Even before my father left us, my mother had to go back to work to support our family. Once I came out of the kitchen, complaining, “Mom, I can’t peel(剥……的皮) potatoes. I have only one hand.”
Mom never looked up from sewing. “You get yourself into that kitchen and peel those potatoes,” she told me. “And don’t ever use that as an excuse for anything again!”
In the second grade, our teacher lined up my class on the playground and had each of us race across the monkey bars, swinging from one high steel rod to the next. When it was my turn, I shook my head. Some kids behind me laughed, and I went home crying.
That night I told Mom about it. She hugged me, and I saw her “we’ll see about that” look. The next afternoon, she took me back to school. At the deserted playground, Mom looked carefully at the bars.
“Now, pull up with your right arm,” she advised. She stood by as I struggled to lift myself with my right hand until I could hook the bar with my other elbow(肘). Day after day we practiced, and she praised me for every rung I reached. I’ll never forget the next time, crossing the rungs, I looked down at the kids who were standing with their mouths open.
One night, after a dance at my new junior high, I lay in bed sobbing. I could hear Mom come into my room. “Mom,” I said, weeping, “none of the boys would dance with me.”
For a long time, I didn’t hear anything. Then she said, “Oh, honey, someday you’ll be beating those boys off with a bat.” Her voice was faint. I peeked(窥视) out from my covers to see tears running down her cheeks. Then I knew how much she suffered on my behalf（利益）. She had never let me see her tears. Which of the following expressions can be used most suitably to describe Mom’s attitude when she made the child to peel potatoes?
| A．Cruel. | B．Serious. |
| C．Cold. | D．Strict |
What does the sentence “I saw her ‘we’ll see about that’ look” imply(暗示)?
| A．Mom believed every aim could be achieved if you stuck to it. |
| B．The race across monkey bars was not difficult enough for a child to give up. |
| C．Mom was determined to prove she herself was better than the teacher. |
| D．What the child had said brought Mom great attraction and curiosity. |
When the child looked down at the kids, they were standing with their mouths open because _________.
| A．they felt sorry for what they had done before |
| B．they were afraid the author might fall off and get hurt |
| C．they were astonished to find the author’s progress |
| D．they wanted to see what the author would do on the bars |
The most probable conclusion we can draw after reading the passage is ______.
| A．the last incident was sad enough to make Mom weep |
| B．the child’s experience reminded Mom of that of her own |
| C．Mom could solve any problem except the one in the last paragraph |
| D．in fact Mom suffered more in the process of the child’s growth |
Believe it or not, optical illusion(错觉) can cut highway crashes.
Japan is a case in point. It has reduced automobile crashes on some roads by nearly 75 percent using a simple optical illusion. But stripes, called chevrons(人字形), painted on the roads make drivers think that they are driving faster than they really are, and thus drivers slow down.
Now the American Automobile Association Foundation(基金会) for Traffic Safety in Washington D.C. is planning to repeat Japan’s success. Starting next year, the foundation will paint chevrons and other patterns of stripes on selected roads around the country to test how well the patterns reduce highway crashes.
Excessive (too great) speed plays a major role in as much as one fifth of all fatal traffic accidents, according to the foundation. To help reduce those accidents, the foundation will conduct its tests in areas where speed-related hazards (danger) are the greatest curves, exit slopes, traffic circles, and bridges.
Some studies suggest that straight, horizontal bars painted across roads can initially cut the average speed of drivers in half. However, traffic often returns to full speed within months as drivers become used to seeing the painted bars.
