Spring, summer, autumn, and winter bring changes in the weather, plant and animal life, and the length
of days and night. Seasonal changes such as these are due to three factors, the tilt (傾斜) of Earth's axis (軸) to one side; the rotation, or turn, of Earth on its axis every 24 hours; and the revolution of Earth
around the sun once every year. Since Earth remains titled in the same direction during its revolution of
the sun, our distance from the sun changes, causing us to experience the changing seasons.
     In summer the Northern Hemisphere (半球), where we live, points toward the sun, bringing us closer
to it and its more direct and powerful rays. Six months later, when Earth is halfway through its revolution
around the sun, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, placing us farther from it and
exposing us to the weak rays of winter. The seasons in one hemisphere are opposite those in the other
hemisphere. However, one area of the Earth - the equator (赤道) - is always closest to the sun, so
equatorial regions experience hot weather throughout the year. In contrast, the polar regions, always
farthest from the sun, experience continuous frigid weather.
     In the Northern Hemisphere, we observe a gradual alteration in the angle of the sun during the year.
About June 21, on the summer solstice, or the first day of summer, the midday sun reaches its highest
point in the sky and produces the year's maximum daylight hours. About September 22, on the autumn
equinox, the midday sun is lower in the sky. Because Earth's axis is titled neither toward nor away from
the sun, equal periods of daylight and darkness result. About December 21, on the winter solstice, or the
first day of winter, the midday sun is at its lowest point in the sky. This brings the year's fewest daylight
hours. About March 21, on the vernal equinox, or the first day of spring, the midday sun is higher in the
sky. Daytime and nighttime hours are again equal.

1. This passage is mainly concerned with ____________.

A. how Earth rotates on its axis
B. why the various seasons occur
C. why each season is three months long
D. which parts of Earth are coldest

2. What happens on the summer solstice? 

A. The midday sun reaches its lowest point in the sky.
B. Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun.
C. There are equal periods of daylight and darkness.
D. The midday sun produces the greatest number of daylight hours during the year.

3. In the last paragraph, the writer presents facts about equinoxes and solstices to explain _________.

  A. why it is hot at the equator
  B. the various lengths of day and night
  C. why the midday sun is directly overhead
  D. the date of the autumn equinox

4. In this passage, the underlined word "revolution" in the first paragraph means ____________.

A. a great change
B. an uprising
C. standing still
D. circling

    Do you want to improve the way you study? Do you feel nervous before a test? Many students say
that a lack of concentration is their biggest problem. It seriously affects their ability to study, so do their
test results.
    If so, use these tips to help you.
Study Techniques
    You should always study in the same place. You shouldn't sit in a position that you use for
another purpose. For example, when you sit on a sofa to study, your brain will think it is time to relax.
Don't watch TV while you are studying. Experts warn that your concentration may be reduced by 50
percent if you attempt to study in this way. Always try to have a white wall in front of you, so there is
nothing to distract (make less concentrated) you. Before sitting down to study, gather together all the
equipment you need. Apart from your textbooks, pens, pencils and knives, make sure you have a
dictionary. If your study desk or table is needed when you are not studying, store all your equipment in
a box beside it   .
     Your eyes will become tired if you try to read a text which is on a flat surface. Position your book
at an angle of 30 degrees.
     Be realistic and don't try to complete too much in one study period. Finish one thing before
beginning another. If you need a break, get up and walk around for a few minutes, but try not to
telephone a friend or have something to eat.
Test-taking Skills
     All your hard work will be for nothing if you are too nervous to take your test. Getting plenty of rest
is very important. This means do not study all night before your test! It is a better idea to have a
long-term study plan. Try to make a timetable for your study which lasts for a few months.
     Exercise is a great way to reduce pressure. Doing some form of exercise every day will also improve
your concentration. Eat healthy food too.
     When you arrive in the examination room, find your seat and sit down. Breathe slowly and
deeply. Check the time on the clock during the test, but not too often. Above all, take no notice of
everyone else and give the test paper your undivided attention.

1. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A. You should study in a different place every day, so you don't get bored.
B. Your concentration will improve if you study and watch TV at the same time.
C. Check the time during the exam at a certain time.
D. Staying up all night and studying is tiring, but you will learn a lot using this method.

2. What does the underlined word "it" refers to?

A. Your study desk or table.  
B. Your textbook.
C. Your dictionary.          
D. The equipment you need.

3.  What can be inferred from the passage?

A. You shouldn't look at everyone else during the test.
B. You will have enough energy to deal with your study and exams by eating healthy diet.
C. You'll concentrate more if there is nothing to distract you.
D. If you feel tired during study, you can walk around for a few minutes.

