American researchers have discovered that human brains and sleep patterns are confused by devices(装置) that give out bright lights. Electronics, such as laptops, mislead our minds into thinking that it is still daytime, preventing sleep and increasing the risk of insomnia.
Sleep experts say human's natural body clock begins to rest and relax from the day between 9 and 10 pm but the use of computers confuses it.
A person's brain biologically becomes awake when the sun is out because bright light after dark causes the brain to stop producing the hormone (荷尔蒙) called melatonin that makes us sleepy.
Researchers say blue light from devices such as iPads, which is expected to become a popular reading tool when it comes out later this month, is particularly disruptive (干扰的)during the night when the brain thinks it should be dark.
Experts say a good book is a far better way of resting the brain and ensuring a good night's sleep because the bedside lamp(灯) light doesn't affect the brain as it does not look straight into a person's eyes.
“Potentially, yes, if you're using an iPad or a laptop close to bedtime... that light can be stimulating (刺激) to the brain to make it more awake and delay your ability to sleep，” Phyllis Zee, a professor at Northwestern University and director of the school's Centre for Sleep & Circadian Biology, told CNN.
“And I think more importantly, it could also be enough to affect your circadian (昼夜节律的) rhythm. This is the clock in your brain that determines when you sleep and when you wake up. ”
Alon Avidan, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of California Los Angeles, added, “I wish people would just take a boring book — an oldfashioned book — and read by a lamp.”The underlined word “insomnia” in the first paragraph probably means “________”．
| A．being unable to eat properly |
| B．brain injury |
| C．being unable to fall sleep |
| D．lack of energy |
Melatonin is the hormone that ________.
| A．makes us sleepy |
| B．helps us relaxed |
| C．prevents us from waking up |
| D．makes us excited |
The bedside lamp light doesn't affect the brain because ________.
| A．it doesn't give out blue light |
| B．it's not as bright as your laptop |
| C．it doesn't enter your eyes directly |
| D．it is adjustable |
We can conclude from the passage that ________.
| A．one who uses his laptop often before bedtime can have his body clock disturbed |
| B．using a laptop before bedtime is more harmful than using an iPad |
| C．we'd better not do anything before going to bed |
| D．the best time to go to bed is before 9 pm |
He was the baby with no name. Found and taken from the north Atlantic 6 days after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, his tiny body so moved the rescue workers that they called him “our baby.” In their home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, people collected money for a headstone in front of the baby's grave, carved with the words: “To the memory of an unknown child.” He has rested there ever since.
But history has a way of uncovering its secrets. On Nov. 5, this year, three members of a family from Finland arrived at Halifax and laid fresh flowers at the grave. “This is our baby,” says Magda Schleifer, 68, a banker. She grew up hearing stories about a great aunt named Maria Panula, 42, who had sailed on the Titanic for America to be reunited with her husband. According to the information Mrs. Schleifer had gathered, Maria gave up her seat on a lifeboat to search for her five children -- including a 13-month-old boy named Eino, from whom she had become separated during the final minutes of the crossing. "We thought they were all lost in the sea," says Schleifer.
Now, using the teeth and bone pieces taken from the baby's grave, scientists have compared the DNA from the unknown child with those collected from members of five families who lost relatives on the Titanic and never recovered the bodies. The result of the test points only to one possible person: young Eino. Now, the family sees no need for a new grave. "He belongs to the people of Halifax," says Schleifer. "They've taken care of him for 100 years."The baby travelled on the Titanic with his_______.
| A．mother | B．parents | C．aunt | D．relatives |
What is probably the boy's last name?
| A．Schleiferi | B．Eino. | C．Magda. | D．Panula. |
Some members of the family went to Halifax and put flowers at the child's grave on Nov. 5 _______.
| A．1912 | B．1954 | C．2012 | D．2004 |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word recover?
| A．uncover | B．find | C．bury | D．gather |
This text is mainly about how______________.
| A．the unknown baby's body was taken from the north Atlantic |
| B．the unknown baby was buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| C．people found out who the unknown baby was |
| D．people took care of the unknown baby for 100 years |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there's a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job's pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas;
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating（使孤立）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don't happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won't know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad. |
| B．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
| C．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| D．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
What does the underlined sentence in paragraph one mean?
| A．Before you select your job, you should assess your skills and match them with your position |
| B．You should ignore your skills when you select job. |
| C．Nothing is important than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job. |
| D．There are more important things than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job. |
What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
| A．Design. | B．Changes. | C．Cooperation. | D．Hobbies. |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Lifestyles and Job Pay | B．Jobs and Environment |
| C．Personalities and Jobs | D．Job Skills and Abilities |
Nuclear power’s danger to health, safety, and even life itself can be summed up in one word: radiation.
Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery about it, partly because it cannot be detected by human senses. It can’t be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we can’t detect them, sense them, without a radio receiver. Similarly, we can’t sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things.
At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or human being immediately by killing masses of cells in vital organs. But even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no levels of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be serious. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and if they are killed immediately, your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.
This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the victim being aware at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated（辐射）and feel fine, then die for cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. Or a child can be born weak as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents.
