Rare birds in the UK have been living far better than the more common birds over the last decade due to the efforts of conservation organisations, according to a new assessment.
The research shows almost 60% of the 63 rare birds that live in the UK have increased over the last 10 years.
By contrast, only about one third of common species have increased over the same period. Just 28% of rare birds have decreased over the same period, compared with four out of every 10 common birds. The rare birds described in the assessment with increasing populations include the osprey (鶚) and corncrake (秧雞). All of these birds are subject to conservation action.
The declining common birds include the nightingale, swift (雨燕), house sparrow and red grouse (蘇格蘭雷鳥). These are suffering declines for a variety of reasons, including changes in farming practices.
Dr David Noble, from the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “That some of our rarer birds have responded to targeted conservation action is great news. It shows just what can be achieved. What we need to do now is to continue the good work and use some of the lessons we have learned to help our more common birds.”
Dr Mark Avery, the conservation director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said: “Over the last decade we've enjoyed some great conservation successes, including removing some threatened species from the World Conservation Union's Red List of Thratened Animals and increasing the populations of red kite, osprey, etc. However, these successes are countered (抵消) by continued declines of some widespread species.”
The overview of 210 native birds has been produced by a group of conservation organisations, to mark the publication of The State of the UK's Birds report, which is in its l0th year. The report was published by the RSPB for a group of conservation organisations.
小題1: Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The decline of widespread birds is not worrying for the UK.

B．The UK has got some practical experience of bird conservation.

C．Changes in farming practices contribute to the increase of rare birds.

D．Half of common birds have decreased in the past ten years in the UK.

小題2:We can learn from the passage that Dr David Noble      .

A．hopes that conservation organisations will change the way they work

B．is quite disappointed with the result of the new assessment

C．is losing confidence in conservation organizations’ action

D．has high hopes for the increase in bird population in Britain

小題3: Which of the following can best explain Dr Mark Avery's words?

A．The UK should not be satisfied with what they have achieved.

B．The UK should share their experience with other countries.

C．What conservation organisations do is far from satisfactory.

D．The RSPB is responsible for the decrease of common birds.

小題4:The passage is most likely to be found in a book about      .

A．popular science	B．historical events
C．nature	D．society

小題5: The author's purpose of writing this article is to tell people      .

A．some good ways to protect rare birds

B．the differences between rare birds and common birds

C．the number of rare birds has increased over the last decade

D．some widespread birds in the UK are in great need of help

Soaring divorce rates around the globe are affecting the environment, American researchers suggested in a study released Monday.
Michigan State University researcher Jianguo “Jack” Liu and his assistant Eunice Yu said the increasing number of divorces leads to more households with fewer people and greater consumption of water and energy. They said housing units require space, construction materials and fuel to heat and cool, regardless of the number of inhabitants.
For example, in the United States in 2005, divorced households consumed an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water. An additional 38 million extra rooms required heating and lighting that same year due to divorced households.
“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household”, Liu said. He said that in cohabitating households, people will watch the same television, share the air conditioning and heat and use the same refrigerator, all things that use energy at a regularly stable rate regardless of the number of users.
Liu said he was not condemning divorce, “Some people really need to get divorces.” He said that cohabitation was simply a more environmentally friendly option. Additionally, the researchers noted that trends other than divorce are also changing family living structures, such as the end of multiple generations of a family sharing a home and people remaining single longer.
“People’s first reaction to this research is surprise, and then it seems simple.” Liu said in a release, “But a lot of things become simple after research is done. Our challenges were to connect the dots and quantify their relationships. People have been talking about how to protect the environment and refuse climate change, but divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered.”
He said the increasing energy demands caused by divorce should be considered by governments when they are creating environmental policies.
This passage is mainly meant to ____.
A. inform the reader of the increasing divorce in America
B. emphasize the importance of protecting the environment
C. tell people the effect divorce has on the environment
D. appeal to married people to keep their households
According to the passage, what’s the attitude of Mr. Liu towards divorce?
A. Supportive       B. Objective.       C. Indifferent.       D. Unclear.
It can be inferred from the passage that ____.
A. divorced households will promote the sales of products
B. married households are more willing to protect the environment
C. divorced households contribute more to the society’s development
D. divorce is not taken into account when people are protecting the environment
From this passage we can find that ____.
A. divorce rates are quickly rising globally these years
B. cohabiting households will increase consumption of water and energy
C. to divorce is a wise option according to the passage
D. the end of multi-generations of a family will save energy

