阅读理解
After a terrible electrical accident, which caused him to become both blind and deaf, the whole world became completely dark and quiet for Robert Edwards for almost ten years. The loss of sight and hearing threw him into such sorrow that he tried a few times to put an end to his life. His family, especially his wife, did their best to tend and comfort him and finally he regained the will to live.
One hot summer afternoon, he was taking a walk with a stick near his house when a thunderstorm started all at once. He stood under a large tree to avoid getting wet, but he was struck by the lightning. Witnesses thought he was dead but he woke up some 20 minutes later lying face down in muddy water at the base of the tree. He was trembling badly, but when he opened his eyes, he could hardly believe what he saw: a plough and a wall. When Mrs. Edwards came running up to him, shouting to their neighbors to call for help, he could see her and hear her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.
The news of Robert regaining his sight and hearing quickly spread, and many doctors came to examine him. Most of them said that he regained his sight and hearing from the shock he got from the lightning. However, none of them could give a convincing answer as to why this should have happened. The only reasonable explanation given by one doctor was that, since Robert lost his sight and hearing as a result of a sudden shock, perhaps, the only way for him to regain them was by another sudden shock.The reason for Robert’s attempts to kill himself was that _________.
| A．a terrible traffic accident happened to him |
| B．he had to live in a dark and silent world |
| C．he was struck by the lightning once more |
| D．nobody in the world cared about him |
What was Robert doing when he was struck by the lightning?
| A．Sheltering from the rain under a tree. |
| B．Driving a car. |
| C．Taking a walk with a stick. |
| D．Lying on the ground. |
We can infer from the text that ________.
| A．there was no accurate explanation for Robert’s recovery |
| B．many doctors came because Robert was badly injured |
| C．Robert’s wife sent for doctors immediately after the shock |
| D．a sudden injury in the head led to Robert’s recovery |
What’s the best title of the whole passage?
A Terrible Electrical Accident
B. Robert Edwards and His Wife
C. What a Sudden Shock
D. An Unforgettable Experience
Being a mother is apparently not like it was in the good old days.
Today’s parents yearn for the golden age that their own mothers enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers found. Mothers have less time to themselves and feel under greater pressure to handle work and family life than the previous generation. As a result, 88 per cent said they felt guilty about the lack of time they spent with their children.
The survey of 1,000 mothers also found that more than a third said they had less time to themselves than their mothers did – just three hours a week or 26 minutes a day. And 64 per cent said this was because they felt they ‘had’ to go out to work, while nearly a third (29 per cent) said they were under constant pressure to be the ‘perfect mother’, the report found.
Other findings showed social networking and parenting websites, as well as technology such as Skype, were important in providing help and support among female communities. Kate Fox, a member of the Social Issues Rese
arch Centre, which conducted the survey for Procter & Gamble, said: ‘With increasing pressure on 
mothers to work a “double shift” — to be the perfect mother as well as a wage-earner — support networks are more important than ever.
It comes as a separate report examining childcare in the leading industrialised nations found that working mothers in Britain spend just 81 minutes a day caring for their children as a ‘primary activity’. Mothers who stay at home, on the other hand, manage twice as much time – more than two and a half hours – looking after their offspring, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Critics say the pressure on women to work long hours, and leave their offspring in the hands of nurseries or childminders, is putting the well-being of their children at risk.
The study also reveals that, despite the fact that more and more modern mothers go out to work, the burden of childcare still falls on them - even if their husband is not in work. A father who is not in work tends to spend just 63 minutes a day looking after his child - 18 minutes less than a mother who goes out to work. Working fathers spare less than three quarters of an hour with their children.. What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．The good old days of mothers in the 1970s and 1980s. |
| B．The great sufferings of today’s children. |
| C．The statistics of working mothers and full-time mothers. |
| D．The big problems that today’s working mothers face. |
. What does the underlined phrase “yearn for” probably means ___________.
