Scientists made a great break through this year in England when the first "test tube" baby was born．The birth was the result of many years of research by doctors．The doctors did the research in groups to help the women who cannot conceive a baby in the normal way．
What happened when the baby was born "from a test tube"? Well, the baby did not literally grow in a test tube．The first stage of the process was that the egg from the woman and the sperm from the man were put together in the test tube．After all, the embryo was put into the womb of a woman．This process was difficult．But it was successful, so the baby was eventually born, like any other, from a woman, only the woman wasn't the baby's real mother, but a sort of "carrier" of a baby produced by another couple．
Obviously, this method is to help to couples who can't have children because of physical problems in the woman．But very difficult moral problems arise in the kind of situation．Take it for instance, a case that happened this year．A couple who wanted a baby advertised for a woman to have a child by the father of the couple．They offered the woman a lot of money．The woman was made pregnant by artificial insemination; in this case, the woman "employed" to bear the child was its real mother．When the baby was born, the woman refused to give it back to the couple．But, in the eyes of the law, the woman had a right to keep the children because she was its biological mother．
You could argue that we should change the law to deal with this kind of situation．In earlier times, there were always healthy babies needing adoption, because family planning methods were not so effective as they are now．These days, however, most of the children who can be adopted are over six years old, often handicapped in some way．So a couple who want a young healthy baby cannot always adopt one, this is why the "test tube" baby is in demand．But is it normally right to use this method? Should we temper with nature in this way? Even if we change the law, would this be the right step to take ?
小題1:The birth of the first "test-tube" baby is a great advance _____．

A．on medical science

B．in birth control

C．on the research for babies

D．in the lives of married women

小題2:When we say a baby was born "from a test-tube", we mean_____ ．

A．the baby didn't develop in the womb of a woman

B．the baby has no biological parents

C．the embryo was formed in the test tube

D．the baby grew in the test-tube before it was born

小題3:According to the law, who has right to keep the baby produced by the artificial method?

A．The couple who want a baby．

B．The biological mother of the child．

C．The person who pays the money to the real mother．

D．The father who advertises for a biological mother．

小題4:According to the passage, people need "test-tube baby" because_____ ．

A．family planning methods are not effective．

B．they can't always adopt a young healthy baby

C．they are unwilling to adopt a child．

D．there are so many babies needing adoption．

Do you want to improve the way you study? Do you feel nervous before a test? Many students say that a lack of concentration (注意力) is their biggest problem. It seriously affects their ability to study, so do their test results.
If so, use these tips to help you.
Study Techniques
l You should always study in the same place. You shouldn’t sit in a position that you use for another purpose. For example, when you sit on a sofa to study, your brain will think it is time to relax. Don’t watch TV while you are studying. Experts warn that your concentration may be reduced by 50 percent if you attempt to study in this way. Always try to have a white wall in front of you, so there is nothing to distract (make less concentrated) you. Before sitting down to study, gather together all the equipment you need. Apart from your textbooks, pens, pencils and knives, make sure you have a dictionary. If your study desk or table is needed when you are not studying, store all your equipment in a box beside it.
l Your eyes will become tired if you try to read a text which is on a flat surface. Position your book at an angle of 30 degrees.
l Be realistic and don’t try to complete too much in one study period. Finish one thing before beginning another. If you need a break, get up and walk around for a few minutes, but try not to telephone a friend or have something to eat.
Test-taking Skills
l All your hard work will be for nothing if you are too nervous to take your test. Getting plenty of
rest is very important. This means do not study all night before your test! It is a better idea to have a long-term study plan. Try to make a timetable for your study which lasts for a few months.
l Exercise is a great way to reduce pressure. Doing some form of exercise every day will also
improve your concentration. Eat healthy food too.
l When you arrive in the examination room, find your seat and sit down. Breathe slowly and
deeply. Check the time on the clock during the test, but not too often. Above all, take no notice of everyone else and give the test paper your undivided attention.
小題1:Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．You should study in a different place every day, so you don’t get bored.

B．Your concentration will improve if you study and watch TV at the same time.

