Your name made you do it, though unconsciously, suggests new research that finds your name can negatively make you achieve less. Psychologists at Yale and the University of California, San Diego studying the unconscious influence of names say a preference for our own names and initials — the “name-letter effect” — can have some negative consequences.
Students whose names begin with C or D get lower grades than those whose names begin with A or B; major league baseball players whose first or last names began with K (the strikeout-signifying letter) are significantly more likely to strike out.
Assistant professors Leif Nelson of UCSD and Joseph Simmons of Yale have conducted five studies over five years using information from thousands of individuals.
“The conscious process is baseball players want to get a hit and students want to get A's,” Nelson says. “So if you get a change in performance consistent with the name-letter effect, it clearly shows there must be some unconscious desire operating in the other direction.”
The researchers' work supports a series of studies published since 2002 that have found the “name-letter effect” causes people to make life choices based on names that resemble their own. Those studies by Brett Pelham, an associate professor at SUNY University, have found that people are disproportionately（不定比例地）likely to live in states or cities resembling their names, have careers that resemble their names and even marry those whose surnames begin with the same letter as their own.
The twist, Pelham says, is that he has believed the name-letter effect would apply only to positive outcomes. Nelson and Simmons, he says, are “showing it applies more so to negative things than positive things.”
The researchers say the effect is definitely more than coincidence but is small nevertheless. “I know plenty of Chrises and Davids who have done very well in school,” Simmons says. The new research is mainly about the relationship between one’s ______.
| A．name and unconsciousness | B．name and characteristics |
| C．name and success | D．sports and school achievements |
Who may serve as an example to show the “name-letter effect”?
| A．Miss Smith working as a lawyer. | B．Charles Brown married to Sue Rogers. |
| C．Mr. Watt living in Washington | D．Paula Snow fond of the color white. |
Which can be used to explain the underlined word “twist” in the last but one paragraph?
| A．Difference． | B．Conclusion． |
| C．Funny side． | D．Shared part． |
The last paragraph mainly tells us that the “name-letter effect” ______.
| A．isn’t believed in by many people | B．doesn’t work with certain names |
| C．may not really exist | D．is often too small to show |
Mrs. Blake teaches English in a large school in the inner area of a big city on the west of coast. Even since she was a young girl , she has wanted to become a teacher. She has taught eight years now and hasn‘t changed her mind. After she graduated from high school， she went on to college. Four years later， she received her bachelor’s degree （B A） in English and her teaching certificate（证书）。 Then she went to teach in the secondary schools of her state. In the summers， Mrs. Blake takes more classes； she hopes to get a master‘s degree （M A）。 With an MA， she will receive a higher salary and if possible， she hopes to get a doctor’s degree as well. The school day at Mrs. Blake‘s high school， like that in many high schools in the United States， is divided into one hour each. Mrs. Blake must teach five of these periods. During her free period， which for her is from 2 to 3 P.M. ， Mrs. Blake must meet with parents， make out examinations， check assignments at all， Mrs. Blake works continuously from the time she arrives at school in
the morning till the time she leaves for home late in the afternoon.
1. According to the article， which is the right order of the degrees a person can receive after going to university？
A. a doctor‘s degree – a bachelor’s degree – a master‘s degree
B. a bachelor’s degree – a master‘s degree – a doctor’s degree
C. a master‘s degree—a bachelor’s degree – a doctor‘s degree
D. a bachelor’s degree – a doctor‘s degree—a master’s degree
2. Which of the following sentences is not true？
A. Mrs. Blake teaches in the inner area of big city on the east of the United Sates
B. Mrs. Blake has turned her wish of becoming a teacher into reality.
C. Mrs. Blake is still studying in her holidays in order to get higher degrees.
D. The working hours in the school where Mrs. Blake works are similar to those of many other high schools in the states.
3. According to that third paragraph，Mrs. Blake is ______ during the school day.
A. lonely B. free C. funny D. busy
Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air， water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air， water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Therefore animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us. If you look carefully at the plants around you， you will find that there are two kinds of plants： flowering plants and non-flowering plants. Flowering plants can make seeds. The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed， some have two， three or four， and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit. Most non-flowering plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores（胚芽）。 Spores are very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as seeds. When these spores are all on wet and shady places， they usually grow into new plants.
1. The main idea of the first paragraph is that ______.
A. plants are important for life B. plants cannot grow without air
C. there are many plants in the world D. we can not live without water
2. Plants can make food from______.
A. flower， water and air B. water， sunlight and air
C. air， water and soil D. air， sun and light
3. What can we infer（推断） from the passage ？
A. Of all living things animals are most important
B. Spores are seeds C. All fruits of flowering plants have seeds
D. Without plants， man will die out
4. This passage may be taken from______.
A. a medicine book B. a novel
C. a science magazine D. an experiment report
5. The underlined word “protected” in the third paragraph can be replaced by ______.
A. damaged B. polluted C. prevented D. guarded
第三部分：阅读理解（每小题2分，共40分）
Valencia is in the east part of Spain. It has a port on the sea， two miles away on the coast. It is the capital of a province that is also named Valencia. The city is a market centre for what is produced by the land around the city. Most of the city‘s money is made from farming. It is also a busy business city， with ships， railways， clothes and machine factories. Valencia has an old part with white buildings， coloured roofs， and narrow streets. The modern part has long， wide streets and new buildings. Valencia is well known for its parks and gardens. It has many old churches and museums. The university in the centre of the city was built in the 13th century. The city of Valencia has been known since the 2nd century. In the 8th century it was the capital of Spain. There is also an important city in Venezuela（委内瑞拉） named Valencia.
