The term “multitasking” originally referred to a computer's ability to carry out several tasks at one time. For many people, multitasking has become a way of life and even a key to success. In fact, some excellent mental aerobic exercises （大腦訓練）involve engaging the brain in two or more challenging activities at a time. Although checking e-mail while talking on a phone and reading the newspaper may be second nature for some people, many times multitasking can make us less productive, rather than more. And studies show that too much multitasking can lead to increased stress, anxiety and memory loss.

In order to multitask, the brain uses an area known as the prefrontal cortex （前額葉腦皮層）. Brain scans of volunteers performing multiple tasks together show that as they shift from task to task, this front part of the brain actually takes a moment of rest between tasks. You may have experienced a prefrontal cortex “moment of rest” yourself if you've ever dialed （撥電話）a phone number and suddenly forgotten who you called when the line is answered. What probably occurred is that between the dialing and the answering, your mind shifted to another thought or task, and then took that “moment” to come back. Research has also shown that for many volunteers, job efficiency （效率）declines while multitasking, as compared to when they perform only one task at a time.

Multitasking is easiest when at least one of the tasks is habitual, or requires little thought. Most people don' t find it difficult to eat and read the newspaper at the same time. However, when two or more attention-requiring tasks are attempted at one time, people sometimes make mistakes.

We often don't remember things as well when we're trying to manage several details at the same time. Without mental focus, we may not pay enough attention to new information coming in, so it never makes it into our memory stores. That is one of the main reasons we forget people's names—even sometimes right after they have introduced themselves. Multitasking can also affect our relationships. If someone checks their e-mail while on the phone with a friend, they may come off as absent-minded or disinterested. It can also cause that person to miss or overlook key information being passed on to them.

1．Why are some mental aerobic exercises designed to engage people in multitasking?

A．To make them more productive.

B．To reduce their stress and anxiety.

C．To develop their communication skills.

D．To help them perform daily tasks more easily.

2．According to Paragraph 2, why may a person suddenly forget who he has called?

A．He may have his prefrontal cortex temporarily damaged.

B．He is probably interrupted by another task.

C．He is probably not very familiar with the person he has called.

D．He may need a rest between dialing and speaking.

3．People tend to make mistakes when       .

A．they perform several challenging tasks at a time 

B．new messages are processed one after another

C．their relationships with others are affected

D．the tasks require little thought

4．What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Multitasking has become a way of life.

B．Multitasking often leads to efficiency decline.

C．Multitasking exercises need to be improved.

D．Multitasking enables people to remember things better.

My family and I lived across the street from Southway Park since I was four years old. Then just last year the city put a chain link fence around the park and started bulldozing （用推土機推平）the trees and grass to make way for a new apartment complex. When I saw the fence and bulldozers, I asked myself, “Why don't they just leave it alone?”

Looking back, I think what sentenced the park to oblivion （被遺忘）was the drought （旱災）we had about four years ago. Up until then, Southway Park was a nice green park with plenty of trees and a public swimming pool. My friends and I rollerskated on the sidewalks, climbed the trees, and swam in the pool all the years I was growing up. The park was almost like my own yard. Then the summer I was fifteen the drought came and things changed.

There had been almost no rain at all that year. The city stopped watering the park grass. Within a few weeks I found myself living across the street from a huge brown desert. Leaves fell off the park trees, and pretty soon the trees started dying, too. Next, the park swimming pool was closed. The city cut down on the work force that kept the park, and pretty soon it just got too ugly and dirty to enjoy anymore.

As the drought lasted into the fall, the park got worse every month. The rubbish piled up or blew across the brown grass. Soon the only people in the park were beggars and other people down on their luck. People said drugs were being sold or traded there now. The park had gotten scary, and my mother told us kids not to go there anymore.

The drought finally ended and things seemed to get back to normal, that is, everything but the park. It had gotten into such bad shape that the city just let it stay that way. Then about six months ago I heard that the city was going to “redevelop” certain worn-out areas of the city. It turned out that the city had planned to get rid of the park, sell the land and let someone build rows of apartment buildings on it.

The chain-link fencing and the bulldozers did their work. Now we live across the street from six rows of apartment buildings. Each of them is three units high and stretches a block in each direction. The neighborhood has changed without the park. The streets I used to play in are jammed with cars now. Things will never be the same again. Sometimes I wonder, though, what changes another drought would make in the way things are today.

