The space shuttle Discovery has had a long and busy career. For 27 years, it has worked for NASA, carrying astronauts to space and back on 39 missions. On March 9, 2011, after returning from its final voyage, the world’s most traveled spaceship was retired.
A crowd of shuttle workers, reporters and schoolchildren waited to greet Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Three minutes before noon, they watched as the shuttle appeared in the sky and made one last touchdown. “For the final time: wheels stop,” Discovery’s commander Steven Lindsey said when the shuttle rolled to a stop.
Discovery’s final trip was to the International Space Station (ISS), a giant space lab in the sky. Discovery’s crew took care of the last U.S. construction project at ISS. They delivered 10 tons of supplies for the ISS. The six-person crew also dropped off an unusual companion for ISS’s researchers: a human-like robot named Robonaut 2. Astronauts will assemble（組裝）R2 at the ISS over several months.
Now, NASA is winding down its shuttle programme. NASA is to begin work on new spaceships that can travel longer distances. Discovery’s retirement is the first of three. Endeavor, another shuttle, is scheduled to make its final voyage soon. And Atlantis’s last trip is planned for the end of June.
Museums across the country have requested the retired shuttles. The Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C., was the lucky recipient（接收者）of Discovery. The museum’s collection contains hundreds of NASA artifacts.
Where will the other shuttles go? You’ll have to wait to find out. NASA will announce its decision on April 12, the 30^th anniversary of the first space shuttle launching. Stay tuned!
小題1:As part of the final mission, Discovery’s crew___________.

A．carried researches to space

B．a(chǎn)ssembled the Robonaut 2 at the ISS

C．brought supplies to the ISS

D．went on a spacewalk

小題2:The underlined phrase “winding down” in Paragraph 4 probably means _________.

A．improving

B．ending

C．changing

D．testing

小題3:What can we infer from the text?

A．Discovery completed 39 missions during its two decades of space travel.

B．The ISS is a big project and six researchers live on the station.

C．American space exploration will focus on longer missions.

D．The shuttles Endeavor and Atlantis will make their last missions next month.

小題4:According to the text, we can learn about ___________.

A．people’s opinions of Discovery’s retirement

B．the government’s concern about the shuttles’ future

C．the shuttles’ final homes after retirement

D．museums’ great interest in the retired shuttles

Water, which covers about 74 percent of the earth’s surface, is man’s most precious resource. Without it we cannot live. Clean water keeps us alive; polluted water means disease and death.Keeping our water pure is by no means an easy task but it is something that must be done.
Hong Kong once prided herself on being the “Fragrant Harbour”. However, these days, it is not certain if Hong Kong’s harbour could still be called “fragrant”. For, like many other places, Hong Kong has not been spared water pollution. A visit to Tolo and Victoria Harbour, or any of the beaches in Hong Kong is enough to make one aware of the ugly truth that Hong Kong waters are indeed polluted.
The great threat to our water is bacteria pollution. Another great source of water pollution is poisonous chemicals. These substances, which are found in industrial waste and agricultural pesticides, make up unseen dangers that enter biological food chains.
Pollution control is a continuing problem for the government. It is believed that the most effective form of control is legislation（立法）. Most importantly, the present laws on pollution should be given more force. On the other hand, no amount of legislation can effectively control pollution unless those concerned are properly educated about the danger posed by pollution.
While a great majority of Hong Kong citizens and residents seem to be greatly concerned about ways to control water pollution, it is discouraging to note that there are, in our midst, some people who remain apathetic（無動于衷）about the problem. In a recent radio programme conducted on what people in the streets thought about the water pollution problem, one apparently unconcerned person said, “What do I care about water pollution? I don’t drink polluted water. As long as the water I drink is not polluted, I’m not bothered. Water pollution is too big a problem and let’s leave it to the government.”
If all residents in Hong Kong will take such an indifferent attitude, all the government’s attempts to control pollution, let alone the anti-pollution legislation, will prove useless. The best form of pollution control each citizen can employ is to be aware of his surroundings. We hope that someday, the problem of water pollution in Hong Kong will cease to alarm us.
小題1:By the underlined sentences, the writer wants to show that ______.

