Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes “the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don’t seem to learn from history. ”Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can not even understand who we are and where we are without history, much less try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. In doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and accomplish what he accomplished. I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.
1. What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2?
A. Many people aren’t clever enough to learn well from the past.
B. Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes.
C. Many people feel it hard to understand history.
D. Many people have no interest in studying history.
2. In Paragraph 3, the author shows that history is useful because
A. it makes the current political situation go smoothly
B. it helps us realize the importance of historical events
C. it helps us understand why things are the way they are
D. it helps people accept the present situation where they live
3. Some historical figures are mentioned in the last paragraph to show
A. people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil
B. people may also learn from bad historical figures
C. more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements
D. today’s people can also achieve what they achieved
4. What would be talked about in the following paragraph?
A. How to teach history effectively.         
B. Some negative reasons for studying history.
C. How to get more people to study history.  
D. Some bad historical figures.

Cellphone feels like a part of your body? A global survey has found that most people can’t live without their mobiles, never leave home without them and, if given a choice, would rather lose their wallet.
Calling mobile phones the “remote control” for life, market research firm Synovate’s poll said cell phones are so ubiquitous that by last year more humans owned one than did not.
Three-quarters of the more than 8,000 respondents polled online in 11 countries said they take their phone with them everywhere, which Russians and Singaporeans the most attached.
More than a third also said they couldn’t live without their phone, topped by Taiwanese and again Singaporeans, while one in four would find it harder to replace the mobile than their purse.
Some two thirds of respondents go to bed with their phones nearby and can’t switch them off, even though they want to, because they’re afraid they’ll miss something.
Mobiles have changed the nature of relationships, with the survey finding a fifth of all respondents set up first dates via text and almost the same number use the same method to end a love affair.
Apart from the obvious calling and SMS-ing, the top three features people use regularly on their mobile phones globally are the alarm clock, the camera and the games.
As for email and Internet access, 17 percent of respondents said they checked their inboxes or surfed the Web on their phones, led by those in the United States and Britain.
One in 10 respondents log onto(注冊) social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace regularly via mobile, again led by Britain and the United States.
Not everyone is tech savvy(科技通), however,37 percent of respondents said they don’t know how to use all the functions on their phone.
1. How many people of all respondents end a love affair via text?
A. About 4,800.                          B. About 3,600.
C. About 2,400.                          D. About 1,600.
2. According to the survey,       like surfing the Internet with a cellphone most.
A. Singaporeans    B. Russians            C. Americans            D. Chinese
3. Which of the following functions of cellphones is the least used?
A. Calling.                                  B. Playing games.
C. Taking photos.                            D. Surfing the Internet.
4. Which would be the best title of the passage?
A. People can live better without the cellphone.
B. People would rather lose their wallet than their cellphone.
C. Different uses of the cellphone.
D. New functions of the cellphone.

Primary teachers are responsible for guiding children through the formation of many important life skills, and also watching over their students’ social development. Primary teachers come into contact with about 30 students every day, and teach them a variety of subjects. Many hours are spent before and after class on planning, preparation and correction. One should be a very patient, caring, yet firm person to be able to deal with the demands of children in the four to twelve-year-old age group.
Secondary teachers teach specific subjects to various groups of students. Just like primary teachers, they spend an amount of time planning and preparing lessons and correcting homework—their duties are not restricted to face-to-face teaching. Dealing with twelve to eighteen-year-olds requires a wide range of skills.
If you become a primary teacher, you will need to decided whether to be a “generalist (多面手)”, teaching a wide range of subjects, or a "specialist", teaching only one or two. Most primary teachers are specialists. Generalist teachers spend the greatest part of their day with one class, which means that they spend more time with the same children. Specialist teachers have more time away from their students. It is therefore very important for generalist teachers to develop a strong working relationship with their students.
The unique rapport (和諧) you can develop with a particular set of students is one of teaching’s greatest pleasures. However, the disadvantage of primary teaching is that if you have a difficult student, you will be forced to deal with him or her, all day, every day, throughout the school year. Teachers need to work out strategies to get themselves and their students through such difficulties.
Primary teachers today are generally four-year trained. They usually do a three or four-year undergraduate degree, and if this degree does not include teacher training, they will have to undertake postgraduate study in education as well.
1. After class primary teachers usually_____________
A. come into contact with students          
B. teach students a variety of subjects
C. deal with the demands of children      
D. make planning, preparation and correction
2. What does the third paragraph mainly discuss?
A. What a primary teacher needs to do in the classroom.
B. The differences between generalist and specialist teaching.
C. How a primary teacher should try his best in the school.
D. The relationship between the primary teachers and students.
3. We can learn from this passage that___________
A. a primary teacher needs a wide range of skills
B. the disadvantage of primary teaching is having difficult students
C. teacher training is not important for a primary teacher
D. secondary teachers mainly teach children two subjects
4. The author writes the article in order to_________
A. tell teachers how primary teachers guide students
B. tell teachers what you should do as a primary teacher
C. let readers know more about primary teachers
D. let readers know how to be a primary teacher

