“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”
This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 52 wrote it.
We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.
But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?
Picture this: You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?
Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have not telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.
One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10, and Tomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.
The grandmother, Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.” She believed life was less materialistic. “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” She said. The boys said they fought less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy（時髦的）, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”
Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!
Don’t be available all the time, turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day.
Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying.
小題1:The passage is mainly about         .
A．problem with technology
B．improvements of our life with technology
C．the important roles technology plays in our everyday life
D．major changes which will be likely to happen to technology
小題2:The writer quoted（引用） what a citizen in ancient Rome said at the beginning of the story in order to         .
A．share a truth about life
B．tell us what life was like long time ago
C．make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen
D．point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same
小題3:Why did the family choose to spend some time in a 1940’s house? Because       .
A．they liked to live simple lives
B．they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions
C．they were troubled by modern inventions
D．living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them
小題4:What do you think the underlined word “available” in the 1st suggestion offered by the writer mean?
A．Busy on lineB．Free.C．Be able toD．Be found by others.

小題1:A
小題2:A
小題3:B
小題4:D
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

The United States is full of cars. There are still many families without cars, but some families have two or more. However, cars are used for more than pleasure. They are a necessary part of life.
Cars are used for business. They are driven to offices and factories by workers who have no other way to get to their jobs. When salesmen are sent to different parts of the city, they have to drive in order to carry their products. Farmers have to drive into the city in order to get supplies.
Sometimes small children must be driven to school. In some cities school buses are used only when children live more than a mile away from the school. When the children are too young to walk too far, their mothers take turns driving them to school. One mother drives on Mondays taking her own children and the neighbors' as well. Another mother drives on Tuesdays, another on Wednesday, and so on. This is called forming a car pool. Men also form car pools, with three or four men taking turns driving to the place where they all work.
More car pools should be formed in order to put fewer cars on the road and use less gas. Too many cars are being driven. Something will have to be done about the use of cars.
小題1: The United States is filled with cars, but             .
A．not every family has a car B．few families have two cars or even more
C．every American has a carD．every family has a car
小題2:What's the main idea of the second paragraph?
A．Workers drive cars to offices and factoriesB．Salesmen drive to carry their products.
C．Farmers drive into cities to get supplies.D．Cars are widely used.
小題3:Which statement is true according to the third paragraph?
A．Small children are driven to school.
B．All children go to school by bus in some cities.
C．Mothers drive their children who can't walk to school.
D．School buses pick up all children.
小題4: Mothers form car pools in order that             .
A．they can drive to school
B．they can take turns driving their children to school
C．they reach school quickly
D．they can drive their children to school in time
小題5: The traffic in and around cities is a great problem because              .
A．too many cars are being driven B．there are too many car pools
C．people put fewer cars on the roadsD．there is less gas

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

“I’ve changed my mind. I wanted to have a telescope, but now I want my dad back.” Lucien Lawrence’s letter to Father Christmas, written after his father had been knifed to death outside his school gate, must have touched everyone’s heart. Lucien went on to say that without his father he couldn’t see the stars in the sky. When those we love depart from us, we cannot see the stars for a while.
But Lucien, the stars are still there, and one day, when you are older and your tears have gone, you will see them again. And, in a strange way, I expect that you will find your father there too, either in your mind or heart. I find that my parents, who died years ago, still linger (留連) in many of my dreams and that I think of them perhaps more than I ever did when they were alive. I still live to please them and I’m still surprised by their reactions. I remember that when I became a professor, I was so proud, or rather so pleased with myself that I couldn’t wait to cable my parents. The reply was a long time in coming, but when it did, all my mother said was “I hope this means that now you will have more time for the children!” I haven’t forgotten. The values of my parents still live on.
It makes me pause and think about how I will live on in the hearts and minds of my children and of those for whom I care. Would I have been as ready as Philip Lawrence has been to face the aggressors（入侵者）, and to lay down my life for those in my care? How many people would want me back for Christmas? It’s a serious thought, which gives me pause.
I pray silently, sometimes, in the dead of night, that ancient cry of a poet “Deliver my soul from the sword and my darling from the power of the dog.” Yet I know death comes to us all, and sometimes comes suddenly. We must therefore plan to live together, but live as if we will die tomorrow. We live on, I’m sure, in the lives of those we loved, and therefore we ought to have a care for what they will remember and what they will treasure. If more parents knew this in their hearts to be true, there might be fewer knives on our streets today.
小題1: According to the whole text we can see that the first paragraph ___________.
A．puts forward the subject of the text
B．shows the author’s pity on the kid
C．serves as an introduction to the discussion
D．makes a clear statement of the author’s views
小題2:In the second paragraph the author mainly wants to explain to us____________.
A．how much he misses his parents now
B．why his parents often appear in his dream
C．when Lucien will get over all his sadness
D．how proud he was when he succeeded in life
小題3:What feeling did the author’s mother express in her reply?
A．Proud.B．Happy.C．Disappointed.D．Worried.
小題4:In the author’s opinion, the value of a person’s life is _____________.
A．to leave a precious memory to the people related
B．to have a high sense of duty to the whole society
C．to care what others will remember and treasure
D．to share happiness and sadness with his family
小題5: What does the writer mean by the sentence taken from an old poem?    
A．Call on criminals and murderers to lay down their guns.
B．Advise parents stay with their children safely at home.
C．Spend every day meaningfully in memory of death.
D．Try to keep violence and murder far away from society.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

     Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap．Some call it the summer learning setback Put simply, it means the longer kids are out of school，the more they forget．The only thing they might gain is weight．
Most American schools follow a tradltional nine-month calendar with winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation．Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes ror about eight weeks at a time，with a few weeks off in between．The National Association for Year-Round Education says there were fewer than 3,000 such schools at last count．They were spread among forty-six of the tifty states．
But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school．Brenda McLaugblin is research director at the National Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University．She says studies of year-round schooling have not found strong learning gains．Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said，“Year-round schools don’t really solve the problem of the summer learning setback．They simply spread it out across the year．”
Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summler than other students．Experts say this can be prevented．They note that many schools and local governments offer programs that can help．
But calling them“summer school”could be a problem．The director of the summer learning center at Johns Hopkins, Ron Fairchild, said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term“summer school”．In American culture，the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood．The parents welcomed other terms like“summer camp�！薄癳xtra time”and“hands-on learning．”
小題1:According to the first paragraph，the summer learning gap     
A．helps children to gain weight
B．leads children to work harder
C．improves children’s memories
D．a(chǎn)ffects children’s regular studies
小題2:Compared to traditional schools，students in the year-round ones     ．
A．perform better and have more learning gains
B．have much less time for relaxation every year
C．have generally the same number of class days
D．hold more classes with more free weeks off
小題3:Which of the following statements is true?
A．Students from poor families often fall behind after the vacation．
B．Year-round schools can solve the problem of the learning gap
C．There are schools in each state following a year-round calendar
D．Nothing can help the students who fall behind after the vacation．
小題4:Why did almost all parents dislike the term“summer school”?
A．They are worried about the quailty of the“summer school”
B．They cherish the children’s rights of freedom very much．
C．They want their children to be forced to make up the gap．
D．They can’t afford to the further study during the vacation．
小題5:What would be the best title of this passage?
A．Opening Summer Camps
B．Forbidding Summer Schools
C．Minding the Summer Learning Gap
D．Reforming Year-Round Education