A．we should not use polluted water

B．it is our responsibility to keep our water clean and safe

C．clean water is vitally important to the survival of human beings

D．water is abundant but very expensive

小題2:What can you infer from the second paragraph?

A．Hong Kong indeed deserves the name.

B．Hong Kong never deserves such a name.

C．Hong Kong can’t avoid the damage of pollution.

D．Hong Kong has failed to live up to such reputation.

小題3:The writer quotes the words in the programme to show us that a block to the solution of the problem is _________.

A．people’s lack of education

B．people’s I-don’t-care attitude

C．people’s wait-and-see attitude

D．people’s over-dependence on the government

小題4:In the final analysis, the best approach to the problem of water pollution is ________.

A．legislation

B．rapid development of modern science

C．mass education

D．everybody taking care of his own surroundings

Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(報(bào)復(fù))of the Nerds. 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 choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained 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 bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.
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 for 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:The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ .

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

小題2: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3:Some students become super-achievers mainly because_________ .

A．they are born cleverer than others

B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities

D．they know the shortcut to success

小題4: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5: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 grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap. Some call it the summer learning setback. Simply speaking, it means the longer kids are out of school, the more they forget. The only thing they might gain is weight.
Most American schools follow a traditional nine-month calendar. Students get winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation. Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes for about eight weeks at a time, with a few weeks off in between. The National Association for Year-Round Education says there were fewer than three thousand such schools at last count. They were spread among forty-six of the fifty states.
But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school. Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said, "Year-round schools don't really solve the problem of the summer learning setback. They simply spread it out across the year."
Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summer than other students. Experts say this can be prevented. They note that many schools and local governments offer programs that can help.
But calling them "summer school" could be a problem. The director of the summer learning center at Johns Hopkins, Ron Fairchild, said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term summer school”. In American culture, the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood. The parents welcomed other terms like "summer camp," "enrichment," "extra time" and "hands-on learning."
小題1:According to the first paragraph the summer learning gap         .

A．helps children to gain weight

B．leads children to work harder

C．improves children’s memories

D．a(chǎn)ffects children’s regular studies

小題2:Compared to traditional schools, students in the year-round ones          .

A．perform better and have more learning gains

B．have much less time for relaxation every year

C．have generally the same number of class days

D．hold more classes with more free weeks off

小題3:Which of the following statements is true?

A．Students from poor families often fall behind after the vacation.

B．Year-round schools can solve the problem of the learning gap.

C．There are schools in each state following a year-round calendar.

D．Nothing can help the students who fall behind after the vocation.

小題4:Why did almost all parents dislike the term “summer school”?

A．They cherish the children’s rights of freedom very much.

B．They are worried about the quality of the “summer school”.

C．They want their children to be forced to make up the gap.

D．They can’t afford to the further study during vacation.

小題5:What would be the best title of this passage?

A．Opening Summer Camps

B．Forbidding Summer Schools

C．Spreading Year-Round Education

D．Minding the Summer Learning Cap

Why do people drink too much, eat too much, smoke cigarettes or take drugs? What’s to blame for all the bad behavior? Most people would say that, while these self-destructive (自我毀滅的) acts can have many root causes, they all have one obvious thing in common: they are all examples of failures of self-control, lacking the will power to resist them.
According to a recent study, however, if you really think about it, something about that simple answer doesn’t quite make sense. In fact, it turns out that sometimes it’s having will power that really gets you into trouble.
Think back to the time you took your very first sip (啜飲) of beer. Disgusting, wasn’t it? When my father gave me my first taste of beer as a teenager, I wondered why anyone would voluntarily drink it. And smoking? No one enjoys their first cigarette — it tastes awful. So even though smoking, and drinking alcohol or coffee, can become temptation (誘惑) you need will power to resist, they never, ever start out that way.
Just getting past those first horrible experiences actually requires a lot of self-control. Ironically (諷刺的是), only those who can control themselves well, rather than give in to them, can ever come to someday develop a “taste” for Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigarettes, or dark-roasted Starbucks coffee. We do it for social acceptance. We force ourselves to consume alcohol, cigarettes, coffee and even illegal drugs, in order to seem experienced, grown-up, and cool.
These bad habits aren’t self-control failures — far from it. They are voluntary choices, and they are in fact self-control successes. Self-control is simply a tool to be put to some use, helpful or harmful. To live happy and productive lives, we need to develop not only our self-control, but also the wisdom to make good decisions about when and where to apply it.
小題1:What do most people think causes bad behavior?

