We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming（把…按能力分班）pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!
　　Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual (智力的) abilities. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning.
　　In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as how to think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.
　　Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this effectively. And expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement to attain this goal.
1. Group work provides pupils with the opportunity_________.
　　A. to develop academic abilities                 　　 B. to learn to teach.
　　C. to do some experiments                        　　 D. to learn to be capable organizers.
2. By "held back" in the first paragraph the author means _________.
　　A. drawn to their studies                           　　     B. prevented from advancing
　　C. made to remain in the same classes         　　 D. forced to study in the lower classes
3. In the passage the author's attitude towards " mixed-ability teaching" is ________.
　　A.questioning               B. approving  　　     C. objective 　　 D. critical
4. The author's purpose of writing this passage is to _________.
　　A. offer advice on the proper use of the library
　　B. emphasize the importance of appropriate formal classroom teaching
　　C. argue for teaching bright and not -so-bright pupils in the same class
　　D. recommend pair work and group-work for classroom activities
5. The author argues that a teacher's chief concern should be the development of the student's _____.
　　A. total personality              　　                   B. intellectual ability
　　C. learning ability and communicative skills        D. personal qualities and social skills

Their grandmothers fought for the vote, and their mothers have battled to have it all. Now the upcoming generation of girls have decided to turn the clock back and stay at home with their babies.
According to a survey of more than 5,000 teenage girls in Britain, their main ambition (追求的目標(biāo)) is to complete university then stay at home. More than nine out of ten of the girls believe it should be up to their husbands to provide for them. And although 43 percent of those questioned believe they should continue with their education until they have achieved a university degree, one in four say getting married is the most important thing for them.
The supposedly super-modern, “fun comes first” teenage generation has proved to be very traditional in every area of their beliefs, with over 50 percent saying they would not dream of having children before seeing a ring on their finger.
The desire to have children is beginning earlier too. On average, teenage girls plan to have their first child at 26, and most plan to have one or two more children over the following four years. The national average now is 1.64 children per couple.
“This survey doesn’t show that the battles of feminism (女權(quán)運(yùn)動(dòng)) have been lost,” said author Claire Rayner, “Feminism was never opposed (反對(duì)) to marriage or children. On the contrary, feminism was about to equal opportunities for women to do what they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it, and this is exactly what these girls are choosing to do.”
【小題1】The passage is mainly about ________.

For most of us, our house is our home base, and having a happy and pleasant vibe (氛圍) in all of our rooms is important.
1. ... Adding color to any room can help you feel more cheerful, and it can be done pretty quickly! Consider painting just one wall a lively color. A bright red, a peaceful green or even a lively yellow completely changes the feel.
2. ... First of all, think flower power! Fresh flowers are very easy to get at your local grocery market, and they make any room seem more alive. Plants have the same positive effect. Another way to celebrate life is to surround yourself with images of friends and family. Don’t keep your photos in albums or in your computer. Put them up on the walls to remind yourself of your favorite times and your favorite people.
3. ... The more points of light in any room, the better it will be. Especially as the days are getting shorter, having warm lighting will help you feel full of energy and alive through the winter months. In your bedroom, put a lamp on either side of your bed. Installing dimmers (調(diào)光器) is also a simple and inexpensive way to make the mood of a room easy to change. At dimmers.net, for example, you can get a dimmer for just $17.75.
4. ... You begin and end almost every day in your bedroom, so make the room comfortable! Have proper bedding and pillows (枕頭). Keep your bedroom as tidy as possible, and remove anything that will interfere with your sleep. Get your new pillows and bedding at bedbathandbeyond.com.
5. Take control It’s this simple: Clear space =" A" clear mind. Keep desktops, countertops and tabletops open. Put the papers, files and other things away. Not only will your home feel cleaner, it will feel a whole lot bigger!
1. What’s the purpose of this passage?
A. To tell us what is a good life.  
B. To tell us how to decorate our houses.
C. To give us some tips on how to have a better mood.
D. To tell us how to have a happy and comfortable home.
2. What does the underlined phrase “interfere with” mean?
A. Get in the way of.                    B. Protect from.
C. Deal with.                       D. Keep away from.
3. Match each of the first four tips with one of the following titles.
a. Get comfortable.
b. Celebrate life.
c. Let there be light.
d. Color your way to happiness.
A. 1-d 2-c 3-a 4-b                  B. 1-a 2-b 3-c 4-d
C. 1-d 2-b 3-a 4-c            D. 1-d 2-b 3-c 4-a
4. In which section of a newspaper would you most probably read this passage?
A. Teaching.          B. Family.      C. Housing.   D. Life.