| A．hate | B．miss | C．abandon | D．control |
Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Today’s mothers have less time left for their children and themselves. |
| B．The working mothers can hardly strike the balance between work and family. |
| C．Most of the mothers can not control their husbands nowadays. |
| D．Modern fathers do not spend enough time with their children. |
From para. 4, we can infer that ___________.
| A．working mothers can seek help on line |
| B．Skype is a very famous expert in studying social issues |
| C．working mothers’ double shift is to be a wife and a mother |
| D．Kate Fox has opened a website offering help to working mothers |
. What critics say means that _____________.
| A．it is wise for working mothers to put their kids in nurseries or childminders |
| B．too much time in nurseries or childminders is bad for kids’ mental and physical health |
| C．nurseries or childminders are dangerous places for children |
| D．children do not like nurseries or childminders at all |
In a surprising discovery about where higher life can survive, scientists have found a shrimp -like creature and a jellyfish swimming beneath an Antarctic ice sheet.
About 180 meters below the ice where no light can get through, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes (微生物) could exist.
That’s why a NASA team was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera’s cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle (触须) they believe came from a jellyfish.
“We were operating on the presumption that nothing’s there.” said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler. “It was a shrimp you’d enjoy havin
g on your plate.”
“We were just gaga (狂热的) over it,” he said when talking about the 7.5cm long, orange creature starring in their two-minute video. Technically, it’s not a shrimp. It’s a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is distantly related to the shrimp.
The video is likely to inspire experts to rethink what they know about life in harsh environments. And it has scientists thinking that if shrimp-like creatures can live below 180 meters of Antarctic ice in freezing dark water, what about other cold places? What about Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter?
Cynan Ellis – Evans, a scientist of the British Antarctic Survey called the finding fascinating. He said it was possible the creatures swam in from far away and don’t live there permanently.
But Kim, who is a co-author of the study, doubts it. “The site in West Antarctica is at least 19 km from open seas. Bindschadler drilled a 20 cm-wide hole and was looking at a tiny amount of water. That means it’s unlikely that two creatures swam from great distances and were captured randomly in that small area,” she said.
“Yet scientists were puzzled at what the food source would be for these creatures. While some microbes can make their own food out of chemicals in the ocean, complex life like the shrimp can’t,” Kim said.
“So how do they survive? That’s the key question.” Kim said.
“It’s pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything.” Kim said.. Scientists had believed that harsh environments could only have been populated by ______ .
| A．jellyfish | B．mammals | C．microbes | D．shrimp-like creatures |
According to Kim, the shrimp-like creature _________ .
| A．swam great distances to Antarctic | B．has always lived in the area |
| C．gradually evolved from shrimps | D．has nothing in common with shrimps |
The finding is significant in that __________.
| A．it marks NASA’S first Antarctic biological study |
| B．it proves there is marine life in the Antarctic |
| C．it could inspire further study of life in harsh environments |
| D．it shows that Lyssianasid amphipod is closely related to shrimps |
. The last three paragraphs suggest that __________.
| A．researchers will look at the places the creatures came from |
| B．ice scientists will drill deeper to find more creatures |
C．scientists know very little about the planet they live o n |
| D．further research will be done about what the creatures live on |
If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.
The study also found the effect is greater, the younger people learn a second language.
A team led by Dr Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “ea
rly bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density(密度)in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.
It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible,”he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and 34. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists... The main subject talked about in this passage is_______.
| A．science on learning a second language | |
B．man's ability of learning a  second language |
|
| C．language can help brain power | D．language learning and maths study |
..In the second paragraph, the writer mentions “exercise” in
order to_______.
| A．say language is also a kind of physical labor |
| B．prove that one needs more practice when he (she) is learning a language |
| C．to show the importance of using the language when you learn the language |
| D．make people believe language learning helps grey matter work well |
.. We may know from the scientific findings that______
__.
| A．the earlier you start to learn a second language the higher the grey matter density is |
| B．there is no difference between a later second language learner and one who doesn't know a second language |
| C．the experience of learning a second language has bad effect on people's brain |
| D．the ability of learning a second language is changing all the time |
.. In the last two paragraphs, the author wants to tell us that_______.
| A．learning a second language is the same as studying maths |
| B．early learning of a second language helps you a great deal in study other subjects |
| C．Italian is the best choice for you as a second language |
| D．you’d better choose the ages between 2 and 34 to learn a second language |
Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?