Computer programmer David Jones earned $ 150,000 a year designing new computer games, yet he cannot find a bank prepared to let him have a check card (信用卡). Instead, he has been told to wait another two years until he is 18.
He works for a small firm in Liverpool, where most young people of his age are finding jobs. David”s biggest headache is what to do with his money. Though he has high payment, he cannot drive a car, or get credit cards.(信用卡)
David got his job four months ago, a year after leaving school with six O-Levels(普通成績) and working for a time in a computer shop. “I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programs,” he said.
“I suppose $150,000 sounds a lot but I hope it will come to more than that this year.” He spends some of his money on records and clothes, and gives his mother $20 a week as he lives with his parents. But most of his spare time is spent working.
“Unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school,” he said. “ But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I knew what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young, anyway. I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement(退休) is a possibility. You never know when the market might disappear.
11. why is David so different from other young people of his age?
A .He has got a job.                                   B. He lives at home with his parents
C .He does not get out much.               D. He earns a high payment
12. David’s greatest problem is that _____.
A. he can’t be treated as an adult (grown-up) by the bank
B. he can’t make as many games as he wishes
C .he doesn’t know what to buy with the money
D. he is too young to drive a car
13. He was employed by the company because _____
A .he had worked in a computer shop
B. he had written some computer programs
C. he is clever and works hard at his lessons
D. he had learnt computer from books and magazines
14. He left school after taking six O-Levels because ____.
A. he was afraid of getting too old to start computing               B. he didn’t enjoy school
C. he wanted to work with computers                                      D. he wanted to earn a lot of money.
15. Why does David think he might retire early?
A. He thinks computer games might not always sell so well.
B. He wants to stop working when he is a millionaire.
C. One has to be young to write computer programs
D. He thinks his firm might close down.

A solar pump(太陽能水泵 ) was built in a desert small village. The pump used the deserts most common resource – sunlight, to increase its greatest need, water. Solar collectors were used to collect the sun’s rays. Flat collectors were used instead of concave (凹的) collectors. Flat collectors can be still and do not have moving parts, which can be broken in sandstorms. The system used the 20C temperature difference between the solar collectors and the ground water to work a steam engine which pumped water from under the ground.
Some of the social effects of the new pump were planed for. Children aged 6—15 used to meet the old men to receive the informal education there. In order to replace this, a school was also included in the project. But the project had not considered the traditional power structure of the village. As soon as the foreign experts left, the two richest men in the village took control of the pump and started selling water to everyone else. The result was that the majority of the people were poorer than before.
16. The basic function of the solar collectors is to ______
A. pump water           B. gather the sun’s rays 
C. start engine            D. raise the temperature
17. According to the passage which of the following statements could be true?
A. Solar collectors were concave collectors               
B. Flat collectors can be broken in sandstorms.
C. Concave collectors may be have moving parts.     
D. A solar pump is a solar collectors.
18. The underground water is pumped by means of ______.
A. solar collectors  B. the 20C temperature difference C. the system  D. a steam engine
19. Another plan was also included that_____.
A. some new pumps were to built ,too
B. children from aged 6—15 were required to meet old men.
C. a new school would take the place of the informal education.
D. the richest men in the village would control the pump.
20. From this passage , it can be inferred that_____.
A. the project was good , but people there disliked it.
B. only few rich men supported the project.
C. the project was successful even though it only brought good social effects to fewer villagers.
D. the project was a complete failure, because the result was against its purpose.

