.
Research on the human brain has been attracting more and more scientists in recent years, just like the booming hi-tech industry. One of the latest research topics is how to change the human brain or combine the computer and the human brain, i.e. to transplant a chip into a human brain. This idea may make everyone’s dream come true. If we compare a human brain to a hard disc, what the scientists are doing is to enlarge the capacity of the hard disc. For the time being, there are some difficulties in such transplant experiments, but scientists never give up.
Experiments have started on animals. In 1996, a transplant experiment performed at the Defense and Military Physiology Research Institute in the U.S. turned a bear into a dolphin.
The dolphin was named Ted, and the bear was named Tallin. Using the most advanced technology available, deep and detailed images were made of the memory area in Ted’s brain containing information about swimming by the scientists. They obtained a series of useful information, the signals transferred by the nervous system. Such information was saved into a button-sized chip, which was then transplanted into the action memory area in Tallin’s brain. The information saved on the chip was released by means of electric power.
Recently, another comprehensive memory transplant was performed at the Motor Nerve Research Institute of the University of California. The comprehensive memory transplanted in the experiment included actions, moods, logic, words, images, etc. The experiment involved an entire transplant of the memory area. This was the largest such experiment done so far.
The transplant was performed making a transfer from a dog named “Genius” to a dog named “Idiot”. “Genius” could understand and follow up to 100 gestures and orders made by its master. It was a real genius in memorizing. “Idiot” was the younger brother of “Genius”. It had no contact with people at all since its birth. It became an animal with nothing in its brain, without any memory.
The operation was a complete success. When the two dogs woke up, “Idiot” had grasped all the abilities “Genius” possessed; it was good at memorizing and sensible. It could follow every gesture and any command given by its master. But “Genius” gave no response to its master, and in fact did not recognize him at all.
47. The purpose of the experiment is ________.
A. to combine the computer and the human brain
B. to make bear swim
C. to make some stupid dog turn clever
D. to enlarge the capacity of human brain
48. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The scientists transferred a button-sized chip with useful information in Tallin’s brain.
B. The first comprehensive memory transplant was performed at the Motor Nerve Research University.
C. The second experiment wasn’t an entire transplant of the memory area.
D. The Idiot was an animal with memory before brain experiment
49. What does the underlined word “success” refer to?
A. The two dogs woke up.
B. They were both good at memorizing.
C. The Idiot grasped all the abilities of Genius.
D. The Genius grasped all the abilities of Idiot.
50. According to the text, we can infer ________.
A. a person can know more after the experiment
B. a bear can swim after being transferred a chip with related useful information
C. a dog can become clever after entire transplant of the memory area
D. it is really good for animals to have been involved in the transplant experiment
You can love them or hate them, but no matter which tourist destination you visit, chances are you’ll see someone with their head buried in a Lonely Planet guidebook.
Lonely Planet is one of the world’s largest travel guide brands, publishing more than 500 different guides in eight languages. The popular brand also produces television shows, websites and podcasts(播客)all devoted to travel.
Some people praise Lonely Planet books because they make traveling easy and affordable. They also save time and make sure you don’t miss the best things.
They also provide the reviews of hostels, restaurants and ticket information about your destination.
This can be great if you’re a nervous traveler, or if you haven’t traveled by yourself before. If you’re in a country where you don’t speak the language, sometimes there’s nothing better than getting into a taxi and opening up a guidebook. You simply point to a map that directs the taxi driver to a hostel that’s cheap and clean, with friendly staff and cold beer.
But others criticize Lonely Planet and other travel guide publishers like them. They say guidebooks take the fun and spontaneity(自发性)out of
traveling, and that part of the enjoyment of travel comes from the fact that anything can happen. They also regret that if you follow a guidebook, you’ll end up doing the same thing and having the same experience as everyone else. You might end up seeing the same group of people over and over, because everyone is reading the same book and following the same route.
