Astronomy (天文学) is the oldest science known to man. Thousands of years ago man looked at the stars and wondered about heavens (天堂). But the six planets that he could see with his eyes alone limited man.
The Greeks studied astronomy over 2,000 years ago. They could see the size, color, and brightness of a star. They could see its place in the sky. They watched the stars move as the seasons changed. But the Greeks had no tools to help themselves study the heavens.
Each new tool added to the field of astronomy helped man reach out into space. Until there were telescopes (望远镜), man did not know much about the moon. He did not know that the planet called Saturn (土星) had rings around it. His sight was so limited that he could not see all the planets. In the early 1700s, people thought there were only six planets. Pluto (冥王星), the last of the nine planets to be discovered was seen until 1930.
Before the spectroscopes (分光镜), man didn’t know what kind of gas was in the sun or other stars, without radio telescopes (射电望远镜), we did not know that radio noise came from far in space.
Today, astronomy is a growing science. We have learned more in the past fifty years than in the whole history of astronomy.Thousands of years ago, man watched ____ with his eyes.
| A．the moon | B．the stars | C．the universe | D．all the planets |
When the Greeks watched the stars, they could ____ .
| A．know what the stars were made of | B．not see their places in the sky |
| C．help themselves study the heavens | D．watch the stars move as the seasons changed |
Until there were ____ , man knew very little about the moon.
| A．telescopes | B．spectroscopes | C．radio telescopes | D．spaceships |
People didn’t know about Pluto until ____ .
| A．the 1700s | B．2,000 years ago | C．1930 | D．thousands of years ago |
____ people began to do research on astronomy.
| A．50 years ago | B．90 years ago | C．In the early 1700s | D．Over 2,000 years ago |
Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn new things. But the organizers of a new study say there's no scientific evidence that early musical training affects the intelligence of young people.
An estimated 80 percent of American adults think music lessons improve children's abilily to learn or their performance in school. They say that the satisfaction for learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.
Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there's one thing musical training does not do. They say it does not make children more intelligent. Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard's School of Education. He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child's intellectual development. He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of 4-year-olds and their parents. One group attended music class, the other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts—arts that can be seen.
"The evidence there is 'no'. We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids participating in these music clases," said Mehr.Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says the results have been mixed. He says only one study seems to show a small percentage increase in IQ, intellectual scores among students after one year of music lessons. He does not believe that IQ is a good measure of child's intelligence. He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musical training group did on mental processing tasks or projects, then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons. There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group.
The researchers comfirmed the results with a larger group of children and their parents.Mr Mehr says music lessons may not offer children a fast easy way to gain entry to the best schools later of their life. But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, "We teach music because music is important for us."According to the new study, musical training______.
| A．makes children smarter |
| B．helps a child express creativity |
| C．does not make children more intelligent |
| D．improve children's ability to learn in school |
Samuel Mehr may agree that______.
| A．the children who attended music class are smarter than those who attended arts class |
| B．IQ is a good measure of a child's intelligence |
| C．we needn't to teach children music |
| D．music training is still important for cultural reasons |
In order to confirm his view, Samuel Mehr______.
| A．conducted more than one research |
| B．interviewed many American adults |
| C．taught two groups of 4-yetr-olds music and arts |
| D．offered children a fast way to be admitted to the best schools |
The artical may be taken from a report about _____.
| A．health | B．education | C．culture | D．economy |
Researchers conducting a study of hospital stays for over two hundred and eighty six thousand older folks found something interesting in their data.
The number of hospitalizations for heart disease and stroke went down significantly among a certain group of people at a certain time of year. What folks, and what time of year, you ask? Flu season and the lucky people were the ones who got flu shots(流感疫苗).
It’s generally recommended that people over fifty get their flu shots every year. Influenza(流行性感冒) is no small thing. it’s responsible for around thirty six thousand deaths a year in the U. S. alone. Getting the shots also cuts down on the chances of getting pneumonia(肺炎), which is especially dangerous in seniors.
But what wasn’t known was that there seems to be an added benefit to getting a flu shots in terms of warding off heart problems. The data,in fact, are quite strong in suggesting this is the case.
In this study, flu shots cut clown the number of hospitalizations for heart disease by nineteen percent. Stroke went down sixteen percent one season and a whopping twenty-three percent a second season.These are big results.
