In many parts of the world, cars play an important role in daily life and many societies would not exist without them. So the idea that in 20 years’ time, no one will own cars may be hard to believe. But this is the prediction made by a team of transport researchers who are taken seriously, not only by government but also by car manufacturers.
The Human Science and Advanced Technology Institute at Loughborough in the UK is part of an international research program. The team there believes that by 2020 all cars will be computerized, which will mean much saving, no accidents and better use of roads. The super-intelligent car of the 21^st century will drive itself, and it will not be owned by one individual. Instead, we will have a choice of cars and change them as frequently as we change our clothing.
According to Dr. David Davis , who leads the research team, these predictions are based on the rising cost of the car culture, which has blocked up our cities, polluted our air , and caused more deaths than both world wars put together.
Davis says, cars will be fitted with some intelligent devices to regulate the distance between one car and another. The car will automatically speed up, or slow down, to match the speed of the car in front. Computers are much safer drivers than people, so cars in a road train will be able to drive much closer together than cars driven by people.
By 2010, Dr. David Davis believes, car technology will give motorists a clear view of the road, whatever the weather conditions, by projecting an image of the road ahead on to the car’s windscreen. And by 2020, cars will travel in convoy, linked to each other electronically. Cars will be connected by an electronic tow bar to the car in front to form “road–trains”. “The front vehicle in such a train burns the normal amount.” says Davis. “But all the others in the train would burn about ten percent of the normal amount, and so produce about ten percent of the pollution.”
【小題1】We know from the passage that governments and car manufacturers _______

A．do not believe the prediction that no one will own cars by 2020

B．are devoted to the technological revolution in car industry

C．consider the predictions seriously

D．have put the super-intelligent car into mass production

【小題2】Which of the following will be the characteristic of the cars of 2020?

1. The car will speed up out of control.
2. We will own as many cars as we want.
3. All cars will be driven by computers.
4. Cars will produce more pollution than present ones.

【小題3】The leader of the research team believes that the present car culture should change because_________.

1. cars play a very important role in daily life
2. many societies would stop functioning without cars
3. cars should not be owned by one individual
4. it causes many deaths to human society

【小題4】The expression closest in meaning to the phrase “in convoy” in the last paragraph is________.

A．in line

B．sidelong

C．side by side

D．shoulder to shoulder

【小題5】What will happen if cars are joined to each other electronically in 2020?

1. Motorists will get a clear view of the road.
2. The weather condition will not have effect on motorists.
3. There will be less pollution caused by car.
4. All trains will burn less fuel than present.

At 2 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five Navy aircraft took off in perfect flying weather from a naval air installation in southeastern Florida, on a routine training mission over the Atlantic Ocean. Less than two hours later, the flight commander radioed that he was “completely lost”. Then there was silence. A rescue plane was sent to search for the missing aircraft, and it, too, disappeared. Despite one of history’s most extensive search efforts, involving more than 300 planes and dozens of ships, the Navy found nothing, not even an oil stain floating on the water.
This is just one of the many frightening stories told of “the Bermuda Triangle”, a mysterious area of the Atlantic Ocean roughly stretching southwest from Bermuda to the Florida coast and down to Puerto Rico. During the past 30 years, the triangle has claimed the lives of some 1,000 sailors and pilots.
Stranger yet are the numerous “ghost” ships that have been found floating crewless within the triangle. On one strange occasion in 1881, the cargo ship Ellen Austin discovered a small sailing ship, sails waving uselessly in the wind. The boat was full of wood with no one on deck. The captain of the Ellen Austin installed a new crew to sail it, but two days later, during a rough storm, the two ships temporarily lost sight of each other. When the captain again boarded the boat, he found his crew had disappeared. After a second crew was assigned, the ship was again lost in a fog bank. This time, no trace of the boat — or the crew — was ever found.
Charles Berlitz, a man with an interest in Atlantis, the legendary lost island, puts forward his theory that a giant solar crystal, which once was the power generator for Atlantis, lies on the ocean floor. From time to time, according to his theory, passing ships and planes set off the crystal, which confuses their instruments and engulfs them into the ocean.
Officially, the U.S. Navy does not recognize the triangle as a danger zone and is convinced that “the majority of disappearances in the triangle can be due to the unique features of the area’s environment.” These include the swift Gulf Stream current and the unexplored valleys under water of the Atlantic. Also, the triangle is one of only two places on earth where a compass needle points to true north rather than magnetic north, causing problems in navigation.
However, other scientists argue that beings from outer space have established a highly advanced civilization in the unexplored depths of the Atlantic inside the triangle. There, they believe, most of the missing vessels – and their crews – may still be on display for study by these higher intelligences.
【小題1】The author develops the first two paragraphs through _______.

