Paper is one of the most important products ever invented by man. The invention of paper meant that more people could be educated because more books could be printed. Paper provided an important way to communicate with knowledge.
Paper was first made in China about 2,000 years ago. In Egypt and the West, paper was not very commonly used before the year 1400. Paper was not made in southern Europe until about the year 1100. After that, the forest countries of Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United States became the most important in paper-making. Today Finland makes the best paper in the world.
When we think of paper, we think of newspapers, books, letters, envelopes, and writing paper. So paper plays an important role in our lives.
Paper is very good for keeping you warm. Houses are often insulated with paper. You have perhaps seen homeless men sleep on a large number of newspapers. They are insulating themselves from the cold. In Finland, in winter it is sometimes 40 degrees below zero. The farmers wear paper boots in the snow. Nothing could be warmer.
【小題1】What did the invention of paper mean? It meant ___________.

Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant. A half century ago in the United states, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the dividing lines are still there, but they seem not clear.
The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer, in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal（法律的）limits, or whether it should become more changeable, is often debated（爭論）. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the dividing lines of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?
These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we seldom recognize the “l(fā)aw of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to go to  school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years – but unless we meet the truant officer（學(xué)監(jiān)）, we may well think that we should go to school because of social custom and parents’ requirement rather than to the law. As adults we know “extra pay for overtime working” very well, but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes（構(gòu)成）“overtime” is a matter of legal thing. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight – saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law – as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.
【小題1】What does the underlined word “irrelevant” probably mean?

Mobile phone (手機(jī))has become a problem for middle schools. Some middle schools in Australia have banned (禁止) students from carrying mobile phones during school hours.
Mobile phone use among children has become a problem for the schools this year. Several children have got mobile phones as Christmas presents, and more students want them.
Mary Bluett, an official(官員), said mobile phone use is a distraction(分心) to students during school hours and it also gives teachers so much trouble in their classrooms. Teachers were also saying that sometimes students might use phone messages to cheat during exams.
She said some schools had tried to ban mobile phones. Some parents felt unhappy, because they couldn’t get in touch with their children.
Many teachers said students should not have mobile phones at school, but if there was a good reason, they could leave their phones at school office. They also said there were many reasons why the students should not have mobile phones at school; they were easy to lose and were a distraction from studies.
Many people say that they understand why parents would like their children to have phones, but they think schools should let the students know when they can use their mobile phones.
【小題1】 Some middle schools in Australia have banned students from carrying mobile phones
____.

A long time ago, in 1893, in the United States, some people were talking about fruits and vegetables. They asked, “What are fruits and what are vegetables? How are fruits different from vegetables and vegetables different from fruits?” They talked for a long time and then they decided, “We eat vegetables as part of a meal, but we eat fruits before or after a meal.”
In real life, people do not think the dictionaries give the right meaning of a word. For example, the dictionaries say that tomatoes are fruits. But few people know that. Most people think they are vegetables. They call them vegetables and eat them as vegetables. To most people, fruits mean sweet things like apples, pears, oranges and watermelons.
What are vegetables then? We call many plants and grasses vegetables. Some people think some fruits are vegetables, such as apples, pears and bananas. But to most people, vegetables mean things like potatoes, onions and carrots.
【小題1】A long time ago, some people in the United States _______.

Why should we learn to swim?
Firstly, swimming is a good exercise for our health. Indeed doctors say it is the best exercise, because in swimming all the muscles of the body are used.
Secondly, swimming gives great pleasure. How nice it is, on a hot dusty day in summer, to take off one’s clothes and dive into the cool water of a rive or the sea, and to swim and float until one feels enough.
Thirdly, swimming may sometimes mean all the different between life and death, we never know when we may be in danger from water. We got on a voyage, and the ship in wrecked; we go for a pleasure sail on a lake and the boat turns over; we slip as we are walking along the bank of a river, and half in the water. If we can swim, we have chance for saving our own lives, but if we cannot swim, we are pretty certain to be drowned. So for our own safety, we should learn to swim.
Lastly, if we can swim, we may be able to save other people from drowning. How sad it is to see a friend drowning before our eyes while we cannot help just because we cannot swim.
11.Who says that swimming is the best exercise?  _________.
A. Farmers          B. Dentists     C. Fishermen            D. Doctors
12.When swimming, ________.
A. We don’t move at all                    B. all the muscle of the body are used
C. we move our legs only                D. we drink lots of seawater into our stomach
13.Swimming ­­­­________.
A. gives great pain                     B. gives no pleasure   
C. gives much pleasure                  D. does harm to the body
14.If we can swim, ________.
A. we are no longer humans, but fish         B. we shall be drowned one day
C. we have a chance of saving our own lives   D. we can’t walk any more
15.If we can swim, ________.
A. we may be able to help others from drowning 
B. we can’t save others from drowning
C. it is pretty danger certain that we will get drowned
D. there is a great danger when we fall into the water