A study shows that nearly ninety percent of teens report that they have tried alcohol. That’s an increase of 23 percent in just four years!
Each year, 1.1 billion cans of beer are drunk by students aged 15-19 years old. Beer is the most common alcoholic drink among teens—81 percent of the drinkers had tried it. Beer is followed by wine with 63 percent, hard liquor(烈酒) with 53 percent and wine coolers with 35 percent.
When the young people are asked why they drank, the most common answer is that drinking is “something to do”. If a teen’s parents drink alcohol, the teenager is more likely to start drinking at an early age. Also, tens see all of their friends drinking alcohol so they think it is the must-to-do thing. Peer pressure is probably the hardest thing teens have to deal with. What’s more, teens often drink alcohol because it makes them feel older and cooler.
Researchers asked 56,000 students about their drinking habits and grades, to see how drinking might affect their grades in school. The results seem to be clear. Students who got a C level or lower tend to use three times as much alcohol as those who got B’s or A’s.
Alcohol use can be deadly. About 8,100 young people are killed per year in alcohol-related accidents. Eight young people die per day as a result of a drunk-driving accident. Between 50 and 65 percent of all teen suicides (自殺) occur after the young people drink.
So you see, drinking the alcohol doesn’t always end up with a good time. The next time you try to push someone to drink or someone tries to push you to drink, please remember this. One drink can set the habit for life. Why not throw it away?
【小題1】The reasons for teens’ drinking alcohol are mentioned EXCEPT that _______________.

A．they think it is cool to drink alcohol

B．their parents set a bad example to them

C．alcohol can make them happier

D．peer pressure plays an important role

【小題2】What can we learn from paragraph 4?

A．Drinking alcohol makes students stupid.

B．Good students never try alcohol.

C．Drinking habits have something to do with IQ.

D．Students with poor grades tend to use more alcohol.

【小題3】The passage was written mainly to ______________________.

A．show the bad effect of drinking alcohol

B．show how many teenagers drink alcohol

C．tell teenagers not to try alcohol

D．tell the reasons why teenagers drink alcohol.

Everyone likes living in a clean and comfortable environment. If the envionment(環(huán)境) are bad, it will affect（影響）our body, and make us not feel well. Sometimes we may be terribly ill. At that time we don’t want to work, and we have to stay in bed and rest at home. So the envrionment is very important to us.
It’s germs that makes us ill. There are germs everywhere, They are very small and you can’t find them with your own eyes, but you can see them with a microscope（顯微鏡）They are very small and there may be hundreds of them on a very small thing, Germs can always be found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope, we shall see them in it. Germs can also be found in air and dust（灰塵）. If you cut your finger, some of the dust from the floor may go into it, and you will have much pain in it. Sometimes the germs will go into all of your boby, and you will have pain everywhere.
To keep us healthy, we should try to our best to make our environment become cleaner and tidier. This needs us to act together.
【小題1】The writer tell us that________.

A．we like working when we are ill

B．germs can’t live in the water.

C．we can’t feel ill if the environment is bad.

D．we feel well when the environment is good.

【小題2】Germs are________.

A．very small things that you can’t see with your eyes.

B．the things that don’t effect people.

C．the things that you can find with your eyes.

D．the things that are very big.

【小題3】Where can germs be found? They can be found_________.

A．on the small thing	B．in air and dust
C．only in dirty water	D．everywhere

【小題4】How will you feel if germs go into the finger that is cut?

A．I will feel nothing.	B．I won’t mind.
C．I will feel tense.	D．I will feel painful.

【小題5】 From the passage we know that________.

A．environment doesn’t affect our life

B．we don’t need to improve our environment

C．germs may make us ill

D．if the environment is better, germs will be more.

Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.
Diet products weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie（卡）, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the counter instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food brands.
On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.
The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients(營養(yǎng)成分). Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemical that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.
Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.
【小題1】The first paragraph mainly tells us _____.

A．diet products can bring out people’s potential

B．people have difficulty in choosing diet products

C．diet products are misleading people

D．people are fed up with diet products

【小題2】One psychological effect of diet products is that people tend to ____.

