________ at the photos, illustrations, title and headings and you can guess what the reading is about.

A．To look           B．Looking           C．Having looked      D．Look

An ecosystem consists of the living and nonliving things in an area ________ interact with one another.

A．that              B．where            C．who              D．what

Among the crises that face humans ________ the lack of natural resources.

A．is                B．are              C．is there           D．are there

Some people care much about their appearance and always ask if they look fine in ________ they are

wearing.

A．that              B．what             C．how              D．which

Directions:  Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

As infants, we can recognize our mothers within hours of birth. In fact, we can recognize the   1. of our mother’s face well before we can recognize her body shape. It’s   2.  how the brain can carry out such a function at such a young age, especially since we don’t learn to walk and talk until we are over a year old. By the time we are adults, we have the ability to distinguish around 100,000 faces. How can we remember so many faces when many of us find it difficult to   3.  such a simple thing as a phone number? The exact process is not yet fully understood, but research around the world has begun to define the specific areas of the brain and processes   4.  for facial recognition.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that they have succeeded in   5.  a specific area of the brain called the fusiform face area (FFA), which is used only for facial recognition. This means that recognition of familiar objects such as our clothes or cars, is from   6.  in the brain. Researchers also have found that the brain needs to see the whole face for recognition to take place. It had been   7.  thought that we only needed to see certain facial features. Meanwhile, research at University College London has found that facial recognition is not a single process, but   8.  involves three steps. The first step appears to be an analysis of the physical features of a person’s face, which is similar to how we scan the bar codes of our groceries. In the next step, the brain decides whether the face we are looking at is already known or unknown to us. And finally, the brain furnishes the information we have collected about the person whose face we are looking at. This complex   9.  is done in a split second so that we can behave quickly when reacting to certain situations.

Over the past few decades, more and more countries have opened up the markets, increasingly transforming the world economy into one free-flowing global market. The question is：Is economic globalization   50  for all?

According to the World Bank, one of its chief supporters, economic globalization has helped reduce   51  in a large number of developing countries. It quotes one study that shows increased wealth   52  to improved education and longer life in twenty-four developing countries as a result of integration (融合) of local economies into the world economy. Home to some three billion people, these twenty-four countries have seen incomes   53  at an average rate of five percent—compared to two percent in developed countries.

Those who   54  globalization claim that economies in developing countries will benefit from new opportunities for small and home-based businesses.   55 , small farmers in Brazil who produce nuts that would originally have sold only in   56  open-air markets can now promote their goods worldwide by the Internet.

Critics take a different view, believing that economic globalization is actually   57  the gap between the rich and poor. A study carried out by the U.N.-sponsored World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization shows that only a few developing countries have actually   58  from integration into the world economy and that the poor, the uneducated, unskilled workers, and native peoples have been left behind.   59 , they maintain that globalization may eventually threaten emerging businesses. For example, Indian craftsmen who currently seem to benefit from globalization because they are able to   60  their products may soon face fierce competition that could put them out of   61 . When large-scale manufacturers start to produce the same goods, or when superstores like Wal-Mart move in, these small businesses will not be able to   62  and will be crowded out.

One thing is certain about globalization—there is no   63 . Advances in technology combined with more open policies have already created an interconnected world. The   64  now is finding a way to create a kind of globalization that works for the benefit of all.                                                  (347 words)

1.                A．possible        B．smooth         C．good D．easy

2.                A．crime          B．poverty         C．conflict   D．population

3.                A．contributing     B．responding      C．turning   D．owing

4.                A．remain         B．drop           C．shift D．increase

5.                A．doubt          B．define          C．advocate  D．ignore

6.                A．In addition      B．For instance     C．In other words D．All in all

7.                A．mature         B．new           C．local D．foreign

8.                A．finding         B．exploring       C．bridging  D．widening

9.                A．suffered        B．profited        C．learned   D．withdrawn

10.               A．Furthermore    B．Therefore       C．However  D．Otherwise

11.               A．consume       B．deliver         C．export    D．advertise

12.               A．trouble         B．business        C．power D．mind

13.               A．keep up        B．come in        C．go around D．help out

14.               A．taking off       B．getting along     C．holding out D．turning back

15.               A．agreement      B．prediction      C．outcome  D．challenge

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)

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.

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

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

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.

(268 words)

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.

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

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.

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)

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

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

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.

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

1.

The use of health supplements such as multivitamin tablets has increased greatly in the western world. People take these supplements because advertising suggests that they prevent a range of medical conditions from developing. However, there is concern that people are consuming worryingly high doses of these supplements and the European Union (EU) has issued a directive that will ban the sale of a wide range of them. This EU directive should be supported.

2.

Research suggests that people who take Vitamin C supplements of over 5000 milligrams a day are more likely to develop cancer. This shows how much damage these health supplements do to people’s health. A spokesman for the health supplement industry has argued that other research shows that Vitamin C supplements help prevent heart disease, but we can dismiss this evidence as it is from a biased source.

3.

Science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s predicted that pills would replace meals as the way in which people would get the fuel they needed. This, it was argued, would mean a more efficient use of time as people wouldn’t have to waste it preparing or eating meals. The EU directive would help prevent this nightmare of pills replacing food becoming a reality.

4.

Peop0le already take too many pills instead of adopting a healthier lifestyle. For example, the consumption of painkillers in Britain in 1998 was 21 tablets per year for every man, woman and child in the country. People do not need all these pills.

5.

Some might argue that the EU directive denies people’s right to freedom of choice. However, there are many legal examples for such intervention when it is in the individual’s best interests. We now make people wear seatbelts rather than allowing them to choose to do so. Opposing the EU directive would mean beneficial measures like this would be threatened.