1. What is the main difference between the two parts of Valencia？
A. The colour of the building B. The length of the streets
C. The age of the buildings D. The colour of the roofs
2. When was Valencia the most important city in Spain？
A.2nd century B.8th century C.13th century D. 20the century
3. What is Valencia famous for？
A. Its seaport B. Its university
C. Its churches and museums D. Its parks and gardens
4. The main income of the city of Valencia is from its ______.
A. markets B. business C. Factories D. farming
It has been more than twenty years since pioneering British computer programmer, Sir Tim Berners Lee, created the World Wide Web. But could he have ever imagined how much the web would change our lives? And would he approve of how some British students are taking advantage of his invention?
Universities and exam boards around the UK are becoming increasingly concerned with the rising number of cases of plagiarism, many of which are facilitated (助长) by the Internet access.
In the UK most school and university students complete coursework throughout the academic year which contributes toward their final mark. In many cases coursework makes up the main part of the qualification. Since coursework is completed in the students’ own time it cannot be monitored by teachers in the same way as an exam.
Derec Stockley, director of examinations in the UK, explains, “Plagiarism affects coursework more than anything else, and in the cases that come to our attention, more and more are linked to the Internet.”
At a university level recent reports suggest that plagiarism has evolved from separate cases of individual cheating to systematic and even commercial operation. Students can now pay for bespoke essays to be written for them by experts.
It is estimated that the market in online plagiarism is now worth 200 million pounds a year. Every month more and more websites offering to write student’s essays for them appear on the Internet.
Barclay Littlewood, owner of Degree Essays UK employs 3,500 specialist writers and charges between 120 pounds and 4,000 pounds per essay. However, Mr. Littlewood refutes the accusation that he is helping students to cheat.
51．What dose the underlined word “plagiarism” in Paragrha 2 mean in the passage?
A．cheating B．problems of the InternetC．learning pressure D．coursework
52．Which of the following statements is mentioned by the author?
A．With the help of online plagiarism, students can write more creative coursework.
B．There will be no problem if online plagiarism is a systematic and commercial operation.
C．The Internet seems to have contributed much to the problem of online plagiarism.
D．Teachers should lay more emphasis on exams than coursework.
53．It can be inferred from the text that the author seems to _____.
A．blame Sir Tim Berners Lee for having created the World Wide Web
B．worry about the quality of students’ coursework influenced by the World Wide Web
C．be in favour of Littlewood’s defence against the accusation of him
D．have studied the problem of online plagiarism for nearly 20 years
54．Who should be blamed for online plagiarism?
A．Barclay Littlewood. B．Sir Tim Berners Lee. C．Derec Stockley. D．Nobody.
55．The paragraph following the passage will most probably be about_____.
A．the author’s opinions of Mr. Littlewood
B．different people’s opinions on plagiarism
C．how students use the website of Mr. Littlewood
D．Mr. Littlewood’s defence against those who accused him of his website
Like all animal species, plant species must spread their offspring to suitable areas where they can grow and pass on their parents’ genes. Young animals generally spread by walking or flying. Because plants don’t have that ability, they must somehow hitchhike(搭车). Some plant seeds scatter by blowing in the wind or floating on water. Many other plant species, though, trick an animal into carrying their seeds. How do they do this? They enclose the seeds within a tasty fruit and advertise the fruit’s ripeness by its colour or smell. The hungry animal collects and swallows the fruit, walks or flies off, and later spits out the seeds somewhere far from its parent tree. Seeds can thereby be carried for thousands of miles. It may surprise you to learn that plant seeds can resist digestion. In fact, some seeds actually require passage through an animal’s body before they can grow.
Wild strawberries offer a good example of hitchhiking tactics. When strawberry seeds are still young and not yet ready to be planted, the surrounding fruit is green, sour and hard. When the seeds finally mature, the berries turn red, sweet, and tender. The change in the berries’ colour serves as a signal to birds which then eat the strawberries, fly off, and eventually spit out the seeds.
Naturally, strawberry plants didn’t set out with a conscious intention of attracting birds only when their seeds were ready to be dispersed. Nor did birds set out with the intent of planting strawberries. Rather, strawberry plants evolved through natural selection. The sweeter and redder the final strawberry, the more birds spread its ripe seeds; the greener and more sour the young strawberry, the fewer birds destroyed the seeds by eating berries before the seeds were ready.
46．What does the underlined word “dispersed” in the third paragraph mean?
A．spreadB．eaten
C．born D．planted
47．For plants, which of the following is NOT a way of spreading their offspring to suitable areas?
A．Hitchhiking. B．Blowing in the wind.
C．Floating on water.D．Tracking an animal.
48．Which strategy does the example of wild strawberries describe?
A．The conscious intent of attracting birds. B．Spreading by walking.
C．Spreading by flying.D．The strategy of taking a lift.
49．Why does the author describe how strawberry seeds are spread?
A．To show plants are good at adapting to the environment. .
B．To show strawberry’s special way.
C．To show the plant has different ways of spreading seeds.
D．To show the mystery of plant.
50．What’s the passage mainly about?
A．How animals disperse offspring.B．How plants disperse their offspring.
C．Plant evolution.D．Plants’ hitchhiking on animals.