①You may think the best way to solve a difficult problem is to keep working on it, even overnight. But the truth is just the opposite: Your best chance to get to the bottom of a problem is actually to sleep on it.
②A team of researchers at North western University, US, did a study and found that sleeping is useful in both strengthening (强化) and re-organizing (重组) memory. This can help you solve problems.
③The researchers did an experiment with 57 students. They asked them to solve 42 difficult puzzles (谜题) on the first day. The students worked on each puzzle while listening to different music. The research encouraged students to remember the music they heard while solving the puzzles. By the end, there were six puzzles that the students still hadn’t solved. The students then went back home to sleep. They were given special sleep-monitoring (睡眠监测) and music devices (设备). The devices played music connected with the unsolved puzzles while the students were in the slow﹣wave sleep period. This period is when people are likely to dream and re-organize their memories.
④The next morning, the students tried the unsolved puzzles again. Researchers found they were 55% more likely to solve them. The music activated the memories about the puzzles while they were sleeping. It allowed them to “work” on the puzzles in their sleep.
⑤Earlier studies of both people and animals have shown that sleep can not only strengthen memory, but also help us organize information in our brains. This study seems to support that understanding.
⑥So the next time you face a difficult problem, sleep on it. Then play some music to help yourself think of the problem.
根据语篇内容, 选择最佳选项。1. What did the researchers at North western University find?
| A．Listening to music can help people sleep well. |
| B．Sleeping can help people solve problems. |
| C．Solving puzzles can improve people’s memory. |
| A．The students. | B．The researchers. | C．The puzzles. |
| A．失去 | B．抑制 | C．激活 |
| A．The finding is not valuable for students. |
| B．This study supports the earlier findings. |
| C．The earlier studies needed the help of music. |
A． | B． | C． |
相似题推荐
Laughter is natural for people. We start to laugh at about four months of age, We start to laugh even before we start to speak.
Laughter connects us with others. We laugh more when we are with other people, It’s difficult to pretend to laugh. Laughter is honest.
Only 10 to 20 percent of laughter is about something funny. Most laughter is about being friendly with other people. Most laughter says, “I don’t want to compete with you. I want to be friendly with you.” This kind of laughter brings people together.
Our idea of what is funny changes with time, For young children, the world is new, They are interested in many things, so they laugh a lot. Teenagers often laugh to protect themselves.
| A．Laughter is everywhere. |
| B．Laughter makes us less nervous in some situations. |
| C．People have different ideas about what is funny. |
| D．Why doesn’t everyone laugh at the same joke? |
| E．When people pretend to laugh, most people know it’s not real. |
| F．For adults, they laugh at themselves and other people with similar problems. |
| G．In fact, it is possible for anyone to have the same sense of humour in our life. |
【推荐2】Organic (有机的) farming is a wonderful try for anyone who would like to grow beautiful and tasty vegetables on their own land in an environmentally friendly way. Farmers must use natural methods to make plants grow strong, protect them from insects (昆虫) and remove weeds (杂草) in the land.
Fertilizers (肥料) are chemicals that makes plants grow better. If a farmer grows the same plant over and over in the same place, the soil will lose its ability to feed the plant. The farmer must add fertilizer to help the soil. Organic farmers do not add fertilizer. They will use animal manure (粪肥) and plant compost (混合肥) to make the soil rich again.
Pesticides (杀虫剂) are also avoided. These are chemicals that kill pests (害虫) like bad insects or animals. Organic farmers have other ways to deal with pests because pesticides kill good animals and insects that protect the plants. Foxes and snakes eat the mice. Some insects like ladybirds eat the bad insects.
And of course there are weeds. These are the plants that farmers do not want because they steal growing space from the good plants. To stop weeds, organic farmers can scrape (翻) the soil several times. Finally, the weeds will die.
Organic farming usually needs a lot of human labour to do the job of chemicals. This is one reason that organic food costs more. But when we think about the health of the earth, its plants, and its animals, perhaps it is worth it. In the end, a healthy planet means that we will be healthy, too.
1. The characteristic of organic farming is that there is no ________.| A．chemical | B．weed | C．pest | D．human labor |
| A．Organic food is usually more expensive than common food. |
| B．Organic farmers put animal manure on the land. |
| C．Pesticides can kill both pests and good animals and insects. |
| D．Scraping the soil is avoided by organic farming. |
| A．Organic Farming | B．Organic Farmers | C．Organic Food | D．Organic Fertilizers |
【推荐3】The largest animal ever to live on Earth is the blue whale(蓝鲸). It weighs(重) about 80 tons(吨) more than 24 big elephants. It is more than 30 metres long. A new baby whale weighs as much as a big elephant.
Cats won’t die if they fall off very high places because they can turn themselves up the right way to keep themselves safe.
A bear can run as fast as a horse. It can run much faster than people think.
A new-born panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about 100 grams(克).
Elephants are the most careful animals in their love. A male(男性) elephant may show his lady love for up to(达) three years until the female(女性) elephant takes his love. They often show their love by touching(触摸) each other’s body(身体).
