It was lucky to have a teacher at home. Mom was a teacher most of her life. When she wasn’t in the classroom, she was educating her children or grandchildren: correcting our grammar; starting us on collections of butterflies, flowers or rocks; or inspiring a discussion on her most recent “Book of the Month Club” topic. Mom made learning fun.
It was sad for my three brothers and me to see her ailing in her later years. At eighty-five, she suffered a stroke(中风) and she went steadily downhill after that.
Two days before she died, my brothers and I met at her nursing home and took her for a short ride in a wheelchair. While we waited for the staff to lift her back into bed, Mom fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, we moved to the far end of the room and spoke softly.
After several minutes our conversation was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from across the room. We stopped talking and looked at Mom. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly trying to communicate with us. We went to her side.
“Whirr,” she said weakly.
“Where?” I asked. “Mom, is there something you want?” “Whirr,” she repeated a bit stronger. My brothers and I looked at each other and shook our heads sadly.
Mom opened her eyes, sighed, and with all the energy she could muster said, “Not was, say were!”
It suddenly occurred to us that Mom was correcting brother Jim’s last sentence. “If it was up to me…”
Jim leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mom,” he whispered. We smiled at each other and once again shook our heads…this time in awe of a remarkable teacher.When Mom said, “Whirr”, what did she really want to do?
| A.She wanted to tell her sons her will. |
| B.She wanted to have something to eat before she died. |
| C.She wanted to correct the mistakes Jim made while talking. |
| D.She wanted to teach her sons more because she was dying. |
Which of the following statements is NOT right?
| A.Mom was a good teacher and never wanted to stop her teaching. |
| B.Mom was always making her teaching fun. |
| C.Mom didn’t forget her teaching until she died. |
| D.Mom was no longer a teacher when she was at home. |
Which of the following is the best title of this passage?
| A.Once a teacher, always… | B.Mom’s will |
| C.A teacher’s life | D.A teacher’s story |
Family quarrels and lack of free time can promote headaches in children. This is what Jennifer Gassmann and her partners have concluded in a study that appears in the current issue of the Deutsches Arzteblatt International. This study was a component of a large-scale study entitled “Children, Adolescents, and Headaches”, in which data were collected in four annual “waves” from 2003 to 2006.
Up to 30% of children around the world complain of headaches at least once a week. Out of a variety of possible factors tested in a larger study, the authors chose to look at the ones related to the children’s family and leisure time.
According to the study, boys who experience more than one family quarrel per week have a 1.8 times higher risk of developing headaches. The amount of free time available to them seems to be even more important: boys who seldom have time to themselves have a 2.1 times higher risk of developing headaches.
The behavior of parents when children complain of headaches also seems to play a major role. Both positive and negative responses from parents teach children that they can gain advantages from headaches. These responses have a particularly strong effect on the frequency of symptoms in girls, with supportive responses raising the risk of recurrent(周期性的) headaches by 25%.
The genders also differed with respect to headache frequency. Twice as many girls as boys had their symptoms at least once a week. The ages of the children, however, seemed to have no more than a minor effect on their headaches.
The study may become a reminder for parents, especially for those unpeaceful families.
68. What is the passage mainly about?
A. How family quarrels and lack of free time can promote headaches in children.
B. A new study on the frequency of headaches in children.
C. Factors which lead to children’s having headaches.
D. Advice for parents wanting to keep their children from having headaches.
69. We learn from the study that ______________.
A. most children have headaches at least once a week
B. the way a family behaves is the chief factor for the headaches of children
C. parents are to blame for the increase in headaches in children
D. girls are more likely to get headache symptoms than boys
70. Parents should learn from the passage that ______________.
A. they should spend more time with their children
B. they should avoid quarreling
C. they shouldn’t care when their children have headaches
D. they should treat boys and girls differently
Could you stand the noise of a street-sweeper truck going up and down the street outside of your house three times a week at 4 a.m.? The noise —described by Blomberg as “loud as a NASCAR(全国赛车联合会) race car but at a speed of 5 miles per hour” — annoyed him so much that he tried to persuade the city to reschedule street sweeping to begin at 6 a.m. He also founded the nonprofit Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, an organization that provides research and information to others whose request for quiet might otherwise fall on deaf ears.
