For all dinner tables, a glass of milk seems to be a must. At least it was when I was growing up. It is widely believed that milk is a must in building strong bones and teeth. There’s no doubt that dairy products, especially milk, are high in protein and calcium, and Vitamin D and Vitamin A are added to most milk products.
While it’s well known that our bones need calcium, some studies suggest that high calcium intake doesn’t necessarily lower a person’s risk for fractures（骨折）. A Harvard study found that people who drank two or more glasses of milk had no greater protection from breaking a bone than those who drank a glass or less a week.
There is no doubt that we need calcium. Some anti-dairy supporters claim dairy products can lead to heart disease. Much of this claim is based on high-fat dairy products, like cheese and cream, which may indeed lead to some health problems. Some studies have linked high milk intakes with a risk of prostate cancer; this seems also to be caused by high-fat dairy products, but not by dairy products in general.
Although milk has always been regarded as the most important thing we need for our bones, one of the most important things in strengthening bones and reducing the risk of osteoporosis（骨質(zhì)疏松）is weight-bearing exercise, such as jogging, walking, and weight lifting.
Perhaps we should think of dairy products as less like a nutrient and more like a food. If you like it, eat it. If not, find something else to eat. Some claims may not be completely true. When I eat cream, I’m not thinking about calcium, protein, or any such thing. I’m thinking it is delicious.
【小題1】What is the best title for this passage?

A．Milk: is it really necessary for children?	B．The disadvantages of drinking milk.
C．Milk causes health problems.	D．Milk: is it really good for the body?

【小題2】For people who want to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, we can infer that the writer may suggest that they ________.

A．a(chǎn)void milk with Vitamin D and Vitamin A added

B．spend some time exercising

C．take in as much calcium as possible

D．drink more than two glasses of milk every day

【小題3】Based on the passage, we learn the writer may agree that ________.

A．milk is the most important thing that we need for our bones

B．children should not be permitted to eat cream

C．milk should be considered more like a food than a nutrient

D．children should drink milk whether they like it or not

【小題4】What can we learn from the passage?

A．Some dairy products may harm our health.

B．Milk has the highest level of protein of any food.

C．The writer seldom drank milk when he was young

D．People who drink milk every day are at a high risk of getting a heart disease.

One would have to be a fool to overlook (忽視)the importance of using positive(積極的) thinking for you rather than allowing negative thinking to work against you. In recent years, research in psychopharmacology (精神藥理學(xué)) has proved what many people have known over the centuries: a positive attitude is good for you, good for your health, good for your wealth, good for everything. Researchers found that a positive attitude produces a specific chemical reaction which makes people feel better, while negative thinking results in a decline of hormone (荷爾蒙) and shuts down the immune (免疫的) system. This leads to illness and depression. Positive thoughts will make you feel better. Even if you must begin by literally forcing yourself to be positive (faking it, so to speak), it will become contagious (會(huì)傳播的) and the positive thoughts will generate nice little chemicals and good feelings which will reinforce the positive thoughts.
For example, if you force yourself to smile or laugh, even when you don't feel like smiling or laughing, if you keep at it for a few minutes, you will soon feel like it. Feelings can generate (導(dǎo)致)thoughts, but thoughts can also generate feelings. Control your thoughts and you can control your feelings. Positive thinking is important in all aspects of our lives. There is probably no single factor more important in determining your success in achieving your career objectives than your own attitude.
It's often been said that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. And in the office of militant (好戰(zhàn)) negativism, the positive workers shine like gold. You cannot control external events, but you can learn to control your reaction to those events and thereby have a positive attitude and be happy. This vital key to success is totally within your control. Use it.
【小題1】We can infer from the passage that         .

A．positive thinking can cure you of your diseases

B．positive thinking can easily be generated by anyone

C．a(chǎn) decline of hormone may cause you to be depressed

D．a(chǎn) specific chemical reaction is the cause of negative thinking

【小題2】According to the passage, which of the following is true?

A．Feeling and thoughts can generate each other.

B．It's easier to control thoughts than to control feelings.

C．Your success depends wholly on your attitude.

D．Keeping smiling will surely make you successful.

【小題3】Just like a one-eyed man in the land of the blind, you should             .

A．control your feeling to what is happening to you

B．be king in your office

C．pay no attention to what is going on around you

D．take positive attitude in the office of militant negativism

【小題4】The best title to the passage is             .

