No one else knew about the extra club （球棍）in Zach Nash’s golf bag. It belonged to a friend, and Zach forgot it was there as he played his way to victory in a junior tournament last summer in Wisconsin, US.
The 14-year-old accepted his medal, celebrated with his grandparents who had come from a long way to watch. But when he stopped by his country club to share the news, a professional player noticed something wrong. “Count your clubs,” he told the teenager.
Fifteen—one more than allowed. Zach’s eyes filled with tears.
If Zach had just won a basketball championship or a soccer game and someone had discovered a violation(违反) after the win, it would not have mattered. Bending the rules has become acceptable, if not encouraged, in much of sports.
Golf is different. In a win-at-all-costs world, the game holds itself to a higher standard. Golf isn’t a game where referees watch closely. In golf tournaments, dozens of competitors are spread across acres of land, so officials cannot hope to see each shot. Competitors call penalties（处罚）on themselves.
“It was a sport for gentlemen, and gentlemen did not care about winning. They care about doing the right thing,” said Robert Simon, a golf coach at Hamilton College in New York.
Honesty became a medal of honor. When one of the game’s early stars, Bobby Jones, was praised for calling a penalty on himself at the 1925 US Open, he replied: “You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”
So even the error had no effect on Zach’s final score—he has never used the extra club, the teenager packed up his medal and dropped it in the mail. “But this is golf, and rules are rules. I just knew what I had to do,” he said.
Then came another tournament. Before teeing off(开球), Zach counted his clubs—four times..
What can we infer from the text?
| A．A friend put an extra club in Zach’s bag. |
| B．Zach returned the medal that he had won. |
| C．Zach’s grandparents encouraged him to play fair. |
| D．Zach regretted meeting with the professional player. |
.
According to Robert, golf is different from other sports in that ______.
| A．honor comes before victory |
| B．players are superior to coaches |
| C．referees have to watch each shot |
| D．players needn’t care about medals |
.
What can be learned from the underlined sentence?
| A．One should be praised for not robbing a bank. |
| B．Bobby looked down upon bank robbers. |
| C．Little did Bobby care about the penalty. |
| D．Observing rules demands no praise. |
.
Why did Zach count his clubs four times before the following tournament?
| A．He remembered the lesson. | B．He lacked self-confidence. |
| C．He felt a little too nervous. | |
| D．He was no good with numbers. |
Bamboo (竹子) is one of nature’s (自然) most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.
Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist reported one bamboo plant which grew 1.5 metres (4 feet) in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1, 000 kinds of bamboo.
Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimetres (1 foot) across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green.
Bamboo has been used to make many things such as hats and kitchen tools. Because it is strong, bamboo is also used to build buildings.
Many Asian countries have used bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for buildings and supporting new buildings and bridges while they are being built.
In Africa, poor farmers are taught how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap way to find water because they have no money, and their crops often die from no rain and no water. Bamboo pipes help poor farmers bring water to their thirsty fields without spending a lot of money.How is bamboo like grass?
| A．It grows quickly. | B．It’s wood. |
| C．It is easy to cut | D．It is very thin |
Though you can see bamboo everywhere, it doesn’t grow ______.
| A．in China | B．in Europe |
| C．on mountains | D．in Africa |
Why is bamboo used by African poor farmers?
| A．Because it is cheap. |
| B．Because it has different colours . |
| C．Because it is strong. |
| D．Because it has been used by Asians. |
Bamboo pipes can ______.
| A．make money | B．be trees |
| C．grow quickly | D．carry water |
In a room at Texas Children Cancer Center in Houston, eight-year-old Simran Jatar lay in bed with a drip (点滴) above her to fight her bone cancer. Over her bald (秃的) head, she wore a pink hat that matched her clothes. But the third grader’s cheery dressing didn’t mask her pain and weary eyes.
Then a visitor showed up. “Do you want to write a song?” asked Anita Kruse, 49, rolling a cart equipped with an electronic keyboard, a microphone and speakers. Simran stared. “Have you ever written a poem?” Anita Kruse continued. “Well, yes,” Simran said.
Within minutes, Simran was reading her poem into the microphone. “Some bird soaring through the sky,” she said softly. “Imagination in its head…” Anita Kruse added piano music, a few warbling (鸣, 唱) birds, and finally the girl’s voice. Thirty minutes later, she presented Simran with a CD of her first recorded song.
That was the beginning of Anita Kruse’s project, Purple Songs Can Fly, one that has helped more than 125 young patients write and record songs. As a composer and pianist who had performed at the hospital, Kruse said that the idea of how she could help “came in one flash”.
The effect on the kids has been great. One teenage girl, curling (蜷缩) in pain in her wheelchair, stood unaided to dance to a hip-hop song she had written. A 12-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s disease who rarely spoke surprised his doctors with a song he called I Can Make It.
