Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can’t make us tire. It sounds absurd. But a years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue (疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we would find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired?
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional(情绪的) attitudes. One of England’s most outstanding scientists, J.A. Hadfield, says, “The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares, “One hundred percent of the fatigue of sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction? No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated---those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body. What surprised the scientists a few years ago?
| A．Fatigue toxins could hardly be found in a laborer’s blood. |
| B．Albert Einstein didn’t feel worn after a day’s work. |
| C．The brain could work for many hours without fatigue. |
| D．A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue toxins. |
According to the author, which of the following can make sitting workers tired?
| A．Challenging mental work. | B．Unpleasant emotions. |
| C．Endless tasks. | D．Physical labor. |
What’s the author’s attitude towards the scientists’ idea?
| A．He agrees with them. | B．He doubts them. |
| C．He argues against them. | D．He hesitates to accept them. |
We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energetic, sitting workers need to ___________.
| A．have some good food. | B．enjoy their work |
| C．exercise regularly | D．discover fatigue toxins |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
(Reuters)President Barack Obama－bolstered(加强)by a stronger economic outlook and recent job growth－would win in a matchup against the two leading Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich，a poll on Monday showed.
A Washington PostABC News survey of 1,000 adults found that，for the first time，Obama's prospects have brightened against his potential rivals as his overall job approval rating climbed on his handling of the slowly recovering economy.
If the election were held now，Obama would win 51 percent of the vote compared to 45 percent for Romney，the former Massachusetts governor and current Republican frontrunner，according to the poll. He would win with 54 percent compared to 43 percent for Gingrich，the former speaker of the House of Representatives who has vowed to continue seeking his party's nomination.
The poll，conducted by telephone from February 1 through February 4，showed Obama won higher marks than Romney when it comes to protecting the middle class and taxes. Those polled also said they trusted Obama more to handle international affairs and terrorism.
But Obama and Romney tied(不分胜负)when it came to creating jobs and more of those surveyed said they trusted Romney to handle the economy and the federal budget deficit(赤字)．
In a statement，the Romney campaign's polling strategist，Neil Newhouse，said the survey was flawed and “introduced specific negative information about Governor Romney immediately prior to asking the ballot matchup against President Obama”．
The president's job approval rating rose to 50 percent，according to the survey，which has a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
When asked if Obama deserved a second term as president,49 percent said yes and 49 percent said no.
In an NBC interview on Sunday，Obama said he deserved another term when Americans vote in November. A jobs report on Friday showed the U．S. economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January .The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 8.3 percent，its lowest level in three years.Who is better concerning protecting the middle class and taxes?
| A．Newt Gingrich |
| B．Neil Newhouse |
| C．Mitt Romney |
| D．Barack Obama |
In which aspect did Obama and Romney tie?
| A．Creating jobs. |
| B．Improving the economy. |
| C．Handling the federal budget deficit. |
| D．Handling international affairs and terrorism. |
What is the percentage of Americans who support President Obama's reelection in the survey?
| A．51% |
| B．54% |
| C．43% |
| D．49% |
What can we learn from Neil Newhouse's words?
| A．The survey was unfair to Romney. |
| B．The survey was against Obama. |
| C．The survey had negative effect on people's voting. |
| D．The survey was made in a rush. |
According to the last paragraph，which of the following is true?
| A．Obama is selfconfident in reelection. |
| B．The U．S. created jobs at the fastest pace than other countries. |
| C．The unemployment rate is the lowest on record. |
| D．Americans vote for president in January. |
A pioneering head teacher is calling for all high schools to follow his lead and start classes at 11 am，allowing teenagers two hours extra in bed.
Dr. Paul Kelley，head of Monkseaton Community High School in North Tyneside，said it would mean the end of sleeping in lessons before lunch，after experiments showed teenagers could have different body clocks from adults and younger children.
Russell Foster，an Oxford professor of neuroscience(神经系统科学)，tested the memory of 200 Monkseaton pupils at 9 am and 2 pm using pairs of words，and discovered a 9% improvement in the afternoon. Students correctly identified 51% of word pairs in the later session，compared with 42% in the morning. Tayler McCullough,15，one of the test subjects，said the majority of students would welcome the extra hours in bed.“I'm extremely hard to get up in the morning. One or two people like to get to school early，but most of us would be up for going in later. I'm sure it would make a big difference to our learning ability.”
