（八）
Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease. “The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.
1. The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to “________”.
A. health
B. long life
C. ageing
D. effect
2. The text mainly talks about ________.
A. men’s heart cells
B. women’s ageing process、
C. the gender difference
D. hearts and long life
3. According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.
A. women have more cells than men when they are born
B. women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat
C. the female heart loses few of the cells with age
D. women never lose their pumping power with age
4. If you want to live longer, you should ________.
A. enable your heart to beat much faster
B. find out the reason for ageing
C. exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy
D. prevent your cells from being lost
5. We can know from the passage that ________.
A. the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out
B. scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells
C. the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss
D. women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20
My elder brother Steve, in the absence of my father who died when I was six, gave me important lessons in values that helped me grow into an adult.
For instance, Steve taught me to face the results of my behavior. Once when I returned in tears from a Saturday baseball game, it was Steve who took the time to ask me what happened. When I explained that my baseball had soared through Mrs. Holt’s basement window, breaking the glass with a crash, Steve encouraged me to confess to her. After all, I should have been playing in the park down Fifth Street and not in the path between buildings. Although my knees knocked as I explained to Mrs. Holt, I offered to pay for the window from my pocket money if she would return my ball.
I also learned from Steve that personal property is a sacred thing. After I found a shiny silver pen in my fifth-grade classroom, I wanted to keep it, but Steve explained that it might be important to someone else in spite of the fact that it had little value. He reminded me of how much I’d hate to lose to someone else the small dog my father carved from a piece of cheap wood. I returned the pen to my teacher, Mrs. Davids, and still remembered the smell of her perfume as she patted me on the shoulder.
Yet of all the instructions Steve gave me, his respect for life is the most vivid in my mind. When I was twelve, I killed an old brown sparrow in the yard with a BB gun. Excited with my accuracy, I screamed to Steve to come from the house to take a look. I shall never forget the way he stood for a long moment and stared at the bird on the ground. Then in a dead, quiet voice, he asked, “Did it hurt you first, Mark?” I didn’t know what to answer. He continued with his eyes firm, “The only time you should ever think of hurting a living thing is if it hurts you first. And then you think a long, long time.” I really felt terrible then, but that moment stands out as the most important lesson my brother taught me.
31. What is the main subject of the passage?
| A．The relationship between Mark and Steve. |
| B．The important lesson Mark learned in school. |
| C．Steve’s important role in Mark’s growing process. |
| D．Mark and Steve’s respect for living things. |
32. In the story about the pen, which of the following lessons did Steve teach his brother?
| A．Respect for personal property. | B．Respect for life. |
| C．Sympathy for people with problems. | D．The value of honesty. |
33. According to the writer, which was the most important lesson Steve taught his young brother?
| A．Respect for living things. | B．Responsibility for one’s actions. |
| C．The value of honesty. | D．Care for the property of others. |
34. The underlined word “knocked” in the second paragraph means ______.
| A．tapped | B．beat | C．struck | D．trembled |
35. From the passage, we can infer the following statements EXCEPT that ______.
| A．Mark benefited a lot from Steve after their father passed away. |
| B．Mark was not as excellent as his elder brother Steve. |
| C．The small wood dog carved by his father meant a lot to Mark. |
| D．Mark used to be a naughty boy in his childhood. |
Betty and Harold have been married for years. But one thing still puzzles old Harold. How is it that he can leave Betty and her friend Joan sitting on the sofa, talking, go out to a ballgame, come back three and a half hours later, and they’re still sitting on the sofa, talking?
What in the world, Harold wonders, do they have to talk about?
Betty shrugs（耸肩）. Talk? We’re friends.
Researching this matter called friendship, psychologists Lillian Rubin spent two years interviewing more than two hundred women and men. No matter what their age, their job, their sex, the results were completely clear: Women have more friendships than men, and the difference in the content and the quality of those friendships is “marked and unmistakable”.
More than two-thirds of the single men Rubin interviewed could not name a best friend. Those who could were likely to name a woman. Yet three-quarters of the single women had no problem naming a best friend, and almost always it was a woman. More married men than women named their wife/husband as a best friend, most trusted person, or the one they would turn to in time of emotional distress (感情危机). “Most women,” says Rubin, “identifies (认定) at least one, usually more, trusted friends to whom they could turn in a troubled moment, and they spoke openly about the importance of these relationships in their lives.”
“In general,” writes Rubin in her new book, “women’s friendships with each other rest on shared emotions and support, but men’s relationships are marked by shared activities.” For the most part, Rubin says, interactions between men are emotionally controlled ---a good fit with the social requirements of “manly behavior（行为）”.
“Even when a man is said to be a best friend,” Rubin writes, “the two share little about their innermost feelings. While a woman’s closest female friend might be the first to tell her to leave a failing marriage, it wasn’t unusual to hear a man say he didn’t know his friend’s marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa.”What old Harold cannot understand or explain is the fact that______.
| A．he is treated as an outsider rather than a husband |
| B．women has so much to share |
| C．women show little interest in ballgames |
| D．he finds his wife difficult to talk to |
Rubin’s study shows that for emotional support a married woman is more likely to turn to ___.
| A．a male friend | B．a female friend |
| C．her parents | D．her husband |
According to the text, which type of behavior is NOT expected of a man by society?
| A．Many of them do not have a best friend |
| B．Don’t often share their emotional feelings. |
| C．Complaining about his marriage trouble. |
| D．Going out to ballgames too often. |
Which of the following statements is best supported by the last paragraph?
| A．Men keep their innermost feelings to themselves. |
| B．Women are more serious than men about marriage. |
| C．Men often take sudden action to end their marriage. |
| D．Women depend on others in making decisions. |
The research done by psychologist Rubin centers around _____.
| A．happy and successful marriages |
| B．friendship of men and women |
| C．emotional problems in marriage |
| D．interactions between men and women |
Hey there,
So you’re about to spend four years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars of your parents’ money, and all you really know about college is that all of your friends are going. Do you ever stop to wonder why you’re going?
