About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table，I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation．At one point the woman asked，“So，how have you been?" And the boy -who could not have been more than seven or eight years old-replied．“Frankly, I've been feeling a little depressed lately．"
This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing．As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed”，that is，in low spirits，until we were in high school．
Undoubtedly a change in children has increased steadily in recent years．Children don't seem childlike anymore．Children speak more like adults，dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to．
Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different．Childhood as it once was no longer exists．Why?
Human development is depended not only on born biological states，but also on patterns of gaining social knowledge．Movement from one social role to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new social posifions．Children have always been taught adult secrets，but slowly and in stages；traditionally,we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders．
In the last 30 years，however, a secret-revelation(揭示)machine has been equipped in 98 percent of American homes．It is called television．Television passes information to all viewers allke，whether they are children or adults．Unable to resist the temptation(誘惑)，many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging，more attractive moving pictures．
Communication through print，as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information which children will gain．Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials．
小題1:According to the author, feeling depressed is      ．

A．a(chǎn) sure sign of a mental problem in a child

B．a(chǎn) mental state present in all humans, including children

C．something that cannot be avoided in children’s mental development

D．something hardly to be expected in a young child

小題2:Traditionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world     ．

A．through connection with society

B．gradually and under guidance

C．naturally without being taught

D．through watching television

小題3:According to the author’that today’s children seem adultlike results from   ．

A．the widespread influence of television

B．the poor arrangement of teaching content

C．the fast pace of human scientific development

D．the rising standard of living

小題4:What does the anthor think of communication through print for children?

A．It enables children to gain more social information．

B．It develops children’s interest in reading and writing．

C．It helps chlldren to read and write well

D．It can control what children are to learn．

小題5:What does the author think of the change in today’s children?

A．He feels their adultlike behavior is so funny．

B．He thinks the change worthy of note．

C．He considers it a rapid development．

D．He seems to be upset about it．

One’s style of the dress reveals the human obsession with both novelty and tradition. People use clothing to declare their membership in a particular social group; however, the rules for what is acceptable dress for that group may change. In affluent societies, this changing of the rules is the driving force behind fashions. By keeping up with fashions, that is, by changing their clothing style frequently but meanwhile, members of a group both satisfy their desire for novelty and obey the rules, thus demonstrating their membership in the group.
There are some interesting variations (變種) regarding individual status. Some people, particularly in the West, consider themselves of such high status that they do not need to display it with their clothing. For example, many wealthy people in the entertainment industry appear in very casual clothes, such as the worn jeans and work boots of a manual laborer. However, it is likely that a subtle but important signal, such as an expensive wristwatch, will prevail over the message of the casual dress. Such an inverted (顛倒的)status display is most likely to occur where the person’s high status is conveyed in ways other than with clothing, such as having a famous face.
小題1:According to the author, fashions serve all the following purposes EXCEPT

A．satisfying an interest in novelty

B．signaling a change in personal beliefs

C．displaying membership in a social group

D．following traditional rules

小題2:Why does the author discuss individual status in paragraph 2?

A．To state that individual’s status is not important in the West

B．To argue that individuals need not obey every fashion rule

C．To contrast the status of entertainers with that of manual laborers

D．To explain how high status may involve an inverted status display

小題3:What’s the meaning of the underlined word?

A．newness

B．convention

C．nobleness

D．benzene

A large number of people in the world eat fast food. Whenever you go into a fast food restaurant, you can see lots of people enjoying their meals there. How do you know in which country people like fast food best?
　　The English people are the world’s biggest fans of fast food, while the French are the least interested in quick meals, according to a survey done last year.
　　The survey of thirteen countries shows 45% of the English people say they can’t give up fast food because it’s delicious. And 44% of Americans and 37% of Canadians say the same.
　　The French, proud of their delicious cuisine, don’t like fast food. 81% of them think it is unhealthy, followed by 75% of the Japanese.
　　How about the Chinese? How often do you have hamburgers or fried chicken? It doesn’t matter whether you like Western fast food or Chinese food. The most important thing is to keep a balanced diet.
小題1:According to the survey, some people can’t give up fast food because _____.

A．it’s cheap	B．it’s safe
C．it’s delicious	D．it’s healthy From the survey，

小題2:We know _____ like fast food best.

A．the Chinese

B．the French

C．the Japanese

D．the English

小題3:The survey is about _______.

