It is often said that you cannot “teach an old dog new tricks”, but three New Zealand dogs have decided to prove otherwise 
by learning a skill—driving a car!
What’s even more impressive is that the three who have become skilled in just eight weeks are not special dogs that belong to some rich owners, but abandoned ones at New Zealand’s SPCA.
To get their training started, 10-month-old Porter, 18-month-old Monty and one-year-old Ginny were selected from a pool of seven potential candidates and moved to Animal Q, a talent agency that teaches animals tricks for movies and television shows.
The driving classes began with teaching the dogs some basic driving techniques like turning the steering wheels(方向盘)and applying the brakes. After that the dogs practiced everything they had learnt behind the wheels of a motorized(装上发动机的)car. Then finally, it was time for the big test-driving a real car!
Human cars are not really built for four-legged animals, so the car they drove was adjusted so that the dogs could sit comfortably and easily reach the steering wheel with their paws.
Though they all seemed to do very well, the real test came on Monday night when Monty, the best driver of the three, showed his great driving skill on live television.
Why would the SPCA go through so much trouble to highlight the skills of homeless dogs? The reason is to show that adopting a dog from a shelter does not mean owners are getting a pet that is worse than one purchased from a keeper. The CEO of the SPCA is hoping that this unusual event will be enough to convince the residents of New Zealand to consider them, when searching for a pet. We surely hope so, meanwhile we are almost certain that these three pioneers have at least landed their names in the Guinness World Records, creating a category that probably does not even exist today! Who do the three dogs belong to?
| A． Some rich owners. | B． Animal Q. |
| C． A shelter. | D． A zoo. |
The car the dogs drove was adjusted .
| A． because it was too big for the dogs to drive |
| B． because it had no steering wheels and brakes |
| C． to ensure the dogs could sit comfortably and drive easily |
| D． to motorize the car and turn it to be a real one |
Why does the SPCA decide to teach the three dogs to learn to drive a car?
| A． To prove old dogs can learn new tricks. |
| B． To teach them performing tricks for movies and television shows. |
| C． To provide amusing performances for homeless children. |
| D． To encourage people to adopt the abandoned dogs. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A． A new Guinness category for driving dogs will probably be created. |
| B． Abandoned dogs are much cleverer than house-kept ones. |
| C． All the dogs at New Zealand’s SPCA will soon be adopted. |
| D． New Zealand has the most homeless dogs among all countries. |
You just think you know what will make you happy. Researchers in the new science of happiness know better. They have evidence that married people on average end up being no happier than they were before the wedding. Winning the lottery (彩票) will probably reduce your pleasure in ordinary events that used to make you happy. And being in good health isn't as much of a factor as the right genes when it comes to satisfaction.
Soligman and Diener studied 222 Illinois college students to find out what the happiest 10% had in common. It turned out they were extroverts (外向的人), had more friendships and romantic relationships, but didn't exercise more and didn't feel they had more good events in their lives than those who weren’t as happy.
Some of the results come as a surprise. A classic study of lottery winners and people with spinal (脊骨) cord injuries, for instance, found that neither event changed their lives as much as observers thought they would.
Gilbert is looking into how accurately people predict what will make them happy, he turns out, not accurately at all. What we think will ring us pleasure – a new car, the home team winning the NCAA championship, a move to California-usually doesn't bring us as much as we expected, and the positive impact doesn't last as long. The good news is that we also over estimate the impact of catastrophic (灾难性的) events. Even with data from research pouring in, scientists still don't have an easy answer to what we all want to know: How do I get long-term life satisfaction? The answers they do have are often the same ones that philosophers and priests have been giving us for centuries. It's just nice to have them backed up with hard data.What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．A research on happiness. |
| B．The level of happiness. |
| C．The secrets of happiness. |
| D．The prediction of happiness. |
The happiest people have the following characters except that _____.
| A．they are rich |
| B．they are outgoing |
| C．they are very sociable |
| D．they don’t pay more attention to exercise |
According to the passage, we can know if the hurricane happens, it will cause _____.
| A．more suffering than people expect |
| B．as much suffering as people expect |
| C．less suffering than people expect |
| D．nothing is mentioned about it |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．We ourselves know what makes us happy the best. |
| B．The happiest 10% in the world have nothing in common. |
| C．People can predict the things that make them happy accurately. |
| D．We just need to do what the philosophers and priests tell us to keep happy. |
A spiraling (呈螺旋形的) tower made from thousands of books in dozens of languages is the later landmark in Buenos Ares, named the World Bok Capital this year.
Called the Tower of Babel, the 25-metrehigh tower by Argentine artist Marta Minujin is made from 30,000books, donated by readers, libraries and more than 50embassies.
Climbing up its seven floors, visitors to the tower hear music composed by Minujin and the voice of the artist repeating the word “book” in scores of languages.
“Building this tower is really a wonder,”Minujin said, standing before the structure as curious passers-by looked at a downtown city square. “A hundred years from now, Peple will say 'there was a Tower of Babel in Argentina... and it didn't need translation because art needs no translation'.”
Minujin, who worked with US artist Andy Warhol, built a full-scale mode of the Parthenon in Buenos Aires in1983, using books banned by the military dictatorship(专政) that ended that year.
This year's book tower marks Buenos Aires' naming as the 2011 · World Book Capital by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“We've been laying books for 10 days straight,” said Sebastian Atienza, 26, who works for the company that built the tower under Minujin's command. “But it's worth it. It's where all languages come together.”
