1 . Your house may have an effect on your figure. Experts say the way you design your home could play a role in whether you pack on the pounds or keep them off. You can make your environment work for you instead of against you. Here are some ways to turn your home into part of your diet plan.

Open the curtains and turn up the lights. Dark environments are more likely to encourage overeating, for people are often less self­conscious (难为情) when they’re in poorly lit places—and so more likely to eat lots of food. If your home doesn’t have enough window light, get more lamps and flood the place with brightness.

Mind the colors. Research suggests warm colors fuel our appetites. In one study, people who ate meals in a blue room consumed 33 percent less than those in a yellow or red room. Warm colors like yellow make food appear more appetizing, while cold colors make us feel less hungry. So when it’s time to repaint, go blue.

Don’t forget the clock—or the radio. People who eat slowly tend to consume about 70 fewer calories (卡路里) per meal than those who rush through their meals. Begin keeping track of the time, and try to make dinner last at least 30 minutes. And while you’re at it, actually sit down to eat. If you need some help slowing down, turn on relaxing music. It makes you less likely to rush through a meal.

Downsize the dishes. Big serving bowls and plates can easily make us fat. We eat about 22 percent more when using a 12­inch plate instead of a 10­inch plate. When we choose a large spoon over a smaller one, total intake (摄入) jumps by 14 percent. And we’ll pour about 30 percent more liquid into a short, wide glass than a tall, skinny glass.

1. The text is especially helpful for those who care about ____________.

A．their home comforts	B．their body shape
C．house buying	D．healthy diets

2. A home environment in blue can help people ______________.

A．digest food better	B．reduce food intake
C．burn more calories	D．regain their appetites

3. What are people advised to do at mealtimes?

A．Eat quickly.	B．Play fast music.
C．Use smaller spoons.	D．Turn down the lights.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Is Your House Making You Fat?	B．Ways of Serving Dinner
C．Effects of Self­Consciousness	D．Is Your Home Environment Relaxing?

2 . Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment. “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.

But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement .Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many， many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first. According to US government reports, emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “Green thinking” has become part of practices.

Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs; today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.

Twenty –five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “Until we do that, nothing else will change!” says Bruce Anderson.

1. According to Anderson, before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___.

A．the social movement	B．recycling techniques
C．environmental problems	D．the importance of Earth Day

2. Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?

A．The grass –roots level.	B．The business circle.
C．Government officials.	D．University professors.

3. What have Americans achieved in environmental protection?

A．They have cut car emissions to the lowest.

B．They have settled their environmental problems.

C．They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities.

D．They have reduced pollution through effective measures.

4. What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph?

A．Education.	B．Planning
C．Green living	D．CO reduction

3 . The baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert (警觉的). Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze(凝视) starts to lose its focus—until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?

Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects (a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly(随意地)on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise(同样地) when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.

1. The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby's ________.

A．sense of hearing	B．sense of sight
C．sense of touch	D．sense of smell

2. Babies are sensitive to the change in ________.

A．the size of cards	B．the colour of pictures
C．the shape of patterns	D．the number of objects

3. Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?

A．To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.

B．To see how babies recognize sounds.

C．To carry their experiment further.

D．To keep the babies' interest.

4. Where does this text probably come from?

A．Science fiction.	B．Children’s literature.
C．An advertisement.	D．A science report.

4 . Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best. For example, to absorb heat from the sun to heat water,you need large, flat, black surfaces. One way to do that is to build those surfaces specially, on the roofs of buildings. But why go to all that trouble when cities are full of black surfaces already, in the form of asphalt (柏油) roads?
Ten years ago, this thought came into the mind of Arian de Bondt, a Dutch engineer. He finally persuaded his boss to follow it up. The result is that their building is now heated in winter and cooled in summer by a system that relies on the surface of the road outside.
The heat-collector is a system of connected water pipes. Most of them run from one side of the street to the other, just under the asphalt road. Some, however, dive deep into the ground.
When the street surface gets hot in summer, water pumped through the pipes picks up this heat and takes it underground through one of the diving pipes. At a depth of 100 metres lies a natural aquifer(蓄水层) into which heat several heat exchangers (交换器) have been built. The hot water from the street runs through these exchangers, warming the ground-water, before returning to the surface through another pipe. The aquifer is thus used as a heat store.
In winter, the working system is changed slightly. Water is pumped through the heat exchangers to pick up the heat stored during summer. This water goes into the building and is used to warm the place up. After performing that task, it is pumped under the asphalt and its remaining heat keeps the road free of snow and ice.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first two paragraphs?

A．Arian de Bondt got his idea from his boss.

B．Large, flat, black surfaces need to be built in cities.

C．The Dutch engineer's system has been widely used.

D．Heat can also be collected from asphalt roads.

2. For what purpose are the diving pipes used?

A．To absorb heat from the sun.

B．To store heat for future use.

C．To turn solar energy into heat energy.

D．To carry heat down below the surface.

3. From the last paragraph we can learn that __

A．some pipes have to be re-arranged in winter

B．the system can do more than warming up the building

C．the exchangers will pick up heat from the street surface

D．less heat may be collected in winter than in summer

4. What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A．What we shall do if the system goes wrong .

B．What shall we do if there are no asphalt roads

C．How the system cools the building in summer .

D．How the system collects heat in spring and autumn.

5 . If you are planning on traveling，there are a few simple rules about how to make life easier both before and after your journey.

First of all，always check and double­check departure (出发) time.It is surprising how few people really do this carefully.Once I arrived at the airport a few minutes after ten.My secretary had got the ticket for me and I thought she had said that the plane left at 10：50.When I arrived at the airport，the person at the departure desk told   me that my flight was closed.Therefore，I had to wait three hours for the next one and missed an important meeting.

