Back in the early 1900s, American physician Byron Robinson wrote a book proposing an interesting theory: humans actually have two brains --- one in our heads and the other in our stomachs, and the two “communicate” all the time. Interestingly, in Chinese culture, thoughts are also related to the belly in phrases and idioms like fugao (腹稿, a draft), manfu jinglun (满腹经纶, a bellyful of ideas), and yiduzi weiqu (一肚子委屈, a bellyful of complaints).
This may sound a little ridiculous at first. But try to think of a time when you were extremely nervous. Chances are that you also felt uncomfortable in your stomach, didn’t you? This is probably why people use the idiom “butterflies in one’s stomach” to refer to being nervous.
Now scientists from Canada and the US have found that our guts (肠道), if not as bright as our actual brains, are much more than just where we digest the food we eat. They also affect our emotions and even behavior, all thanks to the bacteria in them, reported Scientific American.
In the study, scientists fed timid mice stomach bacteria from mice that were more active and daring. After eating the bacteria, the timid mice grew more energetic and fearless. Sure enough, when bold mice got the bacteria from timid ones, they became more anxious. The mice’s behavior also changed when scientists disturbed the bacteria in their guts by changing their diets and feeding them antibiotics (抗生素).
“If something goes wrong in the gut, that change is reflected in the brain,” Emeran Mayer, a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, told The Huffington Post.
The brain-and-gut connection also works in the opposite way. Scientists studied children with autism (自闭症) --- a mental illness that makes people unable to socialize with others --- and found that they also have a lot of stomach problems. They have fewer types of stomach bacteria and lower totals of a few key bacteria than healthy children.
This research raises the possibility that scientists could treat patients with brain problems simply by feeding them the right food, which would be much more efficient than providing psychological therapy (疗法).
According to CBC News, you can get “good” bacteria that lift your spirits from food like yogurt while “bad” bacteria are usually in high fat and high sugar foods.What is the author’s attitude toward Byron Robinson’s theory of two human brains?
| A．Unsatisfied. | B．Doubtful. | C．Positive. | D．Negative. |
The author mentioned the idiom “butterflies in one’s stomach” in the second paragraph to _____.
| A．describe the symptoms of nervousness |
| B．suggest a connection between our stomach and our emotions |
| C．hint at the danger of nervous feelings |
| D．encourage people to calm down and relax |
What’s the closest meaning of the underlined word “bold” in Paragraph 4?
| A．anxious | B．fearless | C．energetic | D．sharp |
According to the article, ______.
| A．people with mental illnesses are more likely to have stomach problems |
| B．the use of antibiotics can turn timid mice into daring ones |
| C．timid mice have fewer types of stomach bacteria than daring mice |
| D．people must consider changing their diets when they feel anxious |
We can infer from the article that______.
| A．psychological therapy has never worked before for autistic children |
| B．yogurt is the best solution for anxiety problems |
| C．high fat and high sugar foods are responsible for many mental diseases |
| D．diet changes can lead to mood changes |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows (誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion (提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love，and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(休闲) but work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives，our days，our hours，and our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of living. I learned to live many years ago. Something really，really bad happened to me，something that changed my life. If I had my choice，it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what，today，seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey，not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and tried to give some of it back because I believed in it，completely and totally. And I tried to do that，in part，by telling others what I had learned.
By telling them this：read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness，because if you do，you will live with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.How did the author form her view of life?
| A．Through social experience. |
| B．By learning from her friends. |
| C．Through an unfortunate experience. |
| D． From her children and husband. |
By the underlined sentence “It is so easy to exist instead of living.” in the fifth paragraph，the author really means that people tend to________.
| A．make a living rather than live a real life |
| B．work rather than enjoy life |
| C．waste a lot in life |
| D．forget the most important lesson in life |
What’s the author’s attitude towards work?
| A．Do it well to serve others. |
| B．Earn enough money to make life better. |
| C．Try your best to get higher position and pay. |
| D．Don’t let it affect your real life. |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．the author is a success in personal life |
| B．the author doesn’t try her best to work well |
| C．the author spends all her time caring for her children |
| D．the author likes traveling very much |
As a boy I was always small for my age. I was also five years younger than one of my brothers and seven years younger than the other. As a result I often felt left out when their friends came over to play. I was either too small or too young for whatever they were doing and they didn't want their younger brother listening to their conversations either. More often than not I found myself outside playing alone and feeling forgotten.
I remember one spring afternoon feeling especially lonely as I sat in the yard behind our house. We lived miles from town and I hardly saw my own friends outside of school. I heard my brothers laughing from inside the house and felt a single tear coming down my cheek. At that moment I saw a large brown dog walking over to me. He looked happy and his tail was wagging as well. Even though he didn't know me he greeted me like a long lost friend, licking(舔) my chin and sitting beside me on the spring grass. It must have been at least an hour that I patted and talked to this four-legged angel. He let me pour out all my troubles and share my deepest thoughts before he kissed my cheek goodbye and ambled off either to Heaven or his home. I went back inside feeling happy, knowing that no matter what life may hold I was loved. Now over 40 years later I still remember that angel with a smile.
