Language as a System of Symbols
Of all systems of symbols(符号), language is the most highly developed. It has been pointed out that human beings, by agreement, can make anything stand for anything. Human beings have agreed, in the course of centuries of mutual(相互的)dependency, to let the various noises that they can produce with their lungs, throats, tongues, teeth, and lips systematically stand for certain happenings in their nervous systems. We call that system of agreements language.
There is no necessary connection between the symbol and that which it stands for. Just as social positions can be symbolized by feathers worn on the head, by gold on the watch chain, or by a thousand other things according to the culture we live in, so the fact of being hungry can be symbolized by a thousand different noises according to the culture we live in.
However obvious these facts may appear at first glance, they are actually not so obvious as they seem except when we take special pains to think about the subject. Symbols and the things they stand for are independent of each other, yet we all have a way of feeling as if, and sometimes acting as if, there were necessary connections. For example, there are people who feel that foreign languages are unreasonable by nature; foreigners have such funny names for things, and why can’t they call things by their right names? This feeling exhibits itself most strongly in those English and American tourists who seem to believe that they can make the natives of any country understand English if they shout loud enough. Like the little boy who is reported to have said: “Pigs are called pigs because they are such dirty animals,” they feel that the symbol is inherently(内在地) connected in some way with the things symbolized.
69. Language is a highly developed system of symbols because human beings ______.
A. have made use of language for centuries B. use our nervous systems to support language
C. have made various noises stand for any events
D. can make anything stand for anything by agreement
70. What can we conclude from Paragraph 2?
A. Different noises may mean different things.
B. Our culture determines what a symbol stands for.
C. The language we use symbolizes our social positions.
D. Our social positions determine the way we are dressed.
71. In Paragraph 3, “take special pains” probably means “_____”.
A. try very hard B. take our time C. are very unhappy D. feel especially painful
72. The example of the little boy is used to show that _____.
A. adults often learn from their young
B. “pig” is a dirty word because pigs are dirty
C. words are not connected with the things they stand for
D. people sometimes have wrong ideas about how language works
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Kids who eat better perform better in school, a new study of Nova Scotia fifthgraders confirms.
Students who ate an adequate amount of fruit，vegetables，protein，fiber and other components of a healthy diet were significantly less likely to fail a literacy test，Dr.Paul J．Veugelers of the University of Alberta in Edmonton and colleagues found.
While a healthy diet is generally assumed to be important for good school performance, there has actually been little research on this topic, Veugelers and his colleagues note.To investigate，they looked at 4, 589 fifthgraders participating in the Children's Lifestyle and Schoolperformance Study, 875 (19.1 percent) of whom had failed an elementary literacy assessment.
The better a student's eating habits based on several measures of diet quality，including adequacy and variety, the less likely he or she was to have failed the test, the researchers found，even after they adjusted the data for the effects of parental income and education, school and sex.Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and getting fewer calories from fat, was also associated with a lower risk of failing the test.
To date, Veugelers and his team say, most research on diet and school performance has focused on the importance of eating breakfast, as well as the ill effects of hunger and malnutrition(营养不良)．
“This study extends current knowledge in this area by demonstrating the independent importance of overall diet quality to academic performance.We should not only realize the importance of children's nutrition at breakfast but also that throughout the day，” the researchers conclude.
Another research from the UK is suggesting that children's diets in the preschool years affects how they perform at school later on.The researchers from the Institute of Education, at the University of London say in fact that what children were eating in those days before primary school has more of an effect than the chicken nuggets(块) they ate at lunchtime.The researchers say they have found that children who ate a diet of “junk food” at the age of three, made less progress in school between the ages of six and ten.They say children's diet at later ages appears to have less impact on their school attainment.．According to Dr.Paul J．Veugelers, students who have a healthy diet________.
| A．are more likely to fail in their school performance |
| B．definitely can perform better in their school work |
| C．usually have more of fat and less of fruit and vegetables |
| D．tend to perform better in their school work |
．It can be implied from the passage that________.
| A．little research has been done on the importance of breakfast |
| B．most students participating in the research failed the test |
| C．the adequacy and variety of foods can mean better school performance |
| D．eating more chicken nuggets leads to good school performance |
．The underlined word “literacy” (in Para.2) probably refers to ________.
| A．the ability to read and write |
| B．a guessing game |
| C．the art of painting |
| D．the ability to handle practical task |
．Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Children should have more“junk food”at lunch time. |
| B．Preschool diets can have more impact on children's school work. |
| C．A child who often has“junk food”at 3 is bound to fail in school work. |
| D．The older a child is，the more impact of what he eats has on school work. |
Some people can stay up all night and still get work done the next day.I'm not one of them.After a night without enough sleep, I feel badtempered.I have trouble remembering things.And all I want to do is to crawl into bed and sleep.
