3 . When you are asked to draw a picture, in spite of your best effort, you can’t make it look like the model shown. Then you may have thought, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”

According to some scientists, who for the past 20 years have studied the complex subject of creativity through a series of research strictly, you are underrating yourself. Da Vinci you may never be, but when it comes to creativity, we are all somewhat blessed. It’s learning to develop this unique tool of extraordinary productivity, and then applying it in everything you do, that counts to tell you from figures like Da Vinci.

“Even if we don’t have the good fortune to discover a new chemical element or write a great story, the love of the creative process for its own sake is available to all,” says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention.

Most people believe the ability of creativity has been awarded to those considered to have special talent. We look upon these “creative geniuses”, as we often call them, with respect and a bit of envy. Their abilities, most people assume, are due to good genes, or, as if in Greek mythology, from some kind of god’s inspiration.

There is no argument that the world is never short of highly talented and creative people. They are masters of their trades and stand heads-and-shoulders above common people, making new pathways for others to follow, and providing greater context and understanding of our world. It could be said that without creativity humanity would not evolve so rapidly.

But like a publicly recognized creative baseball player who possesses his skill through years of continuous training, foregoing other pursuits for the only passion, people who show the slightest unwillingness for challenging labor are bound to witness their boasted (吹嘘的) ability disappear.

After closely studying 91 creative and influential people, including novelists, playwrights, composers, musicians and scientists, Csikszentmihalyi concludes that no one would ignore the sweat they shed and their almost crazy willingness to follow their creative effort to the very end, wherever that may be. These are the very things we all can master, so long as we’d like to.

1. It’s widely believed that creativity comes from_________.

A．the inborn genes or relevant gifts

B．the tool we learn from masters like Da Vinci

C．some kind of god from Greek

D．good training people receive from artistic classes

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Creativity lies in devotion and effort.

B．The field of baseball requires more gifts than hard work.

C．People’s admiration of geniuses makes humanity develop quickly.

D．People don’t think that the world is never short of highly talented people.

3. The underlined word “foregoing” is closest in meaning to _________.

A．referring to

B．combining

C．giving up

D．extending

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Ordinary people’s unwillingness to follow the examples of creative ones.

B．The reasons for the success of those possessing creativity.

C．Creative people view things differently from ordinary people.

D．People’s misunderstanding of creativity and its true nature.

5 . Black taxis have been a common sight in London for many years. Now these taxis and their drivers have become the focus of a new study into Alzheimer’s (阿尔兹海默症). For those on the outside, it may seem that behind the wheel of these black taxis are just common people who help move us to our places. But hidden within their brains is a map of London’s streets that has put GPS technology to shame for many years.

“The knowledge”, the test for London’s taxi drivers, stands among the hardest tests one could ever experience. It includes remembering information repeatedly from the memory of minute details about between 25, 000 and 56, 000 streets in London, depending on who’s taking the test, from the Trafalgar Square to the tiniest residential lanes (居民巷).

Usually, the hippocampus (马体) feels the influences of Alzheimer’s most. The hippocampus controls the brain’s short-term memory and spatial memory (空间记忆) systems. University College London and Alzheimer’s Research UK are coming together to study these taxi drivers’ brains. And the taxi drivers’ hippocampi continue to grow as they go on doing the job for more years. This suggests that perhaps there’s something we can do to reproduce the influence on the general population.

Lead researcher Hugo Spiers was part of the team which 20 years ago found that, like birds’, the taxi drivers’ hippocampi slowly got bigger. In fact, research has found for years that any animal that requires detailed spatial knowledge of their land experiences growth in the hippocampus.

Spiers’ team hopes to deal with Alzheimer’s by studying the taxi drivers “brains, since the hippocampus becomes smaller with the development of Alzheimer’s. To collect more information, Spiers has asked thirty London’s taxi drivers connected to an MRI machine to drive around. The machine will allow the researchers to keep a real-time watch on the workings of the hippocampus. “It’s been a joy to help scientists fight the disease,” said taxi driver Robert Lordan.

1. What can we learn about “The knowledge’?

A．It lasts for a few minutes only.	B．It invites some residents to be testers.
C．It is a great challenge to people’s memory.	D．It is usually held in London's busy streets.

2. What does the research on animals show?

A．Animals’ hippocampi are quite different from humans’.

B．The new study can do good to animals as well.

C．More detailed studies on animals’ brains are needed.

D．Animals’ hippocampi are similar to humans’

3. Why do researchers watch taxi drivers with an MRI machine?

A．To decide who has the largest hippocampus.

B．To find out what their hippocampi are doing at work.

C．To know how Alzheimer’s develops in their brains.

D．To test whether the machine influences the hippocampus.

6 . “Why do I live? Why do I wish for anything, or do anything? Is there anything in my life that will not be destroyed by my death?”

These are the words of the famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Like Tolstoy, many people ask these difficult questions. And they struggle to find meaning in their life. Tolstoy spent his whole life trying to answer difficult questions like these. His search for answers influenced his writing.

On August 28th, 1828, Leo Tolstoy was born in the country of Russia.

As a child, Tolstoy was a member of the Russian Catholic Church. But as a young man, he began to question that faith. Tolstoy wanted to make his own moral decisions; he was tired of being told what to believe. He thought people could achieve a degree of perfection if they tried hard enough. So he worked very hard at being the best in everything he did. He thought that he would find meaning and truth in success.

In the 1850s, Leo Tolstoy wrote his first stories. He wrote about his experiences in the army. He also told stories about when he was a child. These works were published and Tolstoy became a well-known writer.

Tolstoy was finally successful. He earned the respect he always wanted. Many wealthy and intelligent men met and talked with Tolstoy. Some of the men were writers like him. They talked a lot about faith and the meaning of life. But soon Tolstoy recognized that these men were not perfect. Now he knew they could not answer his questions about faith.

