Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can’t make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue (疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we would find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired?
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional(情绪的) attitudes. One of England’s most outstanding scientists, J.A. Hadfield, says, “The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares, “One hundred percent of the fatigue of sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired Joy Satisfaction No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated---those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.What surprised the scientists a few years ago?
| A．Fatigue toxins could hardly be found in a laborer’s blood. |
| B．The brain could work for many hours without fatigue. |
| C．Albert Einstein didn’t feel worn after a day’s work. |
| D．A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue toxins. |
According to the author, which of the following can make sitting workers tired?
| A．Challenging mental work. | B．Endless tasks. |
| C．Physical labor. | D．Unpleasant emotions. |
Which of the following is properly used to describe the author’s attitude to the scientists’ idea?
| A．He hesitates to accept them. | B．He doubts them. |
| C．He argues against them. | D．He agrees with them. |
It is implied in the passage that in order to stay energetic, sitting workers need to ___________.
| A．enjoy their work | B．have some good food. |
| C．exercise regularly | D．discover fatigue toxins |
Healthy knees aren’t the main consideration in choosing high heels,but new research says chunky heels are just as bad for the knees as spindly stilettos（细高跟鞋）.“It takes a long time to feel the effects of knee osteoarthritis（骨关节炎）—and once you do it,it is too late,”said Dr.Casey Kerrigan,leading researcher of the study and associate professor at Harvard Medical School’s department of physical medicine.“I compare it to smoking—one cigarette is not painful,but over a lifetime it is.Wide-heeled shoes feel comfortable,so women wear them all day long,”Kerrigan said.“They are better for your feet than stiletto heels,but just as bad for your knees.”
In the study,researchers had twenty women wear two pairs of shoes with three-inch heels,one with a narrow heel and the other with a thick one.The scientists compared how much pressure was put on the women’s knees by both types of shoes.The women also walked bare-foot to test normal pressure.The scientists found that both types of shoes applied equal amounts of pressure to the knees.Compared with walking barefoot,the heels increased pressure on the inside of the knee by 26 percent.Increased pressure on the knee eventually leads to arthritis,experts say.
The idea that high heels are bad for your health isn’t new—scientists have warned women for years that they contribute to problems ranging from corns to hammer toes,tendonitis,knee pain,sprained(扭伤)ankles and back problems.But in 1998,Kerrigan and a team of Harvard researchers were the first to link high heels and knee osteoarthritis,a painful joint disease that destroys cartilage(软骨)surrounding the knee.The first study looked only at stiletto heels,and Kerrigan said she wanted to study the chunky high-heeled shoes she noticed many women wearing.“This study confirms what we all intuitively（直觉地）know that high-heeled shoes of any kind are not good for our health,”said Dr.Glem Pfeffer,a San Francisco doctor and member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons who was not connected to the study.We learn from the passage that women choose chunky heels because _________.
| A．they want to walk comfortably |
| B．chunky heeled shoes are cheaper than stiletto heeled pairs |
| C．chunky heels do less harm to knees |
| D．chunky heels are not painful at all |
The study mentioned in the second paragraph found that _________.
| A．pressure on the foot is caused by high heels |
| B．the pressure is abnormal while walking barefoot |
| C．arthritis is always caused by pressure on the knees |
| D．both types of shoes have the same harm to the knees |
It can be inferred from the passage that _________.
| A．people got to know the high heels are bad for health recently |
| B．people have known the high heels are bad for health for years |
| C．people haven’t known the high heels are bad for health yet |
| D．people will be warned that the high heels are bad for health soon |
Kerrigan’s late study looked at the chunky high-heeled shoes because _________.
| A．they feel more comfortable |
| B．they are related to knee osteoarthritis |
| C．they are worn by many women |
| D．they are different from stiletto heels |
The best title for the passage may be _________.
| A．Talking Healthy Knees into Consideration |
| B．High-heels Do Harm to Knees |
| C．Chunky Heels and Stiletto Heels |
| D．When Wearing High-heels |
More than 12 300 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a powerful undersea earthquake unleashed giant tsunami waves that crashed into the coasts of south and southeast Asia.