C．Check the time during the exam at a certain time.

D．Staying up all night and studying is tiring, but you will learn a lot using this method.

小題2:What does the underlined word “it”（paragraph 2）refer to?

A．Your study desk or table.	B．Your textbook.
C．Your dictionary.	D．The equipment you need.

小題3:What can be inferred from the passage?

A．You shouldn’t look at everyone else during the test.

B．You will have enough energy to deal with your study and exams by eating healthy diet.

C．You’ll concentrate more if there is nothing to distract you.

D．If you feel tired during study, you can walk around for a few minutes.

Sometimes children do not do what their parents tell them to do. When this happens, a parent tries to help the child to do the right thing. When this does not work, the parent usually punishes the child.
There are many things that a parent can do. One thing that people have done is to spank (打屁股) the child. When a parent spanks a child, they will use their hand or a hard object to strike them on their bottom. This is meant to show the child that they have done something wrong.
One parent remembers being spanked when he was a child. His parents used a wooden spoon. When he spanked his own children with his hand, he saw that he put a red mark on his child’s leg. He never did that again.
One problem with spanking is that it teaches the child to hit someone when they do not like what the other person is doing. Another problem with spanking is that the parent is usually angry and can hit the child too hard. Sometimes parents will use spanking for everything and not try other ways to get the child to do the right thing.
Many parents are not sure of what to do instead of spanking. Some people think that their religion tells them that spanking is okay. Some think that the law lets them do it. The courts (法院) say that parents have the right to teach their children how to behave.
Other things should be tried before a parent decides to spank a child. Telling the child exactly what is wanted from them can be one thing. Giving a child more than one choice is another thing that can be tried. Getting down to the child’s level and taking a more child-friendly approach (方法) can help as well.
小題1:According to the passage, when children do something wrong, one thing that parents usually do to punish them is to ________.

A．strike them on the bottom	B．try to help them do the right thing
C．teach them what to do	D．take them to court

小題2: Which of the following is NOT the problem caused by spanking?

A．It teaches the child to hit others when they offend（使人不快） him or her.

B．The parent may get angry and hit the child too hard.

C．Sometimes parents may use spanking for everything.

D．It makes parents try other ways to make the child do right.

小題3:Which of the following can best describe the writer’s attitude towards spanking?

A．favorable

B．indifferent

C．interested

D．unfavorable

小題4:From this passage, we can conclude that ________.

A．Good children always do the right thing.

B．Parents should try their best to avoid spanking their children.

C．Parents have no choice but to spank their children when they do something wrong.

D．Children can have more than one choice to avoid being spanked.

Simply by analyzing a drop of blood, a doctor will be able to diagnose a birth defect or even cancer when it is in the early stage; using new technology, a material lighter but much stronger than steel can be produced.
These may sound like dreams at present. But the dreams may soon come true as research findings in laboratories are being turned into products more rapidly in the new century, according to experts participating in the fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Technomart, a technology exhibition and trade fair in Suzhou.　　
"Most people think nano-technology（納米技術(shù)）is too far-fetched to be real. But in fact nano-technology has been applied in a wide range of fields, such as medicine. It is coming into our daily life," said Cheng Jiachong from a Hong Kong-based nano-technology firm.
Nano-technology based on the nanometer, the unit of which is a billionth of a meter, enables scientists to have new concepts of disease diagnosis and treatment on a molecular（分子）and atomic scale, Cheng said.　　
By using nanometer particles, a doctor can separate the fetus cells（胚胎細(xì)胞）from the blood of a pregnant woman to see if the development of the fetus is normal. This method is also being used in the early diagnosis of cancer and heart disease, he said.　　
One of the most significant impacts of nano-technology is at the bio-inorganic materials interface, according to Greg Tegart, executive advisor of the APEC Center for Technology Foresight.　　
"By combining enzymes（酶）and silicon chips we can produce biosensors. These could be implanted in humans or animals to monitor health and to deliver corrective doses（劑量）of drugs," he told the participants a technology forum during the exhibition.　　
"Nano-technology could affect the production of nearly every man-made object, from automobiles, tires and computer circuits（電路）, to advanced medicines and tissue replacement, and lead to the invention of objects yet to be imagined," said David Minns, a special advisor to the National Research Council of Canada.　　
It has been shown that carbon nano-tubes are ten times as strong as steel, with one sixth of the weight, and nano-scale systems have the potential to make supersonic transport cost- effective and to increase computer efficiency by millions of times, he said.
The experts agreed that the APEC technology exhibition and trade fair provided many chances for exchanges of innovative ideas and products.
小題1:Realization of the dreams mentioned in the first paragraph will mainly base on ________.

