New archaeological discoveries suggest that trade between Europe and Asia along the Silk Road probably began in some form many centuries earlier than once thought. The findings, coupled with a widening range of scientific and historical research could add a fascinating new page to the epic (史詩) of the Silk Road.
The most surprising discovery is pieces of silk found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy from about 1000 BC, long before regular traffic on the Silk Road and at least one thousand years before silk was previously thought to be used in Egypt. Other research may extend human activity along this route back even further, perhaps a million years to the migration of human ancestors into eastern Asia.
The official origin of East-West trade along the road is usually placed in the late 2nd century BC when an agent of the Chinese Emperor Wu-di returned from a dangerous secret mission（使命）across the desert into the remote high country of Central Asia. The agent, Zhang Qian, travelled as far as Afghanistan and brought back knowledge of even more distant lands such as Persia, Syria and a place known as Lijien, perhaps Rome. Historians have called this one of the most important journeys in ancient times. His journey opened the way for what have been thought to be the first indirect contacts between the ancient world’s two superpowers, China and Rome. Chinese silk, first traded to central Asian tribes for war horses and to the Parthian for acrobats and ostrich eggs, was soon finding its way through a network of merchants to the luxury (奢侈品) markets in Rome.
But the new discoveries show that Chinese silk was apparently present in the West long before the Han emperor started organized trade over the Silk Road. The research could change thinking about the early history of world trade and provide insights into the mystery of just how and when Europe and the Mediterranean lands first became aware of the glorious culture at the other end of Eurasia.
小題1:The word “coupled” in the first paragraph could best be replaced by        .
A．combinedB．contributedC．doubledD．produced
小題2:The silk thread found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy suggests that         .
A．Egyptians had probably travelled to China to buy silk
B．new light can now be thrown on ancient trading practices
C．historical research often achieves fascinating results
D．trade along the Silk Road began earlier than once thought
小題3:Until recently historians mostly believed that trade along the Silk Road       .
A．began a million years ago
B．primarily benefited the Egyptians
C．originated in the 2nd century BC
D．extended human migration into eastern Asia
小題4:Historians have always considered Zhang Qian’s mission important because they believe       .
A．he discovered the Silk Road
B．he helped establish East-West trade
C．he travelled as far as Afghanistan
D．he brought back knowledge of Rome to the emperor

小題1:A
小題1:D
小題1:C
小題1:B
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解



小題1:The main aim of Environment Awareness Week is to _____．
A．educate the public on protecting the environment
B．discuss global warming and other environmental problems
C．explain ways for producing freshwater to save the environment
D．learn about renewable energy sources that protect the environment
小題2:The organizer of the event is _____．
A．Global Gaia NetworkB．Clean Energy Agency
C．Green Earth FoundationD．International Environment Fund
小題3:If you are interested in renewable energy sources, you should go to _____．
A．Hall 1B．Hall 2C．Hall 3D．Hall 4
小題4:The "3 Rs" stand for _____．
A．Read, Realize and RememberB．Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
C．Green Earth FoundationD．Global Gaia Network
小題5:Which of the following statements is NOT true of the event?
A．It will last a week and the halls will be open 11 hours a day．
B．You can send an email to Mrs．Daisy Soh for more information．
C．Each hall charges the same amount of money as the other．
D．Lectures in Hall 1 will be given by university students．