第三部分：閱讀理解（共20小題，每題2分）
Bamboo (竹子) is one of nature’s (自然) most surprising plants． Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass．
Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly． A Japanese scientist reported one bamboo plant which grew 1.5 meters (4 feet) in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe． There are more than 1, 000 kinds of bamboo．
Not all bamboo looks the same． Some bamboo plants are very thin． They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimeters (1 foot) across． This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green．
Bamboo has been used to make many things such as hats and kitchen tools(廚房用具)． Because it is strong, bamboo is also used to build buildings．
Many Asian countries have used bamboo for hundreds of years． They often use bamboo for buildings and supporting (支撐) new buildings and bridges while they are being built．
In Africa, poor farmers are taught how to find water using bamboo． These African countries need cheap way to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water．Bamboo pipes (管子) help poor farmers bring water to their thirsty fields without spending a lot of money．
1．How is bamboo like grass?
A．It grows quickly． B．It’s wood．    C．it is easy to cut．  D．It is very thin．
2．Though you can see bamboo everywhere, it doesn’t grow      ．
A．in China      B．in Europe C．on mountains   D．in Africa
2．Why is bamboo used by African poor farmers? Because       ．
A．it is cheap B．it has different colors  C．it is strong   D．it has been used by Asians
3．In Asia, bamboo has been used for     ．
A．a(chǎn) short time                    B．many thousands of years
C．many hundreds of years          D．a(chǎn)bout 100 years

What is language for? Some people seem to think it's for practising grammar rules and learning lists of words—the longer the lists，the better. That's wrong. Language is for the exchange（交流）of ideas and information. It's meaningless knowing all about a language if you can't use it freely. Many students I have met know hundreds of grammar rules, but they can't speak correctly or fluently（流利地）. They are afraid of making mistakes. One shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes when speaking a foreign language. Native speakers make mistakes and break rules, too. Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Foreigners often speak English too correctly. "But the mistakes that native speakers make are different from those that Chinese students make. They're English mistakes in the English language. And if enough native speakers break a rule, it is no longer a rule. What used to be wrong becomes right. People not only make history, they make language. But a people can only make its own language. It can't make another people's language. So Chinese students of English should pay attention to grammar, but they shouldn't overdo（做過頭）it. They should put communication（交際）first.　
1．Language is used to ________.
A. express oneself　　     　       B. practice grammar rules
C. talk with foreigners only            D. learn lists of words
2．Generally, when an American or an Englishman speaks English, he ________.
A. never makes mistakes　　          B. often makes mistakes
C. can't avoid making mistakes         D. always makes mistakes
3．"Foreigners often speak English too correctly. "This sentence means that ________.
A. foreigners speak correct English   
B. foreigners speak incorrect English
C. foreigners speak English according to the grammar rules
D. foreigners never make mistakes when they speak English
4．If too many native speakers break a rule,  ________.
A. what they use will become right       B. they are against the law
C. they should say sorry to others        D. they will become heroes

