1 . Scientists recently discovered that our brains may be just as busy at night as they are during the day. While we sleep, our brains are doing much more than getting ready for the next day. Scientists found that the brain may be busy cleaning out harmful waste materials.
As with many studies, scientists turned to mice for help. They studied the mice brains as they slept and when they were awake. They saw that the brains of sleeping mice were hard at work.
Dr. Maiken led the study. The brain expert says our brains perform two very different jobs. It seems they have daytime jobs. Later they “moonlight” at a nighttime job. And this study says that is what our brains seem to be doing. “When we are awake, the brain cells are working very hard at processing all the information around us. When we are asleep, they work very, very hard at removing all the waste that builds up when we are awake.” The scientists say that the waste material includes poisons.
They also found that during sleep, the brain’s cells become smaller, which allows waste to be removed more successfully. Dr. Maiken says these poisons end up in the liver(肝脏). There, they are broken down and then removed from the body. “So we need to sleep because we have a cleaning system that removes many of the poisonous waste products from the brain.”
Dr. Maiken says the next step is to look for the process in human brains. She says the results show how important sleep is to health and fighting disease. The research may also one day lead to treatments to prevent or help fight mental disorders(精神疾病).
1. According to the scientists, when we sleep, our brains .| A．clean themselves | B．turn off for the night |
| C．process information | D．store energy for the next day |
| A．you work in the moonlight | B．you work hard |
| C．you work only at night | D．you have an extra job |
| A．breaking it down | B．sending it to the liver |
| C．building it up in order | D．removing it from the body |
| A．Opposed. | B．Indifferent. | C．Supportive. | D．Critical. |
2 . The tooth is the hardest part of your body. Your teeth help you in many ways. For example, they can help you talk. They can also help you have a great smile. And the most important job of your teeth is to chew (咀嚼) your food. But do you know how your teeth grow?
When you are born, you don’t have any teeth. About 8 months later, small teeth begin to appear one by one. These teeth are called baby teeth. They are also called milk teeth. You won’t have baby teeth forever. They usually begin to fall out when a child is about 6 years old. Then, permanent (永久的) teeth begin to appear. These teeth are larger and more powerful. Most people will have 28 permanent teeth by the time they are 12 years old.
For some people, four more permanent teeth arrive by their 25th birthday. They are called wisdom teeth (智齿). But these teeth don’t make you smart! Sometimes they bring you pain. If a wisdom tooth brings you too much pain, you should go to a dentist (牙医) and have it pulled out.
1. Which part of your body is the hardest?| A．The nose. | B．The tooth. | C．The leg. | D．The hand. |
| A．to prepare food | B．to cook food | C．to chew food | D．to protect food |
| A．Baby teeth. | B．Adult teeth. | C．False teeth. | D．Big teeth. |
| A．22. | B．24. | C．26. | D．28. |
| A．Go to a dentist and have it brushed. |
| B．Go to a dentist and have it pulled out. |
| C．Go to a dentist and have it cleaned. |
| D．Go to a dentist and have it examined. |
3 . Everyone has their favorite food. Some might love chocolate. Some might love potato chips.
Think about your favorite food. Have you ever wondered why your favorite food tastes so good? The answer is about your tongue (舌头) and your nose.
There are some taste buds (味蕾) on your tongue. They give you the sense of taste. How do the taste buds work? In fact, they have many tiny hairs on them. These tiny hairs send messages to your brain about the tastes of different food. In this way, you know whether it is sweet, sour, biter or salty.
An average person has about 10, 000 taste buds. They keep working all the time when we enjoy our food. The taste buds don’t always stay the same. They are replaced every two weeks or so. However, as a person gets older, some of these taste buds don’t get replaced.
An older person may only have 5, 000 working taste buds. That’s why some food may taste stronger for you than they do for an older person.
Besides your tongue, your nose also helps you learn about the taste of food. Sometimes, strong smells can even confuse (使困惑) your sense of taste. Try holding an onion under your nose while eating an apple. What do you taste?
So the next time you enjoy salty pizza and sweet ice cream, thank your tongue and your nose. Without them, you won’t have any sense of taste at all! Without the sense of taste, life will be boring.
1. Which parts of our body can help us taste the food?| A．Tongue and eyes. | B．Tongue and hairs. |
| C．Nose and eyes. | D．Tongue and nose. |
| A．Only parts of them work when people are eating. |
| B．There are tiny hairs sending messages to our brain about the taste of food. |
| C．The taste buds remain the same for two weeks for all the old people. |
| D．Most old people have stronger taste buds than the young. |
| A．About 5,000. | B．Over 6,000. | C．Over 10,000. | D．About 100,000. |
| A．The taste of apple. | B．The taste of onion. |
| C．The taste of sweet ice cream. | D．The taste of potato chips. |
| A．The Use of Tongue. | B．Our Favorite Food. |
| C．How We Can Taste Food. | D．Different Tastes of Food. |
1. What’s the probable relationship between the speakers?
| A．Teacher and student. |
| B．Doctor and patient. |
| C．Friends. |
| A．Buy a pair of glasses. |
| B．Improve (提高) her English. |
| C．Get a physical cheek up (检查). |
1. What’s the probable relationship between the speakers?
| A．Teacher and student. | B．Doctor and patient. | C．Friends. |
| A．Buy a pair of glasses. |
| B．Improve her English. |
| C．Get a physical checkup (检查). |
6 . An extra finger can be extremely flexible(灵活的). Two people born with six fingers per hand can tie their shoes, manage phones and play a difficult video game—all with a single hand. What’s more, their brains have no trouble controlling the movements of their extra fingers, a new study finds.
Extra fingers are not that rare. About one or two in every 1,000 babies are born with extra fingers. If the extras are small, they may be removed at birth, but the new study shows some extra fingers can prove helpful.
