I had the meanest mother in the world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast，I had to have cereal，eggs and toast. Others had cokes and candy for lunch，while we had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess，my supper was different than the other kids’. But at least I was not alone in my suffering. My sister and two brothers had the same mean mother as I did.
My mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. She had to know who our friends were and what we were doing. We had to wear clean clothes every day. Other kids always wore their clothes for days. We reached the height of disgrace because she made our clothes herself，just to save money.
The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by 9:00 each night and up at 7:45 the next morning. So while my friends slept，my mother actually had the courage to break Child Labor Law. She made us work. I believed she lay awake all night thinking up mean things to do to us. Through the years，our friends’ report cards had beautiful colors on them, black for passing，red for failing. My mother, however，would merely be content with black marks. None of us was allowed the pleasure of being a dropout.
She forced us to grow up into educated and honest adults. Using this as a background，I’m now trying to bring up my three children. I’m filled with pride when my children think I am mean because now I thank God every day for giving me the meanest mother in the world.
【小題1】From the passage we can learn that the writer’s mother was __________.

A．not generous at all

B．very strict with her children

C．very mean with money matters

D．very cruel to her children

【小題2】Which of the following things did the writer hate to do most?

A．Eating differently from other kids.

B．Wearing clean clothes made by mother.

C．Going to bed early and getting up early.

D．Letting mother know where they were.

【小題3】It can be inferred from the passage that____________.

A．the writer worked hard and usually got good grades in studies

B．mother was punished for breaking the Labor Law

C．a(chǎn)ll the other kids studied better than the writer

D．the writer's family lived a miserable life

【小題4】Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Mother practised economy in running her home.

B．The writer is very thankful to her mother.

C．The writer is severe with her children when bringing them up.

D．The wrier has a deep hatred for her mother.

It’s parents’ worst nightmare. Their child doesn’t come home one evening and is missing for several days.    
When a 14-year-old boy from Atlanta, Georgia disappeared earlier this year, his mother turned to her Smartphone for clues using an app（應(yīng)用程序） called Family Tracker that helped track his location.
“You can see where your loved ones are without having to call or bother them. ”said Roberto Franceschetti of LogSat, the creators of the Family Tracker, which has more than 100,000 users and is available worldwide.    
Parents can track the location of their child on a map, send messages, and even sound an alarm on the phone in a long distance.
“We have an option for the sender to make a very unpleasant, noisy sound. It’s a loud alarm and we repeat that sound every two minutes until the person picks it up, ”he said.
Parents don’t need to own a Smartphone to track their children. The service is also accessible through the web, as long as the phone that is being tracked is running the app.
Family Tracker has an additional service that keeps records of all data from the app for a two-week period, which the company calls GPS breadcrumbs.
“With a subscription（預(yù)定）, we keep all the locations where people have been on our servers. You can see where your kid has been for the past two weeks. You can find out where someone was at a certain time or when that person was at a specific place, ”Franceschetti explained.
“When somebody gets abducted（劫持）, usually whoever does this throws the phone away or takes the battery out. We were hoping that our app would at least provide information on where the person was abducted or where they had been in the past. ”
But will these types of apps let out personal secrets?
“The advantages are huge compared to the disadvantages. Let’s not forget that the person always has to give initial permission—no one can be tracked unless they allow someone to do it. ”said Franceschetti.
【小題1】According to the passage, all of the following about “Family Tracker” are true EXCEPT that __________.

A．it can help parents know where their children are

B．a(chǎn)ll parents don’t need to own a Smartphone to track children

C．parents can use all the services of the app for free

D．it has little to do with letting out personal secrets

【小題2】What can we infer from the passage?

A．The app will enjoy a great popularity in the future.

B．The loss of children won’t be a nightmare for parents any more.

C．The app will repeat the loud alarm continuously whenever parents track children.

D．The app can keep records of information for more than half a month.

