On May 23,1989, Stefania Follini came out from a cave at Carlsbad, New Mexico. She hadn’t seen the sun for eighteen and a half weeks. Stefania was in a research program, and the scientists in the program were studying body rhythms (节奏)。In this experiment Stefania had spent 130 days in a cave, 30 feet in depth.
During her time in the cave, Stefania had been completely alone except for two white mice. Her living place had been very comfortable, but there had been nothing to fell her the time. She’d had no clock or watches, no television or radio. There had been no natural light and the temperature had always been kept at 21℃.
The results were very interesting. Stefania had been in the cave for over four months, but she thought she had been there for only two. Her body clock had changed. She hadn't kept to a 24-hour day. She had stayed awake for 20-25 hours and then had slept for 10 hours. She had eaten fewer meals and had lost 17lbs in weight as a result! She had also become rather depressed (抑郁).
How had she spent her time in the cave? As part of the experiment she'd done some physical and mental tests. She'd recorded her daily activities and the results of the tests on a computer. This computer had been specially programmed for the project. Whenever she was free, she'd played cards, read books and listened to music. She'd also learned French from tapes.
The experiment showed that our body clocks are affected by light and temperature, For example, the pattern of day and night makes us wake up and go to sleep. However, People are affected in different ways. Some people wake up naturally at 5:00 am, but others don't start to wake up till 9:00 or 10;00 am. This affects the whole daily rhythm. As a result, the early risers are at their best in the late morning. The late risers, on the other hand, are tired during the day and only come to life in the afternoon or evening! Stefania stayed in the cave for a long time because___________.
| A．she was asked to do research on mice | B．she wanted to experience loneliness |
| C．she was the subject of a study | D．she needed to record her life |
What is a cause for the change of Stefania’s body clock?
| A．Eating fewer meals. | B．Having more hours of sleep |
| C．Lacking physical exercise. | D．Getting no natural light. |
Where does the text probably come from?
| A．A novel | B．A news story | C．A pet magazine | D．A travel guide |
Maggie was very glad that James was not a frequent visitor to the house. In the children’s opinion, they had something that they couldn’t explain or understand about him and that excited their imagination. He stirred(激起) Maggie’s anger, however, so that she often said to her husband. “It’s mercy that brother of yours doesn’t come oftener.”
In fact James came once a year, unexpectedly, around eight o’clock in the evening, and he stayed for six hours of close discussion with his brother. His arrival was a signal to the children that their bedtime would be delayed. Not that he ever spoke to them or played with them. He took no notice of them, as if he was unable to see children, at least until the time came for him to go. Indeed, after his first greeting and a careless kiss, James took no notice of Maggie either, except to add, “You’ll be getting on with the supper, Maggie”. Such was his regard for her.
Maggie paid him back in her own way. She kept the children up, the four of them, to keep her company, she said, but of course they sang and made a noise and broke the endless sound of James’ voice. Very late, they dropped off to sleep in their chairs. Then, when James was about to go, Maggie woke them up and so more or less forced him to part with four shillings before he left. That gave her some satisfaction, for James, though rich, was unwilling to give or share what he had. He always went home by the last train, just after two o’clock.
Maggie’s children secretly stared at their uncle. They could not forget that he had in their mother’s words, “lost two wives and taken a third”. They wondered about those two unfortunate, lost ladies. They asked each other what their fate(命运) had been, and if neither could ever be found again. James never brought his third wife with him nor ever mentioned her. The children decided that he must be so frightened of losing her that he never allowed her outside the door.Maggie never prepared anything special for James because ________.
| A．he was a man difficult to please |
| B．she never knew when he was coming |
| C．she was too busy looking after her children |
| D．he never stayed long enough for a meal |
What do we know about Jame’s behavior?
| A．He was a kind man, with love for the family. |
| B．He was unselfish, especially towards his brother. |
| C．He was anxious to please the family, especially the children. |
| D．He was rude to his sister-in-law. |
Maggie felt pleased when ________.
| A．she paid James the money that she owed him |
| B．James gave some money to the children |
| C．she had to wake James up to catch his train |
| D．James thanked her for the nice supper |
The children did not realize that two of James’ wives ________.
| A．were dead |
| B．suffered from loss of memory |
| C．had run away from him |
| D．might reappear one day |
Sports is not only physically challenging, but it can also mentally challenging. Criticism from coaches(trainers), parents, and other teammates, as well as pressure to win can create too much anxiety or stress for young athletes. Stress can be physical, emotional, or psychological, and research has showed that it can lead to burnout. Burnout has been described as dropping or quitting of an activity that was at one time enjoyable.
