Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people who worried about getting older.
Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of 50. In fact, they say by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were when they were 18 years old.
The findings came from a survey of more than 340,000 adults in the US. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in 2008. At that time, the people were between the ages of 18 and 85.
The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of 22 and 25.
The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties. Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Science.
Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.What does the underlined word “negative” mean?
| A．负面的 | B．积极的 |
| C．平和的 | D．激烈的 |
What kind of people has the highest stress levels?
| A．People were between the ages of 18 and 85. |
| B．Those in their seventies and eighties. |
| C．People reached their fifties. |
| D．Adults between the ages of 22 and 25. |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. |
| B．Researchers know exactly why happiness increases as people get older. |
| C．Women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men. |
| D．Levels of stress were highest among adults between the age of 22 and 25. |
Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
| A．The older, the happier. |
| B．Why elder people feel happier than young men? |
| C．Different emotional patterns between men and women. |
| D．What makes the elder happy? |
The 2012 London Olympics had enough problems to worry about. But one more has just been added - a communications blackout caused by solar storms.
After a period of calm within the Sun, scientists have detected the signs of a flesh cycle of sunspots that could peak in 2012, just in time for the arrival of the Olympic torch in London.
Now scientists believe that this peak could result in vast solar explosions that could throw billions of tons of charged matter towards the Earth, causing strong solar storms that could jam the telecommunications satellites and interact links sending five Olympic broadcast from London.
"The Sun's activity has a strong influence on the Earth. The Olympics could be in the middle of the next solar maximum which could affect the functions of communications satellites," said Professor Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
At the peak of the cycle, violent outbursts called coronal mass ejections (日冕物质抛射) occur in the Sun's atmosphere, throwing out great quantities of electrically-charged matter. " A coronal mass ejection can carry a billion tons of solar material into space at over a million kilometres per hour. Such events can expose astronauts to a deadly amount, can disable satellites, cause power failures on Earth and disturb communications," Professor Harrison added. The risk is greatest during a solar maximum when there is the greatest number of sunspots.
Next week in America, NASA is scheduled to launch a satellite for monitoring solar activity called the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which will take images of the Sun that are 10 times clearer than the most advanced televisions available.
The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory helped to make the high-tech cameras that will capture images of the solar flares (太阳耀斑) and explosions as they occur.
Professor Richard Hold away, the lab's director, said that the SDO should be able to provide early warning of a solar flare or explosion big enough to affect satellite communications on Earth "If we have advance warning, we'll be able to reduce the damage. What you don't want is things switching off for a week with no idea of what's caused the problem," he said.
1. The phrase "communications blackout" in paragraph 1 most probably refers to during the 2012 Olympics.
A. the extinguishing of the Olympic torch
B. the collapse of broadcasting systems
C. the transportation breakdown in London
D. the destruction of weather satellites
2. What can be inferred about the solar activity described in the passage?
A. The most fatal matter from the corona falls onto Earth.
B. The solar storm peak occurs in the middle of each cycle.
C. It takes several seconds for the charged matter to reach Earth.
D. The number of sunspots declines after coronal mass ejections.
3. According to the passage, NASA will launch a satellite to _________.
A. take images of the solar system B. provide early warning of thunderstorms
C. keep track of solar activities D. improve the communications on Earth
4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. Solar Storms: An Invisible Killer
B. Solar Storms: Earth Environment in Danger
C. Solar Storms: Threatening the Human Race
D. Solar Storms: Human Activities to Be Troubled
The following card includes a brief summary and a short assessment of a research paper. It can provide a guide for further reading on the topic.
Trevor, C. O., Lansford, B. and Black, J. W., 2004, "Employeeturnover (人事变更) and job performance: monitoring the influences of salary growth and promotion", Journal of Armchair Psychology, vol. 113, no.1, pp. 56-64.
In this article Trevor et al. review the influences of pay and job opportunities in respect of job performance, turnover rates and employees' job attitude. The authors use data gained through organizational surveys of blue-chip companies in Vancouver, Canada to try to identify the main cause of employee turnover and whether it is linked to salary growth. Their research focuses on assessing a range of pay structures such as pay for performance and organizational reward plans. The article is useful as Trevor et al. suggest that there are numerous reasons for employee turnover and a variety of differences in employees' job attitude and performance. The main limitation of the article is that the survey sample was restricted to mid-level management, thus the authors indicate that further, more extensive research needs to be undertaken to develop a more in-depth understanding of employee turnover and job performance. As this article was published in a professional journal, the findings can be considered reliable. It will be useful additional information for the research on pay structures.
1. The research paper published is primarily concerned with
A. the way of preventing employee turnover
B. methods of improving employee performance
C. factors affecting employee turnover and performance
D. pay structures based on employee performance
2. As is mentioned in the card, the limitation of the research paper mainly lies in that .
A. the data analysis is hardly reliable
B. the research sample is not wide enough
C. the findings are of no practical value
D. the research method is out-of-date
3. Who might be most interested in this piece of information?
A. Job hunters.
B. Employees in blue-chip companies.
C. Mid-level managers.
D. Researchers on employee turnover.
Section B
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it chased the dogs into the village where they ran for safety.