How do you feel after you've stayed up late to finish schoolwork? Or the day after an overnight party? Scientists now say that your answers to these questions may depend on your genes.
New research suggests that a gene called “period 3” affects how well you function without sleep.The “period 3” gene comes in two forms：short and long.Everyone has two copies of the gene.So, you may have two longs, two shorts, or one of each.Your particular combination depends on what your parents passed on to you.
Scientists from the University of Surrey in England studied 24 people who had either two short or two long copies of “period 3”．Study participants had to stay awake 40 hours straight.Then，they took tests that measured how quickly they pushed a button when numbers flashed on screen and how well they could remember lists of numbers.
Results showed that the people with the short form of “period 3” performed much better on these tests than the people with the long form did.In both groups，people performed worst in the early morning.
After the first round of experiments，participants were finally allowed to sleep.People in the group that performed well on the tests (those with the short form of “period 3”) took about 18 minutes to nod off.
People with the long “period 3” gene, by contrast, fell asleep in just 8 minutes.They also spent more time on deep sleep.That suggests that people with the long form of the gene need more and deeper sleep to keep their brains working in top form.
I think I must have the long form of“period 3”．What about you?The purpose of this passage might be________.
| A．to tell us the importance of plenty of sleep |
| B．to tell the result of a research on sleepy gene |
| C．to inform the harm of lacking sleep |
| D．to announce the sleeping rules of humans |
Which of the following decides how well you perform without sleep?
| A．One short form. |
| B．One long copy. |
| C．One short and two long copies. |
| D．Period 3. |
What kind of people need less sleep according to the research?
| A．Those with two long copies of the gene. |
| B．Those with two short copies of the gene. |
| C．Those with one short and one long copy of the gene. |
| D．Those with three short copies of the gene. |
If one lacks enough sleep，one should avoid doing important or dangerous things ________.
| A．at dawn | B．at night |
| C．in the afternoon | D．at noon |
That the Leaning Tower of Pisa no longer leans quite so much after a ￡20 million project to save it has proved to be a great success.The tower, which was on the edge of collapse, has been straightened by 18 inches, returning it to its 1838 position. 
“It has straightened a little bit more than we expected, but very little helps, ”said Prof.John Burland, the only British member of the rescue committee.“The tower is still very slightly moving towards being upright. ”
The tower, which has been leaning almost since building work first began in 1173, was closed to the public in 1990 because of safety fears.The 183foot tower was nearly 15 feet off vertical and its structure was found to have been weakened by centuries of strain(作用力).
Prof.Burland said it could have collapsed “at any moment”．However, it took nine years of quarreling before any work was done.The last attempt at straightening the tower was carried out. Concrete was poured into the foundations, but the result was that the tower sank further into the soil.
The straightening work involved digging out around 70 tonnes of earth from the northern side of the tower, causing it to sink on that side.Before the digging started, the tower was fixed with steel ropes and 600 tonnes of lead weights.
However, halfway through the project, concerns at the ugliness of the weights led to their removal and the tower leaned greatly.The weights were hurriedly reattached. In one night, the tower moved more than it had averaged in an entire year.The tower's stonework has also been restored.
The Italian government stepped in after a tower collapsed in Pavia in 1989, killing four people.Experts suddenly realized that the tower at Pisa, which was similarly built and on the same sort of earth, could do the same.What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Building of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| B．Saving the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| C．The Collapse of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
| D．The History of the Leaning Tower of Pisa |
According to the passage, the Leaning Tower of Pisa_________________.
| A．closed for the straightening work in 1990 |
| B．began to lean more than 800 years ago |
| C．has a history of more than 1, 000 years |
| D．has become vertical |
What drove the Italian government to save the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
| A．The development of new technology. |
| B．The advice of Prof. John Burland. |
| C．The expectation of the rescue committee. |
| D．The collapse of a tower in Pavia. |
What most probably played the most important part in straightening the tower?
| A．The lead weights fixed to the tower. |
| B．Restoring the stonework. |
| C．Pouring concrete into the foundations. |
| D．Digging earth from the southern side of the tower. |
February has long been a month of romance.With the sweet smell of roses in the air, romantic films hit cinemas and love stories fill newspapers and magazines.
