1 . How cool can libraries be in an era of iPods and Kindles? More than you think. Only if you know where to go.
Central Library: Seattle, Washington, United States
The Central Library in Seattle is modern and fashionable and has tourists from around the world paying visits and taking tours. It was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and American designer Joshua Ramus. Tours began in 2006, two years after its opening. The library holds various art exhibitions, book signings and other events, while visitors can stop by the Chocolate cart for a coffee and scan through the gift shop anytime.
Trinity College Library: Dublin, Ireland
The Trinity College Library in Dublin is the oldest library in Ireland, founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. It is the largest single library in the world, also known as the Long Room, which contains more than 200,000 of the library's oldest books. The Long Room houses one of the oldest harps (竖琴) in Ireland. Dating to the 15th century, the old harp is the model for the symbol foreland.
Geisel Library, University of California: San Diego, United States
At first glance, it looks like a spaceship. Architect William Pereira, who helped design actual space launch facilities at Cape Canaveral in Houston, Texas, designed the library in 1970. It has been featured in sci-fi films, short stories and novels. The library hosts “Dinner in the Library”, which invites readers for cocktails, and also a special speech from distinguished authors.
TU Delft Library: The Netherlands
The library at the Delft University of Technology was constructed in 1997 and has more than 862,000 books, 16,000 magazine subscriptions and its own museum. The building itself exists beneath the ground, so you can’t really see the actual Library. What makes it interesting is the roof, which is a grassy hill. The roof covers 5,500 square meters. And it has become one of the most striking and greenest structures in the area.
1. Which of the four libraries has the longest history?| A．Central Library | B．Trinity College Library |
| C．Geisel Library | D．TU Delft Library |
| A．Queen Elizabeth I founded the library |
| B．it has a roof of grassy hill |
| C．famous writers often deliver speeches there |
| D．it is the largest single library in the world |
| A．drink cocktails | B．buy souvenirs |
| C．enjoy sci-fi films | D．see the old harp |
2 . The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.
First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges. The main question is whether you want your arms inside or outside the sleeping bag. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny ballet（芭蕾）dancer. “I’m an inside guy,” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “I like to be wrapped up.”
On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars. It also has no seat. With no gravity, it’s just as easy to pedal violently. You can watch a movie while you pedal by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But station residents have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help circulate air, the carbon dioxide you exhale（呼气）has a tendency to form an invisible（隐形的）cloud around your head. You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache.
Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat. “Your inner ear thinks you’re falling. Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re standing straight. That can be annoying－that’s why some people feel sick. “Within a couple of days truly terrible days for some－astronauts’ brains learn to ignore the panicky signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.
Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time invisibly dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass’ That’s why exercise is considered so vital that National Aeronautics and Space Administration（NASA）puts it right on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as it is about keeping any individual astronaut healthy. NASA is worried about two things: recovery time once astronauts return home, and, more importantly, how to maintain strength and fitness for the two and a half years or more that it would take to make a round-trip to Mars’
1. What is the major challenge to astronauts when they sleep in space?| A．Deciding on a proper sleep position. |
| B．Choosing a comfortable sleeping bag. |
| C．Seeking a way to fall asleep quickly. |
| D．Finding a right time to go to sleep. |
| A．they circle around on their bikes |
| B．they use microcomputers without a stop |
| C．they exercise in one place for a long time |
| D．they watch a movie while pedaling |
| A．their senses stop working |
| B．they have to stand up straight |
| C．they float out of their seats unexpectedly |
| D．their brains receive contradictory messages |
| A．how much exercise they do on the station |
| B．how they can remain healthy for long in space |
| C．whether they can recover after returning home |
| D．whether they are able to go back to the station |
3 . As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
1. The passage begins with two questions to ________.| A．introduce the main topic | B．show the author’s attitude |
| C．describe how to use the Internet | D．explain how to store information |
| A．Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer. |
| B．The two groups remembered the information equally well. |
| C．The first group did not try to remember the formation. |
| D．The second group did not understand the information. |
| A．keep the information in mind |
| B．change the quantity of information |
| C．organize information like a computer |
| D．remember how to find the information |
| A．We are using memory differently. |
| B．We are becoming more intelligent. |
| C．We have poorer memories than before. |
| D．We need a better way to access information. |
4 . This Way to Dreamland Daydreaming means people think about something pleasant, especially when this makes them forget what they should be doing. Daydreamers have a bad reputation for being unaware of what’s happening around them. They can seem forgetful and clumsy.