A．Western countries	B．fast food
C．restaurants in the world	D．Chinese food

小題4:The word “cuisine” in the passage means _______.

A．food

B．house

C．water

D．country

No doubt that you know about Charities. Here it is another chance for you to know more. Difficult times often bring out the best in people. And this was the case for basketball star Yao Ming, who hosted a television show in Shanghai that raised US$300,000 to help researchers find a cure for SARS. Fundraising, or charity, is an act of goodwill towards others. Charities in the West have more flexible ways. Look at a typical day for Ruth, a wealthy woman in the UK, for example. Ruth wakes up in the morning and collects her post. There’s a letter addressed to her with a picture of a half-dead, beaten horse. It’s from a charity asking Ruth to donate money to save the animals. The door bell rings and there, on Ruth’s doorstep, is an old woman asking for money to help the aged. She turns on the television, hears sad music and sees a picture of a wide-eyed child dying of hunger in Africa with an appeal for money to help the child. Ruth then goes shopping for a dress to wear to that evening’s large party for the rich and famous. The ticket cost her a small fortune, but she doesn’t mind because most of the money is going to a charity that fights AIDS. She feels good about going because she’s helping the sick. Within five minutes of walking down the street, Ruth has passed a charity shop. She doesn’t stop because she doesn’t think she’d find a suitable dress there—it’s full of old, secondhand clothes. But, many other people enter and but all sorts of bargains. Edna, a little old lady, looks after the shop. Any profit it has made goes to a cancer charity. Now that she has retired, she has plenty of spare time to offer her services for free.
For people like Yao Ming, Ruth and Edna, charity is a virtue that holds the same importance in life as faith and hope. “As you look back on your life, the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others,” said Scottish author Henry Drummond.
小題1:Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the story as a way of fundraising    ?

A．Charity party	B．Charity post
C．Charity TV program	D．Charity for beggars.

小題2:What does the word “raise” in the first paragraph mean    ?

A．Collect together	B．Donate
C．Increase	D．Bring to someone’s attention.

小題3:We can infer from the passage that    .

A．Yao Ming donated US$300,000 to help researchers find a cure for SARS

B．Edna may not be a rich lady but she is willing to do something for others

C．Ruth leads a busy life and she feels very tired

D．Ruth is angry because so many people ask her for money every day

小題4:What’s the writer’s attitude towards charity    ?

A．The writer thinks it’s something only people like Ruth can afford to do

B．The writer just wants to inform us of the different ways to practice charity

C．The writer thinks it’s a virtue and admires the people who practice it

D．The writer doesn’t make it clear in the story

小題5:The underlined part in the last paragraph probably means that    .

A．when you look back sometimes, you need stand out

B．when you want to do something for others, you need stand out

C．the moment you stand out, you can do something for others

D．what impresses people deeply is what they have done for others

You're rushing to work and a man ahead of you falls down on the sidewalk. Do you stop to help? In a study of by-standers, it was found that some people keep on walking.
"There is a tendency to decide that no action is needed," says a psychologist, "In order to take action, you have to work against them." Here are some common thoughts that stop you from helping.
●Why should I be the one? I'm probably not the most able person in this crowd. You might think someone older or with more medical knowledge should offer assistance.
●What if he doesn't really need my help? The fear of embarrassment is powerful; no one wants to risk looking foolish in front of others.
●No one else looks concerned. We can follow the people around us, but most people tend to hold back their emotions in public.
"If you spot trouble and find yourself explaining inaction, force yourself to stop and figure out the situation instead of walking on," says the psychologist. "Then retry to involve other people; you don't have to take on the entire responsibility of being helpful. Sometimes it's just a matter of turning to the person next to you and saying, 'It looks like we should do something.' Or asking someone if an ambulance has been called and, if not, to call for one. Once you take action, most people will follow you."
小題1:Which is NOT the common thought that stops you from helping others?

A．I'm not the very capable person.

B．It looks like we should do something.

C．No one else is concerned.

D．He doesn't really need my help.

小題2:In order to offer your timely help, you need to               .

A．go directly to the police station

B．get along well with the passers-by who spot the trouble

C．a(chǎn)sk others for help and call the police

D．work against the first thoughts that stop you from offering help

小題3:The main purpose of the passage is to tell readers                               .

