The US government has started a website, Admongo, to help children think critically about the advertising aimed at them. It claims to provide visitors with an “aducation” through games and other entertainment.

A cartoon man dressed in old time pilot clothing greets visitors to Admongo. "Call me Haiz", he says upon arrival in a rocket ship that opens up with a crazy world inside it. Spacey dance music plays in the background as Haiz tells visitors that they need to learn about advertising.
Its inventors say eight to twelve years old is the age kids develop their critical thinking abilities. Kids that age are also a big market for advertisers.
The idea behind Admongo is to teach children three things: To identify the advertiser. To know what the advertiser is really saying. And to know what the advertisement is trying to get the child to do.
Children learn these things through a video game. They create their own game character. They can choose different skin colors, hair styles, eye and mouth shapes. Then they begin a trip through ad-land, where there are ads on buses and billboards. The players have to find all the marketing in the neighborhood before they can move on to the next level.
The Admongo game takes players inside a home, to the advertising studio and everywhere else ads can be found. It is a complete exploration of the world of marketing.
One such area is food marketing. The Federal Trade Commission(FTC) says it is a big business. The FTC estimates that food, drink and fast-food restaurants spent more than one and a half billion dollars on advertising to young people in 2009.
The FTC says children are important for three reasons. They buy products. They influence parents and caregivers to buy. And they are the future adult buyers of the products.
A recent study says most advertising aimed at children is for foods of the lowest nutritional value. First Lady Michelle Obama has said she would like to see advertisers marketing healthy foods for children.
【小題1】What is the best title of the text?

A．The guide of Admongo

B．An education website for children

C．A popular online video game

D．A website aimed at children

【小題2】Why did the government start the website?

A．To attract the biggest market of buyers.

B．To sell the products of its company.

C．To help children know about advertising.

D．To advertise the video game for children.

【小題3】What can players do in the website game?

A．Choose hair styles for their character.

B．Travel to a supermarket.

C．Eat in a fast-food restaurant.

D．Play video games during the trip.

【小題4】Children are important for advertising because they are        .

A．important for the society

B．the most potential buyers

C．easily influenced by ads

D．easily affected by poor products

【小題5】According to Michelle Obama, lots of food advertised for children are ________.

A．healthy	B．of high nutrition
C．yummy	D．of low quality

The tragic death of celebrity Wang Bei has made people aware of the risks of cosmetic surgery, which is becoming increasingly popular．
A survey on the reaction to Wang’s death, conducted by Tencent, which runs China’s most popular instant-messaging service, received more than 600,000 responses, as of press time Monday．Forty-one percent of respondents expressed sorrow over her death, saying, "It’s a pity she died at such a young age．" Some 31 percent said she should have been more cautious and less vain, while 10 percent were enraged at the hospital that conducted the surgery．The remaining 18 percent were indifferent．
A common thread of online discussion is why someone considered beautiful was so dissatisfied with her looks．Some netizens said Wang was a victim of society’s unrealistic ideal of beauty: double eyelids, an aquiline nose and the pointed chin typical of Western celebrities．Others said her death underscores the limits to which people will go to achieve fame and fortune．Young people, see cosmetic surgery as the key to wealth and love．
"They want to improve their appearance to find better opportunities at work and in marriage," says Ding Xiaobang, a plastic surgeon with the Peking Union Medical College Hospital．"We’re living in a highly competitive society．People regard appearance as a weapon and a means of empowerment…Most of them tell me, ’I don’t care how much I spend, just make me look beautiful’．" In the past decade, Ding says he Has seen a growing number of patients, like Wang Bei, who are young and naturally good-looking．The surgeon attributes this trend to people becoming richer, the standards of beauty changing, competition and frustration．
"Some are frustrated with life and use surgery as a way to try and recover," lie says．
The surge in demand for plastic surgery has resulted in a rise in the number of unauthorized business establishments and surgeons conducting such procedures．
Meanwhile, experts say, young and beautiful people who still seek plastic surgery need to address their self-awareness issues and be more accepting．
“They’ve built their identity around the admiration of others and fail to establish a system to assess themselves," says Zhu Wenbo, a psychologist with Blue Bay Psychological Consulting Center in Chengdu．"People’s opinions always change, so this is not a reliable way to evaluate oneself．"
【小題1】Most people are       toward the death of Wang Bei according to the survey.

A．sympathetic

B．indifferent

C．enraged

D．not mentioned

【小題2】Why is there such a trend of having medical cosmetic surgery according to Ding Xiaobang?

A．People become richer.

B．The standard the beauty always changes.

C．People suffer fierce competition and frustration now and then.

D．All of the above.

【小題3】What kind of people is regarded as a beauty nowadays?