John Denver has got international fame as a pop star, songwriter, actor and environmental activist ( 環(huán)境保護(hù)者). Songs like Take Me Home, Country Road, Rocky
Mountain High and Annie's Song have become very popular. But less than thirty years ago, John Denver was a young man with little more than a fine voice, a guitar, and a dream. Growing up in conservative (保守的) family, he was not believed to drop out of college and head to Los Angeles, where the music scene was flowering. Nor was he believed to succeed.
In Take Me Home, John Denver talked about the story that shaped his life, with the story of the rich inner journey of a shy Midwestern boy. With honesty and cleverness, he wrote about his childhood, the feeling of moving to Los Angeles as the 60s came, his first lucky breaks, his first songwriting success with leaving on a Jet Plane and finally got a world fame.
He also wrote about his relationship with his first and second wife, as well as his parents, his children, his partners through his life and his friends.
Honest and rich in the book that only a natural-born storyteller could write so well, Take Me Home is very good from the beginning to the end. It's like spending a few days with a good friend.
小題1:This passage is probably about         .

A．a(chǎn) book written by John Denver	B．the life and cause of John Denver
C．how to write pop songs	D．what Los Angeles was like

小題2:Take Me Home is a name of       .

A．a(chǎn) famous book	B．a(chǎn) folk song in Los Angeles
C．a(chǎn) wonderful movie	D．a(chǎn) pop song by John Denver

小題3: From this passage, we can conclude that       .

A．John Denver's family didn't want him to leave college

B．he often had trips when he was a shy boy

C．he moved to Los Angeles with his parents

D．his family believed he would succeed

小題4: John Denver wrote his songs about many things except        .

A．his first success in songwriting

B．his family members including his parents, his wives and his children

C．the problems of environment

D．his life in los Angeles

A proven method for effective textbook reading is the SQ3R method developed by Francis Robinson. The first is to survey (the S step) the chapter by reading the title, introduction, section headings, summary., and by studying any graphs, tables, illustrations or charts. The purpose of this step is to get an overview of the chapter so that you will know before you read what it will be about.  In the second step (the Q step), for each section you ask yourself questions such as "What do I already know about this topic?" and "What do I want to know?" In this step you also take the section heading and turn it into a question. This step gives you a purpose for reading the section. The third step (the first of the 3 R's) is to read to find the answers to your questions. Then at the end of each section, before going on to the next section, you recite ( the second of the 3 R's) the answers to the questions that formed in the question step. When you recite you should say the information you want to learn out loud in your own words. The fifth step is done after you have completed step 2, 3 and 4 for each section. You review (the last of the 3 R's) the entire chapter. The review is done much as the survey was in the first step. As you review, hold a mental conversation with yourself as you recite the information you selected as important to learn. The mental conversation could take the form of asking and answering the questions formed the headings or reading the summary, which lists the main ideas in the chapter, and trying to fill in the details for each main idea.
小題1: The passage implies that the SQ3R method          .

A．needs to be prove	B．leaves much to be desired
C．turns out to be practicable	D．cannot be used by every reader

小題2:The SQ3R method consists of steps          .

A．three

B．four

C．five

D．seven

小題3: According to the passage, the first step helps the readers          .

A．read the first several paragraphs	B．scan the whole chapter
C．study the graphs	D．get the theme of chapter

小題4: Which of the following statements is true?

A．In the last step, you should remember all the information.

B．When you finish the last step, you will get both the main idea and the details.

C．The mental conversation involves answering the questions asked by the author.

D．While you are holding a mental conversation you select the important information.

