Some of the world’s most famous persons had suffered from a similar disability, such as Albert Einstein, the mathematician; Thomas Edison, the inventor; Auguste Rodin, the artist. What disabled these three famous men? Strange as it may seem, they all suffered from learning disabilities. They had great difficulty learning to read, write or use numbers. Almost always, there is a problem with one of the mental processes needed to understand or use written signs or spoken language. Yet he or she is unable to recognize difference in sizes, shapes or sounds that are easy for others to recognize. Learning disabilities are very common. They affect perhaps 10 percent of all children. Four times as many boys as girls have learning disabilities.
Since about 1970, new research has helped brain scientists understand these problems better. Scientists now know there are many different kinds of learning disabilities and that they are caused by many different things. There is no longer any question that all learning disabilities result from differences in the way the brain is organized.
You can not look at a child and tell if he or she has a learning disability. There is no outward (外部的) signs of disorder (混乱). So some researchers began looking at the brain itself to learn what might be wrong. In one study, researchers examined the brain of a learning-disabled person who had died in an accident. They found two unusual things. One involved cells in the left side of the brain, which control language. These cells normally are white. In the learning-disabled person’s brain, however, these cells were gray . The researchers also found that many of the nerve cells were not in a line the way they should have been. The nerve cells were mixed together.
60. How can we learn whether a person has suffered from a learning disability or not?
A. By judging whether she or he sees or hears perfectly well.
B. By checking whether he or she is of normal or great intelligence.
C. By judging whether he or she is the world’s most famous person or not.
D. By judging whether he or she has any difficulty in recognizing the difference in sizes, shapes or sounds.
61. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Among the children suffering from learning disabilities, girls are fewer than boys.
B. It is reported that many more girls have learning disabilities than boys.
C. All the world’s most famous persons have the chance to get the similar disorder.
D. All the world’s most famous persons have suffered from learning disabilities.
62. Why did researchers examine the brain of a learning-disabled person who had died in an accident?
A. To try to look at the brain itself to find out the cause of learning disabilities.
B. To see if the person had any outward signs of disorder.
C. To check if the person is of normal or great intelligence.
D. To find out if the person suffered from a learning disability.
63. If someone has a learning disability, _______.
A. his or her nerve cells are in a line
B. he or she is able to recognize difference in sizes, shapes or sounds
C. he or she has no difficulty in learning to read, write or use numbers
D. his or her nerve cells in the left side of the brain are gray and are not in a line
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.
In 1849, after graduation from medical school. she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.
Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital , she also set up the first medical school for women.Why couldn’t Elizabeth Blackwell realize her dream of becoming a surgeon?
A.She couldn’t get admitted to medical school |
B.She decided to further her education in Paris |
C.A serious eye problem stopped her |
D.It was difficult for her to start a practice in the United States |
What main obstacle(障碍) almost destroyed Elizabeth’s chances for becoming for a doctor?
A.She was a woman. |
B.She wrote too many letters. |
C.She couldn’t graduate from medical school. |
D.She couldn’t set up her hospital. |
How many years passed between her graduation from medical school and the opening of her hospital?
A.Eight years | B.Ten years | C.Nineteen years | D.Thirty-six years |
According to the passage, all of the following are “firsts” in the life of Elizabeth Blacekwell, except that she ______.
A.became the first woman physician |
B.was the first woman doctor |
C.and several other women founded the first hospital for women and children |
D.set up the first medical school for women |
As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friends house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It is similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.
We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Indian burial mound.
Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly—tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.
It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us had reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence(青春期). In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that we really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.The author and his friends were often out in the woods to _______.
A.spend their free time |
B.play golf and other sports |
C.avoid doing their schoolwork |
D.keep away from their parents |
What can we infer from Paragraph 2 ?
A.The activities in the woods were well planned. |
B.Human history is not the result of exploration. |
C.Exploration should be a systematic activity. |
D.The author explored in the woods aimlessly. |
The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
A.calm | B.doubtfu | C.serious | D.optimistic |
How does the author feel about his childhood?
A.Happy but short. | B.Lonely but memorable. |
C.Boring and meaningless | D.Long and unforgettable. |
For many of us, printed books are satisfying in ways beyond the words they contain. Billions of printed books have been published, read and saved in the 600 years since movable type was invented, so why mess with a good things?
Sony Electronics is doing just that, betting that readers will be won over by the convenience of readability of its new electronic book devices. Sony's reader, the PRS-505, can hold 160 books in its fixed memory, enough to line the shelves on a good-sized wall in the average American home. The $299 device is about the size of a paperback book, but a half-inch thick and weighs less than a pound.
The Sony book reader is revolutionary not only in its storage capacity. The font(字体) is highly readable and adjustable by size. Unlike laptop computers, you can put the Sony in your purse, read it in direct sunlight and even bookmark the pages. And you can connect it to your PC to download books.
Surprisingly, though the reader has liberated the book from paper, electronic books aren't always a bargain. For example, David Baldacci's "Stone Cold" download retails(零售) for $15.19 at the Sony site, while Amazon(卓越网) will deliver a hard copy to your mailbox for $16.19.