A．resist a variety of diet foods

B．hesitate before they enjoy diet foods

C．pay attention to their own eating habits

D．watch their weight rather than their diet

【小題3】The purpose of writing this passage is _________.

A．to warn people of the side effect of diet products

B．to tell people how to lose weight

C．to advise people to eat diet products

D．to introduce some diet products

【小題4】 Which of the following shows the structure（結構） of the passage?

CP: Central Point      P: Point       Sp: Sub-point(次要點)   C: Conclusion

China needs to set absolute restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions(釋放) if it is to fulfill its aim to set up a carbon market over the next five years, a cabinet office think tank said in a paper.
“It is only under an absolute emissions cap that carbon emission permits will become a scarce resource and possess the qualities of a commodity,” the State Council?s Development and Research Center said in a paper in Seeking Truth, a magazine published by the ruling party.
China has traditionally baulked(猶豫) at the idea of emissions caps either on a regional basis or for industrial sectors, invoking a key Kyoto protocol principle that puts most of the burden of cutting green-house gases on developed countries.
China, the world ‘s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has also been under external pressure to make stronger commitments in the battle against global warming .The country has been the biggest beneficiary(受益人) of the Clean Development Mechanism, a UN-backed scheme that allows industrialized countries to meet their CO2 reduction targets by purchasing certified emission reductions or CERs from low-carbon projects launched in developing nations.
However, the European Union, the biggest buyer of CERs, has said it will not accept CERs generated by Chinese projects once the first phase of its Emissions Trading Scheme ends in 2012, though projects already registered will remain valid.
【小題1】 What does China hope to do in the next five years?

A．to cut its emissions by 45%

B．to set up a carbon market

C．to have lower emissions than other countries

D．to increase both emissions and production

【小題2】 China agreeing to limit emissions now because______

A．they care about the environment

B．emissions harm people’s health

C．of pressure from other countries

D．they want more profit for their factories

【小題3】How does the CER scheme work?

A．Countries can buy the right to produce as much carbon emissions as they like.

B．All countries are required to set a carbon emissions cap and can then get certificates on how developed their environmental programme is.

C．Developed countries are allowed to produce more emissions than industrial countries.

D．Developed countries can buy the right to produce more carbon emissions from developing countries that produce less.

【小題4】 What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Air pollution is still increasing the problem of climate change all over the world.

B．China is still resisting cutting emissions as it is necessary for the manufacturing industry.

C．China believes that it is free from meeting international standards on emissions.

D．China will need to cut its emissions in the near future in order to keep up with the international community

Sigmund Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and reason.
He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis(催眠術). He wanted to see whether putting patients into a sleep-like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only temporary.
Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. His method involved sitting with his patients and listening to them talk. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All ideas, thoughts and anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no holding back because of fear or guilt.
Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the unconscious self. This part of the mind he said contains wishes, desires and experiences too frightening to recognize.
He thought that if these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the patient would again feel the pain. But this time, the person would experience them as an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally understand them.
Using this way, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly weakened. They would lose their hold over the person's physical health. Soon the patient would get better.
Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual connections. These included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their mothers and daughters toward their fathers.
If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Many others came to accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health.
【小題1】How many methods did Sigmund Freud use to study the mind?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Four.

【小題2】Sigmund Freud’s research was difficult because ______.

A．he had to work hard and have patients talk freely

B．he had to live with people who had troubled minds

C．he had to listen to unhappy stories of different people

D．he had to give his patients a sense of security

【小題3】Sigmund Freud held the idea that the painful memories of childhood ______.

A．could be forgotten forever

B．could have a life-long influence

C．could become wises and desires

D．could be understood unconsciously

【小題4】If an adult parent feels the memories of childhood painful, the patient would probably ______.

