Warm water freezes more quickly than cold water. Sir Francis Bacon said that almost four hundred years ago. But few people believed him until 1970. In that year a Canadian scientist George Kill proved the English professor was right. Dr Kill filled an open oil pail(桶) with cold water. He filled another with warm water. He put both in the same low temperature. The warm water froze first. The lack of covers on the pails is the secret. Some of the warm water changed into vapor. This meant that less of the warm water was left to be frozen. And so the warm water froze faster than the cold water even though it had a greater temperature drop to make.
小題1:Hundreds of years ago, Sir Francis Bacon found _______.

A．the temperature of warm water drops faster than that of cold water

B．warm water is heavier than cold water

C．warm water has the same temperature as cold water

D．warm water is not as useful as cold water

小題2:What Sir Francis Bacon said was right, but people didn't believe him until _______.

A．late in the 19th century	B．early in the 20th century
C．three years ago	D．late in the 20th century

小題3:Leave a pail with warm water and another pail with cold water in the same low temperature, you’ll find that _______.

A．cold water freezes first

B．warm water turns into ice before cold water

C．warm water and cold water freeze at the same time

D．much of cold water is changed into air.

小題4:Why does warm water freeze first in the same freezing weather?

A．Because some of the warm water turns to vapor, the amount(數(shù)量) becomes less than that of cold water.

B．Because warm water is lighter than cold water.

C．Because the temperature of warm water is lower than that of cold water.

D．Because cold water freezes with more difficulty than warm water.

2008 sadly saw the worst earthquake in China in over 30 years. The Great Sichuan Earthquake was 8 on the Richter scale and killed around 70,000 people in May, not to mention the tens of thousands who were injured or went missing.
On 26^th January, 2009, the biggest earthquake in India took the lives of 25,000 people. In the morning, when everybody was enjoying holiday, the earthquake began, It was about 7.5 on the Richter scale. "There is nothing left between the sky and the earth any more. Everything has been pulled down. " said one of the villagers alive. " There is no water, no food and no one has come to help."
Nobody died in Pakistan, a country next to India. The City of Lahore was lucky. In Lahore American School, where I was studying, all of the students were safe. They were in the field, so most children didn't feel anything. The earthquake was felt by the teachers that were on the second floor. However, though Mrs Young was also on the second floor, she didn't feel anything. She didn't know what happened until a teacher told her about it. Those teachers who were on the other floors had different feelings. Mr Emond, the maths teacher from Australia, said that when the earthquake started he thought there was something wrong with him, but then another teacher said that it was an earthquake. After those words Mr Emond felt better. Mrs Davis and Mr Frost didn't feel anything either.
My mother didn't feel anything. She didn't even know that it was an earthquake till she saw a shaking light. My dad saw the computer shaking and then he looked out of the window and saw many people going out.
小題1:People use Richter scale to tell ______________

A．where the earthquake takes place

B．when the earthquake takes place

C．how serious the earthquake is

D．how long the earthquake lasts

小題2:The recent biggest earthquake both in China and India killed around ___ people.

A．25,000

B．45,000

C．70,000

D．95,000

小題3:From the sentence “ There is nothing left between the sky and the earth any more” we learn that______________.

A．India is a large country

B．the Indian had nothing after the earthquake

C．there is no tall building in India

D．the earthquake in India was serious

小題4:According to the passage, the City of Lahore is in __________________.

A．India

B．Pakistan

C．America

D．China

For many years there's been a debate about rewarding our children. Does it work? Is it effective?
Some people think we should establish a standard with our kids and give them something for meeting this standard as a reward. Punishment is given out in much the same way, but it’s used when certain standards of performance, behavior, etc. have not been met. Kids will often become more dutiful when threatened with punishment, and work harder when promised a valuable reward. The problem is what happens when you aren’t around.
To develop responsible, self-disciplined kids, parents need to promote certain ideas. One of these ideas is that everyone pitches in and helps in your family. Another idea is that there can be enjoyment in doing any task if we choose to make it so. When a task is for a worthy cause (our family can enjoy the house more because I helped clean it), this message can have a big impact.
This is how we help our kids develop a sense of responsibility. When our children develop this responsibility, they’ll be more disciplined, and they’ll control their emotions better. When we give rewards to our kids, we reduce the sense of responsibility. We also create children who may temporarily perform to a certain standard, but who aren’t likely to continue the performance without the carrot hanging in front of them. 
“Rewards and punishment can change behavior for a while, but they cannot change the person who engages in the behavior,” said Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards. “Good values have to be grown from the inside out.” Parents can help give their children a sense of shared responsibility and discipline which can last a life time. The real rewards that your children receive will be their readiness for the complex and demanding world that waits for them—a world that rewards those who have learned the secrets of discipline responsibility. So keep those shiny rewarding to yourself, and let your kids find their own rewards.
小題1:According to the passage, when children are threatened with punishment, ______.

