1 . If you wear glasses, chances are you are smarter. Research published in the famous British journal Nature Communications has found that people who displayed higher levels of intelligence were almost 30 percent more likely to wear glasses.
The scientists studied the genes of thousands of people between the ages of 16 and 102. The study showed intelligence can be connected to physical characteristics. One characteristic was eyesight. In out of 10 people who were more intelligent, there was a higher chance they needed glasses. Scientists also said being smarter has other benefits. It is connected to better health.
It is important to remember these are links which are not proven causes. Scientists call this correlation. Just because something is linked with something else does not mean one of those things caused the other. And it’s worth noting that what constitutes intelligence is subjective and can be difficult, if not impossible, to measure.
Forget genes though. Plenty of proof shows wearing glasses makes people think you are more intelligent, even if you do not need glasses. A number of studies have found people who wear glasses are seen as smarter, hard-working and honest. Many lawyers use this idea to help win their cases. Lawyer Harvey Solves explained this. Glasses often their appearance. He said sometimes there has been a huge amount of evidence showing that the clients he was defending broke the law. He had them wear glasses and they weren’t found guilty.
Glasses are also used to show someone is intelligent in movies and on TV Ideas about people who wear glasses have begun to shift. People who do not need glasses sometimes wear them for fashion only. They want to look worldly or cool. But not everyone is impressed by this idea, though. GQ magazine said people who wear glasses for fashion are trying too hard to look smart and cool. However that hasn’t stopped many famous people from happily wearing glasses even if they do not need them. Justin Bieber is just one high-profile fan of fashion glasses.
1. What does the new study show?| A．Wearing glasses is related to higher IQ. |
| B．Wearing glasses can make people clever. |
| C．People wearing glasses are healthier. |
| D．People wearing glasses are smarter |
| A．Shift. | B．Cause. | C．Consequence. | D．Connection. |
| A．mislead the witnesses | B．highlight clients’ qualities |
| C．create a moral image | D．prove the clients’ innocence |
| A．Mixed. | B．Supportive. | C．Negative. | D．Unconcerned. |
2 . When I was about twelve，I headed to a restaurant for dinner with my family. It was winter，and on that night, the wind was really blowing hard．As my mom and I headed to the restaurant from our car, a girl about my age and her mother came up to us. They asked if we had any spare change (零钱). My mom right away asked where they lived. They pointed to an old car in a parking lot across the street. The girl said there were six of them living in that car．
My mom said she had something to do after handing the people a few dollars. She sent me inside the restaurant with my dad and my three siblings. But she didn't come. Later, I found out she had gone home and put all the food in our cupboards into a few bags. Then, she brought that food over to the car and handed the bags to the family．I wasn't there when that happened，but I can only imagine the joy it brought to those people．
A few days later , when I actually found out what she had done ,I asked her why she helped those people. She told me that they were not lucky. I remember the face of that girl who had asked us for change. She was the same age as me, yet we looked so different．
Here I stood，dressed in almost new clothes，headed to eat in a restaurant and then came back home to the bedroom I shared with my younger sister. I remember thinking that the other girl didn't have any food to eat and she was heading back to a cold car shared with five other people．
After painting this picture in my mind，I understood why my mom had done what she did. I will never forget what she did that night, and how she taught me one of the best lessons I have ever learned．
1. From the passage，we can know the writer's mother was ______ ．| A．determined | B．kind-hearted |
| C．humorous | D．selfish |
| A．the poor family had no place to live |
| B．the poor girl was older than the author |
| C．the writer's mother didn't know how to cook |
| D．the poor girl lived near the restaurant |
| A．friends | B．parents |
| C．sisters | D．neighbours |
| A．How to support a poor family |
| B．A friend in need is a friend in deed |
| C．The hard life of a little girl's family |
| D．A lesson in kindness from my Mum |
3 . Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they express regret, lost chances, mistakes, and disappointment.
My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take another minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “another minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something small like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a table, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (粘贴衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.
I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone a chance to say “I love you” or “I forgive (原谅) you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up a chance to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.
I know there will still be times when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is certainly better because of my rule of doing everything possible to avoid that possibility. And even though it takes another minute to do something right, or it sometimes takes an hour or two in my busy timetable to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for avoiding saying “if only”.
1. Why does the writer regard “if only” as two of the saddest words in the English language?| A．Because people use them when they feel sad. |
| B．Because they mean sadness in the English language. |
| C．Because they mean regrets and disappointment in life. |
| D．Because they make the writer think of some sad experiences. |
| A．given up. | B．looked for. |
| C．waited for. | D．made use of. |
| A．see a doctor | B．finish her work |
| C．join a celebration | D．create a chance to see her father |
| A．Advice from My Father | B．The “Another Minute” Rule |
| C．Avoidance of saying “If Only” | D．The Saddest Words in English |
4 . Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the classical writers like Shakespeare and Wordsworth has a great effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and triggers moments of self-examination.
Using a special machine, they monitored the brain activity of 30 volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot and others.
