Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated (人口密集的)cities in the world, but with night skies around 1,000 times brighter than globally accepted levels, it gains a bad reputation for its light pollution.
A study by Hong Kong University found that brightness levels in the southern Chinese city's popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui were 1,200 times greater than the international dark sky standard.
The crowded city of 7 million residents(居民), full or residential high-rises, towering office blocks and neon(霓虹燈) advertisements, has no laws to control outdoor lightning.
The result is that light pollution is thought to be much worse than in other large cities, including London, Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai.
“In Hong Kong , you can’t go anywhere outdoor in the evening without your eyes being blinded by this really disturbing outdoor lightning,” the light pollution survey’s head Jason Pum told AFP.
“The fact that we have all this light in the sky means energy is wasted,” he said, adding that too much artificial lightning also affects nightly wildlife.
Research has suggested that light pollution can cause a number of harmful health effects in humans, including sleeplessness and headaches and can also interrupt body clocks and hormones(荷爾蒙).
The university survey, the result of five million measurements taken from points across the city, was released just days before the start of the annual Earth Hour event, organized by the World Wildlife Fund.
People around the world will be encouraged to turn off the lights for an hour on Saturday night to raise awareness of climate change. Last year, a number of Hong Kong’s major buildings along Victoria Harbour went dark to mark Earth Hour.
“Anyway, we should do our best to reduce the amount of lightning and adjust it for the benefit of the environment.”
【小題1】If you walk out at night in Hong Kong, you can see all those things except ______.

A．neon advertisements	B．residential buildings
C．a(chǎn) dark sky with twinkling stars	D．high office blocks

【小題2】.which of the following statements about too much lightning is NOT true?

A．Too much lightning means a waste of energy.

B．It can make the sky and the city more beautiful.

C．It may have a bad effect on nightly wildlife.

D．It can lead to some health problems.

【小題3】.We can know from the passage that__________

A．light pollution in Hong Kong is among world’s worst.

B．light pollution is the biggest problem in Hong Kong.

C．Earth Hour is simply organized to reduce pollution.

D．light pollution is the primary causes of sleeplessness.

【小題4】.what will the author probably discuss after the last paragraph?

A．Bad effects of light pollution

B．Causes of light pollution

C．Worries about light pollution

D．Ways to reduce light pollution

Someday a stranger will read your e-mail without your permission or scan the websites you’ve visited. Or perhaps someone will casually glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills to find out your shopping preferences or calling habits.
In fact, it’s likely some of these things have already happened to you. Who would watch you without your permission? It might be a husband or wife, a girlfriend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal. Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen—the 21st century equivalent (相等物) of being caught naked.
Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it’s important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, at appropriate times. But few boundaries remain. The digital bread pieces you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret.
The key question is Does that matter?
For many Americans, the answer apparently is “no.”
When opinion polls ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. A survey found a serious depression about privacy, with 60 percent of respondents saying they feel their privacy is “slipping away, and that bothers me.”
But people say one thing and do another. Only a tiny part of Americans change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at tollbooths (收費(fèi)站) to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements. And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Privacy economist Alessanfro Acquisti has run a series of tests that reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a pitiful 50-cents-off coupon (優(yōu)惠券).
But privacy does matter—at least sometimes. It’s like health when you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.
【小題1】What would psychologists advise on the relationships between friends?

A．There should be a distance even between friends.

B．Friends should always be faithful to each other.

C．Friends should open their hearts to each other.

D．There should be fewer disagreements between friends.

【小題2】 Why does the author say “we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret”?

A．People leave tracks around when using modern technology.

B．Modern society has finally developed into an open society.

C．There are always people who are curious about others’ affairs.

D．Many search engines profit by revealing people’s identities.

【小題3】What do most Americans do about privacy protection?

A．They change behaviors that might disclose their identity.

B．They talk a lot but hardly do anything about it.

C．They rely more and more on electronic devices.

D．They use various loyalty cards for business deals.

【小題4】According to the passage, privacy is like health because __________.

