1 . You have probably heard of the Mozart effect. It's the idea that if children or even babies listen to music composed by Mozart, they will become more intelligent. A quick Internet search reveals plenty of products to assist you in the task. Whatever your age is there are CDs and books to help you taste the power of Mozart's music, but when it comes to scientific evidence that it can make you more clever, the picture is more mixed.
The phrase “the Mozart effect” was made up in 1991, but it was a study described two years later in the journal Nature that sparked real media and public interest about the idea that listening to classical music somehow improves the brain. It is one of those ideas that sound reasonable. Mozart was undoubtedly a genius himself; his music is complex and there is a hope that if we listen to enough of it, we'll become more intelligent.
The idea took off, with thousands of parents playing Mozart to their children, and in 1998 Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the US, even asked for money to be set aside in the state budget so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. It was not just babies and children who were exposed to Mozart's music on purpose, even an Italian farmer proudly explained that the cows were played Mozart three times a day to help them produce better milk.
I'll leave the debate on the impact on milk yield to farmers, but what about the evidence that listening to Mozart makes people more intelligent? More research was carried out but an analysis of sixteen different studies confirmed that listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to handle shapes mentally, but the benefits are short－lived and it doesn't make us more intelligent.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．Mozart composed many musical pieces for children. |
| B．Children listening to Mozart will be more intelligent. |
| C．There are few products on the Internet about Mozart's music. |
| D．There is little scientific evidence to support the Mozart effect. |
| A．Because a study described it in the journal Nature. |
| B．Because Mozart himself was a genius. |
| C．Because Mozart's music is enjoyable. |
| D．Because Mozart's music makes people relaxed. |
| A．people were strongly against the idea |
| B．the idea was accepted by many people |
| C．Mozart played an important part in people's life |
| D．the US government helped promote the idea |
| A．Favorable. | B．Objective. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Positive. |
2 . 听第7段材料，回答第8至9题。
1. What’s the average life time in the man’s country?| A．70. | B．67. | C．75. |
| A．Useless. | B．Impossible. | C．Necessary. |
3 . Hobbies Help Cure Addiction to the Internet
While some parents have expressed concerns about the amount of time their children spent surfing the Internet during the summer break from school, it wasn’t a problem for Yin Qiming.
Instead, the 37-year-old Shanghai resident and his daughter divided their vacation between cyberspace and the 8-year-old’s other interests.
“My daughter has many hobbies and I and her mother respect her choices, so we accompany her to classes she enjoys, such as learning to play the drums and drawing,” he said.
“She loves to play outside with her friends, so she doesn’t think the Internet is a must-have thing in her life.”
Yin added that he rarely imposes a time limit on his daughter’s online activity.
“She sometimes uses WeChat (a popular instant-messaging tool) on my mobile phone, but only to contact her mother,” he said. “Once she has her own plans every day and realizes that the internet is just a part of life, she won’t become addicted to it.”
Li Lin, a primary school teacher from Liaoning province, expressed a similar opinion.
“We do some homework online, including reciting stories, and the children use the Internet frequently every day of their lives,” she said, noting that the children’s online activity is limited to 30 minutes a day at school.
“We should make better use of the Internet to provide children with more knowledge and help them to grow up,” said Li, who has a 10-year-old son.
The key to preventing children, especially those at primary and middle schools, from becoming addicted to the Internet is to limit the time they spend online and to ensure that they know cyberspace cannot replace traditional forms of communication, she said.
Mao Feizhu, a psychologist from Fujian province in southeast China, said people overestimate the influence of the internet.
“Many people, even some parents, believe the Internet plays a big role in our daily lives, and many things can be completed online, but that’s not completely right,” she said.
“We can use social applications to talk or play basketball games, and even share what we are thinking about, but sometimes it’s impossible for our emotions to be accurately reflected in this way. What children need is emotional communication and real physical exercise. After all, love cannot be bought on the net,” she said.
Perhaps, the best way to stop young netizens spending too much time online is to encourage their other interests but also accompany them when they go online: “We should use the Internet, not become its slaves.