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

The biggest safety threat（威脅）facing airlines today may not be a man with a gun ,but the man with portable（便攜式）computer in business class .In the past 15 years ,pilots have reported about over 100 incidents that could have been caused by electro-magnetic interference(電磁干擾) .The source of this interference remain unclear ,but increasingly ,experts are pointing the blame at portable electronic devices（設(shè)備）such as portable computers ,radio and mobile telephones .
RTCA ,an organization which advises the aviation industry ,has suggested that all airlines ban, such devices from being used during “key” stages of flight ,particularly take-off and landing .Some experts have gone further ,calling for a total ban during all flights .Nowadays ,rules on using these devices are left up to airlines. And although some airlines ban passengers from using such equipment during take-off and landing ,most are not willing to exercise a total ban ,if many passengers want to work during flights .
The difficulty is understanding how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft’s computers .Experts know that portable devices give off radiation which affects those wave lengths which aircraft uses for communication .But because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a laboratory ,they have no way of knowing whether the interference might be dangerous or not .
The fact that aircraft may be in trouble because of the interference raises the danger
that some people may use radio systems in order to damage navigation（導(dǎo)航）equipment .As worrying ,though ,is the passenger who can’t hear the instruction to turn off his radio because the music is too loud .
小題1:.
.What is said about over 100 aircraft incidents in the past 15 years ?
A They may have taken place during take-off and landing .
B They have been caused by the damage to the radio systems .
C They were said to have resulted from electro-magnetic interference .
D They were caused by the passengers’ portable computers .
小題2:.
. Few airlines want to refuse a total ban on their passengers because ____ .
A they have other effective safety measures to fall back on
B they don’t believe there is such a danger as radio interference
C the effect of electromagnetic interference is yet to be proved
D most passengers refuse to take a plane which bans the use of radio 
小題3:.
. Why is it difficult to see the effects of electromagnetic fields on computers ?
A Experts lack proper equipment to such research .
B It is dangerous to carry out such research on an airplane .
C It remains a question what wave lengths are to be interfered with .
D Scientists are not able to produce the same effects in laboratory .
小題4:.
It can be inferred from the passage that the author ___ .
A hasn’t formed his own opinion on this problem
B has fully understood the danger of electromagnetic interference
C regards it is as unreasonable to exercise a total ban during flight
D is in favor of banning passengers’ use of electronic devices

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

If you ask Americans whether or not they think their former president George W. Bush is smart, most of them will probably tell you they don’t think so. However, Bush’s IQ score is estimated to be above 120, which puts him in the top ten percent of the population.
It doesn’t seem to make sense. How come someone with such an IQ score is not considered smart? Researchers say: IQ does not tell the whole story. Some people have high IQ scores, but still they can be poor thinkers and decision-makers.
Keith Stanovich, a Canadian professor of human development and applied psychology, has been looking into the “clever fools” phenomenon for 15 years. He says IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties(能力), including logic, learning ability, working-memory capacity (how much information you can hold in mind), etc. Those faculties play a part in one’s academic success, but rational thinking is more important for us to make good judgments in real-life situations.
IQ tests fail to work when it comes to rational thinking. That’s because they are unable to assess things such as a person’s ability to weigh up information, or whether an individual can set aside the cognitive biases(認知偏差)that may be misleading.
“A high IQ is like height in a basketball player,” says David Perkins, who studies thinking and reasoning skills at Harvard University. “It is very important, all other things being equal. But all other things aren’t equal. It takes a lot more to be a good basketball player than being tall, and it takes a lot more to be a good thinker than having a high IQ.”
小題1:According to the text your academic success depends on your __________.
A．logicB．mental facultiesC．learning abilityD．working-memory capacity
小題2:If you need to decide where to invest your money, you must use your ______________
A．IQ scoresB．IQ testC．rational thinkingD．cognitive biases
小題3:We know from the text that ____________
A．the former president George W. Bush has a high IQ score
B．many Americans think their former president George W. Bush is smart
C．David Perkins believe that a person’s IQ doesn’t need to be developed
D．Keith Stanovich looked into the “clever fools” phenomenon 5 years ago
小題4:What is the text mainly about?
A．Those who have high IQ do better than those who don’t in everything.
B．People with high IQ scores must be good decision-makers
C．People with high IQ scores are always smart in every way.
D．Why a high IQ doesn’t mean you’re smart

