The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.
A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped(照射) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.
While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.
The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
"Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist. "Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. " "I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering."
Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. "These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.
1.The underlined word “alleviate” in the fifth paragraph probably means “_________”.
A. cure B. ease C. improve D. kill
2.How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?
A. 4. B. 5. C. 6. D. 7.
3.Which of the following is TURE about the view of Prof de Tommaso’s?
A. Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely .
B. Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first.
C. Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse.
D. Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients.
4.Which of the following is the suitable title for the passage?
A. Beautiful surroundings can ease pain.
B. Ugly paintings could be masterpieces.
C. More research should be done in the field.
D. Latest environmental research.
E
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73. What is the purpose of the text?
A. To introduce a language school in Japan.
B. To hire language teachers to work in Japan.
C. To describe working conditions in Japan.
D. To make clear the requirements for Japanese teachers.
74. Before going to Japan, you need _______.
A. to see the manager of NOVA France
B. to take some computer courses
C. to write a letter to Japan
D. to find a place to live
75 If you want to work in Japan you should _______.
A. have some working experience
B. know how to use computers
C. present good teaching plans
D. speak several languages
D
I love charity(慈善) shops and so do lots of other people in Britain because you find quite a few of them on every high street. The charity shop is a British institution, selling everything from clothes to electric goods, all at very good prices. You can get things you won't find in the shops anymore. The thing I like best about them is that your money is going to a good cause and not into the pockets of profit-driven companies, and you are not damaging the planet, but finding a new home for unwanted goods.
The first charity shop was opened in 1947 by Oxfam. The famous charity's appeal to aid postwar Greece had been so successful it had been flooded with donations(捐赠物). They decided to set up a shop to sell some of these donations to raise money for that appeal. Now there are over 7,000 charity shops in the UK. My favourite charity shop in my hometown is the Red Cross shop, where I always find children's books, all 10 or 20 pence each.
Most of the people working in the charity shops are volunteers, although there is often a manager who gets paid. Over 90% of the goods in the charity shops are donated by the public. Every morning you see bags of unwanted items outside the front of shops, although they don't encourage this, rather ask people to bring things in when the shop is open.
The shops have very low running costs: all profits go to charity work. Charity shops raise more than ￡110 million a year, funding（资助）medical research, overseas aid, supporting sick and poor children, homeless and disabled people, and much more. What better place to spend your money? You get something special for a very good price and a good moral sense. You provide funds to a good cause and tread lightly on the environment.
69. The author loves the charity shop mainly because of _______.
A. its convenient locationB. its great variety of goods
C. its spirit of goodwill D. its nice shopping environment
70. The first charity shop in the UK was set up to ____.
A. sell cheap products B. deal with unwanted things
C. raise money for patients D. help a foreign country
71. Which of the following is TRUE about charity shops?
A. The operating costs are very low.
B. The staff are usually well paid.
C. 90% of the donations are second-hand.
D. They are open twenty-four hours a day.
72. Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?
A. What to Buy a Charity Shops.
B. Charity Shop: Its Origin & Development.
C. Charity Shop: Where You Buy to Donate.
D. The Public's Concern about Charity Shops.
C
The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society －a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.
“My grandmothers didn’t do anything but keep house and serve everybody. They were programmed to do that,” said Emils Comette, head of a chapter of the 7-year-old Red Hat Society.
While men have long spent their time fishing and playing golf, women have sometimes seemed to become unnoticed as they age. But the generation now turning 50 is the baby boomers (生育高峰期出生的人), and the same people who refused their parents’ way of being young are now trying a new way of growing old.
If you take into consideration feminism (女权主义), a bit of spare money, and better health for most elderly, the Red Hat Society looks almost inevitable(必然的). In this society, women over 50 wear red hats and purple (紫色的) clothes, while the women under 50 wear pink hats and light purple clothing.
“The organization took the idea from a poem by Jenny Joseph that begins: “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn’t go,” said Ellen Cooper, who founded the Red Hat Society in 1998. When the ladies started to wear the red hats, they attracted lots of attention
“The point of this is that we need a rest from always doing something for someone else,” Cooper said. “Women feel so ashamed and sorry when they do something for themselves.” This is why chapters are discouraged from raising money or doing anything useful. “We’re a ladies’ play group. It couldn’t be more simple,” added Cooper’s assistant Joe Heywood.
64.The underlined word “chapter” in paragraph 2 means __________.
A．one branch of an organization B．a written agreement of a club
C．one part of a collection of poems D．a period in a society’s history
65．From the text, we know that the “baby boomers” are a group of people who
A．have gradually become more noticeable
B．are worried about getting old too quickly
C．are enjoying a good life with plenty of money to spend
D．tried living a different life from their parents when they were young
66．It could be inferred from the text that members of the Red Hat Society are____________.
A．interested in raising money for social work
B．programmers who can plan well for their future
C．believers in equality between men and women
D．good at cooking big meals and taking care of others
67．Who set up the Red Hat Society ?
