During the last twenty years there has been increasing concern with the quality of the environment. Along with air and water pollutions, noises pollution has been recognized as a serious pollutant. As noise levels have risen, the effects of noise have become more apparent.
Noise is defined as "unwanted sound". Causes of noise pollution include traffic, aircraft, rock bands, barking dogs, televisions, garbage trucks, and noise from neighbors, voices, alarms, and watercrafts. Studies show that over forty percent of Americans are disturbed at home or lose sleep because of noise pollution.
Noise has bad effects on people and the environment. Noise causes hearing loss, interferes (妨礙) with human activities at home and work, and is in various ways dangerous to people's health and well being.
When we think, talk, listen to music, or sleep, we need quiet. Even low levels of noise can be annoying or frustrating. Sudden increases in volume can make sounds annoying. The quieter the background is, the more penetrating a noise can be.
Noise can also make instructions or warning unclear, resulting in accidents. Louder noise bursts can be more disruptive (破壞性).Continued stress can lead to high blood pressure, which is the major cause of some diseases.
Long exposure to noise levels above eight-five decibels (分貝) can damage inner cells and lead to hearing loss. Noise can result in the involuntary fear response and can cause adrenaline (腎上腺素) to be pumped into the bloodstream, the heart rate to quicken, muscles to tense, breathing to increase, and the digestive system to slow down.
Local government has the responsibility to fight noise pollution. For example, it can regulate the speed of trains through their community. On the other hand, a responsible citizen will never make noise pollution wherever he is.
小題1: How many kinds of environmental pollution are mentioned in the text?  

A．Two

B．Three

C．Four

D．Five

小題2:According to the text, noise pollution may be caused by         .  

A．parties and meetings	B．zoos and theaters
C．schools and factories	D．vehicles and animals

小題3:What does the underlined word "penetrating" in paragraph 4 mean?  

A．High and exciting	B．Sharp and shocking
C．Loud and unpleasant	D．Clear and comfortable

小題4:In the last paragraph, the writer suggests that         .  

A．individuals and government should work together to reduce noise pollution

B．the government should offer it's people better education on noise pollution

C．the government should be responsible for noise pollution

D．people who make noise pollution should be punished

小題5:Which of the following is not related to noise pollution?  

A．hearing loss	B．speeding the digestive system
C．high blood pressure	D．a(chǎn)ccidents

It happened one morning 20 years ago. A British scientist Alec Jeffrey came across DNA fingerprinting: He identified the patterns of genetic material that are unique to almost every individual. His discovery changed everything from the way we do criminal investigations to the way we decide family law. But the professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, UK, is still surprised, and a bit worried, by the power of the technology he released upon the world.
The patterns within DNA are unique to each individual, except identical twins, who share the same pattern. The ability to identify these patterns has been used to convict(證明…有罪) murderers and to clear people who are wrongly accused. It is also used to identify the victims of war and settle disputes over who is the father of a child.
Jeffrey said he and his colleagues made the discovery by accident while tracking genetic variations(變異). But, within six months of the discovery, genetic fingerprinting had been used in an immigration case, to prove that an African boy really was his parents’ son.·In 1986, it was used for the first time in a British criminal case: It cleared one suspect after being accused of two murders and helped convict another man.
DNA testing is now very common. In Britain, a national criminal database established in 1995 now contains 2.5 million DNA samples. The U.S. and Canada are developing similar systems. But there are fears about the stored DNA samples and how they could be used to harm a person’s privacy. That includes a person’s medical history, racial origin or psychological profile. “There is the long-term risk that people can get into these samples and start getting additional information about a person’s paternity(父子關(guān)系) or risk of disease,” Jeffrey said.
DNA testing is not an unfailing proof of identity. Still, it is considered a reasonably reliable system for determining the things it is used for. Jeffrey estimates the probability of two individuals’ DNA profiles matching in the most commonly used tests at one in a billion.
小題1:According to the text, DNA testing can NOT be used in _______ .

A．doing criminal investigations	B．deciding faraily law
C．clearmg wrongly accused people	D．telling twins apart

小題2:DNA samples are not popular with all the people because _______ .

A．the government in Britain establishes a criminal database

B．the US and Canada develop similar systems

C．DNA samples can be used to harm a person’s privacy

D．DNA testing is too expensive and dangerous now

小題3:Where will you most probably find this article?