A．to give others a hand	B．to be more able
C．to explain their inaction	D．to evaluate the situation

Although the U.S. is so big and its people have so many different ethnic (racial) backgrounds, it is in some ways less varied than Europe. The English language is used almost everywhere in its American form. The American way of speaking has developed independently of England and is on the whole closer to what can be heard in Ireland.
American instance of uniformity（一致性） is in habits and ways of living. From Boston to Los Angeles it is as far as from France to Central Asia, and from east to west there are five time zones; but everywhere people get up and go to bed at about the same time, eat the same kind of food, buy in the same kind of shops, work and rest at the same times of the day and have the same pattern of holidays. In most of the things that matter there is less difference between rich people and ordinary people, or between town and country, than in any single European nation.
Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs, its people are by now almost entirely an urban society. Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture, and most of the rest live in or around towns, large and small. Here the traditional picture is changing; most Americans do not live in small towns any more. Half the population now live in some thirty metropolitan（大城市的） areas.
The fact that the United states has always been a single economic unit has contributed to uniformity. Modern industry favors large organizations, and it is no accident that the world’s biggest commercial firms are American. The people can choose between the products of competing manufacturers, but the products are all much alike.
小題1:In describing the uniformity in the U.S. the author does not mention that

A．the American people get up and go to work at the same time.

B．the American people spend their holidays in the same pattern.

C．the American people buy and eat the same kind of food.

D．the American people have more or less the same income.

小題2:What can we learn from the passage about the U.S. agriculture?

A．The American farmers need more land than before.

B．More and more Americans are interested in farming.

C．It is quite modernized.

D．It is now going backward.

小題3:What is the feature of the U.S. modern industry according to the last paragraph?

A．The production scale and the organizational scale are very big.

B．It is a single economic unit that manufactures the same kind of products.

C．There are more and more competing manufacturers.

D．There are always a variety of products to choose from.

小題4:What does “most of the things” in the second paragraph refer to?

A．food, clothing and houses.

B．Cars, computers and TV sets.

C．Their wealth and income.

D．Land, housing and bank savings.

“You are going abroad and will live there? Oh, wonderful! You are so lucky.”
Perhaps your family and friends said similar things to you when you left home. But is it true all the time? Is your life in the new country always wonderful and exciting?
Specialists say that it isn’t that easy to get used to life in a new culture. “Culture shock” (沖擊) is the term specialists use when talking about the feelings that people have in a new environment. “There are three stages of culture shock,” say the specialists. In the first stage, the newcomers like their new environment. Then, when the fresh experience dies, they begin to hate the city, the country, the people, and everything else. In the last stage, the newcomers adapt to their surroundings and finally enjoy their life there.
Culture shock arises from many obvious factors. The weather may be unpleasant. The customs may be different. The public service systems such as the telephone, post office, or transportation may be difficult to work out. Even the simplest things become headaches. Still worse, the language may be difficult.
Who feels culture shock? Everyone does in this way or that. But culture shock surprises most people. Very often the people having the worst culture shock are those who never had any difficulties in their home countries and were successful in their community. Coming to a new country, these people find they do not have the same established positions. They find themselves without a role, almost without an identity. They have to build a new self­image.
Culture shock leads to a feeling of disorientation (迷惘). This feeling may be homesickness. When homesick, people feel like staying inside all the time. They want to protect themselves from the strange environment, and create and escape inside their room for a sense of security. This escape does solve the problem of culture shock for the short term, but it does nothing to make the person familiar with the culture. Getting to know the new environment and gaining experience are the long term solutions to the problem of culture shock.
小題1:When people move to a new country, they ________.

A．find their new life always wonderful and exciting.

B．dislike the new surroundings from the beginning.

C．quickly get accustomed to the new culture there.

D．will get used to the new life with certain difficulty.

小題2:Based on the passage, which of the following results from culture shock?

A．weather conditions and customs

B．public service and transportation

C．feeling homesick and disoriented

D．language communication issues

小題3:According to the passage, the more successful you are at home, ________.

A．the fewer difficulties you will meet with abroad

B．the more problems you may have to face abroad

C．the greater success you are likely to make abroad

D．the less homesick you will eventually feel abroad

小題4:Which of the following statements is correct according to the passage?

A．Cultural shock affects and surprises those who live in a new culture.

B．A new culture makes everything difficult except the simplest things.

C．Since culture shock is painful, we can never get over it completely.

D．Escaping by staying inside does solve the problem of culture shock.

