Part III Reading Comprehension （30 marks）
Directions: Read the following three passages, Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are four choices marked A, B,C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.
A
Humans aren’t the only ones getting a buzz from coffee. Caffeine can improve memory among honeybees and lead to better pollination(授粉). According to a recent study published in the journal Science.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. They found that the nectar(花蜜) of some flowers, such as those from grapefruit and lemon plants, as well as certain coffee flowers, contains low doses of caffeine. To get bees to feed on these flowers, the team trained the insects to associate food with the smell of the flowers. They also trained another group of bees to feed on nectar from flowers that were sweetened with a sugar, but did not contain caffeine. After 24 hours, the bees trained on caffeinated flowers returned to these plants three times as often as those trained on the sweetened flowers returned to the uncaffeinated plants.
Professor Geraldine Wright led the researchers. “Remembering floral traits (花部特征) is difficult for bees to perform at a fast pace as they fly from flower to flower and we found that caffeine helps the bee remember where the flowers are,” Wright said in a statement.
Improved memory led to the better pollination. That’s because once bees sip the caffeine nectar, they continue to look for more coffee plants to pollinate. This also suggests that caffeine plays a role in improving the bees’ ability to search for food.
Researchers found that caffeine’s effect on the bee brain is similar to its effect on mammals. “The change is similar to that produced by caffeine in neurons (神经元)”associated with learning and memory in the rat brain,” Wright said.
Bee populations have declining since 2007. The dramatic drop in the insects’ numbers has serious effects for ecosystems and the farming industry. Bees are needed in the reproduction of crops and spreading wild flower species. Understanding what keeps bees buzzing could help to make sure that the insects are able to remember and pollinate their favorite flowers.
Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?
| A．Caffeine has no effect on the rat brain. |
| B．Bee population has been increasing. |
| C．The nectar of lemon plants contains caffeine. |
| D．Bees dislike nectar from sweetened flowers. |
After reading the passage, John, who works in the farming industry, will probably feel ________.
| A．annoyed | B．angry | C．nervous | D．excited |
Which of the following relationship is correct according to the passage?
| A．improved memory — caffeine nectar — better pollination |
| B．caffeine nectar — improved memory — better pollination |
| C．improved memory — better pollination — caffeine nectar |
| D．caffeine nectar — better pollination — improved memory |
We can know from the passage that ________.
| A．the rat is a mammal |
| B．caffeine has nothing to do with memory |
| C．bees are good at remembering floral traits |
| D．Geraldine Wright did the research on his own |
What section of a newspaper may this passage be taken from?
| A．Science | B．Education |
| C．Culture | D．Sports |
Studies have documented that smiling is a universal and effective way to lift mood. But in the latest research on the power of the smile, researchers led by Marcus Munafo of the University of Bristol in England found that even seeing smiles on the faces of others can have a profound effect on a person's tendency toward violence or aggression — that is, as long as that person recognizes the smile as one of happiness, and not as a sneer (讥笑)．
Munafo and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments involving normal adults and highly aggressive teens referred to a youth program, either by educational authorities or the courts. About 70% of the teens already had a criminal record.
In the first experiment, 40 healthy adults, aged 1830, looked at facial expressions on the computer ranging from happy to angry with increasingly difficult ones to discern in between. Participants were asked how angry they felt and then had to rate the images as displaying either happiness or anger — there was no option for “unclear” or “unable to tell”. From these ratings, the scientists could generate a score of their preference toward happiness or anger.
Previous research found that aggressive people — including violent offenders — tend to consider even a common expression as an unfriendly one. “You looking at me？” can easily turn a simple question into a tragic fight.
Based on their original scores, half of the participants were then told by the computer that some of the unclear faces that they had rated as angry should have been scored as happy. This was intended to guide them toward judging the inbetween faces more positively. The other 20 received feedback that simply proved their first choices, creating a control group.
After this training, both groups were tested again and the group that received the biased (有偏见的) feedback shifted its ratings of unclear faces toward the happy side. Participants were also asked to rate their level of angry feelings again after completing the second round of testing. Those who were trained to consider unclear faces as happier reported feeling less angry afterward.
The researchers next focused on the 46 adolescents from the high risk youth program. These teens completed the same testing, but both the youth and the staff reported on the teens' levels of aggressive behavior before the testing started and for two weeks afterward. The teens trained to interpret unclear facial expressions more positively were significantly less aggressive two weeks later.
