A．at leastB．at mostC．at lastD．at the cost

B．unless

C．so far

D．so far as

A．two similar mental illnesses.

B．two different common mental illnesses.

C．both bad eating habits.

D．both illnesses of eating disorders.

In many ways, this fixation on weight at ever earlier ages comes at an inopportune time physiologically. At a recent Hadassah meeting at the Woodlands Community Temple in White Plains, Dr. Marcie Schneider, the director of adolescent medicine at Greenwich Hospital, and Erica Leon, a registered dietitian, spoke about early adolescence as a time when a little hit of pudginess is necessary for proper growth, and youngsters wrestle constantly with their body image.

"I can't tell you how many kids I've seen who've been on the Atkins diet, or on the South Beach diet," Ms. Leon said, adding that overweight children who try diets can be at risk of developing eating disorders.

After the presentation, three mothers from Hartsdale who wanted to help their children avoid such issues spoke about how their young daughters are already beginning to become weight-conscious.

Anorexia is a mental illness in which the victim eats barely enough to survive, because her distorted thinking makes her think she is fat. Bulimia, a mental illness in which someone binges on large amounts of food, then purges it through vomiting or the abuse of laxatives, is on the rise, and is surfacing in younger and younger patients, mostly girls, said Judy Scheel, the director of the Center for Eating Disorder Recovery in Mount Kisco.

About 90 percent of victims of eating disorders are female, and often the male victims are on teams like wrestling and crew, where they must keep their weight low for competitive reasons. Dr. Scheel believes that where girls claim the eating disorder enables them to be thin, boys typically state their goal is to achieve or maintain a muscular but thin physique. The average onset for bulimia used to be 17, but to see teenagers age 14 and 15 with bulimia is common these days, Dr. Scheel said.

Other people believe the disorders have genetic Or chemical components, and many people with eating disorders respond well to anti-depressants, for example.

A certain amount of education is necessary to help young people avoid becoming obsessed with their body image. "Teachers need to stay outside of talking about diets," Dr. Scheel said. "It's like a parent, always talking about their next diet. You have to help a child understand that if you eat healthily and exercise, your body is going to take care of itself."

And in relatively homogenous populations, like in some Westchester schools, competition runs high. "So the young people don't really see how beautiful diversity is," she said, "and they tend to all be competing for kind of the same goals."

The studies cited by the National Eating Disorders Association are made among

A．primary school girls.

B．secondary school girls.

C．girls in college and universities.

D．American females in general.

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)

The idea of humanoid robots is not new, of course. They have been part of the imaginative landscape ever since Karl Capek, a Czech Writer, first dreamed them up for his 1921 play "Rossum's Universal Robots". (The word "robot" comes from the Czech word for drudgery, robota.) Since then, Hollywood has produced countless variations on the theme, from the sultry False Maria in Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece "Metropolis" to the wittering C3PO in "Star Wars" and the ruthless assassin of "Terminator". Humanoid robots have walked into our collective subconscious, colouring our views of the future.

But now Japan's industrial giants are spending billions of yen to make such robots a reality. Their new humanoids represent impressive feats of engineering: when Honda introduced Asimo, a four-foot robot that had been in development for some 15 years, it walked so fluidly that its white, articulated exterior seemed to conceal a human. Honda continues to make the machine faster, friendlier and more agile. Last October, when Asimo was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh, it walked on to the stage and accepted its own plaque.

At two and a half feet tall, Sony's QRIO is smaller and more to like than Asimo. It walks, understands a small number of voice commands, and can navigate on its own. If it falls over, it gets up and resumes where it left off. It can even connect wirelessly to the internet and broadcast what its camera eyes can see. In 2003, Sony demonstrated an upgraded QRIO that could run. Honda responded last December with a version of Asimo that runs at twice the speed.

In 2004, Toyota joined the fray with its own family of robots, called Partner, one of which is a four-foot humanoid that plays the trumpet. Its fingers work the instrument's valves, and it has mechanical lungs and artificial lips. Toyota hopes to offer a commercial version of the robot by 2010. This month, 50 Partner robots will act as guides at Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan.

Despite their sudden proliferation, however, humanoids are still a mechanical minority. Most of the world's robots are faceless, footless and mute. They are bolted to the floors of factories, stamping out car parts or welding pieces of metal, machines making more machines. According to the United Nations, business orders for industrial robots jumped 18% in the first half of 2004. They may soon be outnumbered by domestic robots, such as self-navigating vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and window washers, which are selling fast. But neither industrial nor domestic robots are humanoid.

In the first paragraph the author introduces his topic by relating

A．the idea of humanoid robots.

B．Karl Capek's creation of robots.

C．Hollywood's production of robot films.

D．the origin and popular films about robots.

B．lifework

C．lifespan

D．lifeguard

A．Our living space on the earth is getting smaller and smaller

B．Our living space should be measured in cubic volume

C．We need to take some measures to protect space

D．We must create better living conditions for both birds and animals

A．an optimal solution

B．an expedient solution

C．a ready solution

D．an efficient solution

B．extensive

C．exquisite

D．extreme

B．reverse

C．transverse

D．diverse

B．therefore

C．furthermore

D．ultimately