I believe that God sent him at that moment of sadness to remind me just how much he loved me. There is nothing more important than knowing we are loved. When we are loved, we will learn to love others. Learning to love helps us to understand ourselves and other people better.How did the writer feel when his brothers’ friends came?
| A．Proud. | B．Worried. |
| C．Lonely. | D．Happy. |
The writer shared his troubles and thoughts with the dog because ______.
| A．it was his friend | B．it could understand him |
| C．it looked like an angel | D．it was friendly to him |
From Paragraph 2, we can learn that ______.
| A．the boy met a long lost friend |
| B．the boy had no friends at school |
| C．the dog spent the afternoon with the boy and his brothers |
| D．the dog helped the boy realize that he was loved |
The author wrote the story to______.
| A．encourage people to talk about their troubles |
| B．show knowing you are loved is the most important |
| C．tell people they should treat animals friendly |
| D．share his unforgettable experience with us |
Speak, speak, speak!
Practise speaking as often as you can. Speaking to yourself is good practice.
Try recording yourself whenever you can.
Compare your pronunciation with the master version（原版）to see how you can do better and have another go. If you do this several times, you will find that each time is better than last.
Why not learn with someone else?
It helps if you can learn with someone else. If you can persuade a friend or family member to study with you, it will make you keep working.
Don't get stuck by a word you don't know.
Practise improving ways of getting your meaning across when speaking spontaneously（本能地），even if you don't know the exact words or phrases. Think of things you might want to say whenever you have spare time. Use facial expressions, hand movements, anything to make yourself understood.
Language learning is also about intuition（直觉）．
Guesswork is an important way to learn a new language. When listening to recorded material, you aren't expected to understand everything first time round. If you play the same piece several times, you will most probably understand something new each time.
Build up your vocabulary.
A wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning but don’t try to learn too much at once. It’s best to study frequently for short periods of time. Take at most six or seven items of vocabulary and learn them. Put them into sentences to fix them in your mind, and then come back to them later.
And above all, have fun!What’s the purpose of this passage?
| A．To tell us the importance of practicing speaking as often as we can. |
| B．To tell us a few tips to help us learn a new language well. |
| C．To tell us that guesswork is an important way to learn a new language. |
| D．To tell us that a wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase in the first part?
| A．Have another try or attempt. |
| B．Move away from a place to another. |
| C．Enter a certain state or condition. |
| D．Follow or take a certain course. |
To learn English well, we shouldn’t _______ according to the passage.
| A．practice speaking as often as possible |
| B．study frequently for short periods of time to build up our vocabulary |
| C．try to understand everything and stop when we meet a new word |
| D．try to persuade a friend or family member to study with us |
Some time ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there are a whole lot of antique(古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception(接待). I was quite wrong. The man wouldn’t even look at my chair.
The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth — so I decided that my approach must be wrong.
I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said, “Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds.” I said. “OK,” he said, “I’ll give you 20 pounds.” “It’s got a slightly broken leg,” I said. “Yes, I saw that, it’s nothing.”
Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?” I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.” “I’ll buy it,” I said. “You’ve just sold it to me,” he said. “Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I am sorry. I’ll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.” “You must be crazy,” he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.” “You’re right,” I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said ‘Would you mend this chair for me?’” “I wouldn’t have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don’t do repairs. Not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused(感到有趣)by the whole thing.We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer _______.
| A．was rather impolite |
| B．was warmly received |
| C．asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair |
| D．asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair |
The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper _______.
| A．changed his mind | B．accepted the offer |
| C．saw the writer’s purpose | D．decided to help the write |
How much did the writer pay?
| A．＄5 | B．＄7 | C．＄20 | D．＄27 |
From the text, we can learn that the writer was _______.
| A．honest | B．careful |
| C．smart | D．Funny |
If you are living in the city, have you ever thought of going to live in the country for a change?
Many people want to move from the country to the city because they think life in the city is more exciting and better than that in rural (农村的) areas, especially young people who like new and modern things.
Often people feel that they can find the latest styles only in the city. Other people are interested in technological (科技的) things and high-tech jobs and think they can find them only in a big city. If they want to find a job, especially a good position in a company, they feel they have to live in a city. To get these jobs, they are willing to put up with many of the disadvantages (不利因素) of city life such as heavy traffic and pollution.
However, it is now possible to enjoy a higher quality of life in the countryside and still enjoy some of the advantages (好处) of living in the city.
Nowadays, travel is fast and information is available (可获得的) on the Internet, so many people are able to do their work in home offices.
Because they have e-mail and personal computers, they don't have to be in big cities to do their business. It is not important where they actually work because the results of their work can be sent everywhere with technology. Now they can enjoy life in the countryside and still be able to do good business and successful careers.The underlined phrase “put up with” (in Para. 3) probably means “_____”.
| A．change | B．stand |
| C．be angry with | D．be pleased with |
Now people can enjoy life in the countryside and still be able to do good business and successful careers _____.
| A．because of the Internet and fast travel |
| B．because of e-mail and personal computers |
| C．because travel is fast |
| D．because the rural areas are developing faster than cities |
What is the author's opinion?
| A．She / he prefers to live in the countryside rather than live in the city. |
| B．She / he prefers to live in the city rather than live in the countryside. |
| C．She / he likes both city life and countryside life. |
| D．It is not clear which life she / he prefers. |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Life in the city | B．Life in the country |
| C．Go and live in the city | D．Go and live in the country |