Do people ever consider the possibility that, if they’re exposed to increased reports about a social problem, it’s the reporting that has increased rather than the problem? It’s increasingly clear that this is the case with school bullying（欺凌）：Only news reports about it have increased, not the behavior itself. In fact, both bullying and fear of it are down among US middle school students
The rate of students who reported fearing an attack or harm at school at all has dropped dramatically, from nearly 12% in 1995 to less than 4% in 2011. For black and Hispanic students, it’s an even more encouraging shift—from more than 20% of both groups of students worried about being attacked at school to less than 5% in 2011.
The decline in actual physical violence in schools is even more dramatic: It was down 74% between 1992 and 2010, according to the latest US Department of Justice data.
What about cyberbullying? Online harassment increased from 6% in 2000 to 9% in 2005 to 11% in 2010 between, and it’s interesting to note that it increased less between 2005 and ’10 than in the first 5 years tracked. Because social media is very much a reflection of school social life for young people, the peer aggression seen in social media is a lot like the peer aggression seen on school bathroom walls. So once it finds its “dead level,” it will probably decline in the same way verbal and written aggression have.
Besides education and crime prevention at the social level, medicine treatment and better access to mental healthcare also contribute to this downward trend in victimization of self and others.
The rise of social media is what people don’t typically think of as a positive force in society. But Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire says, “These technologies might have prevented crime and bullying by providing more ways of help, more forms of social supervision, and interesting activities that destroy forms of alienation(異化) that lead to crime”.
小題1:From the first paragraph we learn that __________.

A．school bullying has increased because of increased reports

B．school bullying has decreased because of increased reports

C．the number of reports on school bullying has increased

D．the number of reports on school bullying has decreased

小題2:The underlined word is closest in meaning to "_________".

A．crime

B．a(chǎn)ggression

C．surfing

D．communication

小題3:The cyberbullying is still increasing probably because ________.

A．it isn't as easy to control as the other school bullying

B．it hasn't been concerned by the governments

C．it isn't part of school social life

D．it hasn't come to its top level

小題4:Finkelhor believes that social media have a ________ influence on the falling trend of school bullying.

A．positive

B．negative

C．major

D．slight

Global warming is causing more than 300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses each year, according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general.
The report, to be released Friday, analyzed data and existing studies of health, disaster, population and economic trends. It found that human-influenced climate change was raising the global death rates from illnesses including malnutrition and heat-related health problems.
But even before its release, the report drew criticism from some experts on climate and risk, who questioned its methods and conclusions. Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor countries,were being seriously affected by climate change. It projected that the number would double by 2030.
Roger Pielke Jr., a politicalscientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the Forum’s report was “a methodological embarrassment” because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid（在...中間） the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable(易受傷害的) regions. Dr. Pielke said that “climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention.” But the report, he said, “will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed(有瑕疵的).”
However, Soren Andreasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were rough estimates. He said the report was aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty.
In a press release describing the report, Mr. Annan stressed the need for the negotiations to focus on increasing the flow of money from rich to poor regions to help reduce their vulnerability to climate hazards while still controling the emissions of the heat-trapping gases. More than 90% of the human and economic losses from climate change are occurring in poor countries, according to the report.
小題1: What is the finding of the Global Humanitarian Forum?

A．Rates of death from illnesses have risen due to global warming.

B．Global temperatures affect the rate of economic development.

C．Malnutrition has caused serious health problems in poor countries.

D．Economic trends have to do withpopulation and natural disasters.

小題2: What do we learn about the Forum’s report from the passage?

A．It caused a big stir in developing countries.

B．It was warmly received by environmentalists.

C．It caused a lot of interest in the scientific circles.

D．It was challenged by some climate and risk experts.

小題3: What is Soren Andreasen’s view of the report?

A．Its conclusions are based on carefully collected data.

B．It is vulnerable to criticism if the statistics are closely examined.

C．It will give rise to heated discussions at the Copenhagen conference.

D．Its rough estimates are meant to draw the attention of world leaders.

小題4:What does Kofi Annan say should be the focus of the Copenhagen conference?

A．How human and economic losses from climate change can be reduced.

B．How rich countries can better help poor regions reduce climate hazards.

C．How emissions of heat-trapping gases can be reduced on a global scale.

D．How rich and poor regionscan share responsibility in curbing global warming.

