Passage One

Animals perform many useful and entertaining jobs. Dogs are particularly valuable in guiding the blind, protecting property, finding lost people, and hunting down criminals. Horses are used in guarding herds; carrying men in lands where there are no roads, and helping farmers work their land. Pigeons have long been used to carry messages. Wild animals from the jungles, forests and seas are very popular performers in circuses and movies. People realize that, although animals may not have the same intelligence as human beings, they are smart enough to learn certain things.
The first thing a dog is taught is to obey. It should not take too long for him to learn commands. Simple orders, such as “sit”, “lie down”, “stay here”, and “come here”, can even be taught by a child.
Training a dog to be a watchdog often produces unexpected results. Some dogs quickly learn the difference between unwanted people and friends. This is because their masters welcome friends and invite them into their houses. However, some dogs will always attack the postman who comes to deliver letters. One explanation for this behavior is that, although the postman comes to the house often, he never enters the house. Therefore, the dog thinks the postman is someone who is not wanted, but keeps coming back anyway.
Masters of dogs who attack postmen can easily show the dog that the postman is a friend and that the dog does not need to treat him as an unwanted person. A dog is quite ready to do what his master wishes. And a dog is always happy when he is praised for understanding correctly.
Dogs can be taught to obey commands when the sound of a word is connected with a certain act. Two important factors in teaching a dog to obey commands are: using the same word each time for the same act, and teaching only one act at a time. Dogs can learn not only to sit, lie down, come, and stay in place when their masters go away, but also to jump, carry, and fetch.
After a dog learns to carry an object, he can learn to bring something back from a distance. A stick can be thrown far away and the dog enjoys running after it, and searching for it until he finds it. After a lot of practice, the dog then retrieves a stick (or other object) even when he has not seen it thrown. To teach a dog this skill, the master makes a simple trail by walking some distance in a straight line. Then he leaves the stick at the end of the trail. The dog learns to follow the straight line at first. Then, later, he learns to follow more irregular lines. Eventually, he can learn to follow an order instead of looking for an object. With this skill he can be very useful in tracking down lost people or criminals.

A.horses can be used in protecting property

B.animals are as intelligent as human beings

C.wild animals can be trained to do farm work

D.dogs are quite good helpers to human beings

A.their masters train them to do so

B.they don't like the behavior of the postman

C.they don't think he is a friend of their masters

D.the postman keeps coming and going all the time

A.use exactly the same word for the same act

B.understand what the dogs really can learn

C.teach them various acts at the same time

D.treat the dogs as little kids

A.brings back

B.goes after

C.breaks down

D.moves away

A.Dogs must be treated as pets

B.Dogs can be great helpers in farming

C.Dogs should be trained in proper ways

D.Dogs could be very dangerous especially to kids

Passage Two

When Gill Pratt sat down to discuss the job of running the Toyota Research Institute, the carmaker's new research division, his Japanese interviewers wrote one word on a piece of paper and asked him to talk about it. The word was dementia. That might seem a strange topic to put to one of the most respected figures in the world of robotics, a man who had previously run a competition to find artificially intelligent, semi-autonomous robots for the Pentagon. But, Mr. Pratt says, the company's interest in ageing was a big reason for him to take the job. “The question for all of us”, he says, “is, how can we use technology to make the quality of life better as people get older?”
Ageing and robots are more closely related than you might think. Young countries with many children have few robots. Ageing nations have lots. The countries with the largest number of robots per industrial worker include South Korea, Singapore, Germany and Japan, which have some of the oldest workforces in the world.
The connection does not merely reflect the fact that young countries tend to be poor and cannot afford fancy machines, which they do not need anyway. It holds good within rich countries, too. Those with relatively few robots compared with the size of their workforce include Britain and France, both of which (by rich-country standards) are ageing slowly.
Two recent studies quantify the connection. Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University show that, between 1993 and 2014, the countries that invested the most in robotics were those that were ageing the fastest- -measured as a rise in the ratio of people over 56 compared with those aged 26-55. The authors posit a rule of thumb: a ten-point rise in their ageing ratio is associated with 0.9 extra robots per thousand workers.
A study from Germany used different measures but reached the same conclusion. Population growth is closely related to age structure. These findings should not be surprising. Robots typically substitute for labour. That is why many people fear that they will destroy jobs. Countries with plenty of young workers do not need labour substitutes. Wages there also tend to be low, making automation unprofitable. But ageing creates demand for automation in two ways. First, to prevent output falling as more people retire, machines are necessary to substitute for those who have left the workforce or to enable ageing workers to continue to do physical labour. Second, once people have retired they create markets for new kinds of automation, including robots that help with the medical and other requirements of caring for people who can no longer look after themselves.