第三部分：寫作（共兩節(jié)，滿分35分）
第一節(jié)任務(wù)型閱讀（共10小題；每小題1分）
閱讀下列短文，根據(jù)所讀的內(nèi)容在文章后的表格中填入恰當?shù)膯卧~。注意表格中的每個空格只填1個單詞。
Global warming is one of the major environmental problems we are facing today. Scientists think a further rise in the carbon dioxide levels will make this situation worse. The greenhouse effect causes the earth’s heat to be trapped in the atmosphere, which results in the increase in temperature. This in turn has an effect on various plants and animals. Global warming makes it difficult for some of them to survive.
Ozone depletion(臭氧耗損) means a drop in the quantity of the ozone in the earth’s stratosphere (平流層). The ozone hole in the Antarctic is mainly due to the release of CFCs ( a type of gas). Because of ozone depletion, humans are facing various problems such as the harmful effects of UV rays.
Water pollution is caused when wastes are thrown into water. What’s more, many harmful chemicals are also put into water, which causes the deaths of many wild animals and endangers the health of humans.
The increasing population is causing a loss of natural resources. This is related to various human activities. For example, overfishing has caused many kinds of fishes to die out. Forests are being cleared to meet the rising demand for paper, wood, even for land. Mining(采礦) has led to a further drop in mineral resources. If we used up all the resources, how could our children survive on this planet?
These are some of the current environmental problems we are facing today. Only with an effort from each person, can we hope to save our planet from being destroyed.

Environmental problem	Cause	Damage
Global (76)_____-	Increasing carbon dioxide levels	Making it difficult for various plants and animals to (77) ______
(78)______ depletion	Releasing CFCs	Various problems such as the harmful effects of UV rays
Water (79) _____	·Throwing (80)_____ into water ·Adding harmful (81) _____into water	Endangering wild animals’ lives Endangering humans’ (82) ______
The loss of natural(83)____	·Increasing (84) _____ ·Various human activi- ties such as （85）_____, cutting down forests and mining	Endangering the next generation

 

The Antarctica is actually a desert.
The Antarctica is all ice all the year. The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero at the South Pole. Explorers(探險家) used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snowfall. But less than ten inches of snowfalls each year. That is less than half an inch of water. Ten times that much moisture(水分) falls in parts of the Sahara.
The little snow that falls in Antarctica never melts(融化). It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century. When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep, it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it.
1. Antarctica is called a desert because it _____.
A. is sandy
B. has the same temperature as a desert
C. has little moisture
D. all of the above
2. The Antarctica has _____.
A. ten times as much moisture as the Sahara
B. the same amount of moisture as the Sahara
C. about one-tenth the moisture of the Sahara
D. none of these
3. The snow in Antarctica is very deep because it _____.
A. never stops falling
B. piles up year after year
C. never melts
D. Both B and C
4. The best title for this passage is “_____”
A. A Strange Continent
B. The Antarctica—An Ice Desert
C. Snowfall at the South Pole
D. The World’s Greatest Desert

Electric cars will not be really much cleaner than autos powered by mineral fuels until they rely less on electricity produced from usual coal-fired power plants.
“For electric vehicles to become a major green alternative, the power fuel has to move away from
coal, or cleaner coal technologies have to be developed,” said Jared Cohon, the chairman of a National
Research Council report released on Monday. About half of US power is produced by
burning coal, which gives off many times more of traditional pollutants than natural gas, and about
twice as much of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Nuclear and renewable power have to
generate a larger portion of US power for electric cars to become much greener compared to
gasoline-powered cars, Cohan, who is president of Carnegie Mellon University, said in an interview.
Advances in coal burning, like capturing carbon at power plants for permanent burial underground,
could also help electric cars become a cleaner alternative to vehicles powered by fossil fuels, he said.
Pollution from energy sources did $120 billion worth of damage to human health, agriculture and
recreation in 2008, and electricity was responsible for more than half of the damage, said the NRC
report.
Electric cars have their benefits such as reducing imports of foreign oil. But they also have hidden
costs. Materials in electric car batteries are hard to produce, which adds to the energy it takes to make
them. In fact, the health and environmental costs of making electric cars can be 20 percent greater
than usual cars, the report said.
The report estimated that electric cars could still cost more than gas-powered cars to operate and
manufacture in 2030 unless US power production becomes cleaner.
1. Why are electric cars not clean enough?
A. Because they run too slowly              B. Because they are too expensive
C. Because they rely on coal-fired power.      D. Because they give off more carbon dioxide.
2. We can infer from the passage that ______.
A. electric cars will soon take the place of gas-powered cars
B. no one holds hope for electric cars at present
C. electric cars waste more energy than before
D. some people believe that electric cars are cleaner
3. The underlined word “them” refers to “______”.
A. electric cars     B. batteries       C. producers        D. materials
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a way to make electric cars cleaner?
A. Developing cleaner coal technologies.        B. Making electric cars run faster.
C. Generating more unclear power.             D. Making advances in coal burning.

