If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Potter. J.K Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books, which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children. According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all. In 2003, 35% did. And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computes games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile. Either way, Chancellor Gordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class .In his pre-budget report, he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds, who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher. An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress, and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well, but read less often for fun than those elsewhere. Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success. According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage. Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?
| A．Many children’s books have been adapted from films. |
| B．Many high-quality children’s books have been published. |
| C．The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films. |
| D．The sales of presents for children have increased. |
Statistics suggested that .
| A．the number of top students increased with the use of computers |
| B．a decreasing number of children showed interest in reading |
| C．a minority of primary school children read properly |
| D．a large percentage of children read regularly |
What do we know about Reading Recovery?
| A．An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year. |
| B．Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking. |
| C．It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading. |
| D．Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading. |
Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________.
| A． take greater advantage of the project |
| B．show the potential to enjoy a long life |
| C．are likely to succeed in their education |
| D．would make excellent future researchers |
The aim of this text would probably be _________.
| A．to overcome primary school pupils’ reading difficulty |
| B．to encourage the publication of more children’s books |
| C．to remind children of the importance of reading for fun |
| D．to introduce a way to improve early children reading |
A new study finds that our brains are wired to make music-color connections depending on how the music makes us feel. Mozart’s “Flute Concerto No.1 in G Major” is most often associated with bright yellow and orange, whereas his “Requiem in D Minor” is linked to bluish gray, the findings revealed.
US researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, enlisted nearly 100 subjects for a study on music and color. With 37 colors, the UC Berkeley study found that people tend to pair faster-paced music in a major key with lighter, more vivid, yellow colors, whereas slower-paced music in a minor key is more likely to be teamed up with darker, grayer, bluer colors.
“Surprisingly, we can predict with 95 percent accuracy how happy or sad the colors people pick will be based on how happy or sad the music is that they are listening to,” said lead author and UC Berkeley vision scientist Stephen Palmer.
In three experiments, the subjects listened to 18 classical music pieces that varied in pace (slow, medium, fast) and in major VS minor keys. In the first experiment, participants were asked to pick five of the 37 colors that best matched the music to which they were listening. Separately, they rated each piece of music on a scale of happy to sad, strong to weak, lively to dull, and calm to angry.
Next, the research team plans to study particiapants in Turkey where traditional music employs a wider range of scales than just major and minor. “We know that in Mexico and the US the responses are very similar,” Palmer said. “But we don’t yet know about China or Turkey.”What can we know about Mozart’s “Flute Concerto No. 1 G Major”?
| A．It is fast in pace. |
| B．It is slow in pace. |
| C．It makes us feel upset. |
| D．It makes us feel optimistic. |
What did the US researchers find from the result of the new study?
| A．There are colors that do not match any music. |
| B．People tend to connect happy colors to slow-paced music |
| C．There is a one-to-one connection between music and color. |
| D．People nearly do the same in picking colors for different music. |
How did the researchers do the research?
| A．By making predictions. | B．By researching journals. |
| C．By conducting experiments. | D．By studying famous musicians. |
According to the text, the research mainly deals with __________
| A．how colors or music influence our emotions |
| B．how emotions affect music-color connections |
| C．why we have different feelings towards music |
| D．why we have different feelings towards colors |
I am an English dictionary. I can still remember the day my ex-owner bought me. He had stood in front of the shelf for around half an hour before finally picking me. Originally, he chose my neighbor. But because she had some ink on the cover, he put her down and chose me instead.
I may sound arrogant (傲慢的) . But please forgive me. I am so proud of my vocabulary. With 100,000 entries and 300,000 examples, I think no scholar can be more knowledgeable than me. My only weakness is that I can’t speak. But that is not my fault. I was not designed to speak in the first place. My ex-owner was supposed to read the phonetic symbols (音标) clearly printed beside each word, which were also my selling point. I should have been respected but have ended up lying next to a piece of used toilet paper inside the rubbish bin.