A.Because Toyota wants to diversify its product line

B.Because Toyota decides to establish a new research division

C.Because Toyota has great interest in problems faced in old age

D.Because Toyota has a new research plan in artificial intelligence

A.Britain and France are so poor that they cannot afford robots

B.countries that are ageing slowly usually have fewer robots

C.rich countries do not need fancy machines

D.young countries are usually rich countries

A.decide

B.put up

C.refer to

D.suggest

A.robots are resourceful helpers

B.labour can be replaced by robots

C.labour costs are increasingly high

D.robots can be obtained at low costs

A.An Ageing World May Need More Robots

B.Young Countries Are More Resourceful

C.The Whole World Is Ageing Slowly

D.Robots Are Great Helpers

Passage Three

As a professor of business and government policy, I’ve long been interested in the pursuit of happiness as a national concept. According to hundreds of reliable surveys of thousands of people across the land, happy people increase our prosperity and strengthen our communities. They make better citizens—and better citizens are vital to making our nation healthy and strong. So when I chanced upon data a couple of years ago saying that certain Americans were living in a manner that facilitated happiness—while others were not—l jumped on it.
I wanted to be able to articulate which personal lifestyles and public policies would make us the happiest nation possible. I also wanted to know which of my own values were the most conducive to happiness. I had always thought that marching to the beat of my own drummer and making up my own values as I went along were the right things to do, and that traditional values, to put it bluntly, were for fools.
Turns out that I was in for some surprises.
You might suspect that Americans are getting happier all the time. After all, many (though clearly not all) are getting richer, and this should make them better able and equipped to follow their dreams. On the other hand, there's a lot of talk about the good old days, when kids could play outside without any worry about being kidnapped. And there's a great deal of stress in this country right now, due to financial concerns, negative workplace environments, and chronic health problems, among other pressing issues.
But average happiness levels in America have stayed largely constant for many years. In 1972, 30 percent of the population said they were very happy with their lives, according to the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey. In 1982, 31 percent said so, and in 2006, 31 percent said so as well. The percentage saying they were not too happy was similarly constant, generally hovering around 13 percent.
The factors that add up to a happy life for most people are not what we typically hear about Things like winning the lottery and earning a master's degree don't make people happy over the long haul. Rather, the key to happiness, and the difference between happy and unhappy Americans, is a life that reflects values and practices like faith, hard work, marriage, charity, and freedom.

