“If you talk to the plants, they will grow faster and the effect is even better if you’re a woman.” Researchers at Royal Horticultural Society carried out an experiment to find that the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster.
The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato plants grew up two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.
Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants the best growth. Her voice was the most “inspiring” for plants than those of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist （植物學(xué)家）Charles Darwin found that her plant grew about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.
Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained.He says that women have a greater range of pitch and tone（音高和音色）which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. “Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light ,”said Mr Grosbie.
The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey. Scientists started with open auditions(聽(tīng)力) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream and Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. Each plant had headphones connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “l(fā)istened” to female voices grew taller by an inch in comparison to plants that heard male voices.
小題1:What does the passage talk about?
A．Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s.
B．A science experiment in a museum.
C．Voice’s influence on plant growing.
D．Strange findings at Royal Horticultural Society.
小題2:What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?
A．Plants need sound as well as rain and light.
B．Sound is basic for the plant to grow.
C．Sound has a good effect as rain or light does.
D．Plants can’t live without sound, rain or light.
小題3:What can we learn from the passage?
A．The experiment ended in May.
B．Scientist can explain the findings clearly.
C．Plants enjoy listening to the passages from famous works.
D．The findings are of great importance to human beings.

小題1:C
小題2:C
小題3:A

小題1:主旨大意題。與植物交談能夠促進(jìn)植物的生長(zhǎng)。而且植物更喜歡女聲。
小題2:句意理解題。句意：就像雨或光一樣，聲波也是環(huán)境效應(yīng)。而只有C選項(xiàng)的比較接近，波和雨，光一樣都有好的影響。
小題3:推理判斷題。結(jié)合  Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained可知B錯(cuò)誤。結(jié)合the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster可知C錯(cuò)誤。D文章沒(méi)有提。
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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

An earthquake happens when two plates rub (碰撞) together. The earth plates travel in different directions and at different speeds. If one plate is slowly forced underneath the other,  pressure builds up until the plates break apart. This process causes the ground to move. It is an earthquake. In other words, earth-quakes are the shaking of the earth’s surface caused by the earth’s rocky outer layer as a result of the energy stored within the earth. The strain within the rocks is suddenly released (釋放).
The damage an earthquake causes depends on where it is and the time it is happening. If an unpopulated region is struck, there will be low loss of life or property. If it hits a large city, there may be many in-juries and much destruction. Many of the areas at risk are largely populated now. Major earthquakes hitting those areas today could produce terrible damage.
Actually, there are several million small earth-quakes every year.  Large earthquakes such as the 1964 Alaskan quake that measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, cause millions of dollars in damage. In the last 500 years, millions of people have been killed by earth-quakes around the world — including 240,000 in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China.
A 60-second or less earthquake can cause devastation that continues for years after the first tremor (小震). In 1972, a series of severe earthquakes struck Managua, Nicaragua. Fifteen years later, the city still looked the way it had a week after the earthquake hit, because the country did not have the necessary money to rebuild it.
The shaking of the earth is sometimes not the greatest disaster. It is in the ensuing fires and floods that often the greatest damage occurs. In the 1906 earthquake, it was the fires caused after it that did the majority of the damage. An earthquake can also destroy dams high above a city or valleys, causing floods to sweep down and sweep away everything in their path.
小題1:Which of the following is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A．An earthquake comes from inside the earth.
B．The earth has great energy in storage.
C．How the earth plates move.
D．How an earthquake happens.
小題2:How many examples are used in the passage to show the damage and destruction earthquakes cause?
A．Three. B．Four. C．Five.D．Six.
小題3:Which of the following is mentioned to show that an earthquake can kill too many people?
A．The 1964 Alaskan quake.
B．The 1976 Tangshan earthquake.
C．The 1972 Managua earthquake.
D．The 1906 earthquake.
小題4:The underlined word “ensuing” in the last paragraph probably means ______.
A．causing too much heat and great damage
B．causing many injuries and much destruction
C．happening as a result of another event
D．happening suddenly and unexpectedly
小題5:By giving the example in Paragraph 4, the author wants to show that ______.
A．a(chǎn)n earthquake doesn’t last long
B．the damage can last long
C．people in Managua suffered too much
D．Nicaragua is still a poor country