So what's the connection between getting a flu shot and having a stronger heart? It isn’t yet known.
Researchers speculate that the flu virus itself may do damage to blood vessels(血管), possibly making clots(血块)more likely. Blood clots in the heart can cause heart attacks, and blood clots in the brain can cause strokes.
Whatever the specific details are, there's one more good reason to follow your doctor’ s advice and get that annual flu shot.According to the study, the number of hospitalizations for heart disease and stroke went down significanntly among the ones who _____.
| A．got flu shots after they were ill |
| B．got flu shots before they were ill |
| C．got flu shots at the flu season |
| D．got flu shots whenever convenient |
The benefits of getting flu shots can be listed except that_____.
| A．it can cut down on the chances of getting pneumonia |
| B．it can cut down the number of hospitalizations for heart disease |
| C．it can kill the flu virus |
| D．if can make blood clots |
The underlined phrase "warding off" probably means_______.
| A．keeping away | B．dealing with | C．setting off | D． picking up |
According to the passage, we'd better ______.
| A．work out to fight against influenza | B．get flu shot every year |
| C．follow our doctor's all advice | D．protect our blood vessels |
It's time to remind myself what I love about life here in California,USA, to remember what I desperately miss when I go home.
Real radio
In the USA there are so many radio stations that those iPod tuner things don’t work at all. There is, simply, no dead air. It took me a while to discover the USA's many public radio stations, which don't broadcast any advertisements. KCRW is my favorites station, for its blend of indie music and current affairs. But I also listen to KJAZZ and KPCC. But before you feel jealous — it’s all online. My favorites: American life Snap Judgement and Henry Rollins live every Saturday night. Take listen online for free News? Well, there's not a lot of news from South Africa, and when it is, it's bad and full of fear, so I ignore it. But I care about any place I live in, and that includes the USA. And on public radio, the USA is covered in depth, from the perspective of individual stories rather than statistics.
The festivals
I’m jealously watching tweets and Facebook boasts and reviews from SXSW — seems like half the people I used to work with in South Africa are there,meeting Grumpy Cat and watching bands they’ve always wanted to see live. It’s great to know that these 1000s of festivals are so close, and that one day,if film school schedule ever allows me to leave campus for more than a few days, I can go to one or two of them. I have already exchanged my much loved Ford Mustang for a bigger, less sexy car — a car spacious enough to sleep in — so that next year I can be there, not just dream of it.
The famous people
When I go back to SA, I'm often asked if I’ve spotted any famous people. It's awkward for me. I feel the the same way about it as I feel when an American asks me if there are lions in the streets. Except yes, I have. No,not lions. I have met some famous people. I chatted to RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad outside a dub in West Hollywood. Many of my professors are famous directors. The problem is, once you meet these famous people, they're just people, FFS. This feels disappointing at first, like you're missing a Jesus moment of some sort. But if you think about it, it's inspiring. What it means, is that I, litlle me (right now, also "just a person") could be a famous just-a-person person one day, and get to make all the films I just dream of now.The underlined sentence "There is,simply, no dead air." probably means____.
| A．there is no useless radio programmes in the USA |
| B．there is no useful radio programmes in the USA |
| C．there is no polluted air in the USA |
| D．there is no advertisements from the radio programmes in the USA |
There are so many festivals that_____.
| A．I often leave campus for more than few days |
| B．I often attend some of them in person |
| C．I bought a bigger Ford? Mustang |
| D．I can share many reviews and performances online with my friends in South Africa |
The author thinks the famous people in the USA _____.
| A．are just Like lions | B．are well-known but ordinary |
| C．are disappointing | D．are inspiring |
The author is most likely to be _____.
| A．a director in America | B．a professor in South Africa |
| C．a student in America | D．an actor in South Africa |
One day, when I was working as a psychologist in England, an adolescent boy showed up in my office. It was David. He kept walking up and down restlessly, his face pale, and his hands shaking slightly. His head teacher had referred him to me. "This boy has lost his family," he wrote. "He is understandably very sad and refuses to talk to others, and I'm very worried about him. Can you help?" '
I looked at David and showed him to a chair. How could I help him? There are problems psychology doesn't have the answer to, and which no words can describe. Sometimes the best thing one can do is to listen openly and sympathetically.