A．APEC	B．Chinese scientist
C．the APEC Center for Technology Foresight	D．Nano-technology

小題2:The length of a nanometer equals to ______.

A．meter

B．meter

C．meter

D．meter

小題3:We can imply from what David Minns said that _________.

A．Nano-technology could only be used to invent new objects.

B．Nano-technology could be widely used to produce or invent objects.

C．Nano-technology is a money-consuming technology.

D．Nano-technology can not be used to improve the service of Internet.

小題4:Compared to steel, carbon nano-tubes are ________.

A．stronger and lighter	B．lighter but as strong
C．stronger but as light	D．poor in quality

Googlefight is a simple service available on the Internet which offers you the chance to compare two different items and see how many hits they get on the Google search engine. The seemingly simple device has proved invaluable to users, especially to help win arguments.
For example, imagine that you and your friends are arguing about who are the most popular music or movie stars, you can decide the argument by writing the names in the Googlefight boxes. Let’s say that you are arguing about Jackie Chan and Jet Li. You will quickly discover that Jet Li is mentioned 16 million times on Google pages, whereas Jackie Chan is mentioned a mere 12 million times! In this unscientific way, you can claim victory for one Star over another.
But teachers have come up with ways of using Googlefight which are much more useful from an academic point of view, particularly when it comes to studying languages. You can, for example, find out the frequency of two words with the same meaning, and deduce (推斷) from the answers which one is more common. For example, let’s take the words “buy” and “purchase”, which mean the same thing (although “buy” is only a verb and “purchase” is both a verb and a noun). It is immediately clear from Googlefight that “buy” is much more commonly used, with a massive three and a half billion hits, compared to only one billion occurrences for the more formal word.
But the real value of Googlefight to the language learner is in determining which is the more common of two phrases. For example, “raining cats and dogs” is an old-fashioned English expression about the weather. Do English speakers still use it? Or are they more likely to say “pouring down”? Googlefight suggests the latter. “Pouring down” has 898,000 Google hits, whereas “raining cats and dogs” only has 326,000.
With phrases, it’s important to remember that you need to use quote marks to make the search more accurate. For example, if you type in the similar phrases “l(fā)ook after” and “take care of “ without quote marks, the second phrase seems to be more common, but with quote marks, the result is reversed.
小題1:What is Googlefight?

A．A fight between two people on Google.

B．A way to make sure you win an argument.

C．A website showing how many hits two different things have.

D．A list of all the websites on Google.

小題2:Language teachers find it useful because _______.

A．there are a lot of words on Googlefight

B．it can tell them which of the two words with the same meaning appears more often

C．some words mean the same thing

D．common words have a billion hits

小題3:What must you remember to do if you are checking phrases by Googlefight?

A．Make sure they mean be same thing.

B．Make sure they are different.

C．Remember to put quote marks round the phrase.

D．Don’t put quote marks round the phrase.

小題4:Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Googlefight is effective to determine the more common of two phrases.

B．Googlefight is a scientific way to decide an argument.

C．Quote marks can make the search more accurate.

D．Googlefight is invaluable to help win arguments.

