We take it for granted that with memory we can remember most of things which happened in our life. But it is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory. The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions(感知), the basis for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory.
Memory can be defined as the ability to keep information available for later use. It not only includes “remembering” things like arithmetic(算术) or historical facts, but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves. Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain because he has sniffed something suspicious in the grain pile.
Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines. Computers, for example, contain devices for storing data for later use. It is interesting to compare the memory storage capacity(容量) of a computer with that of a human being. The instant access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100,000 “words”—strings of alphabetic or numerical characters—ready for instant use. An average U.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 1000,000 words of English. However, this is but a part of the total amount of information that the teenager has stored. Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight.
The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem solving intelligence of human beings. A large part of a person’s memory is in terms of words and combinations of words. But while language greatly expands the number and the kind of things a person can remember, it also requires a huge memory capacity. It may well be this capacity that distinguishes humans, setting them apart from other animals.Which of the following is true about memory?
| A．It helps us perceive things happening around us every day. |
| B．It is based on the decisions we made in the past. |
| C．It is rooted in our past habits and skills. |
| D．It connects our past experiences with the present. |
According to the passage, memory is helpful in one’s life in the following aspects EXCEPT that________________.
| A．it involves a change in one’s behavior |
| B．it keeps information for later use |
| C．it warns people not to do things repeatedly |
| D．it enables one to remember events that happened in the past |
What is the major characteristic of man’s memory capacity according to the author?
| A．It can be expanded by language. |
| B．It can remember all the combined words. |
| C．It may keep all the information in the past. |
| D．It may change what has been stored in it. |
Human beings make themselves different from other animals by________.
| A．having the ability to perceive danger |
| B．having a far greater memory capacity |
| C．having the ability to recognize faces and places on sight |
| D．having the ability to draw on past experiences |
阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30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。
Education for Japanese children is free for the first nine years and all children must go to school for six years of primary schooling and three years of secondary schooling. In the primary and secondary school, about 99.9% of school-age children are present. School usually begins at 8 o’clock in the morning and ends at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays. The school year begins in April and ends in March. There is a summer holiday in August and a winter holiday during the New Year season.
After nine years of schooling, students can enter the three-year high school by passing an examination and by paying a small charge each year. After high school, students can go on to study at different kinds of colleges, usually for four years. There are also two-year junior colleges. The passage mainly discusses _____________.
| A．colleges in Japan | B．free education in Japan |
| C．education in Japan | D．school time in Japan |
If you want to go to high school in Japan, you must ______________________.
| A．pay a small amount of money |
| B．study at primary and secondary school for 9 years |
| C．take part in the exam and pay a little money |
| D．pass the exam and pay a little money |
What is not mentioned in the passage?
| A．Types of colleges. | B．Times for schooling |
| C．The teaching staff(教职员工) | D．The number of children attending schools |
How many days do the Japanese students have to go to school every week?
| A．Two days | B．Four and a half days | C．Five days | D．Five and a half days |
Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time: if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learn to do all the other things they learn to do without being taught--- to walk , run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle --- compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone(更不用说) correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine(常规的) work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end all this nonsense of grades, exams and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn: how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible(合情理的) to them, with our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense(无意义的) in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential(基本的), something they will need to get on in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learnt it.What does the writer think is the best way for children to think?
| A．By listening to their parents’ instructions. |
| B．By asking a great many questions. |
| C．By making mistakes and having them corrected. |
| D．By copying what other people do. |
What does the writer think teachers should not do?
| A．Give children correct answers. |
| B．Point out children’s mistakes to them. |
| C．Allow children to mark their own work. |
| D．Encourage children to copy one another. |
According to the passage, learning to speak and learning to ride a bike are _____.
| A．the most important skills | B．the basic skills children should master |
| C．almost the same as learning other skills | D．much different from learning other skills. |
The writer thinks that children’s progress should only be estimated(评估) by ______.
| A．the children themselves | B．their parents |
| C．their teachers | D．education authorities(权威) |
The writer is afraid that children will grow up into adults who are ______.
| A．too selfish | B．too independent |
| C．dependent and unable to use basic skills | D．able to think for themselves |
Driving to a friend's house on a recent evening, I was attracted by the sight of the full moon rising just above my friend’s rooftops. I stopped to
watch it for a few moments, thinking about what a pity it was that most city people? Myself included? Usually miss sights like this because we spend most of our lives indoors.
