1 . You either have it, or you don’t—a sense of direction. But why is it that some people could find their way across the Sahara without a map while others can lose themselves in the next street?
Scientists say we’re all born with a sense of direction, but it is not properly understood how it works. One theory (理论) is that people with a good sense of direction have simply worked harder at developing it. The research being carried out at Liverpool University supports this idea and suggests that if we don't use it, we will lose it.“Children as young as seven have the ability to find their way around,” says Jim Martland, research director of the project. “However, if they are not allowed out alone or are taken everywhere by car, they will never develop the skill.”
Jim Martland also emphasizes that young people should be taught certain skills to improve their sense of direction. He makes the following suggestions:
•If you are using a map, turn it to the way you are facing.
•If you leave your bike in a strange place, put it near something like a big stone or a tree—something easy to recognize (辨别出). Note landmarks (地标) on the route as you go away from your bike. When you return, go back along the same route.
•The simple way of finding your direction is by using streets in a town, streams, or wells in the countryside to guide you. Count your steps so that you know how far you have gone and note some landmarks such as tall buildings or hills which can help to find out where you are.
Now you will never get lost again!
1. Scientists believe that _________.
| A．few babies are born with a sense of direction |
| B．people develop a sense of direction as they grow older |
| C．people never lose their sense of direction |
| D．everybody has a sense of direction from birth |
| A．five | B．six | C．seven | D．eight |
| A．Gives special importance to something. |
| B．Expresses thanks to somebody. |
| C．Understands or realizes a fact. |
| D．Admires somebody. |
| A．Tall buildings. | B．Hills. | C．Wells. | D．Bikes. |
| A．A research on direction. |
| B．The sense of direction. |
| C．People’s ability to find the way. |
| D．Scientists’ research on skills. |
2 . 
How do animals communicate? In movies, animals may talk in language that is clear to humans. But this is not how animals in nature communicate, of course. In fact, there are actually many things animals do to communicate with each other—and it is usually not the same for different kinds of animals.
The first and most common way that animals communicate is by using sound. For example, certain monkeys will give loud alarm calls. If the monkey sees a snake, it will give an alarm call for all the other monkeys to climb into the trees. If the monkey sees an eagle, then the alarm call will tell other monkeys to get close to the ground. Another example of an animal that uses sound to communicate is the dolphin. Each dolphin has a special whistle (哨声). This is similar to calling someone by his or her name.
A second way animals communicate is through nonverbal (非语言的) ways. For example,those with a pet dog will easily know how a dog happily moves its tail. A cat that is scared or feels that it is in danger will stand with its back high. Bees also use a type of nonverbal communication. They will dance to tell other bees where and how far food is.
Another kind of animal communication is touch. For example, elephants and giraffes will wrap (缠绕) the noses or necks together if they like each other. Horses touch their noses together as a sign that they are comfortable with another horse. Some monkeys will touch their hands together to say“hello”.
People, much like animals, also use more than words to communicate with each other. How do you think people use sounds, nonverbal signals, and touch to communicate with each other?
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. Why does the writer mention how the animals talk in movies in Paragraph 1?
| A．To lead in the topic. | B．To share an idea. | C．To give an example. | D．To introduce a movie. |
| A．Bees dance around. | B．Dogs move their tails. |
| C．Eagles give loud alarm calls. | D．Cats stand with their backs high. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Why animals make different sounds. |
| B．When nonverbal ways are used by animals. |
| C．How animals communicate with each other. |
| D．What animals communicate with others by touching. |
| A．Fine Arts. | B．Animal World. | C．History and Culture. | D．Computer Science. |
3 . 
There’s no doubt that music can lift our spirits, and a study shows that it can also help deal with physical pain.
Listening to favorite songs could help people feel less pain, according to a new study that appeared in Frontiers in Pain Research last October. And the most helpful songs were found to be sad ones describing bittersweet (苦乐参半的) and moving experiences.
The study invited 63 young adults to bring two of their favorite songs. The researchers also provided seven relaxing songs and asked the participants (参与者) to choose one from them.
Each participant was asked to stare at a screen for 7 minutes while listening to their favorite songs, one of the seven relaxing songs, or a mixed version of their favorite songs and the relaxing song they chose (they were cut into pieces and then mixed up together). For another 7 minutes, they just sat in silence. All the while, the researchers stuck a hot object to the young adults’ left arms —— similar to the pain of a boiling hot teacup on your skin.