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

People who traveled in the past had to put up with many discomforts which we do not have nowadays, and of course they traveled far more slowly. Roads were bad indeed and you often found you could not get along at all because of the mud. In dry weather many places were thick in dust and when it was stormy, trees might fall across the road and it was nobody’s business to clear them away.
Ordinary people traveled on foot or on horseback, but everyone who could afford it kept a private coach. There were public coaches too. called “stage coaches” because long journeys took several days and were done in stages, with stops over night at inns. Some stage, coaches ran only in the summer months. Others all the year around. They were very slow and crowded and passengers often became in on the way because of the swaying (搖晃).
Break downs were frequent, since many roads were not smooth. So a coach might very easily turn right over. Early in the century coach and wagon builders were encouraged to put very wide wheels on their vehicles. So that these might level the roads a little. But many people complained of this since it slowed travel down a good deal.
Most travelers during the 18th century wrote bitterly about the state of the roads. One visitor to Sussex took six hours to travel nine miles in his coach; another wrote to a friend that on time of his journeys “almost every mile was marked by the overturn of a carriage”.
小題1:Which of the following mainly prevented people from travelling fast in the past?
A．Falling treesB．Thick dust
C．Muddy roadD．Many discomforts
小題2: The underlined word “them” in the first paragraph refers to _____.
A．the discomfortsB．the blocked roads
C．the dusty placesD．the fallen trees
小題3: Public coaches were called “stage-coaches” because ______. 
A．the long journey was broken into several parts
B．they were slow and crowded
C．they stopped for meals at inns
D．they served public people only
小題4: The sentence “almost every mile was marked by the overturn of a carriage” suggests that ______.
A．the coaches were of poor quality
B．the writers liked to describe the road bitterly
C．the road condition was really poor
D．travelling about in the past was extremely slow

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Many businesses today use conferences as a means of discussing new plans for company. As people are paying more attention to the environment and green problems, more businesses are looking for ways to reduce their negative effect on the environment. Many businesses do this by using web conferencing.
Web conferencing is a technology that allows people to communicate more effectively over the Internet. It is an easy way of hosting and attending conferences without having to leave the office. Each of the people involved in a web conference will be posted an invitation to the conference with the time and date of the web conference on it. When the conference is ready to begin, all participants (參與者) must sit at their computer and they will be connected over the Internet.
Obviously, in doing this no fuel is used in traveling to and from a conference, and less work time is taken up in attending a conference.
Any material to be used during the web conference is simply e-mailed to all the participants before the conference. This not only saves paper but also greatly reduces mailing cost for the business.
As a conference hall or business center isn’t being used, it means that the only power that is used is the power used by the participants’ personal computers. Similarly conference organizers don’t have to arrange for food or overnight accommodation (住宿) for participants. All this means that less energy is used.
Many companies actively do many things to reduce their negative impact (影響) on the environment. So web conferencing is much cheaper and greener and more people are willing to host and attend a web conference.
小題1:What is the passage mainly about?
A．Ways of protecting the environment.
B．Green benefits of web conference.
C．Ways of hosting a web conference.
D．Impacts of web conferencing on costs.
小題2:According to paragraph 1, many companies use web conferencing because they________.
A．a(chǎn)re interested in using any new technology
B．believe that web conferencing is more convenient
C．want to do something to protect the environment
D．haven’t enough money to hold a traditional conference
小題3:Web conferencing has all of the following advantages EXCEPT _________.
A．saving timeB．promoting understanding
C．saving energyD．saving paper
小題4:The participants of a web conference_________.
A．will be e-mailed an invitation before the conference
B．a(chǎn)re required to sit in the office together
C．will receive many paper materials
D．must have access to the Internet

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Research by Scotland Yard published in a London newspaper, has proven that knife crime in London is a serious non – white phenomenon, with 165 of the 225 under- 18s accused of knife crime in the past three months being from the black or other non – white groups．
According to Scotland Yard, only 60 of the 225 crimes were white．Despite being a small minority of the knife holding criminals, whites did, however, make up the single largest group of victims of knife crime．
According to the Scotland Yard report, whites made up 222 of the 637 victims of knife crime over the last three months．This number could probably be higher, as 292 victims were not identified by race．
This month Scotland Yard Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson suggested knife crime has replaced drug selling as the top concern for London police．
Sir Paul said so as he announced a specialist knife crime unit to deal with teenagers carrying knives in the capital．It will use a team of 75 specialist officers to find criminal group members and their supporters．
Detective Inspector, George Rhoden, president of the National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives said, “In the black community we have all noticed that there is major concern about gun and knife crime．Clearly we are not the only part of the community affected by the problem of children who have no fathers, but parental responsibility should be of major concern.”
Around 59 percent of black Caribbean children and 54 percent of mixed – race youngsters are looked after by a lone parent．In the white British population, the number is 22 percent．
小題1:From the above, we can see that       in knife crimes in London．
A．there are more whites than blacks as victims
B．there are more blacks than whites as victims
C．blacks make up the smallest group of criminals
D．blacks make up the second largest group of criminals
小題2:What Sir Paul Stephenson said suggests that     ．
A．drug selling has replaced knife crime as the top concern for London police
B．drug selling had been the top concern for London police in the past
C．knife crime used to be the top concern for London police
D．London police now pay no attention to drug selling
小題3:What measure has the government taken to deal with the problem of knife crime?
A．Punishing the parents of teenagers carrying knives．
B．Arresting the teenagers carrying knives．
C．Forming a specialist knife crime unit．
D．Fining the teenagers carrying knives．
小題4:According to George Rhoden, which of the following factors contributes to so many young blacks turning to crime?
A．That they are poorly educated．
B．That they are influenced by their fathers．
C．That many of them come from incomplete families．
D．That their parents are too busy to take care of them．