The early years of development are critical years for learning about oneself. The sport setting is one where valuable experiences can take place. Young athletes can, for example, learn how to cooperate with others, make friends, and gain other social skills that will be used throughout their lives. Coaches and parents should be aware, at all times, that their feedback（反馈）to youngsters can greatly affect their children. Youngsters may take their parents’ and coaches’ criticisms to heart and find a flaw in themselves.
Coaches and parents should also be cautious(careful) that youth sport participation does not become work for children. The outcome of the game should not be more important than the process of learning the sport and other life lessons. In today’s youth sport setting, young athletes may be worried more about who will win instead of enjoying themselves and the sport. Following a game, many parents and coaches focus on the outcome and find fault with youngsters’ performances. Positive reinforcement should be provided in spite of the outcome. Research shows that positive reinforcement motivates and has a greater effect on learning than criticism. Again, criticism can create high levels of stress, which can lead to burnout.According to the passage sports is positive for young people in that_____.
| A．it can help them learn more about society |
| B．it teaches them how to set realistic goals for themselves |
| C．it enables them to find flaws in themselves |
| D．it can provide them with valuable experiences |
Many coaches and parents are in the habit of criticizing young athletes _________.
| A．without realizing criticism may destroy their self-confidence |
| B．in order to make them remember life’s lessons |
| C．believing that criticism is beneficial for their early development |
| D．so as to put more pressure on them |
According to the passage parents and coaches should_______.
| A．help children to win every game |
| B．pay more attention to letting children enjoy sports |
| C．enable children to understand the positive aspect of sports |
| D．train children to deal with stress |
The author’s purpose in writing the passage is_______.
| A．to persuade young children not to worry about criticism |
| B．to emphasize the importance of positive reinforcement to children |
| C．to discuss the skill of combing criticism with encouragement |
| D．to teach young athletes how to avoid burnout |
阅读理解
阅读下列四篇短文，从每小题后所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。
Car Hire
Hiring a self-drive car really adds to the enjoyment of your holiday. There are so many places of interest to visit, and if you enjoy seeing more than just the city center there's no better way to explore than by car.
| Hire Charges What's included a)Unlimited mileage (英里数) b)Expenses on oil, maintenance ( 保养 ) and repairs, which will be repaid on production of invoices c ) Full insurance (保险) except personal accident ( see below) and contents. What's not included a) Personal accident insurance. b)Garaging, petrol, parking and traffic fines. |
Conditions of Hire
★ The shortest rental period at these special low prices is three days. For prices for periods of one or two days you only see our representative (代理人) at the hotel.
★ Car hire must be booked six weeks or more before arrival in London to guarantee a car. But if you have been unable to make a booking in advance please see our representative at the hotel who may still be able to help you.
★The car types on the sheet are examples of the types of cars in each price range , but a particular car cannot be guaranteed.
★Upon delivery the driver(s) will be asked to sign the car hire company's Conditions of Hire.
★If you decide to hire a car, just fill in the Booking Form and return it to us. A booking fee of￡12 as part of the car hire cost is required.
★Should you be forced to cancel your car hire booking after payment in full (two weeks before date of hire ) , a cancellation charge of ￡ 12 will be made.From the advertisement we can see a car hirer will pay_________.
| A．insurance against damage to the car |
| B．insurance against injuryto the driver |
| C．the cost of maintenance of the car |
| D．the cost of repairs to the car |
Which of the following is NOT true judging from the advertisement?
| A．Such an advertisement most likely appears in a newspaper. |
| B．You should have a driving license when you hire a car from the company. |
| C．When you hire a car from the company, a driver will go together with you. |
| D．You have to pay a booking fee when you hire a car from the company. |
If car hirers change their minds after paying the whole cost of hiring, the ￡12 booking fee is ________.
| A．partly returned | B．doubly paid |
| C．not returned at all | D．returned within six weeks |
The prices for car hire are especially low when________.
| A．it is booked for at least three days |
| B．it is booked two weeks in advance |
| C．it is booked for two days |
| D．the booking is made in London |
The Great Gatsby was not well received when it was published in 1926. F. Scott Fitzgerald appeared to destroy the American Dream, where in anyone, with enough hard work, could get rich and have whatever they wanted from life. He exposed the truth about such myths in this classic book. Basically, the plot could be described as follows:
Poor boy goes East in search of wealth, bored and dissatisfied with inactive Mid West country life.