A．a(chǎn) person with single eyelid, an aquiline nose and a pointed chin

B．a(chǎn) person with double eyelids, an aquiline nose and a pointed chin

C．a(chǎn) person with double eyelids, a snub nose and a pointed chin

D．a(chǎn) person with double eyelids, a snub nose and a chubby chin

【小題4】The purpose of the text is to           .

A．inform us that cosmetic surgery becomes popular.

B．emphasize that young people should re-evaluate themselves rationally.

C．raise concerns about the risk of medical cosmetology industry.

D．state that people’s standard of beauty always changes.

Researchers who study relationships have discovered that a big difference between those who make new friends easily, and those who don’t, is that socially successful people tend to make eye contact with their conversation partners much more frequently than those who are less successful socially. In fact, you may be able to become much more socially successful by making this one simple change to your behavior.
Most Americans prefer to have a lot of eye contact when they are talking with someone. When a person doesn’t make eye contact with them, they tend to think that the person is hiding something or the person doesn’t believe in himself/herself.
When you are having a conversation and you want to leave a friendly impression, be sure to keep looking at that person frequently while you are talking. If it really bothers you to look directly into another person’s eyes, you can gaze generally at, not above, the eyebrow area or the bridge of the nose; this is close enough to the eye region that you will appear to be looking at the person’s eyes. But neither the hair or the shoulders have the same effect. Don’t stare at other people too intensely, otherwise, you will look aggressive(攻擊性).
Keep the majority of your focus on the other person. If you glance around the room too much, or look too frequently at other people, your conversation partner may guess that you are looking around for someone else you would rather talk with.
You can lighten your nervousness by smiling more often, nodding, and by gazing at the entire face as well as the eyes. In addition, you can frequently look away for very short periods.
When people get the sense that you are really paying attention to them, they will be much more likely to want to have conversations with you!
【小題1】Which of the following is NOT the impression left by those who don’t make eye contact during the talk?

A．They are not telling the truth.	B．They are bored with the partner.
C．They are lacking in confidence	D．They are angry and ready to attack.

【小題2】 Besides the eyes of the partner, during the talk, you can look at his/her ___________.

A．hair

B．shoulders

C．the bridge of the nose

D．a(chǎn)rea above the eyebrows

【小題3】 From the passage, we can learn that ____________________.

A．looking away during conversation should always be avoided.

B．looking at a person frequently can give him/her a good impression.

C．many Americans feel like being stared at for a long time.

D．a(chǎn)ll successful people are good at making eye contact.

【小題4】What would be the best title for the passage?

A．How to make yourself socially successful

B．How to use eye contact to make a good impression

C．How to make friends with the people around you

D．How to leave a good impression during a talk

Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes “the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don’t seem to learn from history ”. Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can not even understand who we are and where we are without history, much less try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. In doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and accomplish what he accomplished. I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.(325words)
【小題1】 What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2?

A．Many people aren’t clever enough to learn well from the past.

B．Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes.

C．Many people feel it hard to understand history.

D．Many people have no interest in studying history.

【小題2】 Some historical figures （人物）are mentioned in the last paragraph to show_____.

A．people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil

B．people may also learn from bad historical figures

C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements

D．today’s people can also achieve what they achieved

【小題3】What would be talked about in the following paragraph?

A．How to teach history effectively.

B．Some negative reasons for studying history.

C．How to get more people to study history.

D．Some bad historical figures.

Children lie on couches or sit on floors, nearly hypnotized(迷住) by all kinds of messages coming from the television. This scene has become all too familiar. Increasingly, young children are adopting a watching-TV lifestyle, at s stage in life when activity is important to their growth. Furthermore, family time is being destroyed by too much TV time. Here are some facts you need to know:
*Research shows that children spend between five and six hours per day watching TV, and they go to bed before having any communication with other family members.
*Time spent in front of a screen is reducing the amount of time children spend sleeping.
*The more time a youth spends in front of a screen, the more likely he or she is to be overweight.
Experts(專家) offer the following advice to parents on how to stop their children from becoming addicted to television:
*Do not put a TV in a child’s bedroom.
*Make meal time, family time -----turn off the TV during a family meal time. Better yet, remove the TV from the eating area.
*Make TV time active time by doing simple exercise during advertisement breaks.
*Help your kids be clever TV watchers by teaching them to recognize a sales trick in advertisements(廣告).
*Create family memories by planning fun activities instead of always watching TV with your family.
*_______. Limit your own TV watching to less than two hours per day. The best way to learn is to follow; this is especially true for children.
【小題1】Which fact is not mentioned(提到) as a result of watching TV in this passage?

A．Family time has been destroyed.

B．Children who watch too much TV are often overweight.

C．Children spend less time sleeping because of watching TV.

D．Children’s study can be badly influenced if they watch too much TV.

