New technology rules the whole world now. But I still remember when I was a child, I did not have a cell phone or a computer because it was not necessary at all in those days. The Internet was not popular and the touch screen technology was unknown.

At this time here in the US smartphones are really a need, especially for young and business people. There are many applications (应用软件) really useful like maps, dictionaries, e-mails and games.

For me, I use my smartphone to check the weather and to look for something on the Internet and of course to keep communicating through calls and texts. Besides, I like music applications, GPS and Facebook.

Many tests have discovered that cell phones cause damage to us because they send out radioactive (具有放射性的) waves to our bodies and this could cause cancer.

Psychologists say that these devices can affect behavior and I believe everyone knows it is harmful to the eyes if we are sitting for a long time in front of the computer. However, it seems to be difficult for us to give up, even if we know how bad it is for our health. The use of technology becomes more and more important in our lives.

I think the use of technology has brought us unimaginable things. If we use technology correctly, I am sure it would be possible to decrease the damage to our bodies.

Keep in mind that it is important not to focus only on technology, but to spend time with our families and people close to us.

【小题1】What can we know from the passage?

A．The author is a businessman working for a cell phone company.

B．The author has suffered a lot from the use of electrical devices.

C．The author knows little about the functions of modern cell phones.

D．The author is quite pleased with the various functions of cell phones.

【小题2】Which of the following does the author agree with?

A．It’s not necessary to add more applications to cell phones.

B．Cell phones have made our world a boring place to live in.

C．New technology has done people more harm than good.

D．New technology makes people separated from each other.

【小题3】What does the underlined word “decrease” in Paragraph 6 mean?

A．Keep.	B．Cause.
C．Reduce.	D．Add.

【小题4】What does the author mainly discuss in the passage?

A．The importance of the Internet.	B．The applications of cell phones.
C．The role of new technology in our lives.	D．The health problems brought by cell phones.

   It is a familiar scene these days: employees taking newly laid-off co-workers out for a drink for comfort. But which side deserves more sympathy，the jobless or the still employed？On March 6，researchers at a conference at the University of Cambridge suggested it was the latter.

Brendan Burchell，a Cambridge sociologist，presented his analysis based on various surveys conducted across Europe. The data suggest that employed people who feel insecure in their jobs show similar levels of anxiety and depression as those who are unemployed. Although a newly jobless person's mental health may“bottom out”after about six months，and then may even begin to improve，the mental state of people who are continuously worried about losing their own job“just continues to get worse and worse”, Burchell says.

Psychologists support this theory by arguing that human beings feel more stressed during times of insecurity because they sense an immediate but invisible threat. Patients have been known to experience higher levels of anxiety, for example, while waiting for examination results than knowing what they are suffering from—even if the results are cancer. It's better to get the bad news and start doing something about it rather than wait with anxiety.  When the uncertainty continues, people stay in a nonstop“fight or flight”response, which leads to damaging stress.

But not every employee in insecure industries has such a discouraging view, Burchell says. In general, women get on better. While reporting higher levels of anxiety than men when directly questioned, women score lower in stress on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, even when they have a job they feel insecure about losing.  As Burchell explains,“For women, most studies show that any job—it doesn't matter whether it is secure or insecure—gives psychological improvement over unemployment.”He supposes that the difference in men is that they tend to feel pressure not only to be employed, but also to be the primary breadwinners, and that more of a man's self-worth depends on his job.

【小题1】Why do researchers think the still employed deserve more sympathy?

A．They have to do more work since then.

B．They have no chance to find better jobs.

C．They have to work with inexperienced workers.

D．They constantly worry about losing their jobs.

【小题2】What is most likely to cause a“fight or flight”response?

A．Not having a paid job.

B．Poor job conditions.

C．Not knowing what will happen.

D．Pressure to work longer hours.

【小题3】What will the writer talk about following the last paragraph?

A．Advice on preparing for a job interview.

B．Advice on handling pressure from insecure industries.

C．Some knowledge of psychology.

D．Difference in men and women.

【小题4】What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Is it less stressful to get laid off than staying on?

B．Should more sympathy be given to the jobless?

C．Do employees bear more stress than ever before?

D．Do men or women show higher levels of anxiety?

   Heads turned, tears dropped, and gossip-filled whispers went on and on from the hospital passages to the house windows. There was a problem: a daughter had been born. She wasn’t the first disappointment born to her family. Although my aunt didn’t care about giving birth to a girl, her mother-in-law constantly reminded her of the criticism she would have to face if she gave birth to a daughter. In India, most people held these views.