A．Being forced by others.

B．Not having enough will power.

C．Enjoying their first experiences.

D．Following the examples of their friends.

小題2:The author mentions his experience in the third paragraph to prove ____.

A．will power helps develop bad habits sometimes

B．drinking beer is harmful to the health of teenagers

C．self-control should be developed when one is young

D．everyone can be challenged by different temptations

小題3:In the last paragraph, the author stresses that ____.

A．without self-control, no one can succeed

B．bad habits don’t always lead to bad results

C．a(chǎn)pplying self-control correctly is important

D．people can develop wisdom from bad behavior

小題4:What would be the best title for the passage?

A．My First Sip of Beer

B．Do You Have Will Power ?

C．Will Power Benefits Us

D．Dark Side of Self-control

Should e­cigarettes (electronic cigarettes) be a new choice for the smokers trying to get rid of the habit? Reactions from Americans are mixed．More than half of the people questioned in a survey think e­cigarettes should be controlled by the US Food and Drug Administration，but 47 percent believe the e­cigarettes should be available to the smokers who want to quit．
“In the hunt for a safer cigarette，e­cigarettes are becoming a popular choice among those either trying to quit or looking to replace standard tobacco smoke with an alternative that manufacturers claim to be safer，” Zogby International，which conducted the survey，said in a statement．
About half of the 4,611 adults who took part in the survey had heard about e­cigarettes，which are battery­powered，or rechargeable cigarettes that vaporize a liquid nicotine solution．They do not produce smoke but a water vapor without smell．Sold mostly on the Internet，e­cigarettes were first made in China．
Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against using e­cigarettes，saying there was no evidence to prove they were safe or helped smokers break the habit．The WHO said people who smoke e­cigarettes breathe in a fine fog of nicotine into the lungs．
Nearly a third of people questioned in the survey think that e­cigarettes should be allowed in places where smoking is forbidden，because they don’t produce smoke，but 46 percent disagree．Men who were aware of the availability of e­cigarettes were more likely than women to say they should be a choice available to smokers who want to quit．Young people，aged 18－29，and singles were the groups most open to trying e­cigarettes．Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable death worldwide，according to the WHO．
小題1:What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．American smokers ought to try e­cigarettes．

B．Americans have different opinions about e­cigarettes．

C．Every kind of cigarettes should be forbidden in America．

D．Most of the Americans don’t like e­cigarettes．

小題2:According to Zogby International，e­cigarettes ______．

A．a(chǎn)re much safer than common cigarettes

B．a(chǎn)re popular among people who want to quit smoking

C．will take the place of traditional cigarettes

D．a(chǎn)re produced in a safer way by manufacturers

小題3:What do we know about e­cigarettes from the passage?

A．Most Americans are familiar with them．

B．They are a good choice as there is no nicotine．

C．They produce a water vapor that can’t be seen．

D．Most people buy them on the Internet．

小題4:What’s the attitude of the WHO towards e­cigarettes?