A．people don’t treasure it until they lose it

B．its importance is rarely understood

C．it is something that can easily be lost

D．people will make every effort to keep it

You hear a rumor（謠言）from a friend,who heard it from another friend,who read it on a note passed in math class,which was written by somebody who probably just made it up．Chances are rumors are always spreading around your school．Sometimes it can be very hurtful．But why do people still do so?
When people are feeling bad about themselves,they sometimes think they’ll feel better if there were someone worse off than they are．It’s okey being near the bottom,as long as they’re not actually on the bottom．The easiest way for them to make sure someone else is on the bottom is to make up a rumor that puts him or her there．
If everybody else is spreading rumors,you might feel you have to do the same thing in order to fit in．Unfortunately,the person who the gossip or rumor is about is usually let out of the group for the same reason that you’re let into it．
When you know a secret that nobody knows,or are the first person in your group to hear a rumor,it can make you the center of attention．A rumor or piece of gossip is sometimes like money;telling it to people is like buying their attention．Certain people always want to be at the top of the ladder（梯子）．You probably know at least one person who wishes to be the leader,and make all the decisions．One way they do this is by reducing the status（地位）of another person．Spreading rumors and gossip is one way people reduce another person’s status．學(xué)科網(wǎng)
Sometimes a period when everyone is happy and getting along just seems kind of dull．Spreading rumors might get two people to start a fight,and that would make life a little more exciting．All those newspapers and TV shows full of gossip about famous people are proving that rumors are a popular form of entertainment．
【小題1】We know from Paragraph 2 that some people spread rumors to _______．

A．be more confident	B．feel like part of a group
C．a(chǎn)ttract attention	D．be more powerful

【小題2】The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 may mean some people _______．

A．love looking down from a high position．

B．hope to become leaders．

C．a(chǎn)re not afraid of falling down．

D．a(chǎn)re fond of spreading rumors．

【小題3】What do we know from the last paragraph?

A．Famous people like spreading rumors．

B．Rumors can make people feel bored．

C．Some people seek excitement from rumors．

D．There are many rumors in newspapers．

【小題4】The passage is mainly about ________．

A．what rumors mean	B．how hurtful a rumor is
C．how people spread rumors	D．why people spread rumors

Long working hours,the fewest holidays and the high cost of living mean the big salaries on offer（可使用的）in the UK do not go as far as those earned in other countries,making Britain and Ireland the worst places to live in Europe．
France and Spain are the two countries topping the European Quality of Life Index（指數(shù)）out today,according to the place comparison website Switch．com．
The French enjoy longer lives,better healthcare,more holidays and cheaper prices．In contrast Britons work three years longer and die two years younger after paying above the European average for fuel,food,alcohol and cigarettes．The amount we spend on healthcare and education is below the European average．
Only Ireland and Poland spend less,but Ireland has more doctors and hospital beds and Poland has more beds than the UK．People in Germany,Spain,France,Italy,the Netherlands and Sweden all enjoy longer life expectancy than Britons．And while we may be giving up work earlier,the average age at which we retire is still the fourth highest in Europe——and the UK state retirement age is set to rise．
Ann Robinson,of Switch．com,said:“There’s more to good living than money and this report shows why so many Britons are giving up on （對(duì)……不再抱希望）the UK and heading to France and Spain．We earn substantially more than our European neighbors,but this level of income is needed just to keep a roof over our heads,food on the table and our homes warm” ． “It’s giving us a decent standard of living,but it’s not helping us achieve the quality of life that people in other countries enjoy．For too long the focus in the UK had been on standard of living rather than quality of life．”
【小題1】In Europe,to enjoy the best quality of life,you’d better live in _______．

A．Britian and Ireland	B．Spain and France
C．Ireland and Poland	D．Britian and Italy

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

A．People in the UK pay more than the European average for fuel,food,alcohol and cigarettes．

B．People in the UK enjoy the highest quality of life．

C．People in the UK spend most on the healthcare and education．

D．People in the UK die two years older than in France．

【小題3】The underlined word“decent”in the last paragraph means “_______”

A．good enough

B．bad enough

C．ordinary

D．neither bad nor good

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

A．Money is a must to make you live a good life．

B．High standard of living means good quality of life．

C．High standard of living is one thing and good quality of life is another．

D．To live a good life,go to Britian．

The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious （叛逆的） and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall, “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”
【小題1】What is the popularly- held image of teenagers?

