what I’ve got. That’s our way. But I am working in another city. My only contact with my parents now is through the phone, but I hate using it. It filters(過(guò)濾)out your emotion and leaves your voice only. My deepest feelings should be passed through sight, hearing and touch.
小題1:In Misbah’s childhood,         .

A．he was free from worry

B．he liked living in the countryside

C．he was fond of getting close to nature

D．he often spent holidays with his family

小題2:What did Misbah desire most in his childhood?

A．A colorful life.	B．A beautiful house.
C．Peace and freedom.	D．Money for his family.

小題3:How would Misbah prefer to communicate with his parents?

A．By chatting on the Internet.	B．By calling them sometimes.
C．By paying weekly visits.	D．By writing them letters.

小題4:If there were only one question left, what would it most probably be?

A．What was your childhood dream?

B．What is your biggest achievement?

C．What is your parents’ view of you?

D．What was your hardest experience in the war?

The law has a great many rules, showing when and how far a man is to be punished, or if he should be made to hand over money or property to his neighbors, and so on. These rules are contained in books. A lawyer learns them mainly by reading books.
He begins by doing little else than reading, and after he has prepared himself by three years’ study, still, he has to, almost every day, read more about some new questions which he has to answer.
The power to use books, then, is a special skill which a would-be lawyer ought to possess. He ought to have enough flexibility（靈活性）to make it easy for him to collect ideas from printed words. He ought to have some readiness to find what a book contains, and something of an instinct（直覺(jué)）for where to look for what he wants.
But although this is the power which he will first feel in need of, it is not the most important. A lawyer does not study law to recite it; he studies it to use it and act upon the rules which he has learned in real life. His business is to try cases in court and to advise people what to do in order to keep out or get out of trouble.
小題1:The first thing a law student has to do is to _______.

A．read books	B．hand over money
C．practice law	D．a(chǎn)nswer questions

小題2:The major business of a lawyer is ________.

A．to discuss the material he has read

B．to advise people who have law problems

C．to learn about real life

D．to study the law

小題3:What is the most important to a lawyer?

A．To possess a lot of books.

B．To have enough flexibility when collecting ideas from printed words.

C．To be able to quickly find out what a book contains.

D．To be able to use his book knowledge in the right way in his future business.

小題4:According to the passage, a good lawyer should know how to ________.

A．understand and use what he reads

B．be effective in everything

C．collect ideas from different sources

D．be effective in court

Everyone knows about straight—A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge of the Nerds(《菜鳥(niǎo)大反攻》)，a comedy film satirizing(諷刺)social life in college. They get high grades，all right，but only by becoming dull laborers，their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How，then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the school singing group, serves on the students’ union and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has kept up A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico，was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair，and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony，he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes，plus rewarding points for A’s in two college-level course.
How do super—achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super—achieving students “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts far more. Much more.”
In fact，Walberg says，students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them，learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either．“it’s not how long you sit there with the books open．”said one of the many—A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed，some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates. The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
小題1:What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight—A students

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society

小題2:What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students

B．The role IQ plays in learning well

C．The techniques to be better learners

D．The achievements top students make

小題3:What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study

B．The brightest students can never get low glades

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers

There exist cruel wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, so it’s not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us go through difficult times in our lives. Putting a smile on someone’s face when you know they are feeling depressed, as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don’t know the person I’m joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is a common manner to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don’t have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face. They don’t get the joke that makes others laugh. I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness in this present world. It drives people crazy. We all need to find a way to avoid the sadness and bring a little light into our lives. Therefore, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.
小題1:According to the author, humor is useful in the aspect that ____________.

A．it can pick up people’s spirits

B．it can help people get on well with others

C．it can help get rid of the cruelty in the world

D．it makes people more confident

小題2:The author answers the question in the second paragraph with ___________.

A．facts and descriptions	B．evidence and argument
C．examples and conclusion	D．stories and persuasion

小題3:The underlined phrase “busting a gut” in the 3rd paragraph can be replaced  by        .