1. What bothers lots of the parents today is that their young children ______.| A．enjoy chatting with friends online |
| B．are addicted to playing cell phones deeply |
| C．spend too much time on the Internet |
| D．love playing computer games too much |
| A．By inviting her to plan her own time limit of using the Internet. |
| B．By talking and playing with her frequently to spare the holiday. |
| C．By sparing time to accompany her developing her own hobbies. |
| D．By encouraging her to make enough friends in the real life. |
| A．to limit their time online and encourage real life communication |
| B．to stress the importance of friendship and making friends online |
| C．to make rules on surfing online and offer more online time |
| D．to forbid Internet use and spend more time on book-reading |
I: Introduction CP: Central point P: Point Sp: Sub-point C: Conclusion
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
4 . The aggressive spread of market economics and communication technologies—often under the control of Western multinational companies—brings new challenges to local cultures and values in non-Western societies. Sometimes it seems as if a tidal wave of the worst Western culture is creeping across the globe like a giant strawberry milkshake spill oat and over the planet, with a flavor that is distinctly sweet, sickly and apparently homogeneous (同质的).
For some, especially the young, change may mean escape from oppressive traditions. It may also bring new opportunities for cultures to be combined in creative ways. However, there is genuine cause for concern about the rate at which cultures are being worn away in such a globalized world.
Perhaps by far the most important far-reaching effect of cultural globalization is the commercialization of culture, which has a disturbing impact on local people’s existing values. They are increasingly bombarded with new images, new music, new clothes and new values. The familiar and old are to be abandoned. While there was cultural change long before globalization, there is a danger that much will be lost simply because it is not valued by global markets. In West Africa for example, traditional values have been overtaken by Coca-Cola culture which the local people don’t yet have the values to deal with successfully.
Another common aspect of the globalized culture is that it pursues (追求) the same “one size fits all” American ideal. The result of this cultural process of homogenization is that a large section of the world’s population dreams of living like Cosby & Co. or like the characters in any other stereotype American soap opera. In addition, the dream of living a better life causes thousands of people to move to already overcrowded cities whose population has boomed by millions within the last decades. The majority of these new immigrants end up in slums leading to poverty, pollution and misery.
Such gradual aggression against people’s existing values and cultures has a destructive impact on their sense of who they are, what they want and what they respect. It attacks spiritual values and faith traditions. The accumulative (累积的) effect in non-Western societies is a crisis of cultural confidence, combined with the increased economic uncertainty and crime which global integration (一体化) may bring. This creates real problems for social stability» whether it is at the level of nation, community or family.
In conclusion, cultural globalization, or worldwide McDonaldization, destroys diversity and displaces the opportunity to sustain decent life through a mixture of many different cultures. It is more a consequence of power concentration in the global media and manufacturing companies than the people’s own wish to abandon their cultural identity and diversity.
1. It can be learned from Paragraph 1 that ______.| A．non-Western societies willingly accept economic globalization |
| B．Western culture unites the world、economies and technologies |
| C．the booming of Western culture destroys non-Western societies |
| D．despite its appeal, westernization shows an unpleasant uniformity |
| A．McDonald receives more criticism abroad than at home. |
| B．Many Africans dream of a middle class American lifestyle. |
| C．Chinese food wins great approval in the United Kingdom. |
| D．Some western young people fancy a visit to African countries, |
| A．Cautious. | B．Critical. |
| C．Positive. | D．Neutral. |
| A．cultural diversity in globalization |
| B．challenges to non-Western cultures |
| C．drawbacks of cultural globalization |
| D．disappearance of non-Western cultures |
5 . Growing up can sometimes seem like a roller coaster. There are ups and downs and unexpected turns. Abuse or neglect by adult can make the ride even rougher. But being bullied(欺凌) by another child can leave especially lasting scars. That's the finding of a new study.
Bullied kids face a high risk of mental health problems as teens and as young adults. Indeed bullied kids might be worse off than those who had suffered physical abuse or neglect, the study found.
Dieter Wolke works at the University of Warwick in England. Until recently, most studies of child victims focused not on bullying but on maltreatment, this psychologist says. Maltreatment includes physical or emotional abuse, neglect or other behaviors that can harm a child.
Wolke's team wanted to better understand how bullying's long-term effects compare to those due to maltreatment. They focused on 4,026 children in the United Kingdom and 1,420 more in the United States. Information about bullying and maltreatment was collected for American children to age 13.They collected the same information for British youth up to age 16. The researchers also gathered data on each individual's mental health as a young adult.
Among the Americans, 36 percent of bullied kids had mental problems later. Those problems included anxiety, which is a state of excessive worry. They also included depression. That is a feeling of hopelessness that can last a long time. Among kids who had been maltreated by adults, 17 percent later suffered mental health problems. That was less than half the rate seen in people who had been bullied as school kids.
In the U. K. group, the difference was less spectacular. Roughly 25 percent of the bullied kids reported mental health problems later, compared with about 17 percent who had been maltreated.
But however you look at it, the finding are disturbing, Wolke says. They show that bullied children have similar or worse mental health problems later in life. And that’s why he says schools, health services and other agencies must work together to end bullying.
