When you buy a T-shirt, or a fur coat in a store , it often carries a label(標(biāo)簽) telling who made it or from what store it was bought. Indeed, some labels show the dress is famous and it is very expensive, so buyers who deal with the cheapest products would be pleased to do away with labels entirely.
However, there is another label more important than the one showing from which store the dress was bought. When a person buys a fur coat, or a jacket , from a store , a label telling what the product is made of should be carried to it.
This label is required by law. Besides telling what the product on show is made of , the label should be in clear English and be where one can find it easily. The information on the label must be the truth.
The reason for this label is that most buyers today aren’t expert enough to know exactly what kind of fur or material they are buying. The buyer must believe in the store that sells the products or in what the labels say.
小題1:The author doesn’t agree that_______.

A．some clothes may carry more than one label

B．some clothing stores sell cheap dresses

C．shops can sell products with or without labels

D．buyers will believe what the label says

小題2:This article mainly refers to__________.

A．making furs and clothes	B．protecting buyers with law
C．keeping the buyers informed	D．businessmen and sellers

小題3:Which of the following is true?

A．Not all buyers know the materials they are buying.

B．A fur coat with a high price often carries a false label.

C．A label only says what material the product is made of .

D．A T-shirt seldom carries a label.

Whether we find a joke funny or not largely depends on where we have been brought up．The sense of humour is mysteriously(神秘地)connected with national characteristics．A Frenchman ,for instance, might find it hard to laugh at Russian joke．In the same way, a Russian might fail to see anything amusing in a joke which would make an Englishman laugh to tears．
Most funny stories are based on comic situations．In spite of national differences, certain funny situations have a worldwide request．No matter where you live, you would find it difficult not to laugh at, say ,Charlie Chaplin’s early films．However, a new type of humour, which stems largely from America, has recently come into fashion．It is called “sick humour”．Comedians base their jokes on tragic situations like violent (cause by force)death or serious accidents．Many people find this sort of joke distasteful．The following example of “sick humour” will enable you to judge for yourself．
A man who had broken his right leg was taken to hospital a few weeks before Christmas．From the moment he arrived there, he kept on pestering(糾纏) his doctor tell him when he would be able to go home．He was afraid of having to spend Christmas in hospital ．Though the doctor did his best, the patient’s recovery was slow．On Christmas day, however, the doctor consoled(安慰)him by telling him that his chances of being able to leave hospital in time for New Year celebrations were good．The man took heart and, sure enough , on New Year’s Eve he was able to hobble(跛行) along to a party．To compensate(補(bǔ)償)for his unpleasant experiences in hospital , the man drank a little more than what was good for him．In the process, he enjoyed himself and kept telling everybody how much he hated hospitals．He was still mumbling something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his left leg．
小題1:Whether you find “sick humour” funny or not will depend on ________．

A．your having been brought up in America

B．the joke being related to a really comic situation

C．your ability to see the funny side of an unpleasant event

D．your ability to laugh until you cry

小題2:The man spent Christmas day feeling miserable because ________．

A．the doctor had failed to cure him

B．he was not able to be with his friends

C．being unable to walk, he did not enjoy the celebrations at the hospital

D．he thought he might also miss the New Year’s Eve celebration

小題3:The point of the joke taken to explain “sick humour” is that ________．

A．no sooner was the out of hospital than he had to go back in again．

B．the man should not have said how much he hated hospitals

C．the man would be unable to walk for the rest of his life

D．the man had not got a leg to stand on

小題4:What can you learn from this story ?

