Most people feel lonely sometimes, but it usually only lasts between a few minutes and a few hours. This kind of loneliness is not serious. In fact, it is quite normal. For some people, though, loneliness can last for years. Now researchers say there are three different types of loneliness.
The first kind of loneliness is temporary(暂时的). This is the most common type. It usually disappears quickly and does not require any special attention. The second kind, situational loneliness, is a natural result or a particular situation---- for example, a family problem, the death of a loved one, or moving to a new place. Although this kind of loneliness can cause physical problems, such as headaches and sleeplessness, it usually does not last for more than a year.
The third kind of loneliness is the most severe. Unlike the second type, chronic(长期的) loneliness usually last more than two yeas and has no specific cause. People who experience habitual loneliness have problems socializing and becoming close to others. Unfortunately, many chronically lone people think there is little or nothing they can do to improve their condition.
Psychologists (心理学家)agree that one important fact in loneliness is a person’s social contacts（接触）, e.g, friends, family members, co-workers, etc. We depend on various people for different reasons. For instance, our families give us emotional support, our parents and teachers give us guidance, and our friends share similar interests and activities. However, psychologists have found that, though lone people may have many social contacts, they sometimes feel they should have more. They question their own popularity.
Psychologists are trying to find ways to help habitually lonely people for two reasons: they are unhappy and unable to socialize and there is a connection between chronic loneliness and serious illness such as heart disease. While temporary and situational loneliness can be a normal, healthy part of life, chronic loneliness can be a very sad, and sometimes dangerous condition..How would you treat temporary loneliness according to the passage?
| A．Talk to friends | B．Just ignore it |
| C．Go to see a doctor | D．Ask your teachers for guidance |
. The topic of the 4th paragraph is that _______________.
| A．lonely people don’t have many friends |
| B．lonely people don’t have many social problems |
| C．one problem of loneliness is a person’s social contacts |
| D．we depend on various people for different reasons |
Why do psychologists want to help chronically lonely people?
| A．Chronic loneliness can cause family problems |
| B．Chronic loneliness can cause serious illness |
| C．Chronic loneliness cannot be overcome |
| D．A, B, and C are all correct |
.What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Three kinds of Loneliness | B．Loneliness and Diseases |
| C．Loneliness and Social Contacts | D．Chronic Loneliness |
You have never seen him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand (经受得住)almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a magic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device（装置） was completely redesigned and moved to the back of the plane – the area least affected by impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated ( 隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When in deep water, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.In Paragraph 1，the author wants to say the black box_________.
| A．comes from a comic book |
| B．is an necessary device on an airplane |
| C．can prevent disasters |
| D．can control the function of an airplane |
From the black box on the Yemeni airliner_________could be found.
| A．the scene of the crash and the degree of the damage |
| B．the total number of passengers on board |
| C．homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash |
| D．data for analyzing the cause of the crash |
Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?
| A．The early models often got damaged in the crash. |
| B．New materials became available by that time. |
| C．Too much space was needed for its device. |
| D．The early models didn't provide the needed data. |
What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
| A．They have stopped sending homing signals. |
| B．There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed. |
| C．There is still a good chance of their being recovered. |
| D．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil. |
The Exterminating Angel
Director: Luis Bunuel
Country/Date : Mexico/1962 （black and white)
Introduction : A party is organized in a high class society house. Many people are
drinking and eating．It’s getting late, but nobody is leaving．Even though the door is open, people seem to be locked in the house．They can’t leave either the day or on
the following days．So a rescue began．
The Net
Director: Irwin Winkler
Country/Date: U．S．A．/1995
Introduction: Angela Bennettt is a computer programmer who has devoted her life to
computers and the Internet．She spends hours and hours in front of the screen．She does everything over the Internet, and she has some close friends in a chat room,
though she has never talked to her neighbors．
Kung Fu Panda
Director : Mark Osborne & John Stevenson
Country/Date : U．S．A．/2008
Introduction: The leading character is a panda whose name is Po．He is lazy first but he has a great dream—to be a kung fu master．To make his dream come true, he goes to a faraway temple to learn kung fu from a master．However, one of his brothers,
Tai Long wants to become the kung fu master, killing many of his brothers even the
master．So Po fights against Tai Long and defeats him, The film is good especially
for kids．
Life is Beautiful
Director: Roberto Benigni
Country/Date : Italy/1998
Introduction: In 1939, during World WarⅡ in Italy, Guido, a hopeful man, the main character fell in love with Dora, and they got married．Five years later, their lives changed．Guido and Joshua were taken by the Nazis（纳粹）to a concentration camp and Dora also went there with her husband and son．At that place, Guido tried his best to save his son’s life in a special way．Who is the director of The Net?