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Testing has replaced teaching in most public schools. My own children's school week is framed by pretests, drills, tests, and retests. They know that the best way to read a textbook is to look at the questions at the end of the chapter and then skim the text for the answers. I believe that my daughter Erica, who gets excellent marks, has never read a chapter of any of her school textbooks all the way through. And teachers are often heard to state proudly and openly that they teach to the mandated (國(guó)家指定的) state test.
Teaching to the test is a curious phenomenon. Instead of deciding what skills students ought to learn, helping students learn them, and then using some reasonable methods of assessment to discover whether students have mastered the skills, teachers are encouraged to reverse the process. First, one looks at a commercially available test. Then, one distills (提取) the skills needed not to master reading, say, or math, but to do well on the test. Finally, the test skills are taught.
The ability to read or write or calculate might infer the ability to do reasonably well on standardized tests. However, neither reading nor writing develops simply through being taught to take tests. We must be careful to avoid mistaking preparation for a test of a skill with the acquisition of that skill. Too many discussions of the basics of skills make this fundamental confusion because people are test-centered rather than concerned with the nature and quality of what is taught.
Recently, many schools have faced what could be called the crisis of comprehension or, in simple terms, the phenomenon of students with phonic and grammar skills still being unable to understand what they read. These students are capable of taking tests and filling in workbooks. However, they have little or no experience reading or thinking, and talking about what they read. They know the details but can't see or understand the whole. They are taught to be so concerned with grade that they have' no time or ease of mind to think about meaning, and reread things if necessary.
小題1:As is indicated in the second paragraph, the author finds it strange that __.
A．tests are used to assess students' skills
B．skills are determined before tests are set
C．teaching is aimed to prepare students for tests
D．teachers use some reasonable methods of assessment
小題2:The crisis of comprehension most probably results from __.
A．students' poor phonic and grammar skills
B．teaching that takes up much of students' free time
C．teaching that emphasizes details rather than the whole
D．students' lack of ability to think about what they read
小題3:According to the author, we can infer that __.
A．the basics of skills have been discussed too much
B．the nature and quality of what is taught are fully concerned
C．skills in general are not only useless but often mislead students
D．doing well in a test does not necessarily mean acquiring the skill

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

“If you talk to the plants, they will grow faster and the effect is even better if you’re a woman.” Researchers at Royal Horticultural Society carried out an experient to find that the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster.
The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato plants grew up two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.
Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants registered the best growth. Her voice was the most “inspiring” for plants than those of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist(植物學(xué)家) Charles Darwin found that her plant grew about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.
Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained. He assumes that women have a greater range of pitch（音高） and tone（音調(diào)） which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. “Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light ,”said Mr Grosbie.
The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey. Scientists started with open auditions(聽(tīng)力) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream and Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. Each plant had headphones（耳機(jī)） connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “l(fā)istened” to female voices on average grew taller by an inch in comparison to plants that heard male voices.
Miss Darwin said, “I think it is an honor to have a voice that can make tomatoes grow, and especially fitting because for a number of years I have been studying wild tomatoes from the Galapagos Island at the Natural History Museum in London.”
小題1:What does the passage talk about?
A．Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s.
B．A botanical experiment in a museum.
C．Voice’s influence on plant growing.
D．Strange phenomenon（現(xiàn)象） at Royal Horticultural Society.
小題2:What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?
A．Plants need sound as well as rain and light.
B．Sound is basic for the plant to grow.
C．Sound has a good effect as rain or light does.
D．Plants can’t live without sound, rain or light.
小題3:Sarah Darwin is most likely a (an)_____.
A．botanistB．gardenerC．a(chǎn)stronomerD．environmentalist
小題4:What can we learn from the passage?
A．The experiment ended in May.
B．Scientist can explain the findings clearly.
C．Plants enjoy listening to the passages from masterpieces.
D．The findings are of great importance to human beings.