A．On New Year’s Eve, the man was able to walk properly to the party．

B．At the party , he enjoyed himself but only drank a little．

C．He had to go to hospital again though he hated it．

D．The man got well soon because the doctor took good care of him．

    When a close friend dies, it often forces you to consider your own death. The more you have in common with the friend, the more his death will make you wonder about your own. Sometimes you will naturally say to yourself, "It could just as easily have been me." Such a death has a way of reminding us how fragile life is, and it may cause you to reassess（重新評(píng)價(jià)） the direction of your own life.
Jack's story is a good example. A successful businessman making a lot of money, Jack didn't spend as much time with his family as he wanted. His job required him to work long hours. But three years ago one of his best friends, a man who worked in the same office, had a heart attack. He died while celebrating his daughter's eighteenth birthday in a restaurant. He was only fifty years old.
Not long after his friend's death, Jack started to have a chest pain. Finally he had a good physical check-up. He received a clean bill of health. But the chest pain continued. He kept thinking of the death of his friend. Jack thought about how much his friend missed in life and he saw how hard it was for his friend's family to manage after he passed away.
Jack realized that he didn't want to end up his life that way. He talked his feelings over with his wife and children, and decided to change his way of life. The family moved to a small town where he started a simple life. Now he is running a small art gallery（畫(huà)廊）. He is relaxed, and says he has never been so happy in his life, and he has got no more chest pain.
63. Your close friend's death is __________________ to you.
A. a warning           B. common            C. a direction of life     D. an example
64. The underlined sentence in the third paragraph means "________________".
A. The doctor didn't write a word on his bill
B. The doctor didn't want Jack to pay for the bill
C. The doctor didn't find anything wrong with him
D. The doctor didn't want to treat his pain
65. His friend's death made Jack ________________.
A. lose much interest in life
B. realize that he missed the friend very much
C. doubt his way of life
D. ill for some time
66. While living in the small town Jack ________________.
A. earns less money    B. gets more time 
C. has a happier life    D. does all these mentioned above

Watercolor is the oldest paints known. It dates back to the early cave men who discovered they could add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of caves by mixing the natural colors found in the earth with water.
Fresco(壁畫(huà)), one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolor. It is created by mixing paints and water and applying these to wet plaster(灰泥). Of the thousands of people who stand under Michelangelo's heroic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, very few know that they are looking at perhaps the greatest watercolor painting in the world.
The invention of oil painting by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century made fresco painting go down-hill, and for the next several centuries watercolor was used mainly for doing sketches(素描) or as a tool for study. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolor as a serious art form. The English have a widely-known love for the outdoors and also small, private pictures. The softness of watercolor had a remarkably strong attraction for them.
The popularity of watercolor continued to grow until in the twentieth century. The United States passed England as the center for watercolor, producing such well-known watercolor artists as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.
小題1:What is the passage mainly about?

A．The gradual weakness of fresco painting.

B．Oils having more power or influence over watercolor.

C．The rediscovery of watercolor in England.

D．The start and development of watercolor.

小題2:The first watercolor artists were ______.

A．early cave men	B．Italian fresco artists
C．Flemish masters	D．English artists of the 18th century

小題3:In 16th and 17th centuries the artists thought ______.

A．watercolor was more costly, but was better

B．oil painting lasted less long, but clearer and brighter

C．watercolor was not suitable for finished works

D．oil painting was difficult to use

小題4:According to the passage, watercolor painting was put back in England because ______.
A.it was easy to use outdoors                      B.it was a strong medium
B.it was extremely bright in color               D.it was well suited to popular tastes
小題5:What would the next paragraph most probably deal with?

A．The works of famous American watercolor artists.

B．The weakness of oils as popular paints.

C．Techniques of producing watercolor.

D．Modern American oil painters.

   It is midnight on September 22, 2012. The sky above Manhattan，New York is filled with a curtain of colorful light. New Yorkers are fascinated by the beautiful aurora (極光). However, their fascination is short-lived.
Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker (閃爍), then become unusually bright for a few seconds. Then all the lights go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.
Besides the US, Europe, Japan and China are also hit by the same terrible event. It is a violent solar flare (太陽(yáng)耀斑) ,150 million kilometers away on the surface of the sun.
Science fiction? No. A report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences in January this year says it could happen.
A massive solar flare is most likely on a spring or autumn night in 2012, according to the report.
Solar flares are huge explosions on the surface of the sun. In a matter of just a few minutes they heat material to many millions of degrees and release as much energy as a billion megatons (百萬(wàn)噸) of TNT explosives. Solar flares release a stream of charged high-energy particles (粒子). They are called “solar winds”.
If one solar “wind” should hit the Earth’s magnetic shield (磁場(chǎng)), the result could be terrible for humans.
But there’s no need to run for cover from solar winds. They do not harm life on Earth, they only affect the way we live, especially since we depend so much on modern technology. They can pump extra electricity into power lines and pipelines, causing blackouts and fuel leaks. Solar winds are also known to affect mobile phone operations and may disrupt wireless Internet services.
Moreover, solar winds can prevent normal satellite operations, and disrupt radio communications and navigation systems such as the Global Positioning System.
Auroras are powered by solar wind. This wind blows past the Earth at about 400-700 km per second and creates storms in the Earth’s magnetic environment. In the polar regions these explode into southern or northern polar lights.
The most serious solar storm that hit Earth in history happened in 1859. It caused the failure of telegraph systems in Europe and North America.
So, for humans, the sun is a double-edged sword. Without the sun, there would be no life on Earth. Without the sun, Earth would be a frozen dark ball floating in space. However, on the other hand, the sun can disorder our lives from time to time.
56. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. It introduces to readers the advantages and disadvantages of the sun.
B. It describes a science fiction set in Manhattan on 22 September 2012.
C. It shows readers the way in which solar winds form inside the sun.
D. It explains what solar flares are and their effects on human life.
57. The first two paragraphs are written ____.
A. to show a beautiful scene in a true story
B. to describe the beautiful scenery of Manhattan
C. to describe the power problem around the world
D. to introduce the topic of this passage
58. What can we conclude from the passage?
A. Solar flares will do great harm to those who are using the Internet.
B. Solar flares cannot reach as far as the polar regions.
C. Solar flares are huge explosions that happen inside the sun.
D. But for our reliance on technology, solar flares wouldn’t
affect us so much.
59. Solar winds will likely affect us in the following ways EXCEPT that ____.
A. normal satellite operations will be stopped
B. the lights in the areas affected will go out at the same time
C. people on the streets will be struck to death
D. some navigation systems will be out of order

