Believeitornot,opticalillusion-优题课

(C)
My first performance in front of an audience was coming up soon.
I tried as hard as I could to remain calm, but my heart was racing. I stared down at my sweat-covered, shaking hands.
I looked up again at the audience, realizing that these were real people. They were not just my mum and dad, who would say, “Good job!” even if I messed up the entire piece.
What if I had the wrong music? What if I played the wrong notes?
As it turned out, I was never able to answer these questions because the spotlight (聚光灯) was waiting for me. I grasped my hands tightly together, drying off the sweat.
Slowly I walked to the mud-brown piano in the center of the room. It contained 88 demanding keys, which were waiting impatiently to be played. I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump (隆起部分) in my throat and sat down. Slowly, I opened the music. Next, I rested my still shaking hands on the ivory (象牙色的) keys.
As my fingers played across the keys, I was becoming more unsure of my preparation for this moment. But the memory of my years of training came flooding back. I knew that I had practiced this piece so many times that I could play it backwards if requested.
Although at one point I accidentally played two keys instead of the intended one, I continued to move my fingers automatically (自动地).
My eyes burned holes into (were fixed on) the pages in front of me.
There was no way that I was going to lose my concentration. To keep this to myself, I leaned forward and focused carefully on the music.
When I came to the end of the page, a warning went off inside my head: DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN YOU TURN THE PAGE!
Needless to say, I obeyed myself with all my heart and mind. And, proud of my “page-turning” feat (技艺), I finished the rest of the piece without making a single mistake.
After the final note died away, a celebration went into action inside my head. I had finished. I had mastered the impossible.
59. The author was nervous before the performance because _______.
A. his or her mother and father weren’t present
B. the strong spotlight was shining onto the stage
C. he or she hadn’t mastered the entire piece
D. he or she had never performed in public before
60. The underlined phrase “mess up” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.
A. put into disorder B. forget about C. stop halfway D. do well in
61. The author _________.
A. didn’t make any mistake in the performance
B. felt better at the beginning of the performance
C. paid all attention to nothing but his / her performance
D. lost his / her concentration sometimes during the performance
62. What did the author feel about his / her performance?
A. He / She thought it was comfortable and successful.
B. He / She thought it was very difficult but successful.
C. He / She thought he / she had never made a mistake during the performance.
D. He / She thought he / she played through the piece carefully but light-heartedly.

(B)
There is no doubt about it. The best way to learn new words is to do it unconsciously. I don’t mean while you’re unconscious. I mean while you are unconscious of the fact that it is sinking in.
That is how I learnt the 30,000 words in my vocabulary by living in an English-speaking world, mother tongue. I just pick them up. But some of them may be misunderstood. Now, to misunderstand does not mean not to understand. To misunderstand is to understand but incorrectly.
The 5 % mislearnt of all the words we “know” will be the least frequently used words, as the more frequently used words are less likely to be mislearnt. Some of the misunderstandings may live with all our lives, without knowing that we got them wrong.
Many English teachers think that this natural method of learning words in one’s own mother tongue can be used for a second language learning. They teach their students how to play the Guessing Game. “There is no time to look up in your dictionaries all the new words you come across,” they will say. “You have to practise guessing what the word means from the context.”
This method of guessing in a second language learning does not work. It may succeed in many cases, but results in hundreds or thousands of wrongly-guessed meanings of words.
And what’s more, there are more separate meanings than there are words themselves. Our learners’ dictionaries usually have many meanings. A good dictionary is what makes self-learning possible.
Don’t guess! Look it up!
55. It is certain that the best way to learn new words is _____________.
A. to learn them by oneself
B. to learn by living in an English-speaking world and using them frequently
C. to guess them from the context
D. to get more separate meanings of each word
56. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refers to _________.
A. the 30,000 words B. English teachers
C. misunderstood words D. frequently used words
57. Which of the following is most likely NOT true?
A. Some of the words the writer knows must have been misunderstood.
B. Most of the 30,000 words the writer learned are frequently used ones.
C. How many words the writer got wrong are not known.
D. All the words the writer knows were learned by reading them.
58. It can be inferred that _________.
A. when somebody is conscious, he or she usually can’t learn new words by heart
B. we must use the words as often as possible in order to master them
C. it’s the best way to learn new words that one should only guess their meanings from the
context
D. only dictionaries can help us learn language well

E
Imagine growing a home from living trees instead of building a home from wood. Mitchell Joachim, at the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Group, along with ecological engineer Lara Greden and architect Javier Arbona, have proposed a system of homes that are actually a living ecosystem.
Joachim's vision is based on a gardening method known as pleaching, which involves weaving branches together to form living lattice(格子) walls. Since the growth patterns of trees are affected by wind and sunlight, it may be possible to manipulate the way a tree develops.
This idea is an extreme, yet simple and beautiful, form of green building. Not only does it not cause direct harm to the environment, but it is actually part of the environment. The house, which is a network of trees, would clean the air and also provide a home for animals and birds. "Not only does it do zero damage, but it will hopefully clean the air," says Joachim.
"A 100 percent treehouse would take years to create," Joachim said. Depending on the climate, a house could take anywhere from 5 to 30 years to grow. Fortunately, there's a way to speed up the process.
Ecological materials, Joachim suggests, should be included in the housing designs. For example, windows can be made from soy－based plastics that would flex (折曲) with the home as it grows.
So what happens when a home and the great outdoors are one and the same? A home would become an actual ecosystem, a community of plants, animals, and bacteria working together. The trees would also give off water vapor that would assist in cooling the homes. Solar panels and wind would help provide energy. Straw and clay could be used to insulate(使绝缘) the structures. The tree homes might even have soil pockets, where plants could grow from the structure itself.
Joachim's project is called MatScape, designing a house in California that will be constructed from 50% recycled and 50% living elements. He sees it as an experimental step toward the final living house.
57．The best title for this passage would be______.
A．Trees Find Its New Use B．Scientists Create New Houses
C．Grow Your Home Out of Trees D．People Begin Living in Trees
58．The underlined word "manipulate" in Paragraph Two can be best replaced by.
A．build B．influence C．weave D．provide
59．It can be inferred from this passage that__________.
A．treehouses will replace traditional buildings
B．pollution problem will be solved once for all
C．many Californians may be building their own treehouses
D．some ecological materials may move as the house grows
60．If this passage is continued, what would probably be discussed?
A．A final living house. B．Joachim's MatScape project.
C．More information about pleaehing. D．Some more ecological materials.