Online Communication
In an age when technology moves faster than most can keep up with, a small group of people still remain in the time of old-fashioned letter. Frankly speaking, I was once certain that traditional letters could never be replaced by other means of communication.
But a story about online communication changed my mind.
An old man, who suffered a lot from Parkinson’s disease, was not able to talk clearly and could hardly write his name. Living totally alone, he managed to keep in touch with nearly all the members of his family. How did he achieve this? He clicked out words on his computer keyboard.
I, therefore, managed to get an E-mail box as soon as the opportunity came. My life changed. E-mail, and all online communication, is something truly different. It has capabilities（能力） that few other products can match.
E-mail is convenient. It takes less time with its fast speed and 24-hour connection. The slow postal service is no match. If you wouldn’t want to have a face-to-face talk with your manager, you might talk with him through E-mail even if you are in the same office.
Naming all the good things about online communication is not easy. But wait. E-mail can be inconvenient. It can waste time and energy. Just think what may happen when you take a short vacation and return to find your e-mail box filled with 200 unread messages. You could easily spend half a day clearing junk ads.
Then, online communication will keep us staying at our computer while it connects us to distant strangers. Once we throw ourselves into the machine, we may forget the human touches we once held so dear. I’m sure there is and always will be a place for the old-fashioned letter, phone call, and face-to-face meeting… even in the world of modern communication.
As I listen to the sound of the modem(調(diào)制解調(diào)器), I was excited at stepping out to the outside world but, at the same time, I sensed a loss of control over something valuable in my personal life.
小題1:What is the most probable meaning of the underlined word “junk” in paragraph6?

A．old and useless

B．New and useful

C．Short but valuable

D．Long but clear

小題2:What does the writer think of online communication?

A．It should replace old-fashioned letters completely.

B．It is perfect and always does good to you.

C．It is extremely useful and convenient, but it may be inconvenient or even harmful.

D．It does more harm than good.

小題3:What caused the writer to become interested in E-mail and online communication?

A．The sound of the modem.	B．His own illness.
C．The changing of his life.	D．A sick old man’s experience.

小題4:According to the writer, traditional means of communication will never disappear because ________.

A．they are convenient and popular though they are slow

B．they help to keep the friendly relationship between people

C．most people cannot keep up with the development of technology

D．modern means of communication does too much harm

小題5:How did the sick old man keep in touch with his family members?

A．With the help of his computer.	B．By writing letters with his pen.
C．By making telephone calls.	D．By visiting them regularly.

Kids at the Interlake School Division were the first Canadian students to take part in a program to send experiments to the International Space Station.(ISS).
Jordan Schott and three other sixth grade students came up with the idea to test royal jelly(蜂王漿) in space . Their experiment came very close to be tested on the space station. “We were seeing if we could send it to space, and if it would lose its nutritional value” faster and or slower, ”said Schott. Schott is one of the 18 students in the Space Knights Club at Woodlands Elementary School, part of the Interlake School Division. Over 450 students from the Division took part in the program.
“I thought we were just students and we couldn’t do much in the way of that. It’s a way to communicate with people up there ,” said Braeden Clark, a seventh grade student who is also in the club.
The astronauts shared what they learned with their school with a full day of activities all about science and space.
Teacher Maria Nickel is the organizer of the club. She said the day was great for students to learn what they could do. “Space is one of those great things that get kids excited, but it also gives them the chance to do so much. They can be an astronaut; they can be an engineer, ”She said.
The day was held in honour of Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut now in the Internal Space Station. “It gives kids someone more to look up to. Here’s a real hero to look up to who’s doing it all, doing it through education,” said Nickel.
Jordan Schott thinks it’s really cool. “To me it seems so cool how people can go up to space, and science is something I’ve always liked,” She said. Schott says she wants to follow in the footsteps of Hadfield and be an astronaut when she gets older.
One of the winning experiments in the competition was produced by students from Argyle, Manitoba. It will travel to the space station in the fall of 2013.
小題1:The program at the Interlake School Division________-

A．was carried out by 18 students.

B．was to test royal jelly in space

C．was designed to send experiments to the ISS

D．a(chǎn)llowed the first students to connect with the ISS

小題2:We can infer from the text that Maria Nickel__________- 

A．thinks it’s cool to live in the ISS

B．encourages students to be astronauts

C．helps students develop their interest in space

D．thinks Chris Hadfield sets a good example to the students

小題3:What do we know Jordan Schott?

A．She is seventh grader

B．She dreams of being an engineer

C．She respects Chris Hadfield very much

D．She didn’t like science when she was young

小題4:What’s the main idea of the text?