The Sony reader also lets you store and play or display music. So what's not to like about the Sony? Well, for many bibliophiles, a lot. Book lovers like to have, hold and keep their volumes, which don't need charging. You can write notes in the margins, and enjoy the ambience they provide on your book shelves.The need for electronic reading devices is likely to grow as more people worried about the billions of tons of paper used for printed material. Many believe the time will come when devices like the Sony reader are as common as printed newspapers and magazines today.According to the passage, the Sony book reader _________.
A.is as light as a laptop computer |
B.can hold more than 200 books |
C.is convenient to carry around |
D.cannot be connected to a PC |
What is the author’s point when he mentions “Stone Cold”?
A.Amazon’s printed books are very cheap |
B.“Stone Cold” can be got from the Sony site and Amazon |
C.The Sony book reader is not very cheap to use |
D.The Sony book reader can benefit its buyers a lot |
The underlined word “bibliophiles” in Paragraph 5 refers to “__________”.
A.music lovers | B.book lovers |
C.electronic reading devices | D.Sony readers |
According to the author, what’s the future for the electronic reading devices?
A.They’ll replace printed newspapers and magazines |
B.They’ll still be more expensive than printed newspapers |
C.They’ll become a must in people’s daily life |
D.They’ll become more popular as time goes on |
BUKHANNON, West Virginia—Two rescue teams slowly moved along a two-mile path on Monday night to the site of a coal mine explosion that trapped 13 miners, who had not been heard from since the early morning accident. Meanwhile, at a nearby church, more than 250 family members and friends gathered, waiting for updates(最新报道)on the rescuers’ progress.
The miners were trapped at about 6:30 and many families weren’t informed of the accident until about 10 a.m---more than three hours after it happened.“It’s very upsetting, but you’ve got to be patient, I guess,” said John Helms, whose brother, Terry, was trapped in the mine. The trapped miners were about 260 feet underground and about 10,000 feet from the Sago Mine’s entrance, said Roger Nicholson, general counsel from International Coal Group.
At a late night news conference, Nicholson said one team had advanced about 4, 800 feet in the four hours since entering the mine just before 6 p.m.Another team entered the mine about 30 minutes later.
He said the crew was very experienced, with some members having worked underground for
30 to 35 years.The miners were equipped with about one hour of breathable oxygen each.The company has not released the names of the miners.
The teams test the air about every 500 feet, and have to disconnect (remove) the power to the phones they use to communicate with the surface before doing that.“ We don’t want to be energizing anything if it’s in an atmosphere with burnable gases,” Kips said.The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.High levels of carbon monoxide were discovered shortly after the explosion, which delayed rescue efforts, but those levels have since subsided(减退), authorities said.According to the passage, we can infer that ________.
A.all the miners who were trapped underground were still alive |
B.communication with the trapped miners was cut off |
C.the two rescue teams entered the mine at the same time |
D.the rescue started as soon as the accident happened |
If the first team advanced at an average speed, they could dig about _______ per hour.
A.1,000 feet | B.2,400 feet | C.1,200feet | D.4,800feet |
Where can the passage be seen?
A.In a magazine. | B.In a newspaper. |
C.In a science book.. | D.On an advertisement. |
Which of the following shows the position where the miners wd?
One warm May day, two eighteen – year – old students from San Francisco State College decided to cool off with a swim at Bakers’ Beach. The two students were named Robert Kogler and Shirley O’Neill. They headed out to sea for a distance of 50 metres. Robert was in front.
“Suddenly, I heard him scream,” Shirley recalls. “I looked round and saw this great grey thing going up in the air. The water seemed to be alive.”Robert screamed again. “It’s a shark! Get out of here!”
An eye – witness, Army Sergeant Leo P. Day was on guard at the nearby army post. He saw exactly what happened next. “I could see this boy struggling with the shark in the water,” he said. “The sea was red with blood. He was shouting and signalling someone to go back, go back. Then I saw the girl. She was swimming towards him. She completely ignored his warning.”Shirley reached Robert, and tried to take his hand.“When I pulled, all I could see was his arm, handing by a thread,” she said.
So she put her arm about Robert’s back, and started to swim towards the shore. She kept praying “Don't’ let it attack again!” That journey to the shore seemed to last for hours. At last, as they neared the shore, a fisherman threw them a line, and pulled them both the rest of the way.The young man had lost a lot of blood, and died two and a half hours later, From the teeth marks, experts identified the attacker as a Great White Shark.For what Sergeant Day called “the greatest exhibition of bravery I have ever seen,” the President of the US gave Shirley a medal for bravery.When Albert was attacked by a shark Shirley.
A.was swimming in the sea |
B.was watching him on the shore |
C.was on guard at the nearby army post |
D.was shouting and struggling with a shark, too |
Choose the right time order of the following events in the story.
a. Army Sergeant saw the girl swimming to the boy.
b. Shirley saw a great grey thing.
c. They headed out to sea.
d. Robert died.
e. A fisherman threw them a line.
f. He saw a boy struggling with a shark.
A.b,c,e,d,f,a | B.c,a,f,d,e,b | C.b,c,f,a,d,e | D.c,b,f,a,e, d |
We can learn from the passage that.
A.the two students were brave and considerate |
B.the fisherman was adventurous and helpful |
C.the experts didn’t do much research on sharks |
D.the Sergeant cared too much about his own life |