1．How did the writer feel when he saw the fence and bulldozers.'?

A．Scared.             B．Confused.          C．Upset.                 D．Curious.

2．Why was the writer told not to go to the park by his mother?

A．It was being rebuilt.                      B．It was dangerous.

C．It became crowded.                      D．It had turned into a desert.

3．According to the writer, what eventually brought about the disappearance of the park?

A．The drought.                               B．The crime.

C．The beggars and the rubbish.                 D．The decisions of the city.

4．The last sentence of the passage implies that if another drought came,         .

A．the situation would be much worse

B．people would have to desert their homes

C．the city would be fully prepared in advance

D．the city would have to redevelop the neighborhood

I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps（快照）, maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?” He looked perturbed （不安）.“Do you want to try it first?" he said. It didn't quite sound like a question. "Do I need to?" I replied. "There's nothing wrong with it?" This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. "No, no. But you should try it," he said encouragingly." Compare it with the others. "

I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.

But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers... and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.

Why do we think that new options （選擇）still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.

1．The shop assistant insisted that the writer should __ .

A．try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it

B．compare the camera he had chosen with the others

C．get more information about different companies

D．trust him and stop asking questions

2．What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it" （Paragraph 2） ?

A．He should get a 50% discount.

B．The price of the camera was unreasonably high.

C．The quality of the camera was not good.

D．The camera would soon fall in value.

3．The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he ______ .

A．knew very little about it

B．didn't trust the shop assistant

C．wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best

D．had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers

4．It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer's opinion, __

A．people waste too much money on cameras

B．cameras have become an important part of our daily life

C．we don't actually need so many choices when buying a product

D．famous companies care more about profit than quality

Peter，Helen，Catherine，Elizabeth和Levin想根據(jù)各自在環(huán)保方面的興趣（61—65）進行案例研究。閱讀下面某雜志的專題報道摘要（A、B、C、D、E和F），選出適合他們研究的最佳案例。選項中有一項是多余選項。

1．Peter: Reducing plastic and other wastes through DTY

2．Helen : Making use of the heavy traffic to produce electricity

3．Catherine: Building a community without private cars

4．Elizabeth: Building houses with recycled materials and energy-efficiency systems

5．Levin: Developing a new type of urban car which bums less gas

下面短文中有10處語言錯誤。請在有錯誤的地方增加、刪除或修改某個單詞。

增加：在缺詞處加一個漏字符號（^），并在其下面寫上該加的詞。

刪除：把多余的詞用斜線（＼）劃掉。

修改：在錯的詞下劃一橫線，并在該詞下面寫上修改后的詞。

注意：1．每處錯誤及其修改均僅限一詞；

    2．只允許修改10處，多者（從第11處起）不計分。

After shopping, Mother and I went to a restaurant for lunch". I notice Mother looking at a nearby table occupy by an elderly woman and young couple. They ate silently, and it was clearly that things were not going well. As we left, Mother stopped on their table. "Excuse me," she said, put her arm around the unhappy old woman. "You remind me so many of my mother. May I hug  （擁抱）you?" The woman smiled happily as she accepted to it. After we left, I said, "That was very nice of you, Mother. So I didn't think she looked like Grandma. " "Neither did me," said Mother cheerfully.

最近，李越被評為你們班的“每周之星”。請你根據(jù)她的事跡（在上周六下午，不顧天氣炎熱，為班級選購歌詠比賽服裝），用英語為班級板報寫一篇100一120個詞的短文。

你的文章應包括下列要點：

1．李越的事跡及其對同學的影響；

2．你的評論。

    注意：1．文章的標題和開頭已給出（不計詞數(shù)）。

2．參考詞匯：singing contest 歌詠比賽

costume   服裝

Star Student of the Week

Li Yue has been awarded the title of "Star Student of the Week" for what she did for our class._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The British boy Oscar Wrigley aged 2, has        IQ of more than 160, equal to       of Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking.

A．an, that           B．X, the one          C．a, one          D．the, it

If we don’t give        attention to our world climate now, the consequence will be too serious for us to face.

A．effective         B．due           C．plenty          D．temporary

In face of difficulties or misfortunes, our family members are the ones that will      us to the last.

A．stick to          B．get stuck in         C．stick with           D．stick out

Julia has been taking dancing lessons for years; she        be an excellent dancer.

A．shall        B．can           C．may        D．should