Mexico City is truly one of the most amazing cities in the world with a mixture of both the old and new world. From the moment your plane starts to land in this vast city, you know that your trip will be quite an adventure.
Once in your taxi and the moment you leave the airport, you are amazed at the large amount of slow traffic. The volume of the traffic can be stressful to some.
The "Paseo de la Reforma (改革大道)", running southwest across the city, is one of the major tourist and business areas in Mexico City with many high quality hotels only walking distance from great restaurants and other tourist attractions. The only problem you will have is trying to see all of these sites during your vacation time.
One of the most popular attractions in this area is the National Museum of Anthropology along the northwest part of the street. There are thousands of artifacts on display showing the history of the area and numerous items found from the many Aztec sites in the area. Walking southwest from the museum, you will soon reach the Mexico City Zoo, which is a great place to spend an afternoon.
Across the street from the museum is the Chapultepec Castle, once an important site in the Mexican-American war. It's also a good idea to take the train up the hill to where the castle is located as the hill is steep (陡峭的). It's important to keep in mind that Mexico City is over 7,000 feet above sea level and some feel it difficult to breathe when walking.
You can take a taxi to the Coyoacan market during the evening on a weekend. It's a great place to get some cheap souvenirs （紀(jì)念品）to bring back home and to enjoy some traditional Mexican cuisine. However, you must be careful where you eat and that the meat is well cooked.
【小題1】 The tourists in Mexico City may not be satisfied with______.

A．the high speed of the traffic	B．the heavy traffic of the city
C．the polluted air in the city	D．their safety in the city

【小題2】 Which of the following shows the correct positions of the following places?
P =" Paseo" de la Reforma      M =" the" National Museum of Anthropology
C =" the" Chapultepec Castle    Z =" the" Mexico City Zoo

【小題3】Which of the following attractions may interest those who want to study the military (of the army) history of Mexico City?

A．The National Museum of Anthropology.	B．The Coyoacan market.
C．The Chapultepec Castle.	D．The Aztec sites.

If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.?
The study also found the effect is greater, the younger people learn a second language.?
A team led by Dr Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density(密度)in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.?
It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.?
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible,”he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and 34. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.?
【小題1】.. The main subject talked about in this passage is_______.?

A．science on learning a second language?
B．man's ability of learning a second language?
C．language can help brain power?	D．language learning and maths study?

【小題2】..In the second paragraph, the writer mentions “exercise” in order to_______.

A．say language is also a kind of physical labor?

B．prove that one needs more practice when he (she) is learning a language?

C．to show the importance of using the language when you learn the language?

D．make people believe language learning helps grey matter work well?

【小題3】.. We may know from the scientific findings that________.?

A．the earlier you start to learn a second language the higher the grey matter density is

B．there is no difference between a later second language learner and one who doesn't know a second language?

C．the experience of learning a second language has bad effect on people's brain

D．the ability of learning a second language is changing all the time?

【小題4】.. In the last two paragraphs, the author wants to tell us that_______.?

A．learning a second language is the same as studying maths

B．early learning of a second language helps you a great deal in study other subjects

C．Italian is the best choice for you as a second language?

D．you’d better choose the ages between 2 and 34 to learn a second language

Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?
To see whether babies know objects are solid. T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion(視覺影像)of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could be expected to show surprised in their faces and movements, All the 16 to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.
Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?
Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to re-appear. If the experiment took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The re-searcher substituted(替換) a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch(更換).Thus,the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.
【小題1】The passage is mainly about        .

A．babies’sense of sight	B．effects of experiments on babies
C．babies’understanding of objects	D．different tests on babies’feelings

【小題2】.In Paragraph 3, “object permanence” means that when out of sight, and object           .

A．still exists

B．keeps its shape

C．still stays solid

D．is beyond reach

【小題3】.What did Bower use in his experiments?

A．A chair

B．A screen

C．A film

D．A box

【小題4】. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．The babies didn’t have a sense of direction.

B．The older babies preferred toy trains to balls.

C．The younger babies liked looking for missing objects

D．The babies couldn’t tell a ball from its optical illusion.

