Does Fame Drive You Crazy?
Although being famous might sound like a dream come true, today’s star, feeling like zoo animals, face pressures that few of us can imagine. They are at the center of much of the world’s attention. Paparazzi (狗仔隊) camp outside their homes, cameras ready. Tabloids (小報) publish thrilling stories about their personal lives. Just imagine not being able to do anything without being photographed or interrupted for a signature.
According to psychologist Christina Villareal, celebrities — famous people — worry constantly about their public appearance. Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are, seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them, not as the people they were before everyone knew their names. “Over time,” Villareal says, “they feel separated and alone.”
The phenomenon of tracking celebrities has been around for ages. In the 4th century B.C., painters followed
Alexander the Great into battle, hoping to picture his victories for his admirers. When Charles Dickens visited America in the 19th century, his sold-out readings attracted thousands of fans, leading him to complain (抱怨) about his lack of privacy. Tabloids of the 1920s and 1930s ran articles about film-stars in much the same way that modern tabloids and websites do.
Being a public figure today, however, is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Superstars cannot move about without worrying about photographers with modern cameras. When they say something silly or do something ridiculous, there is always the Internet to spread the news in minutes and keep their “story” alive forever.
If fame is so troublesome, why aren’t all celebrities running away from it? The answer is there are still ways to deal with it. Some stars stay calm by surrounding themselves with trusted friends and family or by escaping to remote places away from big cities. They focus not on how famous they are but on what they love to do or whatever made them famous in the first place.
Sometimes a few celebrities can get a little justice. Still, even stars who enjoy full justice often complain about how hard their lives are. They are tired of being famous already.
【小題1】It can be learned from the passage that stars today___.

A．are often misunderstood by the public

B．can no longer have their privacy protected

C．spend too much on their public appearance

D．care little about how they have come into fame

【小題2】What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?

A．Great heroes of the past were generally admired.

B．The problem faced by celebrities has a long history.

C．Well-known actors are usually targets of tabloids.

D．Works of popular writers often have a lot of readers.

【小題3】 What makes it much harder to be a celebrity today?

A．Availability of modern media.	B．Inadequate social recognition.
C．Lack of favorable chances.	D．Huge population of fans.

【小題4】What is the author’s attitude toward modern celebrity?

A．Sincere.

B．Sceptical.

C．Disapproving.

D．Sympathetic.

Back those photos up
The images were striking. Homes on the East Coast were washed away by Superstorm Sandy. People were in tears, picking up faded photographs, among their only remaining possessions.
If that doesn’t move you to get serious about safekeeping your lifetime of memories, what will? The digital age offers tools never imaginable before—including one-click access to a lifetime of family photos.
Here is a brochure on how to back up (存) your photos and save them online, where they can live forever and be accessible in good times and bad.
Scanning
The first step for those old photos is to scan them and save them to a digital format. Most printers come with scanners these days, so that’s an easy but extremely time-consuming step.
Storing the photos
With your scans in place, import the photos into your computer, and back them up.
You could make multiple copies of the disks and spread them to loved ones. Or you could choose external(外接的) hard drives or USB thumb drive, and add your photo and video collection from your computer. 
Online backup
If you need lots of space, look at a pure online backup service, Caronite.     
Caronite backs up 300 million files daily. Once you sign up, it starts to pick up everything you have on your hard drive. But photo collection on your computer’s main hard drive charges for $59 a year.
Cloud Storage
For folks who don’t need automatic backup, but instead want to take a more active approach, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive let you store files online by yourself, share and instantly access them. All offer free options—2GB of free storage for Dropbox, 5GB for Google and 7GB for SkyDrive. But if you want more, you need to pay.
Bottom Line
The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and easiest. But drives can fail. Online services are more expensive, but more secure. With more of us switching back and forth between our computers, such services are the best way to get access to our data from wherever we are.
【小題1】Why does the author mention Superstorm Sandy?

A．To tell the background of the scanning photos.

B．To describe a severe natural disaster.

C．To attract the readers’ interest in the backups.

D．To win the readers’ sympathy.

【小題2】What can we know from the passage?

A．Scanning photos take little time but costs a lot.

B．Caronite charges for backing up photos from hard drive.

C．Google Drive offers unlimited free photo storage on line.

D．The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and safest.

【小題3】Which of the following allows storing files automatically?

A．Dropbox.

B．SkyDrive.

C．Caronite.

D．Flash drive.

【小題4】The main purpose of the passage is to _____.

A．introduce some of the storage services

B．tell real stories about storage services

C．describe the functions of storage services

D．argue about the advantage of storage services

One summer my friend and I decided to go to Italy for a holiday and we decided to travel there without going through a travel agency. You know, you would be submerged (淹沒) in crowds of tourists and lose lots of opportunities to get familiar with the country more closely. We started to think over our trip and managed to come up with a free tour of Italy.

   The trip was not very long but it was still very impressive. We look forward to going there again! Of course, we spent lots of time arranging the trip, but it was well worth it! Of course I was afraid that something would go wrong and I was especially anxious about my visa, but everything went quite smoothly in the end.

   The most difficult part was getting a visa without an invitation. In the Italian consulate(領事館), one must hand in some official paper proving that one has a hotel booked for oneself in order to get the visa. Then we had to solve the ticket problem. Airlines often sell cheap tickets and we bought ours far in advance. The next step was to book a hotel. We finally booked a hotel about thirty km away from the heart of Rome and it was the perfect choice for our trip.

   Every day we took a train that carried us to the heart of Rome. Our big house, which was surrounded by the forest, was a rare girl for the fresh air and absolute silence, beautiful views, hospitable (好客的) hosts, comfortable living conditions delighted us to no end. Besides this, we were very lucky that our mistress was Russian. She gave us a lot of advice that was of great use. She told us what transport to choose and where the best places to go.