After interviewing the participants about the songs and their degrees of pain, the researchers found people felt less pain when listening to their favorite songs compared with hearing the relaxing song or nothing. The mixed songs didn’t work either. And people who listened to sad songs felt less pain than those listened to cheerful songs.
“It’s a very cool result,” said Darius Valevicius, one of the researchers. “I think it explains why so many people, including me, enjoy listening to sad music.”
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. What can we learn about the study from the second paragraph?
① When it came out. ② Who were included in it.
③ What it has found. ④ Where people could read it.
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．seven |
| A．The process of the study. | B．The importance of the study. |
| C．The purpose of the study. | D．The new findings of the study. |
| A．To help them relax. | B．To test their memory. |
| C．To keep them awake. | D．To cause pain to them. |
| A．Music’s magic power over our brain |
| B．Music and society: What you need to know |
| C．These scientists find new ways to lift our spirits |
| D．Certain kinds of music can help you feel less pain |
4 . 根据材料内容，从下面五个选项中选出能填入文中空缺处的最佳选项，使文章意思通顺、内容完整。
Did you ever ride on a camel (骆驼) in the desert (沙漠)? The camel sways (摇摆) when it walks. It feels like a bumpy (颠簸的) boat ride on the sand.
Long ago, people used camels to carry all their things across hot and dry deserts. Camels are really good at traveling in the desert. They eat wild plants and carry more things than horses. When the sky is full of wind and sand, they can still travel.
| A．They don’t need much water. |
| B．People call camels ships of the desert. |
| C．Today, desert people still ride on camels and use them to carry things. |
| D．Desert people use them to make cooking fires! |
| E．They have been helping people for a long time. |
5 . It’s said that each color has its own meaning. Red makes one feel energetic. Blue makes us feel confident. Yellow means bright. Orange lets you feel happy. Green stands for peace. Pink means romantic (浪漫) and black means safety.
The color of our clothes can affect our feelings, too. When we are sad, we will wear dark-colored clothes; when we are happy, we often choose to wear light-colored clothes.
Suppose we are feeling sad, if we wear black we may begin to feel worse. However, if we wear green, red or yellow, we may begin to feel better.
So remember, if you are in a bad mood, you can always try on some different colored clothes. If one color has no effect (影响) on your feelings, maybe another will.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. Which color makes us feel energetic?
| A．Black. | B．Blue. | C．Yellow. | D．Red. |
| A．Yellow. | B．Brown. | C．Black. | D．Dark blue. |
| A．Six. | B．Seven. | C．Eight. | D．Nine. |
| A．red | B．blue | C．yellow | D．orange |
| A．not all colors have meaning | B．blue makes us feel safe |
| C．colors can affect our moods | D．dark color can make us feel better when we are sad |
6 . It is true that times are changing for the old people in China. But not all changes are bad ones. Modern medicine, for example, has made old people healthier than ever before. Another advantage is that there are many more old people than there used to be, so old people often have a good life with their own organization. Finally they have more money than their own parents and grandparents had.
The biggest problem for the old people of modern life, however, is that they always feel lonely. The young leave home when they grow up and old people live alone. Fewer old people have brothers or sisters like their parents and grandparents. An old person’s one or two children may have moved to another part of the country. Even when live nearby, the young people have their own work to do and their own children to look after. They don’t have much time for the old. Problems of loneliness often start when they stop working. When people retire(退休) they find it difficult to start a new life without their jobs.
The world has changed so fast since 1990 that it is difficult for old people to understand the problems of the young. So what the old experienced is totally different from their children. And the world is changing even faster these days than fifty years ago. It makes you think, doesn’t it? What will it be like when today’s young people are old?
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. How many good changes for the old people are mentioned in the first paragraph?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Health. | B．Age. | C．Money. | D．Loneliness. |
| A．Because they have different experiences. | B．Because they have different education. |
| C．Because they have different cultures. | D．Because they have different languages. |
| A．A daily magazine | B．A guide book | C．A sports newspaper | D．A story book |
| A．The old people can understand the young. | B．The old people live a much better life today. |
| C．The changes modern life has for the old people. | D．There are many more old people than there used to be. |
7 . Every living thing is part of the food web, and every living thing depends on other living things in the web. A producer is a living thing, such as a plant, that makes its own food. A consumer is any living thing that eats producers, the food producers make, or other consumers. A decomposer is a living thing that breaks down wastes and the remains of other living things. They work together and need each other.