A.How to promote prosperity

B.How to improve the community

C.What makes people good citizens

D.What contributes to a happy nation

A.holding the traditional values

B.doing things at one's own will

C.catching the rhythms of music

D.playing one's favorite instrument

A.people were in better physical conditions

B.everything was much better than now

C.there were more financial concerns

D.people had more dreams

A.fallen despite economic boom

B.remained roughly unchanged for decades

C.experienced sharp decrease over the years

D.improved constantly although not obviously

A.winning a lottery doesn’t bring sustained happiness

B.hard work can give people a sense of achievement

C.hard work is a virtue which people are proud of

D.winning a lottery mainly depends on sheer luck

Passage Four

It is all very well to blame traffic jams, the cost of petrol and the quick pace of modern life, but manners on the roads are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men become monsters behind the wheel. It is all very well, again, to have a tiger behind the wheel, but to have one in the driver's seat is another matter altogether. You might tolerate the odd road-hog, the rude and inconsiderate, but nowadays the well-mannered motorist is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the situation calls for “Be Kind to Other Drivers” campaign, otherwise it may get completely out of hand.
Road politeness is not just good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed and good-tempered of drivers to resist the temptation to revenge when subjected to uncivilized behavior. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards relieving the tensions of motoring. A friendly nod or a wave of acknowledgments of goodwill and tolerance is necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such acknowledgments of politeness are all too rare today. Many drivers nowadays don't even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.
However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who brakes violently to allow a car to emerge from a side street at some hazard to following traffic, when a few seconds later the road would be clear anyway; or the man who waves a child across a zebra crossing into the path of oncoming vehicles that may be unable to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they care to. It always amazes me that the highways are not covered with the dead bodies of these grannies. A veteran driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if motorists learn to filter correctly into traffic streams one at a time without causing the total blockages that give rise to bad temper. Unfortunately, modern motorists can't even learn to drive, let alone master the subtler aspects of roadsmanship.
Years ago experts warned us that the car-ownership explosion would demand a lot more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.

A.the pace of modern life

B.the behavior of the motorists

C.the deteriorating traffic conditions

D.people's attitude towards the road-hogs

A.well-mannered motorists cannot bear the road-hogs

B.nowadays well-mannered drivers are becoming rare

C.our society is unjust towards ill-mannered motorists

D.rude and ill-mannered drivers can be seen only occasionally

A.the driver’s quick response to severe conditions

B.the driver’s tolerance of uncivilized behavior

C.the driver’s acknowledgements of politeness

D.the driver’s ability to react sensibly

A.rude drivers should be punished severely

B.strict traffic regulations should be introduced

C.politeness on the road should be placed properly

D.old ladies should be encouraged to cross the road anytime

A.drivers will have to pay a fine if they show no respect to others

B.road users should communicate more among themselves

C.drivers should be ready to give way to each other

D.road users will have to give rather than take

“Junk food” is difficult to define. White sugar is probably the nearest contender for the title. It contains plenty of calories for energy but not much else, and is often described as an “empty calorie food. Alcohol is also high in calories, but beer and wine contain some of the B vitamins and wine is a what is a good source of iron, so even a teetotaler could not describe all alcohol as useless, nutritionally speaking. Calories measure the energy we derive from the food we eat, and sugar and alcohol are sometimes described as having a high energy density. There is a limit to the amount of energy we need each day (2,000-2,200 calories is the average for women and 2,500-3,000 for men) and if we eat too much sugar and alcohol there is no appetite left for the vitamin-rich foods we need- fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. Buying vitamins can be predicted by psychological as well as nutritional motives and it is prudent to investigate why we think we need them and what benefits we expect from them before we rush off to the health shop to make our purchases.
Most of us buy vitamins for one of three reasons. Either we believe that they are prophylactic, that is they will ward of advancing ill, or they are therapeutic and will deal with the ills we have already, or finally we may believe they are wonder drugs and will lift us into a state of super health, with all its attendant delights. We are protected from some of these wild imaginings by the laws which control advertising but even without false promises we still believe that vitamins
will “do us good". Belief is a very potent state of mind and the power of the placebo pill is never underestimated in clinical trials used to test new drugs. A placebo is a harmless substance given to one group of patients in the trial and it is similar in taste and appearance to a new drug which is given to a second group of patients. Theoretically the drug should cure or relieve any symptoms and the placebo should have no effect. Often these trials produce surprising results and the placebo group recovers as well as the group taking the new drug. It is a “mind over matter” philosophy and for some of us it works. Vitamin pills can sometimes fall into this category.
Vitamins B and C cannot be retained in the body, so if we take more than we need of these, they are soon excreted in the urine. The possible exception here is the theory about the increased body “pool” of vitamin C, but even this is limited and is still largely unproven. Taking too much of the fat soluble vitamins can be. dangerous and vitamins A and D should never be taken indiscriminately. Vitamin E has not been found to have any toxic effect in large doses, but neither do there seem to be any noticeable benefits. This is an unexplored area in vitamin research and the only known advantages of vitamin E are confined to specialized medical cases.