     Time and how we experience it have always puzzled us．Physicists have created fascinating theories,
but their time is measured by a pendulum (鐘擺) and is not psychological time, which leaps with little
regard to the clock or calendar．As some-one who understood the distinction observed, "When you sit
with a nice girl for two hours it seems like a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove, a minute seems like
two hours．"
     Psychologists have long noticed that larger units of time, such as months and years, fly on swifter wings
as we age．They also note that the more time is structured with schedules and appointments, the more
rapidly it seems to pass．For example, a day at the office flies compared with a day at the beach．Since
most of us spend fewer days at the beach and more at the office as we age, an increase in structured tune
could well be to blame for why time seems to speed up as we grow older．
     Expectation and familiarity also make time seem to flow more rapidly．Almost all of us have had the
experience of driving somewhere we've never been before. Surrounded by unfamiliar scenery, with no real
idea of when we'll arrive, we experience the trip as lasting a long time. But the return trip, although exactly
as long, seems to take far less time. The novelty of the outward journey has become routine. Thus taking
a different route on occasions can often help slow the clock.
     When was become as identical as identical as beads(小珠子)on a string, they mix together, and even
months become a single day. To counter this, try to find ways to interrupt the structure of your day-to stop
time, so to speak.
     Learning something new is one of the ways to slow the passage of time. One of the reasons the days
of our youth seems so full and long is that these are the days of learning and discovery. For many of us,
learning ends when we leave school, but this doesn't have to be.

1．The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 is used to show         .

A．psychological time is quite puzzling
B．time should not be measured by a pendulum
C．physical time is different from psychological time
D．physical theory has nothing to do with the true sense of time

2．Why do units of time fly faster as we grow older?

A．Our sense of time changes.
B．We spend less time at the beach.
C．More time is structured and scheduled.
D．Time is structured with too many appointments.

3．In Paragraph 3 "novelty" probably means         .

A．excitement
B．unfamiliarity
C．imagination
D．a(chǎn)musement

4．The purpose of the passage is to         .

A．give various explanations about time
B．describe how we experience time psychologically
C．show the different ideas of physicists and psychologists on time
D．explain why time flies and how to slow it down psychologically

     A 7.0 magnitude(級(jí))earthquake killed more than 230,000 people in Haiti. Then an 8.8 magnitude
quake killed more than 900 people in Chile. And few weeks later, a 6.0 magnitude quake struck rural
eastern Turkey, killing at least 57 people.
     The earthquakes kept coming hard and fast.   1  It's not. The problem is what's happening above
ground, not underground, experts say.
       2  They're rapidly putting up buildings that can't stand up to earth quakes, scientists believer.
And news reports and better earthquake monitoring make it seem as if earth quakes are increasing all the
time.
     On average, there are 134 earthquakes a year that have a magnitude between 6.0 and 6.9. So far this
year there have been 40 earthquakes-more than in most years for that time period. But that's because the
8.8 quake in Chile caused a large number of strong aftershocks.
     Also, it's not the number of quakes, but their destructive effects that gain attention. The death is largely
due to building standards,   3   Paul Earle, a US seismologist, called for better building standards in the
world's big cities.
     Of the 130 cities worldwide with populations of more than I million, more than half are likely to be
hit by earthquakes.   4  "If you have a problem feeding yourself, you're not really going to worry about
earthquakes," said Paul.
     The earthquakes made everyone start to think   5   "People are paying attention to the violent planet
we're always lived on. Come back an another six moths if there has been no earthquakes, most people
will have forgotten it again," said US disaster researcher Dennis Mileti.

A．But it won't last.
B．More people are moving into big cities.
C．Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do.
D．There have been more deaths overt the past decade from earthquakes.
E．Many people began to wonder if something terrible is happening underground.
F．While it seems as if the are more earthquakes occurring, there really aren't.
G．But developing nations with growing populations don't pay attention to earthquake preparedness.