So in the 1860s, Tolstoy tried a different way to find meaning. He opened a school for the children of his serfs—the people who worked on his land. These workers were very poor. He wanted to help them because he thought they were more honest than the wealthy people he knew.

Tolstoy learned many things from his workers. He respected how they worked hard to provide for their families.

He began to believe that marriage and family would give his life meaning. So in 1862, Leo Tolstoy married a young woman named Sonya Behrs.

The next 15 years were the best years of Tolstoy's life. It was during this time that he wrote his most famous books-War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Many literature experts say that War and Peace is one of the greatest books ever written.

Both War and Peace and Anna Karenina communicate Tolstoy's beliefs about the Russian nation, church and people. They also communicate what he thought was the answer to all his questions. Tolstoy believed humans were supposed to live a simple life and take care of their families. Tolstoy thought this would satisfy him and bring him happiness.

Leo Tolstoy is still a very respected writer today. His faith and writings have influenced many people.

Tolstoy's search for the meaning of life is something everyone can understand. His teachings still interest people all over the world.

1. Which shows the correct order of the following events?
①Tolstoy served in the army ②Tolstoy got married ③Tolstoy wrote War and Peace
④ Tolstoy started a school.   ⑤Tolstoy became a well-known writer.

A．①②③④⑤

B．⑤①③②④

C．①⑤④②③

D．⑤④①③②

2. What does the underlined phrase “provide for” in paragraph 8 mean?

A．Respect

B．Defend.

C．Support.

D．Comfort.

3. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Leo Tolstoy: Living for writing	B．Leo Tolstoy: Influencing the world
C．Leo Tolstoy: Being the best in everything	D．Leo Tolstoy: Searching for the meaning of life

8 . The term “Hudson River school” was applied to the foremost representatives of nineteenth-century North American landscape painting. Apparently unknown during the golden days of the American landscape movement, which began around 1850s and lasted until the late 1860s, the Hudson River school seems to have emerged in the 1870s as a direct result of the struggle between the old and the new generations of artists each to assert its own style as the representative American art. The older painters, most of whom were born before 1835, practiced in a mode often self-taught and monopolized by landscape subject matter and were securely established in and fostered by the reigning American art organization, the National Academy of Design.

The younger painters returning home from training in Europe worked more with figural subject matter and in a bold and impressionistic technique; their prospects for patronage in their own country were uncertain, and they sought to attract it by attaining academic recognition in New York. One of the results of the conflict between the two factions was that what in previous years had been referred to as the American, native, or, occasionally New York school — the most representative school of American art in any genre — had by 1890s become firmly established in the minds of critics and public alike as the Hudson River school.

The sobriquet was first applied around 1879. While it was not intended as flattering, it was hardly inappropriate. The Academicians at whom it was aimed had worked and socialized in New York, the Hudson’s port city, and had painted the river and its shores with varying frequency. Most important, perhaps, was that they had all maintained with a certain fidelity a manner of technique and composition consistent with those of America’s first popular landscape artist, Thomas Cole, who built a career painting the Catskill Mountain scenery bordering the Hudson River.

A possible implication in the term applied to the group of landscapists was that many of them had, like Cole, lived on or near the banks of the Hudson. Further, the river had long served as the principal route to other sketching grounds favored by the Academicians, particularly the Adirondacks and the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire different ways.

1. According to the passage what was the function of the National Academy of Design for the painters born before 1835?

A．It mediated conflicts between artists.	B．It supervised the incorporation of new artistic techniques.
C．It supported their growth and development.	D．It determined which subjects were appropriate.

2. Where did the younger generation of painters receive the artistic training?

A．In New Hampshire.	B．In the Adirondacks.
C．In Vermon.	D．In Europe.

3. The underlined word “factions” is closest in meaning to “______”.

A．people

B．sides

C．cities

D．images

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Hudson River School	B．The Nature’s Nation
C．Early Painters and Their Drawings	D．North American Landscape Painting

9 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.

What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all don’t have enough conversational ability. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s embarrassing and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s a valuable social practice that leads to big benefits.

It is easy to consider small talk as unimportant, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist (存在) if there weren’t casual conversations. Small talk is the grease (润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. “Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,” he explains. “The secret to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.”

In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at UBC, invited people to a coffee shop. One group was asked to interact with its waiter, the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported obviously higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. “It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,” says Dunn. “But interactions with peripheral (边缘的) members of our social network is important for our happiness and health.”

Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a greater sense of belonging, a link with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. “Small talk is the basis of good manners,” he says.

1. What does the underline word “casual” in paragraph 3mean?

A．Addictive

B．Public

C．Personal

D．Informal

2. What is important for successful small talk according to Carducci?

A．Showing good manners.	B．Making business deals.
C．Focusing on a topic.	D．Keeping in contact with other people.

3. What does the coffee-shop study suggest about small talk?

A．It raises people’s confidence.	B．It makes people feel good.
C．It improves family relationships.	D．It matters as much as a formal talk.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Conversation Counts	B．Ways of Making Small Talk
C．Importance of Small Talk	D．Uncomfortable Silence

10 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.

“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect the mouth.”

According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.

The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.

It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”

In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.

1. The discovery shows that Westerners ________.

A．pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth

B．consider facial expressions universally reliable

C．observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways

D．have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions

2. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 6 refer to?

A．The participants in the study.

B．The researchers of the study.

C．The errors made during the study.

D．The data collected from the study.

3. In comparison with Westerners, Easterners are likely to ________.

A．do translation more successfully

B．study the mouth more frequently

C．examine the eyes more attentively

D．read facial expressions more correctly

4. What can be the best title for the passage?

A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul

B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions

C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills

D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding