Is it true that left-handed people are smarter than right-handed people? Chris McManus, professor of psychology and medical education at University College London, responds;
“If by intelligent you mean someone who performs better on IQ tests, the simply answer is no. Studies in the U.K., U. S. and Australia have revealed that left-handed people differ from right-handers by only one IQ point, which is not noteworthy.”
Left-handedness is, however, much more common among individuals with severe learning difficulties. A slightly higher proportion of left-handers have a stutter(口吃). Other problems, such as a higher rate of accidents reported in left-handers, mostly result from a world designed for the convenience of right-handers, with many tools not made for the left-handed.
However, if by smarter you mean more talented in certain areas, left-handers may have an advantage. Left-handers’ brains are structured differently from right-handers’ in ways that can allow them to process language, relations and emotions in more diverse and creative ways. Also, a slightly larger number of left-handers than right-handers are especially gifted in music and maths. A study of musicians in professional orchestras（管弦乐队）found a greater proportion of talented left-handers, even among those who played instruments that seem designed for right-handers, such as violins. Similarly, studies of adolescents who took tests to assess mathematical ability found many more left-handers in the population. The fact that mathematicians are often musical may not be a coincidence.
For other talents and skills, the benefits of being left-handed are less clear. In one-on-one competitive sports, being in the minority can be an advantage. For example, most right-handed tennis players have little experience of playing left-handers, but left-handers have plenty of experience of playing right-handers.
Whatever the advantages are, handedness seems to be genetic. With 10 percent of people preferring their left hand, there must be some selective advantages, or else the genes would probably not survive.
The underlined word, “noteworthy”, in the second paragraph, probably means“_______”.
| A．remarkable | B．convincing |
| C．helpful | D．beneficial |
What is one of the characteristics of left-handed people?
| A．They have a much higher IQ than right-handed people. |
| B．They have an obvious advantage in tennis. |
| C．They are more likely to be talented in certain fields. |
| D．They usually don’t have learning difficulties. |
We can learn________ from the passage.
| A．right-handers have a higher rate of accidents. |
| B．most right-handed tennis players are good at playing left-handers. |
| C．left-handers can sometimes be more gifted in music and maths than right-handers. |
| D．left-handers’ brains process language in the same way as right-handers’. |
You are most likely to find this passage in the ____________ section of a magazine.
| A．travel and entertainment |
| B．gene and health. |
| C．fashion and trends |
| D．health and lifestyle |
To get cash out in the 21st century, you won’t need a bank card, a PIN(个人识别编号) or even have to move a finger. You will simply have to look the cash machine straight in the eye, declares National Cash Registers, a multinational company that makes automated teller machines, or ATMs. NCR has shown its first example machine that is believed to be the future of banking. Instead of asking you for your PIN on a screen, the Super Teller-Stella for short, asks you orally through a loudspeaker to look straight ahead while an infrared camera turns to your head, then your eye, and finally takes an infrared photograph of your iris(虹膜). For identification(识别) purposes, an iris picture is better than a fingerprint, with around 256 noticeable characteristics compared with 40 for fingerprints. This means that the chances of someone else being recognized in your place is about 1 in 1020. Once you’ve been identified, Stella greets you by name and says: “Would you like cash or a statement?” An infrared port allows the machine to send a bank statement straight to your pocket computer.
1. What does this passage mainly talk about?
A. A new medical instrument
B. A new type of talking machine.
C. A new type of cash machine.
D. National Cash Register
2. What is this new machine called?
A. Stella B. ATM C. PIN D. NCR
3. When you want to get cash out in the 21st century, you will _______.
A. need a bank card B. have to put in your PIN
C. move your finger D. just look directly at the teller machine
Motherhood may make women smarter and may help prevent dementia(痴呆) in old age by bathing the brain in protective hormones(荷尔蒙) , U.S. reseachers reported on Thursday.
Tests on rats show that those who raise two or more litters of pups do considerably better in tests of memory and skills than rats who have no babies, and their brains show changes that suggest they may be protected against diseases such as Alzheimer’s(早老痴呆症). University of Richmond psychology professor Craig Kinsley believes his findings will translate into humans.