In the first part of the research, the brain activity of 30 volunteers was monitored as they read passages from Shakespeare’s plays, including King Lear, Othello, Coriolanus and Macbeth, and again as they read the text rewritten in a simpler form or modern language.
While reading the common texts, normal levels of electrical activity were shown in their brains. When they read the works of Shakespeare, however, the levels of activity jumped because of his use of words which were unfamiliar to them. The result of the test showed that the more challenging passages cause a greater degree of electrical activity in the brain than the common ones.
Scientists went on to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and recorded how it lit up as the readers came across unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentences in the classical works. As a result, this lightening up process of the mind lasted longer than that when volunteers read common texts, encouraging further reading.
The research also found that reading poetry especially increases activity in the right hemisphere (半球) of the brain, an area connected with “autobiographical memory”, driving the readers to think carefully about their own experiences based on what they have read. The academics said this meant the classical works of literature are more useful than self-help books.
Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study in the university’s magnetic resonance center, announced this week: “Classical literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain, which provides extra power for the brain. You may never imagine how powerful it is. The research shows such kind of literature can create new thoughts and connections in the young and the old.”
1. The underlined word “triggers” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to“_______”.| A．stops | B．keeps |
| C．interrupts | D．causes |
| A．It’s helpful for readers to come up with new ideas. |
| B．It’s an activity that is suitable for people of all ages. |
| C．It makes readers’ electrical activity of brain return to normal. |
| D．It makes readers’ brain more active than reading common texts. |
| A．poetry increases left-brain activity more than other literary forms |
| B．the readers prefer Shakespeare’s works to the other writers’works |
| C．the words of classical works make it hard for volunteers to read further |
| D．reading classical works produces a good and long-lasting effect on the mind |
| A．Classical works help the brain develop better. |
| B．Poetry is useful for developing people’s brain. |
| C．Common books are unpopular anymore. |
| D．Shakespeare’s plays are worth reading. |
5 . The negative (负面的) health effects of sleep shortages during the week can’t be changed by marathon weekend sleep sessions, according to a new study.
Researchers have long known that routine sleep deprivation (缺乏) can cause weight gain and increase other health risks, including diabetes. But there are still some people who hope that shutting off the alarm on Saturday and Sunday will repay the weekly sleep debt and remove any ill effects.
The research, published in Current Biology, ruins those hopes. Despite complete freedom to sleep in and nap during a weekend recovery period, participants in a sleep laboratory who were limited to five hours of sleep on weekdays gained nearly three pounds over two weeks and experienced metabolic disruption (代谢紊乱) that would increase their risk for diabetes over the long term. While weekend recovery sleep had some benefits after a single week of inadequate sleep, those gains were wiped out when people returned right to their same sleep schedule the next Monday.
“If there are benefits of catch-up sleep, they’re gone when you go back to your routine. It’s very short-lived,” said Kenneth Wright, who led the research. “These health effects are long-term. It’s kind of like smoking once was — people would smoke and wouldn’t see an immediate effect on their health, but people will say now that smoking is not a healthy lifestyle choice. I think sleep is in the early stage of where smoking used to be.”
Wright said that the study suggests people should prioritize sleep — cutting out the optional “sleep stealers” such as watching television shows or spending time on electronic equipment. Even when people don’t have a choice about losing sleep due to child-care responsibilities or job schedules, they should think about prioritizing sleep in the same way they would think about a healthy diet or exercise.
1. What had the researchers already known before doing the new research?| A．The actual benefits of weekend recovery sleep. |
| B．Harm to health caused by the lack of routine sleep. |
| C．People’s habit of shutting off the alarm during holidays. |
| D．The relationship between body weight and sleep amount. |
| A．call on smokers to completely abandon smoking |
| B．advise people to go to sleep when they want to smoke |
| C．show people have known the harm brought by smoking |
| D．show people will someday notice the bad effects of sleep deprivation |
| A．Have a low opinion of something. |
| B．Increase the amount of something. |
| C．Cut down something that isn’t necessary any more. |
| D．Treat something as being more important than others. |
| A．Weekend Catch-up Sleep Is a Lie |
| B．Bad Sleep Habits Are Harmful to Health |
| C．A New Study Has an Unexpected Discovery |
| D．Advantages and Disadvantages of Catch-up Sleep |
6 . I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old, I learned how to make a coin disappear. I’d read The Lord of the Rings and risked coming into the adult section of the library to search for a book of spells (魔法) — nine being that curious age at which you’re old enough to work through more than 1, 200 pages of mysterious fantasy literature but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library. The book I found instead taught basic sleight-of-hand (戏法) technique, and I devoted the next months to practice.
Initially, the magic wasn’t any good. At first it wasn’t even magic; it was just a trick — a bad trick. I spent hours each day in the bathroom running through the secret moves in front of the mirror. I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day, and after two weeks of this my mom got a carpet sample from the store and placed it under the mirror to eradicate the sound of the coin falling again and again.
