When I was a boy my father told me that he could do anything he wanted to．Dad said that he wanted to be the first to develop color prints in our city．and so he did．
When I was 16，dad looked closely at the violin I played and said that he wanted to make one．He read about violinmaking，and then became a violinmaker at the age of 43．He bought the tools and materials，opened a small store and set Mom up as the shopkeeper，while he worked at a local company．He retired from the company 17 years later and continued to make violins and other instruments．
Dad often guessed why the Stradivarius violins sounded so beautiful．Some experts told him that it was the special varnish(油漆)that gave the instruments their beautiful sound．Dad argued that chemists could analyze the varnish—if that was the answer．
One of Dad’s friends asked him which kind of wood was used to make violins．When dad explained that the top was made of spruce(云杉)，his friend said that he had all old piece of spruce which dad might be interested in．
He worked for the next 12 months making a violin from the wood that his friend had given him．It proved to be an excellent violin and it would become Dad’s masterpiece．He believed that the secret of the Stradivarius sound was in the wood itself．
Later, the instrument was stolen． Dad’s spirit was broken and he stopped making instruments. But he kept the music shop until he was 80 years old，selling guitars and violins．
The violin has been missing for more than 25 years．Somewhere a musician is playing a late-20th-century violin with an excellent tone．The owner today may never understand why this Ordinary-looking violin sounds so much like Stradivarius．
In Paragraph l，the writer mentioned his father's developing color prints to ．
| A．let others know that he believed his father |
| B．show that his father would like to make violins |
| C．prove that his father could do anything he wanted to |
| D．give an example showing that his father was an inventor |
What did the writer's father think about Stradivarius violins?
| A．They were made by experts． |
| B．The wood of the violins was special． |
| C．The way of making them was unusual． |
| D．The varnish was different from the others． |
From the underlined sentence，we learn that the writer's father ．
| A．found another new job |
| B．wanted to become famous |
| C．lost interest in instruments |
| D．liked the violin very much |
What could be the best title of the passage?
| A．My Experienced Father |
| B．My Father and His Violin |
| C．The Secret of Making Violins |
| D．The New Owner of the Violin |
If you saw another kid ride her bike too fast around a corner and fall down, you might ride your bike more slowly on that turn. Yes, we humans are very sensitive to others' mistakes. And the same is true for other animals. Animals mess up all the time. They might eat poisonous leaves, fall off a tree or let their prey (猎物) slip away. By watching others fail, an animal can avoid making the same mistakes, thus improving its chance of survival.
Scientists suspected that one part of the brain helps animals process information about others' errors. Cells in that part appear to become more active when a person sees someone else making a mistake. But researchers didn't know whether individual cells in this part of the brain play different roles in detecting errors.
To investigate the brain's response to errors in more detail, the researchers taught a game to two macaques, a type of monkey. One monkey could press a yellow or green button while the other watched. If the first monkey pressed the right button, the team gave both animals a treat. Every couple of rounds, the two monkeys switched roles. Meanwhile, the scientists monitored individual cells in the animal's brains.
When the first monkey messed up the game by pressing the wrong button, a group of cells in the second monkey's brain fired. But if the second monkey also made the wrong choice during its turn, some of the cells in that group didn't respond. Those unresponsive cells reacted specifically to mistakes made by others, not to the monkey's own mistakes.
Scientists believe other parts of the brain also might help people process information about another's errors. "You start to think about this other person and see things from his angle. " Ellen de Bruijn, told Science News. She studies the brain at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. According to Paragraph 1 , animals' ability to learn from others' mistakes ______.
| A．used to be ignored by humans |
| B．ensures that they will never fail |
| C．is being lost because of humans |
| D．helps them to survive better |
The underlined word "detecting" in Paragraph 2 probably means "______".
| A．correcting | B．making |
| C．sensing | D．drawing |
In the experiment mentioned, those unresponsive cells are only sensitive to ______.
| A．the same buttons | B．others' mistakes |
| C．one's own mistakes | D．the monkey's brain |
This is an excerpt from Emma Watsons speech at the United Nations headquarters.
Today we are launching a campaign（called "He For She"）. I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to end gender inequality, and to do this, we need everyone involved. This is the first campaign of this kind in the UN. We want to try to involve as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for change.
I started questioning gender-based assumption a long time ago. When I was 8, I was confused being called bossy because I wanted to direct a play that we put on for our parents, but the boys were not. When I was 14, I started to be sexualized by certain elements of the media. At 15, my girlfriends started dropping out of a lot of sports teams because they didn’t want to appear masculine. At 18, my male friends were unable to express their feelings.
I decided that I was a feminist. This seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Women are choosing not to identify as feminists. Why has the word become such an uncomfortable one? I’m from Britain and I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men.