    Don’t be afraid to arrange your trip by yourself. It’s not difficult! The only thing I'll say right now is that we really enjoyed traveling by ourselves. We walked with a map and a guide-book to wherever we wanted and we even met some of our fellow countrymen on the way just two or three times. So, if you're also planning a "single" trip, don't forget to take a Russian-Italian phrasebook as people in Italy prefer to speak in their native tongue.

1.Why does the author want to go to Italy again?

      A. He had a great time there.

    B. Italy has a lot of attractions.

    C. His friend invited him there.

    D. He didn't stay in Italy long enough.

2.What does the author think was the hardest in preparing for his Italian trip?

    A. Buying cheap airline tickets to Italy before the traveling

    B. Getting a visa without an invitation from the Italian consulate.

    C. Booking a comfortable hotel on his own in Rome.

    D. Solving the ticket problem far in advance.

3.In the fourth paragraph the author mainly explains

    A. the reason why he chose to live in the center of Rome

    B. the reason why the hotel he booked was the right choice

    C. what transport they chose to travel in their Italian trip

    D. the reason why the mistress gave them some advice

4.Which of the following questions has NOT been answered in the passage?

    A. Why did the author decide to go to Italy for a holiday for the first time?

    B. Why did the author decide not to follow a travel agency?

    C. How did the author prepare for his trip?

    D. What tools did the author use for his traveling?

5.From the text we can know the author

    A. enjoys traveling everywhere in the world

    B. likes being accompanied by tour guides

    C. advises us to arrange trips by ourselves

D. met with a lot of his countrymen in Italy     www..com                           

We’ve reached a strange—some would say unusual—point. While fighting world hunger continues to be the matter of vital importance according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), more people now die from being overweight, or say, from being extremely fat, than from being underweight. It’s the good life that’s more likely to kill us these days.
Worse, nearly l8 million children under the age of five around the world are estimated to be overweight. What’s going on?
We really don’t have many excuses for our weight problems. The dangers of the problem have been drilled into us by public-health campaigns since 2001 and the message is getting through—up to a point.
In the 1970s, Finland, for example, had the highest rate of heart disease in the world and being overweight was its main cause. Not any more. A public-health campaign has greatly reduced the number of heart disease deaths by 80 per cent over the past three decades.
Maybe that explains why the percentage of people in Finland taking diet pills doubled between 2001 and 2005, and doctors even offer surgery of removing fat inside and change the shape of the body. That has become a sort of fashion. No wonder it ranks as the world’s most body-conscious country.
We know what we should be doing to lose weight—but actually doing it is another matter. By far the most popular excuse is not taking enough exercise. More than half of us admit we lack willpower.
Others blame good food. They say: it’s just too inviting and it makes them overeat. Still others lay the blame on the Americans, complaining that pounds have piled on thanks to eating too much American-style fast food.
Some also blame their parents—their genes. But unfortunately, the parents are wronged because they’re normal in shape, or rather slim.
It’s a similar story around the world, although people are relatively unlikely to have tried to lose weight. Parents are eager to see their kids shape up. Do as I say—not as I do.
【小題1】What is the “strange” point mentioned in the first sentence?

A．The good life is a greater risk than the bad life.

B．Starvation is taking more people’s lives in the world.

C．WHO report shows people’s unawareness of food safety.

D．Overweight issue remains unresolved despite WHO’s efforts.

【小題2】Why does the author think that people have no excuse for being overweight?

A．A lot of effective diet pills are available.

B．Body image has nothing to do with good food.

C．They have been made fully aware of its dangers.

D．There are too many overweight people in the world.

【小題3】The example of Finland is used to illustrate ______.

A．the cause of heart disease

B．the fashion of body shaping

C．the effectiveness of a campaign

D．the history of a body-conscious country

【小題4】Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．Actions or Excuses?	B．Overweight or Underweight?
C．WHO in a Dilemma	D．No Longer Dying of Hunger

This is a dangerous world we live in．The number of murders goes up every year, people are dying of cancer, more people contract HIV, more teens are using drugs, etc．You know this because you have heard all the statistics on the news and in the paper． But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are growing up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background statistics mean very little．
This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous．For example, several years ago a high school student reported the dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide．This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors（腫瘤）, is often found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once．After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statements is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth．The students made the mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical’s full background．
The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said．When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths．Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave out information that is different to his view．For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe．Only 32 people may die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightning strikes, but which is really the most dangerous? If you think about it, you realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people who are in danger of a lightning strike．When you think about it, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at statistics．If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another’s．To be warned is to be prepared．
【小題1】In the first paragraph, what problem does the writer want to warn us?

A．We are now living in a dangerous world．

B．We get a lot of false statistics from the media．

C．Statistics alone without full background doesn’t give us an accurate pictures of things．

D．There are around us more and more murders, diseases, etc．

【小題2】Why does the writer use the example in the second paragraph?

A．To argue that high school students are easily persuaded．

B．To show the danger of reporting only part of the information．

C．To prove what is necessary to us might be dangerous．

D．To warn us of the harmful substance around us．

【小題3】Relative information is often left out because__________．

A．Relative information is not that important．

B．too much information will make readers feel confused．

C．the author is trying to show what he or she says is true．

D．readers are not able to analyze so much information at once．

【小題4】What can we learn from the passage?

A．We should learn to think critically and look at problems from all sides．

B．Some measures must be taken to protect our dangerous world．

C．The growing trend of reporting only half-truths is getting out of control．

D．Teenagers ought to improve their ability of telling right from wrong．