A．have physical and mental problems

B．be greatly influenced by them

C．have a better understanding of life

D．have a healthier and happier life

One of my China Dialogue colleagues in Beijing recently bought a Philips energy-saving light bulb to replace a standard one．He was happy with his choice．It may have cost 30 yuan （just under US$4．50） - ten times the price of a filament （燈絲） bulb - but he wanted to save energy as part of his low-carbon lifestyle．And according to the shopkeeper, he would save, in the long run, much more than the 30 yuan he was spending．
Yet only one month later, his expensive light bulb blew up, before he had saved even a small part of the purchase price．Will he stick to his high-cost, low-carbon lifestyle?
China's environmental organizations have started to advocate low-carbon lifestyles and the decrease of carbon footprints to help fight against climate change．But they have overlooked one fact: in China, low-carbon living comes at a high cost．It means buying energy-saving bulbs and appliances, and environmentally friendly building materials and daily goods．Cost can no longer be the only standard for purchases．An energy-saving and environmentally friendly product is more expensive than a standard alternative - whether it's a simple light bulb or the house it shines．For average consumers, even buying an ordinary bulb is a huge burden．How can we persuade ordinary people to choose an energy-saving residence? This is not a trend they can afford to follow; perhaps this fashion is only for the rich．
Most consumers today do not cause huge carbon dioxide （CO₂） emissions．Their responsibility lies not in choosing a low-carbon lifestyle today, but in avoiding a high-carbon life in the future．The principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" - a basis of sustainable development - can be applied here as well．
In China, low-carbon living still is resisted by a lack of social infrastructure（基礎設施）. Even if your salary allows you to make that choice, nobody is there to help you accomplish it．
Consider energy-saving homes. You need to find out whether or not the developer has used natural materials wherever possible; how effective the insulation（絕緣物、隔熱物） is; and what the green credentials of installed equipment are．You can read up a little, but you'll still be lucky to avoid being puzzled by the developers' marketing．Many so-called energy-saving buildings are nothing of the sort, and some are even more energy-hungry than the average home - as Li Taige warned in his article "Energy-efficient buildings? Not always", on China Dialogue last August．
【小題1】 What may probably be the best title of this passage?

A．To purchase a cheap bulb - your wise alternative．

B．To choose an energy-saving residence - a must of your life

C．To learn a low-carbon lifestyle - each citizen's responsibility

D．To learn a low-carbon lifestyle - a promising but difficult purpose

【小題2】Why does the writer say this fashion is only for the rich in the fourth paragraph?

A．Because the cost is a very important standard for purchases.

B．Because buying an ordinary bulb is very expensive.

C．Because energy-saving products are more expensive than the common alternatives.

D．Because rich people like to follow this trend.

【小題3】 What does the writer think of energy-saving homes?

A．Most of them are environmentally friendly.

B．They are musts of low-carbon lifestyle of Chinese.

C．They are huge burdens for Chinese people.

D．Many of them are more in name than in reality.

【小題4】We can infer from the passage that ____．

A．Using energy-saving bulbs and appliances is a fashion．

B．It's easy for most Chinese to try to learn a low-carbon lifestyle．

C．All citizens in China don’t have the same responsibility in living a low-carbon lifestyle．

D．Most Chinese families cannot afford to purchase an energy-saving residence.

【小題5】What is the writer's attitude towards the low-carbon lifestyle?

A．informative and entertaining	B．supportive but cautious
C．negative but wise	D．positive and active

Cast your mind back to the past twenty years and hardly did anyone have their own email account. The Internet had just taken off in 1991 and people were only using office and PC­based email exchanges.
In the mid 1990s external email providers appeared. The most famous of these was Hotmail, the first free email provider and web­based email service. Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched Hotmail on July 4, 1996. And Microsoft took note of and bought Hotmail for $400 million on December 30, 1997, a nice birthday present for Bhatia who turned 29 that day. It was relaunched as MSN Hotmail and in 2007 was relaunched again as Windows Live Hotmail.
Fast forward the present day and most of us have at least a personal web­based email account. It seems impossible to live without them. One of the biggest advantages of email is the fact that communication has become so much easier, especially with those across different time zones. Email takes seconds to send a message whereas letters, as we used to communicate by, could take weeks. Of course there was the fax, that beeping invention from the 1980s, but it wasn’t as secure as email and you never knew if the person on the other end had picked up your fax or if it had got lost somewhere in the office.
In conclusion, one of the best inventions from the 1990s has to be email. But sometimes people are too closely connected to their email and have a compulsion to check it several times a day. At work, people have become lazy and instead of going to speak to the person sitting next to them, they send an email，causing an in box to pile up with more time spent reading email and responding rather than working. Clearly, an invention that saved time because of its quick and speedy connection can now also cause us to waste a lot of time.
【小題1】The earliest web-based email came into being probably _______.

