If you were looking for an animal to take the title of "most violent fish in the sea", then the puffer
fish(河豚) would have to be a strong competitor.Not only is it poisonous-though that doesn't stop
people trying to eat it-and able to scare off other creatures in the sea by inflating itself to become much
larger than normal, but also it chews on its own brothers and sisters when it is young.
     Puffers attach their eggs to rocks near the bottom of the sea, often at the mouths of bays.Then the
larvae(幼鱼)move to the wide part of the river once they have grown a little.Having put on more
weight, they head for the sea.It's no childhood for the puffer fish, though, as Shin Oikawa and his
colleagues found when they hatched puffer larvae in the lab and monitored them for two months.They
found the larvae went through three step changes when they reached body weights of 0.002 grams,
0.01g and 0.1g.When a larva went through one of these changes, its behavior also changed.For instance,
once a larva passed the first level it would grow its first teeth and could start attacking the larvae that had
not reached that stage.Similarly, any larva that had reached the 0.01g or 0.1g levels would start attacking
the larvae that hadn't.
     The baby fish had a "relatively small mouth", so rather than swallow their brothers and sisters whole,
they would bite pieces out of them.Despite this limitation, the fish caused plenty of deaths.
Eat one puffer and the poison will paralyze your muscles, including the muscles responsible for breathing
－so death is usually caused for lack of oxygen.Famously, the fish is a delicious dish in Japan, where
highly qualified chefs produce dishes that contain safe levels of the poison.The puffer does not go to the
trouble of producing poison itself.Instead, it hosts bacteria that combine the poison.It obtains these
bacteria from its diet, so the youngest adult fish are not poisonous.

1. The following statements account for the violence of puffers EXCEPT ________.
A. they often prevent people from capturing them
B. they can become larger to frighten enemies away
C. they kill their younger companions after growing older
D. they can poison people who try to eat them

2. We can learn from the second paragraph that the puffer ________.
A. can mostly grow to the weight of 0.1g gram
B. never changes its behavior as it grows
C. often finds safe places to have its next generation
D. begins to grow teeth when it reaches the second level

3. Where does the poison in the puffer's body come from?
A. Its inner organism.
B. The chemicals in the water.
C. The diet it eats.
D. Small fish around it.

4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.
A. the puffer does produce poison all by itself
B. people like eating puffers though they are poisonous
C. people can eat the puffer prepared by themselves
D. fishermen often capture the youngest adult puffers

     It is finally possible for serious mobile communication users to invest in a service that meets their
highest expectations,thanks to the arrival of the "4G" communication on the market!But what exactly
is this all about,and what real benefits do clients stand to gain by switching to such a plan?Below we
hope to clear up precisely these concerns in a bid to bring wireless users closer to the reality that they
have always dreamt of .
     The initials "4G" stand for "fourth generation "wireless communication standards,and at present they
are the latest generation of such standards.Unlike in the past,this time the generational leap is going to
take a good long while to repeat itself,so the fourth generation users do not need to fear investing in
something that is simply going to be left by the wayside in a few short months or even weeks.That's
because this generation of wireless standards is the culmination(顶点) of a much broader and more
coordinated (协调的) set of developments in labs across the world,rather than the kinds of isolated
and shortsighted pushes that resulted in previous generations of wireless standards.
     The results of this internationally supported new generation of wireless Internet are much more
significant than most people would imagine,as the steps forward are much greater than the case
between previous generations of wireless systems.Whereas between 2G and 3G wireless systems
the rate of data transfer barely rose a few Kbps (千字节每秒) and was accompanied by few other
major advances.With the arrival of the latest generation the bar (缓冲地址暂存器) has been raised
several Mbps (兆比特每秒) and furthermore several other advantages have been presented.It means
that the fourth generation mobile users will be able to capture signals in a broader variety of locations
and circumstances,not being cut off simply because they have hopped from one network to the next.
     Ultimately,the fourth generation mobile Internet means a vast readjustment(再调整) in the way
people live their personal and professional lives,offering them the kind of mobility that they have always
hoped for.And as the fourth generation capabilities are spread over increasing parts of the country,
starting in the nation's largest cities and spreading out wards from there,it will in the near future be
possible to roam from coast to coast without losing one's connection for even a second.