【小題3】Which belong to the functions of the new app?
a. track location      b. detect criminals    c. send messages
d. protect privacy     e. send remote alarm   f. record information

A．a(chǎn), b, c, e

B．a(chǎn), c, e, f

C．a(chǎn), c, d, e

D．a(chǎn), d, e, f

Betty Skelton was often called “The First Lady of Firsts’’ because of the many records she set. She grew up in Pensacola, Florida, watching airplanes flying to and from a nearby navy base. As a child, she persuaded her parents to let her take flying lessons. By 12, Betty made her first flight alone, though not legally permitted to do so until she turned 16.
During the 1940s, female pilots were mostly prevented from commercial and military flying. So Betty Skelton decided to use her flight skills in aerobatics(特技飛行)，performing difficult turns, drops, and other exercises. She began performing and competing around the country.
She won the International Feminine Aerobatic Championship(IFAC)for three years in a row, starting in 1948. She and her little Pitts Special plane the “Little Stinker’’ became famous.
Dorothy Cochrane is an aviation expert who once studied and worked with Betty Skelton. “Betty was such a wonderful aerobatic pilot that she really set the bar high for other women to follow and she was a great role model for them. She really was as good as some of the men.”
Once Ms. Skelton had made her mark on flying, she moved on to racecars, becoming the first female test driver in the racecar industry. She set several land speed records. She also set a cross-country record, driving from New York to California in under 57 hours. And she became one of the top women advertising experts working with General Motors in support of the company’s Corvette car.
Ms. Skelton died in August, 2011, at the age of 85. Visitors to the Washington area can see her “l(fā)ittle Stinker” plane at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The small red and white plane hangs high in the air above the entrance to the museum.
【小題1】What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．Betty Skelton was the first Lady of the US.

B．16 was the legal age for people to fly an airplane.

C．Betty became a navy pilot when she was 16.

D．Betty’s parents didn’t support her flying interest.

【小題2】What happened to Betty Skelton in 1950?

A．She moved on to racecars.

B．She became an aerobatic pilot.

C．She was 20 years old.

D．She won the IFAC for the third time.

【小題3】What can we know from the words by Dorothy Cochrane?

A．It is not easy for other women to break Betty Skelton’s records.

B．She was even more excellent than some men in skills.

C．It is difficult for other women to reach the height Betty Skelton flew to.

D．Betty Skelton is an inspiring role model for pilots worldwide.

【小題4】What is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Betty started to fly alone at a nearby navy base at the age of 12.

B．“Little Stinker” was Betty Skelton’s Pitts Special plane.

C．Betty set several speed records in car racing.

D．Betty even set a cross-country record.

【小題5】What is the correct order of the events that happened in the passage?
a. Betty won the international Feminine Aerobatic Championship.
b. Betty became an advertising expert.
c. Betty made her first flight alone.
d. Betty began her aerobatic performance.
e. Betty became the first female test driver.

A．a(chǎn)→b→c→d→e	B．a(chǎn)→e→b→c→d
C．c→d→a→e→b	D．c→b→d→a→e

Last Friday my brother and I were driving home together after doing some shopping and gave our attention to an interesting conversation. Because of this distraction (分心)my brother took a wrong turn.
Unfortunately, the wrong turn took us towards a bridge and we had no way to turn back. Unwillingly, my brother paid the bridge fee and drove on. He was clearly frustrated by the mistake and the needless waste of $4.
We eventually reached an exit and, as we took it, my brother noticed a young fellow pulled over to the side of the road. He came out of his car and tried to phone someone. I was busy trying to figure out which way we would go next but my brother pulled over and asked the guy if he needed any help. And he did. He had a flat tire and needed a tool to get it off.
My brother gave him a wrench, and then began to help him change the flat. The young man said that this had been a bad week for him: earlier he had gotten into a minor car accident, and now this flat on his way home from work. But he called us “a breath of fresh air” and kept thanking us because he really would have been stuck if we hadn’t come along.
After we finished the job he thanked us again and pulled out $20 from his pocket and tried to give it to us. “No,” I said. “We were never supposed to even get on that bridge,we took a wrong turn. But now we know why we did. It was to help you. Thank you for turning our mistake into an opportunity to serve.” 
What I loved most was that my brother was able to see a chance to help. His reaction in the situation is a lesson for everyone and we felt so good the rest of the day.
【小題1】When did the author and his brother notice the young man who had a flat tire?

A．Before they arrived at a bridge.

B．When they were passing through an exit.

C．When the young man stopped them for help.

D．After they came back to the right road.

【小題2】We can learn from the text that the writer’s brother ________.