But daydreamers are also responsible for some of the greatest ideas and achievements in human history.
Feeling safe and relaxed will help you to slip into daydreams.
It’s also important to know how to avoid daydreams for those times when you really need to concentrate. “Mindfulness”, being focused, is a tool that some people use to avoid falling asleep.
| A．Having interesting things to think about also helps. |
| B．They stare off into space and wander by themselves. |
| C．Without wandering minds, we wouldn’t have relativity , Coke or Post-it notes. |
| D．At one time, daydreaming was thought to be a cause of some mental illnesses. |
| E．It involves slow, steady breathing for self-control that helps people stay calm and attentive. |
| F．Daydreams are often very simple and direct, quite unlike sleep dreams, which may be hard to understand. |
| G．Therefore, it’s a good idea to keep a notebook or voice recorder nearby when you’re in the daydream zone. |
5 . The Boy Made It!
One Sunday, Nicholas, a teenager, went skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In the early afternoon, when he was planning to go home, a fierce snowstorm swept into the area. Unable to see far, he accidentally turned off the path. Before he knew it, Nicholas was lost, all alone! He didn’t have food, water, a phone, or other supplies. He was getting colder by the minute.
Nicholas had no idea where he was. He tried not to panic. He thought about all of the survival shows he had watched on TV. It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.
He decided to stop skiing. There was a better chance of someone finding him if he stayed put. The first thing he did was to find shelter from the freezing wind and snow. If he didn’t, his body temperature would get very low, which could quickly kill him.
Using his skis, Nicholas built a snow cave. He gathered a huge mass of snow and dug out a hole in the middle. Then he piled branches on top of himself, like a blanket, to stay as warm as he could.
By that evening, Nicholas was really hungry. He ate snow and drank water from a nearby stream so that his body wouldn’t lose too much water. Not knowing how much longer he could last, Nicholas did the only thing he could he huddled (蜷缩) in his cave and slept.
The next day, Nicholas went out to look for help, but he couldn’t find anyone. He followed his tracks and returned to the snow cave, because without shelter, he could die that night. On Tuesday, Nicholas went out again to find help. He had walked for about a mile when a volunteer searcher found him. After two days stuck in the snow, Nicholas was saved.
Nicholas might not have survived this snowstorm had it not been for TV. He had often watched Grylls’ survival show Man vs. Wild. That’s where he learned the tips that saved his life. In each episode (一期节目) of Man vs. Wild, Grylls is abandoned in a wild area and has to find his way out.
When Gxrylls heard about Nicholas’ amazing deeds, he was super impressed that Nicholas had made it since he knew better than anyone how hard Nicholas had to work to stay alive.
1. What happened to Nicholas one Sunday afternoon?| A．He got lost. | B．He broke his skis. |
| C．He hurt his eyes. | D．He caught a cold. |
| A．He found a shelter. | B．He lighted some branches. |
| C．He kept on skiing. | D．He built a snow cave. |
| A．returned to his shelter safely | B．was saved by a searcher |
| C．got stuck in the snow | D．stayed where he was |
| A．did the right things in the dangerous situation |
| B．watched Grylls’ TV program regularly |
| C．created some tips for survival |
| D．was very hard-working |
6 . If a diver surfaces too quickly, he may suffer the bends. Nitrogen(氮) dissolved(溶解) in his blood is suddenly liberated by the reduction of pressure. The consequence, if the bubbles (气泡)accumulate in a joint, is sharp pain and a bent body—thus the name. If the bubbles form in his lungs or his brain, the consequence can be death.
