Scientists in UK have grown a living human "brain". The team at Aston University created tiny bunch of cells which act like a mini nervous system.
They believe it could help find a cure for worse mental conditions like Parkinson’s disease. Professor Michael Coleman is leading the research program. He explained, "We are aiming to be able to study the human brain at the most basic level, using an actual living human cell system. Cells have to be alive and operating efficiently to enable us to really understand how the brain works. "The experiment involves changing cells from a cancer tumour (肿瘤）and making them behave like brain cells.
Although far from finished, researchers hope the false brain cells will give them a greater understanding of how real brains work. This, in turn, could significantly further research into conditions which affect the brain. Neil Hunt, chief leader of the research group, said, "It is still very early days, but in the future the research could lead to a useful tool for looking into dementia (痴呆)."
The technique could also provide a way to carry on animal test and is being supported by the Humane Research Trust (HRT). The scientists predict that over the next ten years a million people will develop dementia. Professor Coleman believes their findings could change this. He said，"We hope our research will provide scientists with a new and highly relational human experimental model to help them understand the brain better and develop new drugs to control the related disease. However, the biggest challenge at present is that we are greatly short of fund, which will slow our research."UK scientists grow a living human "brain" in order to ______.
| A．study the structure of human brain |
| B．make use of living human cell system |
| C．discover how human brain really works |
| D．separate cells from a cancer tumour |
According to Neil Hunt, research into brain cells ______.
| A．will get finished as early as possible |
| B．will make people discover dementia |
| C．will affect the brain growth in many ways |
| D．will help to treat some diseases in nerve system |
From the last paragraph，we can know that ______
| A．the technique provided by HRT is immature |
| B．animal tests are no longer allowed by law |
| C．a million people suffer from brain diseases |
| D．the research program lacks financial support |
The text is intended to ______.
| A．tell us about a breakthrough in medical research |
| B．introduce a research program in human's brain |
| C．introduce the progress of drugs for dementia |
| D．tell us about health problem in nerve system |
America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect American society in many ways — education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the aging of America has made us a very different society — one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior is suitable at various ages.
A person’s age no longer tells you anything about his/ her social position, marriage or health. There’s no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school, get a job, or stop working isn’t as strong as it used to be. It doesn’t surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the first time. Public ideas are changing.
Many people say, “I am much younger than my mother or my father was at my age.” No one says “Act your age” any more. We’ve stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways.It can be learned from the text that the aging of the population in America ________.
| A．has made people feel younger |
| B．has changed people’s social position |
| C．has changed people’s understanding of age |
| D．has slowed down the country’s social development |
The underlined word “one” refers to ________.
| A．a society | B．America | C．a place | D．population |
“Act your age” means people should ________.
| A．be active when they are old |
| B．do the right thing at the right age |
| C．show respect to their parents young or old |
| D．take more physical exercises suitable to their age |
f a’ 25-year-old man becomes general manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it _________.
| A．normal | B．wonderful | C．unbelievable | D．unreasonable |
The question of what children learn, and how they should learn, is continually being debated and redebated. Nobody dares any longer to defend the old system, the learning of lessons parrot-fashion, the grammar-with-a-whip system, which was good enough for our grandparents. The theories of modem psychology have stepped in to argue that we must understand the need of children. Children are not just small adults; they are children who must be respected as much.
Well, you may say, this is as it should be, a good idea. But think further. What happens? "Education" becomes the responsibility not of teachers, but of psychologists (心里学家). What happens then? Teachers worry too much about the psychological implications (暗示) of their lessons, and forget about the subjects themselves. If a child dislikes a lesson, the teacher feels that it is his fault, not the child’s. So teachers worry whether history is "relevant" to modern young children. And do they dare to recount stories about violence? Or will this make the children themselves violent? Can they tell their classes about children of different races, or will this encourage racial hatred? Why teach children to write grammatical sentences? Verbal expression is better. Sums? Arithmetic? No: Real-life mathematical situations are more understandable.