Online shopping started not so long ago. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990. The first online bank opened in 1994. In 1995, Amazon started operating and is now one of the largest online shopping malls. Then in 1996, eBay started its online shopping site.
By sitting at home you can now buy anything from knives to cars. The worry you may have about traveling and parking can be avoided while you shop online. With online shopping, you need not worry about the weather. Online shops have no holidays, closing times or any other problems. You can shop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Some online shops also keep customers’ opinions about each product, so you can easily find out what other customers think about the product before buying it.
When you go for real-world shopping, you can actually touch and feel it, but in online shopping you can only see the pictures. Also if you are shopping online, you have to be careful with your credit cards.
The first step in online shopping is to search for what you want to buy. Once you find the required product, put it in a “shopping cart” and continue shopping. After you have got enough in your “shopping cart”, check out the product. You can add or take out the products in your shopping cart. The next step is to login(登錄) using a username and a password. Enter the address where you want the product to be sent. Some sites even ask for your email, phone numbers, etc. Then wait for the confirmation(確認(rèn))of your order. You can also cancel the order if needed. Online shopping is a different experience and you can make shopping online easy when you get used to it.
51. When shopping online, you can _______.
A. buy anything wherever you go      B. park your cars where you want to   
C. touch anything you want to buy     D. know what others think of the product
52. The second paragraph mainly tells us ______.
A. the things people can buy in online shops
B. people can know different opinions of customers
C. people can do online shopping at their own homes
D. the advantages people can have through online shopping
53. From the text we can know that ______.
A. customers needn’t have a username to buy something online
B. customers must give their emails as well as their phone numbers
C. customers should be careful with their credit cards when shopping online
D. once customers put the products in their “shopping carts”, they can’t change them
54. If you want to buy a cup online, what is the right order of the following things you can do?
a. Enter the address
b. Search for a right cup
c. Wait for the confirmation of the order
d. Put the cup into your “shopping cart”
A. b-c-d-a    B. b-d-a-c    C. a-b-c-d    D. c-d-a-b