A．Kids carry out experiments for the ISS.

B．Winners of competitions travel to the ISS.

C．Astronauts do activities together with students

D．Interlake School Division trains students to be astronauts.

Scientific experiments can sometimes go wrong and when they do the results may range from the disastrous to the troubling. One such experiment took place in South America about fifty years ago. Whether its final consequences will cause serious damage or nothing more than a small trouble still remains to be seen.
The story began in 1956 when an American scientist working in Brazil decided to solve the problem of increasing the productivity of that country’s bees. He imported a very active type of African bee from Tanzania and mated (交配)it with the more easy-going native variety to produce a new kind of bees. The new bees worked harder and produced twice as much honey. It seemed that Professor Kerr, for that was the scientist's name, had a total success on his hands.
Then things began to go wrong. For some reason as yet unseen, but perhaps as a result of something in their environment, the new bees began to develop extremely attacking personalities. They became bad-tempered and easy to be angry, attacked the native bees and drove them from their living places.
But worse was to follow. Having taken over the countryside, the new bees, with their dangerous stings (叮) , began to attack its neighbors -- cats, dogs, horses, chickens and finally man himself. A long period of terror began that has so far killed a great number of animals and about 150 human beings.
This would have been bad enough if the bees had stayed in Brazil. But now they are on the move, heading northwards in countless millions towards Central and North America, and moving at the alarming speed of 200 miles a year. The countries that lie in their path are naturally worried because it looks as if nothing can be done to stop them.
小題1: The results of the South American experiment         .

A．a(chǎn)re not yet certain	B．have proved to be wrong
C．have caused a serious trouble	D．a(chǎn)re not important

小題2: The experiment mentioned in this passage was designed to             .

A．make African bees less active

B．make Brazilian bees more easy-going

C．increase the number of bees in Brazil

D．increase the amount of honey in Brazil

小題3: Which of the following may be the cause of the new bees' attacking personalities?

A．Their production of honey.	B．Their living environment.
C．Their hard work.	D．Their bad temper.

小題4: The last paragraph implies that            .

A．the bees have been driven to Central and North America

B．the bees must be stopped from moving north

C．the bees may bring about trouble in more countries

D．the bees prefer to live in Brazil

A funny thing happened on the way to the communications revolution: we stopped talking to one another.
I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and... I became invisible, absent from the conversation. The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communications technology is a tragedy to the closeness of human interaction（互動(dòng)）. With email and instant messaging over the internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can conduct  entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom  has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine.
As almost every contact we can imagine between human  beings gets automated（自動(dòng)化）, the alienation index（疏遠(yuǎn)指數(shù)） goes up. You can't  even call a person to get the phone number of another person  any more. Directory assistance is almost always fully automated.
I am not against modern technology. I own a cell phone,  an ATM card, a voice mail system, and an email account. Giving them up isn't wise... they're a great help to us. It's some of  their possible consequences that make me feel uneasy.
More and more. I find myself hiding behind e­mail to do a job meant for conversation. Or being relieved that voice mail   picked up because I didn't really have time to talk. The industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier ...or at least facilitating my antisocial instincts.
So I've put myself on technology restriction: no instant   messaging with people who live near me, no cell phoning in the presence of friends, no letting the voice mail pick up when I'm at home.
小題1:Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A．The Advance of Communications Technology

B．The Consequences of modern Technology

C．The Story of Communications Revolution

D．The Automation of Modern Communications

小題2:The sentence “Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent” means that ________.

A．the people sitting beside you have to go away to receive a phone call

B．you can hardly get in touch with the people sitting beside you

C．modern technology makes it hard for people to have a face-­to­-face talk

D．people can now go to work without going to the office

小題3:The writer feels that the use of modern communications is ________.

A．satisfying

B．encouraging

C．disappointing

D．embarrassing

小題4:The passage implies that ________.