“My time with the kids is heartbreaking because of the severity of their illnesses,” says Anita Kruse. “But they also make you happy, when the children are smiling, excited to share their CD with their families.”
Simran is now an active sixth grader and cancer-free. From time to time, she and her mother listen to her song, Always Remembering, and they always remember the “really sweet and nice and loving” lady who gave them a shining moment in the dark hour.Simran Jatar lay in bed in hospital because ______.
| A．most of her hair had fallen out |
| B．she was receiving treatment for cancer |
| C．she felt depressed and quit from school |
| D．she was suffering from a pain in her back |
What do we know about Anita Kruse’s project?
| A．It helps young patients record songs. |
| B．It is supported by singers and patients. |
| C．It aims to replace the medical treatment. |
| D．It offers patients chances to realize their dreams. |
What does the case of a 12-year-old boy suggest?
| A．Most children are naturally fond of music. |
| B．He was brave enough to put up performance. |
| C．The project has positive effect on young patients. |
| D．Singing is the best way to treat some illnesses. |
What is probably the best title for the passage?
| A．Purple Songs Can Fly |
| B．Singing Can Improve Health |
| C．A Shining Moment in Life |
| D．A Kind Woman—Anita Kruse |
A few years ago, in one experiment in behavioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects for their willingness to obey instructions given by a “leader” in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal dislike of the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer “teacher-subject” that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils’ ability to learn.
The teacher-subjects were placed before a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from “15 volts of electricity (slight shock)” to “450 volts (danger — severe shock)” in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered. The supposed “pupil” was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to pretend to receive the shocks by giving out cries and screams. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for.
As the experiment unfolded, the “pupil” would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to carry on with the experiment and that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion(反感) against the rules and conditions of the experiment.
Before carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the average percentage of people who would be willing to administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus was that basically all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrists felt that “most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts” and only a small percentage of about one in 1,000 would give the highest shock of 450 volts.
What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt limit! In repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country. How can we possibly account for this result?
One might firstly argue that there must be some sort of built-in animal aggression instinct(本能) that was activated by the experiment. A modem sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct was of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, finally finding its way into our genetic make-up.
Another explanation is to see the teacher-subjects’ actions as a result of the social context in which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself pointed out, “Most subjects in the experiment see their behaviour in a larger context that is good and useful to society — the pursuit of scientific troth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy(合法性) and gains trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a victim, which in isolation(单独看来) appears evil, acquires a completely different meaning when placed in this setting”.
Here we have two different explanations. The problem for us is to sort out which of these two polar explanations is more reasonable. This is the problem of modern sociobiology — to discover how hard-wired genetic programming decides the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put another way, sociobiology is concerned with explaining the biological basis of all behaviour.Why did Milgram do the experiment?
| A．To discover people’s willingness for orders from leaders. |
| B．To display the power of punishment on ability to learn. |
| C．To test people’s willingness to sacrifice for science. |
| D．To explore the biological basis of social behavior. |
Which of the following is right about the experiment?
| A．The actor’s performance was vital to its success. |
| B．Its subjects were informed of its real purpose beforehand. |
| C．The electrical shock made the “pupil” give more wrong answers. |
| D．Its subjects were convinced of the effects of punishment on ability to learn. |
What does the underlined phrase “balked at” most probably mean?
| A．commented on | B．hesitated in |
| C．got rid of | D．looked down upon |
Before the experiment took place the psychiatrists _________ .
| A．believed that a shock of 150 volts was unbearable |
| B．failed to agree on how the teacher-subjects would respond to instructions |
| C．under-predicted the teacher-subjects’ willingness to follow experimental procedure |
| D．thought that many of the teacher-subjects would administer a shock of 450 volts |
Which of the following is mentioned as one possible factor that explains the teacher-subjects’ behaviour?
| A．Economic factor. | B．Biological factor. |
| C．Cultural factor. | D．Historical factor. |
What’s the author’s purpose with this article?
| A．To introduce a problem sociobiology deals with. |
| B．To explain a scientific phenomenon. |
| C．To report an experiment that focuses on education. |
| D．To argue against a scientific view. |
When my friend went to Europe last summer, instead of snapping photographs of the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower or Stonehenge, she brought back 32 rolls of ... cathedral ceilings. Ceilings. For the 10 years I’ve known her I had never suspected that she was this passionate about stained glass.
Still one of the best things about such pictures — despite their obvious narrow appeal — is that they can’t help but tell us a great deal about the people who took them.
So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got the roll of film back from my 5-year-old son’s first camping trip. I opened the envelope, naively expecting to see pictures of the nightly campfire, the sun setting over the forest, and possibly even a deer or two.
