It doesn't matter when or how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That's what all doctors thought, until they heard about Al Herpin. Al Herpin, it was said, never slept. Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.
Al Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised. Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day, they never saw Herpin sleeping. In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.
The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They asked him many questions, hoping to find an answer. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure.
Al Herpin died at the age of 95.
41.The main idea of this passage is that _______
A. everyone needs some sleep to stay alive
B. people can live longer by trying not to sleep
C. large numbers of people do not need sleep
D. a person was found who actually didn't need any sleep
42.The doctors came to visit Herpin, expecting ______
A. to find out whether his sleeplessness was really true
B. to find out why some old people didn't need any sleep
C. to find a way to free people from the need of sleeping
D. to cure him of his sleeplessness
43. After watching him closely, the doctors came to believe that Al Herpin ____
A. needed no sleep at all B. needed some kind of sleep
C . was too old to need any sleep D .often slept in a chair
44.One reason that might explain Herpin' s sleeplessness was ______
A. his mother's injury before he was born
B. his magnificent physical condition
C. that he had gradually got rid of the sleeping habit
D. that he hadn't got a bed
45.Al Herpin' s condition could be regarded as ______
A. a common one B. very healthy C. one that could be cured D. a rare one
Try imagining what the world will be like in the year 3000. Some serious thinkers are starting to imagine just that.
Bart: I don’t know that present-day electronic chips are, but some sort of chips — I’d guess maybe plastic. Our three-pound brain is definitely a wonder, perhaps the greatest wonder of natural biology. In this coming century, we’ll be re-engineering the brain a piece at a time, first with implants（植入物） and finally engineering an complete replacement. There’s no question that in the distant future we’ll play the music of the mind on instruments different from the current ones. So, yes, chips are our destiny (命运).
Edward: In 3000 perhaps the biggest difference from today is that there will be no more men. Females can have female children, without any need for men. In about ten years, we’ll find the cocktail that women can take to have female children. There’ll be no need for men at all.
Greg: What is Heaven? Heaven’s a place where you can create worlds at will, and the ideal Heaven is where you run the whole thing yourself. The current means of getting to Heaven involve various supernatural systems for which, at this point, there’s no scientific evidence. So I think we can reduce Heaven to an engineering project which we’re doing. The demand for Heaven is great—witness the desire of every human heart, from the people who built the ancient pyramids to modern society, to live beyond one’s given time. Our plan is to change human consciousness from the brain to bits of information in a computer chip, or some other kind of computational medium, so that just by thinking we’ll be able to create our own personal world. And I think the first stage of Heaven will be the feeling world, and beyond that I think we’d find a higher, more spiritual plane.According to Bart, the brain may be the greatest wonder in the future because _______.
| A．it may weigh as much as 3 pounds |
| B．it may be driven by plastic chips |
| C．it may be replaced by robots |
| D．it may play the music of the mind |
What does Bart refer to by saying “chips are our destiny”?
| A．Chips are our last choice in the future. |
| B．Chips are on the way to controlling mind. |
| C．Chips are the production of future technology. |
| D．Chips are the implants in the distant future. |
In 3000, what about the population of the world?
| A．It will be all made up of females. |
| B．It will be larger than that of present. |
| C．It will mainly consists of children. |
| D．It will be reduced by a drink of cocktail. |
According to Greg, Heaven in the future is a place where ________.
| A．your scientific idea exists |
| B．you have once traveled |
| C．your own thought travels |
| D．your material world is formed |
Why do we call the sounds of birds, whales and insects songs? Because something about what we hear seems to have beauty, and some mellifluous (动听的) structure that touches us more than any possible message. Though for many years science has cautioned against hearing too much of what we humans would like to hear when we are trying to understand animal sounds, the musicality in some sounds is now starting to have an effect on the science of animal communication itself.
Many specific animal sounds express aggression(进攻), warning, or food, but such practical explanations are tough to apply to the long songs. Some whale songs can go on for up to 24 hours. The usual explanation for birdsong is that the birds are singing to attract mates or to announce the limits of their area. But the audience is not always evident for these long love songs, which have many of the elements related to human music: rhythm, melody (旋律), themes, repeating patterns, organization, variety, interest — all adding up to something humans have found beautiful for thousands of years. “Birds taught man,” wrote Roman poet and philosopher (哲学家) Lucretius, “and taught them songs before their art began.”
What is the scientific value of such sounds? The advantage of hearing music in nature and trying to reach out to nature through music is that though we don’t fully understand it, it is so accessible.
Music refuses explanation, but it clearly expresses something deep and important, which humans can’t live without. Finding music in the sound of birds, whales and other animals makes the farther frontiers(边缘) of nature see much closer to us.The underlined phrase “cautioned against” in Paragraph 1 probably means “_______”.
| A．warned against |
| B．fought against |
| C．been filled with |
| D．been satisfied with |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．We call the songs of birds’ sounds because there is beauty that sounds pleasant to the ears. |
| B．It is believed that birds are singing to attract mates or to warn the limits of their areas. |
| C．The songs of a bird really carry an emotional message such as “aggression and caring”. |
| D．It is not very long for people to know that birdsong does have something beautiful. |
By saying “Birds taught man”, what did Lucretius mean?
| A．People teach rhythm, melody, themes, repeating patterns to birds. |
| B．Birds can teach people how to go on singing a song up to 24 hours. |
| C．Human music has, in fact, come from the sounds of birds in nature. |
| D．Humans learned something beautiful from the sounds of many animals. |
From the passage we know that music in nature ________.
| A．can’t be explained at all |
| B．is very easy to pick up and listen to |
| C．can’t be understood at all |
| D．is of no scientific value |
With another invention in use, viewers will be also able to watch TV while walking to the office, taking a bus or simply waiting in line for lunch.
