The bed should be reserved as a place for sleep, but people tend to read an iPad a lot in bed before they go to sleep.
Charles Czeisler, a professor at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues got a small group of people for an experiment. For five days in a row, the subjects (实验对象) read either a paper book or an iPad for four hours before sleep. Their sleep patterns were monitored all night. Before and after each trial period, they took hourly blood tests to paint a day-long picture of just how much melatonin (褪黑激素) was in their blood at any given time.
When the subjects read on the iPad as compared to the paper books, they reported feeling less sleepy at night and less active the following morning. They also took longer to fall asleep on the iPad nights, and the blood tests showed that their melatonin secretion (分泌) was delayed by an hour and a half.
The researchers conclude in today's journal article that given (考虑到)the rise of e-readers and the increasingly widespread use of e-things among children and adolescents, more research into the long-term consequences of these devices on health and safety is urgently needed. Czeisler and colleagues go on, in the research paper, to note：“Reading an iPad in bed may increase cancer risk.”
However, software has been developed that can reduce some of the blue light from the screens of phones and computers according to time of day, and there are also glasses that are made to filter (过滤) short wavelengths. While they seem like a logical solution for the nighttime tech users, it needs more research.In Charles Czeislers experiment, all the subjects were asked to______.
| A．sit in a row and receive the strict tests |
| B．have their blood tested per hour during the trial |
| C．read a paper book and an iPad at the same time |
| D．have their sleep patterns observed all night |
The third paragraph tells us the iPad readers were likely to______.
| A．feel less sleepy and tired in the day |
| B．become less energetic the next morning |
| C．have a lot more melatonin secretion |
| D．fall asleep more easily after reading |
The special software recently developed can______.
| A．weaken the harm done by doing nighttime e-reading |
| B．help prevent eyes being harmed by short wavelength |
| C．remove the blue light from your devices completely |
| D．be used in all the e-things widely and safely |
Which title is the best one for the text?
| A．Wrong behaviors before bedtime |
| B．New software for night e-readers |
| C．No e-reading in bed before sleep |
| D．No games on iPad in bed |
In most languages, a greeting is usually followed by “small talk”. Small talk means the little things we talk about at the start of a conversation. In English-speaking countries people often make small talk about the weather. “Nice day, isn’t it?” “Terrible weather, isn’t it?” But there is something special about small talk. It must be about something which both people have the same opinion about. The purpose of small talk is to let both people agree on something. This makes meeting people easier and more comfortable. People usually agree about the weather, so it is a safe topic for small talk. But people often disagree about religion(宗教) or politics(政治) so these are not suitable topics for small talk. The topics for small talk also depend on where the conversation is taking place. At football matches, people make small talk about the game they are watching. “Great game, isn’t it?” At bus-stops, people may comment on the transport system. “The bus service is terrible, isn’t it?”Small talk is _______________.
| A．a kind of conversation with short words |
| B．a greeting used when people meet each other |
| C．to let people disagree about something |
| D．something we talk about to start a conversation |
The favorite topic of small talk for English people is _________.
| A．the weather | B．politics | C．games | D．languages |
The passage suggests that when we learn a language _________.
| A．we should learn about the transport system of the country |
| B．we should only master the grammar and the vocabulary |
| C．we should learn the culture of the country |
| D．we should understand the importance of the language |
When we say “Great game, isn’t it?”, we are in fact __________.
| A．asking a question | B．having a conversation |
| C．greeting each other | D．making small talk |
What we learn from the passage is that __________.
| A．different languages have different grammar |
| B．small talk is an important part of a language |
| C．small talk depends on the purpose of the conversation |
| D．in English-speaking countries we should talk about the weather |
When building houses, people used to think about not only the climate of the areas but also the building materials and the fashions for their houses. However, since electricity became more and more expensive , people began to pay much more attention to the energy they could get for their houses and the new ways they could find to protect their houses from both cold and heat.
Now, houses of an old yet new type have been widely built. In some parts of the world, people share their houses with their livestock. During cold weather, they gather their cows, goats, or other animals and keep them on the first floor of their houses. The reasons are that the animals can be protected from the cold and that they can help to heat the houses as well. The body heat given off by the animals rises to the second floor of the houses, where people live. By sharing their houses with their livestock, people gain a source of heat.
People who live in or near cities do not usually keep livestock. However, home builders use the fact that heat rises. This natural law can be used in building houses in these areas, instead of keeping livestock on the first floor builders fill it with large rocks. As they are open to the sun’s rays during cold weather, these rocks take in heat. They also give off the heat, and, of course, the warm air rises into the living areas of the houses. So these houses are energy saving.
House building becomes a great challenge to building designers and energy engineer. They try to meet this challenge by learning from old traditions and by using modern technology. And someday in the future, people will be able to live in more energy saving houses.What did people begin to consider as electricity was no longer cheap?
| A．The climate of their areas. | B．The energy for their houses. |
| C．The fashions for their houses. | D．The building materials for their houses. |
People in some areas gain a source of heat by _________.
| A．keeping their livestock downstairs |
| B．protecting their livestock from the cold |
| C．sharing their houses only with their cows |
| D．living on the second floor with their livestock |
The underlined words “natural law ” in the third paragraph refer to the fact that ________.
| A．heat raises the temperature in the houses |
| B．heat goes in the upward direction |
| C．heat goes up if temperature is raised |
| D．heat increases the temperature of rocks |
From the passage, we can conclude that _______ .
| A．people will no longer consider building materials in the future |
| B．energy saving buildings will become more popular in the future |
| C．almost all people will move into the houses heated by large rocks |
| D．energy engineers will devote themselves only to modern technology |
What is the meaning of the underlined word “livestock” ? _______ .
| A．animals raised especially for economical benefits | B．furniture |
| C．plants kept in the house | D．general appearance of the whole family |
I recently turned fifty, which is young for a tree, midlife for an elephant, and ancient for a sportsman. Fifty is a nice number for the states in the US or for a national speed limit but it is not a number that I was prepared to have hung on me. Fifty is supposed to be my father’s age, but now I am stuck with this number and everything it means.
