It’s 10:30 p.m., and 11-year-old Brandon Blanco is sound asleep at home. Suddenly, a loud noise wakes him up. Naturally, Brandon reaches for his cell phone. He blinks twice, and the message on the screen becomes clear: “R U awake?”
But the late-night text does not annoy Brandon. He gets frequent messages and calls, even after bedtime. And he can’t imagine life without them. “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my friends or family as often,” he told the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Brandon’s use of technology doesn’t stop there. He also has a computer, a TV and three video-game consoles（控制台）in his room. With so many devices, it is no surprise that when he is not at school, he spends nearly every waking minute using one or more of these devices. Brandon is hardly alone. According to a recent study by TFK, kids aged 8 to 18 are spending more time than ever before using electronic devices. How much time? More than seven and a half hours a day on average, the study found. That’s about an hour more than just five years ago.
The jump is the result of a huge explosion in mobile devices, says Victoria Rideout, the lead author of the study. “These devices have opened up many more opportunities for young people to use media, whether it’s on the bus, on the way to school or waiting in line at the pizza parlor,” says Rideout.
Often, kids multitask, or use more than one device at a time. “If you’ve got a chance to do something on your computer and take a phone call and have the TV on in the background, why not?” Media expert Cheryl Olson says. Most experts agree technology has much to offer kids. But some worry the kids could be missing out on other activities like playing outside or hanging out with friends. “It’s a matter of balance,” says Olson.
Multitasking while doing homework is another concern. Some kids listen to music, watch TV or use the phone while doing their homework. “It’s important to make sure that you can stop and concentrate on one thing deeply,” says Rideout.
With new and exciting devices hitting stores every year, keeping technology use in check is more important than ever. “Kids should try,” adds Rideout. “But parents might have to step in sometimes.”

1. 1.

   It can be learned from the text that _________.

   1. A.
      many teenagers lack friends in their middle school
   2. B.
      kids have too many electronic devices to choose from
   3. C.
      Brandon feels annoyed about his late-night message
   4. D.
      Olson is against teenagers’ using mobile phones
2. 2.

   Which of the following is an example of multitasking?

   1. A.
      Watching TV when using the computer.
   2. B.
      Talking on the phone when lying on the sofa.
   3. C.
      Playing video games after having lunch.
   4. D.
      Listening to loud music while relaxing.
3. 3.

   The underlined phrase “in check” in the last paragraph can be replaced by _________.

   1. A.
      in order
   2. B.
      in store
   3. C.
      in control
   4. D.
      in sight
4. 4.

   According to the text, Victoria Rideout would probably agree that kids should ______.

   1. A.
      do homework while watching TV
   2. B.
      have less homework
   3. C.
      spend more time on homework
   4. D.
      do homework in a place without disturbance

任务型读写（共10小题;每小题1分,满分10分）

阅读下面短文，根据所读内容在表格中的空白处填入恰当的单词。注意:每个空格只填

一个单词。

For thousands of years ’ the most important two buildings in any British village have been the

church and the pub. In fact，until a place has a church and a pub，it isn ’ t really considered a

community worthy of a name. Traditionally，the church and the pub are at the heart of any village

or town, since it is where people gather to give and receive news. In fact, the word ‘ pub' is short

for ⁴ public house'.

That's how it used to be, but things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit

decline is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People don ’ t have lots of spare

money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may

also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow

pubs to stay open after 11 p. m. Previously，with 11 p. m. as closing time，customers would have

to drink quite quickly，meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink

slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as，binge drinking ’ (狂饮)，

and it causes some long - term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for

•communities. The UK government is changing the law to discourage binge drinking, and regularly

spends money on television advertisements to warn people of the problems of drinking too much.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. Now, there are

a number of different types of pubs.

As you can see, British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be

working men' s clubs, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can

freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the

better after alL

The Universal Autograph(名人签名) Collectors Club (UACC) has been serving the collector for over 25 years. Founded in 1965, the UACC began as a small group of Long Island, New York autograph collectors and has grown to be the largest collectors organization of its kind.

