A car needs gas to run and your body also needs food to work for you. Eating the right kind of food is very important. It can help your body grow strong to take care of what you eat.
There are four main food groups altogether. The dairy group has food like milk, cheese and sour milk. The other three groups are the meat and fish group, the fruit and vegetable group, and the bread and rice group. Each meal should have at least one food from all four main groups. With all these food together, you will be given enough energy during the day.
It is easy to get into bad eating habits. You may eat your breakfast in a hurry to get to school on time. Or you may not have time for a good lunch. It may seem easy to finish your supper with fish and chips all the time. But you will find yourself tired in these days and you can not think quickly.
Watching what you eat will help keep your body healthy and strong. It is also good to take some exercise. It will help you eat more if you take a walk or play games in the open air. Having a good eating habit with some exercise is the key to your health.
【小题1】Which of the following diets do you think is the best one?

A．Eggs, tomatoes and chicken.

B．Milk, bread, cabbages and beef.

C．Corn, fish, cream and pork.

D．Rice, bean curd（豆腐）, apples, fish and chicken.

【小题2】Which of the following is a good eating-habit?

A．Going to school without any breakfast

B．Eating fish and chips for supper all the time.

C．Eating your lunch in a very short time.

D．Having at least one food from all four groups in each meal.

【小题3】The underlined word “dairy” in the second passage means _____________.

A．the food made out of cows such as milk and butter

B．the shop that sells milk and butter

C．a farm where cows are kept

D．a place where milk products are made.

【小题4】In this passage the writer mainly tells us that _____________.

A．enough energy helps people think more quickly

B．taking exercise can keep your body strong

C．every person needs food to grow well

D．right kind of food with exercise will keep you healthy

Most people regard zoos as safe places for animals, where struggles such as difficulty finding food and avoiding predators（捕食性动物） don't exist. Without such problems, animals in zoos should live to a ripe old age. But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth. Scientists have known that elephants in zoos often develop diseases, joint problems and behavior changes. Sometimes, they even become unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity(监禁) affects elephants, a team of international scientists led by Mason, a biologist, compared the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in the wild. Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care, documenting factors such as birth dates, illnesses, weight and death. These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800 elephants in zoos.
The team found that female elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild counterparts（同类事物） who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years——more than three times as long.
Scientists don't yet know for sure why wild elephants seem to live so much better than their zoo-raised counterparts. Mason thinks stress and obesity(肥胖) may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise as they do in the wild, and most are very fat. Elephant social lives are also much different in zoos than in the wild, where they live in large groups.
Another finding from the study showed that elephants born in zoos were more likely to die earlier than elephants captured in the wild and brought to zoos. Mason suggests stress in the mothers in zoos might cause them to have babies that are less likely to survive.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos. While some threatened and endangered species living in zoos reproduce successfully and keep healthy populations, that doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.
【小题1】The text tells us that zoo elephants are different from other zoo animals because they________

A．develop health problems.

B．1ive to a ripe old age.

C．are not afraid of predators.

D．have difficulty eating food.

【小题2】What do the scientists find in their research?

A．Female elephants live longer than male elephants.

B．Female zoo elephants die earlier than their wild counterparts.

C．Female zoo elephants live longer than their wild counterparts.

D．Both elephants in zoos and those in the wild live in large herds.

【小题3】Which of the following does the author suggest in the last paragraph?

A．Zoo-born elephants should be attended more carefully

B．Elephants are no longer an endangered species.

C．It may not be a wise policy to keep elephants in the zoo.

D．Zoos should keep more animals except elephants.

【小题4】Which of the following can be the best title?

A．Comparison between two species of elephants

B．Longer lives for wild elephants

C．Female elephants suffer from poor health.

D．Longer lives for zoo animals.