Kelley is adamant that a change of school timetable will have a meaningful effect on exam performance. He wants his school's governors to approve his plan and put the new timetable in place before the opening of Monkseaton's new school building，the most technologically advanced in the country，in September.
Kelley hopes his latest idea will be just as successful.“We have to be practical. But this proves that，by starting later，children's learning improves，as does their health.”
Foster said，“This is preliminary(初步的) data，but what's exciting is that it matches more detailed studies carried out in Canada and the US. Teenagers get up late not because they are lazy but because they are biologically programmed to do so.”How many professors are mentioned in the passage?
| A．One. |
| B．Two. |
| C．Three. |
| D．Four. |
According to Russell Foster's research，________.
| A．the students tested had very good memories |
| B．the students tested did better jobs in the afternoon |
| C．42% of the students tested could do very good jobs |
| D．51% of the students tested could master 9% of words |
What does the underlined word “adamant” in the fourth paragraph mean?
| A．Angry. |
| B．Absorbed. |
| C．Adaptable. |
| D．Determined. |
Foster's opinion on teenagers' getting up late is that ________.
| A．teenagers are practical |
| B．teenagers are lazybones |
| C．it's based on their body development |
| D．it's good for their learning and health |
Powered by courage and determination，Felicity Aston,33，became the first person to ski alone across Antarctica on 15，Jan,2012.
Aston finished the 59day trip almost exactly a century after Roald Amundsen first reached the South Pole in 1911.Aston crossed 1,084 miles from the Ross Ice Shelf to Hercules Inlet.
Aston，a freelance travel writer，and explorer，faced temperatures that averaged－25 degrees as she pulled two sleds across the ice and thick snow on her nearly twomonth trip. The scariest moment came when her two lighters failed to work while she was in the Transantarctic Mountains. The lighters started working again at lower altitudes.
While early Antarctic explorers were cut off from the outside world，Aston's access to a satellite phone meant that friends and family could follow her online as she regularly tweeted(在Twitter上发微博)and made almost daily podcasts(播客)about her journey. An interactive map showed Aston's progress in real time. And while she skied，Aston listened to bands.
On New Year's Eve she noted that there would be no champagne.“No wine with me to toast the new year but treating myself to spoonfuls of the peanut butter，” Aston tweeted as the new year approached.
In Aston's last podcast，the emotional traveler recorded after she reached Hercules Inlet, “I seem to have got here in a rush or something and I don't really feel prepared for it，”said Aston.“It feels amazing to be finished and greatly sad that it's over at the same time.”
Weather permitting，Aston will return home today where she says she is looking forward to some “red wine and a hot shower”．What is Aston's most possible purpose to ski alone across Antarctica?
| A．To memorize human's arrival at the South Pole. |
| B．To become the first woman to cross the South Pole. |
| C．To make an exploration by herself and write about it. |
| D．To explore Antarctica and do science researches. |
What is the difference between Aston's trip and the early explorers'?
| A．She brought an electronic map with her. |
| B．She was monitored by a special satellite. |
| C．She suffered much lower temperatures. |
| D．She was followed online all through the trip. |
It was the most difficult for Aston when ________.
| A．the temperatures fell below－25 degrees |
| B．her two lighters failed to work in mountains. |
| C．there was no champagne on New Year's Eve |
| D．her trip across Antarctica was coming to an end |
Aston feels ________ about the ending of her trip.
| A．depressed and sorry |
| B．amazed but sad |
| C．excited and proud |
| D．tired but cheerful |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
If cars had wings，they could fly and that just might happen，beginning in 2011.The company Terrafugia，based in Woburn，Massachusetts，says it plans to deliver its carplane，the Transition，to customers by the end of 2011.
“It's the next ‘wow’ vehicle，” said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh.“Anybody can buy a Ferrari，but as we say，Ferraris don't fly.”
The carplane has wings that unfold for flying－a process the company says takes one minute－and fold back up for driving. A runway is still required to take off and land.
The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies，although it is both. The company has been working with FAA to meet aircraft regulations，and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to meet vehicle safety regulations.
