If you haven’t heard or seen anything about Road Rage in the last few months, you’ve probably been avoiding the media. There have been countless stories about this new and scary phenomenon, considered a type of aggressive driving. You have most likely encountered aggressive driving or Road Rage recently if you drive at all.
While drunk driving remains a critical problem, the facts about aggressive driving are surely as disturbing. For instance, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association, 41,907 people died on the highway last year. Of those deaths, the agency estimates that about two-thirds were caused at least in part by aggressive driving behavior.
Why is this phenomenon occurring more than ever now, and why is it something that seemed almost nonexistent a few short years ago? Experts have several theories, and all are probably partially correct. One suggestion is extreme overcrowding. In the last decade, the number of cars on the roads has increased by more than 11 percent, and the number of miles driven has increased by 35 percent. However, the number of new road miles has only increased by 1 percent. That means more cars in the same amount of space; and the problem is severe in urban areas. Also, people have less time and more things to do. With people working and trying to fit extra chores and activities into the day, stress levels have never been higher. Stress creates anxiety, which leads to short tempers. These factors, when combined in certain situations, can spell Road Rage.
You may think you are the last person who would drive aggressively , but you might be surprised .For instance , have you ever yelled out loud at a slower driver ,sounded the horn long and hard an another car , or sped up to keep another driver from passing ?If you recognize yourself in any of these situations , watch out !.
Whether you are getting angry at other drivers, or another driver is visibly upset with you, there are things you can do to avoid any major conflict. If you are easily influenced by Road Rage, the key is to release your emotion in a healthy way. If you are the target of another driver’s rage, do everything possible to get away from the other driver safely, including avoiding eye contact and getting out of their way. The first sentence in Para. 1 implies that ______.
| A．RoadRagehasreceivedmuchmediacoverageinthelastfewmonths |
| B．themediacreatedtheterm“RoadRage”onlyafewmonthsago |
| C．onemaybeangeredbymediareportsandwantstoavoidthem |
| D．peoplenotinterestedinthemediaknowlittleaboutrecenthappenings |
The underlined word “spell” in Para. 3 means ________.
| A．relieve | B．cause | C．spread | D．prevent |
Which of the following characterizes aggressive driving?
| A．Talking while driving. | B．Driving at high speed. |
| C．Shouting at another driver. | D．Sounding the horn when passing |
The last paragraph is intended to _________.
| A．tellpeoplehowtodealwithRoadRage |
| B．informpeoplehowaggressivedriverscouldbe |
| C．showpeoplehowtocontrolthemselveswhenangry |
| D．warnpeopleagainsteyecontactwithanotherdriver |
Last year my wife and I spent a most interesting month in Turkey. Before we left, we were reminded of the difficulties of driving in Turkey. We certainly did not find this to be the case and, except for a few places in faraway mountainous areas, the roads were wide, and well-paved (铺). We drove for 12 days along the Western Coast of Turkey and had no problems at all. We found the Turkish drivers very polite and well-educated. We also found that eating lunch in the smaller towns was difficult so we picnicked almost every day.
The following day after our arrival was Turkey’s Children’s Day, started by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk loved children and he often said, “Children are a new beginning of tomorrow.” He even devoted the day 23rd of April to the children which today is celebrated as Children’s Day as well as the date when the Republic of Turkey was founded.
On that day certain children are picked to take over the places of the government, and a lucky kid will be the president of Turkey for a whole day. He can decide what’s going to happen and whether or not he is going to have the president next to him. There are a very large number of possibilities of things he can do but some shops aren’t open because they are celebrating the day as well.