I had heard my dad work through passages of new music on the piano, so I knew how to practice — slowly, deliberately, going for precision rather than speed. And then I tried the illusion (错觉) in the mirror and an unbelievable scene took place. It did not look like a magic trick. It looked like a miracle. I knew that I had got what I wanted.
One day I made the performance on the playground. We had been playing football and were standing by the backstop in the field behind the school. A dozen people were watching. I showed the coin to everyone. Then it disappeared. The kids screamed. They yelled, laughed, scrambled away. Everyone went crazy. This was brilliant.
1. What did the author enter the adult section of the library to do?| A．To kill his time. | B．To find a book of magic. |
| C．To read The Lord of the Rings. | D．To learn knowledge of literature. |
| A．Get rid of. | B．Give out. |
| C．Imitate. | D．Distinguish. |
| A．His mother’s help. | B．The secret of quick moves. |
| C．The inspiration from his father. | D．His repeated hard practice. |
| A．It’s fantastic. | B．It’s funny. |
| C．It’s awkward. | D．It’s disappointing. |
7 . Scientists say a huge percentage of bird species are in danger because their habitats, or homelands, are disappearing.
Traditional migration (迁徙) paths take birds through countries that are not protecting the places for birds to stop, rest and feed. The scientists studied the migration or flight paths of almost 1,500 species. They decided that 91 percent of them passed through dangerous areas.
The major danger for migratory birds is development. Buildings and pavements have covered the places where birds stop and feed as they move from one part of the world to another. One of the scientists who worked on the study says “Many of these important places have been lost to land reclamation because of urban, industrial and agricultural land expansion”.
The problem, according to scientists, is that many of these small birds die along their migration paths because they don’t have a safe place to feed and rest. There is no place to restore (恢复) their energy for the next part of their journey. Countries in North Africa, Central Asia and those along the coasts of East Asia are having the most difficult time in protecting land. The scientists say these countries do not have enough areas that are safe for birds. One species that doesn’t exist now is the Eskimo curlew. “Our world gets poorer every time we lose a species,” one of the scientists says.
The researchers say countries need to work together and come up with safe stopping areas for birds that pass through their boundaries. For example, one country might have preserved safe zones for migrating birds. But a neighbor country might not. A bird might die.
One scientist who is not connected with the report tells Los Angeles Times that while some habitats are changing, more work can be done to make urban areas safe for birds.
He says small changes, like planting more native plants or keeping cats out of the areas birds would be likely to use, could make a big difference.
1. The disappearance of the bird habitats is mainly caused by ________.| A．development | B．the change of climate |
| C．filling seas to grow grain | D．the loss of land and water |
| A．Abusing the farming land. | B．The disappearance of good land. |
| C．Causing the land quality to get worse. | D．Making land suitable for farming or building. |
| A．are harmed by humans | B．are killed by other animals |
| C．have to take a long journey | D．have no safe place to rest and eat |
| A．By keeping fewer cats or dogs. |
| B．By stopping the urban development. |
| C．By helping change the birds’ migration paths. |
| D．By preserving the local ecological environments. |
8 . On October 23, 2016, David Pologruto, a high school physics teacher, was stabbed by his smart student Jason Haffizulla. Jason got straight A’s and was determined to study medicine at Harvard, yet this was his downfall. His physics teacher gave Jason a B, a mark Jason believed would undermine his entrance to Harvard. After receiving his B, Jason took a butcher knife to school and stabbed his physics teacher.
How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb? Studies show there is little or no connection between IQ and emotional intelligence.
During my early university years, I regarded myself as an intelligent guy. I got good marks in mathematics, physics, and other subjects. I thought such skills would surely give me a bright future. After one year of study with decent marks, I began to see two major classes of students. The first category of students turned up to few lectures, partied every weekend, enjoyed a great social life, and did minimal work to pass courses. The second category of students were intelligent and hard workers who got good grades and were very focused on their studies. Surely would these intelligent and hard-working students find the great jobs before the other lazier class of students?
Not so. Students are often shocked upon graduation that their qualifications are not as important as they once thought. Graduates enter the workforce only to realize that co-workers hate them and less intelligent people are the ones receiving promotions (晋升).
Educational skills are useless in some industries when interpersonal skills are absent. You can have great ideas, theories, and solve complex problems, but if you cannot effectively communicate with your colleagues, you will face difficult situations. It’s not that people dislike you because of your intelligence; it’s that people dislike you because you’re rude and not understanding. The intelligent person with poor communication skills is unaware of others’ emotions.
1. Jason Haffizulla stabbed his physics teacher because ________.| A．he was not smart enough at studies | B．he was unfairly treated by his teacher |
| C．he got a worse mark than usual | D．he was disappointed with his downfall |
| A．limit | B．help |
| C．destroy | D．benefit |
| A．they are not considerate enough |
| B．they are envied for their intelligence |
| C．they can solve more complex problems |
| D．they can’t settle the challenges they meet |
| A．What kind of students can succeed in college. |
| B．Smart people have poorer communication skills. |
| C．Intelligent students will meet more challenges at work. |
| D．Smart students should balance their IQ and emotional intelligence. |
