We each have a unique genetic (基因的，遗传的) make-up. Every cell of your body has the same set of about 100,000 separate genes made of DNA. These are the instructions for producing a person. Genes decide everything from the colour of your skin to the way your brain works. You have one of several billion binations of DNA which e from the random(随机的，任意的) mixing of your parents’ genes. Except for identical twins (同卵双胞胎), no one has the same bination as another person. You are unique! You are unique in another way too: in the way you are raised and all the experiences you have from before birth to adult life. These experiences influence you, your behaviour and attitudes, and the choices you make.
But are genes or life experiences more important in shaping your appearance and personality? Scientists are studying twins to find out. One set of twins occurs every 70 births---some are identical and others are non-identical twins. Identical twins are special because they share exactly the same genes and often the same environment. Non-identical twins are more like ordinary brothers and sisters.
Some identical twins have been adopted and brought up in different homes. With identical genes but a different home environment, scientists can study twins to see how much a particular feature depends on the genes we inherit. For example, we know that eye problems, like short-sightedness, are mostly genetic. But resistance to pain is largely dependent on experiences. Genes also influence our eating habits. Identical twins brought up apart often like to eat at the same time of day and feel full after eating the same amount. Non-identical twins in similar circumstances have more varied eating habits. Identical twins are also more likely to follow the same patterns for marriage and divorce than non-identical twins.
Scientists are trying to identify the different genes that influence our behaviour. Some people are thrill-seekers and get into risk-taking and adventurous activities. They take up extreme sports like bungee jumping and possibly take drugs. Scientists have discovered a gene which affects this.
We could ask, “Are our lives determined by our genes or our upbringing?” Scientists are learning more all the time, but it is certainly true that both are important in making us who we are.What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．We cannot easily change our physical appearance. |
| B．How we turn out depends on our parents’ genes. |
| C．Everyone has a physical double somewhere in the world. |
| D．Both our genes and our experiences make us who we are. |
Why are scientists studying twins?
| A．To find out how many twins are born every year. |
| B．To discover what shapes us as individuals. |
| C．To pare differences between twins. |
| D．To study brother-and-sister relationships. |
According to the passage, __________.
| A．one in 70 twins are genetically identical |
| B．non-identical twins are usually not of the same sex |
| C．twins separated at birth behave exactly the same |
| D．identical twins are genetically the same |
Which of the following is most affected by experience according the passage?
| A．Eating habits. | B．Eye-sight. |
| C．Pain resistance. | D．Marriage patterns. |
What does the underlined “this” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
| A．Our love of sport. |
| B．Our attitude to risk-taking. |
| C．Our skill at bungee jumping. |
| D．Our ability to take drugs. |
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More Australians are overweight or obese than ever before, and the number is steadily increasing. Around 64 percent of men and 47 percent of women are carrying too much body fat. This means that the chances of obesity-related disorders, such as coronary heart disease(冠心病) and diabetes(糖尿病), is also on the rise. The popularity of crash dieting has caused many misunderstandings about weight loss. Most of these misunderstandings cause unhealthy weight loss behaviors.
A recent research of deaths in the United States from their National Health Nutrition Examination Survey suggests that being overweight may not increase your risk of dying. This finding is contrary to the past research that they thought the numbers of premature death(早死) linked to weight in the year 2000. The findings were that underweight and seriously obese people have an increased chance of dying compared with normal weight people. Interestingly, however, being overweight is related to a slightly lower chance of dying for your age. The effect of obesity on death rate may have reduced over time, perhaps because of improvements in public health and medical care. The authors say that body weight may not be such an important risk factor for premature death and that fitness, while smoking and too much fat in your diet may be more important.
65. If a person carries much fat, he or she _______________ .
A.knows how to keep healthy better than those who don’t
B.should lose weight as soon as possible to keep healthy
C.will surely suffer from both coronary heart disease and diabetes
D.might suffer from some diseases related to obesity
66. The underlined phrase “is contrary to” in the second paragraph probably means ___________.
A. agrees with B. disagrees with
C. proves D. combines
67. According to the recent research of deaths in America, ______________ .
A.underweight people will live longer than those overweight people
B.dying at an early age is connected with overweight
C.being overweight doesn’t necessary lead to premature deaths
D.being overweight is healthier than normal people
68. We can infer from the text that _____________ .
A.the writer wants to persuade people not to lose weight
B.misunderstandings about weight loss are more serious than ever
C.much progress has been made in public medical condition
D.the cause of premature deaths is heavy smoking
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第三部分阅读理解 (共15小题, 每小题2分, 满分 30分)
When we talk about intelligence, we do not mean the ability to get good scores on certain kinds of tests or even the ability to do well in school subjects. By intelligence we mean a way of living and behaving, especially in a new or upsetting situation. If we want to test intelligence, we need to find out how a person acts instead of how much he knows what to do.