All in all, it was a more enjoyable trip. I would recommend (推荐) a trip to Turkey to anyone with an adventurous spirit! Before the author and his wife went on a trip to Turkey, they were told that ________.
| A．it was difficult to travel in Turkey |
| B．it was not easy to drive in Turkey |
| C．the streets in Turkey were dangerous |
| D．there were many mountain roads |
What do we know from the first paragraph?
| A．Places in mountainous areas were difficult to reach. |
| B．It took the couple 12 days to drive to Turkey. |
| C．The Turkish drivers had good manners. |
| D．It was difficult to eat meals in Turkey. |
The underlined word “He” in paragraph 3 refers to “________”.
| A．everyone of us | B．the government |
| C．the president of Turkey | D．the lucky child |
What can be inferred(推断) from the passage?
| A．The couple had little difficulty making their way in Turkey. |
| B．Turkey doesn’t celebrate International Children’s Day. |
| C．The author joined in celebrating Turkey’s Children’s Day. |
| D．On Turkey’s Children’s Day, everyone had holidays. |
Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house. N
o card came with it. Calls to the flower-shop were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying t
o discover the sender’s name and just delighted in the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper.
But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged these imaginings. She’d ask me if there was someone for whom I had done a special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man across the street whose mail I’d delivered during the winter. As a girl, though, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy I had run into.
One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt so sad that I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation dance, and I didn’t care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In truth, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia－lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery (神秘).My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.
Which of the following would be the best title 
for the text?
| A．A Childhood Dream | B．A Mother’s Love |
| C．A Graduation Party | D．A Special Birthday |
The mother insisted that her daughter go to the graduation dance because ________.
| A．she could take care of things herself |
| B．she hoped she would find a boyfriend |
| C．she wanted her to be happy and strong |
| D．she thought education was the most important |
Who was the sender of the flower?
| A．A boy the writer had run into. | B．One of the writer’s neighbors. |
| C．One of the writer’s classmates. | D．The writer’s mother. |
For years, there has been a bias (偏见) against science among clinical psychologists (临床心理学家). In a two-year analysis to be published in November in Perspectives on Psychological Science, psychologists led by Timothy B. Baker of the University of Wisconsin charge that many clinical psychologists fail to “provide the treatments for which there is the strongest evidence of effectiveness” and “give more weight to their personal experiences than to science.” As a result, patients have no guarantee that their “treatment will be informed by … science.” Walter Mischel of Columbia University is even crueler in his judgment. “The disconnect between what clinical psychologists do and what science has discovered is an extreme embarrassment,” he told me, and “there is a widening gap between clinical practice and science.”
The “widening” reflects the great progress that psychological research has made in identifying (确认) the most effective treatments. Thanks to strict clinical trials, we now know that teaching patients to think about their thoughts in new, healthier ways and to act on those new ways of thinking are effective against depression, panic disorder and other problems, with multiple trials showing that these treatments — the tools of psychology — bring more lasting benefits than drugs.
You wouldn’t know this if you sought help from a typical clinical psychologist. Although many treatments are effective, relatively few psychologists learn or practice them.
Why in the world not? For one thing, says Baker, clinical psychologists are “very doubtful about the role of science” and “lack solid science training”. Also, one third of patients get better no matter what treatment (if any) they have, “and psychologists remember these successes, believing, wrongly, that they are the result of the treatment.”
When faced with evidence that treatments they offer are not supported by science, clinical psychologists argue that they know better than some study what works. A 2008 study of 591 psychologists in private practice found that they rely more on their own and colleagues’ experience than on science when deciding how to treat a patient. If they keep on this path as insurance companies demand evidence-based medicine, warns Mischel, psychology will “discredit itself.”Many clinical psychologists fail to provide the most effective treatments because ________.
| A．they are unfamiliar with their patients | B．they believe in science and evidence |
| C．they depend on their colleagues’ help | D．they rely on their personal experiences |
The widening gap between clinical practice and science is due to _______.
| A．the cruel judgment by Walter Mischel |
| B．the fact that most patients get better after being treated |
| C．the great progress that has been made in psychological research |
| D．the fact that patients prefer to take drugs rather than have other treatments |
How do clinical psychologists respond when charged that their treatments are not supported by science?
| A．They feel embarrassed. | B．They try to defend themselves. |
| C．They are disappointed. | D．They doubt their treatments. |
In Mischel’s opinion, psychology will ____.
| A．destroy its own reputation if no improvement is made |
| B．develop faster with the support of insurance companies |
| C．work together with insurance companies to provide better treatment |
| D．become more reliable if insurance companies won’t demand evidence-based medicine |
We keep reading that TV is bad for you. If this is true, how come the cur
rent generation of TV-addicted kids is much smarter than we are? In my home, the only people who can work the remote control are the children.
