第三部分：閱讀理解（共10小題；每小題2分，滿分20分）
請認真閱讀下列短文，從短文后所給的A、B、C、D四個選項中，選出最佳選項，并在答題卡上將該項涂黑。
A
In meditation（冥想），people sit quietly and focus their attention on their breath. As they breathe in and out, they attend to their feelings. As thoughts go through their minds, they let them go. Breathe. Let go. Breathe. Let go.
According to a recent study at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, three months of training in this kind of meditation causes a marked change in how the brain allocates attention. It appears that the ability to let go thoughts that come into mind frees the brain to attend to more rapidly changing things and events in the outside world. Expert mediators are better than other people at catching such fast-changing stimuli, like facial expressions.
The study provides evidence for changes in the workings of the brain with mental training. People can learn and improve abilities of all sorts with practice, everything from driving to playing the piano. The study has shown that meditation is good for the brain. It appears to reduce pressure and promote a sense of well-being.
In an experiment, 17 volunteers with no meditation experience in the experimental group spent three months meditating 10 to 12 hours a day. A control group also with no meditation experience meditated for 20 minutes a day over the same period. Both groups were then given the tests with two numbers in a group of letters. As both group looked for the numbers, their brain activity was recorded.
Everyone could catch the first number. But the brain recordings showed that the less experienced mediators tended to grasp the first number and hang onto it, so they missed the second number. Those with more experience gave less attention to the first number as if letting it go, which led to an increased ability to grasp the second number. This shows that attention can change with practice.
Just ask Daniel Levision, who meditated for three months as part of the study.” I am a much better listener,” he said. “I do not get lost in my own personal reaction to what people are saying.”
56. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 1 refers to ________.
A. feelings         B. minds         C. people        D. thoughts
57. Meditations manage their daily tasks better because they ________.
A. are given less pressure                   B. allocate their attention better
C. have more stimuli for life                D. practice them more frequently
58. The study proves that ________.
A. meditation improves one’s health        B. brain activity can be recorded
C. human attention can be trained              D. mediators have a good sense of hearing

D
Men usually want to have their own way. They want to think and act as they like. No one, however, can have his own way all the time. A man cannot live in society without considering the interests(利益) of others as well as his own interests. “Society” means a group of people with the same laws and the same way of life. People in society may make their own decisions, but these decisions ought not to be unjust(不公平) or harmful to others. One man’s decisions may so easily harm another person. For example, a motorist may be in a hurry to get to a friend’s house. He sets out, driving at full speed like a competitor in a motor race. There are other vehicles and also pedestrians (行人) on the road. Suddenly there is a crash. There are screams and confusion. One careless motorist has struck another car. The collision(碰撞) has injured two of the passengers and killed the third. Too many road accidents happen through the thoughtlessness of selfish drivers.
We have governments, the police and the law courts to prevent or to punish such criminal acts. But in addition, all men ought to observe certain rules of conduct. Every man ought to behave with consideration for other men. He ought not to steal, cheat, or destroy the property(財產) of others. There is no place of this sort of behavior in a civilized society.
1. A man cannot have his own way all the time because________.
A. he may have no interest in other people
B. he has to share the same interest with the people in the same society
C. his decisions are always unjust         D. his decisions always harm other people
2. According to the passage, people in a civilized society should usually______.
A. be honest to each other                   B. be cautions in doing everything
C. behave in a responsible way            D. punish criminal acts
3. The purpose of this passage is to_________.
A. tell people how to behave in society
B. illustrate the importance of laws
C. teach people how to prevent criminal acts
D. persuade people not to make their own decisions
4. It is implied that there will be fewer road accidents if_______.
A. the drivers are more considerate(體貼的) of other people
B. there are fewer cars or walkers in the street
C. the motorists are not always in a hurry
D. the passengers are calm but not confused before the accidents
5. We can draw a conclusion that_______.
A. the government should contribute more efforts
B. the criminals should be more severely punished
C. man should be more strict with himself
D. man should have more and more similar interests

