C
Less TV Reduce Kids Weight
PALO AITO, California—“ Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter—even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise,” US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds （0.91 kg ） less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
“The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity,” said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician （兒科專家）at Stanford University.
“ American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubt over the past 20 years,” Robinson said.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise.
“One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories,” Robinson said.
“Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more,” Robinson added.
66. The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ____.
A. children will get fatter if they eat too much.
B. children will get thinner if they eat less.
C. children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV.
D. children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV.
67. According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV ____.
A. is more than four hours a day.        B. is less than four hours a day.
C. doubled in the last twenty years.     D. is more than on any other activities.
68. The time children spend on TV viewing every day is suggested to be about ___.
A. six hours           B. eight hours        C. three hours        D. one hour
69. Which of the following is right ?
A. Children usually eat fewer while watching TV.
B. Children usually eat more while watching TV.
C. Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV.
D. Children usually eat nothing while watching TV.
70. Why can watching TV increase kids’ weight according to the passage ?
A. They usually eat more while watching TV.
B. They burn off fewer calories.
C. They change their diet while watching TV.
D. Both A and B

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in an ugly multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’  hoofs(馬蹄) from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d lie on Mom’s bed and stare for hours at the TV screen.
But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses where she cleaned books. So she came home one day, switched off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”
We moaned（不滿,發(fā)牢騷） and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”
So pretty soon there were these two peevish（壞脾氣的）boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly（不情愿） among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.
The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers（河貍）. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this virtue visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.
It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip（快速翻動(dòng)）of a page.
Soon I began to look forward to visiting this quiet sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.
Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery(兒童神經(jīng)外科)at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.
But I know when the journey began the day Mom switched off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.
【小題1】We can learn from the beginning of the passage that ___________.

I played a racquetball game against my cousin Ed last week. It was one of the most ___1___ and tiring games I’ve ever had. When Ed first phoned and ___2___ we play, I laughed quietly, figuring on an ___3___ victory. After all, Ed’s idea of ___4___ has always been nothing more ___5___ than lifting a fork to his mouth. ___6___ I can remember, Ed’s been the least physically fit member in the family, and ___7___ proud of himself. His big stomach has always ballooned out between his T-shirt and trousers. Although the family often ___8___ about that, Ed refused to buy a ___9___ T-shirt or to lose weight. So when Ed ___10___ for our game not only with the bottom of his shirt gathered inside his trousers but also with a stomach you could hardly ___11___, I was so surprised that I was ___12___. My cousin must have made an effort to get himself into shape. ___13___, at the point in our game when I’d have predicted(預(yù)計(jì)) the score to be about 9 to 1 in my favor, it was ___14___ 7 to 9 — and Ed was ___15___. The sudden realization was painful. We ___16___ to play like two mad men. When the score was 16 up, I was having serious ___17___ about staying alive until 21 years old, let alone ___18___ that many points. When the game finally ended, both of us were lying flat on our backs, too tired to ___19___. In a way, I think we both won: I the game, but cousin Ed my ___20___.

1. A. encouraging   B. hopeless     C. surprising   D. regular

2. A. declared B. mentioned  C. persuaded   D. suggested

3. A. unforgettable B. unexpected C. easy    D. early

4. A. exercise  B. preparation C. joy     D. fitness

5. A. time-saving   B. comfortable       C. suitable      D. effort-making

6. A. As soon as     B. As long as  C. When  D. Since

7. A. strangely       B. personally  C. reasonably  D. eagerly

8. A. cared     B. forgot C. quarreled    D. joked

9. A. clean      B. larger  C. straight      D. darker

10. A. set out  B. got ready    C. arrived       D. returned

11. A. notice   B. admire       C. believe       D. measure

12. A. nervous       B. curious       C. careless      D. speechless

13. A. After all      B. As a result  C. Above all   D. At last

14. A. mistakenly   B. then    C. instead       D. naturally

15. A. leading B. coming      C. waiting      D. counting

16. A. pretended    B. stopped      C. continued   D. decided

17. A. thoughts      B. doubts C. situations    D. problems

18. A. scoring B. completing C. receiving    D. keeping

19. A. play     B. start    C. sleep   D. move

20. A. friendship    B. respect       C. support      D. favor

Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley.
The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty- seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy -four degrees Celsius.
Death Valley contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black.
The area was named by a woman in 1849. Thousands of people from other parts of the ountry traveled to the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley.  They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat.
The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains to the west of the Valley, Slowly, they began co suffer from a lack of food. To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, "Good -bye, death valley. ” The name has never been changed.
Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty' s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat.
The castle is named for Walter Scott , called Scotty. by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believed him. But it was not really the truth.
【小題1】 The first two paragraphs discuss Death Valley' s ________.

閱讀下面短文，掌握其大意，然后從36—55各題所給的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)(A、B、C和D)中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)，并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。

Last night, when I was driving back home, I noticed a hitchhiker(搭便車的人) who was having no luck getting a ride. I rolled down my  36  and signed to the man to my car. I asked him where he was  37  and he told me he needed a  38  to his doctor’s office which would close in 15 minutes. I told him to  39  and he gratefully did so.

40  he got in he told me that he was a  41  and went out to sea for weeks at a time. He took medicine for his nerves and  42  to get another prescription(處方) before he left on the boat. He said that he had prayed (祈禱) 43  would stop for him so he could be there before the  44      office closed. With some  45  driving we managed to make it there in about 10  46. I then asked him how he  47  on getting back home and he said he could walk. “I’ll patiently  48      for you and bring you back,” I told him. He  49  me and said he should only be about 15 minutes.

Afterwards he got back in my 50 and tried his hardest to pay me back: offering me dinner, gas money, even offering to ship me 40 lbs of scallops (海扇貝)! I  51  refused, gave him a smile card and asked him to help someone else the next time he had a  52. I drove him back to where I had picked him up and  53  one more “thank you” he was on his way.

I feel that the universe  54   provides us with what we need. In the man’s  55  it was a ride, in mine the opportunity to help someone else.

A. wheel                       B. window                  C. engine                    D. door

A. heading                       B. working                  C. living                     D. studying

A. walk                         B. talk                        C. trip                        D. ride

A. go out                       B. run away                       C. get in                     D. lie down

A. As far as                     B. As soon as               C. Even if                  D. Just before

A. farmer                      B. pianist                    C. doctor                    D. fisherman

A. needed                      B. stopped                   C. agreed                    D. preferred

A. someone                    B. nobody                   C. anyone                   D. everybody

A. teacher’s                     B. doctor’s                  C. manager’s               D. captain’s

A. good                        B. normal                   C. wrong                    D. fast

A. days                          B. hours                     C. minutes                  D. weeks

A. focused                     B. depended                       C. turned                    D. planned

A. look                         B. call                        C. wait                       D. drive

A. doubted                   B. thanked                  C. greeted                  D. accepted

A. car                            B. home                     C. office                    D. shop

A. politely                     B. angrily                   C. immediately           D. surprisingly

A. dream                       B. problem                  C. chance                   D. choice

A. before                       B. until                       C. besides                   D. after

A. never                       B. always                   C. sometimes               D. seldom

A. opinion                     B. way                       C. case                       D. condition