A．In a guidebook.	B．In a storybook.
C．In a science fiction.	D．In a scientific magazine.

小題4:Which is the best title for the passage?

A．Discovery of DNA testing by Jeffery	B．Practice of DNA testing in court
C．DNA testing in the present situation	D．Benefits and side effects of DNA testing

Photographs are everywhere. They decorate the walls of homes and are used in stores for sales of different goods. The news is filled with pictures of fires, floods, and special events. Photos record the beauties of nature. They can also bring things close that are far away. Through photos, people can see wild animals, cities in foreign lands, and even the stars in outer space. Photos also tell stories.
Reporting the news through photos is called photojournalism. At times photojournalists tell their stories through a single picture. At other times, they use a group of pictures to tell a story. Each picture is like a chapter in a book, which can do more than record the facts. It can also be a strong force for social change.
Jacob Riis was among the first photojournalists. He took pictures of parts of New York City where the poor lived. Riis believed that poverty caused crime, and he used photos to help him prove his point. A few years later, the photos of small children working in factories by Lewis Hine shocked the public. Hine’s pictures helped bring about laws to protect such children.
Hundreds of pictures may have to be taken in order to get one or two really good photos. It takes science to have the photo come out clearly and art to make a photo that has a good design and expresses feeling. Photojournalists make an actual record of what they see. A photo, however, can be both a work of art and an actual record. It can record an important event as a beautiful or exciting picture.
As historical and artistic documents(文獻(xiàn)), photos can become more important over time. Today photojournalists still have their pictures appear in newspapers and magazines. They also publish them in books and on the Internet.
小題1:The underlined word “They” in the first paragraph refers to        .

A．beauties

B．photos

C．goods

D．events

小題2:The photos of the small children by Hine show us that photos          .

A．a(chǎn)re also works of art	B．a(chǎn)re popular ways of reporting news
C．often shock the public	D．can serve as a force for social change

小題3:What can we learn from the passage?

A．News with pictures is encouraging.

B．Photos help people improve their life.

C．News photos mean history in a sense.

D．People prefer reading news with pictures.

小題4:The text is mainly about      .

A．telling the story through picture	B．decorating the walls of homes
C．publishing historical papers	D．expressing feeling through pictures

At one time, computers were expected largely to remove the need for paper copies of documents (文件) because they could be stored electronically. But for all the texts that are written, stored and sent electronically, a lot of them are still ending up on paper.
It is difficult to measure the quantity of paper used as a result of use of Internet-connected computers, although just about anyone who works in an office can tell you that when e-mail is introduced, the printers start working overtime. "I feel in my bones this revolution is causing more trees to be cut down," says Ted Smith of the Earth Village Organization.
Perhaps the best sign of how computer and Internet use pushes up demand for paper comes from the high-tech industry itself, which sees printing as one of its most promising new markets. Several Internet companies have been set up to help small businesses print quality documents from a computer. Earlier this week Hewlett-Packard Co. announced a plan to develop new technologies that will enable people to print even more so they can get a hard copy of a business document, a medical record or just a one-line e-mail, even if they are nowhere near a computer. As the company sees it, the more use of the Internet the greater demand for printers.
Does all this mean environmental concerns (環(huán)境問題) have been forgotten? Some activists suggest people have been led to believe that a lot of dangers to the environment have gone away. " I guess people believe that the problem is taken care of, because of recycling (回收利用) " said Kelly Quirke, director of the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco. Yet Quirke is hopeful that high-tech may also prove helpful. He says printers that print on both sides are growing in popularity. The action group has also found acceptable paper made from materials other than wood, such as agricultural waste.
小題1: The growing demand for paper in recent years is largely due to ________.

A．the rapid development of small businesses

B．the opening up of new markets

C．the printing of high quality copies

D．the increased use of the Internet

小題2:Environmentalists believe one possible way of dealing with the paper situation is ________.

A．to encourage printing more quality documents

B．to develop new printers using recycled paper

C．to find new materials for making paper

D．to plant more fast-growing trees

小題3:Hewlett-Packard Co. has decided to develop new technologies because _______.