A．keeping silent	B．speaking loud
C．laughing hard	D．explaining carefully

小題4:In writing the passage, the author mainly intends to __________.

A．talk about his own understanding of humor

B．encourage people to be humorous in daily life

C．introduce a practical way to get through daily life

D．convince people of the power of being optimistic about life

小題5:What is the author’s attitude towards the present world?

A．Indifferent

B．Positive

C．Satisfied

D．Critical

South Asia heatwave kills nearly 100.
DHAKA - A heat wave sweeping India, Bangladesh(孟加拉國(guó)) and Nepal has killed nearly 100 people over the past two weeks, officials said on June 3, 2005.
A third of the people died in northern Bangladesh, mostly women and children from dehydration(脫水), heat stroke and diarrhoea(腹瀉).
"We are getting reports of several deaths due to heat wave and related diseases almost every day," an official said, as temperatures touched 43degC .
The weather office in Dhaka said the hot weather will persist for another week until the monsoon(季風(fēng)) rains which are normally due by the middle of June.
Severe heat conditions in the southern Indian have killed at least 55 people, officials in the two states said.
While temperatures have fallen from a high of 45degC in Andhra Pradesh to around 40degC, giving a respite to people, they are still on the rise in Orissa with Talcher town registering 48.5deg C, a weather official said.
At least five people have died in Nepal from extreme heat, the government said.
小題1:We can infer that the heatwave can cause ______.

A．heat stoke

B．dehydration

C．diarrhoea

D．a(chǎn)ll above

小題2:When the monsoon rains come, the temperature will _______.

A．remain the same

B．go on to rise sharply

C．begin to drop obviously

D．rise a little

小題3:Which place is the hottest in the early June, 2005?

A．Dhaka

B．Talcher

C．Andhra Pradesh

D．Nepal

For nearly 100 years, the heartbroken Little Mermaid has sat on a rock looking out over Copenhagen's port but now the sculpture ,based on the famous fairytale, is heading back out to sea, set for China.
The small bronze statue inspired by the tale of author Hans Christian Andersen and unveiled in 1913, is a major tourist attraction in Copenhagen. But her life has not always been easy. She has been beheaded twice, had her arm cut off, was blown off her rock in 2003 and was dressed in a Muslim headscarf two years ago in a protest - but she never left her native country.
This week she was lifted from the harbor, boxed, and shipped to Shanghai where she is the star guest in the Danish Pavilion at EXPO 2010 which runs until October 31. Details over her trip were not revealed due to security issues.
"The Little Mermaid," published in 1837, is a sad story about a mermaid who falls in love with a prince and gives up her life in the sea and her tail for legs.
The fairytale has been adapted many times into stage shows and into a Disney movie.
Copenhagen mayor Frank Jensen said in a statement that the loan of The Little Mermaid was part of a cultural exchange between Denmark and China. "I am convinced that she will be an excellent ambassador of Denmark, particularly since the Chinese already are very fond of Hans Christian Andersen and his fairytales," he said in a statement.
Her departure from Copenhagen will not leave the harbor empty. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has created a video installation(設(shè)備/裝置)to be installed at her spot.
The Little Mermaid's 165 cm (65 inches) tall sculpture, which sits on a granite block, was created in 1913 by Edvard Eriksen.
小題1:The following statements are true EXCEPT________________.

A．the statue of The Little Mermaid will be given to China as a gift

B．the statue of The Little Mermaid is a major tourist attraction in Copenhagen

C．The Little Mermaid is a famous fairytale written by Hans Christian Andersen

D．the story of The Little Mermaid was once adapted into a Disney movie

小題2:The underlined word “departure” here means_______________.

A．escaping

B．retiring

C．a(chǎn)rriving

D．leaving

小題3:From the passage, we can infer that ________________.