The effects of air pollution on natural conditions have been a disturbing problem for many years. Some scientists hold the view that the air inside houses may be more dangerous than the air outside. It may even be one hundred times worse.
Most scientists agree that every modern house has some kind of indoor pollution, which can cause a person to feel tired, to suffer eye pain, headache and other problems. Believe it or not, some pollutants can cause breathing diseases of blood and even cancer.
What made us feel relieved is that there’s growing concern about the problem now. It is true that when builders began constructing houses and offices they did not want to waste energy. To do this they built buildings that prevented or limited the flow of air between inside and outside. For the same purpose, man-made building materials were employed to build houses, which are now known to let out some harmful gases.
Facing the serious challenge, scientists have been searching for a way to handle the problem. To everyone’s delight, they discovered a natural pollution control system for building—green plants, though they do not really know how plants control air pollution. Scientists suppose that a plant’s leaves absorb or take in the pollutants and in exchange gives out oxygen through its leaves and tiny organizations on its roots. Therefore they recommend that all buildings should have one large plant or several small plants inside for every nine square meters of space. Because studies indicate that different plants absorb different chemicals, the most effective way to clean the air is to use different kinds of plants. In conclusion, having green plants inside your house can make it a prettier and healthier place. Why not try?
【小题1】Which of the following statements is TRUR?

A．Outside air pollution is more harmful than the air inside.

B．Scientists have discovered how plants control air pollution

C．Indoor air pollution may cause diseases including cancer.

D．Only large plants can absorb harmful gases indoors.

【小题2】According to scientists, some kind of indoor pollution can be found in ________.

A．every old building

B．every modern house

C．all kinds of houses

D．all kinds of offices

【小题3】What does the underlined part “To do this” refer to in Para3?

A．To build houses and offices

B．To limit the air flow inside

C．To use man-made materials

D．In order not to waste energy

【小题4】The reason why we should use different kinds of plants to clean the air is that ___.

A．plants can drive out all kinds of pollutants indoors

B．plants can absorb different harmful indoor chemical

C．plants can take in all pollutants inside and outside

D．plants may give out more oxygen than people need

Do you know how it is when you see someone yawn and you start yawning too? Or how hard it is to be among people laughing and not laugh yourself? Well, apparently it's because we have mirror neurons (神经元）in our brains.
Put simply, the existence of mirror neurons suggests that every time we see someone else do something, our brains imitate (模仿)it，whether or not we actually perform the same action. This explains a great deal about how we learn to smile, talk, walk, dance or play sports. But the idea goes further： mirror neurons not only appear to explain physical actions _y they also tell us that there is a biological basis for the way we understand other people.
Mirror neurons can undoubtedly be found all over our brains, but especially in the areas which relate to our ability to use languages, and to understand how other people feel. Researchers have found that mirror neurons relate strongly to language. A group of researchers discovered that if they gave people sentences to listen to (for example: “The hand took hold of the ball”), the same mirror neurons were triggered as when the action was actually performed (in this example, actually taking hold of a ball).
Any problems with mirror neurons may well result in problems with behavior. Much research suggests that people with social and behavioral problems have mirror neurons which are not fully functioning. However, it is not yet known exactly how these discoveries might help find treatments for social disorders.
Research into mirror neurons seems to provide us with ever more information concerning how humans behave and interact(互动）.Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent (相等物）for neuroscience of what Einstein's theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does---well, perhaps you'll understand why.
【小题1】Mirror neurons can explain         .

A． why we cry when we are hurt

B．why we cough when we suffer from a cold

C． why we smile when we see someone else smile

D． why we yawn when we see someone else stay up late

【小题2】The underlined word "triggered" in the third paragraph probably means “  ’’

A．set off

B．cut off

C．built up

D．broken up

【小题3】We can learn from the passage that mirror neurons  ________.

A． relate to human behavior and interaction

B．control human physical actions and feelings

C． result in bad behavior and social disorders

D． determine our knowledge and language abilities

【小题4】What is the passage mainly about?

A． Ways to find mirror neurons.

B．Problems of mirror neurons.

C．Existence of mirror neurons.

D． Functions of mirror neurons.