“Our research shows that the hormones of pregnancy(怀孕) are protecting the brain, including estrogen(雌激素), which we know has many neuroprotective (保护神经的) effects,” Kinsley said.
“It’s rat data but humans are mammals just like these animals are mammals,” he added in a telephone interview. “They go through pregnancy and hormonal changes.”
Kinsley said he hoped public health officials and researchers will look to see if having had children protects a woman from Alzheimer’s and other forms of age-related brain decline.
“When people think about pregnancy, they think about what happens to babies and the mother from the neck down,” said Kinsley, who presented his findings to the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Orlando, Florida.
“They do not realize that hormones are washing on the brain. If you look at female animals who have never gone through pregnancy, they act differently toward young. But if she goes through pregnancy, she will sacrifice her life for her infant—that is a great change in her behavior that showed in genetic alterations(改变) to the brain.”
1. How do scientists know “Motherhood may make women smarter”?
A. Some researchers have told them.
B. Many women say so.
C. They know it by experimenting on rats.
D. They know it through their own experience.
2. What does the phrase “litters of pups” mean in the second paragraph?
A. Baby rats. B. Animals. C. Old rats. D. Grown-up rats.
3. What can protect the brain of a woman according to the passage?
A. Estrogen. B. The hormones of pregnancy.
C. More exercise. D. Taking care of children.
4. “It’s rat data but humans are mammals just like these animals are mammals.” What does the sentence suggest?
A. The experiments on the rats have nothing to do with humans.
B. The experiments on the rats are very important for animals.
C. The experiments on the rats are much the same on humans.
D. The experiments on the rats are much the same on other animals.
5. Which title is the best for this passage?
A. Do You Want to Be Smarter?
B. Motherhood Makes Women Smarter
C. Mysterious Hormones
D. An Important Study
Scientists are uncovering the secrets of two port cities lost under the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, a researcher said yesterday.
Herakleion and Menouthis were rich and proud cities until something reduced them to rubble (碎石) and buried them in the mud beneath 30 feet of sea water, French underwater explorer Franck Goddio said at the American Geophysical Union conference.
“This is a mystery that is ongoing,” said Goddio, a founder of the European Institute of Marine Archeology, a Paris-based underwater research organization backed by the wealthy Hilti Foundation of Liechtenstein(列支敦士登基金会).
The destruction of the twin port cities has haunted Goddio ever since he happened upon the site about 15 miles from Alexandria while exploring sunken ships from Napoleon’s fleet.
Goddio and his group of expert divers, marine archeologists(海洋考古学家) and others, are using high powered vacuums, satellite navigation systems and sophisticated sonar(声纳) to excavate(挖掘) the sunken cities from underneath a carpet of silt about one meter (three feet) high.
Walls of shops, remains of streets and gold artifacts have been found and recovered.
Some experts believe that the port cities were destroyed by a series of massive earthquakes, much like the quakes scientists believe felled Troy(特洛伊城), Jericho and other ancient cities. The uniform direction of the collapsed columns and walls suggest an earthquake, Goddio said, but no fault lines have been found nearby.
Other researchers believe a massive wave, caused by either an offshore earthquake or a distant underwater landslide, could explain the catastrophe. Still others think rising seas and a shift in the Nile River outlet doomed the cities.
“The argument, as you can see, continues,” Goddio said.
1. The reason why the two port cities disappeared under the waters of Mediterranean Sea is that ______.
A. the two port cities were destroyed by huge earthquakes
B. the disappearance of the two port cities was caused by underwater landslide
C. rising seas and a shift in the Nile River outlet doomed the cities
D. the story didn’t tell us at all
2. From the story we can draw a conclusion that _______.
A. the two port cities were famous for their wealth and the mystery
B. the two cities belonged to France
C. some mysterious creatures from other planets destroyed the two cities
D. the American Geophysical Union conference was once held in one of the two cities
3. This article is probably from _______.
A. a scientific magazine
B. a report to the government
C. a school text book
D. a scientific report in a newspaper
(1—3 DBD)
Want a glance of the future of health care? Take a look at the way the various networks of people about patient care are being connected to one another, and how this new connectivity is being exploited to deliver medicine to the patient —no matter where he or she may be.
