Closeyoureyesforaminuteandimag-优题课

In 1993, researchers at the University of California at Irvine discovered the so – called “Mozart Effect” – that college students who listened to ten minutes of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (D大调) before taking an IQ test scored nine points higher than when they had sat in silence or listened to relaxation tapes. Other studies also have indicated that people gain information better if they hear classical or baroque (a style of art) music while studying.
It is said that Albert Einstein was an average student until he began playing the violin. "Before that, he had a hard time expressing what he knew," says Hazel Cheilek, orchestra director at Fairfax County's Thomas Jefferson High School. “Einstein said he got some of his greatest inspirations while playing the violin. It liberated his brain so that he could imagine." In the early 1700s, England's King George I also felt he would make better decisions if he listened to good music. Reportedly, Handel responded by composing his Water Music suites to be played while the king floated the Thames on his royal boat. Even Plato in ancient Greece believed studying music created a sense of order and harmony necessary for intelligent thought.
The deepest effects take place in young children, while their brains are growing. This year, the same researchers at Irvine’s Center for Neurobiology of Leaming and Memory found that preschoolers who had received eight months of music lessons scored 80 percent higher on certain tasks than other youngsters who received no musical training.
Music students continue to beat their non – arts peers (同龄人) on the SAT, according to the 1999 “Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test Takers” from The College Board. Students with coursework in music appreciation scored 42 points higher on the math section of the test than students with no coursework or experience in the arts.
All of this to say "you are the judge" but listening to Mozart certainly won't hurt you. My point always is that making music is preferable to passive listening and that listening to live music is always preferable to listening to recorded music. Mozart WILL NOT raise your IQ, but it might help you organize your thoughts better before taking a standardized test.
63．When people mention Albert Einstein, King George I and Plato, they believe that the effect of music is_______.
A．positive B．negative C．suspicious D．sensitive
64．So far researchers at the University of California at Irvine have done studies about_______.
A．college students who listen to rock music every day
B．people who hear classical music while studying
C．preschoolers with music lessons
D．music students in SAT
65．Which of the following is an opinion rather than a fact?
A．Handel composed Water Music to be played while the kind floated the Thames on his boat.
B．Mozart might help you organize your thought better before taking a standardized test.
C．Preschoolers with music training scored higher on object – assembly tasks.
D．Music students continue to beat their non – arts peers on the SAT.
66．What is the author’s opinion about music?
A．He thinks that listening to music is better than making music.
B．He has a doubt whether listening to Mozart will hurt the listeners.
C．He is sure that listening to the music of Mozart will raise people’s IQ.
D．He thinks that live concert is better worth listening to than recorded music.

Barack Obama
In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has turned more and more to the left – not in policy, but in handedness. Barrack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left – handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.
What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to rightist at an early age.
Bill Gates
Claiming the nation’s richest man among their number is a source of considerable pride for America’s society of southpaws. In fact, the Microsoft titan and philanthropist(巨头兼慈善家) is one of a surprising number of U.S. business moguls to be left-handed, including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and former IBM head Lou Gerstner. But the club seems to be a guys-only fraternity — research suggests that while left-handed men tend to earn more than their right-handed colleagues, there is no similar advantage for women. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research floated the idea that left-handed men favor "divergent" thinking, a form of creativity in which the brain moves "from conventional knowledge into unexplored association." Maybe that’s what it takes to develop a net worth estimated at $ 57 billion.
Oprah Winfrey
The talk-show queen doesn’t need much more to set her apart from the rest — what with her estimated $ 2.7 billion fortune and a magic ability to sell books just by glancing at them — but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She’s in good company: Other show-business ladies of the left – handed persuasion include Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie
Marie Curie
Not only was atomic scientist Marie Curie left-handed, but she was the matriarch of a whole family of accomplished, southpaw scientists. Curie, who discovered the principles of radioactivity and won two Nobel Prizes, was married to fellow lefty Pierre Curie, who was instrumental in helping Marie’s atomic research and shared one of her Nobel awards. Historians believe their daughter, Irene, was also left-handed. Irene went on to win a Nobel Prize of her own with her husband — who, you guessed it, was also left-handed.
59．The underlined word “southpaws” in the last sentence of Paragraph 1 means_______.
A．people coming from the south B．powerful presidents
C．people who use their left hand D．forceful speakers
60．What makes it so easy for lefties to be elected as presidents according to the passage?
A．Their great gift for foreign language.
B．Their great language skills to make speeches.
C．The need of left – hinders in the political office.
D．Teachers stopping to force them to use their right hand.
61．It can be implied that Bill Gates, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and Lou Gerstne_______.
A．have creative thinking B．have formed a special club.
C．earn more money than their wives D．are wealthy philanthropists
62．The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 “She is in good company” means “_______”.
A．she works in a very good company B．she has many good friends
C．she has got on well with others D．she is among many female lefties