Hearing loss, in fact, is the most obvious medical consequence of noise pollution, but it is hardly the only one, explains environmental psychologist Arline Bronaft. In her research, Bronzaft found that constant noise exposure could reduce children’s learning ability and cognitive(认知的) development. Beyond all that, regularly, “you’ve got to take a break
from sound,” says Bronzaft.
The bad news, says Blomberg, is that “the last century was the noisiest in history.” The good news, he continues, is that the greener we get, the quieter we’ll also get. Electric cars and lawn equipment, for instance, make less noise, just as more fuel-efficient vehicles do. Improved technology can also provide measures to make the problem less serious. Fire engines and police cars could replace those loud sirens(警报器) with other models; and you can turn down the volume inside your home by replacing noisy household appliances with quieter, energy-saving models.
“ I don’t think you can name a noise source that I can’t find a way to make quieter,” says Blomberg. But the real challenge is to change people’s attitudes. “ In the 1960s, we made it unacceptable to throw litter out of the window of your car,” he says. Today it’s time to recognize that “noise is to the soundscape as litter is to the landscape.” The goal is to “create a culture where you do not throw your aural (听觉的) litter out of the window.
64. What do we know about the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse?
A. It was founded by the city leaders.
B. It was supported by NASCSR.
C. It can rearrange the time of street sweeping.
D. It aims to help those who want more peace and quiet.
65. Which of the following makes the most noise?
A. Electric cars. B. Loud sirens. C. Lawn equipment. D. Police cars.
66. As Blomberg says, _____________.
A. it’s impossible to make a noise-maker quieter
B. it’s difficult to quiet people down
C. in the 1960s, throwing “sound” out of the window was forbidden
D. street sweeping should be stopped forever
67. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. Reducing Noise Pollution B. Children’s Mental Development
C. Vehicles that Make Less Noise D. Forbidding Throwing Litter
What’s that smell? Do you hear that noise? Taste this! Look at me! Feel this, isn’t it soft? When you hear, or even use these phrases, you probably don’t stop to think about why we use them. Well, it’s because of our senses. Without us even knowing, our sense organs (nose, eyes, ears, tongue, and skin) are taking in information and sending it to the brain for processing. If we didn’t have them, we would not be able to smell, see, hear, taste, or touch anything!
Senses are the physical means by which all living things see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Each sense collects information about the world and detects changes within the body. Both people and animals get all of their knowledge from their senses, and that is why senses are so important.
All senses depend on the working nerve system. Our sense organs start to work when something stimulates(刺激) special nerve cells, called receptors, in a sense organ. Once stimulated, the receptors send nerve impulses along sensory nerves to the brain. Your brain then tells you what to do. For example, your sound receptors are often attacked by billions of sound waves. When these signals reach the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex(大脑皮层), we become conscious of the sounds.
Our group really learned a lot about the senses while creating this website. We hope that you are able to get just as much out of it. Please feel free to comment about anything on the site by e-mailing us. Also, don’t forget to sign the guest book! Thanks for visiting our site. Come back soon!
60. This article is most probably taken from a _____.
A. newspaper B. magazine C. website D. novel
61. Senses are very important because _____.
A. both people and animals get all of their knowledge from them
B. they are used to communicate with others
C. they can prevent the organs from being attacked
D. they can tell you what the stimulus is
62. Which of the following tells you what stimulate you?
A. The nerve cell. B. The receptor. C. The nerve impulse. D. The brain.
63. According to this article, the following are all functions of the senses, EXCEPT _____.
A. collecting information about the world
B. detecting changes within the body
C. sending nerve impulses to the brain
D. serving the brain when needed
Dear Ralf,
I have received your letter from school and am glad to know that you are becoming responsible(有责任的)enough to decide on your career.
