Children, especially boys, tend to idealize their fathers when they are young．Every little boy wants to grow up to be just like his father, and every little girl thinks her father is the smartest man on the earth．It’s not very easy to be a good father, but it’s not that difficult either．Children will truly enjoy spending time with their fathers, not just when they are kids, but even when they are adults．
Not all children communicate well with their fathers．Communication is often left to mothers, while fathers dispense advice as and when necessary．Don’t expect all conversations to centre around the dinner table．Go to your children’s bedrooms and talk to them about school, their teachers or their friends．Remember that the conversation cannot be one-sided．When your children open up to you, you also need to open up to them．
If your children come home from school feeling upset, go up to them and ask them what is the matter．And if it is something which seems to you to be a silly reason to be upset, don’t voice your opinion．It may be silly to you, but to your children it is important enough．So don’t wave the topic away by telling them not to bother about such stupid things．Simply discussing their problems with them will help them feel better．
Don’t shy away from having discussions about your teenage children’s love lives．Generally speaking, your children are definitely not going to discuss intimate details with you．Try to let them know that you are relaxed about topics on love．Tell your children how you met your wife．It is perfectly normal for children to go through feelings for the opposite sex as they grow up, and by keeping the topic closed for discussion, you are only shutting them off from discussing their feelings with you．All they will do is turn to their friends．
【小題1】To children their fathers are usually very _____．

We know the famous ones—the Thomas Edisons and the Alexander Graham Bells—but what about the less famous inventors? What about the people who invented the traffic light and the windshield wiper (雨刮器)？ Shouldn’t we know who they are?
Joan Mclean thinks so. In fact, McLean, a professor of physics at Mountain University in Range, feels so strongly about this matter that she’s developed a course on the topic. In addition to learning “who” invented “what”, however, McLean also likes her students to learn the answers to the “why” and “how” questions. According to McLean, “When students learn the answers to these questions, they are better prepared to recognize opportunities for inventing and more willing to give inventing a try.”
Her students agree. One young man with a patent（專利）for an unbreakable umbrella is walking proof of McLean’s statement. “If I had not heard the story of the windshield wiper’s invention,” said Tommy Lee, a senior physics major, “ I never would have dreamed of turning my bad experience during a rainstorm into something so useful.” Lee is now considering to sell his patent to an umbrella producer.
So, just what is the story behind the windshield wiper? Well, Mary Anderson came up with the idea in 1902 after a visit to New York City. The day was cold and stormy, but Anderson still wanted to see the sights, so she jumped aboard a streetcar. Noticing that the driver was struggling to see through the snow covering the windshield, she found herself wondering why there couldn’t be a built-in device(裝置) for cleaning the window. Still wondering about this when she returned home to Birminghan, Alabama, Anderson started drafting out solutions. One of her ideas, a lever (操作桿) on the inside of a vehicle that would control an arm on the outside, became the first windshield wiper.
Today we benefit from countless inventions and innovations. It’s hard to imagine driving without Garrett A. Morgan’s traffic light. It’s equally impossible to picture a world without Katherine J. Blodgett’s innovation that makes glass invisible. Can you picture life without clear windows and eyeglasses?
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Work your brain!
Between 2 and 3 pounds of wonder，it controls everything we say，do or think，who we are and what we care about. The way we walk or laugh or figure out things. What we like and the talents we possess. How we see and talk and run and jump and process our food.
The brain uses 20 percent of our body's oxygen and 20 percent of its blood. Somewhere within its protein，fat, 100,000 miles of blood vessels and 100 billion nerve cells，it helps us remember where we put our gym shoes. Change our temperature so we don't die because of the heat or cold. Speed us up or slow us down. Help us choose between orange juice or orange­flavored drinks.
Its intricacies(復(fù)雜性)are stunning，far beyond anything most of us can imagine. To keep this work of art as polished(有光澤的) as possible we need to eat right，exercise and keep mentally stimulated(刺激)．
Good nutrition helps brain cells communicate with each other. Exercise stimulates a hormone(荷爾蒙)in our brain that improves memory. Mental stimulation keeps you sharp even as you age.
“It's very important that we tell people to be physically active and mentally active，” said neurologist Malcolm Stewart.
“People cannot stop aging，but you're able to reduce the damage；you're able to keep the function up.”
Following are Dr.Stewart's advice for improving brain health：