The second rule is to remember that even in this age of credit cards (信用卡)，it is still important to have some local money in cash (现金).Once I arrived at a place at midnight and the bank at the airport was closed.The only way to get to my hotel was by taxi but because I had no dollars，I offered to pay in pounds instead.“Listen！I only take real money！”the driver said angrily.You can imagine how terrible I felt at that moment.

The third and the last rule is to find out as much as you can about the weather at your destination before you leave.I feel sorry for some of my workmates who travel in heavy suits and raincoats in May，when it is still fairly cool in London or Manchester，to places like Athens，Rome or Madrid，where it is already beginning to get quite warm during the day.

1. Where is the writer most probably from？

A．Britain.	B．The USA.
C．Italy.	D．Greece.

2. When the writer found he had no dollars to pay the taxi driver，he ______________.

A．asked the driver to give him a free ride

B．offered to pay in pounds

C．gave the driver some fake (假的) money

D．tried to pay by credit card

3. Generally，in May the weather in London is ______________.

A．warm and dry	B．cold and dry
C．hot and wet	D．cool and rainy

4. The writer mainly tells us ______________.

A．how to make life easier

B．how to be well prepared for a trip

C．how to enjoy ourselves on the trip

D．how to schedule our trip

6 . In the summer of 1978 an English farmer was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered that some of his wheat was lying flat on the ground. The fattened (压平的) wheat formed a circle about six meters across. Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat. The five circles were in a formation like five dots. During the following years, farmers in England found the strange circles in their fields more and more often.
The circles are called “crop circles” because they appear in the fields of grain - usually wheat or corn. The grain in the circles lies flat on the ground but never broken; it continues to grow, and farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September.
At first, people thought that the circles were a hoax. Probably young people were making them as a joke, or farmers were making them to attract tourists. To prove that the circles were a hoax, people tried to make circles exactly like the ones that farmer had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of grain without leaving tracks(痕迹), and they couldn’t flatten the grain without breaking it.
Many people believe that beings from outer space are making the circle to communicate with us from far away and that the crop circles are messages from them.
Scientists who have studied the crop circles suggested several possibilities. Some scientists say that a downward rush of wind leads to the formation of the circles - the same downward rush of air that sometimes causes an airplane to crash. Other scientists say that forces within the earth cause the circles to appear. There is one problem with all these scientific explanations: crop circles often appear in formations, like the five-dot formation. It is hard to believe that any natural force could form those.
1. In the summer of 1978, an English farmer discovered in his field that __________.

A．some of his wheat had been damaged

B．his grain was growing up in circles.

C．his grain was moved into several circles

D．some of his wheat had fallen onto the ground.

2. According to the text, the underlined part “hoax” (in the 3^rd paragraph) probably means __________.

A．an attempt made to fool people

B．a special way to plant crops

C．a research on the force of winds

D．an experiment for the protection of crops.

3. Which of the following may prove that the crop circles are not made by man?

A．The farmer couldn’t step out of the field.

B．The farmers couldn’t make the circles round.

C．The farmers couldn’t leave without footprints.

D．The farmers couldn’t keep the wheat straight up.

4. A proper title for this passage is ___________.

A．An Unsolved Mystery

B．Strange Flying Objects

C．The Power of Natural Forces

D．The discovery of Strange Circles

7 . The financial climate, the job market, family tensions, Obama moving into the Lincoln bedroom. Even the climate’s getting in on the list. Yup, change is everywhere in 2009. If you’re not careful, all kinds of strange things might happen in your otherwise ordered life, so it’s best to work at avoiding change whenever it rears its head (出现).

Here are 5 ways to do just that:

1. Ignore any opportunities How many times have you taken a chance, only for things to go wrong? How many times have you seized an opportunity only or it to slip between your fingers? There's always another mess waiting for you, so it’s better to stay right where you are. Where you are right now is a known quantity — it’s safe, warm and comfortable. Doesn’t that sound better than going out there, messing up and looking stupid?

2. Set your expectations low If you’re one of the people out there looking to make a change in 2009 rather than having change made for you, you’d better set your expectations low.

3. Keep on running and don’t look back The best thing to do is to set things out so that you can do everything. It’s good to be busy and running around after everyone else will mean that everyone’s happy and there’s no room for change to happen. It’s a win-win!

4. Recognize that most changes are too big Face it; there are some tasks you’re just not up to. Landing that exciting new job, getting a promotion, taking on the “big project” or building a relationship that really works — these are all big challenges and you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew.

5. Ignore that little voice inside You might sometimes hear a little voice in your head that tells you you’re not happy or that something has to change. This little trouble maker can speak up at any time and throw the Spanner of Confusion in the works, and it has only one thing on its mind — to take you out of your comfort zone and make you change.

Imagine if everyone went around listening to what they really wanted and acted on it — what a mess! No, best to ignore it and carry on with what you’re doing.

1. The purpose of writing this passage is_________.

A．to introduce ways to avoid change in 2009

B．to attract the readers’ interest in change in 2009

C．to discuss whether people should change in 2009

D．to tell the readers the news of American New President — Obama

2. Supposing you are safe, warm and comfortable now, you should______.

A．set your expectations low

B．ignore any opportunities

C．keep on running and don't look back

D．ignore that little voice inside

3. The underlined sentence “You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew” implies     .

A．you have big challenges to fight

B．you are too small to eat too much food

C．there are some big challenges you can’t fight

D．you are afraid of challenging some difficult tasks

4. The best way of dealing with that little voice inside is_______ .

A．to change something at once

B．to have a chat with the speaker

C．to discuss it with the trouble maker

D．to ignore it and go on with what you are doing