1. What is the writer's purpose of writing this text?
A. To explain the "4G" communication systems.
B. To advertise the "4G" communication systems.
C. To show the great capacities of the "4G" systems.
D. To show his ideas about the "4G" communication.

2. From this text we can infer that ________.
A. more and more people have no interest in the "4G" communication
B. it will be difficult to surpass the "4G" communication systems at present
C. the "4G" communication will surely repeat itself in the future
D. the "4G" communication technology is the most advanced technology at present

3. Which of the following is true about the previous generations of wireless standards?
A. It took a long time to develop the previous generations.
B. The previous generations users think highly of the systems.
C. There were only few isolated and shortsighted changes in them.
D. It is difficult to imagine the future of the wireless standards.

4. What is the most significant advantage of the "4G" systems?
A. Users will be able to catch more signals from all over the world.
B. It will be much cheaper to use the "4G" communication systems.
C. It will be much faster for data to transfer with the help of the  "4G" systems.
D. Users will be able to jump from one network to another.

     Scientists in Mexico have just begun a new study of one of the world's biggest pyramids: the
Pyramid of the Sun, north of Mexico City. They're putting lots of small, high-tech machines under
the pyramid to try to unlock some of its secrets. For thousands of years, people have tried to uncover
the secrets of the pyramids.
     The people who built the pyramids made lots of secret doors and rooms to stop robbers from
finding the treasures inside. However, there always have been some smart thieves in history. Now,
almost all of Egypt's pyramids have been robbed, including the Great Pyramid of Khufu, which is
the largest pyramid in the world. It is the only one of the ancient wonders of the world that is still
standing.
     In AD 820, an Arab king named Abdullah AL Manum got a group of workers to dig their way
into the Great Pyramid and have a look. Inside the pyramid, they found three rooms-the Queen's
Chamber, the Grand Gallery and the King's Chamber. But to their surprise, the men didn't find the
treasures they wanted. The Queen's and King's Chambers were both empty! Where were the King's
mummy and his treasures? Had someone already taken them away? The huge stone doors at the
pyramid's entrance were still closed when AL Manum's men went inside. How had the thieves got
in and out?
     Since then, many people have gone inside the Great Pyramid to have a look or to try to take things.
But still, no other chambers or walkways have been found.
     In 2002, an American team made the most recent visit to the Great Pyramid. Scientists sent a robot
into the pyramid, but they only found a mysterious locked stone door.

1. The first two paragraphs were written to show that ____. 

A. the Pyramid of the Sun is an unusual historic building 
B. ancient Egyptian emperors were cruel 
C. construction workers led a hard life in ancient Egypt 
D. the secrets of the pyramids remain to be uncovered

2. What is the purpose of making some secret doors to the pyramids?  _______. 

A. To try to unlock some of its secrets 
B. To stop robbers from finding the treasures inside 
C. To refuse some visitors all over the world into it 
D. To tell the truth to the people in the future

3. Which of the following is NOT true to the Great Pyramid of Khufu? ______. 

A. It is the largest pyramid in the world.   
B. It is the only one of the ancient wonders that is still standing. 
C. Abdullah AL Manum took the King's mummy and his treasures away 
D. Scientists found a mysterious locked stone door to the Great Pyramid

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A. The Pyramid of the Sun      
B. The Great Pyramid of Khufu 
C. A Mysterious Locked Stone Door  
D. Unlocking the Doors of History

