No one knows exactly how many disabled people there are in the world, but estimates suggest the figure
is over 450 million. The number of disabled people in India alone is probably more than double the total
population of Canada.
     In the United Kingdom, about one in ten people have some disability. Disability is not just something that
happens to other people: as we get older, many of us will become less mobile, hard of hearing or have falling
eyesight.
     Disablement can take many forms and occur at any time of life. Some people are born with disabilities.
Many others become disabled as they get older. There are many progressive disabling diseases. The longer
time goes on, the worse they become. Some people are disabled in accidents. Many others may have a period
of disability in the form of a mental illness. All are affected by people's attitude towards them.
     Disabled people face many physical barriers. Next time you go shopping or to work or to visit friends,
imagine how you would manage if you could not get up steps, or onto buses and trains. How would you cope
if you could not see where you were going or could not hear the traffic? But there are other barriers: prejudice
(偏見) can be even harder to break down and ignorance (無知) inevitably represents by far the greatest barrier
of all. It is almost impossible for the able-bodied to fully appreciate what the severely disabled go through, so it
is important to draw attention to these barriers and show that it is the individual person and their ability, not their
disability, that counts.

1. The key word in Paragraph 4 is _____.

A. disability
B. ignorance
C. prejudice
D. barriers

2. The last word of the passage "counts" most probably means _____.

A. being most important
B. being considered
C. being included
D. being numbered

3. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Even the able-bodied may lose some of their body functions when they get older.
B. There are about 10 percent disabled persons in the UK.
C. The whole society should pay due attention to the barriers faced by the disabled people.
D. There no longer exists prejudice against the disabled.

4. It can be concluded from the passage that _____.

A. we should try our best to prevent disablement
B. both physical and mental barriers are hard to break down
C. we must take a proper attitude towards the disabled
D. the able-bodied people will never fully understand the disabled

     The rise of the so-called "boomerang generation (回巢族)" is reported in official figures showing that
almost one in five graduates in their late 20s now live with their parents. By contrast, only one in eight
university graduates had failed to fly the nest by the same age 20 years ago, research from the Office for
National Statistics (ONS) shows.
     It also found that grown-up sons are twice as likely as their sisters to still be living with their parents
in their late 20s.
     With nearly a quarter of men approaching 30 still living at home, the findings are bound to lead to claims
of a "generation of mummy's boys".
     Rising housing prices, increasing student debts and the effects of depression on the job market have
forced a wave of young people to move back into the family home at an age when they would normally
_____.
     Young professionals in their late 20s or early 30s have been called the"boomerang generation" because
of the trend toward returning to the family home.
     Recent research has suggested that young people in Britain are twice as likely to choose to live with their
parents in their late 20s than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.
     But experts warned that the phenomenon may have more to do with young people facing dark future than
simply a desire to save money.
     While the percentage of those of university or college age moving out from the family home has continued
to rise in the last 20 years, among those in their mid and late 20s the trend has reversed.
     Overall 1.7 million people aged from 22 to 29 now share a roof with their parents, including more than
760,000 in their late 20s, the ONS figures suggest.

1. What is the main idea of the passage? (Please answer within 15 words.)
    ______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one? The survey showed that the number
    of young men living in the family home probable doubles that of young women in their late 20s.
    ______________________________________________________________________________________
3. Fill in the blank in the fourth paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence. (Please
    answer within 5 words.) 
    ______________________________________________________________________________________
4. List three factors that have driven young people back home again based on the passage.( Please answer
    within 5 words each). 
    ______________________________________________________________________________________
5. Translate the underlined sentence in the seventh paragraph into Chinese. 
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

     You are busy filling out the application form for a position you really need; let's assume you once actually
completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn't it tempting to lie
just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma (文憑) represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished
an extra couple of years back at State University?
     More and more people are turning to an utter deception (欺騙) like this to land their first job or to move
ahead in their careers. For personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A
job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better
with a diploma from a well-known university. Registrars (學(xué)籍管理員) at most well-known colleges say that
they deal with dishonest claims like these at the rate of about one per week.
     Personnel officers do check up on degrees listed on application forms. If it turns out that an applicant is
lying, most colleges are unwilling to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school refers to them as
"special cases." One well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says these
claims are made by "no such people".
     To avoid complete lies, some job seekers claim that they "attended" or "were associated with" a college
or university. After careful checking, a personnel officer may discover that "attending" means being dismissed
after one semester. It may be that "being associated with" a college means that the job-seeker visited his
younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice
dates back at least to the turn of the center-that's when they began keeping records, anyhow.
     If you don't want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a fake diploma.
One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any
number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from "Smoot State
University". The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the "University of Purdue." As there is no Smoot
State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one
sheet of paper.