He meets the super-rich there, attends parties and makes friends with one man in particular, a lonely millionaire of uncertain origins, Jay Gatsby.
He becomes involved with these rich but immoral people, the worst of whom are his own cousin Daisy Buchanan, and her husband Tom.
He observes, with dawning recognition, the corruption in their lives, how lacking in human values or ethical beliefs they seem to be.
He watches tragedy unfold, brought about by the handlings of the wealthy, and visited on the poorer characters.
He remains the only friend of Gatsby, arranging his funeral and mourning his death, and possibly the death of his own American Dream.
He wakes up to the reality of what is important in life, and decides to choose what is of value to him.
He returns to his origins, having recognized the worth of his up-bringing and the moral values it instilled. He sees that money is not everything.
But let us look at this in a little more depth, because the novel is much more complicated than those simple outlines above suggest.
The young man, Nick Caraway, aged 29, lived in a cottage on Long Island. He was an apprentice (学徒) Wall Street trader, and in 1920s, when the novel is set, this job represented a way to get rich, the core value of the American Dream.
Gatsby was a millionaire, who chased a dream too, one of rekindling love with Daisy, Nick’s cousin, a bored, rich, totally unfeeling and spoilt woman. Her rich husband, Tom Buchanan, a businessman, was also less than moral, flattering his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a garage owner. It was George Wilson’s love for Myrtle that brought about the tragedy contained in the Gatsby plot.
Gatsby wanted to recapture his dream of love. So he began an affair with Daisy; she was flattered and bored. This action helped to erode Nick’s illusions, and show what wealth can do to people. Gatsby suffered from the realization that Daisy was not the wonderful person he dreamed of, but a shallow and materialistic person.
Eventually, Tom Buchanan suspected what was happening between Gatsby and Daisy, and confronted Gatsby. It was soon after this that Daisy ran Myrtle Wilson down, while driving Gatsby’s yellow automobile.
The tragedy was begun, when Tom Buchanan put the idea into head of George Wilson, that Gatsby had killed Myrtle. In fact, Daisy was secure in the belief that superior status and wealth made her immune, and also, her character was such that she cared little for another human being. Tom Buchanan was the catalyst (催化剂) that sent the emotionally disturbed George to shoot Gatsby for killing Myrtle, then committing suicide. Two dreams turned to dust：George’s of love and the chance to pursue the dream of capitalist endeavor and success, Gatsby’s of recapturing romantic love and the more innocent past, when, in his mind, Daisy was golden and true.
The complete destruction was symbolically expressed when none of Gatsby’s rich “friends” were touched by his death. It was left to Nick, a relative stranger, to make the funeral arrangements. This highlighted the total shallowness of that wealthy, corrupt society, and showed what a worthless person Daisy herself was.
At the end, Nick returned to the beliefs of his Mid Western upbringing. After one last meeting with Tom Buchanan, one last look at Gatsby’s mansion, having buried his friend, he left for home. As Gatsby lost his dream and his life, Fitzgerald drew a portrait of the death of the American Dream.According to the author, that The Great Gatsby was not being popular in 1926 was probably because it__________.
| A．informed readers of American value |
| B．destroyed American dream of that time |
| C．described the life of American upper class |
| D．had complicated relationships of the roles |
The following statements about Nick are true EXCEPT that he_______.
| A．is Daisy Buchannan’s cousin |
| B．betrays his only friend—Gatsby |
| C．was an apprentice Wall Street trader |
| D．is dissatisfied with Mid West country life |
We can infer from the passage that_______.
| A．Gatsby was wrongly killed for Daisy setting him a trap |
| B．it was actually Tom Buchanon that killed Myrtle Wilson |
| C．George Wilson’s love for Daisy was sure to turn to dust at last |
| D．Gatsby died because of his appetite for unrealistic romantic love |
The author writes the passage mainly to_______.
| A．teach readers how to appreciate a tragic love novel |
| B．inform us that wealth is more important than morality |
| C．convince us to look at the American Dream another way |
| D．persuade us to read the famous American writer’s novel |
It appears that the police now have a device that can read license plates and check if a car is unregistered, uninsured or stolen. We already know that National Security Agency can dip into your Facebook page and Google searches. And it seems that almost every store we go into these days wants your home phone number and ZIP code as part of any deal.