The UACC by its purpose is primarily an educational fellowship(联谊会) where knowledge and resources are shared with not only the membership, but also the public at large. By joining the UACC, you will be introduced to the fastest growing hobby in the world today.

Autographs have been called "frozen moments in time" by some people. Probably the most personal thing that one person can give is his or her signature.

In 1834, former President James Madison sent an autograph for a collection which the Princess Victoria was making. The future British Queen was only 15 years old at the time. Financier J.P. Morgan, Sr. began collecting when he was 16, and his son continued adding to the father's collection. As the daughter of the Mayor of Boston, Rose Fitzgerald collected autographs, as did her son, John F. Kennedy. Franklin Roosevelt, Malcolm Forbes and Glenn Ford are a few more well-known autograph collectors. By collecting autographs, you become a curator(馆长) of history.

Here are some of the best reasons to join the UACC.

The UACC publishes The Pen and Quill, the highly regarded 64-page bimonthly journal with articles and news in all fields of autograph collecting. UACC members may place free ads in the Pen and Quill to express their wants or just swap with other members.

Writing for autographs to famous living people can also be interesting. The more interesting the letter, the better chance for an interesting reply.

The UACC also offers its members the opportunity to buy uncommon autographic material at low prices. Meanwhile, it publishes low cost reference works for its members.

Once you join the UACC, you will be added to our mailing list and will receive catalogs(目录) of autographs for sale by dealer members. The UACC has nearly 200 of the world's most professional dealers as members. Each member provides contact information on our website, including mailing address, telephone numbers, email addresses, website addresses, etc. We always try to promote our Dealer program and encourage collectors to always buy from these dealers.

Paragraph 4 is presented to inform you that_______.

A．autographs might be the most personal thing that one can give

B．the hobby started as early as the 19th century

C．autographs have a long history and was popular even among great people

D．autographs reflect history and sometimes change history

What does the underlined word “swap” probably mean?

A．write for autographs           B．exchange autographs     

C．mail autographs               D．sign autographs

Which of the following about the service offered by the UACC is not right?

A．It offers members a good way in which they can get what they need much easily.

B．A magazine is published every two months to help you know about the world’s hobby.

C．It offers collectors great deals on unusual autographs at reasonable prices.

D．It offers Internet service to make extra profits.

This passage is mainly ______.

A．to encourage you to join the UACC  

B．to tell you how interesting autograph collecting is

C．to tell you the fast development of the autograph collecting

D．to inform you where you can get an autograph

In South Korea, children get used to the Internet at an early age. A survey last year by the Ministry of information and Communication showed that nearly half of children between the age of 3 and 5 use the internet.

“In south Korea, the Internet has become a babysitter, said Lee Kyong Ko, a professor at Duksing, Women’s University in Seoul.   

Online role-playing games, where participants make friends and band together, have a strong appeal to Koreans,“One problem with those games is that you build your online person through countless hours of battles, and you develop a huge emotional attachment to your game character,”said Chang Woo Min, a one-time online gamer.

Parents report that their children steal money and do not come home for days and even weeks, practically living in Internet Cafes, and sometimes they refuse to look for jobs and play games all night and sleep during the day.

The authorities require Internet cafes to keep their distance from schools, and they open camps for teenage addicts and distribute booklets(小册子) on the dangers of game addiction. In addition, they are training hundreds of counselors, who visit schools and Internet Cafes.

In the 28,000 Internet Cafes in South Korea, persons under 18 are banded from entry after 10 p.m.. The authorities have even discussed reducing the points of gamers who play for more than three consecutive (连续的) hours, But such talks have produced no agreement, amid concerns that such restrictions would put a high-growth industry in danger and worse the problem of teenagers stealing adult online identification numbers,“Sooner or later we will be able to announce our measures,”the minister of Information and Communication, Rho Jun Hyoung, said at a news conference in May.“Since South Korea is one of the most active and developed countries in the Internet, the world is paying great attention to What policy we will adopt on this problem.”