A．Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has created another Little Mermaid instead

B．the Danish people don’t like the statue of The Little Mermaid

C．the statue of The Little Mermaid will return to Denmark in the future

D．Edvard Eriksen wrote the story of the Little Mermaid

LONDON (AP) — England joins on Sunday the growing list of places that ban smoking in public buildings, taxis and other places including even Buckingham Palace with a tough law.
Pubs, clubs and restaurants will all be smoke-free. Taxi and delivery drivers have been warned that they too could be fined 50 pounds, or about $100, if caught lighting up inside work vehicles.
Experts say the bans have become an irreversible (不可逆轉(zhuǎn)的) tread because of greatly rising health costs and public uneasiness over second-hand smoke. Some of the strictest smoking bans are in the United States, even though there is no federal anti-smoking policy. New York and Florida have strict bans, while California has certain outdoor smoking bans.
Spain, Italy, Iran, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Uruguay and new Zealand have passed legislation(立法) to restrict smoking. France banned smoking in many public places in February and plans to extend the ban to cafes and restaurants next year. Finland is introducing a ban in 2009.
Despite the spread of bans, the World Health Organization predicts a steady rise in tobacco sales. In its Tobacco Atlas, the WHO said that by 2030 there will be “at least another two billion smokers in the world” and an expected decrease in male smokers “will be offset by an increase in female smoking rates, especially in developing countries.”
In advance of the English ban, anti-smoking ads have coated bus stops and the British government has subsidized(資助) programs to help people quit. The rest of Britain—Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland —already have smoking bans in place.
小題1:The first two paragraphs mainly tell us_______

A．Buckingham Palace bans smoking

B．smoking ban comes into force in England

C．there’s no smoking in Buckingham Palace

D．smoking is against the law in England

小題2:Which of the following places may still be smoking areas in England?

A．Private houses	B．Taxis.
C．Restaurants.	D．London clubs

小題3:The underlined word “offset” in paragraph 5 probably means “________”.

A．decreased

B．raised

C．encouraged

D．balanced

小題4:What do we know from the passage?

A．Smoking has strictly been forbidden in cafes in France.

B．There is an extremely strict smoking ban everywhere in America.

C．Smoking situation is still serious across the world.

D．Related ads didn’t appear in England until the English ban was lifted.（解除）

Restaurants in Europe, the United States and Japan are testing technology to let diners order their food direct from a screen at their table instead of depending on a fellow human being to note their choice.
Besides cutting costs, companies that sell the “e-menus” argue the bytes-for-bites way has a new value that can attract younger customers, and various photographs of steaks and gooey desserts attract diners to order more. It also could extend the TV dinner. How about a computer game dinner?
“It's about impulse-buying,” said Adi Chitayat, Conceptic’s CEO. “If a person starts looking at pictures of chocolate cake, the chances are he'll order it.” Frame, a restaurant in Tel Aviv with the system, is said to have its sales on tables with the e-menu increased by about 11% . Customers often call ahead to reserve （預(yù)定）spots equipped with screens, manager Natalie Edry told Reporters.
At one of the e-menu tables, IT worker Gil Uriel and his young family were enthusiastic as they checked out pictures of the dishes on offer and squabbled（爭(zhēng)吵）overdesserts. “It’s more visual,” says Uriel, as his children clicked away furiously on a games function between courses. “We can still choose, we can still argue —but it’s much easier when we can all see it.”
小題1:The following are the advantages of “restaurants with” EXCEPT that         .

A．eating in them is more comfortable

B．the restaurants can save a lot of money

C．they can attract more youngsters to the restaurants

D．customers can see the pictures of their ordered foods

小題2:The underlined word “impulse—buying” in the 3rd paragraph means     .

A．having no idea in buying things

B．being uninterested in buying things

C．having no patience in buying things

D．being encouraged in buying things

小題3:According to the last paragraph, we know that       .

A．customers feel little interest in the e-menus

B．e-menus only attract a small number of customers

C．it still takes time for e-menus to be widely accepted

D．restaurants of this kind are refused by customers

小題4:This passage might be taken from      .

A．a(chǎn) food guide	B．a(chǎn) website
C．a(chǎn) traveling magazine	D．classic advertisements