Its results also show how flexible the human brain can be. That information can guide people who design brain-controlled robotic fingers.
Etienne Burdet is one of those people. He’s a bioengineer at Imperial College London in England. His team worked with a 52-year-old woman and her 17-year-old son, both of whom were born with six fingers on each hand.
The researchers studied the subject’s hands with MRI(磁共振成像)and also looked at activity in the parts of the brain that control the hands. The results showed that a specific brain system controls the extra fingers and that the sixth fingers have their own muscles and tendons(腱). That means they don’t just depend on the muscles that move the other fingers, as some doctors had thought.
The brain has no trouble directing the extra fingers, the researchers showed. To Burdet, that suggests someone’s mind would be able to control robotic fingers. He says that such fingers would likely give similar orders to the brain. However, it might be harder for a person not born with extra fingers.
Living in a world designed for people with five fingers has led the mom and son to use their fingers in interesting ways, Burdet notes. For example, forks are too simple for them. “They frequently change their ways of using forks,” he notes. After spending time with the pair, “I slowly felt my five-fingered hands were a disadvantage,” he says.
1. What’s a common misunderstanding of extra fingers?| A．They remain tiny. | B．They are a bit common. |
| C．They do harm to the brain. | D．They are more trouble than help. |
| A．People who have extra fingers. | B．People who need robotic fingers. |
| C．People who design robotic fingers. | D．People who deal with extra fingers. |
| A．It is poor at controlling robotic fingers. |
| B．It is as active as the brain of other people. |
| C．It has no difficulty controlling the sixth fingers. |
| D．It sometimes stops other fingers from working well. |
| A．Extra fingers are pretty handy. | B．Special forks should be designed. |
| C．He is dissatisfied with his fingers. | D．The pair have trouble using forks. |
7 . The world has many beautiful sounds. we can hear the songs of birds and laugh of people. We can listen to cool music and news reports. And all this is due to(归功于) our ears! They bring us a world of sounds.
But some people can’t hear any sound at all. Some are born deaf. Others can hear well in their childhood, but too many loud sounds hurt their ears later on.
In China, 6 children out of 1000 have hearing problems when they are born. They can not hear ordinary sounds clearly. Children who have hearing problems usually also have learning problems at school.
A lot of things can cause hearing problems. For example, too much earwax is not good for our hearing and noise louder than 85 decibels(分贝) can hurt our ears and make us lose our hearing for a short time or even forever.
Hearing is a problem for all of us. So we should do our best to give our ears special care. Don't forget the following:
Try to stay away from places with too much noise. If you have to go, wear earplugs(耳塞). A pair of earplugs can cut the noise by 30 decibels. When swimming, remember to put earplugs into your ears to stop water from getting in. Never put anything sharp into your ears. If you think you have too much earwax, ask your parents to help you clean it out.
Keep these things in mind! Then you won’t ask “WHAT?” when you are older.
1. In the first paragraph, the writer wants to .| A．tell us many beautiful sounds. | B．describe the sounds. |
| C．teach us how to use ears. | D．show the importance of ears |
| A．耳膜 | B．耳鸣 | C．耳垢 | D．耳疾 |
| A．a little earwax | B．learning problems at school |
| C．noise louder than 85 decibels | D．earplugs that can only cut noise by 15 decibels |
| A．Hearing problems caused by diseases(疾病). | B．People with hearing problems. |
| C．Ways to protect our ears. | D．Danger of loud noise |
8 . Things Could Happen If You Keep Rubbing Your Eyes
Rubbing eyes can often result in significant damage, from causing eye disease to making existing conditions worse and increasing your risk of infection. Here are things that can happen if you keep rubbing your eyes.
People who are nearsighted may find that rubbing eyes results in worse eyesight. Nearly 9.6 million people are what is known as highly nearsighted and their eyes degraded over time, according to research from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
•You'll give yourself an infectionIf you rub your eyes hard enough, you might cause tiny blood vessels in your eyes to break. That could result in bloodshot eyes. The blood will then flow to surrounding tissue.
| A．If your eyes get infected |
| B．No matter how often you wash your hands |
| C．You'll lose your eyesight and become blind |
| D．Since not all know the harm of rubbing eyes |
| E．You'll make your nearsightedness much worse |
| F．Rubbing eyes can injure more than your eyeballs |
| G．This might give you those dark circles under your eyes |
9 . Eyesight plays a very important role in our daily life. Every waking moment, the eyes are working to see the world around us. Over forty percent of Americans worry about losing eyesight, but it's easy to include steps into our daily life to ensure healthy eyes. Here are five suggestions for a lifetime of healthy eyesight:
Schedule yearly exams.
Protect against UV rays .
Long-term stay in the sun creates risk to your eyes. No matter what the season is, it’s extremely important to wear sunglasses.
Two-thirds of Americans spend up to seven hours a day using computers or other digital products.
As part of a healthy diet, eat more fruits and vegetables each day. Vitamins C and E help protect eyesight and promote eye health.
Practice safe wear and care of contact lenses.
Many Americans use contact lenses to improve their eyesight. While some follow the medical guidance for wearing contact lenses, many are breaking the rules and putting their eyesight at risk.
Otherwise: you may have problems such as red eyes, pain in the eyes, or a more serious condition.
| A．Eat your greens. |
| B．Eye care should begin early in life. |
| C．They can properly protect your eyes. |
| D．Stay in good shape by taking more vitamins. |
| E．Parents usually don’t care about their own eyesight. |
| F．Always follow the doctor’s advice for appropriate wear. |
| G．This frequent eye activity increases the risk for eye tiredness. |
1. 询问他的伤情，并打算去看望他；
2. 告诉他不要担心你们的学习；
3. 祝他早日康复。
注意：1. 词数：100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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