To many students, high school is just a basic routine. You go to class in the morning, take a break for lunch and go home in the afternoon.
This isn't quite that simple for pupils at Royal West Academy. As if classes and homework weren’t already enough, students are also required to complete a range of extracurricular activities, or ECAs.
The range of ECAs being offered at the school is various, including everything from guitar and jewelry-making clubs, fund-raising marches, to student committees, swimming and tennis.
“I love ECAs. I’m so happy we have them,” said grade 11 student Adrienne, who is a soccer player and member of the graduation committee. “They motivate the students, and they’re a great bonding experience. I think that without them, not half as many students would be joining up for the soccer team.”
Requiring students to complete ECAs is a sign of the times. That’s because young people are preparing for the future in ways that weren’t considered necessary before. This is an era when ECAs are seen as important. Whether it’s for leadership experience, sports, craft skills or volunteer these things are seen as rounding out the individual and improving their future.
ECAs can also help students discover their likes and dislikes. But as the old song says, you can’t always get what you want, especially when so many students are all trying to sign up for the most popular activities.
ECAs can cut into study and homework time if you’re not careful. You really have to get organized or you’ll fall apart.
小題1:The students at Royal West Academy may do the following ECAs except ______.

A．to play musical instruments

B．to raise money for an organization

C．to attend sports events

D．to have classes discussions

小題2:From what Adirienne said, we know that _______.

A．most of his classmates are interested in football

B．one can make many new friends in ECAs

C．students get encouraged to join in ECAs

D．half of his classmates are unwilling to join in ECAs.

小題3:Why are ECAs important now?

A．They prepare the students for their future.

B．They can make students get what they want.

C．they can help students find their strong points.

D．They can reduce students’ learning time.

小題4:From the last paragraph, we can infer that _______.

A．ECAs can increase your burden of learning

B．you may fall down when playing in ECAs

C．too many ECAs may leave you in trouble

D．you need to organize other students in ECAs

The color red often means danger --- and by paying attention, accidents can be prevented. At railroad crossings, flashing red fights warn cars to stay back. A red light at a traffic crossing tells cars to stop, so they don't run into other cars.
In the future, the color red also may help prevent danger at construction sites. Thanks to new work by engineers, bridge supports --- or other kinds of materials --- could one day contain a color-changing material. It will turn red before a structure collapses(倒塌) or falls apart.
The secret behind the color-changing material is a particular type of molecule(分子). Molecules come in all shapes and sizes, and make up everything you can see, touch or feel. How a molecule behaves depends on what kinds of atoms(原子) it contains, and how they're held together.
To get a rough picture of one way atoms are held together in a molecule, imagine you and your friends standing in a large circle, holding hands. Each person represents one atom, your clasped hands represent the bond, and the entire circle represents a molecule.
The molecule being used to turn the material red is called mechanophore(機(jī)械響應(yīng)性聚合物). When one chemical bond in the mechanophore molecule breaks, the rest of the molecule turns red.
There is a way to get rid of~ the red color: light. When a bright light is shone on the mechanophore, the broken bond is fixed and the red color disappears. This "self-healing" may be a problem for engineers who want to use the color-changer in big construction projects that will be outside, in the sunlight. And if bright light keeps the red color from appearing, then the mechanophore's warning system will be useless.
Scientists still have a lot of work to do before the color-changing molecules can be used outside the lab. If mechanophore can be used in the real world, they are suggested to be employed in a new kind of paint.
小題1:The first paragraph mainly tells us __________.

A．the color red is widely used in our life

B．how to prevent car accidents

C．the color is an important signal of warning

D．how to use color red

小題2:The color red will be used at construction sites to _________.

A．tell different materials used in the building

B．warn people that the building is dangerous

C．make the building more beautiful

D．tell people the building is under construction

小題3:The example given in the fourth paragraph is to show _________.

A．the way atoms are held together in a molecule

B．how a molecule behaves in an object

C．how to play an old game

D．how people get along with each other

小題4:What can make the mechanophore’s warning system ineffective?