A．The Bad Effect of Negative Thinking	B．Why Should People Think
C．Thinking: The Vital Way	D．Positive Thinking Benefits People

Cell Phones Are the New Cigarettes
When you get in your car, you reach for it．When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it．When you get into a lift, you play with it．
Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone．And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curbtheir longing to hug  it more tightly than most of their personal relationships．
With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone  connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away．In just the past  couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and  counselors（顧問(wèn)）in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined．
The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don’t mean just the monthly bill．Dr．Chris  Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of  cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality．
Sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him．
Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?
Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation．He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with．Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says．
If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread．Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use．Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them．They far outnumber wired phones in the United States．
【小題1】Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?

A．Cell phone users smoke less than they used to．

B．Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes．

C．More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes．

D．Using cell phone is just as cool as smoking cigarettes．

【小題2】The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph 2 means ____．

A．rescue

B．ignore

C．develop

D．control

【小題3】The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that           ．

A．women use cell phones more often than men

B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

D．cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy

WASHINGTON—Two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population could be gone by 2050 if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday.
The fate of polar bears could be even worse than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be disappearing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species.
“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat(退卻) farther this month.
That means that polar bears—some 16,000 of them -- will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing(簡(jiǎn)報(bào)).
Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century’s end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.
“It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.
“Because the observed trajectory(軌跡)of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative(保守的).”
In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food.
Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are poor hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears’ disappearance would probably take place as young cubs(幼獸)failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully.
【小題1】What was the US Geological Survey intended to do?

A．To determine whether the polar bear was in danger.

B．To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic.

C．To check the predictions of the computer models.

D．To find out the exact number of the polar bear.

【小題2】What causes the polar bears to disappear by 2050?

A．The pollution of the Arctic region.	B．The sea ice melting at high speed
C．Fewer food sources being left.	D．The temperature getting colder.

【小題3】The key to preventing polar bears dying out seems to _______________.

A．help young polar bears to survive the cold winter

B．have large number of seals living in the oceans

C．make sure there is enough sea ice in the Arctic

D．provide chances for adult polar bears to reproduce

About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier，only about one in two hundred is affected in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman.
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shades of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In rare cases an unlucky man see everything in shades of green—a strange world indeed.
Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called "cones". These help us to see in a bright and tell difference between colors. There are also millions of "rods ", but these are used for seeing when it is nearly dark. They show us shape but no color.    Some insects have favorite colors. Mosquitoes(蚊子) like blue but do not like yellow. A red light will not attract insects, but a blue lamp will. In a similar way human being also have favorite colors. Yet we are lucky. With the aid of the cones in our eyes we can see many beautiful colors by day, and with the aid of the rods we can see shapes at night, One day we may even learn more about the invisible colors around us.
【小題1】According to the passage, with the help of the "cones", we can        

A．tell different colours	B．see in a weak light
C．tell different shapes	D．tell orange from yellow

【小題2】 Why do some people say it is safer to be driven by women?

A．Women are more careful.

B．There are fewer color-blind women.

C．Women are fonder of driving than men.

D．Women are weaker but quicker in thinking.

【小題3】Which of the statements about the color-blind is true?

A．Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing colors.

B．None of them can see deep red.

C．None of them can tell the difference between blue and green.

D．All of them see everything in shades of green.

【小題4】We can attract and kill mosquitoes by using a        

A．red light	B．yellow light
C．blue light	D．green light

Two Christmas traditions have come under attack in recent years from environmentalists: Christmas cards and Christmas trees.
Paper cards are seen as wasteful and, for some people, going card-free is another way of going green. They also argue that in a world of e-mail, Skype, Facebook and Twitter, people are in touch all the time anyway; they no longer need the yearly card that connects them with long lost friends. If you want to send Christmas greetings, there are free e-cards, which get the job done with no postage or wasted paper.
However, especially for people who didn’t grow up with e-mail, there is something missing from a Christmas e-mail. The first Christmas cards appeared in London in 1843 and were designed by the same man who had introduced the world’s first postage stamp three years earlier. His name was Sir Henry Cole.
They rose in popularity throughout the 20th century. Many people sent cards that were sold for charity. The most famous of these are the ones sold for UNICEF. In the UK this year, in the three weeks before Christmas, the post office expects to handle 100 million cards every day. Environmental awareness also means that nowadays many people recycle their cards; this helps raise money to plant more trees, as well as recreating more paper.
When we think of trees at Christmas, there is one that immediately springs(躍入)mind---the evergreen tree that people decorate with ornaments and place their presents under. The custom dates back almost a thousand years to Germany. Nowadays 33 to 36 million Christmas trees are produced in America and 50 to 60 million in Europe each year. Some trees are sold live with roots and soil so people can plant them later and reuse them next year.
Some people prefer artificial trees as they are reusable and much cheaper than their natural alternative. However, environmentalists point out that they are made from petroleum (石油) products and so have many pollution issues.
【小題1】What is the main idea of the article?