Producers need decomposers. When decomposers break down dead plants or animals, they create nutrients (营养物). The tree then uses the nutrients to create food. Producers also need consumers.
When a consumer such as a lion dies, it leaves dead material (材料) behind. That dead material becomes nutrients that trees use.
Consumers need producers. Horses are consumers. Plants are producers. Horses eat plants. Lions are consumers, too. They eat horses. Without the plants, there would be no horses, so lions need plants, too. Consumers also need decomposers. Without them, there would be no nutrients in the soil (土壤). Trees and other plants could not grow, so horses would have nothing to cat. Without horses and other smaller animals, lions could not cat.
Decomposers need producers and consumers. Decomposers need dead plants or animals that they can use for food. They get that dead material from dead producers and consumers. When a tree or a horse dies, decomposers use that dead material. They use some of it for food. They turn the rest into nutrients.
If you took away all of the decomposers, there would be no nutrients. So there would be no producers. That would mean that. consumers would have nothing to eat. If you took away all of the producers, there would not be food for the consumers to eat. And if you took away all the consumers, there would not be dead material to make nutrients. Every part of the food web is important.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. What can break down dead animals into nutrients for plants?
| A．A producer. | B．A consumer. | C．A decomposer. | D．A food web. |
| A．Because they are the main food of lions. |
| B．Because they can provide nutrients for lions. |
| C．Because there will be no food for lions without plants. |
| D．Because there will be more enemies for lions without plants. |
| A．A rock. | B．A dead tree. | C．A paper. | D．A living flower |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．I want to know why trees are green. |
| B．I want to know why elephants never get lost. |
| C．I want to know how horses and lions are similar and different. |
| D．I want to know how living things are connected and work together. |
8 . People now keep flat-faced dogs such as French bulldogs (法国斗牛犬) as pets because they are cute. Some people call these dogs “lazy” because they get sleepier more easily than other dogs during the day. However, these cute dogs are having a hard time, according to a recent study.
Scientists at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary watched 92 family dogs of different types while they were sleeping. During the study, the dogs spent about three hours with their owners in the sleep lab. With nothing special to do, the dogs soon fell asleep. At that time, the scientists recorded the dogs’ brain activities by an electroencephalogram (EEG, 脑电图), which doesn’t hurt the dogs.
The study found that the flat-faced dogs slept more than the other kinds. This may be because they don’t get enough sleep at night. The scientists explained that this is because of sleep apnea (睡眠呼吸暂停症), which only happens in French bulldogs. During their sleep, they can’t get enough air and may find it difficult to breathe, which makes them constantly wake up from time to time. Some French bulldogs may sleep while holding a toy ball in their mouths. Owners may think this is funny. But they’re actually doing it to keep their airways open so they can breathe more easily.
This, however, is only one of the health problems dogs have because of breeding (培育). According to the website Pet Helpful, a lot of pet dogs are bred based on what people like, such as shorter legs, heavier bodies, and larger ears. Bulldogs are one of them.
Lots of pet lovers are calling for people to respect dogs as they are. “Breeders must take the health of their dogs seriously instead of just for cuteness,” Australian vet Karen Hedberg told ABC News.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. What problems do flat-faced dogs have?
| A．They are too energetic at night. | B．They have serious sleep problems. |
| C．They are no longer popular on the market. | D．They are lazy and don’t work during the day. |
| A．It studied 92 French bulldogs. | B．Dogs were put into the lab all alone. |
| C．Dogs couldn’t fall asleep in the lab. | D．It recorded dogs’ sleeping with an EEG. |
| A．Keep them partly awake. | B．Please their owners. |
| C．Help them breathe better. | D．Express their love for the toy ball. |
| A．Respect pet owners’ choices. | B．Stop breeding flat-faced dogs. |
| C．Breed more cute types of dogs. | D．Put pets’ health first when breeding. |
| A．Dog owners do not understand their pets clearly. |
| B．People are choosing pets in a more scientific way now. |
| C．All of the cute animals may have serious health problems. |
| D．Flat-faced dogs face health problems because of breeding choices. |
9 . You wake up one morning, and your head feels like it’s burning. Right away, you think, “Oh, no! I have a fever!” However, when you take your temperature, you see that it’s only 37.2℃.