It is all because of the electronic dictionary. He is the bad guy because he takes advantage of my one weakness. And I just don’t understand why he can be so slim. He also has about 100,000entries but 450,000 examples! But I know this was not the reason why my ex-owner was attracted, for he was not a very diligent (勤奋的) student and seldom read the examples listed. The main reason was that the bad guy had so many games in him. My ex-owner always pretended to be working hard while actually he was playing games.
My ex-owner put me on his bookshelf because of my awesome English name “Advanced English Dictionary”. He wanted people to think that he was an advanced learner. I wanted to tell him that it would be better if he hid the comic books standing next to me. But, you know, I can’t speak. I stood there for years. I was so bored. So I talked to the comic book next to me. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have talked to him because I was educated and he was not. But who else could I choose? He told me that my ex-owner had read him once only and then put him there. I was upset because he had never read me from page one to page 1,000. Was I not a better book than the comic book? I wanted to challenge his honesty but before I did so, he was thrown away.
I give up. My pages are absorbing waste water. There is no way people will use me again. Suddenly, I want to talk to the comic book. Would he talk to me if we met?Why does the dictionary think that the electronic dictionary is the “bad guy”?
| A．I t contains more words and examples. |
| B．It can actually pronounce the words. |
| C．It has a smaller size. |
| D．It has many games. |
The dictionary thinks that its ex-owner put it on the bookshelf because he ______.
| A．thought that it could match the comic books |
| B．wanted his friends to study English |
| C．just wanted to show off |
| D．had to use it sometimes |
What was the dictionary’s attitude toward the comic book standing next to it?
| A．It wanted to make friends with him. |
| B．It respected him. |
| C．It envied him. |
| D．It hated him. |
Which of the following is the best title for the text?
| A．A Dictionary Is Replaced with an Electronic One |
| B．Students Seldom Use Dictionaries |
| C．A Dictionary and a Comic Book |
| D．The Experience of a Dictionary |
Taj Mahal, Agra, India
As many as 28 different varieties of precious stones were used to decorate the outside of the Taj Mahal. Construction took around 20 years. The building, which was made from white marble from the quarries(采石场) of Rajasthan, appears pink in the morning, white in the day and golden in the moonlight.
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Akashi Strait, Japan
It took 10 years to construct the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge. It connects the city of Kobe, on Japan’s mainland, with Iwaya on Awaji Island. Before it opened, the only way to get between the two cities was by ferry. However, the waterway was at the mercy of severe storms and when two ferries overturned in 1955, killing 168 people, public anger convinced the government of the need for a bridge. It's the longest suspension bridge in the world, with a length of 1,991 meters.
Panama Canal, Panama
More than 4. 5 million cubic yards of concrete were used in the construction of this canal’s locks and dams. The Panama Canal is a 47-mile long waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The earth and rubble dug to make way for it was enough to bury Manhattan to a depth of four meters. A series of locks allows ships to pass through the water. Each lock door weighs 750 tons and each lock fills with 52 million gallons of water to accommodate the 15,000 ships that use the canal every year.
Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona
The Skywalk’s foundation is strong enough to support 71 million pounds , Located 1,219 meters above the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon's Sky Walk consists of one million pounds of steel and 83,000 pounds of glass. It was the creation of Las Vegas businessman David Jin, who approached the Hualapai Tribe with the idea of a glass walkway over the Grand Canyon in 1996. The Sky walk was assembled on site.The Japanese government decided to build the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge ___________
| A．in the year of 1955 |
| B．following public opinion |
| C．to show its national power |
| D．to develop Japan’s economy |
The Grand Canyon Skywalk is probably a real challenge for those who __________
| A．are airsick |
| B．hate rock climbing |
| C．have a fear of height |
| D．feel ill traveling in boat |
In which section of a book can the text probably be seen?
| A．Science | B．Agriculture | C．Technology | D．Geography |
Has this happened to you? You’re about to drift off to sleep when suddenly you feel like you’re falling or coming down on a roller coaster.