1. The writer mainly wants to tell us that _____.

A. college degrees can now be purchased easily
B. nowadays it is very hard for people to find jobs
C. lying about college degrees is becoming a widespread problem
D. employers are no longer interested in applicants' actual performances

2. As used in the first line of the second paragraph, the word "utter" means _____.

A. thorough
B. careful
C. incomplete
D. spoken

3. Once finding applicants with false diplomas, most colleges would _____.

A. keep the records of them
B. drive the them out of college
C. avoid direct conflicts with them
D. accuse them of such behaviors

4. We can learn from the passage that _____.

A. US employers value their job applicants with a degree from top universities
B. University of Purdue and Purdue University are the same school
C. people with fake diplomas can get their first jobs in US easily
D. people pay the same price for a fake diploma from different universities

     School failure appears to trouble teenage girls more deeply than boys, US researchers said on Tuesday.
     They said adolescent (青春期的) girls who are dismissed or drop out of high school before they graduate
are more likely to have a serious depression by age 21 than boy with similar experiences.
     "For girls it is more serious to be school failure," said Carolyn McCarty, a University of Washington
researcher whose study appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
     "We already know that it leads to more poverty, higher rates of being on public assistance and lower rates
of job stability. And now this study shows it is having mental health implications for girls," McCarty said in a
statement.
     The study was drawn from data on more than 800 people in Seattle, Washington,and included people from
18 school in high-crime neighborhoods.
     The group was separated evenly by gender (性別) and nearly half were white, 24 percent were black, 21
percent were Asian-American and the rest were from other groups.
     Overall, 45 percent of the girls and 68 percent of the boys in the study experienced a major school failure,
but 22 percent of the girls later became depressed compared with 17 percent for the boys.
     "This gender shows that while school failure is more typical for girls, it appears to have more severe
consequences when it does occur," McCarty said.

1. What is the purpose of writing this article?

A. Taking good care of the school boys.
B. Asking the US researchers to search more evidences.
C. Giving help to the graduated students.
D. Paying more attention to the girls experiencing school failure.

2. Carolyn McCarty is _____.

A. a scientist
B. a researcher
C. a professor
D. a student

3. The underlined word "it" in Para. 4 means _____.

A. school failure
B. a adolescent girl
C. a school boy
D. a university

     The motor vehicle has killed and disabled more people in its brief history than any bomb or weapon ever
invented. Much of the blood on the street flows basically from careless behavior of drivers who refuse to
respect the legal and moral rights of others. So the killing on the road may be regarded as a social problem.
     In fact, the enemies of society on wheels are rather harmless people, just ordinary people acting carelessly,
you might say. But carelessness is no excuse when one's actions could bring death or damage to others.
     Researchers have estimated that as many as 80 percent of all automobile accidents are caused due to the
psychological condition of the driver. Emotional upsets can slow drivers' judgments and reactions, and blind
them to dangers that might otherwise be obvious. The experts wam that it is important for every driver to
make an effort to keep one's emotions under control.
     Yet drivers are not the only people to blame for road accidents. Street walkers regularly break traffic
regulations. They are at fault in most vehicle walker accidents and many cyclists even be- lieve that they need
not follow the basic rules of the road.
     _____________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

     As we all know, games play a very important role in the growth of children. Children should grow along
with playing games; 1_____ playing games, they can not only acquire knowledge, but also cultivate their
abilities to get along with others.
     However, most children are 2_____ (face) with a completely different situation. Most parents fear that
games will prevent children from increasing new knowledge and 3_____ the children will fail in the future
examinations. So, instead of 4_____ (let) the children themselves find and learn naturally from their
surroundings, they force their children to take part in 5_____ (variety) kinds of classes, learning English,
playing 6_____ piano or practising drawing, etc. What's more, some parents put 7_____ the children's toys
which are very useful in developing children's imagination and practical abilities. 
     8_____ is a piece of good advice to those parents: 9_____ you want to expect your child to be able to
accomplish something, you must first of all develop his ability to adapt to the new surroundings. That
cramming education can lead to nothing 10_____ a failure in the children's growth.