Chevrons, scientists say, not only give drivers the impression that they are driving faster than they really are but also make a lane appear to be narrower. The result is a longer lasting reduction in highway speed and the number of traffic accidents.The passage mainly discusses ________.
| A．a new way of highway speed control |
| B．a new pattern for painting highways |
| C．a new way of training drivers |
| D．a new type of optical illusion |
On roads painted with chevrons, drivers tend to feel that ________.
| A．they should avoid speed-related hazards |
| B．they are driving in the wrong lane |
| C．they should slow down their speed |
| D．they are coming near to the speed limit |
The advantage of chevrons over straight, horizontal bars is that the former ________.
| A．can keep drivers awake | B．can cut road accidents in half |
| C．will look more attractive | D．will have a longer effect on drivers |
The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety plans to ________.
| A．try out the Japanese method in certain areas |
| B．change the road signs across the country |
| C．replace straight, horizontal bars with chevrons |
| D．repeat the Japanese road patterns |
What does the author say about straight, horizontal bars painted across roads?
| A．They are suitable only on broad roads. |
| B．They are falling out of use in the United States. |
| C．They are ignored in a long period of time. |
| D．They cannot be used successfully to traffic circles. |
Suppose we built a robot to explore the planet Mars. We provide the robot with seeing detectors(探测器) to keep it away from danger. It is powered entirely by the sun. Should we program the robot to be equally active at all times? No, the robot would be using up energy at a time when it was not receiving any. So we would probably program it to stop its activity at night and to wake up at dawn the next morning.
According to evolutionary(进化的) theory of sleep, evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason. The theory does not deny that sleep provides some important restorative functions. It merely says that evolution has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous. However, sleep protects us only from the sort of trouble we might walk into; it does not protect us from trouble that comes looking for us. So we sleep well when we are in a familiar, safe place, but we sleep lightly, if at all, when we fear that bears will nose into the tent.
The evolutionary theory explain the differences in sleep among creatures. Why do cats, for instance, sleep so much, while horses sleep so little? Surely cats do not need five times as much repair and restoration as horses do. But cats can afford to have long periods of inactivity because they spend little time eating and are unlikely to be attacked while they sleep. Horses must spend almost all their waking hours eating, because what they eat is very low in energy value. Moreover, they cannot afford to sleep too long or too deeply, because their survival depends on their ability to run away from attackers. The author uses the example of the robot in space exploration to tell us _______.
| A．the differences between robots and men |
| B．the reason why men need to sleep |
| C．about the need for robots to save power |
| D．about the danger of men working at night |
Evolution has programmed man to sleep at night chiefly to help him ______.
| A．keep up a regular pattern of life |
| B．prevent trouble that comes looking for him |
| C．avoid danger and inefficient labor |
| D．restore his bodily functions |
Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Evolution has equipped all creatures with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking. |
| B．The study of sleep is an important art of the evolutionary theory. |
| C．Sleeping patterns must be taken into consideration in the designing of robots. |
| D．The sleeping pattern of a living creature is determined by the food it eats. |
Perhaps the most famous theory, the study of body movement, was suggested by Professor Ray Birdwhistell. He believes that physical appearance is often culturally programmed. In other words, we learn our looks—we are not born with them. A baby has generally informed face features. A baby, according to Birdwhistell, learns where to set the eyebrows by looking at those around-family and friends. This helps explain why the people of some areas of the United States look so much alike, new Englanders or Southerners have certain common face features that cannot be explained by genetics(遗传学). The exact shape of the mouth is not set at birth, it is learned after. In fact, the final mouth shape is not formed until well after new teeth are set. For many, this can be well into grown-ups. A husband and wife together for a long time often come to look alike. We learn our looks from those around us. This is perhaps why in a single country area where people smile more than those in other areas. In the United States, for example, the South is the part of the country where the people smile most frequently. In New England they smile less, and in the western part of New York State still less. Many southerners find cities such as New York cold and unfriendly, partly because people on Madison Avenue smile less than people on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. Georgia. People in Atlanta, Georgia. People in largely populated areas also smile and greet each other in public less than people in small towns do. Ray Birdwhistell believes that physical appearance _______.
| A．has little to do with culture |
| B．has much to do with culture |
| C．is ever changing |
| D．is different from place to place |
According to the passage, the final mouth shape is formed _______.
| A．before birth | B．as soon as one’s teeth are newly set |
| C．sometime after new teeth are set | D．around 15 years old |
Ray Birdwhistell can tell what area of the United States a person is from by _______.
| A．how much he or she laughs | B．how he or she raises his or her eyebrows |
| C．what he or she likes best | D．the way he or she talks |
This passage might have been taken out of a book dealing with ________.
| A．physics | B．chemistry | C．biology | D．none of the above |
Some spiders hunt on the ground, others build webs to trap their food, but the grass water spider catches its prey by running along the surface of the water.