You then wake up to realize that you’re safe in your bed. You may have been confused or frightened for a second or two and your heart may be beating faster. You may have also felt the muscles in your body jerk(抽搐) when this all happened. Did you ever wonder why?
This falling sensation, together with a body movement known as a “sleep start”, is what doctors and scientists call a myoclonic(肌阵挛的)jerk, and it usually happens right before going into deeper stages of sleep. Here’s why doctors think the falling feeling and myoclonic jerks happen. When you fall asleep, normally your body temperature goes down and your heart start to beat just a little slower. This is because your brain signals your body to relax to prepare for sleep. When your muscles are relaxed, you go into the very first stages of sleep, but you’re not sleeping too deeply yet.
This brain activity may cause your larger muscles to contract(收缩) a little bit. In response, another part of your brain will make up a very quick mini-dream to go along with what is happening. You might think this would take a while, but your brain works so fast that it makes up the story almost at the same instant that your muscles jerk.
During this light sleep, you can be awakened easily. People who wake up during this light sleep believe they haven’t fallen asleep yet. That’s why you may think that your body jerked right before you were about to fall asleep.
Myoclonic jerk are a normal part of sleep. Most people have them at one time or another. But many people don’t realize their muscles are jerking during night sleep if it doesn’t wake them up.
So the next time you dream about falling and wake up in a sweat, don’t worry! Your body is just telling your muscles to relax and get some rest!People sometimes wake up during a light sleep because______.
| A．they are disturbed by others. |
| B．they are too tired to fall asleep. |
| C．their bodies are preparing for sleep. |
| D．they believe their lives are in danger. |
What does the underlined part “ what is happening” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
| A．The body jerk | B．The mini- dream |
| C．The slow heartbeat | D．The falling body temperature |
The author thinks myoclonic jerks during sleep are _____.
| A．worrying | B．usual | C．abnormal | D．useful |
It can be inferred that myoclonic jerks ________.
A. lead to muscle disease
B. happen in a deep sleep
B. are related to brain disease
D. don’t always wake people up
Picture the scene: You come home after work feeling too exhausted to cook –only to find a delicious meal worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant waiting for you. It sounds like a fantasy, but it could be about to come true thanks to a robot chef developed by British scientists.
Those scientists have come up with a set of robotic arms so smart that they are capable of cooking meals all by themselves. The device will be sold from as early as 2017 as part of a purpose-built high-tech kitchen.
Scientists at Moley Robotics spent almost 18 years developing the hands. According to its creators, the arms can chop, stir, whisk and baste well enough to recreate almost anything you would care to eat, whether it is a simple home-cooked supper, or a complicated creation designed by a world-class chef. The hands move a little slowly, hovering strangely above the work surface whenever they are not busy, but they imitate human movements closely enough that they can do things such as wiping a spoon on the edge of a pan to prevent drips.
Mr Oleynik, who is leading the project, said, “All the things which are possible with the hand are possible here. There is no limitation. A lot of people want to go to Michelin-starred restaurants, but they are quite expensive and may be quite far from the home. This is an opportunity for people to enjoy very good food, and for a reasonable price. ”
The only cuisine that is off the robot’s menu at the moment is sushi, which requires extremely steady pressure and nimble fingers to make, but the team plan to conquer that as well by the time it goes on sale.People go to Michelin-starred restaurants in order to______.
| A．appreciate car tires. | B．enjoy delicious meals |
| C．see the new robot chefs | D．escape from work |
What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
| A．British scientists | B．The robot chef’s arms |
| C．Cooks at restaurants | D．Household wives |
Which kind of food CAN’T the robot chef cook at present?
| A．Bread | B．Beef | C．Sushi | D．Sandwich |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Hands of a robot chef can perform exactly like a cook. |
| B．Robot chefs are available at shopping malls. |
| C．Michelin-starred restaurants are suitable for many people. |
| D．It is uncertain when the robot can cook all kinds of food. |