Chinese tradition says a different animal represents each new year of the 12-year Chinese Zodiac(黃道十二宮) cycle. According to the Chinese calendar, the year you were born may determine your personality. Every year of this cycle is represented by an animal, and legend has it that people born under that animal have certain personality traits. Here are some of them:
Dragon
The Real Thing: The mythical dragon is a symbol of power and good fortune in Chinese culture. One of the most popular figures in Chinese art, the dragon is believed to be a combination of nine animals, including a frog, a tiger, an eagle, and a fish.
Born a Dragon: You go out of your way to help your friends, who often seek you out for advice. Your outgoing personality helps you get along with many types of people.
Snake
The Real Thing: Snakes have great instincts. Some “play dead” to fool predators（捕食者）, and most sense prey by detecting ground vibration（震動）. They can take more than an hour to swallow a meal, and they become inactive for up to two weeks before they shed their skin.
Born a Snake: You rely on yourself before asking others their opinions. At times you want to take a break from the action. It’s not that you are lazy---sometimes you just like to think.
Pig
The Real Thing: Domesticated（馴養(yǎng)）pigs have been helping human for about 9,000 years. Incredibly intelligent, a pig shows its smarts by rolling in mud and sticking its snout in dirt. Why? The mud keeps it cool, and rooting in the dirt provides important vitamins.
Born a Pig: Smart and caring, you live to help other people. You have great taste and love to wallow in the nicer things in life.
Rat
The Real Thing: Most rats are highly adaptable. They can live just about anywhere and eat about anything. Before brown rats leave their underground burrows, these clever creatures send one rat ahead to make sure danger doesn’t exist outside.
Born a Rat: You welcome challenges and enjoy learning about new things. Funny and smart, you are generous and will protect your pack of friends. 
______
The Real Thing: The largest of the big cats, they hunt alone. They secretly move towards prey, then leap and attack when the time seems right. Dinner still escapes most of the time.
Born a _____: You are a natural leader but often like to do things by yourself. (That’s how you stay in charge!) You believe in fighting for what’s right, even if you’ll lose in the end.
【小題1】  According to the description of the last animal, we can choose _____ to fill in the blanks. 

A．Tiger

B．Lion

C．Ox

D．Monkey

【小題2】   The underlined word “snout” probably means _____.

A．back

B．nose

C．head

D．tail

A green house is a building made of glass which is used for keeping warm when the outside temperature is low. In a similar way there are several gases in the atmosphere (mixture of gases that surround the earth) which trap the heat produced by the sun and prevent it from escaping. These gases are known as “greenhouse gases”. and the way in which they trap heat in the atmosphere is called the “greenhouse effect”. This is not simply air pollution. Most of the main greenhouse gases exist naturally in small amounts in our atmosphere, and without them the earth would be 30 degrees colder and human life would not exist. In other words, the greenhouse effect is a natural course which is to some degree helpful to us.
The problem is that in the last century and a half, we have been putting too many of these gases into the earth’s atmosphere by burning large quantities of coal and oil and by cutting down forest. The rapid increase in greenhouse gases is making the world warmer. The world’s temperature has already gone up by half a degree this century, and the sea level has risen by 10 centimetres. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles, there will probably be a rise in the earth’s temperature of between I and 4℃;. This may seem a small increase, but it would be enough to cause major changes in geography and agriculture. Large areas of the world would be flooded, and some areas would become dry and unable to produce crops. It is important, too, to consider that there may be a delay of about 30 years in the greenhouse effect. This means that we are probably experiencing only now the effect of the gases put into the atmosphere before the 1960s. Since then, our use of these gases has greatly increased.
【小題1】 According to the passage, we can know “greenhouse effect” means_______.  

A．the way in which gases are used for keeping plants warm

B．a(chǎn) natural course that is to a certain degree useful to us

C．the way “greenhouse gases” trap heat on the earth

D．the whole course in which greenhouse gases prevent heat

【小題2】 If there were no greenhouse effect,_______.

A．a(chǎn)ll plants would not grow on our planet	B．soil would reduce the temperature by 30 degrees
C．man would breathe the cleaner air	D．people couldn’t live in the earth

【小題3】 Which of the following is not true?

A．Burning too much coal and oil produces lots of greenhouse gases.

B．It has become warm on the earth now than in the past.

C．Gases put into the atmosphere now will affect the earth years later.

D．The temperature in a greenhouse is as high as that in the atmosphere.

【小題4】 Suppose the earth’s temperature rose by 3 degrees, _______. 

A．great harm will be done to mankind	B．the sea level would go up by 10 centimeters
C．a(chǎn)ll the land in the world would be flooded	D．crops would be unable to grow on the earth

【小題5】 This passage mainly deals with ________.

A．the concept (概念) and the harm of the greenhouse	B．the relation between greenhouse gases and man
C．the concept and change of greenhouse effect	D．the effect of the rise of the earth’s temperature

Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹噓) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computer results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.
【小題1】 The new products become more and more time-saving because       .

A．the manufacturers boast a lot	B．time is limited
C．the prices are increasingly high	D．our love of speed seems never-ending

【小題2】 What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Simple life in the past.	B．Imaginary life.
C．Times of inventions.	D．Time for constant activity.

【小題3】. What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?

A．Critical.

B．Optimistic.

C．Objective.

D．Negative.