Online doctors offering advice based on normal symptoms(症状) are the most obvious example. Increasingly, however, remote diagnosis(远程诊断) will be based on real physiological data(生理数据) from the actual patient. A group from the University of Kentucky has shown that by using personal data assistance plus a mobile phone, it is perfectly practical to send a patient’s important signs over the telephone. With this kind of equipment, the cry asking whether there was a doctor in the house could well be a thing of the past.
Other medical technology groups are working on applying telemedicine to rural(countryside) care. And at least one team wants to use telemedicine as a tool for disaster need—especially after earthquakes. On the whole, the trend is towards providing global access to medical data and experts’ opinions.
But there is one problem. Bandwidth(宽带) is the limiting factor for sending complex(复杂的) medical pictures around the world — CT photos being one of the biggest bandwidth users. Communication satellites may be able to deal with the short-term needs during disasters such as earthquakes or wars. But medicine is looking towards both the second-generation Internet and third-generation mobile phones for the future of remote medical service.
Doctors have met to discuss computer-based tools for medical diagnosis, training and telemedicine. With the falling price of broadband communications, the new technologies should start a new time when telemedicine and the sharing of medical information, experts’ opinions and diagnosis are common.
1. The writer chiefly talks about _______.
A. the use of telemedicine B. the on-lined doctors
C. medical care and treatment D. communication improvement
2. The basis of remote diagnosis will be _______.
A. personal data assistance
B. some words of a patient
C. real physiological information
D. medical pictures from the Internet
3. Which of the following statements is true according to the text？
A. Patients don’t need doctors in hospitals any more.
B. It is impossible to send a patient’s signs over the telephone.
C. Many teams use telemedicine dealing with disasters now.
D. Broadband communications willbecome cheaper in the future.
4. The “problem” in the fourth paragraph refers to the fact that _______.
A. bandwidth isn’t big enough to send complex medical pictures
B. the second-generation of Internet has not become popular yet
C. communication satellites can only deal with short-term needs
D. there is not enough equipment for spreading the medical care
With only about 1, 000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone(克隆) the animal and save the endangered species(物种). That’s a move similar to what a Texas A & M University researchers have been undertaking for the past five years in a project called “Noah’s Ark”.
Noah’s Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos(胚胎), semen and DNA of endangered animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct, Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A & M’s College of Veterinary Medicine, says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.
It is estimated that as many as 2, 000 species of mammals, birds reptiles will become extinct in over 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years.
This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal.
The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete.
“The nuclear transfer(核子移植) of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available(capable of being used) panda eggs could be a major problem,” Kraemer believes. “They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy (having a baby). It takes a long time and it’s difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort,” adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Project at Texas A& M, the first-ever attempt at cloning a dog.
“They are trying to do something that’s never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah’s Ark. We’re both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly appreciate their effort and there’s a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. It’s a research that is very much needed.”
1. The aim of “Noah’s Ark” project is to _______.
A. make efforts to clone the endangered pandas
B. save endangered animals from dying out
C. collect DNA of endangered animals to study
D. transfer the nuclear of one animal to another
2. According to Professor Kraemer, the major problem in cloning pandas would be the lack of _______.
A. available panda eggs B. host animals
C. qualified researchers D. enough money
3. The best title for the passage may be _______.
A. China’s Success in Pandas Cloning
B. The First Cloned Panda in the World
C. Exploring the Possibility to Clone Pandas
D. China —the Native Place of Pandas Forever
4. From the passage we know that _______.
A. Kraemer and his team have succeeded in cloning a dog
B. scientists try to implant a panda’s egg into a rabbit
C. Kraemer will work with Chinese scientists in clone researches
D. about two thousand of species will probably die out in a century