1 The enforcement of the new law, which approves of mercy killing, is ____ with huge obstacles.
(A) tormented (B) dispensed (C) confronted (D) manifested
2 Harry has fished in rough weather several times this summer, so the ____ of heavy rain and strong winds
would not stop him from going tonight.
(A) atmosphere (B) calculation (C) illustration (D) forecast
10 Jennifer has been suffering from the _____ headache disease almost twice a week in the past 5 years.
(A) thrifty (B) chronic (C) lustful (D) partial
請回答第 14 題至第 16 題:
Of all the proposals aimed at improving America’s failing schools, there’s one idea kids will really like:
more video games and fewer books. At least a number of educators hope so, arguing that children would get more
14_______ about school and that video games can present real-life problems to solve. Nobody is talking about
putting 15_______ video games into classrooms, particularly those which may encourage aggressive behavior.
16_______ , educators such as Indiana University professor Sasha Barab are developing alternative video games that
can teach as well as entertain. For instance, in one game designed by Barab, the player assumes the role of an
investigator seeking to find out why fish are dying in a virtual park.
【題組】14 (A) anxious (B) excited (C) global (D) knowledgeable
請回答第 17 題至第 21 題:
A woman repeated a bit of gossip about a neighbor. Within a few days the whole community knew the story.
The person it concerned was deeply hurt and 17_______ . Later, the woman responsible for spreading the rumor
learned that it was completely untrue. She was very sorry and went to a wise old sage to find out what she could
do to 18_______ the damage.
“Go to the marketplace,” he said, “and purchase a chicken, and have it killed. Then on your way home, pluck
its feathers and drop them one by one along the road.” 19_______ surprised by this advice, the woman did what she
was told. The next day the wise man said, “Now, go and collect all those feathers you dropped yesterday and
bring them back to me.”
The woman followed the same road, but to her 20_______ the wind had blown all the feathers away. After
searching for hours, she returned 21_______ only three in her hand. “You see,” said the old sage, “it’s easy to drop
them, but it’s impossible to get them back. So it is with gossip. It doesn’t take much to spread a rumor, but once
you do, you can never completely undo the wrong.”
【題組】17 (A) deceived (B) relieved (C) delighted (D) offended
請回答第 22 題至第 25 題:
The life of Levi Strauss is a US success story. A German who immigrated to America in 1847 at age
nineteen, Levi Strauss began by selling needles, thread, and buttons in New York. On the invitation of his
brother-in-law, he sailed to San Francisco in 1853.
Gold had been discovered in California a few years before, and the Gold Rush had begun. The population
exploded as more and more people came to try to get rich overnight. Suddenly, thousands of people started
mining for gold. Strauss noticed that the miners complained that their pants were always tearing easily and that
the pockets ripped apart as soon as one put a few nuggets in them.
Levi Strauss saw a business opportunity. He began making pants out of some heavy brown canvas he had
brought to use for tents or wagon covers. These new pants were stiff, but they sold briskly. When the original
fabric was used up, Strauss went to Europe for more. What he got was a lighter, more flexible fabric from Nîmes,
France, called serge de Nîmes. This cloth, which became known as denim, proved even more useful for pants,
since it was just as strong but much more comfortable. With indigo, the pants were dyed the familiar blue color.
Miners still complained about problems with their pockets. On the advice of Nevada tailor Jacob Davis,
Strauss went to a blacksmith and had the jeans pockets reinforced with metal rivets. In 1873, they patented the
popular innovation. The rivets, along with the patterned stitching on the hip pockets, became Levi trademarks.
【題組】22 When and where was Levi Strauss born?
(A) 1847, America. (B) 1847, Germany. (C) 1828, America. (D) 1828, Germany.
【題組】23 What inspired Levi Strauss to start making pants?
(A)His experience in selling handicraft materials (B)Miners’ complaint about their easily-torn pants.
(C)His discovery of a new fabric. (D)His brother-in-law’s warm invitation.
【題組】25 Which of the following statements is true?
(A)Strauss once sold needles and buttons in New York.
(B)The famous Gold Rush took place in Nevada.