A．they may lose interest in their work

B．the results will be worse than usual

C．they may change to another person

D．they may appear to be well-behaved

小題2:The underlined part “the carrot” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to _____.

A．a(chǎn)pologies

B．a(chǎn)ims

C．rewards

D．doubts

小題3:According to the passage, Alfie Kohn would agree that parents should ______.

A．never pay attention to the way their children do things

B．show their children how to behave by example

C．help their children establish good values

D．never punish their children

小題4:What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Should parents reward their children?

B．Do you often reward your children?

C．When should parents reward their children?

D．What can parents reward their children with?

The evidence for harmony（和諧）may not be clear in some families. But it seems that four in five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly- held image(印象)of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. ”We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families, ”said one member of the research team. ”They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation(商議) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat. ”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat the children as friends. ”My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me, ”says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. ”I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it. ”Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. ”Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that. ”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers’ rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, ”O(jiān)ur surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in out social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over. ”
小題1:What is the popular images of teenagers today?

A．They worry about school	B．They dislike living with their parents
C．They are locked in to avoid trouble	D．They quarrel a lot with other family members

小題2:The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___

A． share family responsibility	B． cause trouble in their families
C． go boating with their family	D． make family decisions

小題3:Compared with parents of 30 years age, today’s parents___.

A． go to clubs more often with their children

B． are much stricter with their children

C． care less about their children’s life

D． give their children more freedom

小題4:What is the passage mainly about?

A． Negotiation in family	B． Education in family
C． Harmony in family	D． Teenage trouble in family

小題5:Which of the following NOT TRUE?
A.Parents are stricter than their own parents.B Parents get along well with their kids C.Parents will discuss something with their kids  D. Harmony in family is important.

It is difficult for doctors to help a person with a damaged brain. Without enough blood, the brain lives for only three to five minutes. More often the doctors can' t fix the damage. Sometimes they are afraid to try something to help because it is dangerous to work on the brain. The doctors might make the person worse if he operates on the brain.
Dr. Robert White, a famous professor and doctor, thinks he knows a way to help. He thinks doctors should make the brain very cold. If it is very cold, the brain can live without blood for 30 minutes. This gives the doctor a longer time to do something for the brain.
Dr. White tried his idea on 13 monkeys. First he taught them to do different jobs, then he operated on them. He made the monkeys' blood go through a machine. The machine cooled the blood. Then the machine sent the blood back to the monkeys' brains. When the brain' s temperature was 10°C, Dr. White stopped the blood to the brain. After 30 minutes he turned the blood back on. He warmed the blood again. After their operations the monkeys were like they had been before. They were healthy and busy. Each one could still do the jobs the doctor had taught them.
小題1:The biggest difficulty in operating on the damaged brain is that _______.

A．the time is too short for doctors

B．the patients are often too nervous

C．the damage is extremely hard to fix

D．the blood-cooling machine might break down

小題2:The brain operation was made possible mainly by _______.

A．taking the blood out of the brain

B．trying the operation on monkeys first

C．having the blood go through a machine

D．lowering the brain' s temperature

小題3:With Dr. White' s new idea, the operation on the damaged brain _______.

A．can last as long as 30 minutes	B．can keep the brain' s blood warm
C．can keep the patient' s brain healthy	D．can help monkeys do different jobs

小題4:What is the right order of the steps in the operation?
a. send the cooled blood back to the brain
b. stop the blood to the brain
c. have the blood cooled down
d. operate on the brain