A．in 1991

B．in 1996

C．in 1997

D．in 2007

【小題2】The author mentions “fax” in the third paragraph in order to tell us that _______.

A．it is exactly as good as email

B．it is much better than email

C．it is less convenient than email

D．it is easier and faster than email

【小題3】The underlined word “compulsion” in Paragraph 4 probably means “_______”.

A．strong desire

B．common sense

C．special curiosity

D．general idea

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

A．We should check email boxes frequently.

B．Lazy people like sending an email.

C．Email brings us great convenience.

D．Good inventions also cause problems.

What if we could replace oil with a fuel which produced no pollution and which everybody had equal access to? The good news is that we can. In fact, we are swimming in it--- literally.
Hydrogen is one of the building blocks of the universe. Our own sun is basically a big, dense cloud of the stuff. And hydrogen can be used to create electricity for power, heat and light.
The problem is that hydrogen is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It does not exist as a material on its own, but is always part of something else. So it has to be separated before it can be used.
Most commercial hydrogen in use now is created from natural gas. As oil will start to run out in around the year 2030, it makes sense to produce as much hydrogen as possible as soon as we can. But natural gas supplies will also begin to run out soon after. Another source is needed.
Researchers are now using electricity to make water into hydrogen. Companies are working on the problem in their own areas. The first commercial hydrogen “fuel cells” for computers and mobile phones have already come on to the market. Auto companies have also invested over US $2 billion in the production of hydrogen fuelled cars.
The nations of a hydrogen fuelled planet would not fight over energy recourses. There would be a great reduction in pollution. The only by-product of creating hydrogen is pure drinking water--- something that is very scarce in many parts of the world. But that is not where the good news ends. Once the costs of producing hydrogen have been brought down, it will possibly provide power for a third of the Earth’s population that has no electricity.
And electricity creates wealth. In South Africa over the last decade there has been a large programme of electrification. Thanks to the programme, people do not have to spend their days looking firewood to burn for heat. And with electric light, they can work long into the night.
Some scientists see radical changes in the way the human race co-operates. Hydrogen creates electricity, and is also created by it. With dual use fuel cells, everyone who consumes energy could also produce it. Late at night, a man drives home in London and connects his car into the “world-wide hydrogen web,” which it supplies with electricity. A few hours later, a man in Beijing uses that electricity to power the hydrogen cell in his car. Hydrogen could be the first democratic energy source.
Like all dreams of the future, it seems very far away. But the threat of war and terrorism in the Middle East has made governments and businesses more aware of the need to end oil dependency and spend more time and money on hydrogen resource. So maybe the threat of war is not a completely bad thing for the future of the human race.
【小題1】What does the underlined word “it” in the last but one paragraph refer to?

A．wealth

B．hydrogen

C．electricity

D．fuel

【小題2】What is the problem with using hydrogen as energy?

A．It has by-products.

B．It has to be separated from other materials.

C．It will make energy too cheap.

D．It is too far away from us.

【小題3】Why does the author give the example in the last but one paragraph ?

A．To tell us that we produce energy while using hydrogen power.

B．To tell us that hydrogen power does not produce pollution.

C．To show hydrogen power can stop war.

D．To show hydrogen power is cheap.

【小題4】What is the author’s attitude about the future?

A．skeptical

B．negative

C．indifferent

D．positive

【小題5】What is the passage mainly about?