The company is aiming to sell the Transition to private pilots as a more convenient and cheaper way to fly. They say it saves you the trouble from trying to find another mode of transportation to get to and from airports：You drive the car to the airport and then you're good to go. When you land，you fold up the wings and hit the road. There are no expensive parking fees because you don't have to store it at an airport－you park it in the garage at home.
The carplane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds，including fuel and passengers. Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under the bad weather instead of flying into marginal(临界的) conditions.
The Transition's price tag：$194,000.But there may be additional charges for options like a radio，a transponder or a GPS. Another option is a fullplane parachute.
“If you get into a very awful situation，it is the necessary safety option，” Gersh said.
So far，the company has more than 70 orders with deposits. “We're working very closely with them，but there are still some remaining steps，” Brown said.We can learn from the first two paragraphs that ________.
| A．carplanes will be popular in 2011 |
| B．people might drive a carplane in 2011 |
| C．both the Transition and Ferrari can take off and land |
| D．Richard Gersh is the vice president of Massachusetts |
It takes the carplane one minute to ________.
| A．fold and unfold its wings |
| B．unfold wings for flying |
| C．land in the airport |
| D．meet flying safety regulations |
According to the passage，which of the following is NOT true?
A．The carplane needs a runway to take off and land.
B．To meet aircraft regulations，the company has been working with FAA.
C．The carplane may fly as high as normal planes.
D．People can park the carplane in the garage at their home.The underlined word “it” in the last but one paragraph refers to ________.
| A．the radio |
| B．the transponder |
| C．the GPS |
| D．the fullplane parachute |
What's the best title for the passage?
| A．Cars with wings may be just around the corner |
| B．Which to choose：a Ferrari or a carplane? |
| C．A more convenient and cheaper way to fly |
| D．Cars with wings can fly as fast as planes |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
Environmentalists said our planet was doomed to die. Now one man says they are wrong.
“Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape，”thundered a magazine article last year. Species(物种) are being driven to die out at record rates，and the rivers are so poisonous that fish are floating on the surface，dead.
But there's a growing belief that what everyone takes for granted is wrong：things are actually getting better. A new book is about to overturn our most basic assumptions about the world's environment. Rivers，seas，rain and the atmosphere are all getting cleaner. The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg，professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark，is an attack on the misleading claims of environmental groups，and the “bad news” culture that makes people believe everything is getting worse.
Now the attacks are increasingly coming from leftwing environmentalists such as Lomborg，a former member of Greenpeace. The accusation is that，although the environment is improving，green groups－with profits of hundreds of millions of pounds a year－are using scare tactics(谋略) to gain donations. Lomborg's book doesn't deny global warmingprobably the biggest environmental threat－but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.
The Worldwatch Institute claims that “deforestation has been accelerating over the last 30 years”．But Lomborg says that is simply rubbish. Since the dawn of agriculture the world has lost about 20 per cent of its forest cover，but in recent decades the forest area's depleting has come to a stop. According to UN figures，the area of forests has remained almost steady，at about 30 per cent of total land area，since the 1940s.Forests in countries such as the US，the UK and Canada have actually been expanding over the past 40 years. Despite all the warnings the Amazon rainforest has only shrunk(缩小) by about 15 per cent.
Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50 per cent of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08 per cent of species are dying out each year. Conservation efforts have been successful. Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list.
Environmental groups claim that many of the improvements are the results of the success of their campaigns. Stephen Tindale，director of Greenpeace UK，said，“There are important examples，such as acid rain and ozone，where things aren't as bad as predicted，and that's because behavior has changed.”In his book，The Skeptical Environmentalist，what is Lomborg's main argument?
| A．Our planet is in bad shape. |
| B．The world's environment is improving. |
| C．The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. |
| D．Conservation efforts have been successful. |
What is Lomborg's main accusation of environmentalists?
| A．They scared people into making donations. |
| B．They overturned our basic assumptions about the world's environment. |
| C．They changed their behavior toward the environment. |
| D．They only told people bad news about the environment. |
The underlined word “depleting” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “________”．
| A．reducing |
| B．limiting |
| C．expanding |
| D．accelerating |
According to the passage，which of the following statements is true?
| A．The total area of forests in the world has increased significantly. |
| B．The effects of global warming are not as bad as first expected. |
| C．It appears that the bald eagle will survive. |
| D．In the last 50 years the number of whales has increased. |