Perhaps TV does educate you. For example, you learn a useful medical fact: A person who has been shot always has time to speak an incomplete sentence before he dies. “The killer was…” (dies)
But I guess the biggest things we learn from TV can be regarded as “Life Skills”. Bad things only happen on dark and stormy nights. Emotional breakdowns cause people to wander in the heavy rain without umbrellas. And contrary to what scientists say, the crack(霹雳) of lightning and the accompanying flash happen at exactly the same time, wherever you are.
I’ve even acquired useful geographical facts from science-fiction shows: Aliens speak English no matter which planet they come from.
Making use of what we learn from TV can improve our security. Consider these truths. If you are ever attacked by 20 bad guys, don’t worry about being outnumbered. The criminals will hang back and take turns to approach you in ones and twos just so you can conveniently defeat them all. Bad guys who are completely covered in black clothes always remove their black masks to reveal that they are in fact, aha, women.
TV also teaches us important information about escaping from danger. Watch and learn. (1) If anyone is running after you down a passage, you will find that boxes have been conveniently placed near all the walls you need to jump over. (2) If you are tall and handsome, you can run from any number of armed criminals, and every shot will miss you.
Be warned, however. If your name card says “henchman” (帮凶) and you are part of a group of plain-looking people trying to catch a handsome individual, a single shot will kill you. But don’t be anxious: TV also delivers useful information for bad guys. All cars are inflammable (易燃的) and have amazing shock absorbers that enable them to fly into the air and land without damage — except police cars.
TV even teaches us about TV. Whenever anyone turns on a TV, it shows a news flash about someone they know. They then turn the box off immediately after that news item.By saying “A person who has been shot always has time to speak an incomplete sentence
before he dies” (Paragraph 2), the writer shows his________.
| A．humor | B．sympathy |
| C．deep concern | D．medical knowledge |
We can infer from Paragraph 3 that in the real world_______.
A．bad things cause people to break down in the ra in |
| B．bad things never happen on dark and stormy nights |
| C．people with emotional problems like to walk in the rain without umbrellas |
| D．the crack of lightning and the accompanying flash don’t happen at the same time |
On TV what usually happens when a person turns it on?
| A．The news shown is always about someone the person knows. |
| B．The person always turns off the TV when it’s time for news. |
| C．The program shown is always about the importance of TV. |
| D．TV always shows news about famous people. |
What’s the main idea of this passage?
| A．Life skills can be learned from TV. |
| B．TV plays an important role in society. |
| C．Watching TV makes people more creative. |
| D．What happens in TV is very different from reality. |
One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions (假设) in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. I exercise all the time, but I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn’t all the exercise getting rid of it?
It’s a question many of us could ask. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. Still, as one major study — the Minnesota Heart Survey — found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly.
And yet obesity (肥胖) figures have risen sharply in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government’s definition. Yes, it’s entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don’t. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?
The popular belief that exercise is essential for weight control is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against too much exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly over-evaluated.
“In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, exercise researcher at Louisiana State University. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.
The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can make one hungry. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate (使无效) the weight-loss benefits we just gained. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder. From the passage we learn that ____.
| A．some Americans join a health club but never go there |
| B．the number of overweight people has doubled since 1993 |
| C．more than 45 million Americans now go to the gym regularly |
| D．Americans waste too much money each year on sports |
According to the passage, exercise ____.
A．has long been believed to be good for older adults |
| B．is not properly advertised as an effective way to lose weight |
| C．was first recognized as an effective way to lose weight in the 1960s |
| D．is less effective in preventing heart disease than what doctors believe |
According to the writer, people might gain weight because ____.
| A．they have the habit of going to the gym regularly |
| B．they eat the same food when they do not exercise |
| C．they exercise less than required by doctors |
| D．they eat more after they exercise |
What may be the best title for this passage?
| A．Overweight Is Not Good for Your Health |
| B．Exercise Won’t Make You Thin |
| C．Gym Is Part of American Lifestyle |
| D．Obesity Is a Social Problem in America |