Vampires (吸血鬼), creatures of myth, have been around in one form or another for centuries. Terrifying but also attractive, they are as popular in the early 21 st century as ever, as the current popularity of Twilight series, and its hero Edward Cullen, show.
Vampires first appeared in fiction in the 1700s. in 1895 Irish novelist Bram Stoker published Dracula, introducing the world’s most famous vampire.
But just what is it about these drinkers of human blood that continues to fascinate us? Speaking to Eric Lewis of the Times and Transcript website, academic Deborah Wells said that vampires are “culturally adaptive”. “We create very different vampires to fit different times. Edward Cullen is not the same as Count Dracula,” she said.
Different as they are, Wells believes vampires are “the perfect containers into which we can pour our current cultural anxieties”, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is powerful, yet old and physically ugly. Stoker’s book dealt with fear of the fall of the British Empire, real fears in the day in which it was written.
According to the website Bookrags, today’s vampires have all our cultural desires, money, power and sexual attraction. Represented by Cullen, they are noble, handsome young men whom women find irresistible. What’s more, vampires challenge traditional ideas about death, science and parental authority. This may be why teenagers are drawn to vampire tales.
“In many ways, the vampire story shows up teenage concerns,” said wells. “The emotional intensity (强度) of the relationship with the vampire matches the intensity of how it feels to have your first real love affairs. Your first real love, it really feels like life and death.”
55．The best title for this passage should be_______.
A．Vampires may continue to drink our blood
B．Vampires have been around us for long
C．Why Twilight is so popular nowadays
D．We still like the story about vampires
56．What is the image of the vampire in Bram Stoker’s book?
A．Anxious but perfect.
B．Powerful, old and ugly.
C．Terrifying but also attractive.
D．Afraid of the fall of the British Empire.
57．According to the website Bookrages, today’s vampires_______.
A．desire money, power and sexual attraction
B．may not think highly of parental authority
C．dare to give up traditional ideas
D．are likely to be resisted by women
58．Which of the following statements is true according to Wells?
A．People need different vampires in different times.
B．Our current cultural anxieties are hidden in vampires.
C．The vampire story reflects the conches of the teenagers.
D．The relationship with the vampire equals your first real love.

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
French people pride themselves on their delicious foods, such as cheese, baguettes and croissants (two kinds of food). In fact, food is an important part of French culture. Families and friends spend hours over the dinner table each night. It is the opposite of the fast – food habit common in other parts of the West.
It’s the reason why the French are very angry that a McDonald’s is opening beneath Paris’s most famous museum: the Louvre (卢浮宫). The mew restaurant will be the 1,142 nd McDonald’s in France, and will open in the underground approach to the museum. But many French people can’t understand why this American chain is opening in the heart of French culture.
However, McDonald’s is paying no notice to the complaint. McDonald’s now has 31,000 chains worldwide. Tourists are hungry, and opening chains in tourist spots pays well.
There is another chain threatening France’s heritage. This time it is coffee rather than burgers. As more and more Starbucks open in Paris, traditional French cafes are forced to close.
The trouble with American companies opening chains throughout the world is the destructive effect they can have on a country’s culture. How can a small, independent coffee shop compete with the multi – billion dollar chain? You can go to a Starbucks in any city in the world, but you can only go to a Parisian café in France.
Responsibility is with the tourists. A McDonald’s wouldn’t open so near the Louvre if it weren’t not going to make money. Similarly, a Pizza Hut wouldn’t overlook (俯瞰) Egypt’s Great Pyramid if no one wants to sit in it. Maybe next time you visit the Great Wall, you should think twice before ordering a Cappuccino in the Starbucks.
51．Why are the French very angry when a McDonald’s is opening beneath the Louvre?
A．Because they will spend many hours in McDonald’s.
B．Because French food culture is very impressive.
C．Because they also have the fast – food habit.
D．Because they are proud of their own food.
52．The McDonald’s will be located in the underground approach to the museum because_______.
A．the complaints of the French are useless
B．opening a chain in tourist spot is rewarding
C．McDonald’s tends to be in the heart of culture
D．it will help to attract more tourists for the museum
53．What is the trouble with American companies opening chains all over the world?
A．The traditional stores of a country are forced to fight back.
B．The traditional stores of a country become dependant.
C．They have negative effect on a country’s culture.
D．The multi – billion dollar chain can’t be matched.
54．The author suggests that the tourists can_______.
A．decide whether the multiple stores of America are successful or not
B．order a Cappuccino in the Starbucks when they visit the Great Wall
C．sit in a Pizza Hut when they visit Egypt’s Great Pyramid
D．enter the McDonald’s when they visit the Louvre

Not all memories are sweet. Some people spend all their lives trying to forget bad experiences. Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars. Often they relive (重新体验) these experiences in nightmares.
Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a frightening experience. They hope it might reduce, or possibly erase (抹去), the effect of painful memories.
In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body releasing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are erased.
The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it. Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers’ troubling memories after war.
They say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories.“Some memories can ruin people’s lives. They come back to you when you don’t want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions,”said Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatry (精神病学) at Harvard Medical School.“This could relieve a lot of that suffering.”
But those who are against the research say that changing memories is very dangerous because memories give us our identity (特质). They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past. “All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were horrible at the time but make us who we are. I'm not sure we'd want to wipe those memories out,” said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist (伦理学家).
Some people fear that although the drug would first be used in only very serious cases, it would become more and more common. “People always have the ability to misuse science,”said Joseph LeDoux, a New York University memory researcher. “All we want to do is help people have better control of memories.”
57. What’s the main idea of the text?
A. People often suffer from bad memories.
B. American researchers are trying to develop a pill.
C. Forget bad memories, and be happy.
D. The research has caused a heated argument.
58. The underlined word “it” in paragraph 4 refers to “_____”.
A. the new drug B. the research into the drug
C. the memoryD. the chemical in the drug
59. Which of the following is not the opinion of the supporters?
A. The pill can erase all the memories in the past.
B. Some memories can ruin people’s life. The pill can relieve emotional suffering.
C. The pill can also help many people who suffer from terrible memories.
D. The pill can prevent or treat troubling memories in soldiers after war.
60. Which of the following is not the opinion of the opponents (反对者)?
A. Our memories give us our identity.
B. The memories help humanity avoid mistakes of the past.
C. The drug should be used in only very serious cases.
D. People may not be sure whether they want to wipe the memories out.

A．ORRIS in China	B．Fighting Blindness
C．Sight-seeing Techniques	D．ORRIS Flying Hospital