【小題2】Which of the following is one piece of advice given in this passage?

A．Parents should teach children to judge TV advertisements.

B．TV should be removed from homes that have children.

C．The family should watch TV together while eating.

D．Parents should not allow children to watch TV.

【小題3】The sentence in the blank in the last advice should be “_______”.

A．Be a good role model	B．Limit children’s TV time
C．TV time should not be over 2 hours.	D．Watching too much TV is bad for children

Speaking in his first National Day Rally speech on 15 August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien said Singapore’s education system was set for more reforms in the years ahead, particularly for the primary and secondary education．Read the summary of his thoughts on education below．
For a start, the Government is prepared to send and additional 3,000 teachers to Singapore schools, cut the courses of study even further and change the way the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is taught．But, for the changes to be successful, parents need to help．
Singapore has a devoted group of teachers and principals and quite a few of them are outstanding, but the Republic’s schools can be even better．To help the schools make a jump in quality, the Government plans that within the next 6 years, it will send 1,000 more teachers to primary schools, 1,400 to secondary schools and 550 more to junior colleges．Each school would decide how to use its extra teachers．Some may want to make classes smaller so students get more individual attentions while others may have new teachers assist more senior teachers, but the overall goal is to give teachers the time and space to come up with ways to bring out the best in their students．
More teachers must not mean more homework, however．In fact, the Prime Minister wants to see the courses cut down so that there is less pressure on the students．Good grades are important but they should not be the only goal students have．PM Lee is convinced that “we must teach less so that our children can learn more．”
Another change will be in the teaching of the mother tongue so that students can become more fluent．The key is to teach Chinese as a living language not just an academic subject like Latin．Therefore, the focus should be on speaking and reading the language．To do this, there must be an environment outside the classroom that is contributing to strengthening the Chinese lessons．
【小題1】The text is mainly about         in Singapore．

A．the education reform	B．a(chǎn)dding more teachers
C．the mother tongue	D．ways of teaching

【小題2】The general goal of using extra teachers is to          ．

A．make classes smaller	B．a(chǎn)ssist more senior teachers
C．teach more	D．help teachers improve teaching quality

【小題3】PM Lee holds that the students should         ．

A．do more homework	B．give up higher grades
C．study more courses	D．be given more time to learn more

【小題4】The key to teaching Chinese well is to          ．

A．make it academic	B．have a creative environment
C．give more Chinese lessons	D．encourage speaking and reading a lot

There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have ever taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (優(yōu)先) it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities (復(fù)雜性) of spelling.
If spelling becomes the only focal (焦點的) point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That’s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.
I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: “This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is terrible.” It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation (動機) to seek improvement.
【小題1】Teachers are different in their opinions about _________.

A．the difficulties in teaching spelling

B．the role of spelling in general language development

C．the complexities of the basic writing skills

D．the necessity of teaching spelling

【小題2】 The underlined expression “play safe” probably means ________.

A．to write carefully	B．to do as teachers say
C．to use dictionaries frequently	D．to avoid using words one is not sure of

【小題3】Teachers encourage the use of dictionaries so that ____________.

A．students will be able to express their ideas more freely

B．students will have more confidence in writing

C．students will have less trouble in correcting mistakes

D．students will learn to be independent of teachers

【小題4】The author seems to think that the teacher’s judgment on that sensitive piece of writing is __________.

A．unfair

B．reasonable

C．foolish

D．careless

【小題5】The major point discussed in the passage is ___________.

A．the importance of developing writing skills

B．the complexities of spelling

C．the correct way of marking compositions

D．the relationship between spelling and the content of a composition

閱讀下面短文，從A、B、C、D四個選項中選出最佳選項，并在機讀卡上相應(yīng)番號處將該項涂黑。
People who show confidence really seem to have it made. They seize more rewarding careers, keep good relationships, and just seem to do everything with more styles than the rest of us.
So what is the secret? There isn’t one. Self-confidence is a skill and habit that anyone can learn to develop. And although people who are raised in an encouraging environment with confident role models have a hard start in self-confidence development, we all can learn to become more confident at any age.
Try these simple tips for practicing and increasing your self-confidence levels:
Dare to fail. Anybody who’s out there bravely performing is going to fail repeatedly. If you are not failing, you are not trying. So don’t take failure too hard or too personally. Just learn to deal with it and use its lessons to keep improving.
When in doubt, pretend you know what you are doing. Because, if you are confident of your abilities, by the time you have done it, you will be experienced.
Dress for success. You don’t have to be beautiful to be confident. Make the most of your own unique physical characters and weaken your disadvantages.
Listen to yourself. You are the only person who knows what’s right for you. Don’t put others’ opinions above your own inner voice.
Build a confident vocabulary. Stop putting yourself down and give up continually blaming your tiny weaknesses. Learn to show up your strong points and the world will learn to see and celebrate them with you.
Pass on the praise. Praise others for their virtues and strengths. This practice will not decrease your confidence, but help increase it.
【小題1】 The passage is written mainly __________.