A．modern technology is bridging the people

B．modern technology is separating the people

C．modern technology is developing too fast

D．modern technology is interrupting our communication

Some say college is wasted on the young. So many of us look back at our own college years and realize what we could have done differently to make the most of them. While we can’t go back, we certainly can offer our sons and daughters our best advice to help them make the right choices in college. Hopefully, they will have fewer regrets than we do. Following are five guidelines parents can share with their college-bound kids to put the whole experience in perspective.
EDUCATION IS YOUR FIRST PRIORITY
As soon as you arrive on campus, there will be competing interests. Feel free to check them out but always remember that you are there first and foremost for your education. Go to class prepared and on time. Be engaged during class. Make sure your professor knows you and realizes that you care.
BE RESPONSIBLE
There are many layers of responsibility. Do what you say you will do and, if you can’t, own up to it early and communicate clearly. But being responsible isn’t just about meeting your commitments; it is also about taking care of you, your body, and your friends. For example, more than 1800 college students die annually from alcohol-related injuries. Look out for yourself and other people. Make moderate, sensible decisions so you aren’t reeling from the consequences later.
TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY
Incredible opportunities will present themselves: studying abroad, interning at a unique place, trying new things. Don’t let fear prevent you from taking advantage of them. There may never be so much time or as many resources devoted to your betterment again in your life. Say yes to opportunities that will help you grow.
FIND AND BE A MENTOR
Some of the best lessons available to us can come outside of the classroom in the form of a mentor. One of the most powerful growth opportunities is being a mentor. Early on, find someone on campus who you feel can help you grow and develop a relationship with him or her. Also find someone for you to mentor. You will reinforce and enrich your own learning experience by teaching someone else.
GET THE JOB DONE
It is natural to occasionally feel you want to quit, when it makes more sense to you to go find a full-time job. Resist that urge. As Jocelyn Negron-Rios, a mother of two, who is currently completing her degree, advises, “No matter how difficult it seems, keep at it because however insurmountable it feels now multiply that by 10,000 and that is how it feels when you are in your thirties with a full-time job and a family and are trying to pursue a degree.”
小題1:According to the passage, the most important thing for college students is ______.

A．taking part in different activities

B．working hard to get a degree

C．seizing every chance to try new things

D．improving themselves by learning from the others

小題2:Which of the following about college life is true?

A．Passing on what you’ve learned in college can help you enrich your learning experience.

B．Make sure that you are responsible for yourself rather than others.

C．Professors will not assess your performances in class but the grades you get in exams.

D．You can make full use of the opportunity whenever you want.

小題3:What can we infer from the words said by Jocelyn in the last paragraph?

A．Persistence is the key to success when you meet with difficulties in your learning process.

B．It is better if you gain more working experience before you finish your education.

C．As long as you work hard, you can gain a degree even when you are in your thirties.

D．Youth is the best time to learn since you have less burden.

小題4:What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To give some rules for the college students.

B．To call on the students to make full use of college years.

C．To summarize some tips for parents to share with their children.

D．To analyze the benefits and difficulties of college life.

Thoughts claim our attention continuously, and waste our time and energy on unimportant and useless matters. They actually rule our life. We have become so used to this slavery, that we take it for granted, and have become unconscious of this habit, except on certain occasions.
While breathing, we do not need to pay attention to each inhalation and exhalation. We become conscious of the process of breathing only when we have some difficulty with breathing, such as when our nose is blocked, due to a cold, or when we are in an unventilated(不通風(fēng)的) room.
It is the same with thinking. We become conscious of the constant onslaught of our thoughts, and of our inability to calm them down, only when we need to concentrate, solve a problem or study. We are also aware of them when we have worries or fears.
Look at the following familiar situation. You need to study something for an exam. You sit comfortably on the sofa with the book in your hands and start reading. After a while you feel hungry and go to the kitchen to eat something.
You return to read, and then hear your people talking outside. You listen to them for several moments and then bring your attention back to the book.
After a while you feel restless and switch on the radio to listen to some music. You continue to read for a little while, and then remember something that happened yesterday, and you start thinking about it.
When you look at your watch, you are amazed to find out that one complete hour has passed and you have hardly read anything. And at this time, you feel you’re thinking.
This is what happens when one lacks concentration. Imagine what you could have accomplished if you could control your attention and focus your mind!
小題1:When can you feel you are thinking?

A．While breathing.	B．While not reading.
C．When you need to concentrate.	D．When you waste your time.

小題2:Why does the author put forward the exam situation?

A．To explain the course of thinking awareness.

B．To show how to get ready for an exam.

C．To present an example of concentration.

D．To emphasize the importance of reading.

小題3:Where can you most probably find the above passage?

A．In a guidebook of natural science.

B．In the front page of a newspaper.

C．In an advertisement part of a magazine.

D．In the section of psychology of a magazine.

小題4:This passage is mainly about _______.