     Is it true that cats have nine lives? One 4-year-old American cat named Sugar definitely seems to
have more than one. Sugar fell from the 19th floor of her owner's home in Boston last month and was
only hurt a little on her chest.
     "This story isn't much of a surprise," said Jake Socha, a scientist at Virginia Tech University, US, in
an interview with the BBC. "There have been lots of records of these cats surviving."
     Back in 1987, scientists studied 132 cats. All of them had been brought to a vet's clinic in New York
after falling from tall buildings. Around 90 percent of these cats were alive after their fall and only 37
percent had been seriously injured.
      "Being able to survive falls is a critical thing for animals that live in trees, and cats are one of them,"
said Socha.
     Cats have developed special body structures to survive accidental falls. Their legs are muscular. This
can protect their bones from breaking, Professor Andrew Biewener from Harvard University told the
BBC. Cats can also spread out their legs like a parachute to reduce their falling speed, he said.
     The strange part, according to scientists, is that cats have a better chance of survival if they fall from
higher than seven stories. This is because cats have a good sense of which way is down. They can twist
their bodies as they fall to make sure they land on their feet. A higher fall means more time for the cat to
change its body position.
     However, you should not throw your cat out of the window to see how this works. Most pet cats are
overweight nowadays. They are not fit enough to change their position in midair, warned Steve Dale, an
American cat behavior scientist.
     "This cat (Sugar) was lucky," Dale said. In fact, most cats would suffer serious lung damage, a broken
leg or a broken jaw or teeth damage, he said.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?
A. Cats really do have nine lives.
B. Many cats can survive falls.
C. Cats are the softest animals in the world.
D. More than half of the cats that fall from high places end up badly injured.

2. What does the underlined word "critical" mean in the context?
A. Important.
B. Easy.
C. Challenging.
D. Serious.

3. Why can cats survive falls according to the article?
a. They have a hidden parachute in their bodies.
b. Their legs have developed in a way that protects their bones from breaking.
c. They can land on their feet.
d. They can twist their bodies to reduce the speed at which they are falling.
A. a, b
B. b, c
C. c, d
D. b, d

4. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. A pet cat that falls out of a tall building is not really at risk.
B. Sugar was lucky that she was only injured in the leg.
C. Cats are confused as to which way is down when they are in midair.
D. A cat that falls from the fourth story of a building is more likely to die than one
     that falls from the 10th story.

     What if those new jeans you've just bought start tweeting(吱吱地叫) about your location as you
cross London Bridge?
     It sounds far-fetched, but it's possible - if one of your coats is equipped with a tiny radio-frequency
identification device (RFID), your location could be revealed without you knowing about it.
RFIDs are chips that use radio waves to send data to a reader - which in turn can be connected to the
web.
     This technology is just one of the current ways of allowing physical objects to go online - a concept
called the "Internet of things", which industry insiders have shortened to IoT.
     This is when not only your PC, tablet and smartphone can connect to the web, but also your car, your
home, your baseball cap and even the sheep and cows on a farm.
     Smart buildings and intelligent cars with assigned IP addresses are already making cities smarter - and
soon enough, the entire planet may follow.
     "A typical city of the future in a full IoT situation could be a place with smart cameras everywhere,
neurosensors (神经监测系统) scanning your brain for over-activity in every street," says Rob van
Kranenburg, a member of the European Commission's IoT expert group.
     This vision might still be years off, but one by one, "smarter" cities are beginning to crop up around our
landscape.
      IoT advocates claim that overall interconnectivity would allow us to locate and monitor everything,
everywhere and at any time.
     "Imagine a smart building where a manager can know how many people are inside just by which
rooms are reflecting motion - for instance, via motion-sensitive lights," says Constantine Valhouli from
the Hammersmith Group, a strategy consulting firm.
     "This could help save lives in an emergency."
     But as more objects go into the digital world, the fine line that separates the benefits of increasingly
smart technology and possible privacy concerns becomes really blurred.
      "The IoT challenge is likely to grow both in scale and complexity as seven billion humans are
expected to coexist with 70 billion machines and perhaps 70,000 billion 'smart things', with numbers
invading the last fences of personal life," says Gerald Santucci, head of the networked enterprise and
RFID unit at the European Commission.
     "In such a new context, the worries increase: to what extent can monitoring of people be accepted?
Which principles should govern the deployment of theIoT?"  

1. The first paragraph is used to ________.
A. introduce a new kind of jeans to readers
B. arouse readers' interest in the RFID
C. draw readers' attention to the new jeans
D. set an example of using the RFID

2. The underlined phrase "crop up" in Para. 8 can be replaced by "______".
A. appear
B. cooperate
C. develop
D. change

3. What can we know about IoT?
A. A typical city in a full IoT situation has come into reality.
B. The application of IoT may invade people's privacy.
C. The technology of IoT has saved lives in an emergency.
D. IoT has been largely used in many cities.

4. If this text continues, what would be discussed next?
A. Solutions of defending people's privacy.
B. The development of the IoT.
C. The control on monitoring.
D. Smart technology's disadvantages.