Environmentalists said our planet was doomed to die. Now one man says they are wrong.
"Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape," thundered a magazine article last year. Species are being driven to die out at record rates, and the rivers are so poisonous that fish are floating on the surface, dead.
But there's a growing belief that what everyone takes for granted is wrong: things are actually getting better. A new book is about to overturn our most basic assumptions about the world's environment. Rivers, seas, rain and the atmosphere are all getting cleaner. The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg, professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, is an attack on the misleading claims of environmental groups, and the "bad news" culture that makes people believe everything is getting worse.
Now the attacks are increasingly coming from left-wing environmentalists such as Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace. The accusation is that, although the environment is improving, green groups — with profits of hundreds of mil-lions of pounds a year — are using scare tactics(谋略)to gain donations. Lomborg's book doesn't deny global warming — probably the biggest environmental threat — but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.
The Worldwatch Institute claims that "deforestation(沙漠化) has been accelerating over the last 30 years". But Lomborg says that is simply rubbish. Since the dawn of agriculture the world has lost about 20 per cent of its forest cover, but in recent decades the forest area's depleting has come to a stop. According to UN figures, the area of forests has remained almost steady, at about 30 per cent of total land area, since the 1940s. Forests in countries such as the US, the UK and Canada have actually been expanding over the past 40 years. Despite all the warnings the Amazon rainforest has only shrunk by about 15 per cent.
Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50 per cent of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08 per cent of species are dying out each year. Conservation efforts have been successful. Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list.
Environmental groups claim that many of the improvements are the results of the success of their campaigns. Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said, "There are important examples, such as acid rain and ozone, where things aren't as bad as predicted, and that's because behavior has changed."
【小题1】In his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, what is Lomborg's main argument?

A．Our planet is in bad shape.

B．The world's environment is improving.

C．The total amount of forests in the world is not declining.

D．Conservation efforts have been successful.

【小题2】What is Lomborg's main accusation of environmentalists?

A．They scared people into making donations.

B．They overturned our basic assumptions about the world's environment.

C．They changed their behavior toward the environment.

D．They only told people bad news about the environment.

【小题3】The underlined word "depleting" in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to "____".

A．reducing

B．limiting

C．expanding

D．accelerating

【小题4】According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A．The total area of forests in the world has increased significantly.

B．The effects of global warming are not as bad as first expected.

C．It appears that the bald eagle will now survive.

D．In the last 50 years the number of whales has increased.

A villa (别墅) designed to resist earthquakes with “self-healing” cracks in its walls, thanks to nanotechnology (纳米技术) applications with self-healing polymers (聚合物), is to be built on a Greek mountainside. The villa’s walls will include special particles that turn into a liquid when squeezed (压榨) under pressure, flow into cracks, and then harden to form a solid material.
The NanoManufacturing Institute (NMI), based in Leeds University, will play a key role in an EU project to construct the home by December 2010. The project, called “Intelligent Safe and Secure Buildings” (ISSB) is funded under the EU’s Sixth Framework program. This potentially life-saving scheme is led by German building manufacturer Knauf. The villa will be built in Amphilochia, in western Greece, where Knauf currently runs a manufacturing plant. If the experiment is successful, more tremor-resistant（防震）homes could be built in earthquake zones across the globe. NMI chief executive Professor Terry Wilkins said, “What we’re trying to achieve here is very exciting. We’re looking to use polymers in much tougher situations than ever before on a larger scale.” Monitors contained in the villa’s walls will be able to collect vast amounts of data about the building over time. Wireless sensors(传感器) will record any stresses and vibrations, as well as temperature, humidity and gas levels.
The walls are to be built from new load-bearing steel frames and high-strength gypsum（石膏）board. Prof Wilkins said, “If there are any problems, the intelligent sensor network will be able to alert residents immediately so they have time to escape. If whole groups of houses are so constructed, we could use a larger network of sensors to get even more information. If the house falls down, we have got hand-held devices that can be used over the ruins to pick out where the embedded（嵌入的）sensors are hidden to get some information about how the villa collapsed. Also, we can get information about anyone who may be around, so it potentially becomes a tool for rescue.”
【小题1】The aim of the passage is to ________.

A．report a piece of interesting news

B．promote tremor-resistant homes

C．inform us of the nanotechnology development

D．tell us something about a tremor-resistant home

【小题2】The villa can resist earthquakes because _______.

A．it will be built on a special place

B．the cracks in its walls can be healed by the polymers

C．the special particles can make its walls stronger

D．the intelligent sensor network can tell people where there is a crack

【小题3】If the tremor-resistant home falls down, _______.

A．rescue work can be done more quickly and accurately

B．the intelligent sensor network will stop working

C．no one can be hurt in the earthquake

D．a warning signal will be given to other residents

【小题4】What Prof Wilkins said suggests that _______.

