Why do people feel so rushed? Part of this is a perception (认知) problem. Generally, people in rich countries have more free time than they used to. This is particularly true in Europe, but even in America free time has been inching up. Women's paid work has risen a lot over this period,but their time in unpaid work,like cooking and cleaning, has fallen even more significantly, thanks in part to dishwashers, washing machines and microwaves, and also to the fact that men shift themselves a little more around the house than they used to.
The problem, then, is less how much time people have than how they see it. Ever since a clock was first used at a workplace to record labor hours in the 18th century, time has been understood in relation to money. Once hours are financially quantified (量化), people worry more about wasting, but tend to save or use them more profitably. When economies grow and incomes rise, everyone's time becomes more valuable. And the more valuable something becomes, the rarer it seems.
Once seeing their time in terms of money, people often grow stingy with the former to maximize the latter. Workers who are paid by the hour volunteer less of their time and tend to feel more upset when they are not working.
The relationship between time, money and anxiety is something Gary Becker noticed in America's post-war boom years. "If anything, time is used more carefully today than a century ago," he noted in 1965. He found that when people are paid more to work, they tend to work longer hours, because working becomes a more profitable use of time. So the rising value of work time puts pressure on all time. Leisure time starts to seem more stressful, as people are forced to use it wisely or not at all. Women's time in unpaid work has fallen partly because ______.
A.men's ability to support a family has been improved |
B.men's involvement in housework has increased |
C.women's leisure time was taken up by heavy housework |
D.women become more skilled at household equipment |
From the second paragraph, we learn that ______.
A.labor hours were recorded with a clock |
B.people haven't realized the value of time |
C.more work hours bring in more money |
D.The rise of incomes makes time less valuable |
The underlined phrase grow stingy with can probably be replaced by "______".
A.refuses to delay | B.intend to kill |
C.try to accumulate | D.hesitate to spend |
According to Gary Becker, what causes people feel anxious about time?
A.The wrong way of time being spent. |
B.People's willingness to work hard. |
C.The increasing value of work time. |
D.More and more leisure time. |
PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION(30 points)
Directions: Read the following three passages.Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements.For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D.Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.
Next time you find yourself drenched (湿透) in an unexpected heavy rain, look on the bright side – it will be a memorable experience. While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall. But those who feel in a good mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried by Australian researchers.
Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: “It seems strange but a little bit of sadness is a good thing. People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they wee in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy, the flunked it.”
The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small objects on the check – out counter. On rainy days, sad music was played in the store. When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music. This was done to further influence them towards negative or positive moods. After shopping, customers were asked how many of the objects they could remember. Their scores were three times higher when the weather was had and they were feeling angry, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in Journal of Experimental Psychology. A report on the findings said: “They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people think, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.”
Professor Forgas said, “We found that weather – inducted negative mood improved memory accuracy. Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.”
A worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.
Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are less likely to make more snap (匆忙的) judgments about people we meet. Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.
Accurately remembering everyday scenes is a difficult task, yet such memories can be on importance in everyday life. Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.
56.What’s the major function of Paragraph 1?
A.To attract readers’ interest.
B.To introduce the theme of the whole passage.
C.To generalize the whole passage.
D.To describe a memorable experience.
57.The underlined word “flunked” in Paragraph2 may mean “ ”.
A.conducted B.failed C.passed D.understood
58.In the research, researchers play different music to .
A.make customers become sadder or happier
B.help customers choose what they want
C.promote customers to buy more goods
D.get customers to make a quick choice
59.According to Joe Forgas, on sunny days, people .
A.will make careful judgments on others
B.tend to pay more attention to their surroundings
C.will have more confidence
D.will have a better recall
60.What can we know from the research?
A.Forgetfulness is rather troublesome.
B.It’s important to feel in a good mood.
C.It’s memorable to experience a rainy day.
D.Gloomy days are good for memorizing things.
What will man be like in the future-in 5000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make guesses, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today. For man is slowly changing all the time.
Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is relatively short period of time, so we may suppose that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain's capacity. As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and eventually we shall need larger ones! This is likely to bring about a physical change to the head, in particular the forehead, will grow larger.
Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over very long period of time it is likely that man's eyes will grow stronger.
On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.
But what about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald.
Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with use. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and emotions similar to our own.
71. The passage mainly tells us that ________.
A. man's life will be different in the future
B. future man will look quite different from us
C. man is growing taller as time passes
D. man will disappear
72. What serves as the evidence(证据)that man is changing?
A. Man has got stronger eyes now than he ever had.
B. Man's hair is getting thinner and thinner.
C. Man's arms and legs have become lighter and weaker.
D. Man has been growing taller over the past 500 years.
73. The change in man's size of forehead is probably because ________.
A. he makes use only 20 % of the brain's capacity
B. his brain has grown larger over the past centuries
C. the other 80% of his brain will grow in due time
D. he will use his brain more and more as time goes on
74. What is true about a human being in the future?
A. He is hairless because hair is no longer useful.
B. He has smaller eyes and wears better glasses.
C. His fingers grow weaker because he doesn't have to make use of them.
D. He thinks and feels in different way.
75. We can infer that _______.
A. human beings will become less attractive in the future.
B. less use of a bodily organ may lead to its becoming worse
C. human beings hope for a change in the future life
D. future life is always predictable
Everyone has got two personalities—the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don't show your secret personality when you're awake because you can control your behaviour, but when you're asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, people frequently change their position. The important position is the one that you go to sleep in.
If you go to sleep on your back, you're a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by fashion or new ideas. You don't like to upset people, so you never express your real feelings. You're quite shy and you aren't very confident.
If you sleep on your stomach, you are a rather secretive(不坦率的)person. You worry a lot and you're always easily upset. You're very stubborn(顽固的), but you aren't very ambitious. You usually live for today not for tomorrow. This means that you enjoy having a good time.
If you sleep curled up(卷曲), you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and so you're often defensive. You're shy and you don't normally like meeting people. You prefer to be on your own. You're easily hurt.
If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well-balanced personality. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You're usually careful. You have a confident personality. You sometimes feel anxious, but you don't often get depressed. You always say what you think even if it annoys people.
66. According to the writer,you naturally show your secret and real personality _______.
A. only in a normal night
B. only when you go to sleep
C. only when you refuse to show yourself to the world
D. only when you change sleeping position
67. Which is NOT mentioned in the second paragraph about a person's personality?
A. He or she is always open with others.
B. He or she always likes new ideas earlier than others.
C. He or she is always easily upset.
D. He or she tends to believe in others.
68. Point out which sentence is used to show the personality of a person who is used to sleeping on his or her stomach?
A. He or she is careful not to offend others.
B. He or she doesn't want to stick to his or her opinion.
C. He or she can't be successful in any business.
D. He or she likes to bring others happiness.
69. Maybe you don't want to make friends with a person who sleeps curled up. Why?
A. He or she would rather be alone than communicate with you.
B. He or she is rarely ready to help you.
C. He or she prefers staying at home to going out.
D. He or she wouldn't like to get help from you.
70. It appears that the writer tends to think highly of the person who sleeps on one side because __________.
A. he or she always shows sympathy for people
B. he or she is confident,but not stubborn
C. he or she has more strengths than weaknesses
D. he or she often considers annoying people
第三部分:阅读理解(每小题2分,满分30分)
He's an old cobbler (修鞋匠) with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris. When I took him my shoes, he at first told me: “I haven't time. Take them to the other fellow on the main street ; he'll fix them for you right away.”
But I'd had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman (手艺人). “No,” I replied, “the other fellow can't do it well.”
“The other fellow” was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys “while-U-wait”— without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap (鞋带) you might as well just throw away the pair.
My man saw I wouldn't give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron ( 围裙), looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, “Come back in a week.”
I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boots off a shelf.
“See what I can do?” he said with pride. “Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work.. ”
When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an ancient legend, this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange, dusty felt hot, his funny accent from who-knows-where and, above all, his pride in his craft.
These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as long as it “pays”, when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption (消费) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.