Scientists warn today that the Atlantic bluefin tuna（金槍魚(yú)）faces disappearance unless certain action is taken. They used electronic ways to track the movement of the powerful fish from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mediterranean, and report today in the journal Nature that meals of sushi and sandwiches with tuna worldwide are more dangerous than anyone has imagined.
The bluefin tuna can live for 30 years, grow to three metres in length and weigh as much as 700kg. A good one can fetch as much as £ 52,000 in the Tokyo fish markets. “In my lifetime, we’ve brought this big fish to the doorstep of death in the western Atlantic Ocean,” said Barbara Block of Stanford University in California. “The electronic way of tracks provides the best scientific information we’ve ever had to manage these tuna and we must, as an international community, start to act actively to make sure of the future of this fish. ”
Scientists have repeatedly said that the harvest of the seas cannot be as good as before. There are fewer and fewer fish in around Newfoundland, North Sea and Iceland, so fishermen have pushed further offshore in search of deep ocean fish. Tuna—in the Mediterranean and Japan—have been under increasing pressure for years. The International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna has tried to manage the fish since 1969．There are two populations: a western one that has dropped by 80% in the past 30 years, and a larger, eastern population. Although catches are controlled by 3,000 tons a year in the western fishery, and 32,000 in the east, no one knew whether the limits worked.
So Professor Block and her team placed tracks on hundreds of the fish and tracked them to depths of more than 900 metres and on journeys of thousands of miles, measuring the movement, body and water temperatures. “There are two ways to save the Atlantic bluefin tuna—protect them in their production grounds and in their feeding grounds,” Prof. Block said. “This will need immediate action in both the central Atlantic, to reduce the loss of the big fish while hunting, and in the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean, where tuna produce as separate populations. ”
小題1: The bluefin tuna in this passage mainly refers to the one _______.

A．in the Atlantic	B．in the Pacific
C．in the Gulf of Mexico	D．in the Mediterranean

小題2:Which of the following is NOT true according to this passage?

A．The bluefin tuna is a kind of large and heavy fish.

B．The number of the bluefin tuna in the sea is getting smaller and smaller.

C．Scientists are worried about the future of the tuna.

D．Scientists think that the harvest of the seas will remain good.

小題3:According to Professor Block, tuna can be saved by ______.

A．finding a new way to protect them

B．controlling the catches of them

C．reducing the population to eat them

D．protecting them in their production and feeding grounds

小題4:The purpose of the passage is to ______.

A．tell people a new way has been found to save the bluefin tuna

B．call for action to save the bluefin tuna

C．warn people not to eat tuna sandwiches anymore

D．help scientists to find a new way to save the bluefin tuna

it tastes just chicken
Away from home, eating is more than just a way to keep your stomach full．It is a language all its own, and no words can say, "Glad to meet you ．．．glad to be doing business with you ．．．" quite like sharing a meal offered by your host．
Clearly, mealtime is not the time for you to say, "Thanks, but no thanks．" Acceptance of the food on your plate means acceptance of host, country, and company．So, no matter how difficult it may be to swallow, swallow．Or, as one experienced traveler says, "Travel with a cast-iron stomach and eat everything everywhere．"
Often, the food offered represents proudly your host country's eating culture．What would Ataiericans think of a French person who refused to take a bite of homemade apple pie or sirloin? Our discomfort comes not so much from the thing itself; it comes from our umamiliarity with it．After all, an oyster has remarkably the same look as a sheep's eye; and a first look at a lobster would remind almost anybody of a creature from a science fiction movie, not something you dip in butter and eat．By the way, in Saudi Arabia sheep's eyes are a famous dish and in parts of China it's bear's paw soup．
Can you refuse such food without being rude? Most experienced business travelers say no, at least not before taking at least a few bites．It helps, though, to slice any item very thin．This way, you minimize the taste and the reminder of where it came from．Or, " Swallow it quickly, " as one traveler recommends．"I still can't tell you what sheep's eyeballs taste like．" As for dealing with taste, the old line that "it tastes just like chicken" is often thankfully true．Even when the "it" is really rat or snake．
Another useful piece of advice is not knowing what you are eating．What's for dinner? Don't ask． Avoid glancing into the kitchen or looking at English-language menus．Your host will be pleased that you are eating the food he offers, and who knows? Maybe it really is chicken in that soup．
小題1:The purpose of the article is to ____．