But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality. These rights, I considered to be human rights, but I am one of the lucky ones.
My life is a sheer privilege because my parents didn’t love me less because I was born a daughter. My school did not limit me because I was a girl. My mentors didn’t assume that I would end up nowhere because I might give birth to a child one day. These influences were the gender equality ambassadors that made me who I am today. They may not know it but they are the inadvertent feminists who are changing the world today. We need more of those.
Men, I would like to take this opportunity to extend you a formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too. Because to date, I’ve seen young men suffering from mental illness, unable to ask for help for fear it will make them less of a man, or less of men. I’ve seen men made fragile and insecure by distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive, both men and women should be free to be strong. This is what "He For She" is about. It’s about freedom.
You might be thinking: who is this Harry Potter girl? What is she doing at the UN? I’ve been asking myself at the same thing. All I know is that I care about this problem and I want to make it better. And having seen what I’ve seen and given the chance, I feel my responsibility to say something. Statesman Edmund Burke said all that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.
In my nervousness for this speech and in my moment of doubt, I told myself firmly: If not me, who? If not now, when? If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words would be helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take 75 years, or for me it will be nearly 100 before women can be expected to be paid as same as men for the same work. 15.5 million girls will be married in the 16 years as children. At current rate, it will be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have secondary education. We are struggling for a uniting world, but the good news is we have a uniting movement. It is called “He For She”. I am inviting you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself: if not me, who? If not now, when?
Thank you.The campaign “He For She” aims to ________.
| A．give women more freedom than men |
| B．give men more freedom than women |
| C．involve everyone to struggle for the end of gender inequality |
| D．involve as many men and boys as possible to live a free life. |
We can know from Emma Watson’s personal experience that _________.
| A．feminism has become an unpopular word |
| B．her parents didn’t love her because she was born a daughter |
| C．she was called bossy because she didn’t want to appear masculine |
| D．her mentors treated her the same way they treated boy students. |
What does the underlined sentence mean?
| A．Good men and women doing nothing leads to evil forces to develop. |
| B．Good men and women need to do nothing to defeat evil forces. |
| C．The victory of evil force leads to good men and women doing nothing. |
| D．It is necessary for good men and women do nothing to combat evil forces. |
In the speech, Emma calls on people to ________.
| A．participate in the campaign actively and take actions |
| B．admit that men and women should be equally paid |
| C．pay more attention to men suffering from mental illnesses |
| D．believe in her although she acted in the Harry Potter series |
Conventional wisdom says that hardship can make us old before our time. In fact, a new study suggests that violence not only leaves long-term scars on childrens bodies, but also changes their DNA, causing changes that are equal to seven to ten years of premature aging.
Scientists measured this by studying the ends of childrens chromosomes(染色体), called telomeres, says Idan Shalev, lead author of a study published in Molecular Psychiatry.
Telomeres are special DNA sequences which prevent the DNA in chromosomes from separating. They get shorter each time a cell divides, until a cell cannot divide any more and dies.
Several factors have been found to shorten telomeres, including smoking, radiation and psychological stresses such as being treated badly when young and taking care of a chronically ill person.
In this study, researchers examined whether exposure to violence could make children’s telomeres shorten faster than normal. They interviewed the mothers of 236 children at ages 5, 7 and 10, asking whether the youngsters had been exposed to domestic violence between the mother and her partner; physical maltreatment by an adult; or bullying. Researchers measured the children’s telomeres—in cells obtained by swabbing the insides of their cheeks—at ages 5 and 10.
Telomeres shortened faster in kids exposed to two or more types of violence, says Shalev. Unless that pattern changes, the study suggests, these kids could be expected to develop diseases of aging, such as heart attacks or memory loss, seven to 10 years earlier than their peers.
Shalev says there is hope for these kids. His study found that, in rare cases, telomeres can lengthen. Better nutrition, exercise and stress reduction are three things that may be able to lengthen telomeres, he says.
The study confirms a small but growing number of studies suggesting that early childhood adversity imprints itself in our chromosomes, says Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School.The new study found that ________.
| A．hardship can change a childs aging |
| B．violence leaves scars on a childs mind |
| C．violence can speed up a childs aging |
| D．hardship has a long term effect on a childs mind |
According to the text, telomeres ________.
| A．are at the ends of peoples chromosomes |
| B．can help prevent DNA from separating |
| C．can make a cell die quickly |
| D．become shorter before they die |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
| A．Violence can cause quick cell division in childrens body. |
| B．Researchers measured the childrens telomeres from their legs in the study. |
| C．Being treated badly will make a childs telomeres shorten faster. |
| D．Children who have shorter telomeres may have a heart attack earlier. |
What is the best title for the text?
| A．Violence Aging Childrens DNA |
| B．Childrens Changing DNA Patterns |
| C．Violence and Telomeres |
| D．The Function of Telomeres |
The power of humor and laughter is numerous. They entertain us and make us feel good. But, above all, we have discovered that humor and laughter are the best medicine. They relieve pain, reduce stress and anxiety, and are anti-aging and longevity facilitators.