Usually, wolves do not hurt(伤害) people. For years a Canadian newspaper says that they would give anyone a lot of money if he or she could show that a wolf could hurt a person. But nobody could do that. Wolves do not usually go together and they only hurt people at an unusual time.
1. How long is the largest animal on the earth?| A．About 30 meters. | B．More than 30 meters. |
| C．About 80 meters. | D．Less than 80 meters. |
| A．faster than | B．slower than | C．as fast as | D．as slowly as |
| A．fight with the baby elephant | B．ask the lady elephant to help him |
| C．show his love for a long time | D．find food together with him |
| A．in winter | B．at an unusual time | C．in group | D．that it is happy |
| A．Five. | B．Six. | C．Seven. | D．Eight. |
Many people like to travel by plane, but I don’t like it because an airport is usually far from the city. You have to get there early and wait for hours for the plane to take off and it is often late. You can’t open the window. You can’t choose the food. Planes are fast, but they still take hours to get out of the airport and into the city.
I like traveling by train. I think trains are safe. Railway stations are usually in cities. When you are late for a train you can catch another one .you can walk around in the train and open the windows. You can see many interesting things on your way. I know it takes a little more time.
I also like cars. You can start your journey when you want to, and you don’t need to get to a railway station or a bus stop. Also you can carry many things with you in a car. But sometimes there are too many cars on the road.
1. Why doesn’t the writer like to travel by plane?
| A．Because it is fast. |
| B．Because an airport is usually far from the city. |
| C．Because you can walk around in the plane. |
| A．It takes a little more time. |
| B．It is safe. |
| C．You can open the windows. |
| A．a bus | B．a car. | C．a train |
| A．You needn’t go to a station |
| B．You can start your journey when you want to. |
| C．There are too many cars on the road. |
| A．He likes to take a car because he has a car. |
| B．He likes to take a train because it takes a little more time. |
| C．He thinks it takes a lot of time to go to and get out of the airport. |
【推荐2】China is a country with many colorful days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day (龙抬头) is one of them.
This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar (农历). It is the start of spring and farming. This year, the day fell on March 8th.
The dragon is important in Chinese culture. We Chinese people call ourselves the “descend-ants (传人) of the dragon”. Therefor, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs about dragons.
On the day in ancient times, people put ashes (灰) in the kitchen. This was “to lead the dragon into the house”. People believed that with the help of the dragon, they could have a good harvest (收获) in autumn.
Also, people eat special foods on that day. The foods are usually named after dragons. For example, people eat “dragon whisker (细须)” noodles and dumplings
Today many customs have been dead. But one that has remained is the cutting of hair. It was said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the mother’s brothers.
根据短文内容，判断下列各句正（T）误（F）。
1. The Dragon Head Raising Day is one of the Chinese festivals.
2. February 2nd was the Dragon Head Raising Day this year.
3. On the day in ancient times, people put ashes (灰) in the kitchen.
4. One custom that has remained is to eat moon-cakes.
5. You’d better not cut your hair before the Dragon Head Raising Day if you have uncle(s).
【推荐3】“What’s the name of the supermarket? I can’t remember right now.” Have you ever heard your grandparents ask questions like this sometimes? Usually, we think that older people’s memory becomes had because their brains get weak. But now a team of scientists at the University of Tubingen in Germany has a new idea. “The human brain works slower in old age,” says Michael Ramscar, the team’s lead scientist, “only because it has stored more information over time.” The findings are based on a series of computer tests related to learning and memory.
Scientists had the computers read a certain amount of words and learn new things each day. When the computer “read” a small amount of data（数据），its performance on cognitive（认知）tests was similar to that of a young adult . But if the computer took in larger amounts of data, its performance was similar to that of an older adult. Often it was slower, but not because its processing ability had dropped. Rather, increased “experience” had caused the computer’s database to grow, giving it more data to process-which takes more time. This is similar to how old people process information.
Imagine that one person knows just two people’s birthdays and can get them right each time he or she is asked. Another person knows the birthdays of 2,000 people , but can only match the right person to the right birthday 9 times out of 10. Can you say the first person has a better memory than the second person?
“The larger the library you have in your head , the longer it usually takes to find a particular word,” Benedict Carey, a science reporter for The New York Times, wrote in an article about the study.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
1. Why is the poor memory of elderly people mentioned at the beginning?
| A．To lead in the discussion of memory. | B．To describe the way elderly people live. |
| C．To express his or her care about the elderly. | D．To draw the public attention to elderly people |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By doing experiments. |
| C．Be making surveys. | D．By listing others’ opinions. |
| A．The data. | B．The brain. | C．The computer. | D．The information. |
| A．Memorizing birthdays is easy | B．the first person has a better memory |
| C．Who has a better memory is uncertain | D．the second person can memorize 10% birthdays |
| A．How computers process data. | B．How to improve the memory. |
| C．Old people can remember things easily. | D．Much information makes the brain slower. |