On the 14th day, it is a custom for a boy to take his girlfriend out to dinner, buy her flowers and chocolates, write poems, sing to her or even spell out her name with rose petals! This is what you see on Valentine's Day, a day named after Valentine who was a priest in third century Rome.When the emperor decided that single men could become better soldiers than those with wives, he didn't allow marriage.
But Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies for young lovers in secret.When his actions were discovered, the emperor had him put to death.While in prison, it is said that Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his prison guard.Before his death, he wrote her a letter, which he signed “From your Valentine”， an expression that is still in use today.Valentine died for what he believed in and so was made a Saint(圣者), as well as becoming one of history's most romantic characters.
Nowadays, Valentine's Day is also popular among Chinese young people.Some students are planning to make Valentine's cards for parents, teachers and friends.Others want to hold parties at which they will exchange small gifts and eat heart－shaped cakes.The idea is to have fun and encourage people to share in the spirit of St.Valentine.The best title should be __________.
| A．Valentine's Day | B．A Brave Priest |
| C．Valentine's Day in China | D．A Romantic Man |
What does the underlined word mean in Para.2?
| A．树叶 | B．枝条 | C．花瓣 | D．花粉 |
Why did the emperor in Rome NOT allow marriage in his country?
| A．Because there were few women in his country at that time. |
| B．Because he thought men without wives could be better soldiers. |
| C．Because there wasn't enough food for so many people. |
| D．Because he wanted to control the birth rate. |
Valentine was put into prison because __________.
| A．he killed one of the soldiers |
| B．he stole a lot of food |
| C．he didn't obey the emperor's order |
| D．he didn't want to be a soldier |
The health of millions could be at risk because medicinal plants are being used up.These plants are used to make traditional medicine，including drugs to fight cancer.“The loss of medicinal plants is a quiet disaster，”says Sara Oldfield，secretary general of the NGO Botanic Gardens Conservation International.
Most people worldwide (including 80 percent of all Africans)rely on herbal medicines(草药)which are got mostly from wild plants.But some 15,000 of the 50,000 medicinal species are under threat of dying out，according to a report from the international conversation group Plantlife.Shortages have been reported in China，India，Kenya，Nepal，Tanzania and Uganda.
Overharvesting does the most harm，though pollution and competition from invasive(侵略性的)species are both responsible.“Businessmen generally harvest medicinal plants，not caring about sustain ability，”the Plantlife report says.“Damage is serious partly because they have no idea of it，but it is mainly because such collection is unorganized.” Medicinal trees at risk include the Himalayan yew and the African cherry，which are used to treat some cancers.
The solution，says the report's author，Alan Hamilton，is to encourage local people to protect these plants.Ten projects studied by Plantlife in India，Pakistan，China，Nepal，Uganda and Kenya showed this method can succeed.In Uganda the project has kept a sustainable supply of lowcost cancer treatments，and in China a public run medicinal plant project has been created for the first time.
“Improving health，earning an income and keeping cultural traditions are important in encouraging people to protect medicinal plants，”says Hamilton.“You have to pay attention to what people are interested in.” Ghillean Prance，the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London，agrees that medicinal plants are in need of protection.
“Not nearly enough is being done，”he told New Scientist.“We are destroying the very plants that are of most use to us.”What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The function of medicinal plants. |
| B．The importance of traditional medicine. |
| C．More and more people rely on herbal medicines. |
| D．The dangerous situation of medicinal plants and ways of protecting them. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．About 30% of medicinal species are at risk of dying out. |
| B．Medicinal plants are mainly used to treat cancers. |
| C．80% of African countries are reported to be short of medicinal plants. |
| D．The problem of the loss of medicinal plants appeared suddenly. |
What contributes most to the loss of medicinal plants?
| A．A lack of knowledge of sustainability. |
| B．Invasion by other species. |
| C．Environmental pollution. |
| D．Improper harvesting. |
What is a useful method of protecting medicinal plants?
| A．Improving people's health. |
| B．Letting people earn more. |
| C．Working together with the government. |
| D．Persuading the locals to protect them. |