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Mexico City is the capital and largest city of Mexico. The city is also very high. It is 7349 feet high (2240 metres). This makes it one of the highest capital cities in the world. The population, of Mexico City grows bigger every day. About thirty million people live there. It has more people than any other city in the world, even more than Tokyo.
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A. on the south of     B. on the north of    
C. a part of      D. as large as
小題2:Mexicans speak______.
A．EnglishB．Spanish C．FrenchD．Latin(拉丁語(yǔ))
小題3:Which of the following is NOT true?
A．Mexico City is the capital of Mexico.
B．The population of Mexico City is 30,000,000.
C．Tokyo is one of the cities with the largest population.
D．Mexico City is the highest city in the world.
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A．America B．SpainC．TokyoD．Mexico
小題5:The best title (題目) of the passage is ___.
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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Due to the increasing number of violence acts produced in schools all over the world，more and more parents prefer to have their children educated at home rather than at school. This way they can assure their safety and well-being，although teachers and school representatives are trying to improve the situation in schools by increasing the number of the persons in charge with the safety of the students．
The main reason for violence acts are the films and cartoons that fill the children’s time．They want to do everything．they watch on TV and never think at the consequences，and they may hurt a classmate or a teacher．
On the other hand, parents are not fully satisfied with the children’s results obtained in classes and they consider private classes would have better results．
When a teacher has to watch 30 students in class he can’t probably see what each of them is doing，how he is writing，or if he understands the explanations．At home the teacher can explain in details everything the child doesn’t understand as many times as he considers proper．
And many times．the child grows fond of the teacher at home，who becomes his best friend，and who helps him whenever he needs someone to talk to．    
However, the best solution would be a mixture between the education received at school and that at home，because school makes children communicate and socialize．Keeping a child at home for fear there might happen something bad to him．only makes the child’s character weak and prevents him from knowing what real life is．Staying in a crystal ball only does harm to the child．
All in all．schools have been created to help children，not to harm them，so it’s best to keep children in these special places，where they learn，laugh，have fun and make new friends．
小題1:The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to          ．
A．teach parents the ways to keep theft children safe
B．show solutions to developing children’s character
C．explain the main reason for violence acts in schools
D．a(chǎn)nalyze an education problem and give opinions
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A．More and more violence acts occur in schools
B．Parents want to improve their Children's grades
C．Parents are concerned about their children’s safety
D．The education system is far from satisfactory
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B．A safe and comfortable environment．
C．An object that is made of crystal．
D．A setback that is hard to overcome．
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A．violence TV programs have bad effects on children’s behavior
B．The teacher at home is more patient than the teacher at school
C．Children today are weak from lack of sense of right and wrong
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A．Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Classes
B．Who is to Blame, Parents or Schools?
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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Although April did not bring us the rains we all hoped for, and although the Central Valley doesn’t generally experience the sound and lightning that can go with those rains, it’s still important for parents to be able to answer the youthful questions about thunder and lightning.
The reason these two wonders of nature are so difficult for many adults to explain to children is that they are not very well understood by adults themselves. For example, did you know that the lightning we see flashing down to the earth from a cloud is actually flashing up to a cloud from the earth? Our eyes trick us into thinking we see a downward motion when it’s actually the other way around. But then, if we believed only what we think and we see, we’d still insist that the sun rises in the morning and sets at night.
Most lightning flashes take place inside a cloud, and only a relative few can be seen jumping between two clouds or between earth and a cloud. But, with about 2,000 thunderstorms taking place above the earth every minute of the day and night, there’s enough activity to produce about 100 lightning strikes on earth every second.
Parents can use thunder and lightning to help their children learn more about the world around them. When children understand that the light of the lightning flashing reaches their eyes almost at the same moment, but the sound of the thunder takes about 5 seconds to travel just one mile, they can begin to time the interval (間隔) between the flash and the crash to learn how lose they were to the actual spark (閃光).
小題1:According to the author, in the area of the Central Valley____.
A．rains usually come without thunder and lightning.
B．it is usually dry in April
C．children pay no attention to the two natural wonders.
D．parents are not interested in thunder and lightning.
小題2:We believe that lightning is a downward motion because_______.
A．we were taught so by our parents from our childhood.
B．we are taken in by our sense of vision.
C．it is a common natural sight.
D．it is a truth proved by science.
小題3:What is TRUE about lightning according to the passage?
A．Only a small number of lightning flashes occur on earth.
B．Lightning flashes usually jump from one cloud to another.
C．Lightning travels 5 times faster than thunder.
D．There are far more lightning strikes occurring on earth than we can imagine.
小題4:The underlined word “activity”  is most closely related to the word (s) _____.
A．cloudB．lightning strikesC．lightning flashesD．thunderstorms
小題5:It can be concluded from the passage that _______.
A．we should not believe what we see or hear.
B．things moving downward are more noticeable.
C．people sometimes may have wrong ideas about ordinary phenomena.
D．a(chǎn)dults are not as good as children in observing certain natural phenomena.