For instance, when in a new situation, an intelligent person thinks about the situation, not about himself or what might happen to him. He tries to find out all he can, and then he acts immediately and tried to do something about it. He probably isn’t sure how it will all work out, but at least he tries. And if he cannot make things work out right, he doesn’t feel ashamed that he failed, he just tries to learn from his mistakes. An intelligent person, even if he is very young, has a special outlook on life, a special feeling about life, and how he fits into it.
If you look at children, you’ll see a great difference in what we call “bright” children and “not bright” children. They are actually two different kinds of people, not just the same kind with different amounts of intelligence. For example, the bright child really wants to find out about life, he tries to get in touch with everything around him. But the unintelligent child keeps more to himself and his own dream world: he seems to have a walk between him and life in general.
61. According to the passage, intelligence is the ability to ________________ .
A. get high scores in some tests B. do well in school subjects
C. deal with life D. know what to do
62. In a new situation, an intelligent person _______________ .
A.knows more about what might happen to him
B.is sure of the result he will get
C.is ready to face and fit himself in the situation
D.cares more about himself
63. If an intelligent person failed, he would ___________ .
A.try not to feel ashamed B. learn from his experiences
C. try to find all he could D. make sure what result he would get
64. The difference between bright children and non-bright children lies in _________ .
A. their attitude towards life B. the degree of cleverness
C. the amounts of knowledge about the world D. their way of thinking
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The first MP4 player was born years ago. Soon many music fans were wondering how fantastic it is! If you have been into technology enough, perhaps you may have a knowledge of the MP4. If not, you do need to know something before buying one, even if you are familiar with MP3. MP3 is the CD-like disc with greater capacity. How about MP4? This small digital product will really enrich the joy from listening to music. You can even feel the “touch” of music to your soul!
Now, some similar digital products advertised as “MP4 players” are simply MP3 players, which do not play video and MPEG format (格式) and also lack other particular functions. These products confuse some buyers, as they may think the “MP4” players simply mean they can do more than MP3.
What is MP4?!
It is a multimedia container. It is not only used to store digital audio (音频) and digital video streams, especially those of MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles (字幕) and pictures. As a most modern container format, it allows streaming over the Internet.
With the help of a piece of MP4 video equipment, you can change various programs such as MPEG to MP4, ASX to MP4, AVI to MP4 and so on, which can be done very quickly and easily without any effect on the sound quality. By installing (安装) DVD-MP4 software, you can transfer particular music from a DVD to an MP4 video file. It really excites your listening music experience.
Then, there is MP4 advanced and you can set your own collection of all the programs — TV shows, games, and music. You can even see movies which are still running in cinemas. What else digital product could you possibly ask for?
57. It is suggested here that you should ________ before buying an MP4 player
A. first be a music fan B. have a knowledge of MP4
C. get familiar with MP3 D. buy a CD-like disc
58. From the passage, we can see that MP4 is ________ MP3.
A. much bigger than B. just as advanced as
C. not so particular as D. more functional than
59. Which function of MP4 is NOT directly mentioned in this passage?
A. Storing digital audio and video streams. B. Recording some movies in cinemas.
C. Playing TV shows, games and movies. D. Transferring particular music from a DVD.
60. From the last sentence, it’s clear that the writer tries to tell us it is _______.
A. reasonable to buy other digital products B. impossible to buy something else
C. a very wise choice to buy an MP4 D. an exciting experience to buy an MP3
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Sadness is unpleasant, and in a society where personal happiness is prized above all else, there is little tolerance for falling in despair. Especially now we’ve got drugs for getting rid of sad feelings — whether it’s after losing a job, the break-up of a relationship or the death of a loved one. So it’s no surprise that more and more people are taking them.