A．a series of events described in order of time

B．a general view supported by specific examples

C．a specific incident followed by a general introduction

D．a strange phenomenon followed by cause explanation

【小題2】What did the captain of Ellen Austin do when he discovered a small sailing ship floating crewless?

A．He had all the wood transferred onto his own ship.

B．He had new powerful sails fixed on the small boat.

C．He sent a message that they were in danger and needed help.

D．He asked some of his sailors to get onto the boat to sail it.

【小題3】The underlined word “engulfs” in Paragraph 4 probably means ______.

A．drops

B．sucks

C．puts

D．throws

【小題4】Which of the following could serve as the best title for this passage?

A．The Mysterious Bermuda Triangle

B．The History of the Bermuda Triangle

C．A New Research on the Bermuda Triangle

D．A New Angle to Look at the Bermuda Triangle

People who eat at home most of the time have better nutrition than those who go out to eat , a recent study shows. Cornell University professors Lana Hall and Karen Bunch interviewed（面試，接見） 3900 people in the survey. “People who eat less than 30 percent of their food away from home eat the most nutritiously,” they said.
“In general, Americans don’t have nutrient, except for iron and calcium,” they reported. They have the opposite problem——over—consumption(過度消耗), especially of fat.
The food at many fast food restaurants is often low in vitamins. “People who eat more than 30 percent of total calories away from home eat foods that are generally low in nutrients per calorie,” the professors said. More calories and enough nutrient intake（吸收） are required to achieve.
One of the major health risks（風險） is eating too much fat. The professor found than fat consumption became greater as income（收入） went up. It also went up in houses where the female worked. This is probably because these people eat more highly processed （加工的）foods.
【小題1】According to the passage, which of the following suggestions would you most readily take?

A．Eat out as many times as possible

B．Eat at home as many times as possible

C．Eat foods with a lot if iron, calcium and fat

D．Eat more highly processed foods

【小題2】What is the result if people often dine out according to the passage?

A．They tend to have better nutrition

B．They tend to have less nutrition

C．They can save a lot of time

D．They will spend much money on it

【小題3】Nowadays, a major health risk that people face is_______.

A．Eating too much fast food	B．Frequent dining out
C．Eating at home very often	D．Eating too much fat

【小題4】The passage is about       .

A．Eating and Health

B．The Life Style in Modern Society

C．Fast food in the USA

D．Dining out Lowers Nutrient Intake

The Internet is not perfect. There are many problems with it.
The Internet is not organized. There is no one in charge of the Internet. It is sometimes difficult to find what you are looking for. It is also easy to get the wrong information on the “Net”.
Some businessmen cheat people on the Internet. Internet thieves can steal credit card numbers. Some advertisers send spam to e-mail boxes. E-mail boxes are often filled with these unwanted advertisements.
Illegal businesses can operate on the Internet. These businesses sell X-rated materials, cigarettes and alcohol to teenagers.
The Internet has websites with information about making bombs, breaking the law and terrorism.
Criminals can fool people, especially children, in chat rooms. They can spread poisonous information and attack new members.
The Internet is the greatest advance in communication since human emerged. But it can also like a dark alley in a dangerous part of town. Parents need to set parental controls on their children when they use the Internet. This will keep some of the bad material away from their children.
The Internet can be dangerous to computers, too. Some people who have evil intentions enjoy causing problems for other people they don’t even know. They create computer viruses. A computer can get virus by downloading a program that has a virus in it. Some virus come by e-mail.
A virus can destroy the data a person has saved in computer files. A virus can cause a computer to crash. A virus can also reproduce itself! It can send copies of itself to everyone on a person’s e-mail address list. Then these people’s will have the same problems and can’t work normally!
【小題1】Why can illegal businesses operate on the Internet?

A．Because some people like to buy banned products on the Internet.

B．Because there is no one in charge of the Internet.

C．Because X-rated materials, cigarettes, alcohol and so on can be sold well on the Internet.

D．Because people who operate businesses on the Internet are criminals.

【小題2】Parental controls are needed when children use the Internet because________

A．poisonous information may have a bad effect on children

B．children may damage the computers

C．the Internet is always unsafe for the children

D．children can’t use the computers well

【小題3】We can infer from the passage that the key to solving the problems with the Internet is____________

A．to improve the computers

B．to find a medicine to kill computer viruses

C．to order people not to use the Internet

D．to improve people’s moral level（道德水平）.