B
People have always had to find ways to keep food safe to eat. Methods to dry, smoke and salt food were invented thousands of years ago. The process of canning is much more recent. This storage method keeps food safe to eat for long periods of time. Today, canning is one of the most popular methods of storing food.
Canning uses heat to kill bacteria and other micro-organisms that cause poisons to form in food. Canning also takes away the air that these organisms need to live. One popular method of canning uses a water bath.
Clean fruits or vegetables are placed in glass bottles. The food can be put into the bottles either hot or cold. The cold method is used for soft fruits and vegetables that could lose their shape or taste. Firmer fruits and most vegetables are usually cooked. They take up less space in the bottles. After the food has been placed in glass bottles, boiling water is poured into the bottles to about three centimeters below the top. Then covers are placed on the bottles, but are not turned all the way. The bottles are placed in a large container filled with warm water that is then brought to a boil. The water must completely cover the bottles, from three to five centimeters over the top. When the water boils, any air in the bottles will be expelled. The boiling continues for several minutes. Then the bottles are allowed to cool. Finally, they are placed briefly into cold water. This makes a strong barrier to keep the air out. In other words, a vacuum is created. When the bottles are completely cool, notes can be placed on them to identify what is inside. The bottles can then be stored in a cool, dark place at a temperature of between four and twenty-one degrees Celsius.
Canning allows your family to enjoy foods that might not come fresh throughout the year. It is also a good way to store food for six months to a year, or even several years, in case of an emergency. It does not cost much to continue canning every year once the equipment has been purchased.
You can get more information about canning food from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org.
55. Which of the following is the right order of canning food?
a. put bottles in warm water.          b. place notes on the bottles.
c. place bottles briefly into cold water  d. pour boiling water into bottles
A. d a c b   B. a b c d    C. b d c a   D. a d c b
56. According to the text, which of the following is right?
A. The way to can food has been found by ancient Chinese.
B. Canning uses water to kill bacteria.
C. Hard fruits are suitable for cold method.
D. The boiling water will take away the air in the bottle.
57. What does the word “vacuum” mean in the – paragraph?
A. a missing situation   B. a gap   C. an enclosed space without air  D. a hole
58. what’s the best title of the text?
A. The advantages of canning food.
B. Canning food and health.
C. Put fruits and vegetables into cans.
D. How to make canning food.

Nothing can spoil a vacation quicker than losing your money or credit cards. A few simple steps before you head out of the door can help protect your cash, card and personal information while you’re traveling.
Paul Stephens, a policy analyst San Diego, notes that people spend a lot of time planning their trips, from buying guidebooks to finding just the right beach outfits（裝備）.“But their eyes glaze（呆滯） over when the subject of keeping money safe comes up,” he said.
“Why not take a few minutes to do something that could probably save your vacation?” Stephens asked．“In most cases, they can go on your to-do list with‘ buy travel bags’ and everything else,” he added.
The top recommendation is to clean your wallet. Remove unnecessary credit cards and any other unneeded documents that could compromise（危及...的安全）your identity if lost or stolen while you’re on vocation.
Then make a photocopy of the cards you’ve decided to take along and keep it in a secure location with you（not in your wallet）or leave it with a trusted relative or friend back home. Then you will know who you need to contact and how to reach it if your wallet is missing.
“Travelers should never leave their wallets or any identifying documents in their hotel room when they’re not there,” he said.” Choose a hotel with a safe to keep your valuable things in. Or keep your wallet and documents with you at all times. ”
56．According to passage, _______can destroy one’s vacation the most quickly.
A．being lost on vacation        B．losing money or credit cards
C．living in a bad hotel.      D．losing contact with family
57．What does the underlined word stand for?
A．The people who are going traveling.
B．The outfits that are prepare4d for traveling.
C．The suggestions on what to buy when traveling.
D．The steps to avoid losing money or credit cards.
58．What should people do with their wallet before they go on vacation?
A．Take it with them all the time.
B．Put it in a safe place at the hotel
C．Remove unnecessary cards and documents.
D．Leave it with family or friend.
59．What is the topic of the passage?
A．How to prepare for travel.
B．How to be happy during your vacation.
C．How to keep cash and cards safe on vacation.
D．How to protect your luggage on vacation.
60．According to the passage, we know ______.
A．people don’t always know how to protect their money or credit cards
B．people should take a lot of money with them while traveling
C．people can leave their identifying documents in rooms, if the hotel is expensive
D．people can spend a few minutes preparing the luggage for travelling

E  
Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.
The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance.
In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money. At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance.
The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics. Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life.
Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works.
Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it.
Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future. Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance. A savings account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest.
Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on. That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up.
77.For children who receive allowances, they’d better not ________.　　
A. waste money to buy gifts for their parents or friends　　
B. buy their favorite clothing or electronics for themselves　　
C. save money like their parents or other adults　　
D. ask for the next allowance before the decided date.
78．Many parents give children an allowance regularly to ______.　　
A. meet children’s basic need for life       
B. give control over their children　　
C. see whether they have financial mistakes  
D. help children learn how to manage money
79.If children are required to save their allowance, they ______.　　
A. can experience three things related to money　　
B. can understand the relation between goals and sacrifice　　
C. will do more work around the house　　
D. help themselves found the basis for their future life
80. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Be Generous to Pay Your Children
B. Be Wise to Avoid Financial Mistakes
C. Saving Allowances Does Good to Children
D. Allowances Help Children Learn about Money

