Now, most people have watches. As we know, Switzerland（瑞士） is famous for its watches. (1) , the watch was not ( 2) in this country. It was the British who did. Many years ago, an Englishman traveled to Italy and on his way he went (3) a small town in Switzerland. This Englishman traveled in a carriage（馬車） inside which there was a carriage watch. This was the _(4) kind of watch. A blacksmith’s（鐵匠） assistant hoped to see the watch. He (5) what it was. (6) he asked the Englishman about it. “ It is a carriage watch,” said the Englishman. “ This machine can tell the (7) but now it isn’t working.”
At once the blacksmith’s assistant（助理）decided to try to (8) it. So the traveler handed him the watch. He was very (9). So it was not surprising that he was (10) in showing it right. He even remembered how it was made. As soon as the traveler had gone, he made a watch of exactly（精確地） the same kind.
So the watch-making was started in Switzerland. Today Swiss watches are sold all over the world.

Do you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? Normally the women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent（聰明的） than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain is made up of “grey matter” and “white matter”. While men have more of the white matter, the amount（數(shù)量）of “thinking” brain is almost the same in both men and women.
It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls may learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of different information at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.
There are other important differences between two sexes（性別）. As white matter is the key to spatial（空間的）tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!
The differences begin when fetuses（胎兒）are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children when they are very young. A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would ask for help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.
【小題1】Which of the following is TRUE according to Paragraph 1?

Should we be afraid of sharks? Maybe not. New research into the reasons for shark attacks (攻擊) suggests that sharks don’t like the way humans taste! In fact, most people who are attacked by the shark are still alive after receiving only one bite (咬). Why is this?
There are many opinions to explain why sharks sometimes attack people. One opinion is that sharks are just curious (好奇的). We know that sharks are the strongest animals in their environment, so they are not afraid of anything. Naturally, that means they are curious when they meet something unusual. Because they don’t have hands or feet., the only way they can find out an object is to bite it! It is thought that sharks sometimes bite humans for this reason, and then swim away.
Scientists also say that sharks would not waste energy trying to eat a human, as we have a lot of bones (骨頭). It is hard for a shark to eat us because sharks don’t have hands, and they can’t pull the meat off our bones. Maybe that’s why they only bite us once. Unluckily, one bite from a large shark is serious enough to hurt people greatly!
Another opinion is that sharks attack humans by mistake. Some sharks may sometimes mistake humans for a seal. An example of this is when a shark attack attacks a surfer. A surfer lying on a surfboard looks like a seal when seen from below. Sharks like seals because they have thick fat.
Whatever the reason for shark attacks on humans, sharks should be afraid of us. Sadly, we kill almost 40 million of them each year.
【小題1】What happens to people attacked by sharks?

When you look up into the sky at night, have you ever felt that your eyes are playing tricks on (捉弄) you? It seems that the stars are moving all the time.
Actually, there is nothing wrong with your eyes. This twinkling effect is called scintillation (交光). Scintillation happens because of air movements in the earth’s atmosphere (大氣). Light is “bent (彎曲的)” when it travels through different parts of the earth’s atmosphere. As the air in the earth’s atmosphere is moving all the time, the light from the stars looks as if it is moving too.
The same thing also happens to things on the ground. On a very hot and shiny day, if you look at the road, the image in the distance is not clear and things move slightly. You can also see the same effect if you drop a rock into water. The rock appears a little unclear under the moving water.
This twinkling effect causes a lot of problems for astronomers (天文學(xué)家) since they cannot observe the stars clearly. A telescope (望遠鏡) was sent into space so that the air movements in the atmosphere could be avoided (避免). It took a long time to build the space telescope but finally in 1990, a huge space telescope called the Hubble Space Telescope was successfully sent into space. Since then, astronomers have many important observations that have helped people understand space better.
根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，選擇最佳選項。 （10分）
【小題1】What happens to the light from the stars we see when the air in the earth’s atmosphere is moving?

Everything that humans hear is in the form of waves (波).Just as the eye sees light wares in the form of colors, the ear and the eye Curs these different waves into signals that the brain (大腦) can make sense of.
The ears and brain have an Amazing amities to recognize（識別）particular sounds. For example, a mother often can tell when her baby is crying even if there are other crying babies in the same room. This is because the sound of her baby’s cry has special meaning to her and the brain has recorded is importance.
The ability to recognize sounds improves with experiences. As the brain receives information about sounds from day to day, it stores the information in its memory. When the brain hears new sounds, it gives meaning to them based on the information already in the memory. This is why certain words or songs can make a person happy. Often it is not the words or songs themselves that cause this feeling. The sounds are connected to happy memories for that person.
After hearing process controlled by the brain is to decide where a sound is coming from. One ear is usually closer to the source (來源) of a sound than the other ear is. Sound waves are stronger when they reach the ear that is closer. They also reach the closer ear first. The brain recognizes these differences and uses them to decide the location of the source of the sound.
【小題1】Which of the following shows the normal hearing process of a mother hearing her baby crying?
a. The ears receive the sound waves.
b. The mother recognizes her baby’s cry.
c. The ears turn the sound waves into signals.
d. The baby’s cry ravels in the form of sound waves
e. The brain connects the signals to the information in me memory.