In the computer age, most of us take a broadband Internet connection for granted. Whether cable or mobile broadband, today’s connections are many times faster than those in the early days. Videos play smoothly, complex websites load quickly, and files download much faster than ten years ago. And the files are much bigger too.
There’s a catch, of course. You have to live near enough to a major city to get broadband Internet. If you don’t, it’s slow dial-up access for you. And for those living really far out, there may be no Internet access at all.
Technology experts often talk about the “l(fā)ast mile” problem, which refers to the difficulty of bringing Internet access to remote locations. In cities and suburbs, it’s relatively easy to provide access for everyone. It is much more difficult to deliver access to those living far from cities, especially in developing countries. Internet service providers, for their part, have been reluctant to provide access to sparsely(稀疏地) populated areas. The handful of Internet users they would reach wouldn’t cover the expense.
But every year, technological advancements allow of more and more Internet users. Most broadband connections today run over existing cable TV and telephone lines although these technologies aren’t available everywhere. Some companies have delivered the Internet over standard power lines. Advancements in cheaper, more efficient fiber optics cables(光纖電纜) promise to bring extremely fast Internet connections to more users.
Still, the “l(fā)ast mile” problem remains hard to deal with. There will always be somewhere that doesn’t have an affordable broadband connection. But someday that might not matter. If the rapid progress in cell phone technology is any indication(跡象), it may not be too long before an Internet connection simply follows you wherever you go.
【小題1】The underlined part “ a catch” (in Paragraph 2) probably means “________”.

Nuclear radiation （核輻射）has a certain mystery, partly because it cannot be detected （探測）by human senses. It can’t be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we can’t detect them or sense them without a radio receiver. Similarly, we can’t sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things.
At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or human being at once by killing plenty of cells in important organs(器官). Even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no level of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be serious. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and when they are killed at once. Your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They reproduce themselves in an unusual way. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.
This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the knowledge of the person at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated(放射治療) and feel fine, then die of cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. A child can be born weak or easy to get serious illness as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents.
【小題1】According to the passage, the danger of nuclear power lies in       .

A well-known manufacturer of weighing machines produced a new model.
The machine had a computer inside it, and this computer could do wonderful things: it could weigh people very accurately; it could tell them their weight in their own language; and it could tell them what they should eat to reduce their weight.
The manufacturer decided to try out his machine before he sold it to the shops.
He looked around for a good place to put it and finally decided on an airport. There were always people at an airport from many different countries.
The first person to use the machine was an Italian woman. She stood on the machine, put a coin in and waited to hear her weight.
The machine took only a second or two to weigh her, decide on her nationality and the language she spoke, and figure out what kind of food she should eat.
“Good morning, madam,” it said in perfect Italian. “Your weight is 72 kilos, three more than it should be for a woman of your height, age and nationality. This is because you have been eating too much spaghetti. I suggest you eat more fruit and vegetables. Please have a nice day”.
The second person to use the machine was a Chinese girl. She stood on the machine, put a coin in and waited to hear her weight.
“Good morning, Miss," the machine said in perfect Chinese. "Your weight is 38 kilos, exactly the correct weight for your height, age and nationality. Continue to eat what you are eating. Please have a nice day.”
The third person to use the machine was a huge Australian woman. She walked up to the machine and looked at it for a long time. At last she found the courage to stand on the machine and put a coin in. The machine spoke immediately. “Good morning. Will one of you ladies please get off?”
【小題1】 What could the computer do?

Along the rivet banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken，eats green 1eaves has the stomach of a cow and has claws(爪)on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river，an important feature(特征)for the safety of the young．It is called the hoatzin．
In appearance，the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside．The head is small，with a large set of feathers on the top，bright
eyes, and blue skin．Its nearest relatives are the common birds cuckoos．Its most striking feature，though，is only found in the young．
Baby hoatzins have a claw on the 1eading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip．Using these four claws, together with the beak(喙)，they can climb about in the bushes,
looking very much like primitive birds must have done．When the young hoatzins have 1earned to fly，they lose their claws．
During the drier months between December and  March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds，but in April，when the rainy season begins，they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.
【小題1】What is the text mainly about?

