1 . My husband and I always wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it. By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise, landed a three-month job in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

......

Why did the author do pet sitting?

A．To cover travel expenses.	B．To raise fund.
C．To conserve the environment.	D．To shoot beautiful beaches.

2 . A new study suggests that mindfulness education — lessons on techniques to calm the mind and body — can reduce the negative effects of stress and increase students’ ability to stay engaged, helping them stay on track academically and avoid behavior problems.

After finding that students who self-reported mindful habits performed better on tests and had higher grades, researchers from the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University wanted to know if school-based mindfulness training could help more students reap similar benefits.

......

What was the purpose of the study?

A．To examine the techniques for practicing mindfulness.

B．To study the effects of group mindfulness training on students.

C．To see how students help themselves to perform better on tests.

D．To understand why mindfulness training calms the mind and body.

3 . In recent years, the study of epigenetics has gained significant popularity, especially among psychologists and sociologists. It emphasizes that gene expression or suppression is influenced by the environment just as much as by genes themselves. Factors such as what we consume, what we experience, and how long we live can switch genes on or off, impacting our personality, body shape, and likelihood of contracting diseases.

What does the study of epigenetics show?

A．Genes can be easily expressed or suppressed after birth.

B．Genes can control body shape and the possibility of diseases.

C．Genes are not the only decisive factor behind our characteristics.

D．Genes contribute to certain tendencies and characteristics within us.

4 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.

What do we know about Abby Jaramillo?

A．She used to be a health worker.	B．She grew up in a low-income family.
C．She owns a fast food restaurant.	D．She is an initiator of Urban Sprouts.

5 . As cities balloon with growth, access to nature for people living in urban areas is becoming harder to find. If you’re lucky, there might be a pocket park near where you live, but it’s unusual to find places in a city that are relatively wild.

Past research has found health and wellness benefits of nature for humans, but a new study shows that wildness in urban areas is extremely important for human well-being.

What phenomenon does the author describe at the beginning of the text?

A．Pocket parks are now popular.	B．Wild nature is hard to find in cities.
C．Many cities are overpopulated.	D．People enjoy living close to nature.

6 . The Audience

Helen Mirren stars in the play by Peter Morgan, about Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and her private meetings with twelve Prime Ministers in the course of sixty years. Stephen Daldry directs. Also starring Dylan Baker and Judith Ivey. Previews begin Feb. 14. (Schoenfeld,236 W.45th St.212-239-6200.)

Who is the director of The Audience?

A．Helen Mirren.	B．Peter Morgan.
C．Dylan Baker.	D．Stephen Daldry.

7 . The Secure Child

By Stanley Greenspan, M.D．CHILD

Publisher: Da Capo Press; Reprint

Print list price: ₤ 5.99

Kindle price: ₤ 2. 99, save ₤3.00

In this book, Stanley Greenspan offers a set of guiding principles to help parents of children — from preschoolers to teenagers — so that they feel secure in their homes, their   schools, and in the society at large. He also explains children’s behavior that signals reaction to stress and fears and gives parents concrete suggestions to help children handle their anxieties.

Which book saves the most on its Kindle edition?

A．The Challenging Child.	B．The Learning Tree
C．Building Healthy Minds.	D．The Secure Child.

8 . So why do so many of us hate our open offices? The problem may be that, in our offices, we can’t stop ourselves from getting drawn into others’ conversations while we’re trying to focus. Indeed, the researchers found that facetoface interactions and conversations affect the creative process, and yet a coworking space or a coffee shop provides a certain level of noise while also providing freedom from interruptions.
What makes an open office unwelcome to many people?

A．Personal privacy unprotected.

B．Limited working space.

C．Restrictions on group discussion.

D．Constant interruptions.

9 . Every year since 1818, the people of Zurich, Switzerland, celebrate the beginning of spring by blowing up a snowman. On the third Monday of April, the holiday Sechselauten is kicked off when a cotton snowman called the Bӧӧgg is stuffed with explosive and paraded through town by bakers and other tradesmen who throw bread to the crowds.
In Zurich, the blowing up of the Bӧӧgg symbolizes________.

A．the start of the parade	B．the coming of a longer summer
C．the passing of the winter	D．the success of tradesmen

10 . “It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are on the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that ________.

A．they had no model in their mind

B．they did not have sufficient time

C．they had no ready-made components

D．they could not assemble the components