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

When you think about math, you probably don’t think about breaking the law, solving mysteries or finding criminals. But a mathematician in Maryland does, and he has come up with mathematical tools to help police find criminals.
People who solve crimes look for patterns that might reveal(揭示) the identity of the criminal. It’s long been believed, for example, that criminals will break the law closer to where they live, simply because it’s easier to get around in their own neighborhood. If police see a pattern of robberies in a certain area, they may look for a suspect(嫌疑犯) who lives near the crime scenes. So, the farther away from the area a crime takes place, the less likely it is that the same criminal did it.
But Mike O’Leary, a mathematician at Towson University in Maryland, says that this kind of approach may be too simple. He says that police may get better clues to the location of a criminal’s home base by combining these patterns with a city’s layout(布局) and historical crime records.
The records of past crimes contain geographical information and can reveal easy targets — that is, the kind of stores that might be less difficult to rob. Because these stores are along roads, the locations of past crimes contain information about where major streets and intersections are. O’Leary is writing a new computer program that will quickly provide this kind of information for a given city. His program also includes information about the people who live in the city, and information about how a criminal’s patterns change with age. It’s been shown, for example, that the younger the criminal, the closer to home the crime.
Other computer programmers have worked on similar software, but O’Leary’s uses more math. The mathematician plans to make his computer program available, free of charge, to police departments around the country.
The program is just one way to use math to fight crime. O’Leary says that criminology — the study of crime and criminals — contains a lot of good math problems. “I feel like I’m in a gold mine and I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun.”
小題1:
To find criminals, police usually ______.
A．focus on where crimes take placeB．seek help from local people
C．depend on new mathematical toolsD．check who are on the crime scene
小題2:
O’Leary is writing a computer program that ______.
A．uses math to increase the speed of calculation
B．tells the identity of a criminal in a certain area
C．shows changes in criminals’ patterns
D．provides the crime records of a given city
小題3:
By “I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like”, O’Leary means that he ______.
A．is better at finding gold than others
B．is the only one who uses math to make money
C．knows more criminals than other mathematicians
D．knows best how to use math to help solve crimes
小題4:
What is the main idea of the text?
A．Criminals live near where crimes occur.
B．Math could help police find criminals.
C．Crime records could be used to fight crime.
D．Computer software works in preventing crimes.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Compared to people with bad attitudes，people who are cheerful and relaxed are less likely to suffer from colds，according to a new study.“It’s possible that being upbeat helps the body fight illnesses，” says Sheldon Cohen，the study’s lead researcher from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh.
In a previous（先前的） study，Cohen and his colleagues put cold­causing viruses into the noses of 334 healthy adults. People who tended to be cheerful and lively were least likely to develop sniffles，coughs，and other cold symptoms. People who showed positive feelings were also less likely to mention symptoms to their doctors，even when medical tests detected those symptoms.
Those findings were interesting，but they didn’t prove that a person’s attitude affects whether he or she gets sick. Instead，it was still possible that a person’s underlying personality is what matters. Evidence suggests，for instance，that certain people are naturally more likely to be outgoing and optimistic，with high self­esteem and a sense of control over life. This would mean that who we are，not how we feel，ultimately decides our chances of catching colds.
To figure out which mattered more (personality or emotions)，the CMU team interviewed 193 healthy adults. The researchers talked to each person over the phone every evening for 2 weeks. At the end of the interviewing period，people got nose drops that contained either cold or flu viruses. Then，each person stayed in an isolated room for 5 or 6 days. The results showed that everyone in the study was equally likely to get infected. Their symptoms，however，differed depending on the types of emotions that they had reported over the previous 2 weeks. Among those who reported good moods and had been infected with the flu virus，for example,28 percent developed coughs and stuffy noses. On the other hand，those symptoms struck 41 percent of people who had been less upbeat.
小題1:
What would be the best title for the passage?
A．Smiles Turn away Colds
B．An Interesting Way to Beat Colds
C．Be Outgoing and Optimistic to Fight Colds
D．What Matters More，Personality or Emotions?
小題2:
In the previous study，people who showed positive feelings______.
A．didn’t catch colds as often
B．developed cold symptoms more slowly
C．were less likely to have cold symptoms detected
D．were less likely to feel cold symptoms
小題3:
What mainly decides our chances of catching colds according to the new study?
A．Personality.B．Self­esteem（自尊）.C．Emotions.D．Attitudes.
小題4:
The underlined word “symptoms” probably means________.
A．something that causes cold
B．something that results in cold
C．signs that something exists，especially something bad
D．changes in your body or mind that show that you are not healthy

