Baby girls make their way directly for dolls as soon as they can crawl（爬）, while boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown． The findings, the first to show differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological basis to their preferences．
Psychologists Dr． Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants aged nine months to 36 months． The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys． Some were typically boys' toys: a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy． The rest were girls’ toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set． They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked． Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded．
Of the youngest children （nine to 14 months）, girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did． Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it． The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched． There was no link between the parents’ view on which toys were more suitable for boys or girls, and the children’s choice．
Dr． Brenda Todd said: “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization． Boys may be given ‘toys that go’ while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference． But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys． There could be a biological basis for their choices． Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts（本能）, while girls prefer warmer colors such as pink, the color of a newborn baby．”Baby boys and girls have different toy preferences probably because ．
| A．baby boys are much more active |
| B．baby girls like bright colors more |
| C．there is a natural difference between them |
| D．their parents treat them differently |
What can we infer from Paragraph 3 ?
| A．Nine-month-old baby boys don’t play with dolls at all． |
| B．Two-year-old baby girls sometimes play with cars and balls． |
| C．Parents should teach their babies to share each other’s toys． |
| D．The older the babies are, the more obvious their preference is． |
Both baby boys and baby girls like to play with _________ according to the study．
| A．a teddy | B．a car | C．a doll | D．a ball |
We may read this article in a section of a newspaper．
| A．health | B．science | C．culture | D．entertainment |
I promised Michael I wouldn’t mention this until the season was over．Now l think it's time．
Early last season, I wrote a column about an art of kindness I had seen Jordan do to a disabled child outside the stadium．After it ran，I got a call from a man in the western suburbs．He said，“I read what you wrote about Jordan．but I thought I should tell you another thing I saw．”
Here it comes, I thought. It always does. Write something nice about a person, and people call you up to say that the person is not so nice.
A few weeks later Jordan and I were talking about something else before a game, and I brought up what the man had said. Was the man right? Had Jordan really been talking to those two boys in that poor and dirty neighborhood?
"Not two boys," Jordan said. "But four."
And he named them. He said four names. And what did they talk about?
"Everything,” Jordan said. " Anything. I’ve asked to see their grades so that I can check to see if they're paying attention to their study. If it turns out that one or two of them may need teaching, I make sure they get it."
It's just one more part of Michael Jordan's life，one more thing that no one knows about, and one more thing Jordan does fight for. The NBA season is over now, and those boys have their memories. So do J! When the expert reviewers begin to turn against Jordan as they surely will, I'll think about those boys under the streetlight, waiting for the man they know to come. For someone they can depend on. The writer wrote this story about Jordan and his young friends because _______
| A．he thought highly of Jordan's deeds |
| B．he hated to see Jordan do something bad |
| C．he believed it was time to help the disabled |
| D．he felt sure he needn't keep the promise then |
A man in the western suburbs made a call to_______
| A．know why Jordan stopped in a bad area |
| B．get a chance to become famous himself |
| C．let the writer know Jordan was not that nice |
| D．offer an example to show how Jordan helped others |
Jordan talked with the boys because he _______.
| A．needed their support |
| B．had promised to do so |
| C．liked to teach them to play basketball |
| D．wanted to make sure they all studied well |
The text implies that Jordan is _______.
| A．an excellent basketball player |
| B．good at dealing with problems of life |
| C．always ready to make friends with young people |
| D．willing to do whatever he can for the good of society |
Violin prodigies (神童), I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world’s greatest violinists the reason for this phenomenon. “It is very clear,” he told me. “They were all Jews and Jews at the time were severely oppressed and ill-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowed into the professional fields, but they were allowed to achieve excellence on a concert stage.” As a result, every Jewish parent’s dream was to have a child in the music school because it was a passport to the West.
Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field to nurture (培育) talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. “In Japan, a most competitive society, with stronger discipline than ours,” says Isaac Stern, children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well. The Koreans and Chinese as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese.