A lot of us lose life's tough battles by starting a frontal attack--when a touch of humor might well enable us to win. Consider the case of a young friend of mine, who was on his trapped way to work shortly after receiving an ultimatum(最后通牒) about the job. Although there was a good reason for Sam's being late--serious illness at home--he decided that this by-now-familiar excuse wouldn't work any longer. His supervisor was probably already pacing up and down preparing a dismissal speech.
Yes, the boss was, Sam entered the office at 9:35. The place was as quiet as a locker room(更衣室); everyone was hard at work. Sam's supervisor came up to him. Suddenly, Sam forced a grin and stretched out his hand. "How do you do!" he said. "I'm Sam Maynard. I'm applying for a job, which, I understand, became available just 35 minutes ago. Does the early bird get the worm?"
The room exploded in laughter, except that the supervisor had to clamp off a smile and walked back to his office. Sam Maynard had saved his job--with the only tool that could win, a laugh.
Humor is a most effective, yet frequently neglected, means of handling the difficult situations in our lives. It can be used for patching up differences, apologizing, saying "no", criticizing, getting the other fellow to do what you want without his losing face. For some jobs, it's the only tool that can succeed. It is a way to discuss subjects so sensitive that serious dialog may start a quarrel. For example, many believe that comedians on television are doing more today for racial and religious tolerance than people in any other forum.
1. Why was Sam late for his job?
A. Because he was seriously ill at home.    B. Because he received an ultimatum.
C. Because he was caught in a traffic jam.   D. Because he was busy applying for a new job.
2. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Sam Maynard saved his job with humor     B. Humor is important in our lives
C. Early bird can get the worm               D. Humor can solve racial discriminations
3. The phrase "clamp off" in Paragraph 3 means__________.
A. try to hold back    B. pretend to set      C. send off         D. give out
4. Which of the following statements can we infer from the passage?
A. Many lose life's battles for they are lacking in a sense of humor.
B. It wasn't the first time that Sam came late for his work.
C. Sam was supposed to come to his office at 8:30.
D. Humor is the most effective way of solving problems.

In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We’re pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession(癡迷) is more about us than them. So we’ve created various justifications（辯解）that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-developed panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. What causes the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite（精英）degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All seems right but mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures—professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, selective schools do enhance（提高） their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and, surprisingly, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college is not life’s only competition. In the next competition—the job market and graduate school—the results may change. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of famous universities didn’t.
So, parents, take it easy（lighten up）. The stakes (利害關(guān)系) have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
1. Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A. They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B. They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C. They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D. They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
2. Why do parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever?
A. They want to increase their children’s chances of entering a prestigious college.
B. They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C. Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D. Elite universities now enroll fewer student than they used to.
3. What does the author mean by “kids count more than their colleges” Line1, para.4?
A. Continuing education is more important to a person’s success.
B. A person’s happiness should be valued more than their education.
C. Kids’ actual abilities are more important than their college background.
D. What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
4. What does Krueger’s study tell us?
A. Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B. Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C. Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D. Connections built in prestigious universities may be kept long after graduation.
5. One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______
A. they earn less than their peers from other institutions　　
B. they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C. they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation　
D. they overemphasize their qualifications in job application