     While scientists are worried that humans are causing higher temperatures on the Earth, a Maryland man, Ace, thinks we can save the world by spraying (噴射) huge amounts of water into the air.
     Ace told the McClatchy News Service that at least 1,000 places should be chosen to spray water. The water would be sprayed between 20 and 200 feet into the air. Thousands of tons of seawater would be
sprayed for years at a time.
     The 1,000 sites would be picked after more studies. They would be mostly in the Northern
Hemisphere. Ace says he would avoid tropical (熱帶的) areas of the globe. He says water turns to rain
too quickly in these areas for his plan to work.
     The water would be changed into vapor. That process requires heat. The water vapor would rise
above the Earth. The vapor would form clouds. The clouds would help in several ways.  They would cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight. They would later turn into rains. The rains would provide another way of
cooling the Earth.
     Ace’s plan has gotten some support from a limited scientific study. Kenneth Caldeira is a climate
scientist. He works at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University in
California. Caldeira tested some of Ace’s figures on a computer program. The computer model is used by top scientists to study global climate change. The model showed that the plan might work.
     "More tests are planned in 2009. Ideas like Ace’s should be considered carefully and with an open
mind," Caldeira said. “Every brilliant invention in the history of technology looked a little bit mad when first put forward.”
1. What’s the purpose of Ace’s plan?
A. To reduce air pollution.      
B. To make summer cooler.
C. To offer dry areas more rain.        
D. To solve the problem of global warming.
2. According to Ace’s plan, ________.
A. planes would be used to spray water
B. it would be best to spray water on rainy days
C. seawater would be sprayed high into the sky
D. 1,000 sites in the Southern Hemisphere would be chosen
3. Why wouldn’t Ace spray water in tropical areas?
A. Water is changed into vapor too quickly.        
B. Water turns to rain too quickly.
C. It is hard for vapor to form clouds.    
D. It is bad for local plants to have too much rain.
4. It seems that Caldeira _________.
A. takes Ace’s plan seriously      
B. thinks Ace’s idea too crazy
C. doesn’t believe the computer’s result        
D. agrees to carry out Ace’s plan right now
5. According to the passage, Ace can be best described as __________.
A. mad  
B. creative
C. mysterious
D. optimistic

     Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in
American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s
smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile
may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big
cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings.
Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.    
     Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions.
Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressiveness permitted. For example, in
"public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do.
When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.   
     It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural
backgrounds in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to
be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing
emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of
“reading” the other person incorrectly.

1. What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?

A. Love
B. Politeness
C. Joy
D. Thankfulness

2. The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that a smile can ________.

A. show friendliness to strangers
B. be used to hide true feelings  
C. be used in the wrong places        
D. show personal habits

3.What should we do before attempting to "read" people?

A. Learn about their relations with others
B. Understand their cultural backgrounds
C. Find out about their past experience
D. Figure out what they will do next

4. What would be the best title for the test?

A. Cultural Differences
B. Smiles and Relationships
C. Facial Expressiveness
D. Habits and Emotions

     Hi, there! I’m Crystal Collins, and I’m very happy to share some time with you. So, you want to keep
fit, huh? Well, you surely came to the right place. Together we can keep fit and healthy, and succeed in
doing that. It’s easy. Everybody can do it, you hear? Just remember the five golden rules.
     Number one. Always wear comfortable clothes when you are exercising. You need to feel comfortable and relaxed.
     Number two. You should always do some warming-up exercises first. Get your body ready for the
real thing.
     Number three. Never try to do too much exercise too soon. Take it nice and easy now, you hear?
There’s no rush about this.
     Number four. Don’t forget to relax for about five minutes when you’ve finished your exercise. You
need to rest a little bit after you’ve been exercising.
     And here is golden rule number five. Stop at once if you feel any pain in your neck, head or any part of your body.
1. Crystal Collins may most probably be _____.
A. a teacher
B. a doctor
C. a policeman
D. a scientist
2. Crystal Collins may most probably say this _____.
A. before the exercise starts
B. when the exercise is over
C. during the exercise
D. as soon as the exercise has started
3. What does the underlined words “Take it nice and easy” in Paragraph 4 mean?
A. Don’t be nervous.B. Exercise should be beautiful.
C. Have a good rest.D. don't exercise too tiredly .
4. Which of the following is NOT true about exercising?
A. You should do some warming-up exercises before the real thing.
B. You should wear comfortable clothes.
C. You should rest for a while when you are doing warming-up exercises.
D. You should stop if you feel any pain in your body.

1. The "Mars town" mentioned in the passage is ___________.

A. a research base on Mars.
B. an experimental lab built on Earth.
C. a strange place on Mars .
D. a town existing in scientists' imagination

2. We can know from the passage that astronomers probably think ____________.

A. it is impossible to transport humans to other planets.
B. there may be an Earth-like planet outside the solar system
C. humans will move to the new-found Jupiter-like planet
D. there's no need for humans to move beyond the solar system.

3. Why would Mars only be a temporary(臨時(shí)) place for humans? 

A. The conditions there would be too hard for the human beings
B. There would be more disasters like asteroids hitting.
C .It would disappear when Earth disappeared.
D. It would be too hot to live on.