You are now in the final year of college and are about to start more independent life in society. You know that a generation divides us, and the conditions of social life were different in my days. However, all I can say as advice is that you must select a career wisely. The first consideration is your interest. You can only succeed and feel happy when you do something you enjoy. Your job must be both gainful and satisfying. Then, you must read up on the latest books on the field you are aiming at. Also, you should get familiar with the men and women in the profession of that field. When mind and heart function together, success is inevitable(必然的).
No career is more or less important than any other career. It takes different people to operate the machine of life. I think your interest may lie in the field of making TV programs. Your great communication skills, your active participation(参与) in school plays and the prizes you have won in speech competitions all point in that direction. So a career in Mass Communication and TV film production proves suitable for you. If you succeed and make it in that field, fame and treasure will both follow.
Think a thousand times before making any final decision regarding your career. Anyhow, I want you to be a man of success.
I know that you are mature(成熟的) enough to think for yourself.
With all the best wishes!
Your loving father
56. We can infer that Ralf wrote a letter to ask for advice on how to ________.
A. prepare for a competition. B. communicate with others
C. choose a career D. get good marks
57. What can we know about Ralf?
A. He has graduated from college. B. He gets on badly with his father.
C. He has taken part in school plays. D. He won prizes in the field of making films.
58. Ralf’s father thinks that ________.
A. fame is more important than treasure
B. every career is of the same importance
C. Ralf is too young to make a decision himself
D. there is no real understanding between parents and children
59. The father suggests that his son should ____________.
A. consider his interest first when choosing a career.
B. make friends with successful people.
C. be never proud when making progress
D. be active in school activities.
Women with an hour glass figure have brains to go with their curves(曲线),scientists claim.
Going in at the waist is said to be a sign of intelligence which leads to brighter children, too,Wonmen such as Nigella Lawson with a big difference between thir waist and hip measurements scored significantly better in tests than those with thinner,straighter frames,, Researchers concluded that it was not necessary for a woman to be skinny-what mattered was that her waist should be smaller than her hips, A ratio of 3:5 was found to be idea,
The study ,by the Universities of Pittsdburgh and California,involved 16,000 women and girls,
According to the scientists,the results are no mere quirk of nature.They claim that the fat
Around culvy hips and thighs(大腿)holds higher levels of-3 fatty acids which are essential for
the growth of the brain during pregnancy.The fat which collects around the waist,howover.is
more likely to contain-6 fatty acids,which areless suited to brain growth.
Reporting in the joumal Evolution and Human Behaviour,the researchers found that the children of curvy mothers are more likely to do well in cognitive tests than others.they claim that this could help explain why the children of teenage mothers.who might not yet be physically mature enough to have developed real curves-tend to do less well in school.
As wel las boosting(提升)brainpower,一3 fatty acids found in oily fish arc considered to be of huge health benefit Although the study analysed women’s bodies only,一3 fatty acids are also stored in men’s hips ,However it is not known whether men with wide hips benefit from the same brain power boost,.
72.Which shows the possible shape of an hour glass?
73.Suppose the following measurements are taken from four women.Which of them is more likely to have bright children?
A. Waist:60cm;Hip:100 cm B.Waist:60cm:Hip:80cm
C. Waist:55 cm;Hip 1 60cm D.Waist:120cm;Hip:110cm
74.The underlined sentence‘'the results are nomere quirkofnature,'possible tells us the results
A. can be explained scientifically B are strange and hard to explain
C. have just come about by chance D are very interesting
75.According to the researchers,teenage mothers tend to have less bright children because
A.they aren’t so good at child care
B.they usually have less fat than mature women
C.they area’t physically strong enough
D.their waist and hip measurements differ less