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Smart phones that react to your moods and televisions that can tell it’s you who’s watching are in your future as Intel Corporation’s top technology expert sets his sights on context-aware computing.
Chief technology officer Justin Rattner showed how personal devices will one day offer advice. “How can we change the relationship so we think of these devices not as devices but as assistants or even companions?” he asked.
Handheld devices could combine already common geographic location technology with data from microphones, cameras, heart and body monitors and even brain scans to offer their owners advice that today only a friend or relative could give.
“Imagine a device that uses a variety of sensors to determine what you are doing at an instant, from being asleep in your bed to being out for a run with a friend, ” Rattner said, “Future devices will constantly learn about who you are, how you live, work and play.’’
Rattner also demonstrated a television remote control that figures out who is holding it based on how it is held, and then learns the viewer’s entertainment preferences.
As the world leader for decades in microchips for servers and desktop computers, Intel is hurrying to catch up in the profitable market for smart phones like Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry.
Telephones with e-mail, global positioning and media players are pointing the way to a future where ever more functions are packed into ever smaller mobile devices.
The smart phone industry, including technology giants like LG and Samsung, is likely to sell 270 million phones this year and grow 25 percent in 2011, according to market research company IDC.
“I think you can expect to see features that support context-aware computing starting to appear in Intel products in the near future,” Rattner said.
But analysts say Intel faces an uphill battle getting its microchips into new phones as Nvidia, Marvell and Qualcomm have already made headway with cheap, lower-power processors based on designs by ARM Holdings.
Rattner recognized that questions about privacy and people’s willingness to be intimate with their computers will have to be settled before the future generation of smart phones he described takes off.
“If you think identity threat is a problem today, imagine when your whole context is readily available on the Net.”, he said.
小題1:The future smart phones can do all of the following except _______.
A．giving responses to the moods of the owners
B．giving proposals like assistants or companions
C．offering advice to their owners’ friends or relatives
D．telling the phone holders or carriers where they are
小題2:Which of the following are smart phones according to the passage?
A．iPhone and BlackberryB．LG and Samsung
C．Marvell and QualcommD．Nvidia and ARM Holdings
小題3:From the passage we can infer that _______.
A．Intel Corporation has become the world leader in the smar tphone market
B．Intel Corporation has fallen behind in the profitable market for smart phones
C．more functions packed into mobile phones will make mobile devices larger
D．the smart phone industry is likely to grow 25 percent in the year of 2011
小題4:The best title for the passage is likely to be _______.
A．Smart phones and TelevisionsB．Context-aware Computing
C．Personalized TelevisionsD．Personalized Smart phones

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.
Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others’ lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren’t getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn’t mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don’t enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between “I” and “me”. 
A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.
One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their parents.
小題1:The underlined part “in a different family” (in Para. 1) means “_______”.
A．in a different family environment
B．in a different family tradition
C．in different family crises
D．in different families
小題2:In terms of language development, later-borns ________.
A．get their parents’ individual guidance
B．learn a lot from their elder siblings
C．experience a lot of difficulties
D．pick up words more quickly
小題3:What was found about fights among siblings?
A．Siblings hated fighting and loved playing.
B．Siblings in some families fought frequently.
C．Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships.
D．Siblings learned to get on together from fights.
小題4:The word “feminine” (in Para. 4) means “_______”.
A．having qualities of parents
B．having qualities of women
C．having defensive qualities
D．having extraordinary qualities

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