A．Paints

B．Water

C．Poor building materials

D．The bright light

When Armida Armato’s daughter, Alexia, came home from school one day last year keen to go on a school trip to Ecuador, she wasn’t too sure how to feel. She was happy that her daughter could experience something she never did as a teen but was fearful of letting her travel to such a remote part of the world.
Alexia was 16 at the time, a student at Westwood High School. The school sponsored a humanitarian trip for 26 students and two teachers to spend 18 days living in a mountain village to build a one-room school. Even though Armato trusted her daughter, the other students and the teachers, she was worried about the side effects from the travel vaccines, possible accidents, and medical care.
Now that Alexia was home, Armato said she saw her daughter’s new maturity, greater confidence and independence. “This is the best thing I ever did,” Alexia said. “The experience was so eye-opening and life-changing. You’re with people who are not as lucky as you are. They live in very poor conditions but they’re so happy and outgoing. You say, ‘My God. I’m taking everything for granted back home.’”
She said they built a one-room school from scratch with no mechanical cement mixers. They used their hands, shovels and basic tools. She and another student lived with a local family in a small village about eight hours outside the capital, Quito. Despite the initial strangeness and knowing only basic Spanish, she said they grew very close and felt like a family.
Every year, groups of students at Montreal High School like Alexia pack their bags and fly off with classmates and teachers to developing countries where they volunteer for a variety of projects.
“Armato’s worries are very common among parents,” says Bill Nevin, a teacher at St. George’s High School. He organizes a humanitarian rip to India to the Sheela Bal Bhavan orphanage and says the three biggest fears families have are health, security and contact.
小題1:When hearing the news that her daughter would go on a school trip to Ecuador, Armato was _______.

A．proud and happy	B．supportive but concerned
C．fearful and nervous	D．excited but puzzled

小題2:The underlined phrase “from scratch” in Paragraph 4 probably means “______”.

A．having great help	B．using high technology
C．ending up in failure	D．starting from the beginning

小題3:What would be the best title for the text?

A．Volunteering helps students grow and develop.

B．School trips make parents worried about their children.

C．Ecuador is the most attractive travel destination in the world.

D．Brave Alexia dreams to work in Ecuador one day.

Until recently, the "science of the future" was supposed to be electronics and artificial intelligence. Today it seems more and more likely that the next great breakthroughs in technology will be brought through a combination of those two sciences with organic chemistry and genetic engineering. This combination is the science of biotechnology.
Organic chemistry enables us to produce marvelous synthetic materials. However, it is still difficult to manufacture anything that has the capacity of wool to conserve (保存) heat and also to absorb moisture. Nothing that we have been able to produce so far comes anywhere near the combination of strength, lightness and flexibility that we find in the bodies of ordinary insects.
Nevertheless, scientists in the laboratory have already succeeded in "growing" a material that has many of the characteristics of human skin. The next step may well be "biotech hearts and eyes" which can replace diseased organs in human beings. These will not be rejected by the body, as is the case with organs from humans.
The application of biotechnology to energy production seems even more promising. In 1996 the famous science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, many of whose previous predictions have come true, said that we may soon be able to develop remarkably cheap and renewable sources of energy. Some of these power sources will be biological. Clarke and others have warned us repeatedly that sooner or later we will have to give up our dependence on non-renewable power sources. Coal, oil and gas are indeed convenient. However, using them also means creating dangerously high levels of pollution. It will be impossible to meet the growing demand for energy without increasing that pollution to catastrophic (災(zāi)難性的) levels unless we develop power sources that are both cheaper and cleaner.
It is attempting to think that biotechnology or some other "science of the future" can solve our problems. Before we surrender to that temptation we should remember nuclear power. Only a few generations ago it seemed to promise limitless, cheap and safe energy. Today those promises lie buried in a concrete grave in a place called Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. Biotechnology is unlikely, however, to break its promises in quite the same or such a dangerous way.
小題1:According to the passage, the science of the future is likely to be ________.

A．electronics	B．biotechnology
C．genetic engineering	D．nuclear technology

小題2:The materials produced with organic chemistry are ________.at present.

A．a(chǎn)s good as wool

B．a(chǎn)s good as an insect's body

C．better than natural materials

D．not as good as natural materials

小題3:According to the passage, it may soon be possible ________.

A．to transplant human organs

B．to make artificial hearts and eyes

C．to produce drugs without side effects

D．to make something as good as human skin

小題4:In 1996, Arthur C. Clarke predicted that_______.
A. the Chernobyl disaster would happen in two years
B. we will never stop using non-renewable power sources biological  
C. oil, gas and coal could be repeatedly used in the future
D. power sources would be put into use soon
小題5:What do we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Biological power will keep all its promises.