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

It is possible that the majority of the teenagers accepted the advantages of the iPad. In most cases they were expressing strong opinions about it. But today we already know that another three high-end computer tablets(平板電腦) are going on sale, with the aim of taking a bite out of the iPad's market. For tablet computer fans, iPad may not be the only choice, as the Motorola Xoom, the HP Touchpad and the BlackBerry PlayBook will have been launched (推出)by this summer, according to foreign media reports on Tuesday. Here is Product Information Guide as follows. We would like to listen to your reviews later.   
Apple iPad2
Size: 9.7 inch screen, 8.8mm thick
Weight: 601g (Wi-Fi only version)
Battery life: 10 hours of heavy use
Price: a base price of $499(3,278yuan)
Available(可使用的): March 11, 2011 in the US
Strength: over 65,000 *apps that are fit for the iPad
Weakness: lack of USB port and flash support
 
Motorola Xoom
Size: 10.1 inch screen, 13mm thick
Weight: 730g
Battery life: 8hours of heavy use
Price: $800(5,252RMByuan)
Available: now
Strength: great multi-tasking feature, better cameras than the iPad2    
Weakness: limited options（選擇權(quán)）of apps
 
HP Touchpad
Size: 9.7 inch screen, 13mm thick
Weight: 740g
Battery life: 8hours of heavy use
Price: not yet announced
Available: summer 2011
Strength: killer software features, including a virtual(虛擬的) keyboard which comes in four sizes
Weakness: lack of a rear-mounted（后置式） camera which would allow users to get images and photos
 
BlackBerry PlayBook
Size: 7- inch screen, 10mm thick
Weight: 400g
Battery life: 8hours of heavy use
Price: not yet announced
Available: Spring 2011
Strength: business-oriented, powerful multitasker, excellent data security（安全）
Weakness: Some features require users to have a Black-Berry phone
小題1: Which type is the biggest one?
A．Apple iPad 2B．Motorola XoomC．HP TouchpadD．BlackBerry PlayBook
小題2:Which is True according to the passage?
A. Apple ipad 2 has excellent data security. 
B. Four types above of Battery life are the same.
C. Most people are satisfied with HP Touchpad.        
小題3: Which one can you buy as a present with only 4000yuan RMB at hand?
A．Apple iPad 2B．Motorola XroomC．None of the fourD．Any of the four