To see whether babies know objects are solid. T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion(视觉影像)of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could be expected to show surprised in their faces and movements, All the 16 to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.
Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?
Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 we
eks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to re-appear. If the experiment took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The re-searcher substituted(替换) a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch(更换).Thus,the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.The passage is mainly about .
| A．babies’sense of sight | B．effects of experiments on babies |
| C．babies’understanding of objects | D．different tests on babies’feelings |
.In Paragraph 3, “object permanence” means that when out of sight, and object .
| A．still exists | B．keeps its shape | C．still stays solid | D．is beyond reach |
.What did Bower use in his experiments?
| A．A chair | B．A screen | C．A film | D．A box |
. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The babies didn’t have a sense of direction. |
| B．The older babies preferred toy trains to balls. |
| C．The younger babies liked looking for missing objects |
| D．The babies couldn’t tell a ball from its optical illusion. |
With their weakening bodies, advanced age or increasing pressure of work or study, people have been advised and usually persuaded to have health care products. Do you remember your first time to take a nutritional supplement(营养补充品)? What was your first impression?
Posted by Amy, Dec. 23, 2010 8:05 PM
Madeline on Dec. 24, 2010 7:25 PM
Years ago, as a young mom with two small children, I struggled to keep up with the demands of a busy life. One day, I woke up feeling so tired that I knew something had to change!
A friend gave me some Royal Jelly—an amazing substance(物质)from the beehive(蜂房). I was doubtful, but desperate…so I tried it! In time, I began to experience renewed energy and vitality(活力)like never before! Now, over two decades later, I travel all round the country, sharing my life-changing experience. I’m grateful for the energy to keep up and love to share this wonderful discovery with others.
Blanca on Dec. 25, 2010 7:02 PM
Ten years ago, when I was 73, my mind wanted to be busy and useful, but my body didn’t. I became tired and lethargic(无精打采的). That’s when my daughter Madeline tried to persuade me to try her special Royal Jelly. It made such a dramatic(巨大的)difference in her life, so she was sure it could help me too! Hesitating for 2 days, I gave in. She was right! I no longer felt worn out. I had a new, youthful zest(热情)for life and I’ve been OK — thanks to Royal Jelly!
Lori on Dec. 25, 2010 10:27 PM
When my mom Madeline was introduced to Royal Jelly, it affected my life, too! Mom gave me some o
f her fantastic Royal Jelly. Boy, things did turn around! I had more energy and stamina(耐力)and was finally able to keep up with high school and, eventually, college activities. Today, I’m a busy mom in my mid-thirties with two active boys and a new business! I have enough energy to do it all! I’m glad I took my Mom’s advice. .
.From the text, we learn that ________________. .
| A．Madeline became more than willing to take Royal Jelly at the very beginning |
| B．Lori was grateful partly because Royal Jelly helped him to improve his studies |
| C．Royal Jelly is a product that can help renew a person’s energy and vitality |
| D．Amy has benefited from Royal Jelly so she posted a topic about the product |
.
Which of the following is true of Blanca?
| A．She replied to the topic on Christmas Eve. |
| B．She tried Royal Jelly without hesitation. |
| C．She is now supposed to be in her seventies. |
| D．She was the second one to reply to the topic. |
.
. What’s the relationship between the Royal Jelly takers?
| A．Lori and Blanca are Madeline’s grandchildren. |
| B．Madeline is Blanca’s daughter and Lori’s mother. |
| C．Blanca is Lori and Madeline’s great grandmother. |
| D．They have no blood relationship but friendship. |
.
Where can we most probably read this text?
| A．In a sports club. | B．On an Internet page. |
| C．In a fiction. | D．In a travel magazine. |