So when Edward Snowden — now cooling his heels in Russia — revealed the extent to which the NSA is spying on Americans, collecting data on phone calls we make, it's not as if we should have been surprised. We live in a world that George Orwell predicted in 1984. And that realization has caused sales of the 1949, dystopian (反乌托邦）novel to spike dramatically upward recently — a 9,000% increase at one point on Amazon. com.
Comparisons between Orwell’s novel about a tightly controlled totalitarian (极权主义的）future ruled by the everywhere-present Big Brother and today are, in fact, quite similar. Here are a few of the most obvious ones.
Telescreens — in the novel, nearly all public and private places have large TV screens that broadcast government propaganda (宣传), news and approved entertainment. But they are also two-way monitors that spy on citizens, private lives. Today websites like Facebook track our likes and dislikes, and governments and private individuals hack into our computers and find out what they want to know. Then there are the ever-present monitoring cameras that spy on the ordinary people as they go about their daily routine.
The endless war — In Orwell’s book, there's global war that has been going on seemingly forever, and as the book's hero, Winston Smith, realizes the enemy keeps changing. One week we’re at war with Eastasia and friends with Eurasia. The next week, it's just the opposite. There seems little to distinguish the two opponents, and they are used primarily to keep the people of Oceania, where Smith lives, in a constant state of fear, thereby making disagreement unthinkable — or punishable. Today we have the so-called war on terror, with no end in sight, a generalized societal fear, suspensionof certain civil liberties, and an ill-defined enemy who could be anywhere, and anything.
Newspeak — the fictional, stripped-down English language, used to limit free thought. OMG (Oh my God), RU (Are you) serious? That's so FUBAR (Fucked Beyond Ail Recognition). LMAO (Laugh My Ass Off).
Memory hole — this is the machine used in the book to change or disappear embarrassing documents. Paper shredders (碎纸机） had been invented, but were hardly used when Orwell wrote his book, and the concept of wiping out a hard drive was years in the future. But the memory hole foretold both technologies.
So what’s it all meant? In 1984, Winston Smith, after an intense round of “behavioral modification” — read: torture— learns to love Big Brother, and the difficult world he was born into. Jump forward to today, it seems we’ve willingly given up all sorts of freedoms, and much of our right to privacy. Fears of terrorism have a lot to do with this, but dizzying advances in technology, and the ubiquity of social media, play a big part.
There are those who say that if you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of. But the fact is, when a government agency can monitor everyone’s phone calls, we have all become suspects. This is one of the most frightening aspects of our modem society. And even more frightening is the fact that we have gone so far down the street, there is probably no turning back. Unless you spend your life in a wilderness cabin, totally off the grid, there is simply no way the government won’t have information about you stored away somewhere.
What this means, unfortunately, is that we are all Winston Smith. And Big Brother is the modem surveillance state.What caused 1984 to sell well on Amazon.com?
| A．The similarities between the world we live in and that of 1984. |
| B．The surprise at how Americans are spied on by the government. |
| C．The fact that authorities have access to our personal information. |
| D．The worry that our government agencies can monitor our phones. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．When Orwell wrote 1984, paper shredders didn't exist. |
| B．The war with Eastasia makes people in Oceania fearful. |
| C．Telescreens are used to broadcast and spy on citizens’ privacy. |
| D．Winston Smith loves Big Brother due to the fears of terrorism. |
What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 8 refer to?
| A．Addiction to social media. |
| B．The phone calls being monitored. |
| C．A round of “behavioral modification”. |
| D．Willingness to abandon freedom and privacy. |
The underlined part in the passage replies that _______.
| A．it is impossible for us to return to our initial path |
| B．it’s very difficult for us to change the current situation |
| C．we are walking along the street too far to go back home |
| D．the government can find out which street we are going down |
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．We are all Winston Smith. |
| B．Big Brother is watching you. |
| C．We’re living “1984” today. |
| D．The NSA is spying on Americans. |
What is the writer's attitude towards the phenomenon?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Concerned. | C．Angry. | D．Indifferent. |