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Be Healthy ! Be Slim ! Be Beautiful!
Discover the secret for a healthy, slim, and beautiful you !
Discover how to be healthy, slim and beautiful !
I love this healthy diet program because it helps you lose weight, lose inches, feel healthy and look beautiful. .com
This healthy diet is an 8 week’s program which is unlike other diet regimes(食物療法). In that it focuses on proper nutrition first and weight loss second. Your body must have proper levels of minerals, vitamin, and protein in order to work well. It provides a simple lifestyle change to give you more energy and improve your health most greatly. It offers control over stomach and continuing hunger with a dense diet allowing 1,700 to 2,000 calories a day. If a person has a weight problem, their body probably is not working at proper levels of basic nutrients. We invite you to follow this program, so you can be the slim person who lives inside you.
You too, can love dieting especially if you are losing weight and losing inches.
For more information about our program, please get to our address in the internet:
http://www.Shaklee. net/ lifestyle—for—heath/products
小題1:This passage is mainly about            .
A．how people should keep fitB．a(chǎn) healthy diet program
C．why people should keep fitD．ways to lose weight
小題2:The underlined phrase “l(fā)ose inches” in the passage means            .
A．become shorterB．become taller
C．become fatterD．become thinner
小題3:According to this passage, all of the following are true except that          .
A．this program makes a change in your lifestyle
B．this program can stop you from feeling hungry all the time
C．this program allows you 1,700 to 2,000 calories for each meal
D．this program tries to tell us what people should do to become slim
小題4:If you click “ http://www.Shaklee. net/ lifestyle—for—heath/products ”you may read      
A．some other programsB．the content of this program
C．some interesting foodsD．some products you can buy

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

If women are mercilessly exploited(剝削) year after year,they have only themselves to blame.Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion,they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores.Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion.When you come to think of it,only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe(衣柜) packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.
Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste.Many women spend vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn.Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way,waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have.Skirts are lengthened or shortened;neck-lines are lowered or raised,and so on.No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society.Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth,comfort and durability(耐用).They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort,as long as they look right.There can hardly be a man who hasn’t at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day,or delicately picking her way through deep snow in high-heeled shoes.
When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion,the conclusions to be drawn are obvious.Do the constantly changing fashions of women’s clothes,one wonders,reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability?Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers.Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability?That is for you to decide.
小題1:Designers and big stores always make money        .
A．by mercilessly exploiting women workers in the clothing industry
B．because they are capable of predicting new fashions
C．by constantly changing the fashions in women’s clothing
D．because they attach great importance to quality in women’s clothing
小題2:To the writer,the fact that women change their old-fashioned dresses is seen as        .
A．a(chǎn) waste of money
B．a(chǎn) waste of time
C．a(chǎn)n expression of taste
D．a(chǎn)n expression of creativity
小題3:The writer would be less critical if fashion designers placed more stress on the     of clothing.
A．costB．a(chǎn)ppearance
C．comfortD．suitability
小題4:According to the passage,which of the following statements is TRUE?
A．New fashions in clothing are created for the commercial exploitation of women.
B．The constant changes in women’s clothing reflect their strength of character.
C．The fashion industry makes an important contribution to society.
D．Fashion designs should not be encouraged since they are only welcomed by women.

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