A．he is doubtful about the project

B．he thinks the tremor-resistant home is perfectly designed

C．he is confident in the tremor-resistant home

D．the tremor-resistant home still needs to be tested in a real situation

【小题5】It can be inferred from the passage that tremor-resistant home _______.

A．is still being tried out

B．is already under construction

C．has been in wide use

D．will be put into wide use soon

If I see one more article about how wonderful alternative energy is compared to oil, I will flip(翻页). Alternative energy sources can be good---- very good in fact. And it’s pretty obvious that we’re going to need them, and that our dependence on oil is a Bad Thing. But accepting that does not mean accepting that any kind of alternative energy is a good thing.
To be a good thing, it has to have three properties: 1) It has to help reduce our dependence on oil, 2) It has to be no worse for the environment, and 3) It has to be economically practical.
Many of the things praised meet one or even two of those properties. Solar panels, for example. They can reduce our need for oil, at least in certain regions, and they’re certainly not bad for the environment. But they’re expensive. If you spend the money to make your home solar-powered, you probably won’t get back your costs for at least 15 years, which approaches the lifespan of the panels.
Certainly we need to clean up our act big time and find workable sources of alternative energy. But we also have to keep in mind that every one of these alternative-energy sources comes at a cost, which is something people seem to forget. They hear the phrase “alternative energy” and automatically assume it’s got to be good. But green isn’t always good, and oil isn’t always bad.
One seemingly “green” technology that pops up again and again is electric cars. It is praised by well-meaning people as good for the environment and a way to reduce our oil dependence, especially as oil prices continue to rise.
Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.
People in California love to talk about “ zero-emissions vehicles”, but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Aside from the new folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something---- usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal（地热的） plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.
In other words, those “zero-emissions” cars are likely coal-burning cars. It’s just because the coal is burned somewhere else that it looks clean. It is not. It’s as if the California Greens are covering their eyes ---- “ If I can’t see it, it’s not happening. “ Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas ( or another fue) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat ---- at the generator, through the transmission（传送） lines, etc.
A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won’t get you nearly as far ---- so electric cars burn more fuel than gas- powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes; or geothermal, or hydro, or solar, or wind, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don’t use much of those energy sources.
In addition, electric cars’ batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it’s a power plant, though, all the junk is in one lace. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.
【小题1】Which of the following statements will the writer support?

A．Any kind of alternative energy is a good thing.

B．Alternative energy is bound to take the place of oil.

C．People should have an objective view towards alternative energy.

D．Solar panel is a good example of alternative energy that meets three properties.

【小题2】What does “ clueless” mean in Paragraph 7?

A．People see the California Greens everywhere.

B．People in California love to talk about zero-emissions vehicles.

C．People in California love to have their roofs covered with solar cells.

D．People there have no idea that so far electrically mainly comes from burning coal, oil, etc.

【小题3】What is the main idea for the text?

A．Green technology is not always green.

B．Alternative energy is economically practical.

C．Electric cars are not clean at all.

D．Gasoline is an efficient way to power a vehicle.

【小题4】According to the text, electric cars ___________.

A．are more environmentally friendly

B．burn more fuel than gas-powered ones

C．are very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated

D．are poisonous for a long time and will eventually end up in a landfill

【小题5】It can be inferred from the text that _________.

A．being green is good and should be encouraged in communication

B．electric cars are not clean in that we get electricity mainly by burning something

C．zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment

D．electric cars are now the dominant vehicle compared with gasoline-powered cousins

Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier，have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants(被告)．But in the executive circle，beauty can become a liability.
While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder，it is harmful to a woman.
Handsome male executives were thought as having more integrity than plainer men；effort and ability were thought to account for their success.
Attractive female executives were considered to have less integrity than unattractive ones；their success was attributed not to ability but to factors such as luck.
All unattractive women executives were thought to have more integrity and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly，though，the rise of the unattractive overnight successes was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of attractive overnight successes.
Why are attractive women not thought to be able？An attractive woman is thought to be more feminine and an attractive man more masculine(有男子气概的)than the less attractive ones. Thus，an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs，but an attractive woman in a traditionally masculine position appears to lack the “masculine” qualities required.
This is true even in politics. “When the only clue is how he or she looks，people treat men and women differently，”says Anne Bowman，who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs，one of men and one of women，in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again，in the order they would vote for them.
The results showed that attractive males utterly defeated unattractive men，but the women who had been ranked most attractive invariably received the fewest votes.
【小题1】The underlined word “liability”(in Para.1)most probably means “________”．

A．misfortune

B．instability

C．disadvantage

D．burden

【小题2】In traditionally female jobs，attractiveness________.