(C)Strauss’ original pants were so stiff that few people wanted to buy them.
(D)Serge de Nîmes is a kind of blue dye.
請回答第 26 題至第 29 題:
Venezuela has long been considered a country of extraordinarily beautiful men and women. It has won the
biggest number of international beauty awards: 5 Miss Universes and 5 Miss Worlds. In Venezuela, beauty
queens are a national obsession. There are beauty pageants in elementary schools, corporations, villages, the
military, even in prisons. Venezuelans proudly point out that their country is best known for three things: oil,
baseball stars, and beauty queens. Nearly two-thirds of Venezuela’s women and half its men think about their
physical appearances all the time. For Venezuelan women, being beautiful is not only desirable; rather, it’s a
responsibility. They not only dress up for daily life but also get plastic surgery to have a beautiful body. Almost
every Venezuelan woman wants to have surgery and many from poor backgrounds save up for an operation.
But one also needs to take classes to be a beauty queen. In Venezuela, there are many beauty schools
teaching students to apply the right amount of makeup, pose for a photo, choose the right clothes, walk like a
princess, and speak with style. The average cost of such a course is $700, a price many middle-class parents are
eager to pay to see their little girls stand out. A school founder denies that girls should value appearance over
intellect, saying the culture of beauty integrates intelligence, good manners, a positive attitude, self-confidence,
and discipline.
【題組】26 What is this passage mainly about?
(A)The beauty obsession in Venezuela. (B)Fashion development in Venezuela.
(C)The booming plastic surgery industry in Venezuela. (D)How to run for beauty queens in Venezuela.
【題組】27 How does the beauty school founder define the culture of beauty?
(A)Inner beauty is as important as physical appearance.
(B)Beauty is something one is born with.
(C)It is intellect rather than appearance that matters.
(D)What nature cannot provide, plastic surgery can.
【題組】29 According to the passage, which of the following is true in Venezuela?
(A)Basketball is the most popular sport.
(B)Beauty schools are run by middle-class-families.
(C)Young children are not encouraged to wear makeup.
(D)Taking care of one’s appearance is a responsibility for women.
請回答第 30 題至第 33 題:
Competitive eating is a sport in which the main goal is the quick and vast consumption of food. The type of
food varies, although it is primarily focused on fast-food. One commonly used item is hot dog. This sport is
male-dominated, although there are a handful of female gurgitators, notably Sonya Thomas. A big belly isn’t
necessarily an advantage in the sport, as physical fitness plays an important factor too in the upper spheres of the
professional circuit.
The sport is most popular in the USA. Eating contests are often held as part of a county fair in the United
States, and as such are very popular in some rural areas. There are two competing organizations that guide the
sport in the United States: the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters (AICE) and the International
Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE).
Other eating contests can involve challenges to eat a very large food item, such as a giant pizza or a massive
hamburger, in a relatively short amount of time. Often, if the challenge is put on by a restaurant, the contestants
do not have to pay for the large amount of food they just consumed. Another unusual thing about the sport is that
if you sign up or sometimes just show up early enough, you can immediately be competing against the best in the
world. For example, “Super” Paul Barlow Jr. of Atlanta, Georgia, was standing in the audience waiting for the hot
dog contest when two vacancies opened up. He quickly volunteered, wanting only a T-shirt, and was pitted
against two nationally ranked eaters, Dale Boone and Ken Title, and now is a regular on the Georgia circuit. Paul
states, “It’s fun, filling, and I still get free T-shirts!”
【題組】30 Which of the following is the best title for passage?
(A)Food Culture in the USA
(B)A Fun Sport: Competitve Eating
(C)A Great Way to Enjoy Food
(D)How to Be a Winner in a Competitve Eating Contest
【題組】31 Which of the following is NOT true?
(A)There are two institutions in America that guide competitive eating contests.
(B)Participants don’t have to pay for the food they eat if the contests are organized by restaurants.
(C)Paul Barlow Jr. was once ranked among the top eaters in the world.
(D)Fast food is the common target consumed in eating competitions.
【題組】32 Which of the following can best replace the word “gurgitators” in paragraph 1?