     Scientists have determined it's not advisable to hurry marriage. But what's the best age to wed? When
Avril Lavigne announced she was splitting from her husband, comments from her friends suggested that
she was only 21 when she tied the knot and later she said that she realized she'd been too young to make
such a life-altering decision. Could fellow young celebrity divorcées (離婚者) Reese Witherspoon, Kate
Hudson, and Britney Spears have also hit the same age-related issue?
The Magic Number
     There are practical reasons for the mid-20s dividing line, and most of them boil down to (總結(jié)) two
points: education and money.
     It turns out that the more years of higher education a woman has under her belt on her wedding day,
the lower the chances that she'll get divorced... and by 25, you're more likely to have earned a degree or
two. Educated women tend to be more confident about who they are and less willing to settle for a man
who doesn't meet their standards.
     Odds (可能性) are that by 25 you're also supporting yourself, so there's less incentive (刺激; 鼓勵)
for you to rush into marriage because you're seeking financial security from him. But the marriage-related
benefits of working and having money of your own go beyond feeling secure. Learning to budget your
cash carefully when you're single will help you avoid financial problems-one of the main causes of couple
fights-for the rest of your life. Knowing the Real You
     At 25, you've had time for some crucial life experiences, including a relationship or two that may have
improved your Mr. Right radar. You've probably dated enough to have a better idea of what you don't want
in a man, which makes it easier to know what you can live with and can't live without.
     Perhaps the most important aspect of waiting is that you'll know what your goals and values really are.
While you don't want to marry someone just like you, marriage is a lot easier if you two share a similar
outlook on life.
     Twenty-four and already married to the man of your dreams? Don't worry: Many young marriages survive.
But given the choice, you might consider putting off the big day until your mid-20s or later.

1. What main factors influence the mid-20s dividing line? (No more than 3 words, 2 marks)
    ____________________________________________________________________________
2. According to the author, why does a couple probably fight?(No more than 4 words, 2 marks)
    ____________________________________________________________________________
3. How do you know what you don't want in a man? (No more than 5 words, 3 marks)
    ____________________________________________________________________________
4. What suggestion does the passage mainly give? (No more than 10 words, 3 marks)
    ____________________________________________________________________________

     Do you know what couch-potato means? Well, in America, the word is now often used. The American
couch-potato becomes maybe even a part of the American tradition! You see, in America, many people often
spend their free time sitting on a couch (沙發(fā)) watching TV. As there are many channels to choose, the TV
can be quite interesting and very addictive (上癮的). One may sit and watch TV for hour and hour without
stop! Well, these people who do nothing all day except watching TV are called couch-potatoes.
     In America, when one watches TV, he is most often sitting on a couch. While watching TV, most of these
people look so frozen that they almost look dead! Everyone is sitting still (靜止的) with eyes looking right into
the same black box. Also because these people are addictive to TV, they don't take exercise and usually get
very fat. So in many ways, these people look like real potatoes! Well, because they look so still and fat, and
watch TV on a couch, they are all called couch-potatoes. Now you know what couch-potato means. The
next time if you see someone watching TV too long, just say, "What a couch-potato!"

1. The word "couch-potato" is often used in _____.

A. China
B. America
C. Japan
D. France

2. If a person is called a couch-potato, he or she _____.

A. likes sitting on a couch watching TV
B. does nothing all day
C. must be very fat
D. only watches TV and eats potatoes

3. Why does a couch-potato look like a real potato? Because he or she _____.

A. almost never moves while watching TV and gets very fat
B. is fat and dying and can not take exercise
C. likes eating potatoes on a couch while watching TV
D. is frozen in front of the black box

4. The passage mainly tells us _____.

A. how to watch TV
B. why couch-potatoes are very fat
C. what couch-potato means
D. where the new word is used

5. Which of the following should be the writer's suggestion (建議)?

A. Take exercise.
B. Never watch TV.
C. Don't sit on a couch.
D. Don't watch TV too much.

                                                   Are Societies Ageing Too Fast?
     An ageing society is one in which the population of people over the age of 60 is increasing. The global
population at present is about 6 billion with l person in every 10 aged 60 or above. 1._____ This will mean
that for the first time in human history the population of older persons will be larger than the population of
children! What are the causes of this population change?
     2._____ And another is that birth rates have dropped as people, especially women, are educated. Measures
to slow population growth like China's one-child policy, have also contributed to lowered birth rates. The
increase in the aged population is not just an interesting trend, however; it also has severe implications for the
future of global economies.
     People traditionally retire at 65 and live on government pensions. 3._____ Another concern is that as medical
expenses increase with age, the demands of the growing aged population will eventually cause medical systems
to face bankruptcy (破產(chǎn)).
     4._____ They suggest that because people are living longer, they ought to work longer, while governments
need to establish a sound social security system. They also suggest that individuals start saving as soon as
possible to ensure a financially secure retirement. People should also develop good health habits in their youth
to ensure an active and productive old age. 5._____ By finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer,
medical bills and the need for care would be drastically reduced.
     Finally, an important step to ensure a bright future for all is to do away with negative stereotypes that see
valuable members of society only as pensioners or patients. It's high time we stopped seeing ageing as a disease
and started playing our parts in securing the future of our ageing societies.

A. Due to ageing problem, cities are facing more challenges.
B. Experts insist that steps should be taken now to prepare for the future.
C. As people grow older, a huge financial burden will be placed on the government.
D. Biomedical research is another tool we can use to deal with the problems of ageing societies.
E. One reason is that dramatic health advances have added 20 years to the average life expectancy.
F. The United Nations projects that by 2050, it will be l in every 5.
G. As is known to all, good habits lead to good health.