Other air-breathing animals also suffer this decompression(减压) sickness if they surface too fast: whales, for example. And so, long ago, did ichthyosaurs. That these ancient sea animals got the bends can be seen from their bones. If bubbles of nitrogen form inside the bone they can cut off its blood supply. This kills the cells in the bone, and consequently weakens it, sometimes to the point of collapse. Fossil (化石)bones that have caved in on them selves are thus a sign that the animal once had the bends.
Bruce Rothschild of the University of Kansas knew all this when he began a study of ichthyosaur bones to find out how widespread the problem was in the past. What he particularly wanted to investigate was how ichthyosaurs adapted to the problem of decompression over the 150 million years. To this end, he and his colleagues traveled the world’s natural-history museums, looking at hundreds of ichthyosaurs from the Triassic period and from the later Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
When he started, he assumed that signs of the bends would be rarer in younger fossils, reflecting their gradual evolution of measures to deal with decompression. Instead, he was astonished to discover the opposite. More than 15% of Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs had suffered the bends before they died, but not a single Triassic specimen(标本) showed evidence of that sort of injury.
If ichthyosaurs did evolve an anti-decompression means, they clearly did so quickly—and, most strangely, they lost it afterwards. But that is not what Dr Rothschild thinks happened. He suspects it was evolution in other animals that caused the change.
Whales that suffer the bends often do so because they have surfaced to escape a predator (捕食动物) such as a large shark. One of the features of Jurassic oceans was an abundance of large sharks and crocodiles, both of which were fond of ichthyosaur lunches. Triassic oceans, by contrast, were mercifully shark- and crocodile-free. In the Triassic, then, ichthyosaurs were top of the food chain. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous, they were prey(猎物) as well as predator—and often had to make a speedy exit as a result.
1. Which of the following is a typical symptom of the bends?| A．A twisted body. | B．A gradual decrease in blood supply. |
| C．A sudden release of nitrogen in blood. | D．A drop in blood pressure. |
| A．how often ichthyosaurs caught the bends | B．how ichthyosaurs adapted to decompression |
| C．why ichthyosaurs bent their bodies | D．when ichthyosaurs broke their bones |
| A．confirmed his assumption | B．speeded up his research process |
| C．disagreed with his assumption | D．changed his research objectives |
| A．failed to evolve an anti decompression means |
| B．gradually developed measures against the bends |
| C．died out because of large sharks and crocodiles |
| D．evolved an anti decompression means but soon lost it |
Woolworth realized he had a natural skill for showing goods to attract people’s interest, but he soon learned something more important. One day his boss told him to sell some odds and ends（小商品）for as much as he could get. Frank put all these things on one table with a sign which said “FIVE CENTS EACH’. People fought and pushed to buy the things and the table was soon cleared.
Soon afterwards, Woolworth opened his own store, selling goods at five and ten cents. But he had another lesson to learn before he became successful. That is, if you want to make money by selling low-price goods, you have to buy them in large quantities directly from the factories. Once, for example, Woolworth went to Germany and placed an order for knives. The order was so large that the factory had to keep running 24 hours a day for a whole year. In this way, the price of the knives was cut down by half.
By 1919, Woolworth had over 1000 stores in the US and Canada, and opened his first store in London. He made many millions and his name became famous throughout the world. He always ran his business according to strict rules, of which the most important was : ‘THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.”