B．Biological power is cheaper than nuclear power.

C．Biotechnology can solve all our future energy problems

D．Biological power may not be as dangerous as nuclear power

It has been argued by some that gifted children should be grouped in special classes. The     __  __ has been on the belief that in regular classes these children are held back in their intellectual (智力的) growth by learning situation that has designed for the         children.
There can be little doubt that         classes can help the gifted children to graduate earlier and take their place in life sooner. However, to take these         out of the regular classes may create serious problems.
Many are concerned that gifted children become         and lose interest in learning. However this concern is more often from parents and teachers than from students, and some of these         simply conclude that special classes should be set up for those who are talented. Some top students do feel bored in class, but why they         so goes far beyond the work they have in school. Studies have shown that to be bored is to be anxious. The gifted child who is bored is an         child.

小題1:	A．principle B．theory C．a(chǎn)rguement D．classification

小題2:	A．smart B．poor C．mature D．a(chǎn)verage

小題3:	A．regular B．special C．small D．creative

小題4:	A．children B．programs C．graduates D．designs

小題5:	A．doubted B．bored C．worried D．tired

小題6:	A．students B．a(chǎn)dults C．scholars D．teachers

小題7:	A．believe B．think C．say D．feel

小題8:	A．outstanding B．intelligent C．a(chǎn)nxious D．ordinary

Pilling a cat can be a 'terrible” experience. Cats don’t want something pushed down their throats, and they’ll fight with all their strength to prevent it. In fact, it’s amazing how powerful their small bodies can be.
The easiest way of pilling a cat is to press the pill into powder. Then mix the powder with a small amount of wet food. If your cat usually eats dry food, she will probably view the wet food as a treat and eat it up.
If your cat won’t eat the wet food that contains the pill or if she is too ill to eat, you can get a “pill gun”. There are some basic instructions. Getting your cat’s mouth to open is going to be the most difficult part. First, be sure the pill is in a handy place. Then you can put your cat on a bookshelf with her bottom in a corner or you can put her on your lap firmly tied. Have your cat facing to the right if you’re right-handed. With your left hand, hold your cat at the cheekbones, putting your palm (手掌) at the top of her head. Keeping your finger off the trigger (扳機(jī)), with your right hand, Insert the pill gun until the pill is positioned over the tongue and open throat Be sure to give your cat a treat directly after giving the pill.
If you don’t feel comfortable using a pill gun, you can try giving the pill by hand. Push your cat’s head backwards just far enough so that her nose is pointing towards the ceiling. At this point, most cats will slightly open their mouths. With the little finger or ring finger of the hand holding the pill, open the bottom jaw a little more. You may need to hold her top jaw with your other hand while doing this. Aim straight and lightly throw the pill or drop it. Most cats will then swallow the pill.
小題1:Pilling a cat can be a terrible experience because cats ______.

A．a(chǎn)re amazingly powerful and dangerous

B．may fight with all their strength against pills

C．refuse something pressed down their throats

D．a(chǎn)re difficult to treat once they’ve got ill

小題2:Which of the following statements is true according to the second paragraph?

A．Wet food with medicine is usually a treat to cats.

B．Cats used to dry food must reject wet food.

C．The easiest pilling is to press the pill into powder.

D．Cats arc most likely interested in something new.

小題3:Using a “pill gun”, you had better hold your cat ______ if you’re left-handed.

A．facing to the right	B．with your right hand
C．a(chǎn)t the head	D．on your lap firmly

小題4:A cat probably opens its mouth naturally when ______.

A．its nose is straight upwards	B．it is touched by fingers
C．its head is turning around	D．it is served with its favorite pills

