LearningEnglishwellisagreatcha-优题课

A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what’s happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons(神经元) are responsible for this processing.
　　The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging功能性磁共振造影) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
　　Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen- rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
　　An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
　　The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly, related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
　　 51. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
　　A A small region of the brain.
　　B The central part of the brain.
　　C Neurons in the brain.
　　D Oxygen-rich blood.
　　52. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
　　A Cells in your brain are called neurons.
　　B The more oxygen a neuron consumes, the more blood it needs.
　　C fMRI helps scientists to discover which parts of the brain process information.
　　D fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
53. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
　　A "marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　B "giving light to the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　C "putting the parts of the brain to work"
　　D "stopping the parts of the brain from working"
　　54. What did the researchers experiment on?
　　A Animals, objects, and fruits.
　　B Two volunteers.
　　C fMRI machines.
　　D Thousands of pictures.
55.What is the best title for the passage?
A Mind-reading Machine
B A Technological Dream
C Device that can Help You Calculate
D The Recent Development in Science and Technology

Eat healthier. Exercise twice a week. Read more books. Lose weight. We make the same resolutions(决心) every year, but most of us fail, dying out after only a few days or , at best, weeks. Even the most successful among us crash and burn when it comes to personal change. President-elect Barack Obama struggles to remove his cigarette habit.
Professionals who help people make changes in their lives suggest the change is determined not by one's surroundings, but one's mind. Beginning with small goals or steps usually leads to a bigger payoff later, they say. But they caution that the experience is different for everyone.
"People are more likely to make positive changes in their lives not only when their friends do, but when their friends of friends do, and when their friends of friends of friends do," said Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard University. "People are better able to make changes in their lives - lose weight, quit smoking, become happy - when they do this with a large number of other people, and so taking advantage of your social network ties can result in a magnification of your own efforts."
Jhonny Augustin understands that well. His resolution for 2008 was to shed 30 pounds from his 237-pound frame. But the change didn't come easily. He said,"I'm a huge procrastinator, I kept putting it off until tomorrow. I didn't get to do it until the summer." However , Augustin got inspired when he saw his older brother working out. Today, Augustin weighs 190 pounds.
“Of course, change can happen only if people don't set their expectations too high or try to tackle too many changes at once; one of the biggest mistakes we make is setting unrealistic goals, ”said Dalia Llera, a psychologist and associate professor of counseling and psychology at Lesley University. "You can't accomplish in a few weeks what you haven't accomplished in a few years," said Llera.
46.From the first paragraph we can infer that .
A.change for a person is challenging
B.famous people have great determination
C.most people don’t want to change themselves
D.personal change is beyond belief
47.It is known from Nicholas christkis that .
A. making a change is easier with support from a cheerful group of friends
B. social networks have great effect on one’s change
C. people who have the same attitude often get together
D. people’s mood can contribute to their efforts
48.The word “procrastinator” in Paragraph 4 refers to those who .
A. have great determination to make a change
B. have no desire to do something great
C. put off work especially because of laziness
D. have habitual carelessness and laziness
49.According to the passage, Dalia Liera suggested that .
A. people should understand their goals well
B. people should try their best to change themselves
C. people should have confidence and positive habits
D. people should start with setting small goals to meet
50.The passage is mainly about .
A. the reason why losing weight is so hard
B. the effect of the positive change
C. the attitudes towards change in life
D. the ways of making a change

Welcome to Financial Aid Need Estimator! This free service can help you plan more effectively to meet college costs. The Financial Aid Need Estimator allows you to figure out your family costs at specific intitutions by taking you through two steps.
Step 1:during the first step, the Financial Aid Need Estimator will help you estimate how much you and your family will be expected to pay.
Step 2:Using the second step, you may estimate the costs of attending specific institution. Your results will show your results will show your eligibility(合格) for financial aid based on both your expected family costs and the costs of attending the institution you selected. By selecting another institution, you may repeat these calculations for as many institutions as you wish without entering your personal information.
The Financial Aid Need Estimator does not ask you to identify yourself and will not keep your personal information.
Because international students are not eligible for federal need-based financial aid program results from the Financial Aid Need Estimator will apply only to students who are the U citizens.

41.The result of calculation you get from the Financial Aid Need Estimator will .
A.help you get the financial aid
B.provide database for official results
C.help you meet your college costs
D.show your eligibility for financial aid
42.The Financial Aid Need Estimator is reliable because .
A.it is controlled by government
B.it uses the same formula as the government’s official results
C.it can make sure of its accuracy
D.it provides good services free of charge
43.Who will be most interested in the passage?
A.The Us students who want to apply for financial aid.
B.The international students who have financial difficulty.
C.The US students who want to go to college.
D.The international students who want further study.
44. The Financial Aid Need Estimator may mainly consider .
A.the college you want to go to
B.the accuracy of the information you provide
C.family costs and college costs
D.the application for financial aid
45.The purpose of writing this passage is probably to .
A.tell the possible ways to get financial aid
B.tell who will the eligible for financial aid
C.introduce the financial Aid Need Estimator
D.introduce the financial aid to college students

