【推荐2】It was the last time Susan Butcher ran the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1992. An hour into the race, Susan and her sled dog team sped down a hill and crashed into a fallen tree. Although hurt, Susan continued the difficult race.

The Iditarod Race started in 1925 when a doctor in Nome, Alaska was desperately in need of medicine to stop the spread of a deadly disease. Only a hospital had what he needed, but it was 700 mile-away! In January, it was too dangerous to send a boat and too stormy for his tiny airplane. The only hope was to use several sled dog teams following a trail, called the Iditarod Trail. They passed the medicine from one sled team to another. Wind and snow did not stop the men and their dogs. The medicine was delivered in record time. The race follows the route of the famous medicine run. Over 1, 000 miles long, it is considered the toughest race in the world.

Susan Butcher was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In her teens Susan was given a Siberian husky dog and became very interested in huskies as sled dogs. After reading about the Iditarod Race, Susan moved to Alaska. She got several jobs to earn money to buy herself a sled and a team of huskies. After years of hard work and training, Susan achieved her dream of racing on the Iditarod Trail.

In 1978, at the age of 24, Susan entered the race for the first time and became the first woman to finish in the top 20. In 1982 she came in second. In 1984 she was leading her team across a frozen waterway when they fell into the water. Her lead dog managed to pull Susan and the other dogs out of danger. Remarkably, she came in second.

In her fourth race, in 1985, a staring moose (驼鹿) attacked her dogs, killing two and injuring eleven. Susan had to leave the race. In 1986 Susan joined the race again. This time, she won. She won again in 1987. In 1988 she became the first person ever to win three Iditarod races in a row. Unbelievably, Susan won for the fourth time in 1990.

1. According to text, Susan Butcher entered the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race at least __________times.

A．six

B．seven

C．eight

D．nine

2. In Paragraph 2, the author wants to tell us __________.

A．how the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race began

B．how the spread of a deadly disease was stopped

C．how tough the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was

D．how Susan Butcher began to show interest in the race

3. What does the underlined phrase “in a row” probably mean in the last paragraph?

A．continuously	B．eventually
C．finally	D．particularly

4. What led to some of Susan Butcher’s failures?

A．Snowstorm.	B．Lack of food.
C．Accidents.	D．Lack of experience.

【推荐3】Do big sporting events make us do more sport?

I recently spent half a weekend sitting on the sofa watching the Davis Cup. I thought about going for a run, but I did not want to miss the rest of the match. Soon it was starting to get dark, so I did not bother. Whenever I watch tennis, I think how nice it would be to play it regularly. But I have been thinking that for almost 20 years without actually setting foot on a court. The evidence would suggest that I’m not the only one.

When a country or city bids to host an international sporting event, it often promises that more people will take up sports as a result. London was no exception. Tessa Jowell, who helped to secure the 2012 Olympics for London, said they would be the first to set challenging but achievable targets as a measure of their ambition: By 2012 two million more people would be physically active. And 60 percent of young people would be doing at least five hours of sports per week.

In the end it did not turn out quite like that. Just over one-third of people in Britain take part in sports once a week. A report on Olympic and Paralympic legacy has said that a big change in participation levels simply has not happened.

Why isn’t there a big increase in people taking part in sports after most sporting events? Perhaps it is a mistake to assume an automatic link between watching sports and playing it. While the games are on, they actually encourage people to do just the opposite — to spend whole sunny days not out playing sports, but inside sitting on the sofa with the curtains shut to stop the sun shining on the TV screen and spoiling the view. We don’t expect half the audience of a hit musical to apply to drama school the next day, yet we seem to expect it of sporting events.

We might have sat on the sofa doing an impression of Usain Bolt’s bow-and-arrow signature pose. But how many of us have been inspired by watching him sprint (短跑) 100 meters? The high-level performances on show only remind people that they could never match the elite athletes in their sporting achievements even if they trained full time.

Maybe participation in sports is not the right legacy to expect after a major sporting event. It’s not so much that the Olympics failed to get people to participate but rather that this was never going to be the result. The Olympics can do many things, but maybe this cannot necessarily be one of them.

1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．The author prefers playing tennis to running.

B．The author watches tennis matches very rarely.

C．The author hasn’t played tennis in nearly two decades.

D．The author didn’t go for a run because the match lasted longer than expected.

2. The underlined word “secure” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_________”.

A．to fasten

B．to protect

C．to obtain

D．to promise

3. According to the article, there is no noticeable rise in sport participation after most events because      .
①it takes people a longer time to play sports than watch it
②watching sports actually discourages people from going out
③sporting events make people aware that they could never be as good as elite athletes
④people are too busy to get into the habit of taking part in sports

A．①②

B．②③

C．③④

D．①④

4. According to the author, to expect more citizens to play sports after a country hosts the Olympics is      .

A．important

B．natural

C．harmful

D．unnecessary

【推荐1】A chip inserted in a young quadriplegic’s (四肢麻痹患者) brain is already improving his quality of life. Soon the benefits may be more widespread.