Man is a land animal, but he is also closely tied to the sea. Throughout history the sea has served the needs of man. The sea has provided man with food and a convenient way to travel to many parts of the world. Today, nearly two—thirds of the world’s population live within 80 kilometers of the sea coast.
In the modern technological world, the sea offers many resources to help mankind survive. Resources on land are beginning to be used up. The sea, however, still can be hoped to supply many of man’s needs.
The list of riches of the sea yet to be developed by man’s technology is immense. Oil and gas explorations have been carried out for nearly 30 years. Valuable amounts of minerals exist on the ocean floor ready to be mined.
Fish farming promises to be a good way to produce large quantities of food. The culture of fish and shellfish (貝類動物) is an ancient skill practised in the past mainly by Oriental people.
Besides oil and gas, the sea may offer new sources of energy. Experts believe that the warm temperature of the ocean can be used in a way similar to the steam in a steamship. Ocean currents and waves offer possible use as a source of energy.
Technology is enabling man to explore ever more deeply under the sea. The development of strong, new materials has made this possible.
The technology to harvest the sea continues to improve. Experts believe that by the year 2020 the problems that prevent us from exploiting fully the food, minerals, and energy sources of the sea will be largely solved.
1. The major things that the sea offers man are ______.
A. fish and oil                           B. minerals and oil
C. warm temperature and ocean currents       D. the food, energy sources, and minerals
2. The sea serves the needs of man because ______.
A. in provides man with food              B. it offers oil to man
C. it supplies man with minerals            D. all of the above
3. We can conclude from this passage that ______.
A. the sea resources have largely been used up
B. the sea, in the broad sense, has not yet been developed
C. the problems that prevent us from using the food, minerals, and energy sources of the
sea have already been solved.
D. by the year 2000 , the technology will be good enough to exploit all the sea resources
4. The underlined words Oriental people in the fourth paragraph probably mean ______.
A. the people in Asia                  B. African people
C. European people                   D. American people
5. The best title for this passage is ______.
A. Sea Harvest                       B. Sea Food
C. Technology for Exploiting the Sea     D. Man and the Sea

A new system that scans customers’ fingerprints and deducts (扣除) the grocery bill from their bank accounts has taken supermarkets in southwestern Germany by storm and is being picked up by hardware stores, school restaurants and even bars are picking it up.
The Edeka supermarket chain is the first retail (零售) business in Germany to use the new system. “Almost a quarter of our customers pay with their fingers,” said an employee at the headquarters. Edeka has tried the system at 70 of its supermarkets and customers like it.
“At first we thought that only the young who really keep up with the latest technology would be interested, but we were wrong,” said Stefan Sewoester from IT Werke. “Almost two-thirds of the people who use the system are 40 and older,” he said.
IT Werke, a computer company, is one of the pioneers of fingerprint payment software in Germany. It has helped about 150 shops, restaurants and bars to put in the fingerprint scanning machines.
To sign up for the service, customers must have their fingerprints taken and leave their addresses and banking details with the shop. The shop then takes the cost of goods directly out of the customer’s bank account.
“It is a godsend for elderly people because they do not have to remember their pin-code to pay with their bank cards, or to look around for their glasses or cash.” Sewoester said.
The stores benefit from the system, too. It saves more than time in the check-out line. It also cuts out the hidden costs of accepting electronic card payments.
Fingerprint date profiling has long been used to control access and for other security purposes in Germany’s airports, laboratories and nuclear power plants. IT Werke plans to keep refining the retail use of the system. It wants to introduce fingerprint payment in school restaurants with an additional feature that might appeal to parents－they could disable their children’s access to junk food.
1. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A. Pay with Fingers.                                                B. New Development in Technology.
C. Supermarket Revolution.                                 D. Change in Computer Software.
2. Most of the people who use the fingerprint system are ______.
A. youngsters                B. housewives               C. IT fans              D. the elderly
3. The underlined word “godsend” probably means ______.
A. great fortune     sent by God                          B. good luck sent by God
C. good things that happen unexpectedly                    D. gift sent by God
4. What do we know by inference from the passage?
A. Fewer shops will try the new software because of the cost.
B. The new service requires certain personal information.
C. IT Werke should be the largest computer company in Germany.
D. The new change in payment only benefits elderly people.