It’s a Christmas tradition that’s more than half a century old. And it happened completely by accident.
It started in 1955, when a local Sears store in Colorado Springs, Colorado printed an ad, which included a spedial phone mumber kids could call to know where Santa’s sleigh was at any given moment. Unfortunately, someone made a mistake in printing the phone mumber and kids were calling the wrong line.
A Colonel(上校) named Henry Shoup began answering his phong at what would become NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command. At first, he thought it was a simple error of one caller.
But as the phone ketp ringing and tiny voices kept asking about Santa, Shoup realized he couldn’t disappoint them. So he told the staff to issue updates to any one asking about the location of Santa.
The wrong turned into a custom of the holiday and kept growing in popularity, and NORAD finally decided to make it permanent.
It’s become a holiday favourite ever since, adapting to whatever new technology has come along since. In the early days, it was a phone line. Then in the 60s, NORAD put out a special series of “reports” that was played on hundreds of radio stations across North America, broadcasting the Jolly Old Elf’s exact position on Christmas Eve.
Think of it as kind of an early GPS without the computer gear.
Finally ,came the Internet and NORAD has now transferred its annual watch onto the Web, with a site devoted to keeping tabs on the most famous journey in the world—what you might call the real amazing race, an around-the-world mission that has to be finished within 24hours.
This year’s entry allows kids to track Santa in 3Dusing Google Earth and play games at the North Pole using the Kids Countdown Section, and it even offers Santa Cams which are only operational on the night before Christmas.
36.Why did children keep calling Henry Shoup?
A.Because they wanted to play a joke on him.
B. Because they wanted to amuse him.
C.Because he knew where Santa exactly was.
D.Because they wanted to know where Santa’s sleigh was.
37.What did Colonel Henry Shoup do when more and more children kept calling?
A.He became annoyed and decided to tell them the truth.
B.He became excited and jioned them in searching Santa.
C.He thought quickly and took it seriously to satisfy their needs.
D.He laughed at them and took no notice of their calls.
38.What does “Jolly Old Elf” in Paragraph 6 most probably refer to?
A.Santa Claus.
B.Colonel Henry Shoup.
C.NOARD.
D.The staff in Henry Shoup’s charge.
39.According to the passage, how did people learn about the Jolly Old Elf’s exact position in the 1960s?
A.By calling a special phone mumber.
B.By listening to a special series of reports over the radio.
C.With the help of a kind of early GPS.
D.By scanning the spedial column in the newspaper.
40.The passage mainly tells us .
A.an old favorite holiday that develops along with new technology
B.50-year-old tracking Santa tradition that started by accident
C.a real amazing race, an around-the-world mission within 24 hours
D.a Colonel and the North American Aerospace Defence Command

The HOPE IS A GAME--CHANGER PROJECT will deliver unbreakable soccer balls to kids who, all too often, see things horrible, broken and not survive the simplest of circumstances. The project started taking form well before anyone knew where it would lead –which is to test the power of like-minded people working together to turn inspiration into action.
Four years ago Bobby was in Rwanda offering help to the people there and taking photos of a child soldier named Moise with his “soccer ball”，which was a pile of rubbish tied together with a string. This “ball” was the only thing Moise could call his own --- no family, no home, no place to go. Forced to fight in the Congo and having killed three people at the unbearably young age of seven, the boy’s spirit was broken. And Bobby knew, as he took one photo after the next, that he’d never forget him. In fact, he returned the following year to tell Moise he had stayed deep within his heart ---but he was gone.
I recently helped Bobby launch his new book The Power of the Invisible Sun which features a photo of Moise, his ball, and kids from war-torn areas around the world. All of his earnings go towards the HOPE IS A GAME-CHANGER PROJECT for the kids he visited over the past decade. They caught the emotional landscape from heartbreak to joy, but share the undeniable longing for recovery and hope.
Bobby and I share the unchangeable belief that delivering hope is really a game-changer, especially to a child. We believe that each indestructible ball will come to represent a lasting symbol of hope. A light no matter how small---The Power of the Invisible Sun.
This holiday season, I ask you to think about whether you are doing enough to help someone else in the world. Or as Bobby likes to put it, consider “taking a concrete baby step”, which added together, can create transformational change. It’s my great hope that the HOPE IS A GAME-CHANGER PROJECT will change the lives of children in the world over --- one book, one ball at a time.
59．In the first sentence of the passage, the writer implies that .
A．kids live an unsafe life in parts of the world
B．the balls sent to kids should be of good quality
C．young kids can not overcome the difficulties
D．kids intend to break their toys into pieces
60．How may Bobby feel about Mosie?
A．He was very proud of Mosie’s bravery.
B．He felt sorry for Mosie’s ruined childhood.
C．He thought money could solve Mosie’s problem.
D．He felt happy to tell him what was in his heart.
61．Which of the following about Bobby’s new book is TRUE?
A．It earned a lot of money to help kids like Mosie.
B．The photos inside reflected the kids’ hopeless life.
C．Its title shows the author’s belief to change the world.
D．It changed the life of the kids recorded in the book.
62．The underlined part in the last paragrph probably means .
A．starting the first step as a baby does
B．taking an active action from now on
C．making great changes step by step
D．doing some small but good deeds

A．Studio Classroom	B．21st Century School Edition
C．Study Abroad	D．Modern English