A．Emily Cornette .B．Ellen Cooper . C．Jenny Joseph .D．Joe Heywood .
68．Women join the Red Hat Society because_______________.
A．they want to stay young
B．they would like to appear more attractive
C．they would like to have fun and live for themselves
D．they want to be more like their parents
B
It was Monday. Mrs Smith's dog was hungry, but there was not any meat in the house.
Considering that there was no better way, Mrs Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the following words on it:“Give my dog half a pound of meat.”Then she gave the paper to her dog and said gently:“Take this to the butcher(*person whose job is selling meat). and he's going to give you your lunch today.”
Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher's. It gave the paper to the butcher. The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady's handwriting and soon did it as he was asked to. The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once.
At noon, the dog came to the shop again. It gave the butcher a piece of paper again. After reading it， he gave it half a pound of meat once more.
The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon. And as usual, it brought a piece of paper in the mouth. This time, the butcher did not take a look at paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he had regarded the dog as one of his customers (*people who buy sth. from a shop).
But, the dog came again at four o'clock. And the same thing happened once again. To the butcher's more surprise, it came for the third time at six o'clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper. The butcher felt a bit puzzled. He said to himself, “This is a small dog. Why does Mrs Smith give it so much meat to eat today?”
Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!
59. Mrs Smith treated her little dog quite_________.
A. cruelly B. fairly C. kindly D. politely
60 . It seemed that the dog knew well that the paper Mrs Smith gave it_______.
A. might do it much harm B. could do it much good
C. would help the butcher D. was worth many pounds
61 .The butcher did not give any meat to the dog __________.
A. before he felt sure that the words were really written by Mrs Smith
B. when he found that the words on the paper were not clear
C. because he had sold out all the meat in his shop
D. until he was paid enough by Mrs Smith
62.From its experience, the dog found that ________.
A. only the paper with Mrs Smith's words in it could bring it meat
B. the butcher would give the meat to it whenever he saw it
C. Mrs Smith would pay for the meat it got from the butcher
D. a piece of paper could bring it half a pound of meat
63.At the end of the story, you'll find that _______.
A. the dog was clever enough to write on the paper
B. the dog dared not go to the butcher's any more
C. the butcher was told not to give any meat to the dog
D. the butcher found himself cheated(*act in a way that is not honest)by the clever animal
C
An old story goes as follows．King took another wife, who had a magic mirror. The queen often asked the mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of all?” The mirror answered “You, Queen, are the fairest of all,” and the Queen was content, because she knew the mirror could speak nothing but the truth．
Inspired by the fairy tale, a New York-based designer has come up with a mirror equipped with infrared （红外线的） technology that sends a live video to any cell phone, e-mail account or personal digital assistant （PDA） device selected by a shopper．
Christopher Enrich, chief technology officer for digital design company IconNicholson, said putting these mirrors outside store fitting rooms meant women could go shopping with their friends — even they are far apart．
“She could be in Paris, your mom, watching you try on your wedding dress（while you are in New York）,” Enright told Reuters Tuesday as he exhibited the interactive （互动的）mirror at a trade show．
Using the interactive mirror, a shopper’s friends can then text message back with comments about the clothes being tried on．
Shoppers can also use touch screens on the three-paneled （面板） mirror to choose matching shoes or accessories （配件）, Enright said．
The left-hand panel has a touch screen that allows a customer to select a different suit from a database, and then see how it looks on her in the center mirror without physically putting the clothes on．
The right-hand panel has a screen offering more information about other shoes or accessories the shopper also might like．
Enright said teenagers were already using their cell phones to send pictures to their friends when they were out shopping．“This is ．．．adding technology to something we already do,” Enright said．
66．The interactive mirror mentioned in the text ______．
A．involves modern technology and great advantages
B．allows women shoppers to select clothes at home
C．was displayed and sold well at a trade show
D．spares people’s trouble of going shopping
67．Which is the most possible order according to the passage?
① Shoppers’ friends or relatives text message back with comments．
② Mirrors send a live video to any mobile phone, e-mail account or PDA．
③ Consumers make a final decision．
④ Shoppers try on the clothes．
A．①②③④ B．④③②① C．②①④③ D．④②①③
68．From the passage we can conclude that ______．
A．the interactive mirrors will surely promote sales on a large scale
B．the designer of the mirror has profited a lot from the invention
C．the new shopping technology would cater to fashion hunters
D．the digital mirrors will replace all traditional fitting-rooms
69．Which of the following descriptions about the touch screen is true?
A．It enables a shopper to order a suit which is not available now．
B．It allows shoppers to “try on” chosen clothes without putting them on．
C．The touch screens are distributed on three more panels．
D．It provides information merely about shoes and accessories．
70．What is the text mainly about?
A．The great influence of a fairy tale．
B．The development of the interactive mirror．
C．Working principles of a digital product．
D．Technology added to traditional products．