A．to explain the definition of self-confidence

B．to explain the secret of self-confidence

C．to tell people how important self-confidence is

D．to tell people how to build self-confidence

【小題2】The underlined word “one” in the second paragraph refers to __________.

A．the secret of self-confidence

B．the skill of self-confidence

C．the style of doing things

D．a(chǎn) rewarding career

【小題3】The main idea of the sixth paragraph is __________.

A．to be confident means to have no disadvantages

B．taking full advantage of your physical characters will help you be confident

C．your unique characters will help you be confident and be successful

D．to be confident means to be beautiful

【小題4】All the following are tips to increase your self-confidence level EXCEPT_________.

A．not to be afraid of failure

B．dress yourself properly

C．pretend to know everything

D．make your advantages more obvious

【小題5】__________ will weaken your self-confidence.

A．Praising others for their strong points

B．Always following others’ advice to do things

C．Giving up blaming your weaknesses

D．Believing in yourself

There are many famous writers in the English world, among whom Jane Austen  (1775—1817) has been popular with all ages. But then Jane Austen wrote her novels in England, she was writing about a world that most of us would not recognize.
But today Austen’s books are in greater demand than ever. In the last ten years, five of the six novels have been made into Hollywood films, while her books continue to be bestsellers. So why is Austen still popular?
Richard Jenkyns, a professor of English at Oxford University, argues that her novels still appeal to people because they focus on issues that are as relevant today as they were when she wrote them. Her novels are about women trying to find a perfect husband, but also explore issues surrounding marriage, friendship and the family. “The plots are fairly timeless stories about human interaction which are familiar to us,” Jenkyns says.
The most famous book Austen wrote is Pride and Prejudice, a love story between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. At first the two characters do not get on. They finally fall in love, but still have to overcome opposition (反對) to their relationship from their families.
All of Austen’s books are easy to read, making them popular with children and adults, but they work on different levels so people can take what they need from them, author Kate Henry says.
Austen is often praised as the greatest romance writer in the English language, so it is surprising she remained unmarried. “Maybe she was too much of a romantic, waiting for a perfect man,” Henry says.
【小題1】Which of the following can NOT explain why Austen is still popular?

A．Her novels are all about love and marriage.

B．Her novels still make sense to today’s people.

C．All her novels are easy to read.

D．Her novels benefit people of different reading levels.

【小題2】 The underlined word “relevant” in Paragraph 3 probably means ______.

A．strange

B．related

C．funny

D．unimportant

【小題3】According to Henry, Austen remained unmarried because ______.

A．she was used to the life of being single

B．the perfect man didn’t appears in her life

C．she was too busy to think of marriage

D．she was afraid of marriage

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

A．More and more people like reading Austen’s novels.

B．Austen died when she was 42 years old.

C．Pride and Prejudice is a novel about love.

D．Austen is often regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.

You may know the English letters A, B and C. But do you know there are people called ABC? You may like eating bananas. But did you know there is a “banana person”? How strange! Are these people from “another Earth”? No. They are just Chinese people like you and me.
ABC means American-Born Chinese. An ABC is a Chinese, but was born in the United States. Sometimes, people call an ABC a “banana person”. A banana is yellow outside and white inside. So, when a person is a banana, he or she is white inside—thinking like a Westerner and yellow outside—looking like a Chinese.
Do you know why? Usually, ABCs know little about China or the Chinese language. Some of them don’t speak Chinese.
But if ABCs cannot speak Chinese, can we still call them Chinese people? Yes, of course. They are Chinese. They are overseas (海外) Chinese. These people may be citizens(公民) of another country like the US, Canada or Singapore. But they have Chinese blood. Their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents were from China. They all have black eyes and black hair.
But they are not Chinese citizens. They are not the people of the People’s Republic of China. For example, we all know the famous scientist  C.N. Yang(楊振寧). He got the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957. The Chinese love him, but he is an American citizen.
【小題1】What’s the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

A．He wants to tell us something about “ABC”.

B．He wants to show that Chinese are well respected in America.

C．He wants to tell us some knowledge about the English language.

D．He wants to introduce the American culture to us.

【小題2】 Chinese in Western countries are called “banana persons” because ____.

A．their bodies are white inside but yellow outside

B．they think like Westerners but look like Chinese

C．they were born in China but go to study in America

D．they like to eat bananas

【小題3】C.N. Yang is mentioned here to show that ____.
A. American Chinese are great.        B. we love American Chinese
C. The Chinese can win Nobel Prizes   D. American Chinese are not Chinese citizens