Many of the employees think their career path and plans begin during their employment or when they already secured a job. But basically, if we look at what becomes of a person, you can root it from the upbringing of the person, to be more specific, from childhood.
As parents, we usually groom our children’s future according to what we are or what we wanted to be. We buy them toys and educational materials according to what we dream our children would become someday. For example, we know that becoming a teacher means a lot of sacrifices and lots of time worked but the pay is not satisfying. Thus, if we see this profession not favorable financially, we discourage our children from becoming teachers. However, the earliest exposure of children is usually in the medical field profession (every time they visit the hospital for consultation or any medical requirements) and the education or teaching profession (by the time they start attending classes). Information other than the two professions mentioned came from the parents and later exposure or experiences when they grew up and learn of their interest according to their special skills.
In career pathing, the parents’ role plays a major part for the individual’s success in identifying their chosen career. The best way is to support the child’s interest and not forcing them to take courses that the parents wanted for themselves. Support can be provided by helping them read materials on their field of interest, exposing them to the career and providing information as to the advantages and great efforts that one may take to accomplish their chosen field. This is not difficult nowadays. The internet and the publications are now very affordable and even the media provides the information for the different careers that our children may take. There are shows and programs that can provide a picture of the different field. But before you go to your television and change the channel of what your child is watching, check first if the program is fit for their age and maturity.
1. The underlined word “groom” in the second paragraph can be replaced by ___________.
A. take care of         B. prepare         C. expect          D. feed
2. Why does the parents’ role play a major part for the individual’s success in identifying their chosen career?
A. Because the best approach is to support the child’s interest.
B. Because parents can help them read materials on their interest.
C. Because parents can provide them with needed information.
D. Because parents’ help and support is extremely important.
3. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. The earlier, the better                     B. Work from childhood
C. Career Path Begins During Childhood        D. Parent’s support in choosing a career
4. It can be inferred that __________.
A. parents play a major part in helping their children choose their career
B. parents have a great effect on their children’s life
C. one’s early education is very important
D. getting information about jobs is not difficult nowadays because of the internet

Divorce is bad for environment
US researchers raised a new theory on Monday: divorce is bad for the environment.
The global trend toward higher divorce rates has created more households with fewer People，
scientists at Michigan State University reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences．
More households means more houses，fuel and water are Heeded for them，the researchers  wrote．“Globally，the number of households is increasing much faster than the number ofpeople，”said co-author “Jack” Liu in a telephone interview. “Even in regions with declining populationn, we see substantial increase in the number of households. Divorce is the main reason for reducingthe number of people in a household,” he said.
The average divorced person’s household is about 40 to 50 percent smaller than the average married person’s household, Liu said. But whether there are three or six people in a house ,the amount of fuel needed to heat them is about the same. In the United States, divorced households used 74 billion kilowatt—hours of electricity and 2.850 trillion liters of water in 2005, half of which could have been saved if households had stayed the same size as when they were married.
In the United States and 11 other countries between 1998 and 2002, if divorced households had combined to have the same average household size as married households, there could have been 7.4 million fewer households.
The number of divorced households in those countries ranged from 40,000 in Costa Rica to
almost 16 million in the United States around 2000. The number of rooms per person in divorced households was 33 percent to 95 percent greater than in married households.
“If you really want to get divorced, maybe you can remarry with somebody else, or live together with somebody else you like”, Liu said.
1. In America when the number of households is_________, the number of people in a house is__________.
A. increasing, decreasing               B. decreasing, increasing
C. increasing, increasing                   D. decreasing, decreasing
2. What does the word “substantial” in the third paragraph mean?
A. Great        B. Little           C. Sudden                D. Timely
3. How much electricity would have been saved without so many people getting divorced in America in 2005?
A. 7.4 million kilowatt-hours                 B. 16 million kilowatt-hours
C. 37 billion kilowatt-hours             D. about 30 billion kilowatt-hours
4. The last paragraph is the writer’s_________for people.
A. advice            B. encouragement         C. demand          D. order