1.According to the passage, in order to solve the Internet problem, the authorities of South Korea took the following measures EXCEPT              

A．demanding the Internet Cafes to be far away from schools

B．telling the students about the dangers of game addiction

C．training counselors to visit schools and cafes

D．banning all the people from entering the Internet after 10 p.m.

2.We can learn that                 from the passage.

A．most children under 6 in the South Korea use the Internet

B．some parents hope their children use the Internet only at home

C．all kinds of measures are not supported by all the people

D．the authorities in the South Korea believe that it is most active and developed country in the Inter

3.In paragraph 2,the underlined sentence “the Internet has becomes a babysitter”means     .

A．children are well looked after on the Internet

B．children likes sitting in the Internet Cafes

C．children can earn money working as a babysitter in Internet Cafes

D．Internet has become a place where children are looked after while their parents are not there

4.The passage is written to tell us_________________.

A．the Internet problems in South Korea        B．the bad effects of the Internet

C．the measures of the authorities             D．teenagers like going surfing in South Korea

On August 5 at 10:31 p.m. PST, a rover（探测器）named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars, and I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat.
My name is Clara, and when I was in Grade 6, I won the essay contest NASA held to name its next Mars rover. The essay I wrote was not even 250 words long, but somehow it was enough to change my life.
I still remember that cold December day, sitting in a science class. I’d finished a worksheet early and decided to get a Time for Kids magazine off Mrs. Estevez’s bookshelf. It was the 2008 Invention Issue, but that wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye. In the magazine, there was an article about a girl who named the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The article also talked about the essay contest NASA was holding to name its next Mars rover. Before I even knew anything else about it, a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind: Curiosity.
I couldn’t wait for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay. That afternoon, I raced home from the bus stop, sat down at the computer and typed until my fingers ached. It turned out that I was just in time. A few days later, and the contest would have closed.
Five months later, shortly after I had turned 12, I was watching a National Geographic special on mammoths when the phone rang. My mom answered, and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face. When she told me that I had won, I was happier than I could ever remember being, I screamed and ran up and down the stairs and all around the house. I completely forgot about the mammoths and did not even remember to turn off the TV until it was really late.
Curiosity is such an important part of who I am. I have always been fascinated by the stars, the planets, the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl, my grandfather and I would sit together in the backyard for hours. He’d tell me stories and point out the stars.
My grandfather lived in China, thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas. I loved the stars because they kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them. That’s what I love so much about space. No matter how much we learn, it will always possess some mystery.
In the past, space exploration may have been a competition to see who got somewhere first or the fastest. But now, it is one of the few things that bring people together. Science is a language that needs no translation. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like – you just have to have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning in order to succeed.
People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mars. Why do we explore? My answer to that is simple: because we can; because we’re curious; because we as human beings do not just stay holed up in one place. We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what’s over the hill and beyond the horizon.
The curiosity rover is more than just a robot. It is more than just a titanium body and aluminum wheels. Curiosity represents the hard work, passion, love and commitment of thousands of people from all over the world who were brought together by science. Science is so awesome. It is breathtaking and mind-blowing; and sometimes, it’s just a little bit crazy. The discoveries we make about our world are incredibly humbling. They move us forward and have the potential to benefit all of mankind.
This December it will be four years of my life that have been tied to Curiosity in some way. I’ve met so many amazing people through this experience, from scientists to engineers to administrators to volunteers. Their devotion and enthusiasm inspire me greatly. My journey with Curiosity and the MSL mission team has shaped the person that I am today, as well as the person I would one day like to become.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to have this amazing adventure.
And to you, I hope your curiosity takes you far.
【小题1】 The method the writer uses to begin the passage is _____.