A．people are concerned about the environment

B．printers in many offices are working overtime

C．small companies need more hard copies

D．they see a growing market for printers

As if there weren’t enough of them in the world already, scientists have succeeded in cloning flies. The alike fruit flies are the first insects ever cloned, says the Canadian team that created them. The question everyone asks is why anyone would want to clone flies in the first place. She hopes that the insects , which are very easy to experiment with , will help to adjust the cloning process in other animals and even in humans, where the technique is being researched to aid production of therapeutic (治療的) stem cells.
In cloning, the DNA-containing nucleus of an adult cell is injected into an egg whose own nucleus(細(xì)胞核) has been removed. At the moment, the majority of cloned mice, sheep and other animals die before birth. It is thought this is because the adult DNA is not properly ‘reprogrammed’.
Using flies, researchers might discover genes that are important for this reprogramming, and that have matches in other animals. That is because it is relatively easy in flies to knock out the function of a single gene and then attempt cloning with these cells, which will test whether that gene is important. If such genes are confirmed, then in theory cloned mammalian embryos(晶胚) might be grown in selected solutions that change the activity of those genes to improve the technique’s success rate. Although some groups have attempted to clone insects before, Lloyd says this is the first time it has been successful. The team used a slight difference on the standard cloning process: they transferred nuclei taken from embryos rather than fully-grown adult cells. They sucked several nuclei (pl)out of developing fly embryos, and injected them into a fertilized(已受精的) fly egg. From over 800 early attempts, they cloned five adult insects, the group reports in the journal Genetics.
小題1:The best title of this passage probably is _______.

A．The importance of clone

B．First insects are cloned

C．The disagreement in clone

D．The advantages of clone

小題2:The scientists cloned flies because________.

A．there are fewer and fewer flies in the world

B．flies are easy to find and cheap to use

C．they can gain some experience before cloning other animals

D．it is safe to clone flies

小題3:The failure of most cloned animals is due to _______.

A．the difference of other animals’ genes

B．the improper technique of clone

C．the complex of other animals

D．the improper rearrange of the adult gene

小題4:It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ______.

A．the clone of insects before used grown-up cells

B．the clone of insects were never experimented before

C．this time scientists cloned flies successfully and easily

D．based on this success, other animals will be cloned in large quantities.

“Most experiences of absent-mindedness ,forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room , are caused by a simple lack of attention, ” says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something, but you haven’t encoded（編碼） it deeply.”
　Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impression on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create troublesome situations. If you　put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did because you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in your cupboard. “ Your memory itself isn’t failing you, ” says Schacter, “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”  http://wx.jtyjy.com/
　Lack of interest can also lead to absent -mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago, ” says Zelinski, “ may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.”Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory depends on just that.
　　“Visual cues（ 視覺提示 ）can help prevent absent--mindedness, ”says Schacter, “But be sure the cue is clear and available. ”If you want to remember to take a medicine with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine box and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.
　　Another common experience of absent - mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time, ”says Zelinski. “The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.”
小題1:The writer of the passage thinks that encoding properly is very important because ________.

A．it enables us to recall something from our memory

B．it slows down the process of losing our memory

C．it helps us understand our memory system better

D．it helps us to get back to where we were

小題2:One possible reason why women have a little better memories than men is that________.

A．they rely more on the environment

B．they have a wider range of interests

C．they have an unusual power of focusing their attention

D．they are more interested in what’s happening around them

小題3:Why can a note in the pocket hardly serve as a reminder? ________.

A．It will easily get lost

B．It is out of your sight

C．It’s not clear enough for you to read

D．It might get mixed up with other things

小題4:From the last paragraph we can learn that________.

A．repetition might help improve our memory

B．memory depends to a certain extent on the environment

C．we’d better return to where we were if we forget things

D．we should think about something else while doing one thing

小題5:The passage is mainly about ________.

A．the memory system of persons

B．a(chǎn) way of encoding and recalling

C．the causes of absent-mindedness

D．the impression of the environment on memory

We are living in a wonderful age, which has become wonderful largely through the scientific discoveries and inventions. There are always new discoveries and new knowledge ahead in every field. For example, much is yet to be discovered in electricity. Weather forecasting is an important area today. Science is doing much in the control of diseases.
Science is a never-ending road for us to go along. Every field gives changes to the person who wants to make science his life work.
Science is also a method of thinking, which can teach us how to solve problems and help us to arrive at the truth. The men and women who will be the scientists of tomorrow are in our colleges, factories and farms today. We are all potential scientists.
小題1: The main idea of this passage is _____.

A．a(chǎn)ll scientists begin to study when they are very young

B．science teaches us how to work better

C．science is a never-ending road for people to go along

D．weather forecasting is important

小題2:Discoveries and inventions are the results of the study and use of _____.