Have you ever seen people dance? Some dances are fast and others are slow. People’s feet always move when they dance. They keep on moving until the music stops.
People have enjoyed dancing for a very long time. This story is of a different kind of dance. It is a dance without people or music. Yet this dance is one of the oldest in the world. It is the dance of bees.
If you have ever watched bees, you know that they are very clever. They also work hard looking for food and bringing it back to their home.
The home of the bees is called a bee hive. Here hundreds even thousand of bees live. They work day and night building small walls. There they make their honey. This is the same honey that we eat.
Where does the honey come from? Bees live on food from flowers. Have you seen bees flying around a flower garden? When a bee rests on a flower, it tries to go to the centre of it. There it takes in as much food as its body can hold. Then it flies to take the food back to the hive.
At the hive, bees change flower food into honey. Then they fly away for more food.
How do the bees know where to find the best food in the sweetest flowers? One bee acts as a guide. When it discovers good flowers, it flies back to the hive and tells the others. It does this by dancing for them.
The bee dances on one side. This tells the other bees which way to go to find the flowers. But that is not all. The bee dances for some time. And the length of its dance tells the other bees how far they must fly to reach the flowers.
When the bees see the dance, they know where the flowers are. They fly away and return with more food for the hive.
Sometimes we hear the music of the bees as they fly around. But few people have ever seen them dance. Yet without that dance we might never have sweet honey to eat.
【小題1】The writer believes that_________.

A．people dance better than bees

B．people learned dance from bees

C．bees dance more often than people

D．bees don’t like music

【小題2】From this passage we know that the dance of bees means_______.

A．They are good at dancing

B．they want to show their beauty

C．they communicate with each other

D．they have nothing to do

【小題3】Which of the following is true?

A．People get honey from flowers directly.

B．People draw honey from bees’ bodies.

C．People produce honey in a secret place.

D．People get honey from bees indirectly.

【小題4】What character do bees have?

A．dance-loving	B．hard-working
C．music-loving	D．active

Mark and his brother Jason both were looking at the shining new computer enviously. Jason was determined not to go against their father’s wishes but Mark was more adventurous than his brother. He loved experimenting and his aim was to become a scientist like his father.
“Dad will be really mad if he finds out you’ve been playing with his new computer.” Jason said, “He told us not to touch it.”
“He won’t find out.” Mark said, “I’ll just have a quick look and shut it down.”
Mark had been scolded before for touching his father’s equipment. But his curiosity was difficult to control and this new computer really puzzled him.
It was a strange-looking machine –one his dad had brought home from the laboratory where he worked. “It’s an experimental model,” his father had explained, “so don’t touch it under any circumstances.” But his father's warning only served to make Mark more curious. Without any further thought, Mark turned on the power switch. The computer burst into life and seconds later, the screen turned into colors, shifting and changing and then two big white words appeared in the center of the screen: “SPACE TRANSPORTER.”
“Yes!” Mark cried excitedly, “It’s a computer game. I knew it! Dad’s only been pretending to work. He’s really been playing games instead.” A new message appeared on the screen:
“ENTER NAMES
VOYAGER 1: …
VOYAGER 2: …”
Mark’s fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed in both of their names.
“INPUT ACCEPTED. START TRANSPORT PROGRAM. AUTO-RETRIEVE INITIATED（自動回收程序已啟動）.”
The screen turned even brighter and a noise suddenly rose in volume.
“I think we’d better shut it off, Mark,” Jason yelled, reaching for the power switch. He was really frightened.
But his hand never reached the switch. A single beam of dazzling white light burst out of the computer screen, wrapping the boys in its glow (光芒), until they themselves seemed to be glowing. Then it died down just as suddenly as it had burst into life. And the boys were no longer there. On the screen, the letters changed.
“TRANSPORT SUCCESSFUL. DESTINATION（目的地）: MARS. RETRIEVE DATE: 2025.”
【小題1】Why did Mark touch the computer against his father’s warning?

A．He wanted to take a voyage.

B．He wanted to practice his skill

C．He was so much attracted by it.

D．He was eager to do an experiment.

【小題2】Where did the boy’s father most likely work?

A．In an electronic factory.

B．In a computer company.

C．In a scientific research center.

D．In an information processing center.

【小題3】Mark thought “SPACE TRANSPORTER” on the screen was the name of          .

A．a computer game	B．a company website
C．a software producer	D．an astronomy program

【小題4】Why did Jason want to shut off the computer?

A．He was afraid of being scolded.