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

When Gretchen Baxter gets home from work as a New York City book editor, she checks her Blackberry (黑莓手機) at the door. ‘I think we are attached to these devices in a way that is not always positive,’ says Baxter，who’d rather focus at home on her husband and 12-year-old daughter. ‘It’s there and it beckons (召喚). That’s human nature (but)…we kind of get crazy sometimes and we don’t know where it should stop.’
Americans are connected at unprecedented (前所未有的) levels一93% now use cell phones or wireless devices；one third of those are ‘smart phones’ that allow users to browse the Web and check e-mail，among other things. The benefits are obvious: checking messages on the road，staying in touch with friends and family，efficiently using time once spent waiting around. The downside：often，we’re effectively disconnecting from those in the same room.
That's why，despite all the technology that makes communicating easier than ever，2010 was the Year We Stopped Talking to One Another. From texting at dinner to posting on Facebook from work or checking e-mail while on a date，the connectivity revolution is creating a lot of divided attention，not to mention social anxiety. Many analysts say it's time to step back and reassess.
‘What we’re going to see in the future is new opportunities for people to be plugged in and connected like never before,’ says Scott Campbell. ‘It can be a good thing，but I also see new ways the traditional social fabric (社會結(jié)構(gòu)) is getting somewhat torn apart.’
Our days are filled with beeps and pings·----many of which pull us away from tasks at hand or face-to-face conversations. We may feel that the distractions are too much，but we can’t seem to stop posting，texting or surfing.
‘We're going through a period of adjustment and rebalancing,’ says Sherry Turkle and she wants to remind people that technology can be turned off.
‘Our human purposes are to really have connections with people,’ she says. ‘We have to reclaim it. It’s not going to take place by itself.’
小題1:What can be the best title for the passage?
A．2010: The year technology developed quickly.
B．2010: The year technology sped up our life pace.
C．2010: The year technology replaced talking.
D．2010: The year technology made communicating easier.
小題2:According to Paragraph l，Gretchen Baxter thinks_________.
A．the new technology always influences people’s life in a positive way
B．the new technology is so tempting that she could even put her daughter and husband behind
C．it is encouraging to see progress on the new technology every year
D．people are too dependent on the new technology to let go
小題3:Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．The wide use of mobile devices has nothing to do with the ‘traditional social fabric’.
B．Mobile devices play a less important part in American life.
C．Mobile devices create a lot of divided attention and social anxiety.
D．Many analysts speak highly of the wide popularity of mobile devices.
小題4:What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A．Something must be done to get connection with people in reality again·
B．Using mobile services can help people get connection with each other.
C．Mobile services have a strong impact on people’s life.
D．The connection with people can happen naturally.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Construction workers in Southern California have made a wild discovery. They were digging at a building site in San Timoteo Canyon (峽谷) when they unearthed hundreds of ancient animal fossils. Researchers say the bones hold important clues about the history of the region.
Nearly 1, 500 fossils were recovered from the dusty canyon. The remains are about 1.4 million years old. They include the bones of a new species of deer, several small rodents (嚙齒目動物) and more. A giant cat fossil was also found. Scientists believe the animal was an ancestor of the saber- toothed tiger. Signs of plant life were uncovered as well.
“This is a huge find,” says Rick Greenwood, a scientist studying the site. “I don’t think most people had any idea that those types of animals were wandering around here more than a million years ago.”
San Timoteo Canyon is located about 85 miles from Los Angeles. The area of the canyon where the fossils were found was once part of a green river valley. Today, the region is dry and plant life is rare.
Most of the fossils are well preserved. Experts say a muddy lake bed may have trapped thirty animals that wandered over for a drink. The mud helped to protect the animal fossils.
The remains are a million years older than those discovered at the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Scientists studying the bones will be able to learn more about how the animals adapted to changes in the environment.
“We have a confused view of what this time period was like, ” says another scientist. “A discovery like this could really be an important contribution.”
About 35 different animal species are represented in the fossil collection. Scientists began removing bones from the site last fall. The project was completed this summer. Starting next year, the fossils will be on display at the Western Science Center in the nearby city of Hemet, California.
小題1:
What does the passage mainly focus on?
A．The secret of ancient animals’ deaths.
B．The preparation for a future fossil exhibition.
C．A great discovery of fossils.
D．The history of San Timoteo Canyon.
小題2:
From what Rick says, we know ________. (原創(chuàng))
A．fossils were discovered in the canyon for the first time.
B．the canyon in ancient times was quite different.
C．more research work will be carried on in the canyon.
D．the river water helped to protect the animal fossils.
小題3:
Compared to the discovery at the La Brea Tar Pits, the canyon-involved fossils _______.
A．a(chǎn)re far olderB．include more species
C．a(chǎn)re better preservedD．make experts more confused
小題4:
What do we know about the fossils from the passage?
A．All of them are of new species.
B．Some of them have been destroyed
C．They were looked for under experts’ guidance.
D．They will be on show in the near future.

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