“The results of our experiments strongly suggest that the understanding of emotional facial expressions plays a causal role in subjective anger and aggressive behavior，”the authors conclude.
That doesn't mean that smiles alone are the answer to violence among adolescents — previous research in which antisocial youth were trained to better recognize emotions, for example, did not have any effect on their level of aggressive behavior. But this earlier study focused on improving teens' understanding of clear facial signals, not unclear ones. Since unclear signals are more likely to be misunderstood, it may be that violent behavior in some youth exists with their constant misunderstanding of angry expressions where they don't exist, which push them to aggressive responses. The findings suggest that helping young people, particularly those easy to be violent, to learn to give others the benefit of the doubt when they see what they think is a threatening face could help end the vicious (恶性的) cycle of violence.The underlined word “discern” (Paragraph 3) means ________.
| A．display obviously | B．identify clearly |
| C．describe correctly | D．value properly |
According to Munafo's research, the anger and violent behavior in some youths resulted from ____.
| A．their misunderstanding of facial emotions of others |
| B．their lack in knowledge of emotion recognition |
| C．their inborn tendency toward violence or aggression |
| D．their experience of being offended by others on purpose |
The method Munafo and his colleagues used in their research is ________.
| A．field investigation |
| B．case study |
| C．observation and analysis |
| D．experiment and comparison |
What happens to the participants after receiving certain feedbacks?
| A．They can interpret unclear facial expressions. |
| B．They put an end to their aggressive behavior. |
| C．They tend to judge the inbetween faces positively. |
| D．It makes no difference in their level of aggressive behavior. |
Which of the following will Munafo and his group probably agree with?
| A．Just smile as much as possible. |
| B．Misunderstanding is the root of violence. |
| C．Seeing smiles can lower aggression. |
| D．Control our anger to avoid violence and aggression. |
Since the beginning of the year, smog has covered parts of North China. In January, Beijing saw only five days without smog. The rising PM2.5 readings terrified many people, and some health experts said that whenever the smog gets serious, hospitals receive more patients suffering acute respiratory (呼吸系统) and heart diseases.
Later, news of polluted underground water in some provinces scared people who wondered whether the water they drink is safe.
So the need to emphasize environmental protection while developing the economy is heard everywhere.
Smog is especially a common concern. As a popular online post said, air may be the only thing that is equal for everyone, despite your income or profession. People with higher incomes are able to drink only bottled spring water and eat only organic food by paying higher prices, but they breathe the same air as everyone else.
At a meeting on Monday, many representatives have expressed their concerns about the air quality, too. One talked about his experience in Beijing. “After taking a taxi from the capital airport to my hotel, which took about an hour, I washed my nose and found the inside of my nose was black. We should ask ourselves this question: Why do we want to develop? It's for living a better life. Dirty air is definitely not a better life，” he said.
China needs to develop its economy and invest (投资) in hightech. Every Chinese has a dream to make China stronger. But without blue sky, clean water and safe food, the achievements in the economy will become meaningless. Space technologies are not to be developed for building a base on Mars so that one day all human beings can move to the red planet because they have destroyed Earth.
What the public wants is a strong and beautiful China. The great efforts must be made to promote ecological progress and build a beautiful China. The words have shown the central government's determination to address the environment issue.The effect of smog doesn't include ________.
| A．the rising of PM2.5 readings |
| B．more people suffering diseases |
| C．the increase of people's income |
| D．patients increased in hospital |
Why has smog become a common concern?
| A．Because people have to pay higher prices. |
| B．Because nobody can avoid it. |
| C．Because we have to develop industry. |
| D．Because a popular onlinepost discussed it. |
To make China stronger we have to develop economy, but ________.
| A．we have to sacrifice air as the price |
| B．the dirty air is not what we want |
| C．ecological progress can be ignored |
| D．the smog is the only byproduct |
From the last two paragraphs we can infer that ________.
| A．hightech can completely solve the problem of pollution |
| B．space technologies should be developed in a large scale |
| C．we can move to Mars after the earth has been destroyed |
| D．we must protect the environment while developing economy |
As the richest country in the world, you'd expect that Qatar would also be the happiest. And you'd also expect Japanese people to be extremely positive, seeing as though they have the highest life expectancy. But clearly wealth and good health do not guarantee happiness after both countries failed to make the top ten most positive countries.