The 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Sunday was the biggest in 40 years.It triggered waves that reared up into walls of water as high as 10 meters(30 feet) as they hit coastlines in Indonesia,Sri Lanka,India and Thailand.
Aid agencies rushed staff,equipment and money to the region,warning that bodies rotting in the water were already beginning to threaten the water supply for survivors.
Rescue workers also spoke of bodies still caught up on trees after being flung inland by the waves.
“I just couldn’t believe what was happening before my eyes,”Boree Carlson said from a hotel in the Thai resort of Phuket.
“As I was standing there,a car actually floated into the lobby and overturned because the current was so strong,”said the 45-year-old Swede.
“I heard an eerie sound that I have never heard before.It was a high pitched sound followed by a deafening roar,”said a 55-year-old Indian fisherman who gave his name as Chellappa.
“I told everyone to run for their life.”
In Indonesia,an archipelago of 17 000 islands,one official said nearly 4500 people had died.The worst affected area was Bands Aceh,the capital of Aceh Province,where 3000 were killed.More than 200 prisoners escaped from a jail when the tsunami knocked down its walls.In Sri Lanka（斯里兰卡）,the death toll also reached 4500 and 1 million people,or 5 percent of its population,were affected.It was the worst natural disaster to hit Sri Lanka.Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans sheltered in schools and temples overnight,and officials expected the death toll to rise further once rescuers resumed searches after daybreak.In southern India,where at least 3000 were estimated to have died,beaches were littered with submerged cars and wrecked boats.Shanties on the coast were under water.
Thai government officials said at least 392 bodies had been retrieved and they expected the final toll to approach 1000.
The earthquake,of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survery (news-web sites),struck at 7:59 a.m.(1959EST).It was the world’s biggest since 1964,said Julie Martinez at the USGS(news-web sites).
The tsunami was so powerful it smashed boast and flooded areas along the east African coast,3728 miles away.What does the underlined word “tsunami” probably mean?
| A．Tidal wave. | B．Wave. |
| C．Earthquake. | D．A man who kills many persons. |
What does the passage mainly talk about？
| A．Asian tsunami kills many people,and many more become homeless. |
| B．An earthquake happens. |
| C．The tsunami was so powerful that it smashed boats and people. |
| D．It was the biggest earthquake in 40 years. |
The sea waves hit coastlines in _________.
| A．Indonesia | B．Sri Lanka | C．India and Thailand | D．All of above |
Picasso,the famous Spanish painter,was born in 1881.His father was an art teacher.Picasso began to paint very early.He was admitted to the Royal Academy of Art at the age of 15.After 1900,he spent much time in Paris,living there to 1947,then he moved to the south of France.
Throughout his career,Picasso moved from style to style with ease.He practised sculpture illustrated books and also showed great interest in pottery design and other fields of art.
Picasso produced a great number of drawngs in his life.No later artist of the school of Paris has replaced him in international influence.
Picasso is generally considered to be the foremost figure in the 20th century French art.His paintings are now exhibited in leading European and American galleries.The main idea of the passage is_________.
| A．Picasso is considered to be the foremost figure in the 20th century French art |
| B．Picasso is a famous Spanish painter |
| C．Picasso spent much time in Paris,living there from 1940 to 1947 |
| D．Picasso’s life and art |
How long did he stay in Spain and France?
| A．15 years in Spain and 43 years in Paris. |
| B．15 years in Spain and the rest of life in Paris. |
| C．Over 19 years in Spain and the rest of life in Paris. |
| D．He didn’t stay so long in Paris. |
Picasso moved from style to style with ease.It seems _________.
| A．he did not like only one style |
| B．he changed his style without difficulty |
| C．he not only liked sculpture,but also liked pottery design |
| D．he showed great interest in other fields of art |
His paintings are now exhibited in leading European and American galleries,because _________.
| A．he was a Spanish artist |
| B．he was a French artist |
| C．he was famous in French art |
| D．he produced a great many wonderful drawings in different styles |
There are no exact differences between physics and other natural sciences because all sciences overlap(重叠）.In general,however,physics is the scientific study of forces and qualities such as heat,light,sound,pressure,gravity and electricity,and the ways they affect other objects.