But is this really such a good idea? A growing number of voices from the world of mental health research are saying it isn’t. They fear that the increasing tendency to treat normal sadness as a disease is playing fast and loose (行为轻率). Sadness, they argue, serves a useful purpose—and if we lose it, we lose out. Yet many psychiatrists (精神病医生) insist not. Sadness has a nasty habit of turning into depression(抑郁), they warn. Even when people are sad for good reason, they should take drugs to make themselves feel better.
So who is right? Is sadness something we cannot live without or something horrible never to touch?
There are lots of ideas about why feeling sad should become part of human life. It may be a self-protection strategy, as other primates (灵长类) also show signs of sadness. A losing monkey that doesn’t show sadness after it loses a fight may be seen as continuing to challenge the winning monkey — and that could result in death.
In humans sadness has a further function: we may display sadness as a form of communication. By acting sad, we tell other community members that we need support.
Then there is the idea that creativity is connected to dark moods. There are plenty of great artists, writers and musicians who have suffered from depression or disorder. Scientists found that people with signs of depression performed better at a creative task, and negative moods make people think deeply over the unhappy experience, which allows creative processes to come to the front. There is also evidence that too much happiness can be bad for your career. A doctor found that people who scored 8 out of 10 on a happiness test were more successful in income and education than 9s or 10s. The happiest people lose their willingness to make changes to their lives that may benefit them.
53. The underlined word “this ” refers to ________.
A. taking medicine B. falling in despair C. losing a job D. feeling sad
54. The author believes sadness is ________.
A. a good thing for people’s health B. something horrible never to touch
C. a necessary function of humans’ D. always to be treated as depression
55. Some animals show their sadness in order to ________.
A. cheat their enemy B. protect themselves
C. comfort the loser D. challenge the winner
56. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.
A. people with great creativity tend to be happier
B. unhappy experiences contribute to a greater career
C. too much happiness can be bad for your career
D. the happiest people are the most successful ones
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Hoorah！I have escaped the Czech (捷克) Republic! I am now wearing light clothing and sunglasses, although the latter are superfluous today, as it is cool and overcast with cloud and it has rained slightly.
The city of Qatar (卡塔尔) is flat and sandy with few trees — mostly palms. You can see construction everywhere, new streets with hotels and apartment blocks in Venice theme. It’s a mix of super modern and traditional building styles. Everything looks new including the vehicles. There are many huge roundabouts; no traffic rules or at least no one obeys any. The huge 4-storey shopping mall in fantastic style has an ice rink (溜冰场) on the ground floor. Thousands of people walk round the waterfront after dark.
Qataris are very religious and there are calls to prayers regularly. Qatari men are dressed in all sorts of traditional clothing plus western dresses. You can easily find imported labour from South Asian countries, poorly paid and discriminated against. I am told that Qataris don’t hide their racist attitudes.
Women are always wonderful sights. Some are in all sorts of black clothing with face uncovered; some totally enveloped; lots wearing western dresses. Best sight so far: a woman in a mall completely wrapped in black including gloves, not even an eye shown — wearing glasses on the outside of her veil (面纱), using a cell phone while fingering a dress.
I am living with my employers — a New Zealand couple, and another teacher named Wayne, all about my age. We share one apartment. I have a large room with a bathroom attached: it is a little run-down but very comfortable. The only rather annoying thing is that I have to use the laptop on my bed as there is no desk and chair in here. As soon as it is clear that I will be staying I will make a change to all this. I haven’t lived with other people for many years and have been used to living alone so it will be interesting to see how this works.
49. The best title for this passage is ________.
A. The New Life with My EmployersB. General Observation of Qataris
C. My Adventure in the Czech RepublicD. My First Impressions of Qatar
50. The underlined part in paragraph one can be explained as ________.
A. it will be a fine day laterB. light clothing is helpless with cold
C. sunglasses appear fantasticD. sunglasses become unnecessary
51. In the author’s eyes, Qatar is a ________.
A. rich western industrialized country B. backward agricultural country
C. modern society with religious tradition D. nation closed to the outside world
52. It is true that the author is ________.
A. pleased with her present living condition B. missing her days in the Czech Republic
C. not certain how long she will be staying D. worried about her relation with her boss