When the exhibit ends later this month, Minujin said literature lovers will be allowed to come and pick one book each. The rest will be brought down to start a new archive (档案馆) that has already been named The Library of Babel, the name of a story by Argentina's most famous author, Jorge Luis Borges.According to the passage, the Tower of Babel _____.
| A．is made from 30,000 books from nearly 50 countries |
| B．is designed by American artist Marta Minujin |
| C．will hold the book exhibition for 10 days |
| D．has a height of twenty-five metres |
After the book exhibition, most books will be _____.
| A．handed out among visitors |
| B．donated to UNESCO |
| C．sent to Argentina’s new archive |
| D．bought by Jorge Luis Borges |
The passage is probably taken from a(n) _____.
| A．advertisement |
| B．tourism guide |
| C．textbook |
| D．newpapers |
The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.
A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly paintings, or a blank panel while the team zapped(照射) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. He subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.
While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Professor Marina de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.
The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
“Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too,” said the neurologist. “Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse.” “I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering.”
Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian20thcentury artist Antonio Buenoand Columbian Fernando Botero.“ These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world,” said Professor Marina de Tommaso.The underlined word “alleviate” in Paragraph 5 probably means “_____”.
| A．cure | B．ease |
| C．improve | D．kill |
How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?
| A．4. | B．5. |
| C．6. | D．7. |
Which of the following is TRUE about the view of Professor Marina de Tommaso’s?
| A．Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely. |
| B．Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first. |
| C．Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse. |
| D．Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients. |
From the last paragraph, we know that _____.
| A．some artists’ paintings were beautiful, so they were masterpieces |
| B．only art experts could judge whether they were masterpieces or not, though ugly |
| C．the artists mentioned above were not really art masters |
| D．some of them were art masters, while others were not |
Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Beautiful surroundings can ease pain. |
| B．Ugly paintings could be masterpieces. |
| C．More paintings should be done in the field. |
| D．Latest environmental research |
Welcome to one of the largest collections of footwear (鞋类) in the world that will make you green with envy. Here at he Footwear Museum you can see exhibits (展品) from all over the world. You can find out about shoes worn by everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to pop stars.
| Room 1 The celebrity () footwear section is probably the most popular in the entire museum. Started in the 1950s there is a wide variety of shoes and boots belonging to everyone from queens and presidents to pop stars and actors! Most visitors find the celebrities' choice of footwear extremely interesting. |
Room 2 Most of our visitors are amazed-and shocked-by the collection of “special purpose” shoes on exhibition here at the Museum of Footwear. For example, there are Chinese shoes made of silk that were worn by women to tie their feet firmly to prevent them from growing too much! |
| Rome 3 As well as shoes and boots the museum also exhibits shoe-shaped objects. The variety is unbelievable. For example, there is a metal lamp that resembles a pair of shoes, and Greek wine bottles that look like legs! |
The Footwear Library People come from all over the world to study in our excellent footwear library. Designers and researchers come here to look up information on anything and everything related to the subject of footwear. |
Where would you find a famous singer’s shoes?
| A．Room 1. |
| B．Room 2. |
| C．Room 3. |
| D．The Footwear Library. |
All exhibits in each room _____.
| A．share the same theme |
| B．have the same shape |
| C．are made of the same material |
| D．belong to the same social class |
Which of the following is true according to the text、
| A．The oldest exhibits in Room 1 were made in the 1950s. |
| B．Room 2 is the most visited place in the museum. |
| C．Room 3 has a richer variety of exhibits than the other two. |
| D．Researchers come to the Footwear Library for data. |
The purpose of the text is to get more people to _____.
| A．do research |
| B．design shoes |
| C．visit the museum |
| D．follow celebrities |
The Taj Mahal (泰姬陵) is considered to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the fines example of the late style of Indian architecture. It is at Agra in northern India. It lies beside the River Jumna in the middle of gardens with quiet pools. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mogul emperor (皇帝) Shah Jahan, who ruled India in the seventeenth century. It is in memory of his favorite wife, Arjum and Banu Bagam, known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631.
The building, which was completed between 1632 and 1638,was designed by a local Muslim architect (建筑师) Ustad Ahmad Lahori. Thewhole building, with gardens and gateway structures, was completed in 1643. The Taj Mahal stands at one end of the garden tomb with the marble (大理石) path. The room is softly lighted by the light that passes through double screens of carved marble set high in the walls. The building now is kept in good condition.
The Taj Mahal took 22 years to build. Shah Jahan planned a similar building, but in black instead of white, to lie on the other side of the river. But before it could be built, ShahJahan was imprisoned (监禁) by his son and buried next to his wife in the Taj Mahal.The Taj Mahal was built for _____.
| A．Mumtaz |
| B．Shah |
| C．Either Mumtaz or Shah |
| D．Both Mumtaz and Shah |
Why do you think Shah Jahan was buried next to his wife?
| A．His own tomb hadn’t been built. |
| B．He hoped to be buried there. |
| C．King and Queen should be buried together. |
| D．He liked Mumtaz all his life. |
The passage mainly tells us _____.
| A．why the Taj Mahal was built |
| B．the love story between Mumtaz and Shah |
| C．some information about the Taj Mahal |
| D．the Taj Mahal—the pride of Indians |
From the passage we can learn that _____.
| A．the Taj Mahal looks more beautiful than before |
| B．the Taj Mahal doesn’t exist now |
| C．the Taj Mahal has completely changed |
| D．the Taj Mahal has become a place of interest |
How many years did it take to build the Taj Mahal?
| A．20 years. |
| B．22 years. |
| C．12 years. |
| D．23 years. |