Last night’s meteor (流星) shower left many people in the community dissatisfied and demanding answers. According to Gabe Rothschild, Emerald Valley’s mayor, people gathered in the suburbs of the city, carrying heavy telescopes, expecting to watch the brightly burning meteors passing through the sky. What they found instead was a sky so brightened by the city’s lights that it darkened the light of the meteors passing overhead.
“My family was so frustrated,” admitted town resident Duane Cosby, “We wanted to make this an unforgettable family outing, but it turned out to be a huge disappointment.”
Astronomers—scientists who study stars and planets—have been complaining about this problem for decades. They say that light pollution prevents them from seeing objects in the sky that they could see quite easily in the past. They call on people and the government to take measures to fight against it.
There is yet a population besides professional and amateur star observers that suffers even more from light pollution. This population consists of birds, bats, frogs, snakes, etc. For example, outdoor lighting severely affects migrating (迁徙的) birds. According to the International Dark-Sky Association, “100 million birds a year throughout North America die in crashes with lighted buildings and towers.”
Countless more animal casualties (伤亡) result from the use of artificial lighting. Clearly, people enjoy the benefits of lighting their evenings. But some scientists think it can be harmful for humans, too. They worry that exposure to light while sleeping can increase a person’s chances of getting cancer.
Emerald Valley is only one community that is becoming aware of the negative effects of light pollution. For years, Flagstaff, Arizona, has enforced lighting regulations in its city in order to assist astronomers at the Lowell Observatory. Similar efforts have been made worldwide, and a movement is underway to remind us to turn off lights when we are not using them, so that other creatures can share the night.
【小题1】It happened last night that _____.

A．the city’s lights affected the meteor watching

B．the meteors flew past before being noticed

C．the city light show attracted many people

D．the meteor watching ended up a social outing

【小题2】What do the astronomers complain about?

A．Meteor showers occur less often than before.

B．Their observation equipment is in poor repair.

C．Light pollution has remained unsolved for years.

D．Their eyesight is failing due to artificial lighting.

【小题3】What is the author concerned about according to Paragraph 4?

A．Birds may take other migration paths.

B．Animals’ living habits may change suddenly

C．Varieties of animals will become sharply reduced

D．Animals’ survival is threatened by outdoor lighting.

【小题4】Lighting regulations in Flagstaff, Arizona are put into effect to _____.

A．lessen the chance of getting cancer

B．create an ideal observation condition

C．ensure citizens a good sleep at night

D．enable all creatures to live in harmony

【小题5】What message does the author most want to give us?

A．Saving wildlife is saving ourselves.

B．Great efforts should be made to save energy.

C．Human activities should be environmentally friendly.

D．New equipment should be introduced for space study..

The baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert (警觉). Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze(凝视) starts to lose its focus - until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns; she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?
Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects(a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise(同样地) when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.
【小题1】The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby’s ______.

A．sense of hearing.

B．sense of sight.

C．sense of touch.

D．sense of smell.

【小题2】Babies are sensitive to the change in ______.

A．the size of cards.

B．the colour of pictures.

C．the shape of patterns.

D．the number of objects.

【小题3】Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?

A．To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.

B．To see how babies recognize sounds.

C．To carry their experiment further.

D．To keep the babies’ interest.

【小题4】Where does this text probably come from?

A．Science fiction.

B．Children’s literature.

C．An advertisement.

D．A science report.

Not all bodies of water are so evidently alive as the Atlantic Ocean, an S-shaped body of water covering 33 million square miles. The Atlantic has, in a sense, replaced the Mediterranean as the inland sea of Western civilization. Unlike real inland seas, which seem strangely still, the Atlantic is rich in oceanic liveliness. It is perhaps not surprising that its vitality has been much written about by ancient poets.
“Storm at Sea”, a short poem written around 700, is generally regarded as one of mankind’s earliest artistic representations of the Atlantic.
When the wind is from the west
All the waves that cannot rest
To the east must thunder on
Where the bright tree of the sun
Is rooted in the ocean’s breast.
As the poem suggests, the Atlantic is never dead and dull. It is an ocean that moves, impressively and endlessly. It makes all kinds of noise—it is forever thundering, boiling, crashing, and whistling.
It is easy to imagine the Atlantic trying to draw breath—perhaps not so noticeably out in mid-ocean, but where it meets land, its waters bathing up and down a sandy beach. It mimics(模仿) nearly perfectly the steady breathing of a living creature. It is filled with symbiotic existences, too: unimaginable quantities of creatures, little and large alike, mix within its depths in a kind of oceanic harmony, giving to the waters a feeling of heartbeat, a kind of sub-ocean vitality. And it has a psychology. It has personalities: sometimes peaceful and pleasant, on rare occasions rough and wild; always it is strong and striking.
【小题1】Unlike real inland seas, the Atlantic Ocean is______.

