第三部分阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.
"I think we are knocking at the door of immortality（永生）," said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. "I think by 2075 we will see it and that’s a conservative estimate".
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology（纳米技术）make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what h
as been possible in the past. "There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years," he said. "Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years."
However, many scientists who specialize in ageing are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. "It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?" said Leonard Pooh, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology(老龄学) Center. "At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all."
1．By saying "we are knocking at the door of immortality", Michael Zey means ________.
A．they believe that there is no limit of living
B．they are sure to find the truth about long living
C．they have got
some ideas about living forever
D．they are able to make people live past the present life span
2．Donald Louria's attitude towards long living is that ________.
A．people can live from 120 to 180 years
B．it is still doubtful how long humans can live
C．the human body is designed to last about 120 years
D．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future
3．The underlined "it"（paragraph 4）refers to ________.
A．a great push
B．the idea of living beyond the present life span
C．the idea of living from 200 to 300 years
D．the conservative estimate
4．What would be the best title for this text?
A．Living Longer or Not B．Science, Technology and Long Living
C．No Limit for Human Life D．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living
Dayron Robles of Cube was disqualified (取消资格) of his mark and the title in the men's 110m hurdles final for disruption (中断，破坏) of the event after the Chinese team made an appeal on Monday "night at the Daegu worlds."
In the breath-taking final, Robles and Chinese legend Liu Xiang were neighbors in Lane 5 arid Large 6, respectively. After the starting gun fire, the two world's fastest-ever hurdlers were almost running neck to neck in the first eight hurdles and took the lead.
In the ninth hurdle, however, Robles, right trailing hand was seen hitting on Liu's left hand. As a result, Liu's rhythm was disturbed and his blistering pace slowed down. Right before the tenth and final hurdle, Robles made further hand contact with Liu, who tripped on the hurdle.
An official with the IAAF told reporters that the Daegu track referee council has decided to disqualify Robles, mark and it was unknown whether the Cuban team would appeal.
Before the disqualification, Robles won the 110m hurdles in 13. 14 seconds, followed by Jason Richardson with 13.16 seconds. Liu Xiang finished third in 13.27 seconds.
Robles, in a televised interview, admitted that he didn't like his technique in Monday night's game and he was tangling with Liu over the last hurdle.
Liu said he "felt like someone touched my elbowand I lost my balance for a while but then I managed to stabilize it".
A member of Liu's coach team had told Xinhua right after the game that the Chinese Athletics Association might appeal for the disruption. While Liu told reporters that he didn't care about the color of the medal.
Daegu on Monday night sees the first Championship clash of hurdling's current big three—Robles, Liu Xiang and 2011's fastest man David Oliver of USA.
They are also the three fastest men in the history of the event—Robles, 12.87 seconds, Liu 12.88, Oliver 12.89. The 110m hurdle final is their first meeting in a final at a global championship.Who won the gold medal after the disqualification?
| A．Dayron Robles. |
| B．Jason Richardson. |
| C．David Oliver. |
| D．Another famous runner. |
Robles admitted in an interview that __________.
| A．he had quarreled with Liu before the race |
| B．he had touched Liu's elbow on purpose |
| C．he had made technical mistakes |
| D．he had run less faster than Liu |
Who is the fastest man in the history of the men's 110m hurdles?
| A．Dayton Robles. |
| B．Liu Xiang. |
| C．David Oliver. |
| D．Not mentioned. |
Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
| A．After the starting gun fire, Liu Xiang ran faster than Dayron Robles. |
| B．In the ninth hurdle, Liu's running rhythm was disturbed by Robles. |
| C．It was still unknown if the Cuban team would appeal. |
| D．Liu was not disappointed at the results of the competition. |
I learnt about the Pygmalion effect (皮格玛丽翁效应) when I was 7 years old at Riverdale School in Palmerston North and I copied Melissa Crawford's answers in a spelling test. Before that I was average at school but after that, because Melissa Crawford was smart, and I got all the right answers, I got put in all the smart kids groups.
From then I did really well at school because it was believed by the teachers that I would and I also got grouped with the smart kids. This experience that occurred at my primary school shows just how important the Pygmalion effect is in terms of being around mentors (导师) that expect that you're going to do well and also being around people who are smart.
The Pygmalion effect is one principle you want to use if you want to make money fast. Have mentors that expect you will make money fast and as an extra boost hang around, copy and learn from other people who are also making money fast.
Yesterday this site had over 5, 000 unique visitors and the traffic to it is increasing all the time. A year ago I contacted a group of people who got lots of traffic in their sites and I learnt from them. Truthfully I don't know if they expected me to start getting decent traffic to websites but I imagined they did so they might as well have.
So there you have it—the Pygmalion effect.