This special water spider lives on the grassy banks of streams where mosquitoes, damsel flies and other insects come to feed and breed.
Although it is one of the largest spiders in New Zealand, it has an unusual ability. It doesn’t disturb the water as it waits for its meal, and there is barely a ripple(波纹) when it skims(掠过) across the surface at lightning speed to catch its prey.
Grass water spiders deal swiftly with larger insects like damsel flies by pulling their heads under the water and holding them there until they drown.
After a meal, the grass water spider spends up to half an hour grooming(修饰) itself. It wipes its eight eyes, brushes its antennae(触角), and takes special care to clean the hairs on its body.
It is the hairs that trap tiny bubbles(泡沫) of air so that the spider can run down a blade(叶片) of grass and stay underwater for up to an hour when it is frightened. The hairs also keep the spider dry, even underwater.
It is only when the female spider is caring for the young that she does not hunt on the water. After mating, she produces a large egg sac(囊), which she carries around for five weeks. Once the eggs start to hatch, she attaches the sac to some blades of grass or a thistle. She then tears the sac open and releases the tiny spiders into the nursery web.How does the grass water spider kill its prey?
| A．in a web | B．by drowning | C．by poisoning | D．with its antennae |
the writer describes the special spider as “special” because _______.
| A．it walks on water | B．it has eight eyes |
| C．of its hairy appearance | D．of the way it produces its young |
The passage tells us that the spider ______.
| A．feeds grass and thistles to its young. |
| B．lives on blades of grass under the water |
| C．lives in the grass on the banks of streams |
| D．eats a meal once every five weeks |
The purpose of the passage is to _______.
| A．convince readers that spiders are dangerous |
| B．indicate that the grass water spider is endangered |
| C．list all of the spiders that can be found in New Zealand |
| D．describe the characteristics of the grass water spider |
Space travel is definitely bad for astronauts’ bones, reducing their bone density(密度) after only a month of weightlessness, according to French research published on Friday.
Laurence Vico and his fellow workers at St Etienne University called for more research into the effects of microgravity, after their study of 15 astronauts from the Russian MIR station showed bone loss continued throughout space flights.
“Bone loss was especially striking in four astronauts, ” the scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.
They measured the bone mineral density (BMD) of bones in the forearm(前臂) and lower leg of the astronauts who had spent one to six months in space.
The BMD loss was significant in the tibia(胫骨) of the lower leg, a weight-bearing bone, but barely changed in the radius(桡骨) of the forearm. “Our results indicate the need to investigate not only different bones, but also different areas of the same bone since not all sites of the skeleton (骨架) are similarly affected by space conditions, ” they added.
Without gravity the body isn’t bearing any weight so there is no need for calcium (钙) which makes bones strong, and it becomes empty into the bloodstream.
The research team suggested in future scientists should try to determine if the loss of bone density was only on weight-bearing bones on longer flights, also the possible recovery after returning to Earth.French scientists did their research on Russian astronauts, because _______.
| A．they only cared for the Russian astronauts |
| B．they were not interested in their own astronauts |
| C．the Russian government invited them to do their research |
| D．the Russian astronauts worked in space for a long time |
Scientists have found that _______.
| A．the BMD loss may cause serious illness to astronauts |
| B．the BMD loss may cause some change in astronauts’ bodies |
| C．astronauts shouldn’t care about the BMD loss |
| D．astronauts should take some calcium before space travel |
What cause the BMD loss to astronauts, according to this passage?
| A．The food they eat in space. | B．The drinks they take in space. |
| C．The temperature in space. | D．The gravity in space. |
In the third paragraph, the word “striking” means ______.
| A．unusual | B．simple | C．weak | D．slow |