A Beijing-based company named Innofidei Inc. claims to have developed the first mobile TV chip for the market, which can change hundreds of thousands of mobiles into micro-TVs.
With this chip, people can receive TV signals on their phones and watch programs without any time or space limitations.“As long as the handset terminal（接收终端设备） has a colored screen and a battery, our chip can turn it into a mobile TV,” said Meng Fei, director of Innofidei’s business development department. The chip can be placed into a cell phone, a PDA, an MP4, a digital camera or even a laptop. He said that this, together with plans by China’s state broadcaster, would ensure the 2008 Games lives up to its promise as a “People’s Olympics”.
“Our chips are cheap so that cell phones with them will not be much different in price from regular phones,” Meng said. “CCTV will offer some free channels during the Games, so people can enjoy the Olympics for free.”
SARFT（国家广播电影电视总局） is planning to build a regional test network in Beijing and hopes to start trials as soon as possible. The goal is to deploy CMMB (部署中国移动多媒体广播) on a national level by the first half of 2008.
Innofidei is now busy selling their chips to cell phone makers so that the new generation of phones reaches the market in early 2008.
“Our invention successfully combines the good points of the two best-selling consumer products in history—TV sets and cell phones, ” said Meng. “In the near future, soccer fans won’t be tearing their hair out because they are stuck in traffic and missing the chance to see their favorite team’s play.”
Local baseball fans, meanwhile, will be able to draw comfort from the knowledge that—both at the Olympics and afterwards—their teams will be playing on a field designed to help recycle water.Which of the following CANNOT be turned into a mobile TV according to the passage?
A. A cell phone.B. A PDA.
C. An MP3. D. A laptop.Which of the following would possibly happen with the invention of the chip?
A. Sports fans watch Olympic Games on cell phones in 2008.
B. People watch video CDs on the MP4.
C. A game addict plays 3D games on a PDA.
D. Listening to news broadcast on radio.We can infer from the passage that _______.
| A．we cannot buy a mobile TV before the 2008 Olympic Games. |
| B．soccer fans will be angry when they miss the chance to see a TV program. |
| C．the baseball field will play a part in helping recycle water. |
| D．the invention of the chip successfully combines TV sets and cell phones. |
The best title for this passage would be “_______”.
| A．A new invention for Olympics |
| B．A new generation of cell phones |
| C．Watching live games on TV for free |
| D．People’s Olympics |
Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.
One day I went up to Michael and asked him, “I don’t get it. You can’t be positive all the time. How do you do it?” Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself ‘Mike, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining（抱怨） I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”
I often thought about that when I made a choice about life. Several years later, Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling off 60 feet from a communica－tion tower. After l8 hours of operation, and weeks of intensive care, Michael was re－leased from the hospital with rods placed in his back.I asked him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
“The first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon-to-born daughter,” Michael replied. “Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. In the operation room, I told the doctors and nurses, ‘I’m choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 really means that Michael is a person ______.
| A．people would fall in love with |
| B．people would easily get tired of |
| C．people would envy for his positive life attitude |
| D．people wouldn’t take seriously |
Each time something bad happens, Michael chooses to ______.
| A．be in a good mood |
| B．learn from it |
| C．complain about it |
| D．ignore the negative side of it |
From the passage we can infer that ______.
| A．most people manage to lead a positive life at any time |
| B．most people can’t lead a positive life at any time |
| C．only Michael can be so positive |
| D．the author is always a sad person |
If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.
Our lives let many of us become so busy with work and other things that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.
Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and accept more of the invitations you receive from others can improve your social life quickly!
Are there any people you could call right now and are assured of a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count on to help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?
If you haven’t seen most of them lately, is it because you have become too busy? Have you lived apart? Was there an argument?
If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have got too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?
If you have become too busy to have time for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material joys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things by yourself that could be delegated to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?
Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.
If you really want to keep friends in your life, make space in your schedule and in your heart for them.In this passage the author mainly discusses ____.
| A．how to balance friendship and work |
| B．how to spend our spare time |
| C．whether we should keep friendship |
| D．whether we should invite friends to dinner |
Which of the following doesn’t indicate a good relationship?
| A．You have someone to count on when you are in trouble. |
| B．You have someone to have close talks with. |
| C．You have fun when you are with someone. |
| D．You feel depressed with others in life. |
.What does the underlined word “ delegated ” in Paragraph 7 probably mean?
| A．declined | B．replaced | C．appointed | D．handled |
What is the most important feature of the writing style of the passage?
| A．Offering arguments | B．Raising questions |
| C．Making comparisons | D．Giving examples |