閱讀短文，并按照題目要求用英語回答問題。

Big storms, high waves, technical failures, loneliness, After battling hard times and danger for over nine months. British teenager Mike Perham made history last month as the youngest person to sail solo (單獨) around the world.

     The 17-year-old made the record after he cleared the Panama Canal ( 巴拿馬運河) and then sailed through the Caribbean and home across the Atlantic.

     Mike is only three months younger than Zac Sunderland. the 17-year-old American boy who had taken the crown as the youngest solo around-the-world sailor in July.

     The two youngsters met in Cape Town in South Africa as they crossed the globe in different directions. Mike insisted they were not rival (競爭對手). "No. It's two teenagers going out there, living their dream and having the adventure of a lifetime." he said.

     Mike may be young, but he is no stranger to sailing adventures. He picked up the hobby at age 6 when his father took him out in a small boat on a local lake. Father and son sailed separate boats across the Atlantic when Mike was 14, making him the youngest person to cross that ocean solo. That record gave him the taste for this even greater challenge.

     On the recent journey. the scariest moment for Mike came when his sailboat was hit by storms in the southem Indian Ocean.

     "We were picked up by what felt like a 60-foot wave and threw down on our side at 90 degrees," he said.

     "It felt like I was going right over. Stuff was flying around and I just thought 'Oh no'".

     At other times, he had to dive into the Pacific and fix problems. He tied himself to the boat, jumped into the water and went to work with a knife in 30-second dives undemeath (在......之下) the boat to cut a rope away.

     Mike said he felt proud that he made his dream come true. "You've got to have confidence in yourself that you will make it." he said.

1.What's the main idea of the passage?  (No more than 15 words)

2.Which canal did Mike Perham cross? (No more than 3 words)

3.What does the underlined word "taste" in the fifth paragraph mean? (1 word)

4.What did Mike believe in? (No more than lO words)

5.What do you think of Mike Perham? (No more than 10 words)

Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.

But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.

For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some, this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.

The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in sofeguaiding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.

While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.

In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委員會)is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down lo four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real “down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.

We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.

1.The passage is probably written by      .

A. an experienced teacher        B. a city council member

C. an inspired student        D. a working parent

2.The underlined word "they" in the second paragraph refers to "       ’.

A. environments        B. wages   C. holidays         D. benefits

3.It is suggested in the passage that the summer break be reduced to       .

A. 2 weeks         B. 6 weeks         C. 5 weeks         D. 4.5 weeks

4.The plans for a shorter summer holiday will help students_____    .

A.      obtain the cheapest holidays without additional costs

B.      get a chance to spend six weeks a term with teachers in school

C.      have more school days to receive free school meals

D.      benefit more from the caring and inspiring learning environment

5.It can be inferred from the passage that          _______.

A.      some school staff will say “ No" to the plans for a shorter summer holiday

B.      the suggested plans for a five-term school year can hardly be carried out

C.      the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real "down time"

D.      working parents can enjoy a five-week break to care for their children

The baby monkey is much more developed at birth than the human baby. Almost from the moment it is born, the baby monkey can move around and hold tightly to its mother. During the first few days of its life the baby will approach and hold onto almost any large, warm, and soft object in its environment, particularly if that object also gives it milk. After a week or m, however, the baby monkey begins to avoid newcomers and focuses its attentions on “mother" 一 the real mother or the mother-substitute (母親替代樹).

During the first two weeks of its life warmth is perhaps the most important psychological (心理的) thing that a monkey mother has to give to its baby. The Harlows, a couple who are both psychologists, discovered this fact by offering baby monkeys a choice of two types of mother-substitutes 一 one covered with cloth 4nd one made of bare wire. If the two artificial mothers were both the same temperature, the little monkeys always preferred the cloth mother. However, if the wire model was heated, while the cloth model was cool, for the first two weeks after birth the baby monkeys picked the warm wire mother-substitutes as their fuvorites. Thereafter they switched and spent most of their time on the mw comfortable cloth mother.