You wake up in the morning, the day is beautiful and the plans for the day are what you have been looking forward to for a long time. Then, the telephone rings, you say hello, and the drama starts. The person on the other end has a depressing (令人沮喪的) tone in his voice as he starts to tell you how terrible his morning is and that there is nothing to look forward to. Are you still in a wonderful mood? Impossible!
Communicating with negative people can wash out your happiness. It may not change what you think，but communicating long enough with them will make you feel depressed for a moment or a long time.
Life brings ups and downs，but some people are stuck in the wrong idea that life has no happiness to offer.  They only feel glad when they make others feel bad. No wonder they can hardly win others’pity or respect.
When you communicate with positive people，your spirit stays happy and therefore more positive things are attracted. When the knife of a negative person is put in you，you have the heavy feeling that all in all，brings you down.
Sometimes we have no choice but to communicate with negative people. This could be a co-worker，or a relative. In this case，say what needs to be said as little as possible. Sometimes it feels good to let out your anger back to the negative person，but all this does is to lower you to that same negative level and they won’t feel ashamed of themselves about that.
Negativity often affects happiness without even being realized. The negative words of another at the start of the day can attach to you throughout the rest of your day，which makes you feel bad and steals your happiness. Life is too short to feel negative. Stay positive and avoid negativity as much as possible.
1．The purpose of the first paragraph is to_________
A. make a comparison              B. offer an suggestion
C. introduce a topic                 D. describe a daily scene
2．How can negative people have effect on us?
A. By influencing our emotion.   
B. By telling us the nature of life.
C. By changing our way of thinking.   
D. By comparing their attitude to life with ours.
3. Some negative people base their happiness on_________.
A. other people’s pity for them            B. making other people unhappy
C. building up a positive attitude     D. other people’s respect for them
4．According to the passage，to reduce negative people’s influence on us，we are advised________
A. to change negative people’s attitude to life
B. to show our dissatisfaction to negative people
C. to make negative people feel ashamed of themselves
D. to communicate with negative people as little as possible

第二部分：閱讀理解（共20小題；每小題2分，滿分40分）
閱讀下列短文，從每題所給的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)（A、B、C和D）中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)。
A
Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.
The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling----jealousy(嫉妒). The                                         green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay rise and she does not
1. Greenhorn now refers to ____.
A. a person who is new in a job        B. a new solider
C. a young horse                      D. None of above
2. A person who has a green thumb is a person ____.
A. who is good at growing plants       
B. whose thumbs are in green color
C. whose garden is greener than others’      
D. who is younger than his neighbors
3. The author is actually talking about ___
A. colors       B. language        C. politics           D. agriculture 
4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. In about the 16th century, a greenhorn meant an experienced soldier.
B. The Green Revolution may have some connection with green thumbs.
C. The green-eyed monster was probably created by William Shakespeare.
D. The green-eyed monster can be used to describe a person who is jealous.

If you're 70 and overweight, you may live longer
A few extra pounds might help you live longer if you're past your prime(壯年) but otherwise healthy, a new study finds.
Physicians routinely follow guidelines issued by the World Health Organization. Because weight depends on height, they use a standard measure called body mass index (BMI), which is calculated as the weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared.
Healthy weight is defined as a BMI anywhere between 18.5 and 24.9 in adults, whereas 25 to 29.9 is overweight and 30+ is obese.
The new study suggests that in the elderly, these boundaries may be too narrow. While no one is questioning that extra fat poses health risks in young and middle-aged adults, it may reduce the impact of frailty and old age, geriatrician(老年醫(yī)學(xué)專家) Dr. Thomas Yoshikawa told Reuters Health.
So far, nobody knows exactly how BMI affects lifespan in older people. Some researchers speculate that it acts as an energy reserve that can help the elderly cope with illness.
For the study, Australian researchers followed more than 9,000 men and women who were between 70 and 75 years old at the beginning. The participants reported their height and weight as well as various factors related to health and lifestyle. About 33 percent of the women and 44 percent of the men were overweight.
Over 10 years, more than 2,000 of the participants died. Women who had an active life and didn't smoke were the most likely to be alive at the end of the study.
But neither health nor lifestyle could fully explain why overweight people of both sexes survived longer than their normal-weight peers, who fared no better than obese individuals. In terms of survival, the best BMI was between 26 and 27, well within the overweight range.
The new results agree with earlier research showing that fat may be beneficial in old age.
1．We can learn from the passage that_________．
A. the heavier one is, the better             
B. we shouldn’t lose weight when old
C. one should keep his weight within the recommended range
D. we shouldn’t worry about our weight if we are slightly fatter than normal when old 
2．According to the passage, if a person is 1.5 metres in height and 67.5 kg in weight, his BMI is________.
A．30            B．25           C．45         D． 28
3. What does the author want to tell us most?
A. Fatness has little to do with diseases in old age.        
B. Fatness is not always bad.
C. Fatness may be beneficial instead of harmful in old age.
D. Overweight people of both sexes survive longer than their normal-weight peers.