【小題4】. What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．The present and past times.	B．Modern technology and its influence.
C．Imaginations and inventions.	D．Machinery and human beings.

It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides (殺蟲劑）and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job — eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.
【小題1】.
. From Paragraph 1 we learn that the villagers      .

A．worked very hard for centuries	B．dreamed of having a better life
C．were poor but somewhat content	D．lived a different life from their forefathers

【小題2】.
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?

A．The frogs were easy money.	B．They needed money to buy medicine.
C．They wanted to please the visitors.	D．The frogs made too much noise.

【小題3】.
. What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?

A．The crops didn’t do well.	B．There were too many insects.
C．The visitors brought in diseases.	D．The pesticides were overused.

【小題4】.
What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?

A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country.

B．Health is more important than money.

C．The harmony between man and nature is important.

D．Good old days will never be forgotten.

The need to feed a growing population is putting much pressure on the world’s supply of water. With 97% of the world’s water too salty to be drunk or used in agriculture, the worldwide supply of water needs careful management, especially in agriculture. Although the idea of a water shortage seems strange to someone fortunate enough to live in a high rainfall country, many of the world’s agricultural industries experience constant water shortages.
Although dams can be built to store water for agricultural use in dry areas and dry seasons, the costs of water redistribution (重新分配) are very high. Not only is there the cost of the engineering itself, but there is also an environmental cost to be considered. Where valleys are flooded to create dams, houses are lost and wildlife homes destroyed. Besides, water may flow easily through pipes to fields, but it cannot be transported from one side of the world to the other. Each country must therefore rely on the management of its own water to supply its farming requirements.
This is particularly troubling for countries with agricultural industries in areas dependent on irrigation. In Texas, farmers’ overuse of irrigation water has resulted in a 25% reduction of the water stores. In the Central Valley area of southwestern USA, a huge water engineering project provided water for farming in dry valleys, but much of the water use has been poorly managed.
Saudi Arabia’s attempts to grow wheat in desert areas have seen the pumping of huge quantities of irrigation water from underground reserves. Because there is no rainfall in these areas, such reserves can only decrease, and it is believed that fifty years of pumping will see them run dry.
【小題1】.
. From the first two paragraphs we learn that __________.

A．much of the world’s water is available for use

B．people in high rainfall countries feel lucky

C．water can be easily carried through pipes across the world

D．the costs of water redistribution should be considered

【小題2】.
. Which of the following is true?

A．The underground water in Saudi Arabia might run out in 50 years.

B．Most industries in the world suffer from water shortages.

C．The water stores in Texas have been reduced by 75%.

D．Good management of water use resulted from the project in the Central Valley.

【小題3】.
The text is mainly about __________.

A．water supply and increasing population

B．water redistribution and wildlife protection

C．water use management and agriculture

D．water shortages and environmental protection

【小題4】.
. What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A．Approaches to handling the pressure on water supply.

B．Ways to reduce the costs of building dams.

C．Measures to deal with worldwide water shortages.

D．Steps to improving water use management.

XI'AN - China's conservation work for the endangered crested ibis（朱鹮）is facing new challenges, including an increasing mortality rate due to inbreeding, and the conflict between the need to expand natural habitats and local communities' economic interests, bird experts have warned.
The crested ibis, once widespread in Japan, China, Russia and the Korean Peninsula, almost became extinct in the first half of the 20th century.
Before 1981, when seven crested ibis were accidentally found in Yangxian county, in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, academics thought the species had been extinct in China for almost 17 years.
Due to the huge effort put into species protection since 1981, the number of crested ibis in China has risen to an estimated 1,617, including 997 in the wild, the State Forestry Administration said at a meeting on crested ibis protection in Xi'an on Monday.
However, although the ibis population exceeds 1,000, the birds are still not free from the threat of extinction, said Fang Shengguo, director of the State Conservation Center for Gene Resources of Endangered Wildlife at Zhejiang University.
“Ornithologists used inbreeding in the early stages of protection so that numbers of the precious birds could increase quickly, but that method had consequences,” Fang said.
"Studies have proved that as a result of inbreeding, crested ibis have the lowest genetic diversity of all endangered birds," Fang said.
"It means a high mortality rate and more physical defects for hatched chicks."
“The government should collect genetic information from all crested ibis and establish a genetic database as soon as possible, then design a scientific mating plan for the species,” Fang said.
So far, about 90 percent of crested ibis live in Shaanxi province, and fewer than 140 ibis live in three zoos in other parts of the country, including Beijing Zoo, according to Liu Dongping, an assistant researcher at the National Bird Banding Center of China, which is affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Forestry.
The bird has lost the ability to migrate, he said, adding that if an unexpected natural disaster occurred in Shaanxi province or an infectious disease spread through the area, the ibis population could be greatly reduced.
Experts also warned that the increased population of ibis, whether in the wild or in captivity, requires a larger and more varied natural habitat.
Rampant hunting, the massive loss of habitat caused by deforestation and the overuse of pesticides, which killed aquatic insects on which the ibis feed, are believed to be the main reasons for the sharp reduction in the ibis population before 1981.
So, in 1983, a State-level natural reserve was set up in Shaanxi province to protect the bird. But the struggle for living space between human and animal has never stopped, said Lu Baozhong, deputy director of the Shaanxi Crested Ibis Conservation Station.
"For example, ibis often look for loaches in farmers' rice fields. Sometimes their claws trample the rice seedlings. In another case, villagers discovered some land with abundant mineral resources which happened to be a habitat for ibis," said Lu, who has devoted 30 years to ibis protection.
A long-term win-win solution for ibis and local communities needs to be developed, one that would provide ecological compensation for local residents, Lu said.
【小題1】. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．The Rare Bird in China	B．New Problems for the Crested Ibis
C．The Way to Save the Crested Ibis	D．The Reason for the Crested Ibis’s Extinction