A．didn’t know the roads well

B．was a warm-hearted young man

C．made the turn to help the young man

D．regretted making a wrong turn all the way home

【小題3】What did the young man mean by calling the writer and his brother “a breath of fresh air” ?

A．He had been in the hot sun waiting for help for so long.

B．His car’s air conditioner was broken.

C．They calmed him down by offering him a cold drink.

D．They changed his bad luck and the bad mood he was in.

【小題4】Which of the following sentences best describes the writer’s experience?

A．It’s no use crying over spilt milk.

B．God helps those who help themselves.

C．Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it.

D．If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.

Robert Frost was one of America’s best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life.
He was born in San Francisco, California in 1874. He lived in California during his early childhood. He was named after the chief Southern general in America’s Civil War. The general’s name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general.
Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost’s childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. Robert Frost’s father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much wine and became angry. Robert was the victim of his anger.
Robert Frost finished high school in 1891. After high school, Robert’s grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. But Robert left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry.
Robert Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until 1930, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing.
In 1912, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called A Boy’s Will. When it appeared in 1913, Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country.
Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine article about Frost. He also helped get Frost’s second book of poems published in America. That book was called North of Boston.
【小題1】The followings are writers EXCEPT __________.

A．Robert Edward Lee	B．Robert Lee Frost
C．Ernest Hemingway	D．Ezra Pound

【小題2】The passage wrote about Hemingway in order to show that __________.

A．he had great influence on Frost’s poetry and life

B．Frost’s poetry style was the same as Hemingway’s

C．Frost was unhappy because he was the victim of his father

D．Frost spent his childhood unhappily

【小題3】What can we learn from the passage?

A．Once Frost’s first book was published he gained great praise in his country.

B．After leaving Harvard University, he began to learn to write poetry.

C．Frost was found lo have a gift in poetry while he studied in high school.

D．Robert Frost’s father was angry and drank a lot because he didn’t realize his dream.

【小題4】What’s the passage mainly about?

A．Robert Frost’s unhappy childhood.

B．Robert Frost’ s first and second book.

C．Robert Frost’s family and jobs.

D．Robert Frost’s life and poetry.

Emma Hart Willard (1787—1870) was an American pioneer educator. In her time, colleges and universities were open only to men, and women were not permitted to attend.
Emma received advanced education at home from her father and became a school teacher at twenty. She continued to teach at school for several years after her marriage. Then began offer college lessons in her home to women students. Later she founded a school in New York State, which was the first school that offered higher education in the US for women.
Emma Willard also tried to persuade New York State to pass a law to allow women to attend public colleges and universities, though that did not come about until after her death. Some years later people remembered her for her life-long efforts and elected her to the US Hall of Fame (榮譽(yù)) in 1905.
【小題1】Emma received advanced education at home because _________.

A．universities were only for men at that time

B．her father did not trust the schools

C．her family was poor when she was young

D．she was too shy to go to a public college

【小題2】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．She managed to persuade her state to pass a law allowing women to go to universties.

B．She went on with her teaching after she got married.

C．She received advanced education by teaching herself.

D．She was elected to work in the US Hall of Fame.

【小題3】What do you suppose the US Hall of Fame is?

A．It is a grand hall where honoured people receive prizes from the government.

B．It is a place where honoured people in the US are buried.

C．It is a building set up in memory of great American people.

D．It is a house of representatives to which respected people are elected.

【小題4】Why was Emma Willard considered an important person?

A．She was the first woman to get college education.

B．She fought for equal rights for women in the US.

C．She was the first American woman to become a college teacher.

D．She was a pioneer in winning higher education for women in the US.

