Are you worried by the rising crime rate? If you are, you probably know that your house, possessions(财产) and person are increasingly in danger of suffering from great rise in the cases of burglary(夜盗;抢劫) and attack.

Figures show an ever-increasing crime rate, but it is only too easy to imagine "It will never happen to me". Unfortunately, statistics show that it really can happen to you and, if you live in a large city, you run twice the risk of being a victim.

Fortunately, there is something definite which you can do. Protect Alarms can help to protect your house with a burglar alarm system which is effective, simple to operate and easily affordable.

You must remember that owning a burglar alarm is no indication(暗示) that your house is packed with valuable possessions. It quite simply indicates to unwelcome visitors that yours is one house they will not break into easily, so they carry on to an unprotected house where their job is made a lot easier.

Send now for our free leaflet telling you how we can Protect Alarm your house quickly, easily and cheaply. Complete and tear off the slip below and post it to us. Postage is free. Also, telephone us on 327 6721 where we have a round-the-clock answering service. It costs nothing to find out about Protect Alarm.

1. Anyone who takes an interest in the crime rate will, according to the text, be aware that ___________.

A．more burglars are being caught than ever before

B．people have more possessions to worry about nowadays

C．burglars are more at risk than they used to be

D．homes are more likely to be broken into nowadays

2. It seems that people who live in cities are ____________

A．more often victims than those living in other areas

B．of the opinion that statistics are wrong

C．twice as well as people living in other areas

D．of the opinion that burglars only rob unprotected homes

3.The article claims that possessing an alarm system will _________.

A. show burglars that you have something worth stealing

B. persuade burglars not to break into your house

C. make the burglars’job less complicated

4.The underlined word "Figures" in the second paragraph can be replaced by"       "

A．Illustrations        B．Fingers           C．Numbers          D．Mathematics

The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image (印象) of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.

An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seen to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”

So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends.” My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”

Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenager rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in out social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”

1. What is the popular images of teenagers today?

2.The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___

3.Compared with parents of 30 years age, today’s parents___.

4. According to the author, teenage rebellion____.

Why does most of the world travel on the right side today? Theories differ, but there’s no doubt that Napoleon was a major influence. The French had used the right since at least the late 18th century. Some say that before the French Revolution, noblemen drove their carriages on the left, forcing the peasants to the right. Regardless of the origin, Napoleon brought right-hand traffic to the nations he conquered, including Russia, Switzerland and Germany. Hitler, in turn, ordered right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia and Austria in the 1930s. Nations that escaped right-hand control, like Great Britain, followed their left-hand tradition.

The U.S. has not always been a nation of right-hand rivers; earlier in its history, carriage and horse traffic traveled on the left, as it did in England. But by the late 1700s, people driving large wagons pulled by several pairs of horses began promoting a shift to the right. A driver would sit on the rear (后面的) left horse in order to wave his whip with his right hand; to see opposite traffic clearly, they traveled on the right.

One of the final moves to firmly standardize traffic directions in the U.S. occurred in the 20th century, when Henry Ford decided to mass-produce his cars with controls on the left (one reason, stated in 1908; the convenience for passengers exiting directly onto the edge, especially… if there is a lady to be considered). Once these rules were set, many countries eventually adjusted to the right-hand standard, including Canada in the 1920s, Sweden in 1967 and Burma in 1970. The U.K. and former colonies such as Australia and India are among the western world’s few remaining holdouts. Several Asian countries, including Japan, use the left as well — thought many places use both right-hand-drive and left-hand-drive cars.

1.Why did people in Switzerland travel on the right?

2.Of all the countries below, the one that travels on the right is ______.

3.Henry Ford produced cars with controls on the left _______.

4.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

5.What would be the best title for this passage?

The Best of Friends

The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image (印象) of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.

An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious (叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation (商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”

So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”

Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”

What is the popular image of teenagers today?

A. They worry about school.                  B. They quarrel a lot with other family members

C. They have to be locked in to avoid troubles.   . D. They dislike living with their parents.

The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ______.

A. share family responsibility              B. make family decisions

C. go boating with their family             D. cause trouble in their families

Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents______.

A. go to clubs more often with their children       B. give their children more freedom

C. care less about their children’s life             D. are much stricter with their children

According to the author, teenage rebellion ______.

 A. existed only in the 1960s                  B. is common nowadays

 C. may be a false belief                     D. resulted from changes in families

What is the passage mainly about?

A. Harmony in family.                         B. Education in family.

C. Negotiation in family.                       D. Teenage trouble in family.

In this age of cell phones, text messages and computer keyboards, one Scottish school has returned to basics. It’ s teaching I children the ignored art of writing with a fountain pen. There is no   clicking of keyboards in most classrooms at the Mary Erskine and Stewart ’s Melville Junior School，although there is a full range of facilities(设施）for computer lessons and technology isn ' t being ignored. The school' s headmaster believes the old -fashioned pens have helped strengthen the academic performance and self-respect of his 1，200 pupils.

"The pens improve the quality of work because they force the children to take care, and better work improves self-respect" , headmaster Bryan Lewis said. “ Proper handwriting is as relevant today as it ever has been. “ Students as young as 7 have been instructed to give up their ballpoint pens and begin to deal with its more artful predecessor. By the time they reach grade five, at age 9，they are expected to write mainly with fountain pens. Lewis said the school’s 7-and 8 -year-olds use fountain pens for 80-90 percent of their work, returning to pencils for such subjects as math. “I don’ t see fountain pens as old -fashioned or out of date. Modern fountain

pens are beautiful to use. It’ s not like in the old days of broken metal points and dirtying writing paper，” Lewis said. ‘We have a particular writing style and we have developed it very carefully and found a way that allows left-and right-handed people to write without dirtying paper. ”

Some people argue that handwriting is becoming less important because of the growing use of cell phone text messaging and typing on computers, but the school disagrees. ‘We talk of the paperless office and the paperless world, but this is not true, ” Lewis said. “You still need to have proper handwriting skills. ”

. The Scottish school in the passage   _____.

A.  does not think highly of modern technology

B.  values fountain pens more than anything else

C.  pays special attention to the use of fountain pens

D.  takes an action which is considered stupid by many people

The underlined word “predecessor” in Paragraph 2 refers to_____.

A. the pencil   B. the keyboard

C. the ballpoint pen    D. the fountain pen

The headmaster Bryan Lewis holds the view that_____.

A.  children should be required to use fountain pens when they are five

B.  handwriting skills are more important than typing skills nowadays

C.  using fountain pens may slow down students ’ speed of writing

D.  fountain pens have helped to build up students' self-respect

Which is the best title for this passage?

A.  Handwriting Not Useless Now

B.  Old-fashioned Pen Coming Back

C.  Stay Away from Tech and Teach Fountain Pen

D.  Fountain Pen Strengthens Academic Performance