B．He didn’t like the loud noise and light.

C．He didn’t want to play games any more.

D．He was afraid something dangerous might happen.

【小題5】What happened to the boys at the end of the story?

A．They were blown into the air.

B．They were sent to another planet.

C．They were hidden in the strong light.

D．They were carried away to another country

Honey(蜂蜜)from the African forest is not only a kind of natural sugar, it is also delicious. Most people, and many animals, like eating it. However, the only way for them to get that honey is to find a wild bees' nest(巢)and take the honey from it. Often, these nests are high up in trees, and it is difficult to find them. In parts of Africa, though, people and animals looking for honey have a strange and unexpected helper一a little bird called a honey guide.
The honey guide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax (蜂蠟) in the beehives (蜂房). The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees’ nest. So, when it finds a suitable nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honey guide gives a loud cry that attracts the attention of both passing animals and people. Once it has their attention, it flies through the forest, waiting from time to time for the curious animal or people as it leads them to the nest. When they
finally arrive at the nest, the follower reaches in to get at the delicious honey as the bird patiently waits and watches. Some of the honey, and the wax, always falls to the ground, and this is when the honey guide takes its share.
Scientists do not know why the honey guide likes eating the wax, but it is very determined in its efforts to get it. The birds seem to be able to smell wax from a long distance away. They will quickly arrive whenever a beekeeper is taking honey from his beehives, and will even enter churches when beeswax candles are being lit.
【小題1】Why is it difficult to find a wild bees' nest?

A．It's small in size.

B．It's hidden in trees.

C．It's covered with wax.

D．It's hard to recognize.

【小題2】What do the words "the follower" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．A bee.	B．A bird.
C．A honey seeker.	D．A beekeeper.

【小題3】The honey guide is special in the way________.

A．it gets its food

B．it goes to church

C．it sings in the forest

D．it reaches into bees' nests

【小題4】What can be the best title for the text?

A．Wild Bees

B．Beekeeping in Africa

C．Wax and Honey

D．Honey-Lover's Helper

For those who are tired doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app(application).
Strange though it may seem — “my wife already does that” was a common response among attendees viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week — Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install (安裝) a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them “smart”.
Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it’s Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.
The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owners is at work or on the bus.
Samsung says it’s not just something new — the app connection actually has some practical uses.
“If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go,” said spokesperson Amy Schmidt.
The company also says that with electricity rate(電價)varying depending on the time of day, more control over when the machines are used can help save money.
Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do —enable laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on their phones while watching TV.
【小題1】What can be inferred from the common response of the attendees at the CES?

A．The machine will be a big success.

B．their wives like doing the laundry.

C．The machine is unrelated to their life.

D．This kind of technology is familiar to them.

【小題2】What can we learn about the new laundry machines?

A．They can tell you when your clothes need washing

B．They can be controlled with a smartphone

C．They are difficult to operate

D．They are sold at a low price

【小題3】We can conclude form Samsung’s statements that ___________.

A．the app connection makes life easier

B．it is better to dry clothes in the morning

C．smartphone can shorten the drying time

D．we should refresh clothes back at home

【小題4】What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．The laundry should be frequently checked

B．Lazy people like using such machines

C．Good technologies also cause problems

D．Television may help do the laundry.

If you are looking for an animal to take the title of “most violent fish in the sea”, then the tiger puffer (河豚) fish would have to be a strong contestant. Not only is it deadly poisonous --- though that doesn’t stop people trying to eat it --- but it is also able to scare off enemies by inflating itself to become much larger than normal, when it is young it even chews on its own brothers and sisters.
Tiger puffer fish attach their eggs to rocks near the bottom of the sea, often at the mouths of bays. Then the larvae (幼魚) move to the entries of rivers and lakes once they have grown a little. Then, having put on a lot of weight, they head out to sea. There’s no innocent childhood for the puffer fish, as Shin Oikawa of Kyushu University in Japan and his colleagues found out when they put the larvae of tiger puffer fish in the lab and monitored them for two months. They found that the larvae went through three steps in which their metabolic(新陳代謝) rates increased dramatically when they reached body weights of 0.002g, 0.01g, and 0.1g. When a larva went through one of these steps, its behavior also changed. For instance, once a larva had passed the first level it would have grown its first tooth and could start attacking larvae that had not yet reached that stage. Similarly, any larva that had reached the 0.01g or 0.1g levels would start attacking lighter larvae.
The researchers noted that the baby fish had a “relatively small mouth”, so rather than swallowing their brothers and sisters whole, they would bite pieces out of them. Despite this limitation, the fish caused plenty of deaths --- up to 12 per cent of the deaths that happened in the lab each day.
Those fish that grew fast enough to be able to chew on their fellows had an advantage. The extra food accelerated their growth and development. Tiger puffer fish are likely to be faster and swifter, so they can deal better with enemies.
As the name suggests, puffer fish can inflate to make themselves seem much larger than they really are, thus scaring off enemies. They do this by filling their stomachs, which are extremely elastic(彈性的), with water. If that’s not enough of a threat, the tiger puffer fish --- like most of the other puffer fish in the family --- carries a deadly toxin(毒素). Eat one puffer fish and the poison will paralyze (癱瘓) your muscles, including the muscles responsible for breathing, so death is usually caused by a lack of oxygen. Famously, the fish is a delicacy in Japan, where highly qualified chefs produce dishes that contain the safe level of the poison. Interestingly, the puffer fish does not go to the trouble of producing the poison itself. Instead, it hosts bacteria (細菌) that produce the stuff. It obtains these bacteria from its diet, so the youngest adult fish are not poisonous.
【小題1】All of the following statements account for the violence of puffer fish except that_____.

