Have you ever wished you could solve complex math problems without thinking? What about learning to play the piano in just three days? Or mastering several foreign languages within a month?

Eddie Morra, the main character in the movie Limitless can do all these things. But he isn’t Superman or Harry Potter. Eddie has taken pills called NZT.

Thriller Limitless came out in China on October 13. In the movie, Eddie is faced with “writer’s block”. He hasn’t written a single word of a novel, and his deadline has passed. And there’s more bad news: his girlfriend breaks up with him. By chance, Eddie runs into a relative who is a drug dealer. He gives Eddie some pills called NZT that allow people to make use of 100 percent of their brains. With the magic pills, Eddie’s life changes completely. He can recall everything he has ever read, seen or heard. He gains a sixth sense that allows him to predict future events. He even becomes a kungfu master by simply memorizing actions in Bruce Lee’s movie.

Before long he has finished his novel, won back his girlfriend and stepped into the financial world. He becomes rich incredibly quickly and is soon employed by a powerful Wall Street company. However, bad side effects are just around the corner. The effects of the pill last for only one or two days, and Eddie has to find more supplies of the pills. Meanwhile, the pills start to have other effects on him. Eddies’ mind loses the ability to control the actions of his body. What does destiny hold for him? Will he be able to go back to his normal life?

“Eddie’s fate turns out to be a barbed （讽刺的） joke… a sharp-eyed comic fable for an age of greed (贪婪)and speed.” writes A. O. Scott, a movie critic with the New York Times.

The drug isn’t real-----yet, some researchers say such memory-enhancing drugs might not be far off. Would you take such a pill despite its side effects? Is the ability to remember everything a blessing or a curse?

1.Which of the following happened to Eddie after he took the pill?

2.What’s A. O. Scott’s opinion of the movie?

A. The movie can help slow our pace in life.

B. The movie turned out to be only a joke.

C. The movie can help invent a memory-enhancing drug.

D. The movie aims to show something is wrong with our society.

3.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

4.What is writer’s purpose of writing the passage?

In 2006, the UK government started to allow universities in England and Wales to charge British students tuition fees. More than 80 percent of students in England and Wales now take out a student loan in order to go to university. They use the loan (贷款)  to pay for tuition fees, books and living expenses. Although the interest on student loans is quite low, it begins as soon as the student receives the loan. The average student in England and Wales now graduates from university with debts of around £12,000. Students of medicine usually have debts of more than £20,000. That is a lot of money. It means graduates cannot afford to buy a house for many years. They even struggle to pay rent on a flat, because they have to start paying back the student loan after graduating. If you start to earn over £15,000 a year, the government takes repayments directly from your monthly salary. Is it any surprise, therefore, that the average British person does not leave their parents’ home until they are 30 years old?

You might think that a British person with a degree will find it easy to get a well-paid job. However, most people in white-collar jobs seem to have a degree these days, so there is a lot of competition. Also, British companies tend to value work experience over a piece of paper. Like everyone else, graduates usually have to start at the bottom and work their way up. That can be very frustrating for them, since they are often over-qualified for the work they are doing. While at university, they have dreams of getting an exciting, challenging job. Therefore, life after university ends up being quite disappointing for a lot of graduates.

All of the above is beginning to make British people question whether a university degree is really worth the money.

1.What's the best title of this passage?

2.What's the following is true?  

3.We can infer from the passage ____

in the UK without money

4.The word "interest" in paragraph2 means_______

HOW would you like to step into the world of other people’s dreams? That’s just what Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) does. His work is to steal secrets from people when they are asleep and dreaming. He has an even rarer ability: He can plant an idea in someone’s sleeping mind, and watch it grow and take root in reality. This ability is called inception.

The movie Inception (《盗梦空间》) was on show in Chinese cinemas not long ago. It is imaginative, of course. The movie leads one to wonder just how much we know about dreams. For years, scientists and researchers have been trying to solve sleep’s greatest mystery.

Is it possible to enter someone’s dreaming mind? In the movie, DiCaprio uses a drug and a dream machine to put a scenario (某一特定情节) into someone’s sleeping mind. He then goes to sleep himself, connected to the machine, and enters the other person’s dream.

In real life, there is a machine that can read someone’s mind. A brain scanner takes pictures of brain activity, and then the software recreates images of what the person was looking at.

Researchers say it may be possible one day to record someone’s dream – without the danger (or the fun) of actually sharing that dream.