A．They worry about their school life.

B．They live in harmony with their parents.

C．They have to be locked in to avoid making troubles.

D．They quarrel a lot with their parents.

【小題2】The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ______.

A．share family responsibility	B．cause trouble in their families
C．go boating with their family	D．make family decisions

【小題3】Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents______．

A．go to clubs more often with their children

B．a(chǎn)re much stricter with their children

C．care less about their children’s life

D．give their children more freedom

【小題4】According to the author, teenage rebellion _______．

A．may be a false belief	B．is common nowadays
C．is based on real facts	D．resulted from changes in families

【小題5】What is the passage mainly about?

A．Negotiation in family.	B．Education in family.
C．Harmony in family.	D．Teenage trouble in family.

Last night I drove a long way (about 500 km) to return home. It was late and I was driving fast because I wanted to get home as soon as possible. So several times when I was driving behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road, I wanted to shout at the driver ahead.
Then I came to a crossroad with a traffic light. As I drove near, it turned red. I stopped my car at once. I looked left，right and behind. I found no cars or persons — I was alone on the road. The person who would come to the crossroad was at least a mile away in any direction. Certainly going through the light would cause no danger. I could pass the traffic light. But strangely enough, I just stopped there, waiting for several minutes until the light went green. I asked myself why I refused to run the light. Surely it was unnecessary for me to be afraid of danger or being fined (罰款), because there were no cars or police around at all. But I remained waiting until the light changed.
When I finally got home, it was near midnight. My wife had fallen asleep. The question of why I stopped for that light came back to me again, because I stopped another two times for the red lights as “special” as the first one. I stopped, not because of the law, but because it was a good habit I had developed. In fact, we were used to doing something right just because we have made obeying the rules a good habit. We do it just because we should do it. I thought if another man met with the same thing, he would make the same choice. I believed so. And I could be trusted (信任) by others. I believed that everyone would and could control (控制) himself/herself well. It was amazing that we trusted each other to do the right things, wasn’t it?
【小題1】When the author drove behind the slow-moving truck, he felt ____.

A．confused but happy

B．sleepy and tired

C．excited but tired

D．a(chǎn)ngry and worried

【小題2】Who made the author stopped at the crossroad?

A．A policeman.

B．The author’s wife.

C．The author himself.

D．Another driver.

【小題3】The author waited until the light went green because ____.

A．running the light would make him fined	B．he was afraid to cause an accident
C．he was prevented by the passers-by	D．he was used to obeying traffic rules

【小題4】The author is a person who ____.

A．believes others easily	B．can control himself well
C．treats others very unfriendly	D．is very experienced in driving

【小題5】 We can infer from the passage that ____.

A．running the light could help the author get home earlier

B．the author’s wife was angry because he got home late

C．the truck driver in front of the author might be drunk

D．it was very necessary to have very strict traffic rules

Women turn to online shopping
Women have jumped ahead of men for the first time in using the Internet to do their holiday shopping，according to a study published last week in the US.
For years men have been more likely to shop on the Internet than women，but during the 2004 holiday season 58 percent of those making online purchases were women.
“It shows how mainstream the Internet is becoming”，said Lee Rainie，a director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project group，which carried out the study.
Rainie said it was only a matter of time before women shoppers caught up with men. This is because women traditionally make decisions about spending.
Users were more likely to shop online to save time. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 were responsible for some of the most dramatic（顯著的）increases in the online gift-buying population this time around.
However，three-quarters of the US Internet users did not buy holiday gifts online in 2004．They worried about credit card security，or just compared online prices with off-line prices，then dashed off to the shops to get the best deals.
“But even if shoppers don’t buy online，websites are becoming promotion tools for stores，”said Dan Hess，vice president of Comscore Networks Inc．Hess said that actually most stores’ websites can make shoppers fully believe the security of their credit card numbers. And most are able to ensure that gifts arrive on time.
“It’s all about making the shopping experience more efficient，more reliable and more comfortable，” Hess said.
【小題1】Which of the following statements is true?

A．There were fewer women online shoppers than men in 2004．

B．Most of the Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 are women.

C．People in the US were more likely to buy gifts online.

D．More women shopped online than men in 2004.

【小題2】From the passage we can infer that________.