Imagine the situation. You are driving along a desert or on a mountain. You have no idea where you are. You passed the last house two hours ago. Then your car breaks down. It is night and it is cold. You have no mobile phone. What do you do? Well, next time take a GPS with you. This invention may be able to help you. It is a device(裝置) which uses satellites (衛(wèi)星) to find the user’s position(位置). It can find your position to within 20 metres. A GPS cannot start your car, but at least you will know where you are.
GPS, which means Global Positioning System, is a small radio receiver. It looks like a mobile phone. You can hold it in your hand, or put in your pocket. It is sometimes put into a watch or a telephone. We also find GPS devices in cars, planes, or boats. Some of these devices have electronic maps, so you know where you are. For example, in a city they can tell you the name of the street.
There are three parts to the Global Positioning System. The first part is the receiver. You can hold it in your hand, or have it fixed into your car, plane, etc. The second part is a group of satellites orbiting the Earth. The receiver contacts at least four of the satellites and calculates(計算) its position. The third part of the system is a network of ground stations. They are all over the world. They control the satellites and make sure they are working well.
Some people think that in the future the GPS will be as common as the mobile. They are becoming cheaper and more and more accurate(精確的). There are also new uses for the GPS. Perhaps they will become like watches. Everyone will have one and you will never be lost again.
【小題1】According to the passage, with the help of the GPS, people __________.

How to be a Grown up
1.Be responsible
Most people think of a grownup as someone who takes responsibility for his or her own life. And being responsible shows your parents that you are growing up and can handle more freedom. Here are some suggestions to be a responsible person:
Take care of your own affairs.
Answer for your own actions.
Be trustworthy.
Always use your head.
2. Choose to do the right thing
Some decisions are easy to make, others are more difficult. Choosing to do the right thing is an act of self-respect and responsible decision making. Follow the advice can help you decide what’s right:
Listen to your heart .
Don’t hurt anyone including yourself.
Be fair to others including yourself.
What would adults I respect say about it.
3.Respect yourself
Respecting ourselves helps us make good choice. And making good choices lifts our self-respect . Good self-respect helps every aspect(方面) of our personal and social lives. And makes it a lot easier to get through the hard times. Here are some tips to make you respect yourself:
Be true to yourself and your highest value.
Respect others and treat them right. 
Set goals and work to achieve them. 
Don’t let others make your choices for you.

Now satellites are helping to forecast the weather. They are in space, and they can reach any part of the world. The satellites take pictures of the atmosphere（大氣）, because this is where the weather forms. They send these pictures to the weather stations. So meteorologists（氣象學(xué)家）can see the weather of any part of the world. From the pictures, the scientists can often say how the weather will change.
Today, nearly five hundred weather stations in sixty countries receive satellite pictures. When they receive new pictures, the meteorologists compare them with earlier ones. Perhaps they may find that the clouds have changed during the last few hours. This may mean that the weather on the ground may soon change, too. In their next weather forecast, the meteorologists can say this.
So the weather satellites are a great help to the meteorologists. Before satellites were invented, the scientists could forecast the weather for about 24 or 48 hours. Now they can make good forecasts for three or five days. Soon, perhaps, they may be able to forecast the weather for a week or more ahead（提前）.
【小題1】Satellites travel _____________.

Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!
Parapsychologists (靈學(xué)家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a “sixth sense” really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist (心理學(xué)家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.
In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects（受試者）were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almost all of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.
For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t.
Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker, “I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.”
【小題1】The aim of the two experiments is to ________.

閱讀短文，根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容補全表格中所缺的信息。（每空一詞）
On 28th of April 2013, there was an earthquake that happened in Ya An, Si Chuan Province. It was a level 7 earthquake .As we know, earthquake is very dangerous and terrible. but do you know what to do during and after an earthquake？Here is some advice for you.
Before an earthquake. It is necessary to prepare yourself and your family. All family members should know how to turn off gas, water and electricity (電) and know useful telephone numbers（doctor, hospital, police, 119, etc）.Never put heavy things over beds.
During the earthquake. It’s important to for each of you to stay calm. If you are indoors, quickly move to a safe place in the room such as under a strong desk or a strong table. It can protect yourself from falling things. Stay away from windows, large mirrors, heavy things and so on. If you are cooking, turn off the gas.
If you are outdoors, move to an open area like a playground. Move away from buildings, bridges and trees. If you are driving, stop the car as soon as possible .Stay in your car.
After an earthquake. Once the shaking stops, do not run out of the building at once. It’s better to wait and leave when it is safe.
Check around you and help the people in trouble. If your building is badly broken, you should leave it. If you smell or hear gas, get someone outside and open windows and doors. If you can do it safely, turn off the gas. Report it to the gas company.