【小題2】  Which of the following statement is TRUE ?

A．The crested ibis is a native of China.

B．Before 1981, the crested ibis was extinct in China.

C．The crested ibis is now free from the threat of extinction.

D．Most of the crested ibis are in Shaanxi province.

【小題3】. Why did the experts adopt the way of inbreeding to protect the crested ibis?

A．To increase the mortality rate.

B．To increase the number of the crested ibis.

C．To get more physical defects for hatched chicks

D．To have the lowest diversity of the endangered bird.

【小題4】. What may be the reason for the reduction in the population of the crested ibis before 1981?

A．inbreeding	B．economic development
C．over hunting	D．sandstorm

【小題5】. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Due to our great efforts, the crested ibis lives in the wild well.

B．Scientists will choose a better habitat for the crested ibis.

C．The problems of the crested ibis have not been solved now.

D．The government has established a genetic database of the crested ibis.

Being a mother is apparently not like it was in the good old days.
　　Today’s parents yearn for the golden age that their own mothers enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers found. Mothers have less time to themselves and feel under greater pressure to handle work and family life than the previous generation. As a result, 88 per cent said they felt guilty about the lack of time they spent with their children.
The survey of 1,000 mothers also found that more than a third said they had less time to themselves than their mothers did – just three hours a week or 26 minutes a day. And 64 per cent said this was because they felt they ‘had’ to go out to work, while nearly a third (29 per cent) said they were under constant pressure to be the ‘perfect mother’, the report found.
Other findings showed social networking and parenting websites, as well as technology such as Skype, were important in providing help and support among female communities. Kate Fox, a member of the Social Issues Research Centre, which conducted the survey for Procter & Gamble, said: ‘With increasing pressure on mothers to work a “double shift” — to be the perfect mother as well as a wage-earner — support networks are more important than ever.
It comes as a separate report examining childcare in the leading industrialised nations found that working mothers in Britain spend just 81 minutes a day caring for their children as a ‘primary activity’. Mothers who stay at home, on the other hand, manage twice as much time – more than two and a half hours – looking after their offspring, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
　　Critics say the pressure on women to work long hours, and leave their offspring in the hands of nurseries or childminders, is putting the well-being of their children at risk.
　　The study also reveals that, despite the fact that more and more modern mothers go out to work, the burden of childcare still falls on them - even if their husband is not in work. A father who is not in work tends to spend just 63 minutes a day looking after his child - 18 minutes less than a mother who goes out to work. Working fathers spare less than three quarters of an hour with their children.
【小題1】. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The good old days of mothers in the 1970s and 1980s.

B．The great sufferings of today’s children.

C．The statistics of working mothers and full-time mothers.

D．The big problems that today’s working mothers face.

【小題2】. What does the underlined phrase “yearn for” probably means ___________.

A．hate

B．miss

C．a(chǎn)bandon

D．control

【小題3】 Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．Today’s mothers have less time left for their children and themselves.

B．The working mothers can hardly strike the balance between work and family.

C．Most of the mothers can not control their husbands nowadays.

D．Modern fathers do not spend enough time with their children.

【小題4】 From para. 4, we can infer that ___________.

A．working mothers can seek help on line

B．Skype is a very famous expert in studying social issues

C．working mothers’ double shift is to be a wife and a mother

D．Kate Fox has opened a website offering help to working mothers

【小題5】. What critics say means that _____________.

A．it is wise for working mothers to put their kids in nurseries or childminders

B．too much time in nurseries or childminders is bad for kids’ mental and physical health

C．nurseries or childminders are dangerous places for children

D．children do not like nurseries or childminders at all