A．the relationship between thoughts and breathing

B．how people’s thought and mind work

C．what happens when one wants to think

D．the ways to increase your thought

Everybody knows that colors are connected with certain feelings. For example, why do some people paint the walls of their rooms yellow and others pink? The same is true in stores. They want us to feel something when we look at their products.
Green, for example, tries to show the quality of a product: how good it is for us or for our environment. It also suggests that the product is healthier, has less fat and maybe fewer calories. Red, on the other hand is an aggressive color that is often used for packaging food. Red wants us to become hungry or thirsty. Purple is a kind of color that is often seen as royal. It indicates that it is something special. Producers use purple to show that something is of good quality. Blue is not very often found in food packaging because there are not very many foods that have a blue color.
Colors can also have different meaning in different cultures and countries. For example, while the color white is used in many Western countries to represent purity and innocence, it is seen as a symbol of mourning in many Eastern countries. The Egyptian pharaohs(法老) wore white crowns. A white sale is a sale of sheets, towels, and other bed and bath items. A white flag is the universal symbol for truce(休戰(zhàn)). A white elephant is a rare, pale elephant sacred(神圣的) to the people of India, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. In these countries, something that is a white elephant is either a possession that costs more than it is worth to keep or an item that the owner doesn’t want but can’t get rid of.
Consumers are aware that certain foods must have certain colors. When Pepsi brought out a crystal clear cola in 1992, it thought that consumers would buy it because clear meant pure and healthy. After a few months Pepsi found out that a cola had to be dark-colored. Crystal Pepsi failed and the company pulled it off the market.
Advertising professionals often need to look at a product through the consumers’ eyes when choosing a color. The right packaging colors can truly improve the sales of a product but choosing a wrong color could end in failure.
小題1:According to the passage, blue is rarely used in food packaging because ____.

A．most consumers dislike it

B．it matches very few foods

C．it brings people low spirits

D．it doesn’t catch people’s eyes

小題2:According to the passage, in India if something is expensive but useless, it can be called   ____.

A．a(chǎn) white flag	B．a(chǎn) white elephant
C．a(chǎn) white sale	D．a(chǎn) white crown

小題3:Pepsi’s example is used to show ____.

A．Pepsi’s success comes from failures

B．health is the main concern in drink making

C．crystal clear drinks can’t attract consumers

D．people have fixed ideas about products and colors

小題4:What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Colors in advertising

B．Colors in food packaging

C．Our everyday life and colors

D．Foods in different colors

Apologizing is both an Art and a Science. The Art lies in the manner in which the apology is delivered while the Science is the recipe that forms the apology itself. A proper apology should always include several ingredients. Now let’s take a closer look at these ingredients.
Give a detailed account of the offense, and make sure both you and the other person are talking about the same thing. Whether you make it in secret or public doesn’t matter, but your apology should be focused on the particular event.
Next, by acknowledging the hurt or damage done, you are making the recipient (接受者) begin to sense that you understand the situation. It is important to rebuild your relationship because it makes them feel their anger is understandable.
Don’t try to defend yourself by offering any excuses, which is important to let them know that you understand the event and you actions do cause them harm. The apology is all about THEM and how they feel. It doesn’t matter if the actions were intentional or not, the end result is the same and that is what needs to be focused on when learning how to say, “I’m sorry”.
Give a sincere statement of regret such as “I apologize” or “I’m sorry”. Above all, tell them it won’t happen again. After all, there is no value in apologizing for something that you will do again and again.
Finally, asking for forgiveness at the end of the apology gives the power back to the recipient. It tells them, that you have done all that you can do by apologizing and providing whatever form of restitution(補(bǔ)償)you can. The next move is up to them.
By including all these ingredients and applying them to your situation, you will know exactly how to say “I’m sorry” next time you need to.
小題1:The passage mainly tells readers ____.

A．the importance of apologizing

B．the process of apologizing

C．how to apologize effectively

D．how to repair a broken friendship

小題2:How will the recipient react when you admit hurting them?

A．They will be sorry for being angry with you.

B．They will treat you differently right away.

C．They will understand the situation better.

D．They will think their former reaction normal.

小題3:When you make an apology, you should concentrate on ____.

A．finding out better excuses

B．taking responsibility for the event

C．defending yourself from more harm

D．understanding the current situation

小題4:What is the key to any apology?

A．A sincere statement of regret.

B．Giving the recipient more power.

C．A promise that you won’t repeat your wrongdoings.

D．Giving the recipient a detailed account of the event.