【推荐1】To the Swedes, there are few smells more pleasing than the smell of surströmming(盐腌鲱鱼). To most non-Swedes, there are probably few smells more disgusting. In determining which smells people find pleasant and which they do not, surströmming suggests culture must play a quite large part. New research, however, suggests that might not be the case.

Dr Arshamian and Dr Majid supposed that culture would play an important role in determining pleasant smells initially. To study how smells and culture relate, they presented nine different groups of people with ten smells. All 235 participants were asked to rank the smells according to pleasantness.

The team compared their results to earlier work on New Yorkers who had been exposed to the same smells. The researchers noted that pleasantness rankings of the smells were surprisingly consistent regardless of where people came from. The smell of isovaleric acid was rejected by the vast majority of the participants. On the other hand, more than 190 people gave the smell of vanilla a score of 1 to 3 and only 12 people found it extremely unpleasant enough to rate 8 to 10(where 1 was very pleasant and 10 was very unpleasant).Generally, the chemical composition of the smells explained 41% of the reactions that participants had. In contrast, cultural backgrounds accounted for just 6%of the results.

Dr. Arshamian and Dr. Majid pointed out that this is very different from how visual perception(感觉) of faces works-in that case a person’s cultural background accounts for up to 50%of the explanation for which faces they find beautiful. While culture did not shape perception of smells in the way that it is known to shape perception of faces, the researchers did find that personal feelings of liking some smells more than others made up 54%of the difference in which smells people liked.

1. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A．Introducing the topic.

B．Describing a phenomenon.

C．Presenting the background.

D．Explaining an experiment.

2. How might the researchers find the result of their research?

A．It is persuasive.

B．It is unexpected.

C．It is confusing.

D．It is practical.

3. What affects pleasantness rankings of smells most?

A．Participants’ living environment.

B．Participants’ eating habits.

C．The chemistry of the smells.

D．The personal preferences.

4. What does the text mainly talk about?

A．How culture affects visual perception.

B．Why the Swedes prefer surströmming.

C．What shapes people’s perception of smells.

D．Why people have different preference for smells.

【推荐3】We are often told to pay attention to what our mothers tell us. Most of us enjoy listening to our mothers speaking. Scientists at Stanford University, US have found that compared to other people’s voices, our brains react strongly to our mother’s voices.

The scientists examined 24 children aged 7 to 12 and asked their mothers as well as two mothers whose children were not studied to record three nonsense words.“In this age period, most children have good language skills. We didn’t want to use words that had meaning because that would have involved(涉及) many different parts in the brain,”said Professor Menon.

The children’s brains were scanned while they listened to the nonsense-word recordings, produced by their own mother and other mothers. Even from very short recordings, less than a second long, the children could make sure of their own mother’s voice with greater than 97 percent accuracy(正确率). Hearing their mother’s voice makes many parts of children’s brains more active, including those about positive emotion and social communication.

Years of study has shown that children prefer their mothers’ voices and it starts even before they’re born. When children are still in the womb (子宫) or have just been born, they hear their mothers talking. This makes babies feel comfortable and safe and teaches them language and social skills, even though they are still very young. Later, when this sound is heard again, more attention is paid to it.

1. How many mothers were invited to enter the study?

A．12.

B．24.

C．26.

D．48.

2. The correct study stages should be _______.
①Scientist scanned children’s brains.
②Children made sure of their mother’s voice.
③Mothers recorded nonsense words.

A．①②③

B．③①②

C．①③②

D．②③①

3. Why do children pay more attention to their mothers’ voices?

A．Because they can get a prize for doing so.

B．Because they enjoy listening to their mothers’ voices.

C．Because they can learn something and feel comfortable.

D．Because they can make sure of their voices more accurately.

4. What is this passage mainly concerned about?

A．Science.

B．Sports.

C．Family.

D．Health.

【推荐1】After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.

Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.

The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.

As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.

The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.

1. What is the text mainly about?

A．Wildlife research in the United States.

B．Plant diversity in the Yellowstone area.

C．The conflict between farmers and gray wolves.

D．The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park.

2. What did the disappearance of gray wolves bring about?

A．Damage to local ecology.

B．Preservation of vegetation.

C．A decline in the park’s income.

D．An increase in the variety of animals.

3. What is the author’s attitude towards the Yellowstone wolf project?

A．Doubtful.

B．Uncaring.

C．Positive.

D．Disapproving.

【推荐2】The word "barbecue" comes from the Caribbean word "barbacoa", which originally wasn't a way of cooking food, but the name of a wooden structure used by Taino Indians to smoke their food. It was recorded that the first barbecue as a diet consisted of some sort of fish, creatures from the sea obviously being plentiful in the Caribbean. Besides used for cooking, the structure of sticks could also be used as an area for sleeping, storage, and a shelter.

Spanish explorers took the word "barbacoa" back to Spain, where it appeared in print for the first time in 1526.At first,"barbacoa"still referred to the structure in which food was cooked, but later people started using it to refer to the process of cooking food in a barbacoa and the cooked food itself.

It was in A New Voyage Round the World written by William Dampier, published in 1697 that the word firstly appeared in print in English. It referred to the structure as a place for sleeping. By 1733, "barbecue began to mean asocial gathering when meat was grilled. About two decades later, in 1755, the word"barbecue"was entered into Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.

Today, there are different spellings as well as meanings for "barbecue". Many people use"barbeque,"BBQ", "Bar-B-Que, and other forms. The"official "spelling is generally considered to be "barbecue"with the letter"c, similar to the original. While people may debate over what should be the correct spelling or what exactly constitutes barbecue,there is one thing we all agree on: a barbecue is definitely no longer a shelter or a sleeping structure!

President George Washington himself was a big fan of barbecue. He wrote in his diary about going to a barbecue in 1769("Went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night ), and hosting one in 1773("a Barbicue of my own giving at Accatinck"). Barbecue competitions have been taking place since at least 1959. The first one seemed to have taken place in Hawaii, just a few months after it became a state, but was only for men. 25 men competed for the grand prize of $10.000.

1. What do we know about the origin of "barbecue"?

A．It was originally a way of cooking.

B．The first barbecue consisted of vegetables and fish.

C．It originally referred to a wooden structure for storage.

D．It originated from the Caribbean area.

2. When was the word "barbecue" seen in print in English for the first time?

A．In 1526

B．in 1697

C．in 1733

D．in 1755

3. Which of the following statements is true about the word"barbecue"at present?

A．"Barbecue"is the only correct spelling.

B．It means a social gathering when vegetables are cooked.

C．All people have reached an agreement on the meaning of the word.

D．It no longer refers to a shelter or a sleeping structure.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The origin of "barbecue".

B．The correct spelling of "barbecue".

C．The meaning of "barbecue".

D．The invention of "barbecue".