My friend had also seen it. He grew up living in a forest in Europe, and the moon meant a lot to him then. It had touched much of his life.
I know the feeling. Last December I took my seven-year-old daughter to the mountainous jungle of northern India with some friends. We stayed in a forest rest-house with no electricity or running hot water. Our group had campfires(篝火) outside every night, and indoors when it was too cold outside. The moon grew to its fullest during our trip. Between me and the high mountains lay three or four valleys. Not a light shone in them and not a sound could be heard. It was one of the quietest places I have ever known, a bottomless well of silence. And above me was the full moon, which struck me deeply.
Today our lives are filled with glass, metal, plastic and fibre-glass. We have televisions, cell phones, pagers, electricity, heaters and ovens and air-conditioners, cars, computers.
Struggling through traffic that evening at the end of a tiring day, most of it spent indoors, I thought: before long, I would like to live in a small cottage. There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk in the mountains. I may become an old man there, and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and measure out my life in coffee spoons. But I will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touch the moon.The best title for the passage would be______.
| A．Touched by the moon |
| B．The pleasures of modern life |
| C．A bottomless well of silence |
| D．Break away from modern life |
The writer felt sorry for himself because________.
| A．there was too much pollution |
| B．he seldom enjoyed the fullest moon outsides |
| C．he didn’t adapt to modern inventions |
| D．there were too many accidents on the road |
What impressed the writer most in the mountainous jungle of northern India?
| A．No modern equipment | B．Complete silence. |
| C．The nice moonlight | D．The high mountains |
Modern things (Paragraph 4) are mentioned mainly to______.
| A．show that the writer likes city life very much |
| B．tell us that people greatly benefit from modern life |
| C．explain that people have fewer chances to enjoy nature |
D．show that we can also enjoy nature at home through them |
The author wrote the passage to_______.
| A．express the feeling of returning to nature |
| B．show the love for the moonlight |
| C．advise modern people to learn to live |
| D．want to share the idea of longing for modern life |
Music is an international language. The songs that are sung or played by instruments are beautiful to all people everywhere.
Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers (扬声器) and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.
Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, politics, and activities of the American people. But most of the radio broadcast is music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in every state. Once the popular singer is heard throughout the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.
Besides pop music, there are two other kinds of music that is important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. The other is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. In America, every student likes ______.
| A．folk music | B．country music | C．pop music | D．western music |
According to the passage, most of the car radio broadcast is ______.
| A．sports | B．the weather | C．politics | D．music |
What do the cowboys do according to the passage?
| A．They sell cows. | B．They watch cows. |
| C．They sing and dance. | D．They travel around. |
How many kinds of music are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Three. | B．Four. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Music in America | B．Music Listeners |
| C．Cowboys in America | D．International Language |
E
Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved everything：animals, spiders, insects...
One day while walking through the woods the nice old man found a cocoon（茧）of a butterfly. He took it home. A few days later, a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged（露出）easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract（收缩） in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly. In the story, what happened to the cocoon of the butterfly after the man’s help?
| A．The cocoon was broken and the butterfly died. |
| B．The man helped the butterfly out of the cocoon more easily |
| C．The butterfly couldn’t fly for ever normally. |
| D．The butterfly should spend more time practicing flying. |
What would have happened to the butterfly without the old man’s help?
| A．It would have died in the cocoon. |
| B．It would have become a true butterfly. |
C．It would have been strong enough to go fa rther. |
| D．It would have stopped struggling through the cocoon. |
The underlined word “cripple” in Paragraph 7 probably means ______.
| A．disable | B．climb | C．enable | D．beat |
What can we learn from this story?
| A．Man can never go against nature. |
| B．It’s necessary to live with some difficulties. |
| C．One cannot help others without thinking twice. |
| D．Mankind should take good care of insects. |