4. The underlined word "orbiting" in the fifth paragraph is closest in meaning to "________".

A. moving around          
B. getting close to
C. passing by quickly        
D. going through

5. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

A. Mars Town                          
B. Living on Mars
C. The Future of Earth                    
D. Where to live in the Future

      In some children who go blind, certain parts of the brain that normally control vision appear to
switch jobs and focus instead on sound, a new study has found.
      The study, by researchers at the University of Montreal, involved 7 adults who could see and
12 adults who had lost their vision when they were children. Each participant sat in a room with
16 loudspeakers at different locations. The room was designed so that there were no echoes(回音).
During the experiment, the speakers irregularly produced sounds. Participants had to point to where
the sounds were coming from. Meanwhile, the researchers monitored blood flow in the brains of the
participants to see which brain structures were working during the task.
      The results showed that five of the blind participants were very good at pointing to where sounds
were coming from. In these people, blood flow increased in the visual cortex(大腦皮層)-an area at
the back of the right side of the brain. This part of the brain is usually associated with vision.
      The other seven blind participants showed no increase in activity in the visual cortex. These people
didn't do very well at picking out where sounds were coming from. Now, the researchers are looking
at whether these people have gained an enhanced sense of touch instead of sound to replace their lost
vision.
      The scientists say that their study shows how adaptable parts of the brain can be.

1.  The purpose of the experiment described in the passage is to find whether_____.

A. blind children can regain their sight
B. blind people have a better sense of sound
C. the sense of touch is better among blind people
D. blood flow in the brains of blind people is slower

2. The participants of the experiment were asked _____.

A. to tell the difference between 16 sounds
B. to take down the time each sound lasted
C. to identify the direction the sound came from
D. to detect the number of the loudspeakers

3. During the experiment, blood flow in the brains of the participants was measured in order to _____.

A. learn about the way they react to echoes
B. look for the way of enhancing hearing ability
C. find which parts of the brain were functioning
D. expose the relationship between seeing and touching

4. Which of the following statements best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A. Most blind people have a well-developed sense of touch.
B. People go blind because of the breakdown of their visual cortex.
C. Most blind people have a better sense of sound than normal people.
D. Human brains can adjust themselves after the loss of a certain function.

    The plan: turn Mars into a blue world with streams and green fields, and then fill it with creatures from
the earth.
    This idea may sound like something from a science fiction, but it is actually being taken seriously by
many researchers.
    This suggests the future for the "red planet" will be the main topic for discussion at an international
conference hosted by NASA this Week. Leading researchers as well as science fiction writers will attend
the event. It comes as NASA(美國(guó)宇航局) is preparing a multi-billion-dollar Mars research programme.
    "Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction," said Dr. Michael Meyer,
NAS A's senior scientist. "Now, with scientists exploring the reality, we can ask what are the real
possibilities of changing Mars."
     Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money
would be needed to achieve this goal. But many experts are shocked by the idea.
     "We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed and now we are talking about ruining
another planet," said Paul Murdin from the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK.
     Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they will find Martian life forms.
Europe and America's robot explorers have found the proof that water, mixed with soil, exists in large
amounts on the planet.
     In addition, two different groups of scientists announced on March 28 that they had found signs of
methane(甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere, the gas is a waste product of living creatures and could be
produced by microbes(微生物)living in the red planet's soil.
    But scientists such as Dr. Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be
put in danger by the little earth project.
    "Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are talking about carrying out projects
that would destroy all these native life forms, all the strange microbes that we hope to find buried in the
soil," said Dr. Pratt.
    Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum, London, shares this view. "We
cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for,"
she said. "This is just wrong".

1. A plan for changing the present state of Mars_________.

A. has been made              
B. will be put into practice
C. has been given up            
D. is being argued about

2. According to the passage, besides scientists, _____are also interested in the future of Mars.

A. the public                      
B. science fiction writers
C. the governments of many countries  
D. news reporters

3. The signs of methane in the Martian atmosphere greatly support the view
    that _______

on Mars.
A. microbes may exist  
B. there may be aliens  
C. water exists
D. there is soil

4. Those who are against the plan are worried that it will ________________.

A. turn Mars into a little earth    
B. not be carried out
C. bring destruction to the planet just as what has happened on the earth
D. cost too much time and money

5. Which of the headlines is the fittest for the passage?

A. Mars Programme-a Disastrous Plan
B. Mars Programme- Each Scientist Has His Own Way
C. Mars Programme-Rising Before Us
D. Mars Programme-Challenge to Mankind