A．reinforces(加强)the feminine qualities required

B．makes women look more honest and capable

C．is of primary importance to women

D．often enables women to succeed quickly

【小题3】Bowman's experiment reveals that when it comes to politics，attractiveness________.

A．turns out to be an obstacle to men

B．affects men and women alike

C．has as little effect on men as on women

D．is more of an obstacle than a benefit to women

【小题4】It can be inferred from the passage that people's views on beauty are often________.

A．practical

B．prejudiced

C．old­fashioned

D．pessimistic

【小题5】The author writes this passage to________.

A．demand equal rights for women

B．emphasize the importance of appearance

C．discuss the negative aspects of being attractive

D．give advice to job­seekers who are attractive

Even plants can run a fever, especially when they're under attack by insects or disease. But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away—straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared(红外线)scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide(杀虫剂)spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest problems.
Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a colour­coded map showing where plants were running “fevers”. Farmers could then spot­spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.
The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long­term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States, ” says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.
【小题1】Plants will send out an increased amount of heat when they are________.

A．facing an infrared scanner

B．sprayed with pesticides

C．in poor physical condition

D．exposed to excessive sun rays

【小题2】In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to________.

A．estimate the damage to the crops

B．draw a colour­coded map

C．measure the size of the affected area

D．locate the problem area

【小题3】Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by________.

A．resorting to spot­spraying

B．transforming poisoned rain

C．consulting infrared scanning experts

D．detecting crop problems at an early stage

【小题4】The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties—________.

A．its high cost

B．the lack of official support

C．the lack of financial support

D．its failure to help increase production

High Speed Book Scanner
Simply turning pages of a book quickly may not seem like the best way to scan it. A Japanese research group at Tokyo University has created new software that allows hundreds of pages to be scanned within minutes. Scanning text is normally a boring process with each page having to be inserted into a scanner, but the team led by Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa uses a high speed camera that takes 500 pictures a second to scan pages as they are turned by workers.
Normal scanners can only scan the information that is actually before them on the page. This high speed book scanner uses a camera that captures pages at 1000fps as they are turned. A system built in allows it to automatically correct any changes to the text due to the page bending as well as light differences due to shadows. “It takes a shot of the shape, then it calculates the shape and uses those calculations to film the scanning,” Ishikawa said, explaining the system used to reconstruct the original page.
The current system is able to scan an average 250-page book in a little over 60 seconds using basic computer hardware. While it now requires extra time to process the scanned images (影像), the researchers hope to eventually make the technology both faster and much smaller. “In the more distant future, once it becomes possible to put all of this processing on one chip (芯片) and then put that in an iPad or iPod, one could scan just using that chip. At that point, it becomes possible to scan something quickly to save for later reading,” Ishikawa said.
Being able to scan books with an iPhone may be further off, but Ishikawa says that a commercial version of the large-scale computer based scanning system could be available in two or three years. While the technology has the potential to take paper books into the digital age, it remains to be how publishers will react to people scanning their books while just turning pages quickly.
【小题1】According to the passage, the advantage of the new scanning software is that ______.

A．there is no need to scan every page

B．it can work much more effectively

C．no manpower is needed in operating the scanner

D．it can make the scanning process more interesting

【小题2】According to Ishikawa, the scanner works by_____.

A．changing the shape of the images

B．reducing the size of the images

C．reconstructing the original page

D．scanning several pages at the same time

【小题3】What is Ishikawa’s attitude towards the development of the scanning system?

A．Optimistic.

B．Uncertain.

C．Disapproving.

D．Cautious.

【小题4】What does the underlined sentence mean?

A．People will get any book they like more easily.

B．Publishers will refuse to comment on the new software.

C．Publishers will probably not welcome the new software.

D．People won’t need to buy books any more with an iPhone.