A．always energetic

B．lacking in liveliness

C．shaped like a square

D．favored by ancient poets

【小题2】What is the purpose of using the poem “Storm at Sea” in the passage?

A．To describe the movement of the waves.

B．To show the strength of the storm.

C．To represent the power of the ocean.

D．To prove the vastness of the sea.

【小题3】What does the underlined word “symbiotic” mean?

A．Living together.

B．Growing fast.

C．Moving harmoniously.

D．Breathing peacefully.

【小题4】In the last paragraph, the Atlantic is compared to______.

A．a beautiful and poetic place

B．a flesh and blood person

C．a wonderful world

D．a lovely animal

Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know, however, that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.
The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5,100 years old. Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn’t become popular for a while, though. This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.
But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces weren’t going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.
In the mid-1700s, a Frenchman came up with a new design of road—a base layer (层) of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the same lime, metal hubs (the central part of a wheel) came into being, followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气轮胎) in 1846. Alloy wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmacked roads (柏油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster.
【小题1】What might explain why transport wheels didn’t become popular for some time?

A．Few knew how to use transport wheels.

B．Humans carried farming tools just as well.

C．Animals were a good means of transport.

D．The existence of transport wheels was not known.

【小题2】What do we know about road design from the passage?

A．It was easier than wheel design.

B．It improved after big changes in vehicle design.

C．It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles.

D．It provided conditions for wheel design to develop.

【小题3】How is the last paragraph mainly developed?

A．By giving examples.

B．By making comparisons.

C．By following time order.

D．By making classifications.

【小题4】What is the passage mainly about?

A．The beginning of road design.

B．The development of transport wheels.

C．The history of public transport.

D．The invention of fast-moving vehicles.

Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.
Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting(收缩) and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.
Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: "Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart."
The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, "The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see - and guide whether we see fear."
To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner(扫描仪) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear. “We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear," Dr Garfinkel said.
"We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder."
【小题1】What is the finding of the study?

A．One's heart affects how he feels fear.

B．fear is a result of one's relaxed heartbeat.

C．fear has something to do with one's health.

D．Ones fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear.

【小题2】The study was carried out by analyzing _______.

A．volunteers' heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures

B．the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions

C．volunteers' reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans

D．different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart-brain communication

【小题3】Which of the following is closest in meaning to "mechanism" in Paragraph 6?

A．Order.

B．system.

C．machine.

D．treatment.

【小题4】This study may contribute to _______.

A．treating anxiety and stress better

B．explaining the cycle of fear and anxiety

C．finding the sky to the heart-brain communication

D．understanding different fears in our hearts and heads

A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
(392 words)
【小题1】The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.

A．they had no model in their mind

B．they did not have sufficient time

C．they had no ready-made components

D．they could not assemble the components

【小题2】It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly __________.

A．consists of a flight device and a control system

B．can just fly in limited areas at the present time

C．can collect information from many sources

D．has been put into wide application

【小题3】Which of the following can be learned from the passage?

A．The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.

B．Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.

C．There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.

D．Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.

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

A．Father of Robotic Fly

B．Inspiration from Engineering Science

C．Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect

D．Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study

(268 words)
【小题1】According to Warranty Limitations, a product can be under warranty if __________.
A. shipped from a Canadian factory                   B. rented for home use
C. repaired by the user himself                          D. used in the U.S.A.
【小题2】According to Owner’s Responsibilities, an owner has to pay for __________.

A．the loss of the sales receipt	B．a servicer’s overtime work
C．the product installation	D．a mechanic’s transportation

【小题3】Which of the following is true according to the warranty?

A．Consequential damages are excluded across America.

B．A product damaged in a natural disaster is covered by the warranty.

C．A faulty cabinet due to rust can be replaced free in the second year.

D．Free repair is available for a product used improperly in the first year.

For some people, music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call “amusic.” People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes (音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are very far apart on the musical scale.
As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their inability to enjoy music set them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret, a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify this unusual condition.
Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn’t involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can’t see certain colors.
Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed (诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say, ‘No thanks, I’m amusic,’” says Margaret. “I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy.”                                                                                                                       (335 words)
【小题1】Which of the following is true of amusics?