Why is cloth preferable to bare wire? Something that the Harlows called contact (接級) comfort seems to be the answer, and a most powerful influence it is. Baby monkeys spend much of their time rubbing against their mothers' skins, putting themselves in as close contact with the parent as they can. Whenever the young animal is frightened, disturbed, or annoyed, it typically rushes to its mother and rubs itself against her body. Wire doesn't “rub" as well as does soft cloth. Prolonged (長時間的) “contact comfort" with a cloth mother appears to give the babies confidence and is much more rewarding to them than is cither warmth or milk.

According to the Harlows, the basic quality of baby’s love for its mother is trust. If the baby is put into an unfamiliar playroom without its mother, the baby ignores the toys no nutter how interesting they might be. It screams in terror and curls up into a furry little ball. If its cloth mother it now introduced into the playroom, the baby rushed to it and holds onto it for dear life. After a few minutes of contact comfort, it obviously begins to feel more secure. it then climbs down from the mother-substitute and begins to explore the toys, but often rushes back for a deep embrace (擁抱) as if to make sure that its mother is still there and that all is well. Bit by bit its fears of the new environment are gone and it spends more and more time playing with the toys and less and less time holding onto its “mother.”

50. Psychologically, what does the baby monkey desire most during the first two weeks of its life?

A. Warmth.             B. Milk.                C. Contact.            D. Trust.

51. After the first two weeks of their life, baby monkeys prefer the cloth mother to the wire mother because the former is ______.

A. larger in size                                     B. closer lo them

C. less frightening and less disturbing      D. more comfortable to rub against

52. Whal docs the baby monlcry probably gain from prolonged Mcontact comfort"?

A. Altenlion.                                        B. Softness.

C. Confidence.                                     D. Interest.

53. It can be inferred that when the baby monkey feels sccure, ______.

A. it frequently niftheft back for a deep embrace when exploring the toys

B. it spends more time screaming to get rewards

C. il is less attracted to the toys though they are interesting

D. it cares less alxnii whether itA mother is still around

54. Hie main purpose of ihc passage is to ______.

A. give the reasons for (he experiment

B. present the findings of the experiment

C. introduce the method of the experiment

D. describe the process of the experiment

Ms Lo could hardly bear her sorrow when she received the call that her husband had died in a car accident. Her pain quickly turn to shock---- the car involved in the accident was driven by a friend. That friend, Henry Lee, had chosen to remain silent on the accident details in court. Her shock soon turned to extreme anger when Lee decided not to let out what had happened.
Her husband, Mr. Tan, was 21 when he died after an accident outside Las Vegas KTV at Havelock Road. That night, he was discussing supper plans with a group of friends, which included Lee. Later, Mr. Tan was found unconscious on the ground, next to the car driven by Lee. Mr. Tan died in the hospital a few hours later. Due to drinking driving, Lee was fined $3,000 and banned from driving for two years last month.
Lee, Ms Lo and her husband were colleagues at Asia Pacific-Breweries(APB).
She only heard of the accident and her husband’s death the next morning after the accident as she had switched off her band-phone that night. She told The New Paper, “Receiving the call, I thought it was a joke. I thought he had got his friend to call me to ask me out.” Ms Lo had moved out to live alone for three weeks because of a disagreement with her husband. “The next time I saw him was at the mortuary.(太平間)” She said that Lee went to visit her some days ago but didn’t apologize to her. “He looked sorry but he didn’t speak to me. I wanted to forgive him, but now I have no chance to tell him.” she said.
Ms Lo, who was a human resource manager in APB, left the company after the accident. She is now working in a photo studio.
1.Why Ms Lo was made pretty angry?
A. Her husband was knocked down by his friend
B. Henry Lee drove their car in the car accident
C. She was informed only after the accident occurred
D. The person involved did not tell the truth in court
2.Ms Lo hadn’t seen her husband for three weeks because______.
A. they did not sign a contract
B.she began working in a photo studio
C.there was a quarrel between them
D.she was busy writing a paper
3.Why did Ms Lo leave APB for another job?
A. To escape the pain caused by the accident.
B. To find out facts related to the accident.
C. To force Henry Lee to let out the truth.
D. To avoid meeting the dishonest man.

Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.
But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.
For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some ’ this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.
The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in sofeguaiding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.
While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.
In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委員會)is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down lo four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real “down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.
We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.
【小題1】 The passage is probably written by   .