B
China is going green．In order to reduce air pollution and oil shortages, carmakers have announced their plans to develop hybrid vehicles (混合燃料汽車) for the Chinese market．Toyota’s hybrid car Prius will be ready to drive in China this week．Let’s have a look at the new car．
Any vehicle is a hybrid run on a rechargeable battery and gas．Hybrid cars have special engines, which are smaller than traditional gas engines．The gasoline engine provides 99 percent of the power when the car is going at a steady speed. A specially designed battery motor provides extra power for running up hills or when it needs to speed up．
Step into a Prius, and turn on the engine．The first thing you notice is that it is quieter than a traditional car．At this point, the car’s gas engine is at rest．The electric motor will provide power until the car reaches about 24km/h．If you stay at a low speed, you are effectively driving an electric car, with no gas being used, and no waste gas given off．
The computer decides when to use the gas engine, when to go electric, and when to use a combination of the two．If you go over 24km/h, when you step on the gas pedal (油門), you are telling the computer how fast you want to go．
The electric motor recharges automatically using a set of batteries．And when driving at a high speed, the gas engine not only powers the car but also recharges the batteries．When you use the brake, the electric motor in the wheels will work like a generator (發(fā)電機(jī)) to produce electricity to recharge the batteries．As a result, the car’s batteries will last for around 200,000 miles．
66．The underlined sentence probably means ________.
A．there will be more and more green land in China  
B．China’s new cars are combinations of different green models
C．China is still young and lacking in experience
D．the environment is getting better in China
67. What is the most important feature of hybrid cars?
A. They are powered by both a rechargeable battery and gas.
B. They have smaller engines than traditional gas ones.
C. They only use 99 percent of their power to run up hill.
D. They are much quieter than traditional cars.
68. We can know from the story that ________.
A. the gas engine recharges the batteries as well as powering the car
B. using the brake suggests that the gas engine should work
C. the car’s batteries will last for around 200,000 miles without being recharged
D. the batteries can be recharged at any time you want
69. The author writes the passage mainly to________.
A. announce plans to develop hybrid vehicles for the Chinese market
B. let people know how to save their gas when driving a car
C. teach people how to drive a hybrid car
D. introduce a new kind of “green” car
70．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?
A．The hybrid car is environmentally friendly．
B．The hybrid car is unable to get itself recharged．
C．The hybrid car has been made in mass．
D．The hybrid car can decide what power to use

Among various programmes, TV talk shows have covered every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one is different in style. But no two shows are more opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “rubbish talk”. The contents on his show are as surprising as they can be. For example, the show takes the ever-mon talk show titles of love, sex, cheating, and hate, to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is about the dark side of society, yet people are willing to eat up the troubles of other people’s lives.
Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its top. But Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show is mainly about the improvement of society and different quality of life. Contents are from teaching your children lessons, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.
pared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being poured into society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech about the entire idea of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.
Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show’s main viewers are middleclass Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and ability to deal with life’s tough problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of a connection with the young adults of society. These are 18-to-21-year-olds whose main troubles in life include love, relationship, sex, money and drug. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned through the show’s exploitation.
小題1:pared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are ____.

A．more interesting	B．more formal
C．more detailed	D．unusually popular

小題2: Which of the following is likely to be a topic of the Oprah Winfrey show?

A．Family ine planning.	B．Nation hatred.
C．A new type of robot.	D．Street accident.

小題3:We can learn from the passage that the two talk shows_____.