When I visited my relatives during the summer, one sentence managed to fill me with anger and start arguments with my so-called relatives. “You are a girl, stay within your limits.” They simply don’t know how different it is living in the US. Anyway, comparisons to my cousins led me to end the arguments for the moment and accept the way they lived their lives.

My words didn’t make sense to them so my mind was set on proving them wrong.

Although their words didn’t tear me apart, their actions managed to. The amount of sexism(性别歧视) in this culture, especially my hometown, made me feel bad. It was the 21st century, yet women had to eat after the men at family gatherings. They had to cook all the family meals and were asked to take jobs that required little skill or education. It was time to change these views.

As I was growing older, the same relatives repeatedly questioned me about my future: “What do you want to be?” And the answer was always the same：electrical engineer. I have a passion for electronics; as clichéd(陈词滥调的) as it sounds, I was born to do it. When I connect wires together to repair something, I can’t contain my excitement. But when I tried to explain this to my relatives, all of them, except for my parents and grandparents, would be shocked and laugh at me — laugh because they didn’t think I could live up to my goals, being a “girl and all”. It was time to change these views.

In my world, being a girl is not a problem. Rather, it is an opportunity to allow passion, not stereotypes(成见), to shape my future. I decided to channel my relatives’ views into positive energy. Rather than letting them bring me down, I let them be motivation to achieve my goal of becoming an engineer. I, a female, will become a successful engineer.

【小题1】The first paragraph was mainly written to    .

A．describe how bad the author’s aunt felt for having a baby girl

B．describe the pressure the author’s aunt had to face when she was going to have a baby

C．show that most Indian people are strongly prejudiced against women

D．show that the author’s aunt’s generation is fighting against prejudice against women

【小题2】From the second and third paragraphs, it can be concluded that    .

A．the author realized that just using words couldn’t change the relatives’ sexism

B．the author’s friends and relatives were jealous about her life in the US

C．the author got used to being reminded to stay within her limits after she was born

D．the author often argued with her relatives because she believed US lifestyles were right

【小题3】According to the text, the author decided to change her relatives’ views by    .

A．achieving her ambition of changing her hometown

B．using her relatives’ comments as motivation

C．letting stereotypes influence her future decisions

D．achieving her dream of becoming an engineer

【小题4】In the article, in what way does the author show how serious the amount of sexism was in her hometown?

A．By describing feeling defeated after arguments.

B．By describing people’s words, behavior and common practices.

C．By stressing the conflicts she had with her relatives.

D．By giving examples of how her goals were laughed at repeatedly.

阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

A new study has found that graduate students are six times more likely to show depression symptoms 【小题1】 the general population. Researchers led by Evans, a scientist, surveyed 2,279 students in 26 different 【小题2】 (country). Approximately 40% of the surveyed graduates scored middle 【小题3】 severe for anxiety. Nearly 40 percent of the surveyed graduates also showed signs of middle to severe depression. It’s not hard 【小题4】 (understand) why life as a master student can drive some people crazy. Long hours in researching, social loneliness and feelings of not being respected 【小题5】 (complete) can break even the most motivated persons among us. When this situation persists, the anxiety and depression can become part of their life. The relationship 【小题6】 their teachers is another aspect 【小题7】 can deeply influence a graduate student’s mental health. Among the graduates with anxiety or depression, only half agreed that their professional teachers 【小题8】 (provide) real help. These unbelievable high rates of anxiety and depression, when 【小题9】 (compare) to the general population, are alarming and should serve as 【小题10】 wakeup call for the academic world, expert Evans says.

语法填空

Due to better equipment，training and diet，the records in many sports have been broken，but recently，improvements 【小题1】 (begin）to slow down. Thus some experts predict a ceiling for many events.

In order to enhance 【小题2】 (perform), some athletes take the drugs which can get people more excited and 【小题3】 (energy) than in a normal situation and which are originally developed 【小题4】 (help) people with illnesses.  Taking these drugs is known as“doping”and 【小题5】 they improve performance, they also cause serious health problems in later life for those who abuse them.

The Olympic spirit — the spirit of competition which 【小题6】 (emphasise) taking part rather than winning — 【小题7】 (violate) by the desire to succeed at all costs so far. So the sports world does not tolerate doping as it is 【小题8】 fundamental form of cheating. However, it appears as if all efforts are 【小题9】 vain to athletes.

Anyway，the fight will and must 【小题10】 (fierce) go on and we all hope the word“hero”won't lose its meaning.