A．Negative

B．Supportive

C．Doubtful

D．Indifferent

Seth DeBolt is a plant scientist at the University of Kentucky US. He and other scientists wanted to find a source of fuel that poor people in rural areas of developing countries could use to make electricity.
The United Nations Development Program says a billion and a half people have no electricity. A billion others have an undependable supply.
Professor DeBolt went on a study trip to rural Indonesia. He saw that there was very little waste in the use of agricultural products. Everything that farmers grew was used for something. Even the remains of fruit that people did not eat were fed to chickens.
Little waste meant there was little that could be used for fuel. Growing a separate fuel crop would take land away from food crops. That was something Professor DeBolt did not want to do.
DeBOLT said, "The people at most risk with respect to energy poverty, typically they're the same people who have food insecurity issues as it is. And then any change in availability would be most damaging to that group of people."
But he found one item that was in plentiful supply and would not create competition between food and fuel. Coconut shells are generally thrown out. Yet Professor DeBolt says it has an "excellent" heating value. All someone needs is a way to release that energy.
DeBolt says he and his team see possibilities for coconut power. "Coconuts are growing here and these are the areas where there is possibility for energy poverty to be eased at least in part by these small-scale production systems."
The researchers say these systems could provide as much as thirteen percent of the energy needs of a country like Indonesia. Other tropical countries with large crops of coconuts and similar fruit could benefit, as well.
But DeBolt says this is not a perfect solution. There are technical questions, like how to safely deal with the dangerous waste produced in the process. And there needs to be money to get these projects started.
小題1:Professor DeBolt went on a study trip to rural areas of developing countries to      .

A．help farmers make full use of waste

B．seek certain materials to make electricity

C．persuade farmers to grow more coconuts

D．find a suitable place to carry out the experiment

小題2:DeBolt thought it was not a good idea to grow fuel crops because      .

A．there are plenty of coconuts

B．local farmers have no interest in it

C．it would make food problems worse

D．fuel crop has little use for local farmers

小題3:The last two paragraphs mainly tell us that coconut power      .

A．needs further experiments and efforts

B．can help solve energy problem perfectly

C．will cause technique and money problems

D．has drawn Indonesia's government attention

小題4:What might be the best title for the passage?

A．Make Full Use Of Coconuts	B．Make Power From Coconuts
C．A Perfect Solution	D．Food And Energy Problems

In the animal kingdom, weakness can bring about aggression in other animals. This sometimes happens with humans also. But I have found that my weakness brings out the kindness in people. I see it every day when people hold doors for me, pour cream into my coffee, or help me to put on my coat. And I have discovered that it makes them happy.
From my wheelchair experience, I see the best in people, but sometimes I feel sad because those who appear independent miss the kindness I see daily. They don’t get to see this soft side of others. Often, we try every way possible to avoid showing our weakness, which includes a lot of pretending. But only when we stop pretending we’ re brave or strong do we allow people to show the kindness that’ s in them.
Last month, when I was driving home on a busy highway, I began to feel unwell and drove more slowly than usual. People behind me began to get impatient and angry, with some speeding up alongside me, horning (按喇叭) or even shouting at me. At that moment，I decided to do something I had never done in twenty-four years of driving. I put on the car flashlights and drove on at a really low speed.
No more angry shouts and no more horns!
When I put on my flashlights, I was saying to the other drivers, “I have a problem here. I am weak and doing the best I can.” And everyone understood. Several times, I saw drivers who wanted to pass. They couldn’t get around me because of the stream of passing traffic. But instead of getting impatient and angry, they waited, knowing the driver in front of them was in some way weak.
Sometimes situations call for us to act strong and brave even when we don’t feel that way. But those are few and far between. More often, it would be better if we don’t pretend we feel strong when we feel weak or pretend that we're brave when we’re scared.
小題1:The author has discovered that people will feel happy when ________.

A．they offer their help

B．they receive others’ help

C．they feel others’ kindness

D．they show their weakness

小題2:The author feels sad sometimes because ________.

A．he has a soft heart

B．he relies much on others

C．some people pretend to be kind

D．some people fail to see the kindness in others

小題3:What did the other drivers do when they saw the flashlights?

A．They speeded up to pass.