A．they are very difficult to catch

B．they can become larger to threaten enemies away

C．they kill their younger companions as they grow up

D．they are deadly poisonous

【小題2】We can learn from the second paragraph that puffer fish _____.

A．can only grow to a weight of 0.1g

B．do not change their behavior as they grow up

C．like to find a safe place to hatch the next generation

D．begin to grow teeth when they reach the third level

【小題3】Where does the poison in the puffer fish’s body come from?

A．Its inner organs.	B．The air it breathes in.
C．The diet it eats.	D．The bacteria around it.

【小題4】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Puffer fish can only produce poison when they face danger.

B．People like eating puffer fish even though they are poisonous.

C．The larvae are more aggressive than adult puffer fish.

D．Young puffer fish taste better than adult puffer fish.

Plants are flowering faster than scientists predicted（預測）in reaction to climate change, which could have long damaging effects on food chains and ecosystems.
Global warming is having a great effect on hundreds of plant and animal species around the world, changing some living patterns, scientists say.
Increased carbon dioxide（CO2）in the air from burning coal and oil can have an effect on how plants produce oxygen, while higher temperatures and changeable rainfall patterns can change their patterns of growth.
“Predicting species’ reaction to climate change is a major challenge in ecology,” said the researches of several U.S. universities. They said plants had been the key object of study because their reaction to climate change could have an effect on food chains and ecosystem services.
The study, published on the Nature website, uses the findings from plant life cycle studies and experiments across four continents and 1,634 species. It found that some experiments had underestimated（低估）the speed of flowering by 8.5 times and leafing by 4 times.
“Across all species, the experiments under-predicted the speed of the advance — for both leafing and flowering — that results from temperature increases,” the study said.
The design of future experiments may need to be improved to better predict how plants will react to climate change, it said.
Plants are necessary for life on the Earth. They are the base of the food chain, using photosynthesis（光合作用）to produce sugar from carbon dioxide and water. They let out oxygen which is needed by nearly every organism on the planet.
Scientists believe the world’s average temperature has risen by about 0.8℃ since 1900, and nearly 0.2℃ every ten years since 1979.
So far, efforts to cut emissions（排放）of planet-warming greenhouse gases are not seen as enough to prevent the Earth heating up beyond 2℃ this century — a point scientists say will bring the danger of a changeable climate in which weather extremes are common, leading to drought, floods, crop failures and rising sea levels.
【小題1】What is the key information the author wants to give in Paragraph 1?

A．Plants’ reaction to weather could have damaging effects on ecosystem.

B．The increasing speed of flowering is beyond scientists’ expectation.

C．Climate change leads to the change of food production patterns.

D．Food chains have been seriously damaged because of weather.

【小題2】We can learn from the study published on the Nature website that ______.

A．plants’ flowering is 8.5 times faster than leafing

B．there are 1,634 plant species on the four continents

C．scientists should improve the design of the experiments

D．the experiments failed to predict how plants react to climate change

【小題3】Scientists pay special attention to the study of plants because _______.

A．they can prove the climate change clearly

B．they are very important in the food chains

C．they play a leading role in reducing global warming

D．they are growing and flowering much faster than before

【小題4】What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs about the world’s temperature?

A．It has risen nearly 0.2℃ since 1979.

B．Its change will lead to weather extremes.

C．It is 0.8℃ higher in 1979 than that of 1990.

D．It needs to be controlled within 2℃ in this century.