One major branch of physics deals with the states of matter—solids,liquids and gases and with their motions.The pioneer achievements of Galileo,Kepler and Newton dealt with solid masses of matter in motion.Such studies deal with forces acting on moving objects.It is the subject of mechanics and belongs to the branch of mechanics called dynamics,the study of matter in motion.This large topic includes not only the motions of stars and ping-pong balls but also the motions of the water pumped by a fire engine and those of the air passing through the jet engine of an airplane.
A branch of mechanics is statics(静力学）,the study of matter at rest.The designs of buildings and bridges are examples of problems in statics.Other branches of physics are based on the different kinds of energy,which interact with matter.They deal with electricity and magnetism（磁力）,heat,light,and sound.From these branches of physics scientists find clues(线索） which have revealed(揭示） the constructions of atoms and how the atoms react to various kinds of energy. This knowledge is often called the basis of modern physics.Among the many subdivisions（细的分支）of modern physics are electronics and nuclear physics.Physics is closely related to engineering.A person who uses knowledge of physics in solving everyday problems is often called an engineer.For example,electricity is one of the branches of physics;and an electrical engineer is a man who uses the “natural laws” of electricity to help in designing and electric generator(电动机）.Physics is not exactly different from other natural sciences because_________.
| A．physics and other natural sciences have parts in common |
| B．it is the scientific study of forces and qualities such as heat,light and sound |
| C．it studies the ways in which forces and qualities affect other objects |
| D．it is a part of other natural sciences |
The following statements are included in the study of dynamics except_________.
| A．the design and construction of skyscrapers |
| B．the motions of heavenly bodies |
| C．the motions of water pumped by a fire engine |
| D．the motions of the air passing through the jet engine of an airplane |
Among many branches of modern physics is _________.
| A．states | B．electricity | C．electronics | D．mechanics |
This knowledge” in Paragraph Three refers to_________.
| A．electricity and magnetism,light and sound |
| B．the construction of atoms and their reactions to various kinds of energy |
| C．the basis of modern physics |
| D．electronics and nuclear physics |
Ted Shreds doesn't like cars.He wants people to stop driving because cars make the air dirty.Ted had an idea.He said,“I'm going to cycle around North America.I want to show everyone that cycling is a fun way to get around.If more people ride bikes,the air will be cleaner.”
He left his hometown with $160 in his pocket.When he got to San Diego,he met another cyclist.The cyclist invited Ted to speak at a big meeting about the environment.He said,“We'll pay your airfare to Texas and we'll pay you to talk about your cycling trip.”Two hours late,Ted was on a plane to the environmental conference and to a big surprise!
While he was at the conference,he met Deanna,it was love at first sight!They talked for six hours straight.
The next day,Ted called Deanna and asked her to finish the trip with him.Deanna said yes,sold everything in her apartment,gave her notice at work,and was on the road with Ted 20 days later!
“It was difficult at first,”said Deanna.“Ted got up every morning at 6:00 a.m.,but I wanted to sleep until noon.”After a few days,they started having fun.As they cycled from Florida to Montreal and then back to Vancouver,every day was an adventure.People paid for their food in restaurants and gave them extra money.Some people gave them $50 or $100.They slept in people's backyards and drank beer with motorcycle gangs.
On their way back to Vancouver,they stopped in Edmonton to visit Ted's relatives.During the stopover,they got married.People tied a “Just Married” sign and tin cans to the backs of their bikes.They got married.They now want to write a book about their trip.“We want people to know that you can be an environmentalist and still have fun,”Shreds said.Ted Shreds went cycling because_________.
| A．he loves adventure |
| B．cycling is a lot of fun |
| C．he wanted to find himself a wife |
| D．he supports environmental protection |
Ted got paid for_________.
| A．giving a talk about his cycling trip | B．cycling throughout North America |
| C．traveling around North America by air | D．attending conferences on cycling |
The “big surprise” he had at the conference was that _________.
| A．he met another cyclist who wanted to join him |
| B．he fell in love with a girl there |
| C．he gave a long talk lasting 6 hours |
| D．he had a lot of fun talking about his cycling trip |
During the trip,Ted and Deanna_________.
| A．found it hard to get up early |
| B．were attacked by motorcycle gangs |
| C．did not have to pay for their meals in restaurants |
| D．decided to get married |