So, you don’t have a fever. Or, do you? From the standards (标准) in use for a long time, a fever starts at 38℃. Some doctors now don’t agree with that, though. They feel our ideas about fevers are wrong and too old. It’s the same for normal body temperatures.
These doctors argue that everyone’s normal body temperature isn’t 37℃. It’s 36.6 to 38℃ for kids and 36.1 to 37.2℃ for adults. Women also have a higher temperature than men. Besides, people’s body temperatures don’t stay the same all the time.
When your body temperature is around 38℃, you have a fever. Many people think it’s a bad thing, but it’s not. Fevers show that the body is doing its job. It’s fighting the bad viruses (病毒) and bacteria (细菌) in your body.
The body attacks them by turning up the heat. That way, it’s harder for the viruses and bacteria to make copies of themselves. When their numbers go down, the fever does, too.
Mild fevers don’t last long. So, let them do their jobs and don’t treat them. Instead, try to find the cause and treat that. If the fever reaches 39.4℃ or higher, call your doctor. Do the same if the fever lasts longer than three days. Fevers fight to protect us, so they’re our friends, not our enemies.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. What does the text begin with?
| A．A fact. | B．A survey. | C．A news story. | D．A personal experience. |
| A．Adults have a higher body temperature than children. |
| B．Children and adults should have the same body temperature. |
| C．There’s only one normal body temperature for both adults and children. |
| D．Adults have a slightly lower ‘normal’ temperature range (范围) compared to children. |
| A．The purpose and nature of fevers. | B．The normal temperature of humans. |
| C．The different opinions on fevers. | D．The harm that fevers do to humans. |
| A．36.1℃—37.2℃. | B．36.6℃—38℃. | C．38 ℃—39.3℃. | D．39.3℃—39.4℃. |
| A．Amazing human body | B．A new discovery |
| C．Treatment s for fevers | D．Fun facts about fevers |
10 . 
① Everybody has a brain, but not many people know how the brain works. Some people believe that the brain is like the hard disk (磁盘) of a computer. We use it to store things-pictures, language (words, texts, sounds) and so on. Others compare the brain to a huge container with lots of shelves and boxes in it. We put information into these boxes and hope to find it again later.
②The brain is not a computer disk, And it isn’t a container. Look at the picture here. It looks a bit like weeds (杂草) in a garden, doesn’t it? The picture actually shows a child’s neocortex—a part of the brain. You can guess what happens—more ‘weeds’ grow as the child gets older. Scientists call these neuronal (神经元的) networks. What makes them grow? Learning! “Learning is brain change,” says Professor James Zull from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. “Without learning, nothing changes in the brain. For every new word you learn in your English lesson, every problem you solve in maths, every new song you learn to sing, a neuronal network grows in your brain and the brain changes.”
③There are many ways to make your brain stronger. The more neuronal networks we grow, the better we can think and the better we remember. You may wonder if there is anything you can do to make the networks in your brain grow better. Professor Zull says yes, there is. He says that brain change is the strongest in the following situations:
·You are interested in and like what you are learning;
· You are in control of what you learn;
· You get challenging tasks that make you think hard.
Choose a right way to learn something, and you may develop your brain better than you think.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。1. How does the writer start this text?
| A．By telling a story. | B．By listing numbers. |
| C．By asking a question. | D．By listing two different opinions. |
| A．A disk used in the computer to store things. |
| B．A wild plant that grows in a garden. |
| C．An object used to carry or store things. |
| D．A task that helps to develop your brain. |
| A．learn languages | B．have problems | C．enjoy songs | D．plant trees |
| A．The brain is a fantastic computer. |
| B．What people believe about the brain. |
| C．How to make your brain stronger. |
| D．We remember better when things are easy. |
| A．Interest is the best teacher | B．Meeting life’s challenges |
| C．Never too old to learn | D．Learning is brain change |