That’s a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance（遗传） plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music. Jewish parents in Eastern Europe longed for their children to attend music school because ________.
| A．it would allow them access to a better life in the West |
| B．Jewish children are born with excellent musical talent |
| C．they wanted their children to enter into the professional field |
| D．it would enable the family to get better treatment in their own country |
Nurturing societies as mentioned in the passage refer to societies that ________.
| A．are highly motivated in the education of music |
| B．treasure talent and provide opportunities for its full development |
| C．encourage people to compete with each other |
| D．promise talented children high positions |
Which of the following contributes to the emergence of musical prodigies according to the passage?
| A．a natural gift. | B．extensive knowledge of music. |
| C．very early training. | D．a prejudice-free society. |
Which of the following titles best summarizes the main idea of the passage?
| A．Jewish Contribution to Music | B．Training of Musicians in the World |
| C．Music and Society | D．The Making of Music Prodigies |
Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.
Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic school in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated（展示）a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right band. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
"our brain has billions of nerve ceils. These send signals through the spinal cord （脊髓）to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles," Tavella says. "Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices."
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. "The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair."
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit frotn. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.
| 1． |
BCI is a technology that can
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| 2． |
How" did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?
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| 3． |
Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?
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| 4． |
The team will test with real patients to
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| 5． |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
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Diana Jacobs thought her family had a workable plan to pay for college for her 21-year-old twin sons: a combination of savings, income,
scholarships, and a modest amount of borrowing. Then her husband lost his job, and the plan fell apart.
"I have two kids in college, and I want to say 'come home,' but at the same time I want to provide them with a good education," says Jacobs.
The Jacobs family did work out a solution: They asked and received more aid form the schools, and each son increased his borrowing to the maximum amount through the federal loan (贷款) program. They will each graduate with $20,000 of debt, but at least they will be able to finish school.
With unemployment rising, financial aid administrators expect to hear more families like the Jacobs. More students are applying for aid, and more families expect to need student loans. College administrators are concerned that they will not have enough aid money to go around.
At the same time, tuition（学费）continues to rise. A report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that college tuition and fees increased 439% from 1982 to 2007, while average family income rose just 147%. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade,
"If we go on this way for another 25years, we won't have an affordable system of higher education," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the center. "The middle class families have been financing it through debt. They will send kids to college whatever it takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt."
Financial aid administrators have been having a hard time as many companies decide that student loans are not profitable enough and have stopped making them. The good news, however, is that federal loans account for about three quarters of student borrowing, and the government says that money will flow uninterrupted.
| 1． |
According to Paragraph 1, why did the plan of Jacobs family fail?
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| 2． |
How did the Jacobs manage to solve their problem?
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| 3． |
Financial aid administrators believe that.
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| 4． |
What can we learn about the middle class families from the text?
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| 5． |
According to the last paragraph, the government will.
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Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York--he in computers, she in special education. "Teaching means everything to us," Tim would say. In April1998, he learned he would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.
Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by Dolly Parton' s foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the singer's home town of Sevier, Tennessee.“I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when we retire," Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk, "as a reminder."
Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imagination library .com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.
The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to Dollywood for a look-see. “We didn’t want to give the children rubbish,” says Linda. The books-reviewed each year by teachers, literacy specialists and Dollywood board members-included classics such as Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama series.
Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than appreciative: “This program introduces us to books I’ve never heard of .”
The Richters spend about ＄400 a month sending books to 200 children. “Some people sit there and wait to die,” says Tim. “Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left.”
What led Tim to think seriously about the meaning of life?
| A．His health problem. | B．His love for teaching. |
| C．The influence of his wife. | D．The news from the Web. |
What did Tim want to do after learning about Imagination Library?
| A．Give out brochures. | B．Do something similar. |
| C．Write books for children | D．Retire from being a teacher. |
According to the text, Dollly Parton is .
| A．a well-known surgeon | B．a mother of a four-year-old |
| C．a singer born in Tennessee | D．a computer programmer |
Why did the Richters go to Dollywood?
| A．To avoid signing up online. |
| B．To meet Dollywood board members. |
| C．To make sure the books were the newest. |
| D．To see if the books were of good quality. |
What can we learn from Tim’s words in the last paragraph?
| A．He needs more money to help the children. |
| B．He wonders why some people are so busy. |
| C．He tries to save those waiting to die. |
| D．Hconsiders his efforts worthwhile. |