They are extremely necessary for helping us to find and maintain a balance between life and work. However, they are slipping away from us. We have become far too serious. The only ones who still enjoy humor, laughter, fun and play to the fullest are young children. Children tend to laugh an average of 200 times a day. For adults, however, it is a totally different story.
In the 1950s people laughed on average 18 times a day. Today, we are lucky if we average between 4-6 times a day.
As a matter of fact, a recent study found that people laugh 6 more times in the presence of one person but 30 more times in a group of people. You can get a chuckle(咯咯笑) from jokes you get on the Internet, but it is not the same as belly jiggling laughter (a deep laugh) you get when you interact with others.
Socializing with friends and relatives was much looked forward to. However, this is no longer the case. In fact, the majority of people can hardly find time, nor do they have the inclination towards socializing outside home. They turn to electronic media such as television, computers, the Internet, videos, CDs, and audio equipment, which can provide them with instant self-entertainment at the push of a button.
The workplace does not fare(进展) much better. Due to the pressures to produce more in the same or fewer hours available and to compete, for example, in a manufacturing field with cheaper labor elsewhere in the world, humor and laughter in the workplace have gradually eroded（逐渐毁坏） away.
I have developed a real appreciation, perhaps closer to a strong desire for the power of humor and laughter. This encouraged me to write my first book titled “The Power of Humor”and subsequently my second book titled “Kids Say the Goggonest Things” based on the natural humor, laughter, play and fun that kids experience and they freely share with parents, grandparents and teachers.
From writing about humor and laughter, people start to ask me to speak up for them. To date, I have developed a number of humor-laughter topics that I use in my keynote presentations. You are invited to subscribe to my free monthly e-magazine “The Humormeister’s Forum” by clicking on the Free Humor E-zine navigation button on the website.According to the author, laughter is leaving us partly because ________.
| A．we treat everything in a serious way |
| B．it relieves pain, reduces stress and anxiety |
| C．we fail to maintain balance between life and work |
| D．the pace of change in our lives is becoming faster |
The fourth paragraph mainly tells us that ________.
| A．getting a deep laugh nowadays is difficult |
| B．we can entertain ourselves with the help of the Internet |
| C．people laugh more heartily when spending time with others |
| D．researchers have made a new discovery about the effect of laughter |
The underlined word inclination in Paragraph 5 most probably means ________.
| A．destination | B．tendency |
| C．attitude | D．approach |
Which of the following articles can we most probably find in The Humormeisters Forum?
| A．The power of honesty. |
| B．Dont be your own worst enemy. |
| C．Live life purposefully: The relationship within. |
| D．Funny Christmas stories to share with your loved ones. |
When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Doctor Gibbs. He didn't look like any doctor I'd ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard, but was always very kind.
When Doctor Gibbs wasn't saving lives, he was planting trees. He had some interesting theories about planting trees. He believed in the principle: "No pain, no gain". He hardly watered his new trees, an attitude which flew in the face of conventional wisdom.
Once I asked why and he told me that watering plants spoiled them because it made them grow weaker. He said you had to make things tough for the trees so that only the strongest could survive. He talked about how watering trees made them develop shallow roots and how, if they were not watered, trees would grow deep roots in search of water.
So, instead of watering his trees every morning, he'd beat them with a rolled-up newspaper. I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree's attention.
Doctor Gibbs died a couple of years after I left home. Every now and then, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I'd watched him plant some 25 years ago. They were tall and strong.
I planted a couple of trees myself a few years ago. Two years of attending these trees meant they grew up weak. Whenever a cold wind blew, their branches trembled. Adversity seemed to benefit Doctor Gibb's trees in ways comfort and ease never could.
Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I've been thinking that it's time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to encounter hardship. There's always a cold wind blowing somewhere. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won't be torn apart.With the trees planted, Doctor Gibbs often______.
| A．kept watering them every morning |
| B．talked to them to get their attention |
| C．paid little attention to them |
| D．beat them to make them grow deep roots |
What does the underlined word "Adversity" mean in the sixth paragraph?
| A．Difficult living conditions. |
| B．Lack of moisture. |
| C．Enough care or attention. |
| D．Bad weather. |
Which prayer does the author wish for his sons?
| A．Have an easy life, without too much to worry about. |
| B．Be able to stand the rain and wind in their lives. |
| C．Have good luck, encountering less hardship in their life. |
| D．Meet people like Dr Gibbs in the future. |