The poll (民意测验 ) of nearly 150,000 people around the world found that seven of the world's 10 countries with the most upbeat attitudes are in Latin America. Gallup asked about 1,000 people in each of 148 countries if they were wellrested, had been treated with respect, smiled or laughed a lot, learned or did something interesting and felt feelings of enjoyment the previous day.
In Panama and Paraguay, 85 percent of those polled said yes to all five, putting those countries at the top of the list. They were followed closely by El Salvador, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Guatemala, the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
The people least likely to report positive emotions lived in Singapore, the wealthy and orderly citystate that ranks among the most developed in the world. Other wealthy countries also sat surprisingly low on the list. Germany and France tied with the poor African state of Somaliland for 47th place.
Many of the seven countries which were most positive do poorly in traditional measures of wellbeing, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gangdriven criminality that give it one of the highest killing rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations' Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capital income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions.
In Guatemala, it's a culture of friendly people who are always smiling, said Luz Castillo, a 30yearold surfing instructor. Despite all the problems that we're facing, we're surrounded by natural beauty that lets us get away from it all.
The poll shows that prosperous nations can also be deeply unhappy ones. And povertystricken ones are often positive, or at least a close approximation (类似事物) of it.________ may feel the most unhappy according to the poll.
| A．People from Qatar | B．People from Thailand |
| C．People from Japan | D．People from Singapore |
The underlined word “Gallup” in Paragraph 2 refers to ________.
| A．a country | B．a polling organization |
| C．a person | D．a magazine |
Which of the following is NOT included in the United Nations' Human Development Index?
| A．Life expectancy. | B．Education. |
| C．Natural beauty. | D．Per capital income. |
What's the best title of the text?
| A．Happiness does not depend on wealth |
| B．How to live happily? |
| C．Health leads to happiness |
| D．What are the standards to be happy men? |
Anyone who has ever lost keys or money will have wished for a simple but effective way to make sure it never happens again. A US company is trying to help.
Using a tiny microchip which is implanted into the arm, they have come up with a replacement for cash or credit cards that cannot be left at home or dropped on the bus.
The Verichip is about the size of a grain of rice and works using radio frequency identification technology. At a shop, a radio frequency “reader” would send a signal and the chip in your arm would respond with your unique identity number. That would give the “reader” your financial information, and money could be taken directly from your accounts and you wouldn't even have to reach for your wallet.
The company also hopes to include other information on the chip, such as medical records, building security codes (密码) and passwords, making life even easier.
But not everyone is happy with the developments. Critics say that a lot can go wrong with the chip. A clever thief could build a fake (假的) reader that would steal your information without you knowing. So your money could still be stolen. Privacy is a big issue too. Stores, or even the government, only need to track the chip to find out what you buy, how much you spend and where you go.
And if you wanted to get rid of your chip, you would need an operation to remove it.The Verichip is ________.
| A．the identity number | B．the security code |
| C．a tiny microchip | D．a radio reader |
Which is true of the Verichip?
| A．Your information on it will always be safe. |
| B．Medical records have already been included. |
| C．You can easily reach for your wallet using it. |
| D．An operation has to be performed to remove it. |
Life is like the four seasons. Now I am very old, but when I was young, it was the spring of my life. I was born. I played a lot, and then I started school. I learned many new things. Like a flower, I grew bigger everyday. There were happy days and tragic days; some days the sun shone, and some days it didn’t.
In my twenties, I had a good job. I was strong and happy. Then I married and had a child. In those days, I didn’t have much time to think. Every day, I was busy and worked very hard. And so, I started to get some white hairs. The summer of my life passed quickly.
Then the days got shorter. Leaves fell from the trees. My child was a university student, and then an engineer. My home was much quieter. I started walking more slowly. One day I stopped working, I had more time. I understood this was my autumn, a beautiful time when the trees change colour and give us delicious fruits.
But the days keep getting shorter and colder. Winter has come. I am older and weaker. I know I do not have many days left but I will enjoy them to the end.. According to the passage, which of the following ages may be during the autumn of his life?
| A．15 | B．33 | C．62 | D．87 |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The writer was an engineer. |
| B．The writer had a garden with flowers. |
| C．The writer was always happy as a child. |
| D．The writer now is old and weak, but he still enjoys his life. |
The best title for the passage can be “________”.
| A．Four Seasons |
| B．My Life |
| C．Four Seasons in a Year |
| D．Four Seasons in My Life |