A．electricity

B．science

C．weather

D．the truth

小題3:There are always discoveries _____ for people to make.

A．in electricity	B．in weather forecasting
C．in every field	D．in thinking

小題4: Science teaches us how to work by ______ method.

A．important

B．scientific

C．old

D．new

小題5:The underlined word "potential" means _____.

A．worth

B．probable

C．learned

D．lazy

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(rèn)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．logic

B．mental faculties

C．learning ability

D．working-memory capacity

小題2:If you need to decide where to invest your money, you must use your ______________

A．IQ scores

B．IQ test

C．rational thinking

D．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

Science has told us too much about the moon that it is fairly easy to imagine what it would be like to get there. It is certainly not a friendly place. Since there is no air or water, there can be no life of any kind. There is not much variety of scenery either. For mile after mile there are only flat plains of dust with mountains around them. Above, the sun and stars shine in the black sky. If you step out of the mountain shadow, it means moving from the severe cold into intense (強(qiáng)烈的) heat. These extreme temperatures continually break rocks away from the surface of the mountains. The moon is also a very silent world, for sound waves can only travel through air. But beyond the broken horizon, you see a friendly sight. Our earth is shining more brightly than the stars. From this distance, it looks like an immense (巨大的) blue, green and brown ball.
小題1:The moon is an unfriendly place because                   .

A．there is no air, no water, no life, no scenery	B．the sun and stars shine in the sky
C．temperature breaks rock away	D．a(chǎn)ll of the above

小題2:Without           , the moon is a silent world.

A．man

B．a(chǎn)ir

C．sound

D．water

小題3:According to the passage we know that             .

A．the earth looks like a colored ball

B．we can enjoy the scenery on the moon

C．every inch of the moon is very hot

D．the extreme temperature breaks rocks away from the surface of mountains

小題4:We can conclude（斷定） that “continually” means          .

A．sometimes

B．a(chǎn)lways

C．without break

D．frequently

小題5:The best title for the passage is                        .

A．An Unfriendly and Friendly Place	B．The Geography of the Moon
C．Moon, a Silent World	D．The Moon

Hi guys! I’m Lucy the ladybird and while I’m very much of a lady, I’m not actually a bird but a glowing red bettle(甲蟲)with decorative black spots.
I’m a friendly little bug, to be honest, and simply like to be close with my pals as long as they handle me very gently. I don’t bite humans but I do sink my teeth into aphids (蚜蟲) which, unlike me, are very harmful to all the plants. I milk the aphids just like people do with cows and I milk them dry of all the sap (汁) they have got from your poor plants. I’m a real gardeners’ friend and love helping out around the place by pollinating (授粉) flowers, tidying up plants’ fallen leaves and helping to turn them into nice rich fertilizer to feed everything both above and below the soil, and naturally, being so attractive to look at, we are perfect living garden decorations.
One thing I can not tolerate is all that poisonous pollution from vehicles, garbage burning and other environmentally unfriendly acts that occur in the cities every single minute of the day and night. Pollution of any kind really chokes me to death, so these days, I only live in clean countryside areas, particularly cool ones where it rains and everything grows fresh and green from spring right through to autumn. In winter, when the weather is too cold for me to bear, then I find a nice place to sleep until the snow has gone and I can come back out to play.
Oh! I almost forgot to tell you that although I am not a bird I do have wings and can fly for short distances. So if you pick me up and let me run up and down your hands and arms, then please don’t frighten me by screaming if I suddenly decide to take off!
小題1:What makes Lucy the Ladybird suffer most?

A．Heavy rains.	B．Cold weather.
C．Air pollution.	D．Aphids.

小題2: Which aspects about the ladybird are talked about in the passage?
a. its appearance               b. its influence on plantsw8G
c. its habitat                  d. its food
e. the origin of its name

A．a(chǎn); c

B．a(chǎn); b; c

C．a(chǎn); b; d; e

D．a(chǎn); b; c; d

小題3:What do we know about the ladybird?

A．It belongs to the insect family.

B．It does harm to all growing plants.

C．It lives on the liquid of plants.

D．It can fly a long distance.

小題4: This passage is probably _______.

A．a(chǎn) self –introduction by a lady named Lucy

B．description of a ladybird’life

C．letter of praise for a gardener

D．a(chǎn) speech made by a woman on ladybirds