 Joshua, Helmut, and Bethlehem Michelle O. Donovan ISBN 9781462058679 Life is not easy for nineyearold Joshua during World War II. Because of his family's Jewish background, they are sent to live in the concentration camps (集中营). Scared and alone, Joshua one day makes friends with a little mouse he calls Bethlehem who becomes his closest friend. |
|
 Encourage Me! Inspirational Poetry Gloria Coykendall ISBN 9781412027854 It is an easytoread collection of poems originally written to encourage in faith and to be a cure for chronic depression(长期抑郁) ... cure to strengthen identity and purpose. |
 More Things in Heaven Bill Bosworth ISBN 9780595433582 In his More Things in Heaven, Bill Bosworth presents the highlights of his 83 years of life, including his trips to India and the study of the writings of several great spiritual leaders. More Things in Heaven will appeal to anyone who insists on finding the deepest meaning for their existence based on their own experience. |
 Seeking the Edge Dr. Joseph L. Rose ISBN 9781462031795 Seeking the Edge provides the tools and techniques to find that edge in one's life—driving readers to achieve success whether in your current job, finding a new job, in education, family, or even hobbies. |
 Creation or Evolution Michael Ebifegha ISBN 9781450289023 Were humans created, or did they evolve? How old is the Earth? The debate between science and religion continues to be heated. In Creation or Evolution, Michael Ebifegha examines these two opposed world views within the structure of empirical(实证的) science. |
Who wrote the story about a little boy and a little mouse?
| A．Bill Bosworth. | B．Michelle O. Donovan. |
| C．Dr. Joseph L. Rose. | D．Gloria Coykendall. |
The ISBN for the book of poems is ________.
| A．9781462031795 | B．9781412027854 |
| C．9780595433582 | D．9781462058679 |
What kind of readers will probably like reading More Things in Heaven?
| A．Those who are searching for the meaning of life. |
| B．Those who are trying to be spiritual leaders. |
| C．Those who study the art of writing. |
| D．Those who like traveling abroad. |
Which of the following books explores the origin of humans?
| A．Seeking the Edge. |
| B．Creation or Evolution. |
| C．Joshua, Helmut, and Bethlehem. |
| D．More Things in Heaven. |
The term “multitasking” originally referred to a computer's ability to carry out several tasks at one time. For many people, multitasking has become a way of life and even a key to success. In fact, some excellent mental aerobic exercises (大脑训练) involve engaging the brain in two or more challenging activities at a time. Although checking e-mail while talking on a phone and reading the newspaper may be second nature for some people, many times multitasking can make us less productive, rather than more. And studies show that too much multitasking can lead to increased stress, anxiety and memory loss.
In order to multitask, the brain uses an area known as the prefrontal cortex (前额叶脑皮层). Brain scans of volunteers performing multiple tasks together show that as they shift from task to task, this front part of the brain actually takes a moment of rest between tasks. You may have experienced a prefrontal cortex “moment of rest” yourself if you've ever dialed (拨电话) a phone number and suddenly forgotten who you called when the line is answered. What probably occurred is that between the dialing and the answering, your mind shifted to another thought or task, and then took that “moment” to come back. Research has also shown that for many volunteers, job efficiency (效率) declines while multitasking, as compared to when they perform only one task at a time.
Multitasking is easiest when at least one of the tasks is habitual, or requires little thought. Most people don' t find it difficult to eat and read the newspaper at the same time. However, when two or more attention-requiring tasks are attempted at one time, people sometimes make mistakes.
We often don't remember things as well when we're trying to manage several details at the same time. Without mental focus, we may not pay enough attention to new information coming in, so it never makes it into our memory stores. That is one of the main reasons we forget people's names—even sometimes right after they have introduced themselves. Multitasking can also affect our relationships. If someone checks their e-mail while on the phone with a friend, they may come off as absent-minded or disinterested. It can also cause that person to miss or overlook key information being passed on to them.
1. Why are some mental aerobic exercises designed to engage people in multitasking?
A. To make them more productive.
B. To reduce their stress and anxiety.
C. To develop their communication Skills.
D. To help them perform daily tasks more easily.
2. According to Paragraph 2, why
may a person suddenly forget who he has called?
A. He may have his prefrontal cortex temporarily damaged.
B. He is probably interrupted by another task.
C. He is probably not very familiar with the person he has called.
D. He may need a rest between dialing and speaking.
3. People tend to make mistakes when .
A. they perform several challenging tasks at a time
B. new messages are processed one after another
C. their relationships with others are affected
D. the tasks require little thought
4. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Multitasking has become a way of life.
B. Multitasking often leads to efficiency decline.
C. Multitasking exercises need to be improved.
D. Multitasking enables people to remember things better.
第二部分：阅读理解(第一节20小题。第二节5小题；每小题2分，满分50分)
第一节：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，并在答题纸上将该
选项标号涂黑。
When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I
was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.
It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie's basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted a red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.
"Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint. " She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted big stripes ( 条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!
The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn't wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother's face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.
My mother shut the ear door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, "What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors' trees, but this! Come inside right now !" I stood there glaring back at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.
"Now go clean it up!" Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.
Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need some sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful.
1. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?
A. To introduce Stephanie to her. B. To prevent her from seeing his painting.
C. To put the materials back in the yard. D. To show his artwork to her.
2. In his mother's eyes, the writer __ .
A. was a born artist B. always caused trouble
C. was a problem solver D. worked very hard
3. The underlined word "rainbow" in the last paragraph refers to __ .
A. the rainbow in the skyB. the stripes on the pavement
C. something imaginative and fun D. important lessons learned in childhood
4. It can be learned from the passage that parents should .
A. encourage children to paint
B. value friendship among children
C. discover the hidden talent in children
D. protect rather than destroy children's dreams
I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, "Can I have one of those?" He looked perturbed (不安)."Do you want to try it first?" he said. It didn't quite sound like a question. "Do I need to?" I replied. "There's nothing wrong with it?" This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. "No, no. But you should try it," he said encouragingly." Compare it with the others. "
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out my chosen
camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers... and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.
Why do we think that new options (选择) still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.
| 1． |
The shop assistant insisted that the writer should.
|
| 2． |
What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it" (Paragraph 2) ?
|
| 3． |
The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he.
|
| 4． |
It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer's opinion,
|
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.