(A)Competitive eaters (B)Gourmet cooks (C)Sports players (D)Food lovers
請回答第 34 題至第 37 題:
If you are unfamiliar with kohlrabi, it’s worth checking out. Its name comes from German and literally
means cabbage turnip. Not commonly used in American cuisine, it is widely used in Central Europe and Asia. It
is still patiently waiting to be discovered in this country. Kohlrabi is in season from summer through early fall so
you can find it at your local market right now. It belongs to the Brassica family, the cancer fighting vegetables
that include cabbage, broccoli, and turnips. This turnip-shaped vegetable comes in green or purple and can be
eaten raw or cooked. When kohlrabi is raw, it’s crunchy and tastes like broccoli stems; when cooked, it tastes like
a mild turnip. When you buy kohlrabi, the leaves may be attached to the bulb. Usually smaller kohlrabi is the
sweetest and most tender. Bulbs that are much bigger than the size of a tennis ball won’t be as tasty. Though
kohlrabi might look like an alien life form, it is packed with Vitamin C and provides a healthy dose of fiber, iron,
and calcium. Most importantly, it is delicious.
【題組】34 Where is this passage possibly taken from?
(A)Science journal. (B)Social security handbook.
(C)Green living magazine. (D)Surgery research paper.
【題組】35 What is the author’s opinion about kohlrabi?
(A)It is rare and expensive. (B)It should be widely introduced.
(C)It contains too much calcium. (D)It tastes better when cooked.
【題組】36 According to the passage, what do kohlrabi, turnips, and cabbage have in common?
(A)They come in two colors. (B)They have strange appearances.
(C)They can prevent cancer. (D)They come from Germany.
【題組】37 Which of the following statements is true?
(A)Kohlrabi is often used in American cuisine. (B)The bigger a kohlrabi is, the better it tastes.
(C)Raw or cooked, kohlrabi tastes different. (D)Don’t buy kohlrabi with leaves attached.
請回答第 38 題至第 41 題:
Neuroscientists used an instrument called functional MRI to study the brains of two groups of bilingual
people. One group consisted of those who had learned a second language as children. The other consisted of
people who learned their second language later in life. When placed inside the MRI scanner, which allowed the
researchers to see which parts of the brain were getting more blood and were thus more active, people from both
groups were asked to think about what they had done the day before, first in one language and then the other.
The researchers looked specifically at Broca’s area, in the left frontal part, which is believed to manage
speech production. The two groups of people demonstrated different uses of their Broca’s area. People who
learned a second language as children used the same region in Broca’s area for both languages. But those who
learned a second language later in life made use of a distinct region in Broca’s area for their second
language—near the one activated for their native tongue.
Researchers concluded that when language is being hard-wired during development, the brain may
intertwine sounds and structures from all languages into the same area. But once that wiring is complete, the
management of a new language, with new sounds and structures, must be taken over by a different part of the
brain.
【題組】38 What does “functional MRI” do?
(A)It records people’s speech for acoustic analyses.
(B)It videotapes people’s gestures while they speak.
(C)It shows the areas of the brain that are active.
(D)It is only used to show activities in the left brain.
【題組】39 Which of the following people use the same region in their Broca’s area for both the first and the second
languages?
(A)People who are slow in learning a second language.
(B)People who learned their first language early in life.
(C)People who learned their second language early in life.
(D)People who learned their second language much later than their first language.
【題組】40 Based on this passage, what is NOT true about Broca’s area?
(A)This area is in charge of producing language.
(B)It is located at the left hemisphere of the brain.
(C)This area is used for the production of the second language.
(D)People use the same Broca’s area for both their first and second languages.
【題組】41 What can we conclude from this passage?
(A)When the second language is learned early, it is considered more like the first language by the brain.
(B)The second language can never be processed like the first language.
(C)The second language that is learned late can be wired into the same areas as the firs language.
(D)The motivation of the learners matters the most in language acquisition.
請回答第 42 題至第 45 題:
Real quicksand, the kind that is almost impossible to extricate yourself from, is not just water and sand. A
report in the current issue of Nature shows that salt and clay are also major ingredients.