A．To introduce the history of two typical Christmas traditions.

B．To explain the debate about some Christmas traditions.

C．To analyze how two Christmas traditions grew in popularity.

D．To point out the problems caused by celebrating Christmas.

【小題2】What does the underlined word “They” in the fourth paragraph probably mean?

A．Many people

B．Christmas e-mails

C．Postage stamps

D．Christmas cards

【小題3】Some people suggest getting rid of paper cards because     .
a. they cannot be recycled         b. they are not environmentally friendly
c. they are mostly sold for charity  d. the e-cards have many advantages over them
e. they are not as necessary as they used to be for people

A．a(chǎn), b, d

B．a(chǎn), c, d

C．b, d, e

D．b, c, e

【小題4】What can we conclude from the article?

A．The first Christmas cards were designed earlier than the world’s first stamps.

B．This year has seen a dramatic drop in Christmas card sales.

C．Environmentalists advise people to buy cards that are sold for charity.

D．Growing environmental awareness is encouraging people to recycle their cards.

【小題5】Which of the following statements in TRUE according to the article?

A．There is always a wider Christmas tree market in America than in Europe.

B．The custom of decorating Christmas trees first appeared in Britain.

C．Some people prefer to buy live trees that can be reused next year.

D．Artificial trees are better than natural ones in all aspects.

Do you find getting up in the morning so difficult that it’s painful? This might be called laziness, but Dr. Kleitman has a new explanation. He has proved that everyone has a daily energy cycle.
During the hours when you labor through your work you may say that you’re "hot". That's true. The time of day when you feel most energetic is when your cycle of body temperature is at its peak. For some people the peak comes during the morning. For others it comes in the afternoon or evening. No one has discovered why this is so, but it leads to such familiar monologues as “Get up, John! You’ll be late for work again!” The possible explanation to the trouble is that John is at his temperature-and-energy-peak in the evening. Much family quarrelling ends when husbands and wives realize what these energy cycles each member of the family has.
You can’t change your energy cycle, but you can learn to make your life fit it better. Habit can help, Dr. Kleitman believes. Maybe you’re sleepy in the evening but you must stay up late anyway. Counteract your cycle to some extent by habitually staying up later than you want to. If your energy is low in the morning but you have an important job to do early in the day, rise before your usual hour. This won't change your cycle, but you'll get up steam and work better at your low point.
Get off to a slow start which saves your energy. Get up with a leisurely yawn and stretch. Sit on the edge of the bed a minute before putting your feet on the floor. Avoid the trouble of searching for clean clothes by laying them out the night before. When ever possible, do routine work in the afternoon and save tasks requiring more energy or concentration for your sharp hours.
【小題1】What is the best title of the passage?

A．Change Your Habits	B．Save Your Energy
C．Daily Energy Cycle	D．Temperature-and-energy Peak

【小題2】If a person finds getting up early a problem, most probably_______.

A．he is a lazy person

B．he refuses to follow his own energy cycle

C．lie is not sure when his energy is low

D．he is at his peak in the afternoon or evening

【小題3】Which of the following may lead to family quarrels according to the passage?

A．Unawareness of energy cycles

B．Familiar monologues.

C．A change in a family member's energy cycle.

D．Attempts to control the energy cycle of other family members.

【小題4】If one wants to work more efficiently at his low point in the morning, he should____________.

A．change his energy cycle	B．overcome his laziness
C．get up earlier than usual	D．go to bed earlier

LG Electronics, the world’s fourth largest cell phone producer, has added another feature to the mobile phone-reading books for the visually impaired(弱視). The company started marketing the model, the LF1300 on Sep.18.No other people but the blind and visually-impaired with a certificate(證書(shū)) can buy the talking phone at sales shops of LG Electronics.
“The LF1300 is the world’s first mobile phone that is capable of reading books for the print-disabled, who otherwise could not enjoy them．This is not about making money but about continuing to put froth efforts to reduce the digital difference for the disabled,” LG Vice President said.
Its users can download about 300 audio books from the Internet site of LG Sangam Library to their phones for free in two ways. One is to access the digital library’s Website on a computer designed for the blind to get the audio books and transfer them to cell phones. The other is to download the digital books directly with cell phones through the wireless net work by touching a hot key on the LF1300 phone.
On top of its unique feature of reading books, the LF1300 is no worse than the pupular top-line phones in both outlooks and frnctionalities(功能性). The phone is armed with an MP3 player and a Bluetooth headset, enabling users to listen to the music or talk without a cord. The user interface（界面) of the LF1300 is also designed for the blind,enabling phone users to control it through a voice guidance system.
However, because the phone’s internal mimory of 17MB is small even for a single audio book file, which takes up 80MB on average, a high-volume external memory is a must for the talking book services.
【小題1】          are allowed to buy the talking phone.

