If music makes you smarter and exercise helps you to think, surely exercising to music can turn you into an intelligent person.
A team of scientists from Ohio State University did experiments on 33 volunteers who were getting better from heart disease following operation. They found that people who exercised while listening to Italian musician Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” did much better on language ability tests than without music.
“Facts suggest that exercise improves the learning ability of people with heart disease,” said the psychologist Charles Emery, who led the study. “And listening to music is thought to enhance understanding. We just wanted to put the two results together,” he added.
The volunteers said they felt better emotionally and physically after working out with or without the music. But their improvement on the test doubled after listening to music during exercise. Scientists have proved that music can be good for health, education and well-being. It helps reduce stress, sadness and nervousness; encourages relaxation or sleep; wakes up the body and improves memory and thoughts.
In medical fields, music is used widely for patients who have had head hurts before and after operation. “The Four Seasons” was used because of its moderate tempo(舒缓的节拍)and positive results in earlier research. “Exercise seems to cause positive changes in the nervous system(神经系统) and these changes may have a direct result on learning ability,” Emery said.
Scientists have been studying the results of music on understanding since the early 1950s. By 2000, psychologists were using Mozart’s music, especially his violin pieces, to help children with speech disorders. Mozart was chosen because his music is not overexciting and has clear structures. A study showed students who listened to Mozart went on to score higher marks in an intelligence test. With important exams drawing near, your parents will not probably allow you to listen to music. But perhaps now you have good reasons to argue with them.
The underlined word enhance can be replaced by ______.
A.impress | B.improve | C.provide | D.produce |
The text mainly tells us that _____.
A.music and exercise lead to relaxation or sleep |
B.33 volunteers work on music in medical fields |
C.exercising to music makes people healthy and bright |
D.scientists give suggestions on choosing music to exercise to |
It can be learned from the last paragraph that ______.
A.you are supposed to follow your parents’ words |
B.students should not listen to music before exams |
C.you have some good reasons to exercise to music |
D.music might help you to get higher grades in tests |
Which of the following statements is true?
A.Exercise seems to cause negative changes without music. |
B.Exercise reminds people with head hurts of what they’ve learned. |
C.Scientists often use Mozart’s music, for it is not too exciting. |
D.“The Four Seasons” is used to help children with speech disorders. |
China has become Volvo's third largest market, with more of its car models to go on sale in the world's largest auto(汽车) market this year, Chief Executive Office (CEO) of Volvo Cars China said in Tianjin.
Alexander Klose, CEO of Volvo Cars China, told Xinhua at the Ninth Tianjin International Automobile Trade Show, being held from Friday to Wednesday.
Klose said Volvo Cars had entered a new time of fast development, adding that its sales volume in China roared in 2010.
Up to the end of September, Volvo's global sales volume was up 12.5 percent year on year(同年比), compared with 52 percent year-on-year rise in China, he said.
Two new Volvo sales centers opened in Beijing within merely one week in early October, about two months after east China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co acquired(购得)the Swedish brand from the US auto giant Ford for $1.5 billion in early August.
Klose said he was confident of seeing tremendous(巨大的) growth in China's auto market in the next five years. "As the Chinese government has increased the tax rate for large displacement (排量)cars already, we now have a lot of cars below three liters(升), and I think we'll stick to that strategy, as you can see now the XC60 which was introduced today is just two liters," he said.
"As the technology advances, we'll probably even see 1.6 liter engines or 1.5 liter engines in the future," he added.
Volvo Cars is not the only automaker hoping to take advantage of China's rapidly growing auto market.
Bentley, the famous British luxury(豪华) carmaker, will open a new sales center in China at Tianjin Thursday, which is the 11th one in China, according to a press release(新闻发布) by Shanghai-based Zenith Integrated Communications Corp (Zenith) Saturday at the auto show.
Zenth is the public relations agent of Bentley in China. The automaker has sold 421 limousines(大型豪华轿车) to China in 2009, and the goal for 2010 is 777, the release said.The word underlined in the third paragraph would probably be___.
A.shouted loudly | B.increased in large numbers |
C.reduced rapidly | D.burned brightly |
From this passage we can infer that ___.
A.The Ninth Tianjin International Automobile Trade Show was held from Friday to Wednesday. |
B.Volvo Cars is a world-famous carmaker in Britain. |
C.Of all the auto sales volume Volvo sales volume is only number one in China |
D.Volvo sales centers are developing very fast in China recently |
The text is mainly about____.