A．have bee the only ones of its kind

B．a(chǎn)ttract different people

C．a(chǎn)ppear at different times of the day

D．exploit the weaknesses in human nature

       Many parents who welcome the idea of turning off the TV and spending more time with the family are still worried that without TV they would be too often on call as entertainers（娛樂者） for their children．They remember thinking up all sorts of things to do when they were children．But their own children seem different, less good at finding things to pass the time, somehow．When there’s nothing to do, these parents notice regretfully that their children seem unable to come up with anything to do besides turning on the TV．?
One father, for example, says, “When I was young, we were always thinking up things to do, projects and games．We certainly never complained in an angry way to our parents, ‘I have nothing to do”．He compares this with his own children today: “They are simply lazy．If someone doesn’t play with them, they’ll happily sit there watching TV all day．”
There is one word for this father’s disappointment: unfair．It is as if he were disappointed in them for not reading Greek though they have never studied the language．He feels his children’s lack of inventiveness a great pity, as if the ability to play were something born that his children are missing．In fact, the tendency（傾向） to play is built into the human species, but the actual ability to play—to imagine, to invent in a playful way, and the ability to gain satisfaction after successful effort from it—these are skills that have to be learned and developed．
Such disappointment, however, is not only unjust, it is also destructive（毀滅性的）．Sensing their parents’ disappointment, children come to believe that they are, indeed, lacking something, and that this makes them less worthy of admiration and respect．Giving children the chance to develop new things to enjoy themselves, to enrich their knowledge and experience and discover the pleasure of doing things on their own is, on the other hand, a way to help children develop a confident（自信）feeling about themselves as able and interesting people．
小題1:Many people think that, instead of watching a lot of TV, their children should_______．

A．think up things to enjoy themselves	B．find chances to talk with parents
C．enjoy themselves outdoors	D．sit silently studying Greek

小題2:Fathers often blame their children for not being able to play by themselves．This is unfair because________．

A．they do not lack the ability to play

B．they have not been given the opportunities to learn and develop their ability

C．the children are too young to do that

D．the children are not really lazy, but there’s nothing for them to do

小題3:When parents show continuous disappointment in their children, the children will________．

A．be more disappointed

B．refuse to learn new things

C．discover the pleasures of doing things on their own

D．lose their confidence and respectability

小題4:What is the author’s main idea?

A．Parents should give children more help on how to be inventive．

B．Turning off the TV will help us solve a lot of family problems．

C．It’s not right for parents and children to blame（抱怨） each other．

D．Today’s children are becoming less able and independent than before．

We hear with our ears, right? Yes, but scientists have known for years that we also hear with our eyes. In a study published in 1976, researchers found that people combined both auditory cues(聽力提示) and visual ones，like mouth and face movements, when they heard speech.
A new study that looks at a different set of sensory cues adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests such combination is natural. In a paper, Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick report that people can hear with their skin.
The researchers had volunteers listen to spoken syllables. Meanwhile, they connected the volunteers to a device that would blow a tiny puff (氣流) of air onto the skin of their hands or necks. The syllables included “ba” and “pa”, which produce brief puffs from the mouth when spoken, and “da” and “ta,” which do not produce puffs. They found that when listeners heard “da” or “ta” while a puff of air was blown onto their skin, they considered the sounds as “ba” or “pa”.
Dr. Gick said the findings were similar to those from the 1976 study, in which visual cues defeated auditory ones — volunteers listened to one syllable but thought it another because they were watching a video of mouth movements corresponding to the second syllable. In his study，he said，cues from sensory receivers on the skin defeated the ears as well. “Our skin is doing the hearing for us,” he said.
Dr. Gick noted that it would normally be rare that someone actually sensed a puff of air produced by another, although people might occasionally sense their own puffs. “What’s so persuasive about this particular effect,” he added. “is that people are picking up on this information that they don’t know they are using.” That supports the idea that combining different sensory cues is natural.
Dr. Gick said the finding also suggested that other sensory cues might be at work in speech perception(知覺) — that, as he put it, “we are these fantastic perception machines that take in all the information available to us and combine it faultlessly.”
小題1:“Da” or “ta” were considered as “ba” or “pa” when __________.

A．they were spoken quickly

B．puffs of air were blown onto the listener’s skin

C．they were pronounced using a special device

D．they were made with face movements

小題2:Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Humans combine different sensory cues through experience.

B．Dr. Gick’s new study is more important than the one in 1976.

C．People sometimes can sense their own puffs when speaking

D．Only auditory and visual cues are at work in speech perception.

小題3:What is the best title of the text?

A．We Can Hear with Our Skin

B．Our Visual Cues Is Doing the Hearing for Us

C．Facial Expressions Are Important

D．We Are Fantastic Machines