A．a(chǎn),b,c,d

B．c,a,b,d

C．c, b, d, a

D．b, c, d, a

When I was in the third grade, I was picked to be the princess(公主）in the school play. For weeks my mother had helped me practice my lines. But once on stage, every word disappeared from my head. Then my teacher told me she had written a narrator's（解說者的）part for the play, and asked me to change roles. Though I didn't tell my mother what had happened that day, she sensed my unhappiness and asked if I wanted to take a walk in the yard. 
It was a lovely spring day. We could see dandelions(蒲公英）popping through the grass in bunches, as if a painter had touched our landscape with bits of gold. I watched my mother carelessly bend down by one of the bunches. "I think I am going to dig up all these weeds, "she said. "From now on, we'll have only roses in this garden. "
"But I like dandelions, "I protested. "All flowers are beautiful-even dandelions!"
My mother looked at me seriously. "Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn't it?" she asked thoughtfully. I nodded. "And that is true of people, too, " she added. 
When I realized that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry and told her the truth. 
　　“But you will be a beautiful narrator, ”she said, reminding me of how much I loved to read stories aloud to her. 
Over the next few weeks, with her continuous encouragement, I learned to take pride in the role. The big day finally came. A few minutes before the play, my teacher came over to me. “Your mother asked me to give this to you, ”she said, handing me a dandelion. After the play, I took home the flower, laughing that I was perhaps the only person who would keep such a weed. 
小題1:The girl did not play the role of the princess mainly because . 

A．she felt nervous on the stage.

B．she lost her interest in that role.

C．she preferred the role of the narrator

D．she had difficulty memorizing her words

小題2:Why did the mother suggest a walk in the garden?

A．To remove the dandelions

B．To enjoy the garden scene

C．to have a talk with her daughter.

D．to help her daughter with the play.

小題3:What is the main idea of the story?
A. Everybody can find his or her own way to success. 
B. Everybody has his or her own value in the world. 
C. Everybody should learn to play different roles
D Everybody has some unforgettable memory. 

When a Swedish ship that sank（沉） in 1628 was recovered from the port of Stockholm, historians and scientists were overjoyed with the chance to examine the remains of the past. The ship construction showed how ships were built and operated during the seventeenth century.  In this way, artifacts, objects made by human beings, provided a picture of daily life almost 400 years ago.
Underwater archaeology(考古)-the study of ships, aircraft and human settlements that have sunk under large bodies of water-is really a product of the last 50 years.  The rapid growth of this new area of study has occurred because of the invention of better diving equipment. Besides the Swedish ship wreck(殘�。�，underwater archaeologists have made more exciting discoveries such as the  5000-year-old boats in the Mediterranean Sea.
Underwater archaeology can provide facts abut the past. In ancient ports all over the world are ships sunken in the past 6, 000 years.  There are also sunken settlements in seas and lakes telling of people’s way of life and their systems of trade in ancient times. Underwater archaeologists want to study these objects to add to the world's knowledge of history, but they have to fight two enemies.  One enemy is treasure hunters who dive for ancient artifacts that they can sell to collectors.  Once sold, these objects are lost to experts.  The second enemy is dredging machines(挖掘機(jī)）often used to repair ports. These machines destroy wrecks and artifacts or bury them deeper under sand and mud. By teaching the public about the importance of underwater “museums” of the past, archaeologists are hoping to get support for laws to protect underwater treasures.
小題1:What purpose does Paragraph 1 serve in the passage?

A．To provide background information of the topic

B．To attract readers' attention to the topic

C．To use an example to support the topic

D．To offer basic knowledge of the topic

小題2:The aim of underwater archaeology is to    .

A．exploit(開發(fā))water bodies	B．search for underwater life
C．study underwater artifacts	D．examine underwater environment

小題3:Underwater archaeologists are worried because_____.

A．sea hunters have better diving equipment

B．their knowledge of world history is limited

C．dredging machines cause damage to the ports

D．sold artifacts can hardly be regained for research

小題4:What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To introduce a young branch(分支) of learning.

B．To discuss the scientists’ problems.

C．To explain people’s way of life in the past.

D．To describe the sunken ships.

Blogs (博客) are the place where young people go to show their hearts, to express their anger, sorrow or disappointment, and even to gossip (說別人的閑話).
Many people enjoy the freedom in blogging. Some, however, find that putting one’s life online can have a price. The blogs of some students in America were stopped by the government for some time because they posted threatening words to their teachers on their blogs.
A recent study finds that nearly a fifth of teens who surf the Internet have their own blogs. And 38 % of teens say they read other people’s blogs. By comparison, about a tenth of adults have their own blogs and a quarter say they read other people’s online magazines.
With the development of the Internet, more and more people will be attracted by blogging.
In another study, 79% of teens agree that people at their age aren’t careful enough when giving out information about themselves online. Besides, careless blogging can also influence blog readers. When you are angry or unhappy, your blog is the first place you turn to. The words you post then may not be rational which you may regret later. To minimize (使減到最小) the negative influence, change the safety setting and make such posts “personal” so that only you can read them.
As long as you are careful with what you post, blogging is a great means of staying in touch with friends and displaying one’s creative works.
小題1:Blogs are the place where people __________.