A.China Becomes Volvo's 3rd largest market |
B.Volvo Cars in China |
C.Volvo Sales Volume in China |
D.Carmakers in China |
How many carmakers are mentioned in this passage which opened and will open new sales centers in China recently?
A.One | B.Two | C.Three | D.Four |
When we look at the sky and see a bright light moving quickly across it or coming towards the earth, we talk about seeing a “shooting star” or a “falling star”. These moving lights are not, in fact, stars at all. They are small pieces of matter from outer space, which burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The correct name of them is meteoroids. Any pieces that make it to the Earth’s surface without completely burning up are known as meteorites. A meteor is actually the name given to the light we see when a meteoroid is burning up.
When a meteorite hits the Earth at speeds between 11 and 72 kilometers a second, it can do amazing damage. A very large meteorite could knock the earth out of its orbit. If this happened, all life on Earth would probably become extinct(灭绝). The path we follow around the Sun would change and as a result the Earth would become either much hotter or much colder. This change in temperature would affect sea levels and the amount of water in rivers. There would either be huge floods, which would cover most of the land with water, or the oceans would dry up and there would be a drought, which means a long period of time without rain. Either way, nothing could survive. If a large meteorite landed in the sea it would almost certainly cause tsunamis, which would race towards the land, destroying everything in their paths.
Although it is unlikely the Earth will be struck by a meteorite large enough to do that kind of damage, there is evidence of fairly large meteorites hitting the Earth in the past. In 1908 a large area of forest in Tunguska, Siberia was destroyed by a meteorite that came apart just before it hit the ground. The moon, however, has about three billion craters陨石坑caused by meteorites impacting影响 its surface. The reason more meteorites have reached the surface of the moon than the surface of the Earth is that the moon does not have enough atmosphere for the meteorites to burn up in. some of the meteorites that have reached the Earth’s surface have done considerable damage. Some scientists believe it was a change of climate caused by meteorites hitting the Earth that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs and other large prehistoric animals.
Scientists are especially interested in meteorites because they contain information about the solar system. It is widely believed by scientists that most meteorites are produced by collisions(碰撞) between asteroids (small planets). These collisions probably happened many billions of years ago. This means the physical and chemical structure of a meteorite can give scientists information about the early days of the universe.The story is about ___.
A.floods caused by meteors |
B.matter from outer space |
C.life on Earth millions of years ago |
D.meteorites that have damaged the moon |
The Earth has ___.
A.three billion craters |
B.fewer craters than the moon |
C.more craters than the moon |
D.a thinner atmosphere than the moon |
Some scientists believe the dinosaurs became extinct because ___.
A.they were hit by meteors |
B.meteorites landed on their nests |
C.meteorites landed and changed the climate |
D.they could no longer breathe the atmosphere |
Meteors are ___.
A.small planets |
B.the same as asteroids |
C.from broken parts of asteroids |
D.the light we see when meteoroids hit our atmosphere |
October 31, 2009, California
Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD'39, one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died on October 31, He was 98.
Tsien, born in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, graduated from the National Qinghua University in 1934 and in August of 1935 he left China to study at the Massachusetts Institute Technology. In 1936 he went to the California Institute of Technology to commence graduate studies .Tsien obtained his doctor degree in 1939 and would remain at Caltech for 20 years, becoming the Goddard Professor and establishing a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States.
In 1943, Tsien and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the Second World War, he was amongst the other scientists participated the "Manhattan Project" .After World War II he served as a consultant to the United States Army Air Force. During this time, Conlonel Tsien worked on designing an intercontinental space plane. His work would inspire the X--20Dyna-Soar which would later be the inspiration for the Space Shuttle. In1945 Tsien Hsue--shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Jiang Baili--one of the Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai--shen's leading military strategists. But in 1950, the Chinese-born scientist was accused of harboring Communist sympathies and stripped of his security clearance.
In September 1955 he was permitted to leave for China, where Tsien resumed his research, founded the Institute of Mechanics, and went on to become the father of China's missile program, a trusted member of the government and Party's inner circle, and the nation's most honored scientist, Tsien retired in 1991 and has maintained a low public profile in Beijing, China. The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 and used Tsien's research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October of 2003.The elderly Tsien was able to watch China's first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed.