A few days ago, a friend tried to cheer me up by saying, “Fifty is what forty used to be.” He had made an inspirational (有灵感的) point. Am I over the hill ? People keep telling me that the hill has been moved, and I keep telling them that the high-jump bar has dropped from the six feet I once easily cleared to the four feet that is impossible for me now.
“You are not getting older, you are getting better.” Says Dr. Joyce Brothers. This, however, is the kind of doctor who inspires a second opinion.
And so as I approach the day when I cannot even jump over the tennis net, I am moved to share some thoughts on aging with you, I am moved to show how aging feels to me physically and mentally. Getting older, of course, is obviously a better change than the one that brings you eulogies(悼词). In fact, a poet name Robert Browning considered it the best change of all:
Grow old along with me !
The best is yet to me.
Whether or not Browning was right, most of my first fifty years have been golden ones, so I will settle for what is ahead being as good as what has gone by. I find myself moving toward what is ahead with a curious blend(混合) of both fighting and accepting my aging, hoping that the philosopher(哲学家) was right when he said , “old is always fifteen years from now.”The author seems to tell us in Paragraph 1 that ______.
| A．time alone will tell | B．time goes by quickly |
| C．time will show what is right | D．time makes one forget the past. |
When the author turned fifty, people around him ________ .
| A．tried to comfort him | B．got inspiration with him |
| C．were friendlier with him | D．found him more talkative |
The author considers his fifty years of life _________.
| A．peaceful | B．ordinary | C．satisfactory | D．regretful |
We can infer from the passage that ________ .
| A．the old should lead a simple life |
| B．the old should face the fact of aging |
| C．the old should take more exercise |
| D．the old should fill themselves with curiosity |
Which of the following statements is WRONG?_______.
| A．It’s hard for the author to jump over the six-feet high-jump bar now. |
| B．The author is optimistic about his future. |
| C．the author used to think 50 was far away from him. |
| D．Most elephants live less than 50 years. |
When former American President Bill Clinton traveled to South Korea to visit President Kim Young Sam, he repeatedly referred to the Korean president’s wife as Mrs. Kim. By mistake, President Clinton’s advisers thought that Koreans have the same naming customs as the Japanese. Clinton had not been told that, in Korea, wives keep their family names. President Kim Young Sam’s wife was named Sohm Myong Suk. Therefore, she should be addressed (称谓) as Mrs. Sohm.
President Clinton arrived in Korea directly after leaving Japan and had not changed his culture gears. His failure to follow Korean customs gave the impression that Korea was not as important to him as Japan.
In addition to Koreans some Asian husbands and wives do not share the same family names. This practice often puzzles English-speaking teachers when talking with a pupil’s parents. They become puzzled about the student’s correct last name. Placing the family name first is common among a number of Asian cultures.
Mexican naming customs are different as well. When a woman marries, she keeps her family name and adds her husband’s name after the word “de”, which means “of”. This affects how they fill in forms in the United States. When requested to fill in a middle name, they generally write the father’s family name. But Mexicans are addressed by the family name of the mother. This often causes puzzlement.
Here are a few ways to deal with such difficult situations: don’t always think that a married woman uses her husband’s last name. Remember that in many Asian cultures, the order of first and last names is reversed (颠倒). Ask which name a person would prefer to use. If the name is difficult to pronounce, admit it, and ask the person to help you say it correctly.The story of Bill Clinton is used to _____ .
| A．improve US Korean relations |
| B．introduce the topic of the text |
| C．describe his visit to Korea |
| D．tell us how to address a person |
The word “gears” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．action plans | B．naming customs | C．travel maps | D．thinking patterns |
When a woman marries in Korea, she _____.
| A．continues to use her family name |
| B．uses her husband’s given name |
| C．shares her husband’s family name |
| D．adds her husband’s given name to hers |
To address a married woman properly, you’d better ______ .
| A．use her middle name | B．use her husband’s first name |
| C．ask her which name she likes | D．change the order of her names |
What can NOT be inferred from the text? ______ .
| A．Wives do not keep their family names in Japan. |
| B．Different countries have different naming customs in some way. |
| C．Naming custom will not cause any puzzle among Asian countries. |
| D．The naming custom in Korea is different from that of Japan. |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows (誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here’s what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion (提升)， the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure (空闲), it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.The best title of this passage probably is ________.
| A．Love your friends | B．Live a real life |
| C．Don’t waste time | D．Be a good mother and wife |
How did the author form her view of life?
| A．By working and social experience |
| B．Learning from her friends. |
| C．Through an unfortunate experience. |
| D．Because of her children and husband. |
The underlined sentence “It is so easy to exist instead of to live” in the fifth paragraph probably means ______.
| A．it is so easy to keep alive but not to live a real life |
| B．it is very hard to live a real life |
| C．it is more difficult to exist than to live a happy life |
| D．it is so easy to make a living |
What is the author’s attitude toward work?
| A．Do it well to serve others. |
| B．To earn enough money to make life better. |
| C．Try your best to get higher position and pay. |
| D．Don’t let it affect your real life. |
It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
| A．the author is a success in personal life |
| B．the author didn’t try her best to work well |
| C．the author spent all her time caring for her children |
| D．the author likes traveling very much |