Instead, I saw an off-center picture of tennis shoes. Not even his tennis shoes, mind you, but a pair someone had lost and left in the cabin. Mystery shoes. And that’s not all.
As I went through the stack, I found that my son had also taken a picture of his sleeping bag, a penny he found in the gravel next to the car, a leaf, an orange sock, a close-up of his father’s ear, a burned hot dog, his thumb, a piece of gum, and many other similar things.
There was barely one sign of nature in the whole stack. I couldn’t help thinking that if he’d wanted pictures of assorted junk, it would’ve been cheaper had he spent the weekend in our back-yard.
AT LEAST that is what I thought until I showed the photographs to my ceiling-snapping friend, the mother of three teenagers, who said simply, “There’s nothing wrong with these.”
But of course, this is just the type of answer you’d expect from someone who photographs ceiling.
Then she told me about the time her daughter went to Yosemite Valley and returned with rolls of photographs of the hotel, restaurant, and gift shop. She also told me about the time her son took his camera to a Major League Baseball game and returned with 24 pictures of cloud formations.
I had a feeling she was just trying to make me feel better.
Then again, to a 5-year-old boy, finding a penny is more exciting than seeing a squirrel. And why would he waste good film on something like, say, some endangered water buffaloes, when he could take a picture of cool tennis shoes? Or his shiny new green sleeping bag?
Face it: Things like beautiful sunsets and campfires can’t compare to a bag of extra-large marshmallow.
So I did what any good mother would do: I marked the date on the back of the pictures and slid them into our family vacation photo album — right after the five pages of ice sculptures I took last year on our cruise to the Bahamas.Which of the following proverbs best displays the author’s final thought?
| A．Every dog will have its day. |
| B．Every man has his hobby-horse. |
| C．If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. |
| D．You can take a horse to the water but you cannot make him drink. |
Who might have taken a picture of the back seat of the family car in his or her trip mentioned in this passage?
| A．The author’s friend. | B．The author’s son. |
| C．The author. | D．The author’s friend’s daughter. |
The author changed her mind on her son’s picture taking because______ .
| A．her friend persuaded her to do so |
| B．her son’s pictures finally struck her |
| C．she realized the truth by herself inspired by the surrounding examples |
| D．it suddenly occurred to her that she herself had also taken unique pictures before |
What can we infer from this passage?
| A．Age and gender play an important role in one’s vision of the world. |
| B．The author’s friend is a better mum in terms of educating children. |
| C．The author will allow her son more freedom to choose in his future life. |
| D．The author will take vacation pictures of different kind from her past ones. |
The latest beliefs are that the main purposes of sleep are to enable the body to rest, allowing time for repairs to take place and for tissue to be regenerated(再生). Lack of sleep, however, can compromise the immune system, cause depression and promote anxiety.
For many people, lack of sleep is rarely anything of choice. Some have problems getting to sleep, others with staying asleep until the morning. Despite popular belief that sleep is one long event, research shows that, in an average night, there are five stages of sleep. In the first light stage, the heart rate and blood pressure go down and the muscles relax. In the next two stages, sleep gets progressively deeper. In stage four, usually reached after an hour, the slumber is so deep that, if awoken, the sleeper would be confused and disorientated. It is in this state that sleep-walking can occur, lasting no more than 15 minutes. In the fifth stage, the rapid eye movement (REM) stage, the eyes move constantly beneath closed lids as if the sleeper is looking at something. During this stage, the body is almost paralysed(瘫痪的). This REM stage is also the time when we dream.
Sleeping patterns change with age. One theory for the age-related change is that it is due to hormonal changes. The temperature rise occurs at daybreak in the young, but at three or four in the morning in the elderly. Age aside, it is estimated that roughly one in three people suffer some kind of sleep disturbance. Causes can be anything from pregnancy, smoking, and stress to alcohol and heart disease.
Apart from self-help therapy such as regular exercise, there are psychological treatments, including relaxation training and therapy aimed at getting rid of pre-sleep worries and anxieties. Medication is regarded by many as a last option and often takes the form of sleeping pills.What’s the best title of this passage?
| A．Lack of Sleep | B．Change of Sleep |
| C．Patterns of Sleep | D．Benefits of Sleep |
Which of the following can cause people’s lack of sleep according to this passage?
| A．Their burden from illness and drinking. |
| B．Their incomplete sleep stages. |
| C．Their body temperature change with age. |
| D．Their damaged immune system. |
Which of the following is true to the passage?
| A．Nobody can escape lack of sleep. |
| B．A sleep-walker usually dreams before the sleepwalking. |
| C．In the REM stage sleepers can see things around but can’t move the body. |
| D．Regular exercise can better help improve sleep quality than sleeping pills do. |