Will online courses transform world of education?
Some may wonder what it feels like to attend a class at Stanford University. The recently popular MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) can satisfy this desire. But they are also most likely to change the situation of higher education. Only last month，both Peking University and Tsinghua University announced plans to start open online course on the edX platform，one of the world’s major providers of MOOCs，to explore this new form of online education.
Gaining momentum(勢(shì)頭)
“It’s not only a change of platforms from offline to online. It’s more about a reform of
teaching methods，even the whole education system，”said Chen Jining，president of Tsinghua University.
The potential of MOOCs to reform education has been obvious in the US ever since the immediate popularity of the course Artificial Intelligence，taught by Stanford University professor Sebastian Thrun, who later co-founded Udacity, a platform with 1.6 million enrolled(注冊(cè)) students in 200 countries. According to Nature magazine，by June 2013，74 percent of universities in the US offered some type of online course. Lu Fang, vice-president of Fudan University，explains the appeal of MOOCs as a simple case of supply and demand：“The demand for high quality educational resources from both enrolled students and professionals is feeding the rise of MOOCs，in which classes usually taught by top teachers are available to everyone，”said Lu.
Too early to replace
With easy access and free of charge, MOOCs are said to have the potential to change the present education system. But there are barriers，because hardly any universities offer degree certificates, as college administrators point out, it’s difficult to confirm if students are foaming anything in MOOCs，reposed USA Today．
The Wall Street Journal also reposed that，presently，a typical MOOC student is likely to have
already graduated from college and is using the course to explore an interest or acquire professional
skills. Even so, an increasing number of undergraduates are signing up.
“What we are really establishing(創(chuàng)建)are educational pathways for people who want skills that are related to contemporary jobs，”Thrun told The Wall Street Journal．
小題1:MOOCs have been considered likely to reform education since___________．

A．the founding of Udacity

B．the wide application of online education

C．the popularity of the course Artificial Intelligence

D．the opening of MOOCs on the edX platform in China

小題2:According to Lu Fang, MOOCs have become popular because___________．

A．high quality educational resources are in demand

B．students can attend courses in famous universities

C．college students have access to famous teachers

D．MOOCs have brought about revolution in education

小題3:What can we learn from the passage?

A．Most of the MOOCs focus on professional training for college graduates．

B．There are barriers for MOOCs to replace the present education system．

C．International companies prefer applicants who graduate from MOOCs．

D．More and more undergraduates have realized the limits of MOOCs．

小題4:The author’s attitude towards MOOCs is___________．

A．doubtful

B．negative

C．critical

D．optimistic

What’s the greenest place in America? If you answered something like the warm sunlight of Santa Barbara, you’d be wrong. The greenest place in America has almost no sign of nature— the buildings outnumber the trees— and the air isn’t all that great. What it has is density(密度)and efficiency— the twin qualities that finally define green in the global warming time. Applying those standards，the greenest place in America is New York City— particularly，the overcrowded，overpriced island of Manhattan, which produces 30％ less per-capita(人均)greenhouse gas than that of the nation．
It’s that density that makes Manhattan so green. Manhattan’s population density is 800 times the national average. Density comes with negatives，certainly— small living spaces，air pollution— but it also enables amazing efficiencies．Over 80％ of Manhattanites travel to work by public transport, by bike or on foot— compared to an average of about 8％ everywhere else in the country. Manhattan’s apartment buildings are far more energy-efficient than the houses in the suburbs.
What’s true of New York City is more or less true of other American urban areas, which explains why a growing part of the environmental movement now focuses on greening cities, hoping to attract more Americans back downtown. There’s an effort to make cities more sustainable(可持續(xù)的)，by improving public transport，reducing air pollution and upgrading energy efficiency. But even more important, it is quite urgent to change decades of government policies that have been in favor of the suburbs，with disastrous consequences for energy，the environment and the climate.
That’s exactly the difficult point. For all the high efficiency and convenience and richness of living in a city，there are disadvantages too．New York，for example，has some of the highest childhood asthma(哮喘)rates in the U.S.
So it’s welcome news that New York has continued to push its P1aNYC scheme, a long-term program to make the city greener and more sustainable over the next decades. Recently it announced an update to the plan that includes phasing out heavy heating oils in New York City apartment buildings by 2030，to be replaced with cleaner natural gas.
小題1:Manhattan is considered as the greenest place in America because of its__________

A．buildings and trees	B．density and efficiency
C．sunlight and nature	D．transport and population

小題2:We can infer from the passage that___________.

A．New Yorkers have urged the city government to carry out green policies

B．the public transport and living space are quite satisfactory in New York

C．life in the countryside is more comfortable and energy efficient than that in cities

D．the significance of making cities greener is gained in promoting energy efficiency

小題3:The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to___________.

A．New York city	B．PlaNYC scheme
C．Manhattan	D．Santa Barbara

小題4:The underlined part “phasing out” in the last paragraph probably means___________.