A 25-year-old man unable to move from the neck down recently did what many assumed impossible. After a knife attack that had left him paralyzed, all he could move was his head, which he used to push a switch and call for a nurse. And he could turn his wheelchair by blowing into a straw near his face. That was it.

Then last June, a Foxborough (Mass.) company called Cyber Kinetics opened the man’s skull and inserted a special chip no larger than a baby aspirin. That insert has given him a few additional and precious abilities. When connected to a special computer via a cable, the chip translates the young man’s thoughts into commands that let him move a cursor across a PC screen and open e-mail. He can draw a circle with a computer painting program. And he can use a robotic hook (钩) to perform simple tasks like picking up a candy and sliding it across a table.

All he has to do is to think.

Several new studies have begun or been completed in the past year. In fact, more than half of the scientific papers in this field, called brain-to-computer interaction (BCI), have been published in the past two years, notes Jonathan Wolpaw, a research physician at Wadsworth Center, the New York State Health Dept.’s research laboratory.

Brain surgeries (手术) are no longer rare: Thousands of Parkinson’s disease patients have had special devices inserted in their brains to ease uncontrollable shaking and other symptoms. The inserts themselves have improved, so the body doesn’t reject them as furiously (猛烈地). And significant development has been achieved in software used to interpret the brain’s signals and change them into commands understood by computers.

But increased demand for thought technology remains the biggest reason for the field’s progress. Today, 4 million Americans live with paralysis according to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.

Scientists hope that thought technology will reduce the impact of such disabilities. People with spinal-cord injuries, for example, often lose their ability to walk because the communications network between their brain and their legs has been interrupted. The brain still commands the leg muscles to move, but they don’t hear its orders.

Thought technology, scientists hope, will bridge this communications gap. “Our goal is for you to see paralyzed people eating at a restaurant and for you not to know that they are paralyzed,” says John Donoghue, founder and chief scientific officer at Cyber Kinetics.

1. What was the young man’s trouble after a knife attack?

A．It was impossible for him to do anything.

B．By no means could he call for a nurse.

C．He could not use his organs under the neck.

D．He was unable to move his head.

2. What plays the most important role in improving the young man’s quality of life?

A．A chip	B．A computer
C．A robotic hook	D．A company

3. What can we learn from Paragraph Six?

A．There used to be a lot of brain surgeries.

B．There has been some progress in the field of thought technology.

C．People with Parkinson’s disease reject the use of the chip in their brains.

D．No software has been developed to interpret the brain’s signals.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Communications gap	B．Thought technology
C．American quadriplegics	D．Human brains

【推荐2】If you thought that your child’s academic performance is based simply on the number of hours spent on studying, you are wrong. Good grades are a result of multiple factors, everything from the child’s brains to the environment they are in. And one of the major, mostly ignored, influencing factor is physical health. Physical activity and health actually can improve a person’s ability to learn. According to the National Academy of Medicine, exercise can improve a child’s cognitive abilities, health, and academic performance significantly.

According to a study by the University of British Columbia, regular aerobic exercise betters the functioning of the hippocampus, the area of the brain involved in learning and memory. Other forms of exercise like balance exercises, muscle exercises, and resistance training did not have the same result on the brain.

The effect of exercise on memory and thinking is both direct and indirect. Directly, regular exercise gives the ability to increase the release of growth factors. These growth factors are chemicals in the brain that affect the growth of new blood vessels, the health of brain cells, as well as the survival of new brain cells. On the other hand, getting enough exercise will improve sleep quality and mood. It will also reduce stress and anxiety.

It is believed that the benefits of exercise during the school day are greater than those coming from increasing class time. Furthermore, the greatest cognitive benefits from physical education have been seen to come about when physical education was given either in the first half of the day or midday rather than at the end of the day.

In order to get the children moving, rest time, PE classes, biking or walking to school should be promoted. Activities like after-school sports that used to be held at school should be restarted. Physical activity should not be seen as a dispensable option but as an important educational concern.

1. What factor is often forgotten when it comes to good grades?

A．Child’s High IQ.	B．A good environment.
C．Physical health.	D．The hours spent on learning.

2. Which of the following exercises is best for learning and memory?

A．Regular aerobic exercise.	B．Balance exercise
C．Muscle exercise.	D．Resistance training

3. How does exercise influence thinking indirectly?

A．By releasing growth factors in large numbers.

B．By influencing the growth of new blood vessels.

C．By affecting the survival of new brain cells.

D．By improving a person’s mood and sleep quality.

4. What does the underlined word “dispensable”mean in the last paragraph?

A．Unique.

B．Universal.

C．Unusual.

D．Unnecessary.

5. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Mental health should never be ignored.

B．Physical education class is really a good option.

C．Exercise may bring about good academic grades.

D．Different exercises have different results on the brain.