People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behavior are formed. It is not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is cooperative and another is competitive. 
Social scientists are of course extremely interested in these types of questions. They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behavior. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed. As one might expect, the two approaches are very different from each other, and there is a great deal of debate between proponents of each theory. The controversy is often conveniently referred to as “nature and nurture”．
Those who support the “nature” side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological factors. That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to an extreme，this theory states that our behavior is predetermined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts(本能)．
Proponents of the “nurture” theory, or, as they are often called, behaviorists, claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we will act. A behaviorist, B. F. Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings. The behaviorists' view of the human being is quite mechanistic. They state that, like machines, humans respond to environmental stimuli (刺激) as the basis of their behavior. 
Socially and politically, the consequences of these two theories are far-reaching. In the US，for example, blacks often score below whites on standardized intelligence tests. This leads some “nature” proponents to conclude that blacks are genetically lower in status than whites. Behaviorists, on the contrary, say that the differences in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often robbed of many of the educational and other environmental advantages that whites enjoy, and that, as a result, they do not develop the same responses that whites do.
Neither of these theories can yet fully explain human behavior. In fact, it is quite likely that the key to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes and that the controversy will continue for a long time is certain. 
小題1:This passage is mainly concerned with ________.

A．relation between personality and behavior

B．relation between behavior and environment

C．different accounts of patterns of human behavior

D．different theories of the formation of human behavior

小題2:The underlined word “proponents” in Paragraph 2 means ________.

A．creators

B．a(chǎn)dvisors

C．a(chǎn)dvocates

D．judges

小題3:In Paragraph 5, the author mainly writes about ________.

A．the considerable influence of the two theories

B．differences between the blacks and whites

C．racial discrimination in the United States

D．different responds to intelligence tests

小題4:What's the author's purpose in writing the passage?

A．To call our attention to the changes of human behavior.

B．To urge scientists to do more research in social science.

C．To give us a detailed explanation of human behavior.

D．To present an argument in the field of social science.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the money box without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most beautiful pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. 
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell’s playing in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment.
The outlines were: in a common environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we enjoy beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected situation?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”
小題1:Few people stopped to listen to Joshua Bell playing because______.

A．people were in a hurry

B．they were not interested in music

C．it was too cold in the subway

D．the performance was not good enough

小題2:When children stopped to look at the violinist, their parents ______.

A．would give him some money

B．would stop to enjoy the music

C．would applaud for the performance

D．would urge them to continue walking

小題3:Joshua Bell played in the metro station in order to ______.

A．make more money

B．practice his skills in playing music

C．made an advertisement for his concert

D．find out people’s reaction under such a circumstance

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

A．set us to think about our life

B．show us how to play music

C．tell us the importance of music

D．report a subway performance

A smart phone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing abilities than a common phone. The first smart phones enabled the users to send and receive emails. Later models added the function of portable media players, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units to form one multi-use device. Many modem smart phones also include touchscreens and web browsers that display web pages.
A recent report says we spend an average of two hours and 40 minutes each day looking at a smart phone. That doesn’t mean making calls, but playing phone games and browsing the Web.
Nowadays we always find people checking emails in a restaurant, taking a picture of the food when it arrives, or checking a message during a conversation instead of traditional communication. It’s no secret that our lives are being affected by our smart phones obsession.
However, this phenomenon has never been presented so vividly as in the short YouTube film I Forgot My Phone. Despite only being online for a few days, it's already been viewed more than 10.5 million times. Whether it will be screened in the cinema remains to be seen.
Ironically, YouTube’s data show that the site gets a billion views per day from mobile devices, so a lot of those people watched it on their phones.
The short film, written by and starring actress Charlene Deguzman, shows groups of people in various social situations, the majority of whom are absorbed in their phones instead of the world around them. To a certain extent, we all do it.
小題1:People prefer a smart phone to a common one, because the latter only can help us ______.

A．check emails

B．send messages

C．find the destination

D．watch a video

小題2:The underlined word “obsession” in the third paragraph most probably means “______”.

A．devotion

B．contribution

C．a(chǎn)ddiction

D．emotion

小題3:Which of the following is right?

A．People spend as average of two hours and 40 minutes each day using smart phones.

B．The film hasn’t been put on in the cinema.

C．The film is written by an actor named Charlene Deguzman.

D．The film has already been viewed more than 105 million times in the first few days.

小題4:When the writer mentions the number of people watching the film from mobile devices in the fifth paragraph, he mainly feels ______.

A．encouraged

B．depressed

C．proud

D．satisfied