A．men usually decide how to spend money in the family

B．women usually decide what to buy in the family

C．the Internet is used in all the shops.

D．more and more shops will sell their goods online.

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

A．American people only buy gifts in holidays.

B．Shopping online is fun for women.

C．Shopping off-line provides better service.

D．Young people like to do gift-shopping online.

The world is filled with smart, talented, educated and gifted people. We meet them every day. A few days ago, my car was not running well. I pulled it into a garage and the young mechanic had it fixed in just a few minutes. He knew what was wrong by simply listening to the engine. I was amazed. The sad truth is, great talent is not enough.
I am shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of American earn more than $100,000 a year. A business consultant (顧問) who specializes in the medical trade was telling me how many doctors, dentists and people like them struggle financially. All this time, I thought that when those students studying medicine graduated, the dollars would pour in. It was this business consultant who gave me the phrase “They are one skill away from great wealth.” When I ask the classes I teach “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald’s ?”, almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask, “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald’s makes more money than you?” The answer is obvious---McDonald’s is excellent at business systems. The reason why so many talented people are poor is that they focus on building a better hamburger and know little or nothing about business systems. The world is filled with talented poor people. All too often, they’re poor or struggle financially or earn less than they are capable of , not because of what they know but because of what they do not know.
【小題1】The example mentioned in the first paragraph is to show ______.

A．how little talented people earn

B．the world is filled with talented people

C．he is not good at repairing cars

D．the mechanic is good at repairing cars

【小題2】According to the writer, of 300 million Americans, ____ Americans earn over 100 thousand dollars a year.

A．a(chǎn)bout 0.15 million	B．a(chǎn)bout 1.5 million
C．a(chǎn)bout 15 million	D．a(chǎn)bout 150 million

【小題3】The writer seems to believe that _____.

A．a(chǎn)ll talented people are not rich

B．a(chǎn) person with a talent is sure to become rich

C．a(chǎn) talented person is poor just because he knows too much

D．many talented people earn little because of something they don’t know

Some people believe that a Robin Hood is at work，others that a wealthy person simply wants to distribute (分配) his or her fortune before dying. But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes，accompanied by an article from the local paper, has made a northern German city believe in fairytales (童話).
The first envelope was sent to a victim support group. It contained ?10, 000 with a cutting from the Braunschiveiger Zeitung about how the group supported a woman who was robbed of her handbag; similar plain white anonymous (匿名) envelopes, each containing ?10, 000, then arrived at a kindergarten and a church.
The envelopes keep coming, and; so far at least ?190, 000 has been distributed. Last month, one of them was sent to the newspaper’s own office. It came after a story it published about Tom, a 14-year-old boy who was severely disabled in a swimming accident. The receptionist at the Braunschiveiger Zeitung opened an anonymous white envelope to find 20 notes of ? 500 inside with a copy of the article. The name of the family was underlined.
“I was driving when I heard the news," Claudia Neumann, the boy's mother, told Der Spiegel magazine. “I had to park on the side of the road; I was speechless."
The money will be used to make the entrance to their house wheelchair-accessible and for a course of treatment that their insurance company refused to pay for.
"For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such a society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing," Mrs. Neumann said. Her family wonder whether the donator is a Robin Hood character, taking from banks to give to the needy.
Henning Noske，the editor of the Braunschiveiger Zeitung, said: "Maybe it is an old person who is about to die. We just do not know." However, he has told his reporters not to look for the city's hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations.
【小題1】The Braunschiveiger Zeitung is the name of ______.

A．a(chǎn) church

B．a(chǎn) bank

C．a(chǎn) newspaper

D．a(chǎn) magazine

【小題2】Which of the following is TRUE about the donation to Tom?

A．The donation amounted to ?190, 000.

B．The donation was sent directly to his house.

C．The money will be used for his education.

D．His mother felt astonished at the donation.

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

A．the donator is a rich old man

B．the donation will continue to come

C．the donation comes from the newspaper

D．the donator will soon be found out

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

A．Money Is Raised by the Newspaper.

B．Newspaper Distributes Money to the Needy.

C．Unknown Hero Spreads Love in Envelopes

D．Robin Hood Returns to the City