Some houses are designed to be smart. Others have smart designs. An example of the second type of house won the Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects.
Located on the shore of Sullivan’s Island off the coast of South Carolina, the award-winning cube-shaped beach house was built to replace one damaged by Hurricane Hugo years ago. In September 1989, Hugo struck South Carolina, killing 18 people and damaging or destroying 36,000 homes in the state.
Before Hugo, many new houses built along South Carolina’s shoreline were poorly constructed, according to architect Ray Huff, who created the cleverly-designed beach house. Now all new shoreline houses are required to meet stricter, better-enforced codes. The new beach house on Sullivan’s Island should be strong enough not to be damaged by a Category 3 hurricane with peak winds of 179 to 209 kilometres per hour.
At first sight, the house on Sullivan’s Island looks anything but(根本不) hurricane-proof. Its redwood shell makes it look like “a large party lantern” at night. But looks can be deceiving. The house’s wooden frame is strengthened with long steel rods(桿) to give it extra strength.
To further protect the house from hurricane damage, Huff raised it 2.7 meters off the ground on timber pilings(木樁) buried deep in the sand. Pilings might appear insecure, but they are strong enough to support the weight of the house. They also raise the house above storm waves. The pilings allow the waves to run under the house instead of running into it. “The waves of water come ashore at tremendous speeds and cause most of the damage done to beach-front buildings,” said Huff.
Huff designed the timber pilings to be partially concealed(隱藏) by the house’s ground-to-roof shell. “The shell masks the pilings so that the house doesn’t look like it’s standing with its legs pulled up,” said Huff. In the event of storm, the shell should break apart and let the waves rush under the house, the architect explained.
【小題1】After Hurricane Hugo, new houses built along South Carolina’s shore line are required
to       .

D
I know what you’re thinking: pizza（比薩餅）? For breakfast? But the truth is that you can have last night’s leftovers in the a.m. if you want to.
I know lots of women who skip breakfast（不吃早餐）, and they have a ton of different excuses for doing it. Some say they don’t have time; others think they’re “saving” calories（卡路里）；still others just don’t like breakfast food . 
But the bottom line is that eating in the morning is very important when you’re trying to lose weight. “Eating just about anything from 300 to 400 calories would be better than nothing at all,” says Katherine Brooking R.D., who developed the super-easy eating plan for this year’s “SELF CHALLENGE”. And even pizza can be healthy if it’s loaded with vegetables, and you stick to one small piece. 
Breakfast is one meal I never miss, and the same goes for most weight loss success stories. Research shows that eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that breakfast skippers have a bigger chance of gaining weight than those who regularly have a morning meal.
So eat something in the morning, anything. I know plenty of friends who end up having no breakfast altogether, and have just coffee or orange juice. I say, try heating up last night’s leftovers—it may sound crazy, but if it works for you, do it! I find if I tell myself, “You can always eat it tomorrow,” I put away the leftovers instead of eating more that night. Try it. You may save yourself some pre-bedtime calories. And watch your body gain the fat-burning effects.
68. The word “l(fā)eftovers” in Paragraph 1 probably means_______. 
A. food remaining after a meal         B. things left undone
C. meals made of vegetables           D. pizza topped with fruit
69. What can we infer from the text?
A. Working women usually have breakfast in a hurry.
B. Many people have wrong ideas about breakfast. 
C. There are some easy ways of cooking a meal. 
D. Eating vegetables helps save energy. 
70. According to the last paragraph, it is important to________. 
A. eat something for breakfast           B. be careful about what you eat
C. heat up food before eating it          D. eat calorie-controlled food
71. The text is written mainly for those________. 
A. who go to work early        B. who want to lose weight
C. who stay up late            D. who eat before sleep