A．introduce unfamiliar food

B．share the writer's personal experiences

C．suggest ways to overcome a cultural barrier

D．a(chǎn)dvise on how to politely refuse to eat foreign food

小題2:According to the writer, people hesitate at strange food mainly due to ____．

A．the way it looks	B．safety worries
C．lack of information about it	D．the unfamiliar atmosphere

小題3:From the article we can infer that ____．

A．a(chǎn)n American may feel comfortable with sirloin

B．one should refuse strange food after a few bites

C．English-language menus are not always dependable

D．one needs a cast-iron stomach to travel in other cultures

小題4:One may say "It tastes just like chicken．" when ____．

A．showing respect for chicken-loving nations

B．greeting people with different dieting habits

C．evaluating chefs at an international food festival

D．getting someone to try a visually unpleasant meal

A lazy Susan is an addition to a table, which is designed to assist in moving food from one person to another while dining. This is accomplished through the use of a turntable(轉(zhuǎn)盤(pán)), which usually moves the food in a circle when pushed by those at table. In this way, the food never has to be picked up and passed around the table. Instead, it remains in place as the lazy Susan is turned about.
A lazy Susan may also be a part of a kitchen cabinet. One may spin the lazy Susan in order to find certain goods stored in it. From the outside, a lazy Susan appears to be two cabinets. When one of these cabinets is pushed, however, both doors move and the lazy Susan is revealed inside.
Whether the lazy Susan is on a tabletop or within a cabinet, it can be made of a variety of materials. Most commonly, a lazy Susan is made of either plastic, wood or glass. Some people believe that Thomas Jefferson invented the lazy Susan, though it was referred to as a dumb waiter(上菜升降架) at that time. It is said that Jefferson invented the lazy Susan because his daughter complained she was always served last at table and, as a result, never found herself full when leaving the table. Others believe that Thomas Edison was the inventor, as he is believed to have invented the turntable for his phonograph(留聲機(jī)), which later developed into the lazy Susan.
Regardless of who invented it, it wasn’t until 1917 that the term lazy Susan was created in an advertisement for the invention. In Britain, however, the term dumb waiter is still used rather than the term lazy Susan. The reason for the name lazy Susan remains a mystery. One theory is that it was named after either Jefferson’s or Edison’s daughter, both of whom were named Susan.
小題1: According to the passage, a lazy Susan _____.

A．is a person who serves food at table

B．is a waitress who helps move dinner tables

C．is an additional round table in a dining room

D．is a turntable that passes food around the table

小題2:Which of the following is NOT true of the lazy Susan?

A．On a tabletop, it is convenient for people to have dinner.

B．Within a cupboard, it is easy for people to see what is inside.

C．The turntable was invented in 1917.

D．It can be made of many kinds of materials.

小題3:Why did Jefferson’s daughter complain she was served last when having meals?

A．Because she was too lazy.

B．Because she was the youngest.

C．Because the table was too tall for her.

D．Because the table couldn’t move food for her.

小題4: From the passage, we can know that _____.

A．the lazy Susan was invented earlier than the phonograph

B．Susan was the name of Jefferson’s and Edison’s daughter

C．Jefferson and Edison invented the lazy Susan at the same time

D．When people talk about a lazy waitress they use the term “Susan”

小題5:What is the main idea of the passage?

A．What is a lazy Susan?

B．When was the lazy Susan created?

C．Why do inventions come from the daily life?

D．How was “dumb waiter” replaced by “l(fā)azy Susan”?