B．They waited with patience.

C．They tried their best to help.

D．They put on their flashlights too.

小題4:In this passage, the author advises us to ________.

A．handle problems by ourselves

B．a(chǎn)ccept help from others

C．a(chǎn)dmit our weakness

D．show our bravery

If we were asked exactly what we were doing a year ago，we should probably have to say that we could not remember. But if we had kept a book and had written in it an account of what we did each day，we should be able to give an answer to the question.
It is the same in history .Many things have been forgotten because we do not have any written account of them .Sometimes men did keep a record of the most important happenings in their country，but often it was destroyed by fire or in a war．Sometimes there was never any written record at all because the people of that time and place did not know how to write．For example，we know a good deal about the people who lived in China 4，000 years ago, because they could write and leave written records for those who lived after them．But we know almost nothing about the people who lived even 200 years ago in central Africa, because they had not learned to write．
Sometimes, of course，even if the people cannot write，they may know something of the past．They have heard about it from older people，and often songs and dances and stories have been made about the most important happenings，and these have been sung and acted  and told for many generations, for most people are proud to tell what their fathers did in the past．This we may call  “remembered history”．Some of it has now been written down. It is not so exact or so valuable to us as written history is，because words are much more easily changed when used again and again in speech than when copied in writing．But where there are no written records，such spoken stories are often very helpful．
小題1:Which of the following ideas is not suggested in the passage?

A．“Remembered history”，compared with written history，is less reliable

B．Written records of the past play the most important role in our learning of the human history．

C．A written account of our daily activities helps US to be able to answer many questions．

D．Where there are no written records．there is no history．

小題2:We know very little about the central Africa 200 years ago because ___

A．there was nothing worth being written down at that time

B．the people there ignored the importance of keeping a record

C．the written records were perhaps destroyed by a fire

D．the people there did not know how to write

小題3:“Remembered history” refers to ___．

A．history based on a person’s imagination

B．stories of important happenings passed down from mouth to mouth

C．songs and dances about the most important events

D．both B and C

小題4:“Remembered history”is regarded as valuable only when ____.

A．it is written down	B．no written account is available
C．it proves to be time	D．people are interested in it

小題5:The passage suggests that we could have learned much more about our past than we do now if the ancient people had _____

A．kept a written record of every past event

B．not burnt their written records in wars

C．told exact stories of the most important happenings

D．made more songs and dances

Hundreds of years ago, life was much harder than it is today. People didn’t have modern machines. There was no modern medicine, either.
Life today has brought new problems. One of the biggest is pollution. Water pollution has made our rivers and lakes dirty. It kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us talk louder and become angry more easily. Air    pollution is the most serious kind of pollution. It’s bad to all living things in the world.
Cars, planes and factories all pollute our air every day. Sometimes the polluted air is so thick that it is like a quilt over a city. This kind of quilt is called smog.
Many countries are making rules to flight pollution. Factories must now clean their water before it is thrown away, and they mustn’t blow dirty smoke into the air.
We need to do many other things. We can put waste things in the dustbin and do not throw them on the ground, there will be less pollution.
Rules are not enough. Every person must help to fight pollution.
小題1:Hundreds of years ago, life was much harder than it is today because ______.

A．there were not any modern machines

B．there was no modern medicine

C．both A and B

D．there were not many people

小題2:What is the biggest problem in today’s life?

A．Water pollution

B．Air pollution

C．Noise

D．Pollution

小題3:The most serious kind of pollution is ______.

A．noise pollution

B．a(chǎn)ir pollution

C．water pollution

D．A, B and C

小題4:Factories must clean their water ______.

A．before they are thrown away

B．when they are thrown away

C．a(chǎn)fter it is thrown away

D．before it is thrown away

小題5:From the passage we know that ______.

A．a(chǎn) few years ago, there was no smog at all

B．today people don’t have to talk to each other in a loud voice

C．we can drink water from the polluted rivers and lakes

D．people are making rules in order to fight pollution