61. Why did the author think the man was a skilled cobbler?
A. Because the cobbler was old and kind.
B. Because he had observed the cobbler’s shop for a long time.
C. Because the cobbler wiped his hands on his blue apron.
D. Because the cobbler refused to fix his shoes at first.
62. Which of the following is TRUE about the old cobbler?
A. He was equipped with the best repairing tools.
B. He was the only cobbler in the Marais.
C. He was proud of his skills.
D. He was a native Parisian.
63. The sentence “He was something out of an ancient legend.” implies that _______.
A. nowadays you can hardly find anyone like him
B. it was difficult to communicate with this man
C. the man was very strange
D. the man was too old
64. According to the author, many people work just to ________.
A. realize their abilities B. gain happiness
C. make money D. gain respect
65. This story wants to tell us that ________.
A. craftsmen make a lot of money B. whatever you do, do it well
C. craftsmen need self-respect D. people are born equal
Ocean Acidification: 'Evil Twin' Threatens World's Oceans
The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world's oceans, international marine(海洋的)scientists have warned. "Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years," says the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. "This emphasizes the urgent need to adopt policies that markedly reduce CO2 emissions."
Ocean acidification, which the researchers call the 'evil twin of global warming', is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans. It is happening independently of, but in combination with, global warming. Evidence gathered by scientists over the last few years suggests that ocean acidification could represent an equal -- or perhaps even greater threat -- to the biology of our planet than global warming. More than 30% of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, cement production, deforestation and other human activities goes straight into the oceans, turning them gradually more acidic.
"The resulting acidification will impact many forms of sea life, especially organisms whose shells or skeletons are made from calcium carbonate(碳化钙), like corals and shellfish. It may interfere with the reproduction of plankton species which are a vital part of the food web on which fish and all other sea life depend," he adds.
The scientists say there is now persuasive evidence that mass extinctions in past Earth history, like the "Great Dying" of 251 million years ago and another wipeout 55 million years ago, were accompanied by ocean acidification, which may have delivered the deathblow to many species that were unable to cope with it. "These past periods can serve as great lessons of what we can expect in the future, if we continue to push the acidity the ocean even further" said lead author, Dr. Carles Pelejero, from ICREA and the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Barcelona, Spain. "Given the impacts we see in the fossil record, there is no question about the need to immediately reduce the rate at which we are emitting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," he said further.
"Today, the surface waters of the oceans have already acidified by an average of 0.1 pH units from pre-industrial levels, and we are seeing signs of its impact even in the deep oceans," said co-author Dr. Eva Calvo, from the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Spain. "Future acidification depends on how much CO2 humans emit from here on -- but by the year 2100 various projections indicate that the oceans will have acidified by a further 0.3 to 0.4 pH units, which is more than many organisms like corals can stand," Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says.
"This will create conditions not seen on Earth for at least 40 million years."
"These changes are taking place at rates as much as 100 times faster than they ever have over the last tens of millions of years" Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says. Besides directly impacting on the fishing industry and its contribution to the human food supply at a time when global food demand is doubling, a major die-off in the oceans would affect birds and many land species and change the biology of Earth as a whole profoundly, Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg adds.
67. What is the biggest cause of the ocean acidification according to the report?
A. the increase of carbon dioxide emission by human beings
B. The worsening of global warming
C. The disappearance of the world’s forests
D. The decrease of marine life
68. In what way according to the report does ocean acidification affect the majority of marine life?
A. It affects their reproduction B. It destroys their food chain
C. It affects the growth of their young D. destroys their habitats
69. Which of the following statements is NOT true about ocean acidification?
A. Ocean acidification has made ocean conditions most extreme in millions of years.
B. Ocean acidification may do more damage than global warming to human and plant life in the long run.
C. Ocean acidification is suspected of having caused mass extinctions of life in past Earth history.
D. The effects of ocean acidification are not now but will be felt in the foreseeable future.
70. From the report we can clearly feel that the situation with ocean acidification __________.
A. is quite optimistic B. remains well under control
C. looks more than urgent D. is already out of control