What’s a dream, anyway? A dream is a group of images and sounds our brain creates when we’re sleeping. In the 1950s, researchers discovered a sleeping condition that happened around every 90 to 120 minutes during sleep: rapid eye movement, or REM. During this period you’re fast asleep, yet your eyes move around quickly under your eyelids (眼皮) and your brain is nearly as active as during the day. That’s when most dreams happen.

What do dreams mean? Dreams are not always filled with meaning. Sometimes dreams are just your mind playing with thoughts and images from your life, or things you may have read or seen on TV. But at other times, dreams show things that you want to achieve in real life, or things that cause you trouble or stress.

1.The movie Inception is mentioned at the beginning of the article to ______.

       A. encourage readers to watch the movie

       B. tell readers about people with special dreaming abilities

       C. inform readers about the science of dreams

       D. warn reader about the threat of dream stealers

2.According to the article, how does a brain scanner work?

       A. It records dreams.

       B. It uses a special drug that causes no pain.

       C. It finds out what dreams mean.

       D. It takes pictures of brain activity and recreates images.

3. According to the article, which of the following statements about REM sleep is TRUE?

       A. Most dreams occur in REM sleep.

       B. Over the last ten years scientists have solved the mystery of REM sleep.

       C. People always remember what they have dreamed in a REM sleep.

       D. People can have REM sleep all night.

4. The article claims that ______.

       A. dreams tell us a lot about a person’s character

       B. dreams are connected to real life

       C. dreams are useful and help keep our brains active

       D. dreams are usually about meaningful things

Every year when the Italian artist Michelangelo’s (1475－1564) birthday comes around, computer users all over the world are filled with fear and use their computers with care. Some may even choose not to turn on their computers on March 3rd. All this fear and care are just because a deadly computer virus(病毒) is ready to cause damages on that day.
What’s a computer virus then? Why do people get so afraid of it?
A computer virus is, in fact, a little program that is put into other programs and that does something bad. It is called a virus because, like any real-life viruses such as AIDS virus, it reproduces(繁殖) itself. And when these programs are run, the virus is brought to life. It hides itself in your computer system waiting for the right moment to make damages. And at the same time it keeps producing itself by copying itself onto other programs.
The Michelangelo virus waits until the artist’s birthday comes around, and then it will wake up to do very bad things like destroying you files. So next time when you turn on your computer, look out for computer viruses!
1. The Italian artist Michelangelo_______.
A. was born six centuries ago             B. was born on March 3rd, 1475
C. died six centuries ago                D. died on March 3rd, 1564
2. Why are computer users full of fear on March 3rd? Because_________.
A. it is the birthday of a famous Italian artist 　　
B. a kind of computer virus will come on that day
C. a deadly computer virus called “ the Michelangelo virus” will wake up and then cause damages to computers on that day  
D. something will easily go wrong with computers
3. In fact, a computer virus is_______.
A. a program which can help the computer avoid something dangerous.
B. a kind of real-life virus
C. a kind of virus like AIDS virus    
D. also a kind of program which is placed into other programs and which makes damages
4. In fact, a computer virus is ready to cause damages_________.
A. any day     B. only on March 3rd
C. on Fridays   D. only on some famous artists’ holidays

Diamonds may be forever. But what’s a girl to do when she gets dumped (失恋) or divorced (离婚) and those rings, necklace and love gifts lose their emotional (情感) sense?

Help is just a click away on new Web sites that provide an outlet for selling jewelry(珠宝) from past relationships, sharing break-up stories and helping broken hearts heal (愈合).

“You go through a divorce. What do you do with that ring? Maybe you have a child you can pass it on to. Maybe you don’t. It just sits there, ” said Megahn Perry, who with her stepmother (继母) Marie Perry runs www.exboyfriendjewelry.com.

Three months after its start with the slogan(口号) “You Don’t Want It. He Can’t Have It Back,” the web site has 3,000 registered users and more than 600 postings of rings, bracelets and earrings for sale—all with a personal tale attached.

As one woman posting a diamond ring for $3,500 wrote:

“Beautiful ring came with a wrong man. Decided to sell to regain the money that I spent finishing payments on the ring that my ex didn’t.”

The idea was born when Megahn Perry, a Los Angeles actress and writer, was looking for a safe place to sell a wedding set after a divorce and realized others might have former boyfriends’ jewelry with memories(记忆) that make them too painful to wear.

The local pawn shop(当铺) proved an unattractive choice. So she teamed up with her stepmother Marie, researched the market and found a gap in it.

1. The passage is mainly about _____.

2.How long is it since the start of this website?

3.How many people have registered on this website within three months?

4.Who set up this website?

5.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “gap” in the last sentence?