Radiation can hurt us. We must know the truth.What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．How to detect nuclear radiation. |
| B．How radiation kill a man. |
| C．The mystery about nuclear radiation. |
| D．Serious damage caused by nuclear radiation. |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．Nuclear radiation can cause cancer to human beings. |
| B．Nuclear radiation can be safe to human beings if its level is low. |
| C．Nuclear radiation can be detected by human senses. |
| D．Nuclear radiation is just like common radio waves. |
What is not the reason why nuclear radiation has a certain mystery?
| A．The hurt cells can stay in the body many years and then grow into cancer. |
| B．It can do harm to a person while the victim isn't aware the damage has occurred. |
| C．Nuclear radiation can kill a person very easily. |
| D．Radiation can seldom kill a person immediately. |
If a human being is hit by nuclear radiation, he may _______.
| A．die of cancer after many years | B．die immediately |
| C．have a child who may be born weak | D．all of the above |
Farmers, especially in developing countries, are often criticized for cutting down forests. But a new study suggests that many farmers recognize the value of keeping trees.
Researchers using satellite images found at least ten percent tree cover on more than one billion hectares of farmland. That is almost half the farmland in the world. Earlier estimates were much lower but incomplete. The authors of the new study say it may still underestimate the true extent worldwide.
The study found the most tree cover in South America. Next comes Africa south of the Sahara, followed by Southeast Asia. North Africa and West Asia have the least.
The study found that climate conditions alone could not explain the amount of tree cover in different areas. Nor could the size of nearby populations, meaning people and trees can live together. There are areas with few trees but also few people, and areas with many trees and many people. The findings suggest that things like land rights, markets or government policies can influence tree planting and protection.
Dennis Garrity, who heads the World Agroforestry Center, says farmers are acting on their own to protect and plant trees. The problem, he says, is that policy makers and planners have been slow to recognize this and to support such efforts.
The satellite images may not show what the farmers are using the trees for, but trees provide nuts, fruit, wood and other products. They also help prevent soil loss and protect water supplies. Even under drought(干旱)conditions, trees can often provide food and a way to earn money until the next growing season.
Some trees act as natural fertilizers. They take nitrogen(氮气)out of the air and put it in the soil. Scientists at the Center say the use of fertilizer trees can re-duce the need for chemical nitrogen by up to three-fourths. Trees also capture carbon dioxide, a gas linked to climate change.Through the study, the researchers found that .
| A．there are more trees on farmlands than expected |
| B．fewer trees are being cut in developing countries |
| C．most farmers still don’t realize the value of trees |
| D．trees play a key role in preventing climate change |
Which of the following has the least tree cover?
| A．Southeast Asia | B．West Asia. |
| C．South America. | D．Africa south of the Sahara. |
In Dennis Garrity’s opinion,.
| A．most farmers care about nothing but their own interests |
| B．there are usually few people living in areas with few trees |
| C．government plays a small role in tree planting and protection |
| D．government should support farmers in planting and protecting trees |
The sixth paragraph mainly tells about .
| A．how farmers plant trees |
| B．what products trees can bring |
| C．the importance of trees to farmers |
| D．the environmental value of tree cover |
Dreams can be familiar and strange, fantastical or boring, but some dreams might be connected to the mental processes that help us learn. In a recent study, scientists found a connection between nap-time dreams and better memory in people who were learning a new skill.
In the study,99 college students between the ages of 18 and 30 each spent an hour on a compute, trying to get through a virtual maze（迷宫）.The maze was different place each time they tired—making it even more difficult. They were also told to find a particular picture of a tree and remember where it was.
For the first 90 minutes of a five-hour break, half of the participants stayed awake and an half were told to take a short nap .Participants who stayed awake were asked to describe their thoughts. Participants who took a nap were asked about their dreams before sleep and after sleep—and they were awakened within a minute of sleep to describe their dreams.
Stickgold, a neuroscientist（神经科学家）,wanted to know what people were dreaming about when their eyes weren＇t moving during sleep.
Four of the 50 people who slept said their dreams were connected to the maze. Some dreamed about the music that had been playing when they were working ; others said they dreamed about seeing people in the maze. When these four people tried the computer maze again, they were able to find the tree faster than before their naps.
Stickgold suggests the dream itself doesn‘t help a person learn—it＇s the other way around.He suspects that the dream was caused by the brain processes associated with learning.
All four of the people who dreamed about the task had done poorly the first time, which makes Stickgold wonder if the dreams show up when a person finds a new task particularly difficult. People who had other dreams, or people who didn＇t take a nap, didn＇t show the same improvement.Before having a short nap, participants of the experiment were asked to .
| A．stay in a different place in the maze |
| B．design a virtual maze which is difficult to get through |
| C．experience the experiment and try to remember something |
| D．get through a virtual maze on a computer from the same place |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Participants who took a nap were required to express their thoughts. |
| B．Some dreams may encourage people to invent something new. |
| C．Participants who dreamed about films could finish the task more easily. |
| D．Participants whose dreams had something to do with the maze could find the tree faster. |
According to Stickgold,.
| A．every person may dream about what they learned |
| B．people＇s brain processes may still be connected with their learning in their dreams |
| C．once people＇s eyes stop moving, they are sure to dream about something |
| D．no matter how fantastical or boring, dreams are connected with people＇s life |
What is the best title for this text?
| A．Dreams Are Strange | B．Not All Dreams Are True |
| C．Dreaming Makes Perfect | D．Stickgold, a Dream Expert |