| A．Irwin Winkler | B．Luis Bunuel |
| C．Mark Osborne | D．Roberto Benigni |
Which film is black and white?
| A．Life is Beautiful | B．The Exterminating Angel |
| C．Kung Fu Panda | D．The Net |
Which film is especially fit for kids?
| A．The Exterminating Angel | B．The Net |
| C．Kung Fu Panda | D．Life is Beautiful |
What can we learn about Life is Beautiful?
| A．It’s about a rescue of people who can’t leave a house. |
| B．The main character is absorbed in computer. |
| C．It was made in America in 1995. |
| D．The story is set in World WarⅡ. |
When you sit down, you pick it out. When you are in your car, you reach for it．When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it．
Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone．And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their desire to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships．
With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away．In just the past couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and counselors（顾问）in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined．
The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don’t mean just the monthly bill．Dr．Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality．
Sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: the person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him．
Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?
Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation．He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with．Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says．
If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread．Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use．Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them．They far outnumber wired phones in the United States．Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?
| A．Cell phone users smoke less than they used to. |
| B．More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes. |
| C．Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes. |
| D．Using cell phone is just as cool as smoking cigarettes. |
The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph 2 means __________.
| A．control | B．ignore | C．develop | D．rescue |
The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that _______.
| A．women use cell phones more often than men |
| B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous |
| C．cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy |
| D．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together |
What will our future look like? People have always been wondering about this question. Go on reading this text and you will know what will happen in the next fifty years.
How can we know what the future will look like? To be able to understand the future, you must know the past. What has taken us to where we are today and what has changed along the way? The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but we humans are driven by the same basic needs as we were 150 years ago. Will this change in the next 150 years? No.
What inventions have really made a difference in the last 150 years? In the past years, the inventions that have affected most people around the world for everyday living are the telephone, electricity, radio, television, computer, the car and the ability to communicate through the Internet. Then we of course have a lot of inventions that have made life easier, like new medicine, faster transports etc. In general, human beings have been working hard in the last 150 years to make the inventions so that they will be able to get control of the time and the world. Since there is still much to do in this area, this will be the focus at least for the next 150 years.
Why do we need to predict the future? Predicting the future is important for two reasons: first we need to start to think about what kind of what kind of future we would like for ourselves and to pass on to the next generation, and then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give the best result in the future.What does the author try to tell us in the second paragraph?
| A．Humans will no longer enjoy food in the future. |
| B．The world will be completely changed tomorrow. |
| C．The world is quite different from what it was. |
| D．Our basic needs will not change in the future. |
Our past inventions have made __________.
| A．our daily life more stressful |
| B．it easy for us to live |
| C．us work less time |
| D．our work easily done |
What will humans do in order to keep the world under control?
| A．To focus on making more inventions. |
| B．To produce more cars for transportation. |
| C．To spend more time working on the Internet. |
| D．To work much harder to achieve their goals. |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．What result we’ll receive in the future. |
| B．The decisions we make for our future. |
| C．The two reasons of predicting the future |
| D．The importance of predicting the future. |
Ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you’ve completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we’ve accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of aging as wrinkles and gray hair. But now a new book suggests that we’ve got it all wrong.
According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s — much later than previously thought.
Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we keep them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it’s been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.
This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive (认知的) tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving. Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed — how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.
Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with aging. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we’re younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we’ve learned our lessons and are aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.Barbara Strauch probably agrees that ______.
| A．the young are better at handling important things |
| B．people’s brains work best between their 40s and 60s |
| C．aging leads to the decline of the function of the brain |
| D．wrinkles and gray hair are the only symbols of aging |
The continuing research has found older people perform better on ______.
| A．perceptual speed | B．number ability |
| C．vocabulary tests | D．body balance |
People are happier with aging because ______.
| A．they learn to value the time left |
| B．they know how to share feelings |
| C．they cannot focus on negative aspects |
| D．they do not realize the possible dangers |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．People get happier with age. |
| B．People get wiser with age. |
| C．People get more forgetful with age. |
| D．People get more self-aware with age. |