People are being invited to sit down to eat with their neighbors in a nationwide lunch party designed to promote community spirit. The Big Lunch is the idea of the Eden Project in Cornwall. It aims to persuade people up and down the country to hold street lunch parties.
Tens of thousands of vegetables, fruits and flowers were used to construct a giant 2,000-square-foot lunch invitation in London’s Convent Garden. More than 9,000 cauliflowers and 800 bananas were used.
According to the organizers, people who decide to take part in the activity will get support from large companies which will supply many of the necessities, including plants to be given out to people to grow. The organizers think that the Big Lunch is a great opportunity for people to get together and spend time with their neighbors, friends and families. Events like this also help build strong communities. People can show their talents, get over their embarrassment, shake hands and get to know their neighbors, and realize that the neighborhood where they live can be a great source of happiness and enjoyment.
The Eden Project’s leader, Tim Smith, says, “It’s a good way to face this recession. Imagine a day on which millions of us, throughout the UK, sit down to have lunch together with our neighbors in the middle of our streets, around our tower blocks, and on every patch of common ground. We’ll have cooked our own food, made our own entertainment, and created our own decorations. It will be a day to share bread with our neighbors, and put a smile on Britain’s face.”
62.   The Big Lunch aims to _____.
A. persuade people to eat healthy food         B. encourage people to cook at home
C. help poor people in the community         D. develop community spirit
63.   Which of the following is false?
A. Large companies will give participants enough money to hold the lunch parties.
B. The Big Lunch may be a good opportunity to show talents and make friends.
C. The Big Lunch is a nationwide activity designed by The Eden Project.
D. The giant lunch invitation in London used a lot of vegetables, fruits and flowers.
64.   Big Lunch is a good opportunity for people to _____.
A. enjoy free food                                           B. have fun with neighbors and families
C. shop on the street                                  D. eat without cooking  
65.   The underlined word “recession” in the last paragraph probably means_____.
A. nice environment                                  B. grand ceremony
C. rapid progress                                       D. economic decline

Babies born in summer are more likely to become short-sighted in late life, a study has shown.



As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.
They are advising all parents to put sunglasses on their babies during the first weeks.
Scientists had already established that over-exposure to sunlight caused short-sightedness in animals.
Researchers who compared the months in which babies were born with whether they needed glasses later on say the principle also applies to humans.
A study of almost 300,000 young adults─the largest of its kind─showed that those born in June and July had a 25 per cent greater chance of becoming severely short-sighted than those born in December or January. Research leader Professor Michael Belkin, of Tel Aviv University, said it was because prolonged illumination(光照) causes the eyeball to lengthen, causing short-sightedness.
Hence the more light a newborn is exposed to, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the short-sightedness will be.
The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.
In young babies not enough melatonin is released as protection, meaning they are more vulnerable to sunburn and changes to eyeball shape.
Sight expert Professor Daniel O’Leary, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said “At the moment we don’t know the precise cause of why light exposure affects sight, but the evidence seems to prove that it is one of the reasons for people becoming short-sighted.”
55. Babies born in summer are more likely to be short-sighted ____________.
A. because the summer sun is too strong for babies
B. because babies born in summer have lengthened eyeballs
C. if they are exposed to much sunlight in the first weeks after they are born
D. if parents don’t know a proper way to protect their babies’ eyes
56. Melatonin is a kind of material to ___________.
A. prevent the eyes from becoming near-sighted
B. protect the skin from harmful sun rays
C. make our body strong
D. protect babies’ eyes from summer sun
57.   From what Professor Daniel O’Leary says we can conclude that ___________.
A. there is no evidence that short-sightedness is related to exposure to sunlight
B. whether light exposure affects sight still needs to be further proved
C. he believes that light exposure can cause short-sightedness
D. he tries to give the cause of why light exposure affects sight
58.   The underlined word “vulnerable” in the passage probably means __________.
A. easy to be harmed                          B. resistant
C. protective                                     D. changeable