Freshmen, eager to get home for the Chinese New Year, queue up at the railway station for hours．Days later, they squeeze into a crowded train and dream of the home-cooked meals and love they'll enjoy once they arrive home．This, they say, makes all the trouble of getting home worthwhile.
However, many freshmen come to find that home is not exactly how they remembered it．Living away from their parents has exposed them to a new life of freedom – one that within hours of arriving some begin to miss．Household chores（家務(wù)活）and complaining parents are just a few of the things that can ruin students' winter fantasies．“My parents still treat me like I was in senior high,” Song Ying, a 19-year-old freshman at Shandong University, complained．“I get an earful from them every day.”
During her first term away from her Hubei home, Song missed everything – from her parents cooking to the city bus．She cried and ached to sleep in her own bed．So, upon finishing her exams, she fled home, thinking everything would be just as it used to be．But she was wrong．Now, she spends entire days at a friend's home to “avoid all the restrictions”．She logs online to update friends' profile on SNS, skips meals and sleeps in – just like she did on campus.
Things have been even tenser at home for Luo Ruiqi, a 19-year-old freshman at Beijing Jiaotong University．Instead of moving to a friend's house, though, he has decided to challenge his parents' rules for his right to be an adult at home．When they complained about the amount of time he spent in the toilet, Luo said he decided “enough is enough” and lost his temper．He feels guilty about his attitude, but he still argues that he is grown up enough to live by his own rules．“I just want to live my own way of living, wherever I am,” said Luo．
Recent graduates like Wang Kai know what Song and Luo are going through．But Wang, who graduated in 2008 and now works in Beijing, says students should value the time spent with their family and “just try to be nicer.” Wang says he acted the same way when he first returned home from college, but now, living 1,500 km away from his hometown in Hunan, he regrets his behavior．He realizes that his parents meant well．And, looking back, he says that “the way of living that we got used to on campus is not that healthy anyway”.
Parents, meanwhile, are more understanding than you might think．“Living on their own in a strange place can be hard –we've been there before,” said Luo's father．“We want to make sure that they are healthy and happy．Sometimes maybe we just worry too much.” As for the tension that's arisen between father and son, Luo senior laughed and said, “It's not a problem at all – he's my son; we work things out, always.”
1．Having read the passage, we can infer that home is now a(n) ___________for most freshmen.
A．birdcage                     B．paradise
C．temporary station in life               D．open house
2．Why are things even tenser at home for Luo Ruiqi during the Chinese New Year?
A．He has to spend entire days at a friend's home to “avoid all the restrictions”.
B．He has decided to go against his parents for his right to be an adult at home.
C．He feels guilty about his attitude towards his parents.
D．He has wasted much money his parents gave to him.
3．According to the text, there exists a main problem between parents and children that_______.
A．parents want to bring their children under control as before.
B．children look down upon what their parents always do.
C．their way of life is apparently different now.
D．they are always misunderstanding each other.
4．Who the text implies is mainly responsible for the bad parent-child relationship?
A．parents       B．social changes     C．professors        D．freshmen
5．What does the underlined part in the 2nd paragraph probably mean?
A．learn a lot             B．receive much punishment
C．get a scolding           D．have a narrow escape

The kids at Shute Country Primary School in Devon are surprisingly quiet when it’s time to go home in the afternoon, instead of the usual shouting and running you can hear them asking each other, “ Are the lights all off?”, “Shall we check the taps in case they are dripping （滴水）?”, “How many paper towels did we use today?”
But it’s not unusual here．The kids have declared a war on waste．
“We’ve never made the children do anything,” explains Liz Templar, the school’s head teacher, “they came up with all ideas themselves．They’re doing this because they want to．”
If you take a look around the school you won’t see anything thrown away unnecessarily．Everything is collected and reused, or sent to be recycled．
Shute School started its green_revolution_two years ago．They looked carefully at every party of school life－from the teaching to the cleaning．They looked at the way stationery（文具） was used－especially photocopying, the way cleaning was carried out, and how food was used and wasted!
Even parents were looked at: how many children came in each car? Did they use unleaded petrol? Could they bring more children in fewer cars?
High on the list was the waste of paper．Next came unfriendly cleaning products．Paper towels were replaced with recycled paper．But the hardest thing for the kids was when they found out how much rubbish was created by the chocolate, crisps and other snacks（小吃） eaten at lunch time．Of their own accord（自愿地）, the children gave them up．Now they bring apples and home-made snacks．
The school has its own garden where they grow vegetables and flowers so that they can learn about the environment．They also use this area for their recycling store-large containers to collect aluminum, bottles, plate and fabric（織物）．
Even the school’s play area is made from recycled things．
Since the children started, the school’s heating and lighting bills have fallen obviously and the number of rubbish bags has gone down from seven a week to two or three．
Everywhere in Shute School there are bright posters asking everyone to take their rubbish home, to save energy and paper and to keep the green flag flying．
1．Which of the following best describes the writer’s idea?
A．The pupils at Shute School are fighting against pollution．
B．The pupils at Shute School are learning to save things．
C．The pupils at Shute School have declared a war on waste．
D．The pupils at Shute School have found a way to recycle waste things．
2．We can infer from the text that “green revolution” means _______．
A．beautifying schoolyard    B．a(chǎn)ctivity against waste
C．planting green plants       D．throwing away waste
3．What do the children think creates the most waste?
A．Paper towels． B．Cleaning products．   
C．Snacks．     D．Paper．
4．We learn from the text that the children’s behavior ____________．
A．has brought arguments   
B．has saved the school’s cost
C．was against by their parents   
D．was forced by their head teacher