Their study began when Dr. Daniel Bonn, a professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, was in Iran
a few years ago and saw signs warning of quicksand. Naturally, the warning prompted him to collect samples and
he sank in to his ankles.
He quickly escaped, but even shallow quicksand can be hard to step out of. Back home, Dr. Bonn and his
colleagues found out why. Sand grains in quicksand are usually loosely packed, with the clay acting as a fragile
gel holding the grains together.
Hit with sudden force from a hapless victim, the quicksand gel turns to liquid. Then salt causes clay particles
to stick to one another instead of the sand grains, with the result that a victim ends up surrounded by densely
packed sand.
The force needed to pull out a person immersed in quicksand is about the same needed to lift a car, Dr. Bonn
said. The trick for escaping is to slowly wiggle the feet and legs, allowing water to flow in. People float in
quicksand so it is also impossible to sink all the way in, but quicksand usually forms at river estuaries, so a
captive could drown at high tide.
【題組】42 Which of the following is NOT a major ingredient of quicksand?
(A)water (B)sand (C)salt (D)gel
【題組】43 Which of the following statements is NOT true?
(A)Dr. Bonn’s experience in Iran initiated his subsequent research on quicksand.
(B)The amount of force necessary to get a trapped foot out of the quicksand is huge.
(C)Dr. Bonn was trapped in the quicksand because he failed to notice the warning sing.
(D)People who sink in quicksand are likely to die from drowning.
【題組】44 According to the article, what should we do if we happen to be trapped in quicksand?
(A)Swim to the bank as quickly as possible.
(B)Wave our hands violently so that we will keep floating in the quicksand.
(C)Tread down the quicksand to harden it.
(D)Introduce water into the quicksand by moving our feet around slightly.
請回答第 46 題至第 50 題:
Jim Monsma of the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington D.C. is now using the Feline-ality
program, a personality test designed to match cats with prospective owners. The program assesses a variety of
behaviors in individual cats, and then tallies those assessments to place the cat into nine personality categories,
which can be matched with a family’s situation and desires. It’s not unlike a magazine quiz to find out “Which
kind of cat are you?” The program is used at 45 shelters, with additional facilities preparing to use it.
As part of the personality test on a cat named Barnaby, Monsma brings Barnaby into an unfamiliar room and
opens his cat carrier. Barnaby shoots out and takes charge, checking out the room and everything in it. Monsma
uses a stopwatch to track how much time Barnaby spends on social interactions. For example, he adds up how
many seconds Barnaby spends trying to get on his lap. He also monitors his noises and blink rate, both indicators
of sociability. Monsma then initiates some interactions, offering a hand, three different toys, and hugs. Each
transaction earns Barnaby some points. His total comes out high on both scales—he’s both highly sociable and
highly confident.
Equally important to the Feline-ality program is the fact that people differ, too. Adopters fill out a
questionnaire and the results give them a color code, telling them which set of personality types would be best for
them to consider.
The program aims to end animal-human mismatches, often a reason cats are returned to the shelter, Monsma
says. He says the program has helped to increase adoption in shelters that have tested the Feline-ality program,
partly because people find the process fun.
【題組】46 Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
(A)A Cat Personality Test to Match Cats with Owners
(B)A Scientist Working on Better Understanding of Cats
(C)An Ideal Shelter for Cats in Washington D.C.
(D)A Program to Improve the Sociability of Cats
【題組】47 Which of the following steps is not taken during the test with Barnaby?
(A)Lead Barnaby into a place that is new to the cat.
(B)Check how much time the cat spends on interactions.
(C)Offer the cat some food to see how fast he eats.
(D)Monitor some indicators of the cat’s sociability.
【題組】48 Which of the following statements is true?
(A)People think the program is a waste of time.
(B)Currently only one shelter in Washington D.C. is using the program.
(C)More cats have been adopted than before in shelters that use the program.
(D)The program puts more stress on the personality of cats than that of adopters.
【題組】49 Where is the passage most likely to appear?
(A)In an encyclopedia. (B)In a newspaper.
(C)In a chemistry textbook. (D)In the construction plan for a shelter.