When I was a kid, I used to spend hours listening to Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky on their Sunday night radio show Loveline. I listened so often that I began to use one of their well-known phrases—“good times”—in my daily conversations. Scientists have a name for this phenomenon: behavioral mimicry.
You’ve probably experienced this before: after spending enough time with another person, you might start to pick up on his or her behavior or speech habits. You might even start to develop your friend’s habits without realizing it. There is a large body of literature concerning this sort of phenomenon, and it regularly happens for everything from body postures to accents to drink patterns. For example, one study found that young adults were more likely to drink their drink directly after their same-sex drinking partners, than for the two individuals to drink at their own paces.
And the effect isn’t limited to real-life face-to-face activities. Another study found that the same you-drink-then-I-drink pattern held even when watching a movie! In other words, people were more likely to take a drink of their drinks in a theater after watching the actors on the screen enjoy a drink. At least I don’t feel so strange anymore, having picked up on Adam Carolla’s “good times”.
New research published today in the journal PLOS ONE indicates that the same sort of behavioral mimicry is responsible for social eating, at least among university-age women of normal weight. That’s right: the young women were more likely to adjust their eating according to the eating pace of their same-sex dining companion.
As with most experiments, these results raise a whole new set of questions. Still, the finding that behavioral mimicry may at least partly account for eating behavior is important, and has real effects on health. The researchers note that “as long as people don’t fully recognize such important influences on intake, it will be difficult to make healthy food choices and keep a healthy diet, especially when people are exposed to the eating behavior of others”.
【小題1】The author takes his own example of using “good times” to _________.

A．express his love for radio shows

B．prove the popularity of the show

C．show the influence of the hosts’ words

D．introduce the topic of the passage

【小題2】The underlined word “mimicry” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _________.

A．copying

B．a(chǎn)djusting

C．recognition

D．observation

【小題3】Which of the following is NOT an example of behavioral mimicry?

A．A boy eats his popcorn after watching the actor eat.

B．A boy buys a Nike shirt when he finds his desk-mate has one.

C．A girl unconsciously sits straight just as others do.

D．A girl takes on the Yorkshire accent after a month’s stay.

【小題4】It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _________.

A．behavioral mimicry is beneficial to our health

B．behavioral mimicry decides our eating behavior

C．there are doubts on the research results

D．there are people always exposed to bad eating habits

【小題5】What is probably the author’s purpose of writing this passage?

A．To draw readers’ attention to popular radio shows.

B．To introduce behavioral mimicry and its influence.

C．To appeal to readers not to fall into others’ habits.

D．To advocate healthy food choices among readers.

The writer Margaret Mitchell is best known for writing Gone with the Wind, first published in 1936. Her book and the movie based on it, tell a story of love and survival during the American Civil War. Visitors to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia, can go where she lived when she started composing the story and learn more about her life.
Our first stop at the Margaret Mitchell House is an exhibit area telling about the writer’s life. She was born in Atlanta in 1900. She started writing stories when she was a child. She started working as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper in 1922. One photograph of Ms. Mitchell, called Peggy, shows her talking to a group of young college boys. She was only about one and a half meters tall. The young men tower over her, but she seems very happy and sure of herself. The tour guide explains: “Now in this picture Peggy is interviewing some boys from Georgia Tech, asking them such questions as ‘Would you really marry a woman who works?’ And today it’d be ‘Would you marry one who doesn’t?’ ”
The Margaret Mitchell House is a building that once contained several apartments. Now we enter the first floor apartment where Ms. Mitchell lived with her husband, John Marsh. They made fun of the small apartment by calling it “The Dump ” .
Around 1926, Margaret Mitchell had stopped working as a reporter and was at home healing after an injury. Her husband brought her books to read from the library. She read so many books that he bought her a typewriter and said it was time for her to write her own book. Our guide says Gone with the Wind became a huge success. Margaret Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for the book. In 1939 the film version was released. It won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
【小題1】The book Gone with the Wind was _________.

A．first published on a newspaper

B．a(chǎn)warded ten Academy Awards

C．written in “The Dump”

D．a(chǎn)dapted from a movie

【小題2】The underlined phrase “tower over” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to_________.

A．be very pleased with

B．show great respect for

C．be much taller than

D．show little interest in

【小題3】Why did Ms. Mitchell stop working as a reporter according to the passage?

A．Because she was rich enough.

B．Because she was injured then.

C．Because her husband didn’t like it.

D．Because she wanted to write books.

【小題4】We can know about Margaret Mitchell from the passage that _________.

A．her height made her marriage unhappy

B．her interest in writing continued as an adult

C．writing stopped her working as a reporter

D．her life was full of hardship and sadness

【小題5】Which is the best title for the passage?

A．A Trip to Know Margaret Mitchell.

B． Gone with the Wind: A Huge Success.

C．An Introduction of the Margaret Mitchell House.

D．Margaret Mitchell: A Great Female Writer.