Another criticism of travel guides is that they have a large impact on local communities. For example, some locals devote their lives to behaving in ways that attract tourists. They pretend to live a traditional lifestyle, wear traditional clothes and live in traditional houses in order to attract the tourist dollar.The Lonely Planet guidebook can bring you the following advantages EXCEPT th
at ___.
| A.you can speak a foreign language when opening a guidebook |
| B.you can easily find a nice place to stay in a strange city |
| C.it provides lots of useful information about your destination |
| D.it can help you save time and money when traveling |
People criticize the guidebook because __________.
| A.it is not as useful as most travelers expect |
| B.tourist destinations will be crowded if everyone follows the same route |
| C.travelers may not get the chance to have unexpected adventures |
| D.local people keep modern lifestyles under its influence |
What do we know about the Lonely Planet guidebook from the text?
| A.It’s a world-famous brand only producing guidebooks for travelers. |
| B.It’s very useful to a person who’s nervous about touring an unfamiliar place. |
| C.It’s very useful to a tourist who likes to repeat others’ experiences. |
| D.It is loved by all travelers because of the convenience it brings to travelers. |
Which of the following best shows the structure of the text? (①—⑦ stand for Paragraph 1 — Paragraph 7 )

Nuclear power's danger to health, safety, and even life itself can be described in one word; radiation(辐射).
Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery about it, partly because it cannot be detected (探测) by human senses. It can't be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we can't detect them, sense them, without a radio receiver. Similarly, we can't sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things.
At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or human being completely by killing masses of cells in important organs (器官). But even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no level of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be significant. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and if they are killed completely. Your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They reproduce themselves in an unusual way. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.
This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the knowledge of the person at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated(放射治疗) and feel fine, then die of cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. Or a child can be born weak or easy to get serious illness as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents.
Radiation can hurt us. We must know the truth. According to the passage, the danger of nuclear power lies in ________
__.
| A.nuclear mystery | B.radiation detection |
| C.radiation level | D.nuclear radiation |
Radiation can lead to serious results even at the lowest level ________.
| A.when it kills few cells | B.if it damages few cells |
| C.though the damaged cells can repair themselves | |
D. unless the damaged cells can reproduce themselves |
Radiation can hurt us in the way that it can _____.
| A.kill large numbers of cells in main organs so as to cause death immediately |
| B.damage cells which may grow into cancer years later |
| C.affect the healthy growth of our younger generation |
| D.lead to all of the above results |
Which of the following can be best inferred from the passage?
| A.The importance of protection from radiation can be overemphasized (过分强调). |
| B.The mystery about radiation remains unsolved. |
| C.Cancer is mainly caused by radiation. |
| D.Radiation can hurt those who do not know about its danger. |
Eight-year-old Bethany and seven-year-old Eliza are having a great time jumping around in the orchard of their home in a village near Penrith. They can play any time they like because they don't go to school. Instead, they are educated at home by their parents, Paul and Veronika Robinson. But they don't have lessons, have never used a timetable and learn only what and when they want to learn. .
“I want my kids to have freedom in their childhood,
not spend it in an institution," says 37-year-old Veronika, "School is all about control and following the rules." Veronika and her 56-year-old husband Paul have never experienced the daily rush to get dressed and out of the door that is common in most households with school-aged children. "We get up at our leisure - usually around 8:30," says Veronika. "We might visit a friend, or go to the library, and on Tuesdays we shop at the market. In summer, we spend most of our time outside and the girls entertain themselves a lot.” .
New research due to be published this spring reveals a very different picture of Britain's home educators. "Out of 297 families, 184 said that they never use a timetable,” says Mike Fortune-Wood of Home Education UK. "Ninety per cent never or rarely use textbooks, and nearly all said that happiness, contentment and self-fulfillment were more important than academic achievement. Only 15% felt that planning what to learn was very important.” .
So far, so good. But what, you might ask, are the children actually learning?
"It wasn't important to me that the girls could read by a certain age, but they both picked it up for themselves at around seven," says Robinson. "Weighing cooking ingredients uses maths, and making a shopping list teaches them to write. Observing five hens has taught the girls about survival of the fittest. "
But what about when the children grow up? Can they go to university? The home educators' answer is they can if they want to. There are a variety of routes into higher education, but probably the most common is to join a local college. This is what Gus Harris-Reid has done. "I was educated at home al
l my life. I'd never had a lesson or been inside a classroom until I started GCSEs," says the 18-year-old. "I'm now studying for 4 A-levels at Exeter College. I've had no problem with the work or with fitting in." When asked to reflect on his experience of home education, his considered response is, "Like a permanent holiday, really!" Not a bad start for someone who plans to take a mechanical engineering degree next year. .What is the topic of this article?