A．Listening to music is far from enjoyable for them.

B．They love places where they are likely to hear music.

C．They can easily tell two different songs apart.

D．Their situation is well understood by musicians.

【小题2】According to paragraph 3, a person with “defective hearing” is probably one who __________.

A．dislikes listening to speeches

B．can hear anything nonmusical

C．has a hearing problem

D．lacks a complex hearing system

【小题3】In the last paragraph, Margaret expressed her wish that __________.

A．her problem with music had been diagnosed earlier

B．she were seventeen years old rather than seventy

C．her problem could be easily explained

D．she were able to meet other amusics

【小题4】What is the passage mainly concerned with?

A．Amusics’ strange behaviours.

B．Some people’s inability to enjoy music.

C．Musical talent and brain structure.

D．Identification and treatment of amusics.

Here is an astonishing and signficant fact:Mental work alone can’t make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue(疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered thett blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day labourer, we could find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxing at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours f efforts as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired.
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue come from our mental and emotional(情感的) attitudes. One of England’s most outstanding scientists. J. A. Hadfield,says,“The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact,fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares,“One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired?Joy?Satifaction?No!A feeling of being bored,anger,anxiety,tenseness,worry,a feeling of nt being appreciated---those are emotions that tire sitting workers.Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue.We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.
【小题1】What surprised the scientists a few years ago?

A．Fatigue toxinscould hardly be found in a labour’s blood.

B．Albert Eistein didn’t feel worn out after a day’s work.

C．The brain could wrk for many hours without fatigue.

D．A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue toxins.

【小题2】According to the authour,which of the following can make sitting worker tired？

A．Challenge mental work.

B．Unpleasant emotions.

C．Endless tasks.

D．Physical labor.

【小题3】What’s the authour’s attitude towards the scientists’ ideas?

A．He agrees with them.

B．He doubts them

C．He argues against them.

D．He hesitates to accept them.

【小题4】We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energic, sitting workers need to ______.

A．have some good blood

B．enjoy their work

C．exercise regularly

D．discover fatigue toxin

While Jennifer was at home taking an online exam for her business law class, a monitor（监控器）a few hundred miles away was watching her every move.
Using a web camera equipped in Jennifer’s Los Angeles apartment, the monitor in Phoenix tracked how frequently her eyes moved from the computer screen and listened for the secret sounds of a possible helper in the room. Her Internet access was locked - remotely - to prevent Internet searches , and her typing style was analyzed to make sure she was who she said she was: Did she enter her student number at the same speed as she had in the past? Or was she slowing down?
In the battle against cheating, this is the cutting edge and a key to encourage honesty in the booming field of online education. The technology gives trust to the entire system, to the institution and to online education in general. Only with solid measures against cheating, experts say, can Internet universities show that their exams and diplomas are valid - that students haven’t just searched the Internet to get the right answers.
Although online classes have existed for more than a decade, the concern over cheating has become sharper in the last year with the growth of "open online courses." Private colleges, public universities and corporations are jumping into the online education field, spending millions of dollars to attract potential students, while also taking steps to help guarantee honesty at a distance.
Aside from the web cameras, a number of other high-tech methods are becoming increasingly popular. Among them are programs that check students’ identities using personal information, such as the telephone number they once used.
Other programs can produce unique exam by drawing on a large list of questions and can recognize possible cheaters by analyzing whether difficult test question are answered at the same speed as easy ones. As in many university classes, term papers are scanned against some large Internet data banks for cheating.
【小题1】Why was Jennifer watched in an online exam?

A．To correct her typing mistakes.

B．To find her secrets in the room.

C．To prevent her from slowing down.

D．To keep her from dishonest behaviors.

【小题2】The underlined expression cutting edge in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to______.

A．advanced technique	B．sharpening tool
C．effective rule	D．dividing line

【小题3】 For Internet universities, exams and diplomas will be valid if _____.

A．they can attract potential students	B．they can defeat academic cheating
C．they offer students online help	D．they offer many online courses

【小题4】Some programs can find out possible cheaters by _____.

A．checking the question answering speed

B．producing a large number of question

C．scanning the Internet test question

D．giving difficult test question

【小题5】 Which of the following is the best title of this passage?

A．The Advantages of Online Exams

B．The High-tech Methods in Online Courses

C．The Fight against Cheating in Online Education

D．The War against the Booming of Online Education