It’s 10:30 p.m., and 11-year-old Brandon Blanco is sound asleep at home. Suddenly, a loud noise wakes him up. Naturally, Brandon reaches for his cell phone. He blinks twice, and the message on the screen becomes clear: “R U awake?”
But the late-night text does not annoy Brandon. He gets frequent messages and calls, even after bedtime. And he can’t imagine life without them. “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my friends or family as often,” he told the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Brandon’s use of technology doesn’t stop there. He also has a computer, a TV and three video-game consoles（控制臺(tái)）in his room. With so many devices, it is no surprise that when he is not at school, he spends nearly every waking minute using one or more of these devices. Brandon is hardly alone. According to a recent study by TFK, kids aged 8 to 18 are spending more time than ever before using electronic devices. How much time? More than seven and a half hours a day on average, the study found. That’s about an hour more than just five years ago.
The jump is the result of a huge explosion in mobile devices, says Victoria Rideout, the lead author of the study. “These devices have opened up many more opportunities for young people to use media, whether it’s on the bus, on the way to school or waiting in line at the pizza parlor,” says Rideout.
Often, kids multitask, or use more than one device at a time. “If you’ve got a chance to do something on your computer and take a phone call and have the TV on in the background, why not?” Media expert Cheryl Olson says. Most experts agree technology has much to offer kids. But some worry the kids could be missing out on other activities like playing outside or hanging out with friends. “It’s a matter of balance,” says Olson.
Multitasking while doing homework is another concern. Some kids listen to music, watch TV or use the phone while doing their homework. “It’s important to make sure that you can stop and concentrate on one thing deeply,” says Rideout.
With new and exciting devices hitting stores every year, keeping technology use in check is more important than ever. “Kids should try,” adds Rideout. “But parents might have to step in sometimes.”
【小題1】It can be learned from the text that _________.

A．many teenagers lack friends in their middle school

B．kids have too many electronic devices to choose from

C．Brandon feels annoyed about his late-night message

D．Olson is against teenagers’ using mobile phones

【小題2】Which of the following is an example of multitasking?

A．Watching TV when using the computer.

B．Talking on the phone when lying on the sofa.

C．Playing video games after having lunch.

D．Listening to loud music while relaxing.

【小題3】The underlined phrase “in check” in the last paragraph can be replaced by _________.

A．in order

B．in store

C．in control

D．in sight

【小題4】According to the text, Victoria Rideout would probably agree that kids should ______.

A．do homework while watching TV

B．have less homework

C．spend more time on homework

D．do homework in a place without disturbance

A traveller was staying in an Egyptian village. One day, she held up her camera to take pictures of the children. Suddenly the young ones began to shout at her. The traveller's face turned red and she apologized to the head for what she was doing, and told him she had forgotten that people in some places believed a person would lose his soul(靈魂) if his picture was taken. She explained to him the operation of a camera for a long time. Several times the head tried to say something, but he couldn't. When she believed that the head didn't fear any longer, the traveller then let him speak. With a smile, he said, "The children were trying to tell you that you forgot to take off the lens(鏡頭) cap!"
【小題1】The children shouted when the traveller was taking pictures of them because ______.

A．they didn't want to stop playing

B．the traveller forgot to take off the cap on her head

C．they didn't want to have their pictures taken

D．the traveller was not doing well with her camera

【小題2】The traveller made an apology to (向……道歉) the head because _______.

A．she thought it was not right to take people's pictures without telling them beforehand(事先)

B．the children would lose their souls

C．she had stayed in the village too long

D．she didn't take a picture of the head first

【小題3】The traveller explained how to use a camera to the head because _______.

A．the head was very interested in her camera

B．the head wanted to learn to take pictures

C．she was afraid of the head

D．she wanted the head not to worry about what she was doing

【小題4】When the head smiled, it's clear that _______ .

A．the children wanted to play with her

B．the traveller didn't know what the children meant

C．he wanted the traveller to tell him something else

D．the traveller didn't let him speak

【小題5】Which of the following is NOT right?

A．The traveller knew something about people in some countries.

B．The children wouldn't mind if the traveller took pictures of them.

C．The head was afraid that the traveller's camera would hurt the children.

D．The traveller didn't understand why the children shouted.