| A.New ways of learning to read and write | B.Problems with UK schools |
| C.Home education in the UK | D.Wild, undisciplined children |
According to the article, in homes with school-going children, ______.
| A.mornings are rushed and stressful. |
| B.the children hardly ever go outside. |
| C.the family wakes up around 8:30am. |
| D.the children must ask permission to go to the toilet. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A.Most home educators believe that happiness is more important than good grades. |
| B.Most home educators believe that planning is important. |
| C.Most home educators do not follow a timetable or use textbooks. |
| D.Most home educators are not worried about when their children learn to read and write. |
What does the article say about home-educated children getting into university?
| A.They learn so many useful skills at home that universities are happy to accept them. |
| B.They can get into university if they have 4 A-levels. |
| C.They can go to school later and get the qualifications they need in order to enter university. |
| D.Home education is so relaxed that they are likely to experience problems when faced with the pressures of a degree course. |
Joanne was stuck in a traffic jam in central Birmingham at 5:30. and at 6:30 she was expected to be chairing a meeting of the tennis club. At last,the traffic was moving. She swung quickly racing to her house. As she opened the door,she nearly tripped over Sheba.
“Hey,Sheba,”she said,“I've got no time for you now,but I'll take you out as soon as I get back from tennis club. ”Then she noticed Sheba seemed to be coughing or choking Obviously,she could hardly breathe. Immediately. Joanne realized she would have to take her to the vet(兽医) . When she got there,the vet was just about to close for the day. Seeing the state of Sheba,Dr. Sterne brought her quickly into his office.
“Listen,doctor,I'm really in a rush to get to a meeting, can I leave her with you,and go and get changed? I'll be back in ten minutes
to pick her up,and then I'll take her on to the meeting with me, Is that OK?”
“Sure. ”said the doctor
Joanne made the quick trip back to her house in a couple of minutes. As she was once more entering the hallway,the phone by the door began to ring.
“This is Dr. Sterne,”said an anxious voice. “I want you to get
out of that house immediately,”said the doctor's voice. “I'm coming round right away,and the police will be there any time now. Wait outside!”
At that moment,a police car screeched to a stop outside the house. Two policemen got out and ran into the house. Joanne was by now completely confused and very frightened. Then the doctor arrived.
“Where’s Sheba? Is she OK
?” shouted Joanne.
“She’s fine,Joanne. I took out the thing which was choking her,and she’s OK now. ”
Just then,the two policemen reappeared from the house,half-carrying a white—faced man,who could hardly walk. There was blood all over him.
“My God,”said Joanne,“how did he get in there? And how did you know he was there?”
“I think he must be a burglar. ”said the doctor. “I knew he was there because when I finally removed what was stuck in Sheba’s throat:it turned out to be three human f
ingers”What was Joanne supposed to do at 6:30?
| A.To walk her dog. |
| B.To see her doctor. |
| C.To attend a club meeting. |
| D.To play tennis with her friends. |
Joanne wanted to get back to her home again.
| A.to dress up for the meeting |
| B.to phone the police station |
| C.to catch the badly hurt burglar |
| D.to wait for her dog to be cured |
From the passage,we can infer that.
| A.Sheba fought against the burglar |
| B.the police found the burglar had broken in |
| C.Joanne had planned to take her dog to the meeting |
| D.the doctor performed a difficult operation on the dog |
In this passage,the writer intends to tell us that the dog is.
| A.clever | B.friendly | C.frightening | D.devoted |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲), it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(热情) as it ought to be lived.The best title of this passage probably is
| A.Love your friends | B.Live a real life |
| C.Don't waste time | D.Be a good mother and wife |
The underlined sentence "It is so easy to exist instead of to live" in the fifth paragraph probably has the same meaning as
| A.it is so easy to keep alive but not to live a real life |
| B.it is very hard to live a real life |
| C.it is so easy to make a living |
| D.it is more difficult to exist than to live a happy life |
What's the author's attitude toward
work?
| A.Do it well to serve others. |
| B.To earn enough money to make life better. |
| C.Try your best to get higher position and pay. |
| D.Don't let it affect your real life. |
It can be inferred from the passage that
| A.the author is a success in personal life |
| B.the author didn't try her best to work well |
| C.the author spent all her time caring for her children |
| D.the author likes traveling very much |