In his late years, since the 1980s, Tsien devoted himself to spirituality research, and advocated scientific investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Qigong and "special human body functions".The underlined word "commence" in this passage probably means ____
A.make up | B.get | C.begin | D.promise |
Tsien Hsue--shen got married at the age of ______
A.45 | B.28 | C.24 | D.34 |
What is the right order of the events related to Tsien Hsue--shen ?
a. his later life
b. return to China
c. career in the U.S.A
d. his early life and education
A.a-b-c-d | B.d-c-b-a | C.d-b-c-a | D.c-b-d-a |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A.Tsien Hsue--shen got a doctor's degree in 1939. |
B.Tsien Hsue--shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shen. |
C.Tsien Hsue-shen has made a contribution to the Space Shuttle. |
D.Tsien Hsue-shen was interested in traditional Chinese medicine, qigong and "special human body functions" in his later life. |
Egypt: Bridging the Gap between School English and Real English
Teaching English in Egypt in general and in my town Damietta in particular, is mainly directed towards helping students to pass their final exams. Unfortunately, most teachers do not adopt a long -term approach that guarantees that their students will be able to use English outside the classroom. So students only concentrate on one skill which is writing. Thus their listening and speaking skills are disabled. What is important to them is to pass the exam which is primarily based on writing .Teachers are not only concentrated with providing their students with questions that are similar to those of the final exam, particularly General Secondary Education Certificate (GSEC) Examination, so students spend most of their time answering typical exam questions.
Most students' scores are high; a lot of students get full marks. However, few students are able to communicate in English because their role plays. As a result, a lot of students complain that they are unable to understand and talk fluently with native speakers of English.
To enable students to communicate freely and spontaneously(自然地) in English, I bring features of real communication into language practice, I always ask students about their own experiences, and suggest groups of students practice what they have learned outside the classroom. This helps lower-achieving students absorb language. Furthermore, role play is a very effective way to improve speaking skills particularly if it is connected to the experience of the students.Who probably write this passage?
A.a teacher | B.a governor | C.a student | D.a reporter |
In Egypt, the students only concentrate on ------
A.listening skill | B.speaking skill | C.reading skill | D.writing skill |
The teachers question their students based on -------
A.what they learn in the class |
B.What their parents expect |
C.The questions that are similar to those of GSEC |
D.The ability that will be used outside the classroom |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A.Most of the students can't get high marks but can communicate with the native speakers of English. |
B. Communicating skill is more important than writing skill. |
C.Role play connected to the speaker's experience is more effective in improving his skill. |
D.The lower--achieving students can do better in speaking skill than the upper achieving students. |
Who will responsible for the gap between school English and real English?
A.Their parents | B.The students | C.The school | D.The education sys tem |
One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river. When he began crying, God appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"
The woodcutter told him that he had dropped his axe into water. God went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe.
"Is this your axe?" God asked.
The woodcutter said "No."
God again went down and came up with a silver axe." Is this your axe?" God asked.
The woodcutter said "No."
God again went down and came up with a iron axe." Is this your axe?" God asked.
The woodcutter said "Yes."
God was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all the three axes.
The woodcutter went home happily. One day while he was walking with his wife along the river, his wife fell into the river. W hen he began crying, God appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"
"My wife has fallen into water."
God went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez.
"Is this your wife?" God asked him.
"Yes." he said.
God was furious(狂怒的),"YOU CHEAT !Now I am going to curse you."
The woodcutter quickly said, “Forgive me my lord. It is a misunderstanding. IF I say 'No' to Jennifer Lopez, you will come up with Catherine Zeta Jones, If I also say 'No' to her, you will finally come up
With my wife and I will say, 'Yes.' Then you will give all the three to me .I am a poor man .I will not be able to look after all the three. So that's why I've to say 'Yes' "Which of the following best describes the author's tone in telling the story?
A.Optimistic | B.Humoristic | C.Objective | D.Critical |
The impression that the woodcutter makes on you is that he is -----
A.foolish but honest | B.foolish and honest |
C.smart but honest | D.smart and honest |
What can you infer about Jennifer Lopez and Catherine Zeta Jones?
A.They are the secret lovers of the woodcutter |
B.They look much like the woodcutter's wife. |
C.They are both rich women with a lot of gold and silver. |
D.They are both popular with women, much worthy than his wife |