1. According to the passage, which of the statements is TRUE?| A．Kids treated cruelly recover soon after they grow up. |
| B．All bullied kids have mental health problems. |
| C．Most kids with maltreatment experience tend to become violent adults. |
| D．Most studies didn’t pay much attention to bullying until recently. |
| A．By providing research results. | B．By stating arguments. |
| C．By explaining statistical data. | D．By giving examples. |
| A．slight | B．dramatic |
| C．specific | D．similar |
| A．Taking good care of children. |
| B．Joining hands to stop bullying. |
| C．Keeping psychologically healthy. |
| D．Comparing different types of abuse. |
Innocence is such a precious gift. It’s explained as freedom from guilt or wrong doing. Just imagine never having to worry about anything and having a guilt free mind. Some people wish to save this kind of innocence from being lost from childhood to adulthood.
What would the world be like if innocence were never lost? One way it would benefit humanity is the lack of hatred （仇恨）among the world. During youth, there may be an occasional argument, even a little physical fight, but nothing like firing a handgun at a fellow human being. And children are blind towards the racial differences of others. A kid will hang out with any other kid. It is the lack of innocence and the ignorance we learn from adults that influence children otherwise. Another benefit is the constant desire for fun and adventure. With very little if any time at all for fun，the adventurous mind is lost in time with the responsibilities placed upon adults. If innocence were kept alive, these ambitions would never depart from our lives.
However, other people actually hate the idea of innocence lasting for ever. They feel that the lack of organization and mental power of those with innocence would cause extremely destructive consequences to society in general. A large number of individuals would never have the urge to learn, work, and act upon the necessary needs for humanity to survive. Without a proper education which is usually provided by those who no longer live in a world of innocence, people would not have the desire to succeed, get a good job in life, or provide income for their families, which would hurt the lives of children.
The lack of a good education and career would also harm the economy. As long as innocence is kept alive, no one would be terribly angered at the lack of effort people put out in the workplace, resulting in a strong decline in production and quality of needed goods.
Maybe it is wrong in wanting to save innocence. It sure is a nice thought, though. Perhaps innocence was meant to be lost. It was God’s will to make things the way they are, and there is a good purpose for everything. All that remains to be said about innocence is to enjoy it while it lasts.
1. Author believes that the loss of innocence in adulthood should be _____.| A．avoided | B．ignored |
| C．accepted | D．encouraged |
| A．proper education would be provided |
| B．there would be no racial discrimination |
| C．more happy families would be guaranteed |
| D．people would realize their childhood dreams |
| A．motivational will |
| B．mental ability |
| C．adventurous ambitions |
| D．needed goods |
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点) C: Conclusion
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
7 . Two new studies have investigated why fewer women, compared to men, study and work in the so-called STEM subjects in the United States: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The American Association of University Women(AAUW) examined existing research. Its report “Why So Few?” suggested ways to interest more girls and women in the STEM fields. The researchers found that cultural and environmental factors make a difference.
Researcher Christiane Corbett says more boys than girls score very high on math tests in most countries, but Iceland and Thailand are exceptions. “This is something that we point out in our report—that cultural factors and societal factors can make a difference in who achieves at the very high levels and whether girls are achieving or not.”
Another study carried out by the Campos Company for the Bayer Corporation in the United States asked more than 1,000 women and minority members of the American Chemical Society about their experiences. 77% said not enough women and minorities are working in STEM today, because they were not encouraged to study those subjects in school.
The study, producing results similar to the AAUW research showed there’s still a lot of work to be done. “They say their interest in science begins before the age of eleven. So we need programs that get in front of kids while they’re young in elementary school.”
Increasing diversity in professions leads to better products, better science. And developing this science and engineering workforce is important to the nation’s economic development.
“No matter what career you go into, whether it’s accounting, human resources or science career, it’s important that you can think creatively, you can work in teams, you can adapt to change and that’s important for everybody,” says Rebecca Lucore.
1. Which of the following is true about the situation in Iceland and Thailand?| A．Boys score higher in math tests than girls. |
| B．Girls are given more exceptional attention than boys. |
| C．More girls score higher in math than boys. |
| D．Boys are more creative than girls. |
| A．Gender and age. | B．Culture and environment. |
| C．Study and work experience. | D．Family background. |
| A．Women can help men in science and engineering work. |
| B．Women are wiser and more cooperative than men. |
| C．Women play a more important part in scientific research. |
| D．Having both women and men in science and engineering can produce better scientific achievement. |
8 . If you know exactly what you want, the best way to get a job is to get specialized training．A recent report shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training．
That’s especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers．At Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor's degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high teens to the low 20s and plenty of chances for rapid advancement．Large companies especially like a background of formal education coupled with work experience．But in the long run, too much specialization does not pay off．Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval．The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the impact of a degree washes out after five years.