Besides containing attractive flowers, trees and other plants that beautify the community, eco-friendly rain gardens are healthy for the environment and the people living and working nearby.
A rain garden is not very different from a traditional garden. It is just a far more eco-friendly garden. Usually it is built lower than the ground. Rain gardens make smart use of rain and storm water by temporarily holding water from rain and storms and letting it soak（浸人）slowly into the ground before it runs into streams or enters the public drinking water supply.
Thus, a rain garden keeps the water, allowing it to be used as needed by plants in the rain garden, rather than flowing immediately into nearby streams and going unused. The water will soak slowly into the ground within a day or two. This creates an advantage that the rain garden does not allow mosquitoes to breed. This is a simple, attractive, and eco-friendly “green” way to treat storm water.
What’s more, planting a rain garden helps reduce pollution and improve the environment. Without using expensive machinery and chemicals, rain gardens remove harmful chemicals in the rainwater and cut down on the amount of pollution reaching streams and rivers by up to 30%.
Native plants are recommended for rain gardens because they are more used to the locals climatem, soil, and water conditions. They may attract local wildlife such as native birds. Water your rain garden immediately after planting and once a week, unless you have had at least an inch of rain during the week. Once the native plants establish the necessary root system, it will require little care.
Often, local governments and private businesses develop large rain gardens in their yards and in public parks as a way to improve the environment and solve flooding problems. However, you don’t need to be a professional environmental engineer to create a rain garden. As long as you’re eco-conscious homeowners, you can help the environment by building smaller rain gardens in your yards.
【小題1】Which of the following is the eco-friendly function of rain gardens discussed in Paragraph 4?

Satellites are an important part of our ordinary lives．For example, the information for weather forecasts is sent by satellite．Some satellites have cameras which take photographs of the Earth to show how clouds are moving．Satellites are also used to connect our international phone calls．
Computer connections of the World Wide Web and Internet also use satellites. Many of our TV programs come to US through satellites．Airplane pilots also sometimes use a satellite to help them find their exact location．
We use satellites to send television pictures from one part of the world to another．They are usually 35，880 kilometers above the equator．Sometimes we can see a satellite in the sky and it seems to stay in the same place．This is because it is moving around the world at 11，000 kilometers an hour—exactly the same speed that the earth rotates．A satellite must orbit the Earth with its antennae(天線)facing the earth．Sometimes, it moves away from its orbit，So there are little rockets on it which are used to put the satellite back in the right position．This usually happens about every five or six days．
Space is not empty! Every week, more and more satellites are sent into space to orbit the Earth．A satellite usually works for about 10-12 years．Satellites which are broken are sometimes repaired by astronauts or sometimes brought back to Earth to be repaired．Often，very old or broken satellites are left in space to orbit the Earth for a very long time．This is very serious because some satellites use nuclear power and they can crash into each other．
【小題1】Which of the following is NOT done by satellites according to the passage?

One genetic mutation(基因突變)occurs on average for every 15 cigarettes that a typical lung-cancer patient smokes, according to a study that has found for the first time all of the mutations happen during the lifetime of a cancer patient.
Scientists have completed a full genetic examinations of the genomes（基因組） of cancer patients, and hope the information will lead to a basic understanding of the causes of cancer—and possibly drugs and treatments—by making out the mutations that turn a healthy cell into a cancerous tumor cell.
They studied a lung-cancer patient who had about 23,000 DNA mutations in his lung cells that were connected with exposure(暴露) to the toxins found in cigarette smoke and had built up over his lifetime.
They also looked at a patient with malignant melanoma(惡性黑色腫瘤), the most dangerous form of skin cancer, who had got 30,000 special mutations known to be connected with exposure to sunlight.
Scientists believe this new finding into the genetics of cancer will finally lead to new drugs and perfect treatments that aim at the specific changes to the gene that cause the disease, as well as new techniques for discovering following cancers that have escaped from treatment in other parts of the body.
“For the first time, we have a complete map of all mutations in a cancer cell,” said Dr. Peter Campbell, who led the Cancer Genome project to work out the whole DNA system of tumor cells in order find the mutations.
A similar method was performed on the cells of a patient with skin cancer, which is how the researchers were able to show that the malignant skin cells contained changes that resulted from exposure to light.
“These are the two main cancers in the developed world for which we know the chief exposure. For lung cancer it is cigarette smoke, and for malignant melanoma it is exposure to sunlight,” Professor Campbell said.
【小題1】What can the genetic examination of the genomes of cancer patients be used for?