A．go online to have a chat

B．go online to enjoy freedom

C．exchange their views online

D．go online to express themselves freely

小題2:The fact that some American students’ blogs were stopped is used to show that __________.

A．people should not put their life online

B．American students are limited in blogging

C．a(chǎn)nyone who gets on the Web has his blog

D．people should be careful with what they write

小題3:The underlined word “rational” in the fifth paragraph probably means __________.

A．strange	B．perfect
C．helpful	D．reasonable

小題4:The passage is mainly about __________.

A．the use people make of blogs

B．the number of people who have blogs

C．a(chǎn)dvantages and disadvantages of blogs

D．the author’s suggestions about blogging

Scientists are trying to make the deserts ,which get very little rain, into good land again. They want to bring water to the deserts，so people can live and grow food. They are learning a lot about the deserts. But more and more of the earth is becoming desert all the time. Scientists may not be able to change the desert in time．
Why is more and more land becoming desert？Scientists think that people make deserts．People are doing bad things to the earth against the scientists’ wish．
Some places on the earth don’t get much rain. But they still don’t become deserts．This is because some green plants are growing there．Small green plants and grass are very important to dry places．Plants don’t let the sun make the earth even drier． Plants do not let the wind blow the dirt away．When a bit of rain falls，the plants hold the water. Without plants, the land can become desert more easily．
小題1:Deserts ____________ ．

A．never have any plants or animals in them

B．can all be turned into good land before long

C．a(chǎn)re becoming smaller and smaller

D．get very little rain

小題2:More and more land is becoming desert  because____________．

A．plants can’t grow there

B．there is not enough rain

C．people haven’t done what scientists wish them to do

D．scientists know little about the deserts

小題3:Small green plants are very important to dry places because ________

A．they don’t let the sun make the earth even drier

B．they don’t let the wind blow the soil away

C．they hold water

D．All of the above．

小題4:After reading this passage, we learn that _____________ ．

A．plants can keep dry land from becoming desert

B．it is good to get rid of the grass in the deserts

C．a(chǎn)ll places without much rain will become deserts

D．it is better to grow crops on dry land than to cut them

We’ve heard about radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan reaching American shores. Experts say so far there is no reason to worry, and point out that we meet radiation every day. Where and how? NPR’s Renee Montagne posed that question to Peter Caracappa, a radiation safety officer and professor of nuclear engineering.
MONTAGNE: How many things emit radiation?
Dr CARACAPPA: Well, radiation and radioactive material is a part of nature. So everything that’s living has some amount of radiation coming from it—a very small amout. Plus there’s radiation in the ground and the air.
So the extremes are uranium in the soil to bananas?
Yes.
By the way, why do bananas have radiation?
Bananas have a lot of potassium(鉀). And a small amount of potassium naturally is called potassium 40, which is radioactive
What’s the difference between radiation that’s harmful and not harmful?
Well, the term radiation can apply to a lot of different things. But the harmful radiation is ionizing(離子)radiation. It has enough energy that it can make chemical changes in material. We could get ionizing radiation from an X-ray, for example. It’s the kind of radiation that causes cancer.
The broader definition of radiation includes a lot of things that we call non-ionizing radiation. That includes everything like radio waves and visible light and your microwave.
So what then is the largest contributor of ionizing radiation?
For the natural sources of ionizing radiation, actually the biggest chunk of that tends to come from radon(氡), which is a radioactive material that is present in the air. It can become a concern when it builds up in low-lying areas of homes like basements.
Would it be fair to say that most people do not need to worry about the danger of being exposed to radiation?
I would say that the everyday exposure to radioation that we meet contributes an extremely tiny risk to our life or to our health compared to all of the other risks that we meet in our day-to-day life.
小題1:We can infer from the first paragraph that radiation is______.

A．rare

B．powerful

C．dangerous

D．common

小題2:The passage may be _______.

A．a(chǎn)n interview

B．a(chǎn)n argument

C．a(chǎn) talk show program

D．a(chǎn) science report

小題3:Whether radiation is harmful or not depends on______.

A．whether it has a small amount of potassium

B．whether it changes chemical in materials.

C．whether it has energy to change materials

D．whether it is visible in life

小題4:The purpose of writing this passage is to _______.

A．a(chǎn)dvise on how to protect us from radiation

B．a(chǎn)nalyze what causes radiation in daily life

C．warn people of the danger of radiation

D．expect people not to fear everyday radiation