As further evidence of the corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State’s Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices．Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management．This sounds like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts（文科） graduate．Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems．David Birch, manager of the Boston Red Sox, says that he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree．“I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things,” says Birch．
For a liberal – arts degree, students focus on some basic courses that include literature history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior and a computer course or two．With these useful and important courses, you can feel free to specialize, “A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace,” says Scheetz．
1. The job market is in great need of people with ．| A．special training in special fields | B．a bachelor’s degree in education |
| C．formal schooling and work experience | D．an MBA degree from top universities |
| A．an MBA degree does not help in future promotion |
| B．MBA programs will not be as popular as they are now |
| C．people will not forget the degree the MBA graduates have got |
| D．most MBA programs fail to provide students with a foundation |
| A．they will follow others’ ways of solving problems |
| B．they can do better in handling changing situations |
| C．they are well trained in a variety of specialized fields |
| D．they have attended special programs in management |
| A．on – the – job training is less costly in the long run |
| B．formal schooling is less important than job training |
| C．specialists are more expensive to hire than generalists |
| D．generalists will do better than specialists in management |
9 . Most drinks stating that they are fruit flavored contain no fruit at all, while most of the rest contain only a small quantity of fruit, according to a study carried by the British Food Commission."Shoppers need to check the labels before buying drinks, though sometimes the actual content can be nonexistent," said Food Commission spokesperson Ian Tokelove. "Food production is highly competitive.
| A．They found that about 60 percent of them didn't contain any fruit at all. |
| B．Even products advertised as more natural often contained no fruit. |
| C．The products which contain real fruit are popular with people. |
| D．Actually the product contains just a tiny percentage of strawberry or even no fruit at all. |
| E．It is important and necessary to demand a small amount of flavoring in the products. |
| F．If companies can cut their costs by using flavoring, they are likely to do so. |
| G．The Food Commission suggested all flavors used in a product should be listed on the packaging. |
Psychometric testing—personality testing—has been very popular nowadays as studies show their results to be three times more accurate in predicting your job performance. These tests are now included in almost all graduate recruitment (招聘) and are widely used in the selection of managers.
The most popular of these personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is based on the theory that we are born with a tendency to one personality type which stays more or less fixed throughout life. You answer 88 questions and are then given your “type”, such as Outgoing or Quiet, Feeling or Thinking.
Critics of personality testing raise doubts about “social engineering”. Psychologist Dr. Colin Gill warns that the “popular” personality traits (特性) have their disadvantages. “People who are extremely open to new experiences can be butterflies, going from one idea to the next without mastering any of them.” However, the psychometric test is here to stay, which may be why a whole sub-industry on cheating personality tests has sprung up. “It’s possible to cheat,” admits Gill, “but having to pretend to be the person you are at work will be tiring and unhappy and probably short-lived.”
So can we change our personality? “Your basic personality is fixed by the time you’re 21,”says Gill,“ but it can be affected by motivation and intelligence. If you didn’t have the personality type to be a doctor but desperately wanted to be one and were intelligent enough to master the skills, you could still go ahead. But trying to go too much against type for too long requires much energy and is actually to be suffered for long. I think it’s why we’re seeing this trend for downshifting—too many people trying to fit in to a type that they aren’t really suited for.”
Our interest in personality now exists in every part of our lives. If you ask an expert for advice on anything, you’ll probably be quizzed about your personality. But if personality tests have any value to us, perhaps it is to free us from the idea that all of us are full of potential, and remind us of what we are. As they say in one test when they ask for your age: pick the one you are, not the one you wish you were.
1. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is based on the belief that ______.
| A．certain personality traits are common |
| B．personality is largely decided from birth |
| C．some personality types are better than others |
| D．personality traits are various from time to time |
| A．Employers often find the results unclear. |
| B．They may have a negative effect on takers. |
| C．People can easily lie about their true abilities. |
| D．The results could be opposite to what employers want. |
| A．It’s possible in your adult life. |
| B．It’s easy if you have great motivation. |
| C．It’s difficult before the age of 21. |
| D．It’s unlikely because it requires much energy. |
| A．They are not really worth doing. |
| B．They may encourage greater realism. |
| C．They are of doubtful value to employers. |
| D．They can strengthen the idea we have of our abilities. |