A．rapidly promoting dealing with

B．widely suggesting researching on

C．gradually stopping using

D．immediately forbidding producing

小題5:What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Manhattan the Greenest Place in America?

B．The Higher Density，the Greener City?

C．PlaNYC Scheme：New York City’s Future

D．Living in Cities Does Good to the Environment

Coffee is a powerful beverage．On a personal level，it helps keep US awake and active．On a much broader level，it has helped shape our history and continues to shape our culture．
Coffee didn’t take off until the l400s when people figured out they could roast its seeds．By the l500s，the drink had spread to coffeehouses across the Arab world．Within another l50 years，it took Europe by storm．
“It actually had a major impact on the rise of business，” historian Mark Pendergrast says．Coffeehouses became a spot not just to enjoy a cup but to exchange ideas．The insurer Lloyd’s of London was founded hundreds of years ago in one of London’s 2,000 coffeehouses．Literature，newspapers and even the works of great composers like Bach and Beethoven were also spawned(涌現(xiàn))in coffeehouses．
It is often said that after the Boston Tea Party of l773，when American colonists attacked British tea ships and threw boxes of tea into the harbor，Americans universally switched over to drinking coffee．In a letter John Adams wrote to his wife，Abigail，the Founding Father claims his love of tea but says he will have to learn to embrace coffee instead，because drinking tea had become a symbol of not loving the country．
For all the upsides coffee has brought the modern world，it also led to its fair share of downsides，too．Europeans carried coffee with them as they colonized various parts of the world，and this frequently meant they enslaved people in order to grow it．In Brazil — where slavery was legal until l888 — coffee plantations would use slash-and-burn agriculture，tearing down rain forests and planting coffee trees．Once the soil had been exhausted，growers would move on to another place．
And yet，coffee，as Pendergrast says，”had a very good impact in many ways on our civilization，even though it was，for a long time，grown by slaves．”
小題1:Why did people enjoy going to coffeehouses?

A．Because it was a fashion to drink coffee．

B．Because coffeehouses provided a better flavor．

C．Because they could stay awake and active there．

D．Because they could exchange ideas there．

小題2:What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?

A．American colonists made great profits by trading in coffee．

B．Tea was regarded as a symbol of loving one’s country．

C．Coffee became very popular after the incident in Boston．

D．John Adams was the Founding Father of the Tea Party．

小題3:In the fifth paragraph．the writer points out that __________ .

A．Coffee plantation was closely connected with slavery

B．coffee plantation led to outdated agriculture in Brazil

C．slavery in Brazil had been against the law until l888

D．slavery was responsible for the damage to rainforests

小題4:What is mainly talked about in this passage?

A．Some interesting stories about coffee culture．

B．Important Roles that coffee played in history．

C．How coffee became the most popular beverage．

D．How coffee affected America’s independence．

Some people have travelled to Canada while others may have just heard of it . As is known to all, the Canadian red and white maple leaf flag is officially called The National Flag of Canada. The Canadian flag shows a stylized red maple leaf with 11 points on a white background, with red borders down each side. The Canadian flag is twice as long as its width. The white square containing the red maple leaf is the same width as the flag. Canada is a very large country, too. It is the second largest country in the world.By contrast, it has a very small population. There are only about 29 millinon people there. Most Canadians are of British or French origin, and French is an official language as well English. About 45 % of the people are of British origin, that is, they or their parents or grandparents, etc, come from Britain. Nearly 30 % are of French origin. Most of the French-Canadians live in the province of quebec. Over the years people have come to live in Canada from many countries in the world. They are mostly from European countries and also from China, as well as other Asian countries.
However , Canada was not an empty country when the Europeans began to arrive. Canadian-Indian lived along the coast, bythe rivers and lakes and in forests. Today there are only 350,000 Canadian-Indians in the whole country, with their own language. In the far north live the Inuits. There are only 27, 000 Canadian-Inuits. Their life is hard in such a harsh climate.
小題1:What is the populatin of Quebec?

A．More than 29, 000.000

B．About 30% of the total population.

C．Over 45% of th etotal population

D．Less than 30% of the French-Canadians.

小題2:Which of the following stands for Canada?
                                                 
小題3:Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?

A．The Canadian flag I stwice as wide as its length.

B．Most Indians are now forced to live along the coast.

C．Nowadays Inuit still have difficult living conditions.

D．Nobody existed when the Europeans began to arrive in Canada.