     In recent years, remote-sensing technologies have become ordinary in archaeological fieldwork (实
地考察). Such tools for excavation produce rapid results and cause no damage to archaeological sites.
They are highly accurate and usually cost
effective. Here are three of the modern archeologist's most trusted remote-sensing tools.
     As the simplest of the remote-sensing techniques that archeologists use, aerial (空中的) photography
allows experts to see aspects of a site that may be invisible from the ground, such as the way in which
something such as a town, garden, or building is arranged and traces of old walls and roads. The
technique involves taking photographs with conventional cameras and filming from airplanes, helicopters,
hot-air balloons, or other airborne vehicles.
     Geographic Information System (GIS) contains a large amount of field data archeologists typically
collect in and around excavation sites. While in the field, archeologists use GIS on their computers to
make and manage detailed site maps, and they can combine the results of remote-sensing tests with maps of the region created with the aid of Global Positioning System. Resulting maps sort the most
archeologically promising areas and display these sites three-dimensionally.
     Ranging in size from small handheld models that one places against the ground to larger ones that one
drags across a site, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) devices use low-power radio waves to detect
changes underground. Unlike traditional radar, which broadcasts into the air and uses a dish to focus the
returned waves, GPR uses a small but sensitive receiver placed directly against the ground. Depending
on their needs, archeologists can adjust radio frequencies upward for shallow sites or downward for
deeper areas, though GPR devices produce the greatest definition (清晰度) when reading depths of
three feet or less.

1. We can learn from the text that the remote-sensing tools       .
A. will replace traditional archeological tools
B. are more difficult to use than traditional tools
C. have been widely and efficiently used in archeology
D. help archaeologists discover more archaeological sites

2. Aerial photography is helpful       .
A. in seeing what can't be seen on the ground
B. in analyzing how old an archaeological site is
C. in reflecting the changes of an archaeological site
D. in taking large-sized photos of an archaeological site

3. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) devices are different from traditional radar in that       .
A. their sizes are completely different
B. traditional radar uses low-power radio waves
C. the length of waves they send out is different
D. GPR devices can detect changes underground

4. Archeologists can get a detailed site map by       .
A. aerial photography
B. Geographic Information System
C. Global Positioning System          
D. Ground Penetrating Radar

1. What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Less sleep does not affect people's health.
B. Different people have different sleeping patterns.
C. New measures can reduce the effect of less sleep on health.
D. The hours we need to sleep may be affected by some gene in our body.

2. The underlined word "alert" in Paragraph 4 is similar in meaning to        .

A. comfortable
B. wide awake
C. quite alive
D. sleepy

3. In the study, the mother and the daughter       .

A. were found to have a mutation in the gene DEC2
B. were asked to sleep less than other family members
C. had the same sleeping pattern as other family members
D. suffered from memory loss for sleeping only six hours a night

4. According to the passage, the new finding can help       .

A. recover memory loss
B. cure sleeping problems
C. get rid of mice and fruit flies more easily
D. explain why some people need less sleep to feel fully rested

    For many parents,  raising a teenager is like fighting a long war,  but years go by without any clear
winner.Like a border conflict between neighboring countries,  the parentteen war is about boundaries:
Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
     Both sides want peace,  but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict.In part,  this is because
neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it.From the parents' point of view,  the only cause
of their fight is their adolescents' complete unreasonableness.And of course,  the_teens_see_it_in_exactly_
the_same_way, _except_oppositely.Both feel trapped.
     In this article,  I'll describe three nowin situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and
then suggest some ways out of the trap.The first nowin situation is quarrels over unimportant things.
Examples include the color of the teen's hair,  the cleanliness of the bedroom,  the preferred style of
clothing,  the child's failure to eat a good breakfast before school,  or his tendency to sleep until noon on
the weekends.Second,  blaming.The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad
attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong.Third,  needing to be right.It doesn't matter what the
topic is-politics,  the laws of physics,  or the proper way to break an egg-the point of these arguments is
to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong,  for both wish to be considered an
authority-someone who actually knows something-and therefore to command respect.Unfortunately,  as
long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other,  they'll continue to fight
these battles forever and never make any real progress.