You see, you can go too far. Influenced by educational theorists, who have nothing better to do than to write books about their ideas, teachers leave their teacher-training colleges filled with grand, psychological ideas about children and their needs. They make elaborate, sophisticated (精致的，复杂的) preparations and try out their "modem methods" on the long-suffering children. Since one "modem method" rapidly replaces another the poor kids will have had a good bellyful by the time they leave school. Frequently the modem methods are so sophisticated that they fail to be understood by the teachers, let alone the children; even more often, the relaxed discipline so essential for the " informal" feelings the class must have, prevents all but a handful of children from learning anything.People do not dare defend the old system mainly because under the old system________.
| A．too much grammar was taught to children |
| B．children were spoiled (宠坏) |
| C．children were treated as grown-ups |
| D．children were made to learn passively(被动的) |
What view do the modem psychologists hold?
| A．Children must be understood and respected. |
| B．Children are small adults and know what they need. |
| C．Children are better off without learning lessons. |
| D．Education of children is the responsibility of psychologists. |
What happens when teachers pay too much attention to the psychology of their lessons?
| A．They find that the children dislike the lessons. |
| B．They tend to blame students for their failure. |
| C．They do not pay enough attention to the actual lessons. |
| D．They no longer want to teach children history. |
Grammatical sentences are regarded as unimportant because ________.
| A．it is better to use verbs only |
| B．words are said out of natural feelings only |
| C．talking freely and naturally without sentences is a better form of expression |
| D．it is felt that formal grammar rules might cause unnatural expressions |
according to the passage, the modern methods are understood by ________.
| A．neither teachers nor pupils |
| B．only a handful of teachers and pupils |
| C．the more sophisticated teachers |
| D．everyone who enjoys the relaxed discipline of the informal classes |
As a human being you may have the choice of three basic attitudes towards life. You may treat life with the philosophy (哲学) of the vegetable, in which case your life will include being born, eating, drinking, sleeping, marrying, growing old and dying.
The second basic attitude is to look at life as if it were a business. A great many so-called successful men and women believe that life is a business. If you believe so, your first question of life, naturally, is " What do I get out of it? " " How much is this worth to me?" In a word, based on this attitude, happiness becomes a matter of successful competition. The great majority of human beings today look at life as if it were a business.
The third attitude toward life is the way of the artist. Here the basic philosophy is "What can I put into it?". They value cooperation and contribution. This point of view has been proved by history; for history remembers best those who have contributed most richly to the interests of their fellow-men. The more we investigate(调查),the more we become certain that the artistic attitude is the only one which goes with human happiness.From the passage we know people who take the second life attitude ________.
| A．are mostly businessmen |
| B．think of getting the interests (利益) first |
| C．find their happiness from hard work |
| D．take competition as their whole life |
People who are best remembered by history are probably
| A．those living on vegetables | B．successful men |
| C．artists | D．businessmen |
We may infer from this passage that ________.
| A．some people are living only on vegetables |
| B．the artistic attitude is accepted by most people |
| C．the writer prefers the third life attitude |
| D．artists do most for the society in order to be remembered longer than others |
Brazil has become one. of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil had better results without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
Brazil’s population growth rate dropped from 2. 99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1. 93% a year between 198 land 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2. 7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (肥皂剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values: not many children, women working, says Martine. They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious (有意识的) of other patterns of behaviour and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.
Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. " This led to an enormous change in consumption (消费) patterns and consumption was incompatible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Martine.according to the passage, Brazil has lowered its population growth ________.
| A．by educating its citizens | B．by careful family planning |
| C．by developing TV programmes | D．by chance |
according to the passage, many Third World countries
| A．haven’t given much attention to birth control |
| B．would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate |
| C．haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population |
| D．haven’t realized the importance of TV plays in family planning |
Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ________.
| A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV |
| B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life |
| C．people are drawn to their attractive package |
| D．they popularize birth control measures |
What is Martine’s conclusion about Brazil’s population growth?
| A．The increase in birth rate will increase consumption. |
| B．The desire for consumption helps to reduce birth rate. |
| C．Consumption goes with reproduction. |
| D．A country ‘s production is limited by its population growth. |
In a time of low academic (学术的) achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. however, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents (答问卷者) listed "to give children a good start academically" as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents.
In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondents chose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. 62 percent of the more individually oriented (强调个性发展的) Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education.
Like in America, there is diversity (多样性) in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential (潜力) development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools.
Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children’s chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.We learn from the first paragraph that many Americans believe ________.
| A．Japanese parents pay more attention to preschool education than American parents |
| B．Japan’s economic success is a result of its scientific achievements |
| C．Japanese preschool education emphasizes academic instruction |
| D．Japan’s higher education is better than theirs |
Most American respondents believe that preschools should also attach
importance to ________.
| A．problem solving | B．group experience |
| C．parental guidance | D．individually oriented development |
In Japan’s preschool education, the focus is on ________.
| A．preparing children academically | B．developing children’s artistic interests |
| C．tapping children’s potential | D．shaping children’s character |
Why do some Japanese parents send their children to university-based kindergartens?
| A．They can do better in their future studies. |
| B．They can gain more group experience there. |
| C．They can be individually oriented when they grow up. |
| D．They can have better chances of getting a first-rate education. |