The first two times we met David didn't say a word. He sat there, only looking up to look at the children’s drawings on the wall behind me. I suggested we play a game of chess. He nodded. After that he played chess with me every Wednesday afternoon - in complete silence and without looking at me. It's not easy to cheat in chess, but I admit I made sure David won once or twice.
Usually, he arrived earlier than agreed, took the chess board and pieces from the shelf and began setting them up before I even got a chance to sit down. It seemed as if he enjoyed my company. But why did he never look at me?
"Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with," I thought. "Perhaps he senses that I respect his suffering." Some months later, when we were playing chess, he looked up at me suddenly.
"It's your turn," he said.
After that day, David started talking. He got friends in school and joined a bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times about his biking with some friends, an d about his plan to get into university. Now he had really started to live his own life.
Maybe I gave David something. But I also learned that one - without any words – can reach out to another person. All it takes is a hug, a shoulder to cry' on, a friendly touch, and an ear that listens.When he first met the author, David________.
| A．felt a little excited |
| B．walked energetically |
| C．looked a little nervous |
| D．showed up with his teacher |
As a psychologist, the author_______ .
| A．was ready to listen to David |
| B．was skeptical about psychology |
| C．was able to describe David's problem |
| D．was sure of handling David's problem |
David enjoyed being with the author because he ______.
| A．wanted to ask the author for advice |
| B．need to share sorrow with the author |
| C．liked the children's drawings in the office |
| D．beat the author many times in the chess game |
What can be inferred about David?
| A．He recovered after months of treatment. |
| B．He liked biking before he lost his family. |
| C．He went into university soon after starting to talk. |
| D．He got friends in school before he met the author. |
What made David change?
| A．His teacher's help. |
| B．The author's friendship. |
| C．His exchange of letters with the author. |
| D．The author's silent communication with him. |
Although similar in appearance to hyenas(土狼), African wild dogs are nevertheless true wild canine(犬). They are a mixture of black, yellow, and white in such a wide variety of patterns that no two individuals look exactly alike. African wild dogs are widely distributed across the African plains but they do not live in jungle areas.
They are social animals, living in groups of usually from 2 to 45 individuals. A hierarchy（统团） exists within the group, but the animals are friendly to one another. The young and the infirm（体弱的） are given special privileges within the group.
African wild dogs use their sense of sight, not smell, to find their prey. They can run up to 55 km/h for several kilometers. In eastern Africa, they mostly hunt Thomson's gazelles, but they will also attack calves, warthogs, zebras, impalas, and the young of large antelopes such as the gnu.
Growing human populations have decreased or degraded the African wild dog's habitat and also diminished their available prey. Road kill and human persecution（迫害） have also had a negative impact on African wild dog populations. This species is also susceptible to a variety of diseases such as distemper, which is controlled in domestic .dogs. Conservation of the African wild dog's natural habitat must have the highest priority, as these dogs suffer in habitats modified by human intrusion（干扰）．What does the underlined word "susceptible" mean?
| A．easily affected or suffered | B．badly doubtful |
| C．seriously harmful | D．highly dangerous |
What factors affect the population of the wild dogs?
a. the distribution of the dogs b. social living
c. highly increasing human populations d. human's killing the dogs
e. many diseasesf. the changes of their habitats
g. domestic dogs h. food reduction
| A．a. b, c, d, e | B．b, c, d, e, f | C．c, d, e, f, h | D．d, e, f, g, h |
From the passage we can conclude that_______.
| A．African wild dogs are completely different from domestic dogs in size, weight |
| B．African wild dogs are living in groups |
| C．African wild dogs use their eyes mostly when sleeping to guard |
| D．African wild dogs use their noses to find their food in most cases |
What can we know about African wild dogs?
| A．In a pack there may be about 90 wild dogs and no leader. |
| B．There are no such wild dogs that are different. |
| C．African wild dogs can run at a speed of about 15 m/s for a long distance. |
| D．All African wild dogs kill zebras, impalas, and antelopes as their food. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．African wild dogs are not in danger, because there are such a wide variety of patterns. |
| B．African wild dogs are not in danger, because are widely distributed across the African plains. |
| C．African wild dogs are in danger, because human's activities have a great effect on them. |
| D．African wild dogs are in danger, because their habitats have been changed much. |