A．Disabled people with a certificate

B．All the blind and poor-sighted people

C．The blind and poor-sighted with a certificate

D．Both healthy and disabled citizens

【小題2】The users can enjoy reading books on LF1300 by         .

A．talking to the microphone	B．touching any key
C．touching its screen	D．touching the hot key

【小題3】What can be learned from the passage?

A．This is the first time LG company has done something for the disabled.

B．Phone users don’t have to pay much to download the digital books.

C．LF1300 has a less attractive outlook than any other top-line phone.

D．The disadvantage of LF1300 is that it has too small internal memory.

【小題4】The best title of the passage might be         .

A．A New Type of Cell Phone is on the Market

B．Mobile Phones Can Read Books for the Print-Disabled

C．The Disabled will Benefit from Cell Phone Producers

D．Advanced Technology Helps the Blind Read Books

In a great many cities, hundreds of people ride bikes to work every day. In New York, some bike riders have even formed a group called Bike for a Better City. They declare that if more people rode bikes to work, there would be fewer automobiles in the downtown part of the city and so less dirty air from car engines．
For several years, this group had been trying to get the city government to help bike riders． For example, they want the city to draw special lanes(車道) for bikes on some of the main streets, because when bike riders must use the same lanes as cars there are accidents. Bike for a Better City feels that if there were special lanes, more people would use bikes．
But no bike lanes have been drawn. Not everyone thinks it is a good idea—they say it will slow traffic. Some store owners on the main streets don’t like the idea—they say that if there is less traffic, they will have less business．
The city government has not yet decided what to do． It wants to keep everyone happy. On weekends, Central Park—the largest place open ground in New York— is closed to cars, and the roads may be used by bikes only．
【小題1】In New York, a group of bike riders__________．

A．a(chǎn)re keeping practicing for health

B．have no cars of their own

C．a(chǎn)re complaining there are not enough buses

D．a(chǎn)re trying to settle the problem of air pollution

【小題2】The bike riders suggest that __________．

A．bikes should be used instead of cars

B．bike lanes should be drawn

C．fewer buses or cars should be used

D．the number of special lanes should be decreased

【小題3】The advantage of the special lanes is that__________．

A．they will make cars and buses run slowly

B．they will make it easier for bike riders to go to parks

C．they will make the city more beautiful

D．they will prevent accidents

Why is a full moon, yellower and bigger when it is coming up than when it is higher in the sky?

That's a good question about something that we all can see. Let's talk about the moon's color first.
We see the moon only because of the sunlight that falls on it and is reflected. Actually, the moon is not a very good reflector, because its surface is all rocks and dirt. We see it in almost its true color when it is high in the sky.
When the moon first comes up, its light reaches our eyes after an extra-long path through the atmosphere (大氣). There are lots of particles (微粒) scattering (分散) light in that long path. Blue light is scattered more than other colors, which means that it doesn't reach your eyes. The light that is left over looks yellow to your eye.
Now about the other question—why the moon seems to change in size. That's more complicated. It's not an effect of the atmosphere, the way color is; it's not caused by something fooling your eyes. It seems, instead, to be caused by something that fools your brain—an illusion(錯(cuò)覺(jué)).
Here's a drawing that creates an illusion. The two cones(圓錐體) are really the same size. But the rest of the drawing makes the right-hand cone seem farther away. Your brain knows that faraway objects are really larger than they look. It decides that the right-hand cone must be larger because it seems to be farther away.
Similarly, when you see the moon just come up over a line of trees or houses—or whatever makes the horizon(地平線)—it may be that your brain decides that the moon must be larger because it seems to be farther away.
【小題1】The moon doesn't reflect the sunlight very well because________________.

A．it is high in the sky	B．its surface is rough
C．its surface is white	D．it isn't a good reflector

【小題2】Which statement is true according to the passage?

A．In the course of its rising, the moon is getting smaller and smaller

B．The size of the moon is more complicated than its color

C．The atmosphere has the same effect on the moon's size as on its color

D．The change in the moon's size is caused by an illusion while that in its color is caused by the atmosphere

【小題3】After reading this passage, you can possibly answer one of the following questions. Which one? ______.

A．Why is the sun bigger when it rises over the horizon?

B．Why does the sun look bigger when it rises over the horizon?

C．Why does the sun look golden?

D．Why does the sun rise in the east?

【小題4】Who do you think probably wrote this passage?________.

A．A novelist	B．A reporter
C．A science editor	D．An English teacher．