During the course of a year, the path of the Sun among the stars—the ecliptic—passes through 12 ancientconstellations. Because all but one of these 12 constellations represent living things, human or animal, the Greekscalled them the “circle of Animals”—in ancient Greek, kyklos zodiakos, now shortened to zodiac. The one starpattern in the zodiac that doesn’t represent an animal is Libra, the Scales. However, the Greeks considered the starsof Libra to be both a Scales and the Claws of the Scorpion, which follows Libra in the zodiac, so it’s appropriate toinclude it in the circle as well. 

     The Greeks inherited the 12 constellations of the zodiac, as well as the concept of the zodiac as a singularobject, from the Babylonians. (Ancient Babylonia occupied south-central Mesopotamia on the floodplain betweenthe Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; today, it corresponds to southern Iraq.) The concept of the zodiac was closelyrelated to horoscope astrology—the system of predicting a person’s character and future from where the Sun andplanets were in the zodiac at the time of their birth—a practice which also came to Greece from Babylonia, thoughit was a very late development in Mesopotamia. In fact the earliest known horoscope from Babylonia dates only to 410 BC. But by that time Babylonia had been under the rule of Persian kings for over a century. The ancient Persianswere Sun-worshippers, whereas traditionally the Babylonians had used a lunar rather than a solar calendar. Thus,though it was indeed the Babylonians who conceived of the 12 ancient constellations in the path of the Sun as aunit, which the Greeks then called the zodiac, they did so only as late as the 5th century BC under the influence ofPersian Sun-worship.

     Horoscope astrology as we think of it today developed even later: It didn’t attain its final form and greatpopularity until the 3rd century AD, when the social and political dislocations of the decaying Roman Empire madethe powerless multitudes vulnerable to any superstition that promised knowledge about the insecure future and someillusion of control over it.

       The development of companion machine is making a lot of progress. The ideal companion machine would not only look, feel, and sound friendly but would also be programmed to behave in a   21   manner.Those qualities that make interaction with other people enjoyable would be   22   as closely as possible, and the machine would appear to be charming, stimulating, and easygoing. Its informal conversational style would make interaction comfortable, and yet the machine would remain slightly unpredictable and   23   interesting. In its first encounter it might be somewhat hesitant and   24   , but as it came to know the user it would progress to a more relaxed and intimate style. The machine would not be a passive participant but would add its own suggestions, information, and opinions; it would sometimes take the   25   in developing or changing the topic and would have a personality of its own.

        "Time" is the most commonly used noun in the English language. The word itself is used in a __31__ of ways: wecan kill time, do time, save it, and spend it. Time even takes on a medicinal role when it comes to healing both physicaland emotional __32__ . Most of us wish we __33__ more of it, and yet time persists as an object of value, as in "Timeis money," and an enemy of every person, as in "The deadline is approaching" or "His days are __34__ ." It is, eventually,the thing__35__ kills all of us. And yet for all its pervasiveness in our everyday conversations, describing what timeis doesn't come easily.

       Since the 1990s, a prolific amount of memoirs written and published about the lives of girls and womenin the third world appeared in the market, telling the stories of their wretched girlhood or womanhood.Those stories often depict miserable lives under the dictatorship of strict regimes or by the__  31__  oftraditional cultural practices such as genital cutting. In the narration of these lives, girls and women usuallysuffer from different forms of gender violence. But a clear majority of those stories also__32__a brightside by turning those victims into heroines. They exhibit how those unfortunate girls and womeneventually survive through those terrible ordeals or stand on their own two feet by fighting against all theodds.__ 33__ are especially able to change things for themselves as well as their fellows of the samegender. As the first in the series, Desert Flower is Dirie’s (auto)biography detailing her combat withthe 34 of female genital mutilation (FGM). In her third book,__35__ , Dirie works together withseveral allies to launch an investigation into the practice of FGM and explore the possibility of relatedjuridical protection of girls’/women's rights in several European countries. Dirie’s true story is a livingproof that anyone can succeed in overcoming all the obstacles if they’re brave and determined and havefaith in themselves.

       Fuel poverty occurs when a household is unable to afford the most basic amount of energy foradequate heating, cooking, lighting, and use of appliances in the home. According to European UniversityInstitute, in 2011, 9.8% of households in the EU27 countries and 15.8% of households in the 12 newmember states could not afford to heat their homes adequately. Thus, fuel poverty is an increasingly seriousproblem across Europe and requires the intervention of policymakers.

       In particular, corrective measures have been implemented which aim to help fuel-poor householdspay their energy bills, and preventive policies have also been introduced, which focus more on improvingresidential energy efficiency. Debates about the effectiveness of these measures have ensued for severalreasons; mainly because energy retrofit renovations have often been undertaken by wealthier households.Thus, despite these measures, given the expected increase in the cost of energy, some could find it difficultor even impossible to satisfy their energy needs. As a prerequisite to discussions about the effectivenessof different measures to fight fuel poverty, debates have often focused on the need to reliably identify fuel-poor households and create a detailed profile of such households. In fact, the multidimensionality of fuelpoverty makes it difficult to achieve this.

       Fuel poverty has traditionally been treated as a monetary poverty problem. At European Union level,there is no common definition or standardized indicator for assessing fuel poverty. While there is a largebody of literature on measuring poverty, consensus has not yet been reached on the related methodologicaland conceptual issues. However, households affected by fuel poverty are not always the same as thoseaffected by monetary problems, even if the two phenomena are inextricably linked.

       In this context, we suggest that a more careful and systematic understanding can be developedthrough a multidimensional approach to the relationship between monetary poverty, residential energyefficiency of buildings, and heating restrictions. Our objective in this paper is not to challenge existingmeasures of fuel poverty, but provide new ways to better identify those who suffer the most from fuelpoverty in order to optimize policy. We argue this is needed to better identify the connection betweenenergy use and well-being and therefore deepen understanding of energy poverty.

請依下文回答第 41 題至第 45 題：
       The ancient Greeks worshipped their deities by leaving offerings to them in temples, and honored them by holding regular festivals. Much is known about this worship because many of their temples, together with ritual objects and cult statues, have __41__ , and ancient Greek writers described religious rituals __42__ making offerings of food and wine. Worshippers hoped that the deities would look kindly on them __43__ return, since most gods and goddesses were said to take a keen interest in human affairs. In the mythical great war between Greece and Troy, for example, every stage of the conflict, together with the final outcome, was influenced as much by the actions of the deities __44__ by what the men of the two sides actually achieved on the battle field. The myths of Greece also show this __45__ between deities and humans in the guise of numerous heroes. Stories of heroes like Heracles and Jason, involving great adventures and journey as far as the Underworld, have been endlessly retold.