P. S. My grammar and spelling are not that great nowadays but that's actually completely irrelevant (不相关的) when it comes to getting lots of visitors to your site.When did the author learn about the Pygmalion effect?
| A．Before he took the spelling test. |
| B．After he cheated in the spelling test. |
| C．When he did badly in exams. |
| D．After he finished primary school. |
The author got grouped with the smart kids because __________.
| A．he was an average pupil at school |
| B．he did better than all the others at school |
| C．Melissa Crawford was smart |
| D．he did better than expected |
What does the underlined word "contacted" mean in the passage?
| A．got in touch with |
| B．made friends with |
| C．lost touch with |
| D．was concerned about |
From the passage we can infer that __________.
| A．the author was busy meeting visitors every day |
| B．there was lots of traffic in his city |
| C．the author opened a website himself |
| D．the author's grammar was poor at school |
You just think you know what will make you happy. Researchers in the new science of happiness know better. They have evidence that married people on average end up being no happier than they were before the wedding. Winning the lottery (彩票) will probably reduce your pleasure in ordinary events that used to make you happy. And being in good health isn't as much of a factor as the right genes when it comes to satisfaction.
Soligman and Diener studied 222 Illinois college students to find out what the happiest 10% had in common. It turned out they were extroverts (外向的人), had more friendships and romantic relationships, but didn't exercise more and didn't feel they had more good events in their lives than those who weren't as happy.
Some of the results come as a surprise. A classic study of lottery winners and people with spinal (脊骨) cord injuries, for instance, found that neither event changed their lives as much as observers thought they would.
Gilbert is looking into how accurately people predict what will make them happy, which turns out, not accurately at all. What we think will bring us pleasure—a new car, the home team winning the NCAA championship, a move to California—usually doesn't bring us as much as we expected, and the positive impact doesn't last as long. The good news is that we also overestimate the impact of catastrophic (悲惨的) events. Even with data from research pouring in, scientists still don't have an easy answer to what we all want to know: How do I get long-term life satisfaction? The answers they do have are often the same ones that philosophers and priests have been giving us for centuries. It's just nice to have them backed up with hard data.What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．A research on happiness. |
| B．The level of happiness. |
| C．The secrets of happiness. |
| D．The prediction of happiness. |
The happiest people have the following characters except that __________.
| A．they are rich |
| B．they are outgoing |
| C．they are very sociable |
| D．they don't pay more attention to exercise |
According to the passage, we can know if the hurricane happens, it will cause __________.
| A．more suffering than people expect |
| B．as much suffering as people expect |
| C．less suffering than people expect |
| D．nothing is mentioned about it |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．We ourselves know what makes us happy the best. |
| B．The happiest 10% in the world have nothing incommon. |
| C．People can predict the things that make them happy accurately. |
| D．We just need to do what the philosophers and priests tell us to keep happy. |
A spiraling (成螺旋形的) tower made from thousands of books in dozens of languages is the later landmark in Buenos Aires, named the World Book Capital this year.
Called the Tower of Babel, the 25-meter high tower by Argentina's artist Marta Minujin is made from 30, 000 books, donated by readers, libraries and more than 50 embassies.
Climbing up its seven floors, visitors to the tower hear music composed by Minujin and the voice of the artist repeating the word "book" in scores of languages.
"Building this tower is really a wonder," Minujin said, standing before the structure as curious passersby looked at a downtown city square. "A hundred years from now, people will say 'there was a Tower of Babel in Argentina... and it didn't need translation because art needs no translation'."
Minujin, who worked with US artist Andy Warhol, built a full-scale mode of the Parthenon in Buenos Aires in 1983, using books banned by the military dictatorship (专政) that ended that year.
This year's book tower marks Buenos Aires' naming as the 2011 World Book Capital by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
"We've been laying books for 10 days straight, " said Sebastian Atienza, 26, who works for the company that built the tower under Minujin's command. "But it's worth it. It's where all languages come together."
When the exhibit ends later this month, Minujin said literature lovers will be allowed to come and pick one book each. The rest will be brought down to start a new archive (档案馆) that has already been named The Library of Babel, the name of a story by Argentina's most famous author, Jorge Luis Borges.According to the passage, the Tower of Babel __________.
| A．is made from 30，000 books from nearly 50 countries |
| B．is designed by American artist Matte Minujin |
| C．will hold the book exhibition for 10 days |
| D．has a height of twenty-five meters |
After the book exhibition, most books will be __________.
| A．handed out among visitors |
| B．donated to UNESCO |
| C．sent to Argentina's new archive |
| D．bought by Jorge Luis Borges |
The passage is probably taken from a (n) __________.
| A．advertisement |
| B．tourism guide |
| C．textbook |
| D．newspaper |
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.The underlined word "alleviate" in the fifth paragraph probably means"__________"
| A．cure |
| B．ease |
| C．improve |
| D．kill |
How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?
| A．4. |
| B．5. |
| C．6. |
| D．7. |
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. |
From the last paragraph, we know that __________.
| A．some artists' paintings were beautiful, so they were masterpieces |
| B．only art experts could judge they were masterpieces or not, though ugly |
| C．the artists mentioned above were not really art masters |
| D．some of them were art masters, while otherswere not |
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. |