1. Frank took a short business course in order to __________.
| A．earn more money for his family |
| B．learn something from a salesman |
| C．get away from the farm |
| D．get enough to eat |
| A．he knew how to get people to buy his goods |
| B．he cut down the price by half |
| C．he had put the goods on a table in a very nice way |
| D．the sign he put on the table was well designed |
| A．the factory workers worked 24 hours a day |
| B．knives were ordered in large quantities directly from the factory |
| C．the knives were made in German, where labour was cheap |
| D．the knives were produced in one factory |
| A．His business skills and his wealth |
| B．The low price of the goods he sold |
| C．His trip to Germany and his huge order of knives |
| D．His natural skill for showing things |
| A．whenever there is a quarrel between the customer and shop assistant, the customers are always right. |
| B．If you want to succeed, the rule is the only way |
| C．stores must always follow the customer’s orders if they want to make more money |
| D．stores should do their best to meet the customer’s needs if they want to be successful |
Social support cushions stress in a number of ways. First, friends, relatives and co-workers may let us know that they value us. Our self-respect is strengthened when we feel accepted by others in spite of our faults and difficulties. Second, other people often provide us with informational support. They help us to define and understand our problems and find solutions to them. Third, we typically find social companionship supportive. Taking part in free-time activities with others helps us to meet our social needs while at the same time distracting (转移注意力) us from our worries and troubles. Finally, other people may give us instrumental support — money aid, material resources, and needed services — that reduces stress by helping us resolve and deal with our problems.
1. Interpersonal relationships are important because they can _______.
| A．make people live more easily |
| B．smooth away daily problems |
| C．deal with life changes |
| D．cure types of illnesses |
| A．lies in the social medical care systems which support them |
| B．has much to do with the amount of support they get from others |
| C．depends on their ability to deal with daily worries and troubles |
| D．is related to their courage for dealing with major life changes |
| A．Takes place of. | B．Makes up of. |
| C．Lessens the effect of. | D．Gets rid of. |
| A．instrumental support | B．informational support |
| C．social companionship | D．the strengthening of self-respect |
| A．Interpersonal relationships. |
| B．Kinds of social support. |
| C．Ways to deal with stress. |
| D．Effects of stressful conditions. |
Recently，a 100-year-old Japanese woman became the world’s first centenarian to complete a 1，500-meter freestyle swimming competition in a 25-meter poo1．
Her name is Mieko Nagaoka．Ms．Nagaoka set a world record for her age group at a recent Japan Masters Swimming Association event in the western city of Matsuyama．She swam the race in 1hour，15 minutes and 54 seconds．
By comparison，the overall female world record holder completed the same distance in just under 15 and a half minutes．But that swimmer，Katie Ledecky，is only 17 years old．And Ms．Nagao．ka was not competing against her．In fact，Ms．Nagaoka was the only competitor in the 100-104 year old category．Her race was not a race of speed but of endurance，or not giving up．
Breaking swimming records is nothing new to Ms．Nagaoka．So far she has broken 25 records．But she began competing when she was much younger—at 88.
Ms．Nagaoka sufferred a knee injury in her 80s，so she began swimming to help her body recover．Since her first international swimming competition，she hasn’t looked back，except maybe to see if her competition is catching up．
In 2002．at a masters swim meet in New Zealand，Ms．Nagaoka took the bronze medal in the 50-meter backstroke．In 2004，she won three silver medals at an Italian swim meet.
Masters swimming is a special class of competitive swimming to promote health and friendship among participants．Swimmers compete within age groups of five years.
Japan has a large number of people who live beyond 100 years old．Until she passed away this month，the oldest person in the world was also from Japan．Misao Okawa was born in 1 898．She said her secrets for longevity，or long life，were good genes，regular sleep，sushi and exercise.
1. The underlined word“centenarian”refers to someone who is____．
| A．from Japan |
| B．100 or older |
| C．an old competitor |
| D．a new swimmer |
| A．82 to 87 years old． |
| B．93 to 97 years old. |
| C．95 to 99 years old． |
| D．106 to 110 years old. |
| A．some people are born with longevity genes |
| B．people who like swimming live longer |
| C．the Japanese are interested in swimming |
| D．woman usually live much longer than men |
| A．Not to advance is to go back． |
| B．After a storm comes a calm. |
| C．The early bird catches the worm． |
| D．Keep on going，never give up. |