That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.
Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up -- how to catch wild elephants.
Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old fife. "Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase," she says.
But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. "My work," she says, "is to rescue man from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from man." And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, Parbati is called to
guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.
The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly captured elephant. "Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them. They are also more loyal than humans," she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!
1. For Parbati, catching elephants is mainly to .
A. get long lasting excitement B. keep both man and elephants safe
C. send them back to the jungle D. make the angry elephants tame
2. Before Parbati studied in a boarding school,.
A. she spent her time hunting with her father
B. she learned how to sing love songs
C. she had already been called an elephant princess
D. she was taught how to hunt tigers
3. Indian elephants are getting increasingly angry and they revenge because __________.
A. they are caught and sent for heavy work
B. illegal hunters capture them and kill them
C. they are attacked and their land gets limited
D. dogs often bark at them and chase them
4. The passage starts with an elephant story in order to explain that in India _________.
A. people easily fall victim to elephants' attacks
B. the man-elephant relationship is getting worse
C. elephant tamers are in short supply
D. dogs are as powerful as elephants
（D）
The desire to make explorations is born with man. Wherever his imagination goes, man also has a strong wish to go. A large part of human history is connected with the exploration of the world in which we live. Again and again people have set out with surprising courage and patience to look into unknown regions and lands to see what had not yet been seen, to make known the unknown. With kites, balloons and aircraft they left the ground to pass through the lower atmosphere. Now the outer space receives their attention.
Why should man take the trouble of exploring space? It is hard to list the specific practical benefits that will result in. But one knows, from past experience in other areas, that man will surely see and discover new things in space that will increase our scientific knowledge, and this new knowledge will find its way into valuable practical uses. What we learn about man himself, from his experience in space, and from the effects of space and the space flight environment on him, will be extremely valuable. The new techniques developed to carry out the exploration of space, and to keep man alive in space, will certainly find practical uses in everyday life in some way. The areas that will benefit are manifold. They include communication, generation of power, transportation and travel, food production, materials, fuels and many others. But to say exactly what the practical results will be is almost impossible.
67. The main idea of the first paragraph is that __________.
A. man often goes wherever his dreams go
B. man desires to explore what is unknown
C. man is no longer interested in the study of the land and sea now
D. man's history is his exploration of the world
68. The word "manifold" in the second paragraph probably means ________ .
A. of value B. of use C. in a way D. in many ways
69. The author seems to be in favor of ____.
A. the exploration of space
B. doubting the necessity of the space exploration
C. exploring more in space than in sea
D. his experience in space
70. In the last sentence of paragraph 2 ,the phrase "practical results" refers to the results ______.
A. that can be made use of
B. that can be learned as knowledge
C. that are obtained from experience
D. helping us make further exploration
（C）
Welcome to the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China. In order to protect the interests and rights of visitors and ensure a safe and orderly visit, the organizer of Expo 2010 has madethese Terms and Conditions.
Article 1 Scope of Application
These Terms and Conditions are applicable to (适用于) all visitors to Expo 2010, including those who enter the Expo Site with valid tickets and children at or below 1.2m at the time of entry, who are suitable for free admission.
Article 2 Operation Time
The operation time of the Expo Site shall be 9:00 ~ 24:00. The opening hours of the exhibitions shall be 9:30 ~ 22:30. Visitors shall enter the Expo Site before 21:00 and leave before 24:00 on the day of admission. Those with evening admission tickets may enter the Expo Site between 17:00 and 21:00.
Article 3 Orderly Entry
Visitors shall go through ticket pre-check, security check and ticket confirmation in an orderly fashion before entering the Expo Site. Those who refuse to cooperate may be denied entry by the Organizer.
Children suitable for free admission and other visitors with mobility difficulties may only enter the Expo Site when accompanied by adults. Those under the influence of alcohol and the persons suffering from mental disorders are not allowed to enter.
Article 4 Exhibitions and Performances
Visitors may visit exhibitions and watch performances in the Expo Site at no additional charge.
64. Which of the following statement is true according to the text?
A. At the time of entry ，children below 1.2m needn’t buy tickets to enter the Expo Site.
B. Visitors must pay additional fee to watch performances in the Expo Site
C. Children below 1.2m can enter the Expo Site by themselves.
D. Before entering the Expo Site, visitors shall go through ticket pre-check and security check.
65. Mr.Wang has got an evening admission ticket , how long can he stay in the Expo Site at most?
A. 15 hours. B. 13 hours. C. 7 hours. D. 4 hours.
66. What does “Those under the influence of alcohol " mean?
A. Visitors with mobility difficulties.
B. The persons who are drunk.
C. Visitors who refuse to cooperate.
D. The persons who sell alcohol.