1. Why does the author compare the parentteen war to a border conflict?
A. Both can continue for generations.
B. Both are about where to draw the line.
C. Neither has any clear winner.
D. Neither can be put to an end.

2. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict.
B. The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict.
C. The teens accuse their parents of misleading them.
D. The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents.

3. Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
A. give orders to the other
B. know more than the other
C. gain respect from the other
D. get the other to behave properly

4. What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A. Causes for the parentteen conflicts.
B. Examples of the parentteen war.
C. Solutions for the parentteen problems.
D. Future of the parentteen relationship.

     Two recent studies have found that punishment is not the best way to influence behavior.
     One showed that adults are much more cooperative if they work in a system based on rewards.
Researchers at Harvard University in the United States and the Stockholm School of Economics in
Sweden did the study.
    They had about two hundred college students play a version of the game known as the Prisoner's
Dilemma. The game is based on the tension between the interests of an individual and a group. The
students played in groups of four. Each player could win points for the group,   so they would all gain
equally. But each player could also reward or punish each of the other three players,   at a cost to the
punisher. Harvard researcher David Rand says the most successful behavior proved to be cooperation.
The groups that rewarded it the most earned about twice as much in the game as the groups that
rewarded it the least. And the more a group punished itself,   the lower its earnings. The group with the
most punishment earned twentyfive percent less than the group with the least punishment. The study
appeared last month in the journal Science.
     The other study involved children. It was presented last month in California at a conference on
violence and abuse. Researchers used intelligence tests given to two groups. More than eight hundred
children were aged two to four the first time they were tested. More than seven hundred children were
aged five to nine.  The two groups were retested four years later,   and the study compared the results
with the first test. Both groups contained children whose parents used physical punishment and children
whose parents did not.
     The study says the IQs of the younger children who were not spanked were five points higher than
those who were. In the older group,   the difference was almost three points. The more they are
spanked,   the slower their mental development is.

1. According to the first study,   we mainly infer that________.
A. the game is called Prisoner's Dilemma
B. the less a group punished itself,   the lower its earnings
C. adults are much more cooperative if rewarded
D. the game is introduced in the journal Science

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the second study?
A. Children's IQs have much to do with physical punishment.
B. The study is about violence and abuse of children.
C. The children tested were divided into groups of four.
D. Children's mental development only relies on their IQs.

3. What does the underlined word "spanked" refer to?
A. Punished.  
B. Blamed.
C. Tested.  
D. Praised.

4. What might be the best title for the text?
A. The Best Way to Correct Misbehavior
B. Punishment Is the Best Way of Education
C. Cooperation Is the Most Successful Behavior
D. Punishment or Reward: Which Works Better on Behavior?

    Students who say they never or hardly ever used dictionaries often speak English well but usually write
poorly, because they make many mistakes.
    The students who use dictionaries most do not learn especially well either. The ones who look up every
new word do not read fast. Therefore they do not have time to read much. Those who use small two-language
dictionaries have the worst problems. Their dictionaries often give only one or two words as translations of
English. But one English word often has many translations in a foreign language and one foreign word has
many translations in English.
    The most successful students are those who use large college edition dictionaries with about 100,000
words but do not use them too often. When they are reading, these students first try to get the general idea
and understand new words from the context (上下文). Then they read again and use the dictionary to look
up only key words that they still do not understand. They use dictionaries more for writing. If they are not
sure how to spell a word, or divide it into syllables (音节), they always use a dictionary. Also, if they think
a noun might have an unusual plural form, they check these in a dictionary.

1. The writer thinks that _____.

A. choose a good dictionary, and you'll be successful in learning English
B. dictionaries are not necessary to the students who learn English
C. it is very important for students to use good dictionaries properly
D. using dictionaries very often can't help to improve writing

2. When does the writer advise students to use a good dictionary in the reading?

A. After the first reading
B. At the end of the reading
C. During the first reading
D. At the beginning of the reading

3. This passage mainly tells us _____.

A. that students shouldn't use small two-language dictionaries
B. that the small two-language dictionaries are very useful
C. why students should use large college edition dictionaries
D. what dictionary students should choose and how to use it

4. Which is not mentioned in this passage?

A. How to make good use of a dictionary.
B. How to improve spoken English.
C. When to use a dictionary.
D. How to practise reading fast.