Some American parents might think their children need better education to compete with those in China and other countries. But how much do the parents themselves need to change?
A new book called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua has caused a debate about cultural differences in parenting. In Chinese culture, the tiger represents strength and power. In the book, Ms. Chua writes about how she demanded excellence from her daughters. She said that she had a clear list of what her daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were not permitted to do, such as attending a sleepover, having a play date, watching TV or playing computer games and getting any grade less than an A.
Many people have criticized Amy Chua. Some say her parenting methods were abusive(辱罵的). She even admits that her husband, who is not Chinese, sometimes objected to her parenting style. But she says that it was the way her parents raised her and her three sisters.
Ms. Chua makes fun of her own extreme style of parenting. She says she eased some of the pressure after her younger daughter rebelled and shouted, “I hate my life! I hate you!”
Ms. Chua says she decided to retreat when it seemed like there was a risk that she might lose her daughters. But she also says American parents often have low expectations of their children’s abilities. “One of the biggest differences I see between Western and Chinese parents is that Chinese parents assume strength rather than fragility(脆弱),” she said.
“The beginning of this intense discussion has to do with what it means to be a successful parent and what it means to be a successful child,” said Stacy Debroff, who has written four books about parenting.
Ms. Debroff says Amy Chua’s parenting style is not limited to Chinese families. She says it represents a traditional way of parenting among immigrants(移民) seeking a better future for their children.
But she also sees a risk. When children have no time to be social or to follow their own interests, they might not develop other skills that they need to succeed in life. Stacey Debroff advises parents to develop their own styles of parenting and not just repeat the way they were raised.
小題1:Amy Chua has been criticized mainly because ____.

A．she looks up to boys and down on girls

B．she has already abused her right as a parent

C．she hasn’t raised her children like her own parents

D．she has fought with her children several times

小題2:Which can best describe Ms. Chua according to the passage?

A．Uneducated.

B．Cruel.

C．Strict.

D．Strong.

小題3: According to Ms. Debroff, _____.

A．Amy Chua’s parenting style should be banned(禁止) in China

B．Amy Chua’s should stop to adopt American parenting styles

C．Amy Chua’s parenting style should be adjusted if possible

D．There isn’t any advantages in Amy Chua’s style

小題4:What does the underlined word “retreat” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Give in.

B．Pass away.

C．Cry out.

D．Go ahead.

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

A．Some books on studying styles.

B．The disadvantage of Chinese parenting styles

C．Differences between western and eastern parenting styles

D．The comparison between American and Chinese parenting styles

During the years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers have been trying hard to solve a question that would otherwise have been completely unthinkable: Can building be designed to stand catastrophic blasts (攻擊；爆破) by terrorists?
Soon after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. They spent two days beginning the task of formulating (構(gòu)思) ideas about how to design such structures and to search for clues on how to do so in buildings that were damaged, but still are standing.
“Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage,” said Mr. Bruneau, Ph.D. “Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks,” he added.
Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate the monumental damage to the World Trade Center towers and buildings nearby. One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. “This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column (柱子) there that used to be part of that building,” explained A. Whittaker, Ph.D. “The column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor.”
The visit to the area also brought some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing (框架) system in one of the buildings was quite strong , allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris (殘礫) to survive. “Good framing systems may provide a simple, but reliable strategy for blast resistance,” he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails. “We also need a better understanding of the mechanism of collapse,” said A. Whittaker. “We need to find out what causes a building to collapse and how you can predict it.”
A. Reinhorn, Ph.D. noted that “earthquake shaking has led to the collapse of buildings in the past. Solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may apply to blast engineering and terrorist-resistant design. Part of our mission now is to transfer these solutions and to develop new ones where none exist at present.”
小題1:The question raised in the first paragraph is one _____ .

A．that was asked by structural engineers a month ago

B．that is too difficult for structural engineers a month ago

C．that was never thought of before the terrorist attack

D．that terrorists are eager to find a solution to

小題2:The column mentioned by Dr. Whittaker _____ .

A．was part of the building close to the World Trade Center

B．was part of the World Trade Center

C．was shot through the window and the floor of the World Trade Center

D．damaged many buildings near the World Trade Center

小題3:A surprising discovery made by the investigators during their visit to ground zero is that _____.

A．floors in the faraway buildings remained undamaged

B．some floor framing systems demonstrate resistance to explosion

C．complex floor framing systems are more blast resistant

D．floors in one of the buildings were pierced by tons of debris

小題4: What Dr. Reinhorn said in the last paragraph may imply all the following EXCEPT that _____.

A．blast engineers should develop new solutions for terror-resistant design

B．blast engineering can borrow technologies developed for terror-resistant design

C．solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may apply to terrorist-resistant design

D．blast engineering emerges as a totally new branch of science