D
We are all interested in equality, but while some people try to protect the school and examination system in the name of equality, others, still in the name of equality, want only to destroy it.
Any society which is interested in equality of opportunity and standards of achievement must regularly test its pupils. The standards may be changed—no examination is perfect—but to have no tests or examinations would mean the end of equality and of standards. There are groups of people who oppose this view and who do not believe either in examinations or in any controls in school or on teachers. This would mean that everything would depend on luck since every pupil would depend on the efficiency, the values and the purpose of each teacher.
Without examinations, employers will look for employees from the highly respected schools and from families known to them－a form of favoritism will replace equality. At the moment, the bright child from an ill－respected school can show certificates to prove he or she is suitable for a job, while the lack of certificate indicates the unsuitability of a dull child attending a well－ respected school. This defense of excellence and opportunity would disappear if examinations were taken away, and tile bright child from a poor family would be a prisoner of his or her school's reputation, unable to compete for employment with the child from the favored school.
The opponents(反对者) of the examination system suggest that examinations are an evil force because they show differences between pupils. According to these people, there must be no special, different, academic class. They have even suggested that there should be no form of difference in sport or any other area: all jobs or posts should be filled by unsystematic selection. The selection would be made by people who themselves are probably selected by some computer.
53．The underlined word "favoritism" in paragraph 3 is used to describe the phenomenon that_____.
A．bright children also need certificates to get satisfying jobs
B．children from well－respected schools tend to have good jobs
C．poor children with certificates are favored in job markets
D．children attending ordinary schools achieve great success
54．What would happen if examinations were taken away according to the author?
A．There would be more opportunities and excellence.
B．Schools for bright children would lose their reputation.
C．Children from poor families would be able to change their schools.
D．Children's job opportunity would be affected by their school reputation.
55．The opponents of the examination system will agree that ________.
A．jobs should not be assigned by systematic selection
B．computers should be selected to take over many jobs
C．special classes are necessary to keep the school standards
D．schools with academic subjects should be done away with
56．The passage mainly focuses on________.
A．schools and certificates B．examination and equality
C．opportunity and employment D．standards and reputation

C
The financial climate, the job market, family tensions, Obama moving into the Lincoln bedroom. Even the climate's getting in on the list. Yup, change is everywhere in 2009. If you're not careful, all kinds of strange things might happen in your otherwise ordered life, so it's best to work at avoiding change whenever it rears its head(出现).
Here are 5 ways to do just that:

1．Ignore any opportunities
How many times have you taken a chance, only for things to go wrong? How many times have you seized an opportunity only/'or it to slip between your fingers?
There's always another mess waiting for you, so it's better to stay right where you are. Where you are right now is a known quantity－it's safe, warm and comfortable. Doesn't that sound better than going out there, messing up and looking stupid?

2．Set your expectations low
If you're one of the people out there looking to make a change in 2009 rather than having change made for you, you'd better set your expectations low.

3．Keep on running and don't look back
The best thing to do is to set things out so that you can do everything. It's good to be busy and running around after everyone else will mean that everyone's happy and there's no room for change to happen. It's a win－win!

4．Recognize that most changes are too big

Face it; there are some tasks you're just not up to. Landing that exciting new job, getting a promotion, taking on the 'big project' or building a relationship that really works－these are all big challenges and you don't want to bite off more than you can chew.

5．Ignore that little voice inside
You might sometimes hear a little voice in your head that tells you you're not happy or that something has to change. This little trouble maker can speak up at any time and throw the Spanner of Confusion in the works, and it has only one thing on its mind－to take you out of your comfort zone and make you change.

Imagine if everyone went around listening to what they really wanted and acted on it－what a mess! No, best to ignore it and carry on with what you're doing.
49．The purpose of writing this passage is_________.
A．to introduce ways to avoid change in 2009
B．to attract the readers' interest in change in 2009
C．to discuss whether people should change in 2009
D．to tell the readers the news of American New President－Obama
50．Supposing you are safe, warm and comfortable now, you should______.
A．set your expectations low B．ignore any opportunities
C．keep on running and don't look back D．ignore that little voice inside
51．The underlined sentence "You don't want to bite off more than you can chew" implies.
A．you have big challenges to fight
B．you are too small to eat too much food
C．there are some big challenges you can't fight
D．you are afraid of challenging some difficult tasks
52．The best way of dealing with that little voice inside is_______ .
A．to change something at once
B．to have a chat with the speaker
C．to discuss it with the trouble maker
D．to ignore it and go on with what you are doing