A．war and energy	B．the future of hydrogen as an energy resource
C．the disadvantages of oil	D．How to end war

It’s you and I who are to blame for the state of the earth. No question about it. It’s our life-style that is threatening life on Earth, so we must make the changes. The good news is that many of those changes are really quite simple, even enjoyable, but for every careful step we take as individuals, we must press government and industry to take a big step on our benefit. And we must start now. Tomorrow’s too late.
My aim this year is to persuade as many of my friends and colleagues as possible to choose the train, and leave their cars behind too. My gardens have been pesticide(殺蟲劑)–free zones for years and I enjoy seeing more wildlife on my doorstep as a result; I’ve tried to reduce my contribution to water pollution too, by using environment-friendly, phosphate(磷)–free washing powder , and by no longer thinking of the toilet as a suitable waste-disposal(處理) point .
I ran after a young lady through town recently to give her back the piece of paper she had carelessly thrown away. She disappeared into a shop, and when I followed her inside and made my presentation, she was doubly embarrassed--she worked there, and the boss gave her a ticking–off too. I’ve started asking fellow drivers at gas stations why they aren’t using unleaded (無鉛的) petrol . These are small things, but we have to start somewhere, and every little does help.
【小題1】We can learn from the first paragraph that____________.

A．you and I are responsible for looking after the environment

B．the government and industry are responsible for looking after the environment

C．the government is responsible for looking after the environment

D．both A and B

【小題2】To help the environment, the author is trying to do everything mentioned below EXCEPT_________.

A．taking the train instead of a car

B．avoiding the use of pesticides

C．throwing away the old cars

D．running after those who throw articles carelessly

【小題3】The author ran after a woman through town because he wanted__________.

A．to find out where she worked

B．to give her back the piece of paper she had lost

C．to ask her to pay him for picking up the piece of paper.

D．to tell her not to throw away pieces of paper carelessly

【小題4】The purpose of this passage is to__________.

A．persuade his friends to take the train

B．try to advise us all to protect our environment

C．make clear who is responsible for the environment

D．inform us of the good news

Scientists know of more than 1,000 volcanoes on the surface of Venus, Earth’s “sister” planet. A big question has been: Are they still active? The scientists say yes.
Their evidence for recent volcanic activity on Venus comes from a lava(熔巖) flow in the planet’s northern hemisphere. The flow is hotter than the rocks around, which means the lava might still be cooling off. “The flow we studied seems to be very young---it is still warm inside,” Nataliya Bondarenko said.
Venus is a difficult planet to study from Earth because it is surrounded by thick clouds. Telescopes on Earth can’t see through these clouds, so the best information about Venus comes from spacecraft orbiting it.
Bondarenko and her colleagues studied the lava flow using data from NASA’s Magellan mission. That spacecraft spent four years in orbit around Venus and used radar to make a map of 98 percent of the planet’s surface. On October 11th, 1994, the mission ended, and the spacecraft plunged (跌落) through Venus’ heavy cloud cover and crashed onto the planet below.
While in orbit, the Magellan craft sent microwaves, which can go through Venus’ clouds, to the surface. Microwaves are invisible and can be as long as three feet. These waves are a kind of energy, like light. And like light, they bounce off surfaces. The way the waves bounced off the Venus’ surface and back to the craft supplied information that the scientists used to estimate the temperature of various parts of the planet’s surface. Bondarenko’s team found that the lava flow was hotter than its surroundings---which may mean the lava flow is in the process of cooling.
The scientists say the lava flow can’t be very old because if it were, it would have cooled off enough that Magellan wouldn’t have noticed the difference in microwaves. She adds that the flow appears in a 1978 view of the surface that a craft called the Pioneer Venus Orbiter captured.
【小題1】What happened to Magellan in the end?

A．It was floating in space forever.

B．It flew into heavy clouds.

C．It returned to the Earth.

D．It fell onto Venus.

【小題2】How could Bondarenko judge the temperature of the Venus?

A．By looking at it with a powerful telescope.

B．By measuring the thickness of clouds over Venus.

C．By calculating the microwave bouncing off Venus’s surface.

D．By orbiting Venus for 4 years in a spacecraft.

【小題3】The best title for the passage may be “______ ”.

A．Warm lava on Venus

B．More volcanic eruptions on Venus

C．Venus is just like a big active volcano

D．Lava flows are first found on Venus