Relax. You’re making the right decision. First of all, you’ll discover what interests you by taking courses in many subjects. For example, it’s hard to decide if you want to be a painter if you’ve never painted any pictures; once you’re in a drawing-room on campus, you’ll know one way or the other. College is also a lot of fun—after you graduate, you’ll be working every weekday for 50 or so years. And remember that college graduates get about twice the income of those who never attended college.
Finding the right college can be difficult. Fortunately, Johnson Review is here to help you every step of the way.
Researching School. To us, the most important decision you’ll make is to choose the school that really fits you best---- not the one that is the most competitive or has the best-equipped rooms.
Applying to School. On JohnsonReview.com, you’ll find hundreds of actual college applications(申请) and links to many more.
Raising Your Scores. American College Test is one of the most important parts of the admissions(录取) course. It’s not the most important, though, and not everyone needs to prepare for the best. But, if you think you can do better, find the right course for better scores.
Paying for School. Most families need financial aid for the high cost of college. The problem is that financial aid seems difficult to get and many families get caught up in the price of college. However, if you really do your research, you’ll learn that there are many ways to get financial aid and that you can afford to attend any college, no matter the cost.
For more information, call 600-3681 or visit Johnson Review.com, wherever you go, have a nice trip!
Johnson Smith
Founder and CEO
John Review How many reasons for going to college does the author mention in the text?
| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
What is the meaning for the word “income” at the end of the second paragraph?
| A．Salary. | B．Tip. | C．Fee. | D．Fare. |
What does the author advise you to do to pay the high cost of college?
| A．To ask the family for help |
| B．To make a study of financial courses |
| C．To do research on the price of college |
| D．To get to know how to ask for financial aid |
Which of the following will the author agree?
| A．Johnson Review can help you find the right college more easily. |
| B．The most important part for college admission is the College Test. |
| C．It is not worth going to college nowadays in America |
| D．If you want to find a place to spend your holiday, visit Johnson Review.com |
What’s the author’s purpose of writing this text?
| A．To suggest ways to prepare for college learning |
| B．To help readers find the right college |
| C．To introduce Johnson Review |
| D．To introduce college life |
Compassion is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into actions. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in a supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers, and it’s not hard to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register (收款机) with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash, had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.
I couldn’t help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if luck had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn’t allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.
Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable. “Charge it to me,” was all he said.
What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.What does the word “compassion” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．pity for the sufferings of others |
| B．feeling or expression of sorrow |
| C．liking for each other produced in people who have similar opinions or tastes |
| D．something for which to be thankful |
The aged gentleman who wanted to buy the biscuits _____.
| A．promised to obey the store rules |
| B．forgot to take any money with him |
| C．hoped to have the food first and pay later |
| D．could not afford anything more expensive |
Which of the following best describes the first old gentleman?
| A．kind and lucky | B．poor and lonely |
| C．friendly and helpful | D．hurt and disappointed |
The writer acted upon the store rules because _____.
| A．he wanted to keep his present job |
| B．he felt no pity for the old gentleman |
| C．he considered the old man dishonest |
| D．he expected someone else to pay for the old man |
What does the writer learn from his experience?
| A．Wealth is more important than anything else. |
| B．Helping others is easier said than done. |
| C．Experience is better gained through practice. |
| D．Obeying the rules means more than compassion. |
Searching for life on other planets
For more than thirty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages, as well as messages on spaceships traveling through space, on the chance that someone may receive such messages.
Scientists are using powerful radio telescopes to “listen” to signals from about 1,000 stars, all within 100 light years of Earth. In addition, they will scan the entire sky to listen for radio messages from more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight million channels at a time. Scientists are looking for any signal that stands out from the background noise.
Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, scientists find that five percent are like our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like Earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from the star for temperatures to be right for life. Based on the planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that one or more of these planets may support some life.
However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent life exists on other planets. Some believe that thirty years of searching without any intelligible messages shows that no one is out there. They say that intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely.
Other scientists believe that our search hasn’t been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family is only about five billion years old, our galaxy is about 20 billion years old. In that time some scientists think it is likely that civilizations much more advanced than ours have developed. Perhaps these civilizations send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep looking.To look for signals from distant stars, scientists _____.
| A．have sent up spaceships to other planets |
| B．have sent radio and television messages to outer space |
| C．are listening to the radio messages all the year round |
| D．will use computers to pick up background noise |
According to the passage, how many planets in our galaxy might be inhabitable?
| A．5 billion. | B．10 billion. | C．15 billion. | D．200 billion. |
Some scientists believe no other planet has life because ______.
| A．most of the researches have been done over the radio |
| B．thirty years of searching doesn’t have any result |
| C．we didn’t send messages on spaceships |
| D．none of the other stars is right for life |
Some scientists think there might be more advanced civilizations on other planets because _____.
| A．some planets support more advanced civilizations |
| B．some civilizations have sent us signals we can’t recognize |
| C．the evolution of intelligence on other planets is unlike ours |
| D．some planets in our galaxy are much older than the earth |
Which of these statements is true based on the information in the passage?
| A．The earth is one of the oldest planets in our galaxy. |
| B．Most scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planets. |
| C．Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planets. |
| D．More advanced civilization than ours have developed on other planets. |