Here’s an amazing way to get a hard-boiled egg into a bottle, even though the mouth of the boiled is smaller than the egg! What’s more, you don’t even need to touch the egg to get it to go in!
For this experiment you will need:
·a hard-boiled egg
·a glass bottle with a mouth just slightly smaller than the egg (a fruit-drink bottle works well)
·a 8-cm by 8-cm(3-inch by 3-inch)piece of newspaper
·a match
Remove the shell from the egg. Set the egg on the mouth of the bottle to see that the egg does not fit through the mouth.
Light the paper. Remove the egg from the mouth of the bottle and drop the burning paper into the bottle. Before the fire goes out, set the egg back onto the mouth of the bottle. Within a few seconds the egg will squeeze(擠) through the mouth and into the bottle.
As it entered the bottle, the egg may have broken into pieces. This happens when the diameter(直徑) of the egg is more than about 0.5 cm(about 3/16 inch) larger than the diameter of the bottle’s opening.
Why does the egg slide into the bottle, even though no one is pushing it? Because the pressure of the air is pushing it. Before the burning paper is put into the bottle, the pressure of the air inside is the same as outside. The burning paper, however, heats the air inside. This causes the air inside to expand. When the egg is placed on top of the bottle, it seals(封住) the bottle. When the fire goes out, the air inside cools. As it cools, the air contracts(緊縮), and the pressure of the air inside becomes less than the pressure outside. Then, the higher outside pressure pushes the egg into the bottle!
【小題1】The best title of this passage can be      .

(D)
People living in the country enjoy several advantages that people living in the city cannot enjoy.
They are in close contact with nature. They make friends with trees and stones. They breathe fresh air. They fight with strong winds. They listen to the song of birds.
This contact with nature is good for health. There are many diseases that are common in the city, but are not to be found in the country, For example, near-sightedness is almost unknown to country people.
Because of the absence of cars, one can walk more freely in the country than in the city, There are no rules of the road nor traffic signs to obey.
People living in the country can easily get fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and fresh milk, Are they get them at lower prices than in the city.
Country life is economical in other ways, too. There are practically no temptations to waste money.
Country people are mostly honest. They say what they mean, and make and keep promises with sincerity. They do not put on air (擺架子). They do not pretend to have those ridiculous manners which are necessary in what we call polite society.
67. What CAN’T country people often enjoy?
A. Musical concerts.          B. Fresh air.   
C. Song of birds.             D. Close contact with nature.
68. What is probably more expensive in the country than in the city?
A. Vegetables.          B. Beer.          C. Milk.           D. Fruit.
69. What is NOT true of country life?
A. The traffic accident rate is very high in the country.
B. Living in the country saves one a lot of money.
C. Country people enjoy better health than the city people.
D. Country people are honest.
70. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. People living in the country enjoy no advantages.
B. People living in the city are in close contact with nature.
C. People living in the country suffer from more diseases than those living in
the city.
D. The prices of farm products are lower in the country than in the city.
71. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. The Disadvantages of Living in the Country.
B. The Expenses of Living in the Country.
C. Country Life.
D. Healthy Country People.

(C)
Driving a car at high speed along a highway seems to be fun. You need only to follow the bright traffic signs beside the highways and it will take you to where you wish.
But to a London taxi driver, driving is not an easy job. A taxi driver has to have not only good driving skills but also a good knowledge of the city of a London, from the smallest lane to the most popular bar around. He has to be at the service of all kinds of passengers at all times.
A certain London taxi driver told of his job as follows.
During the night it is quite usual for him to stop two or three times for some refreshments (點心). He said. "I never drink when I'm working ---- I would lose my licence."
He normally goes home between 2 and 3 O'clock in the night, There are times he has to stay longer and try to make more runs. He said, "That's the worst thing about working for yourself. If you don't make the money, no one is going to give it to you."
London taxi drivers not only ‘take' but also ‘give' , Every summer hundreds of children from London will go for a day at the sea--- by taxi! Their rides are paid by the taxi drivers, and these fares all go to the ‘London Taxi Fund for Underprivileged Children.' At the sea. they are met by the mayor, and a lunch party is also held in honour of the taxi drivers and the children. After a happy day running around the sea beaches and visiting the market, the children go home again-- by taxi, and free of charge, of course!
62. To be a London driver is not easy because ______.
A. he has to follow the bright traffic signs
B. he has to have good driving skills and know all the places in the city
C. he has to serve all kinds of passengers at all times
D. both B. and C
63. The London taxi drivers _______.
A. work hard because on one would give them money for doing nothing
B. never stop driving in the city
C. only work between 2 and 3 o'clock in the night
D. are very rich
64. The author of the passage says that _______.
A. the taxi driver works longer than is necessary
B. the more runs the taxi driver makes, the more he gets
C. the taxi driver doesn't like to work for others
D. the taxi drivers in the city go to the seaside to attend a party every year.
65. London taxi driver _______.
A. take money because they have to pay for the children's ride
B. go to the sea for a day in the summer
C. pay the fares for the poor children to the sea for a day once every year
D. give the poor children a free ride for a day at the sea once every year
66. The underlined words Underprivileged Children mean children _______.
A. of low income families                            B. who like to travel in taxi
C. who wish to go to sea but have no money      D. from London