Songs that make our hearts happy can make them stronger too, US researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found that when people listened to their favorite music, their blood vessels (血管) dilated in much the same way as when they are laughing, or taking blood medications.
"We have a pretty impressive effect," said Dr Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology (心脏病学) at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.
"Blood vessel diameter improved," he said. "The vessel opened up pretty significantly. You can see the vessels opening up with other activities such as exercise." A similar effect is seen with drugs such as statins.
When blood vessels open up more, blood flows more smoothly and is less likely to form the clots (凝块) that cause heart attacks and strokes. "We are not saying to stop your statins or not to exercise but rather to add this to an overall program of heart health," said Miller, who presented his findings to a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans.
Miller's team tested 10 healthy, non-smoking men and women, who were told to bring their favorite music. They spent half an hour listening to the recordings and half an hour listening to music they said made them feel anxious while the researchers did ultrasound tests designed to show blood vessel function.
Compared to their normal baseline measurements, blood vessel diameter increased 26 percent on average when the volunteers heard their joyful music. Listening to music they disliked — in most cases in this group heavy metal — blood vessels narrowed by six percent, Miller said.
Miller said he came up with the idea after discovering that laughter caused blood to literally flow more smoothly. "I asked myself what other things make us feel really good, besides calories from dark chocolate of course. Music came to mind. ... It makes me feel really good," he said.
Most of the volunteers chose country music but Miller said the style is not so important rather than what pleases each individual.
1. The underlined word dilate (in paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “_____”.
A. widen B. move C. change D. increase
2. According to the passage, which of the following will NOT cause blood vessels to open up?
A. Taking exercise. B. Listening to unpleasant music.
C. Bursting into laughter. D. Taking drugs like statins.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that _____.
A. blood clots are caused by heart attacks and strokes
B. music is better than chocolate for your health
C. the style of music has different effects on different people
D. a person’s overall health is more influenced by how much exercise he gets
4. What is the passage possibly taken out from?
A. A scientific journal. B. A school textbook.
C. A medical brochure. D. A local newspaper.
5. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Pleasant Music Cures B. Research into Blood Vessel
C. Music and Heart Attack D. Music and Happiness
【2015·陕西】D
Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of prenatal involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting(养育子女) where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.
Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task." They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice."
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.
Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents ", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success." A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives."The underlined expression "parental involvement " in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.
| A．parents' expectation on children's health |
| B．parents' participation in children's education |
| C．parents' control over children's life |
| D．parents' plan for children's future |
What is the major finding of Robinson's study ?
| A．Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way. |
| B．Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging. |
| C．Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected. |
| D．Parents are not able to help with children’s homework. |
The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should ________..
| A．help children realize the importance of schooling |
| B．set a specific life goal for their children |
| C．spend more time improving their own lives |
| D．take a more active part in school management |
【2015·广东】D
It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.
In recent years, many writers have begun to speak the 'decline of class' and 'classless society' in Britain. And in modern day consumer society everyone is considered to be middle class.
But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging society of public opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in particular class; 73 percent agreed that class was still a vital part of British society; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an important part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.
One unchanging aspect of a British person's class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice, Most people said this accent sounded 'educated' and 'soft'. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional（地区的）city accents. These accents were seen as 'common' and 'ugly'. However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice.
In recent years, however, young upper middle-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song 'Common People' puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may 'want to live like common people' they can never appreciate the reality of a working-class life.A recent study of public opinion shows that in modern Britain ________.
| A．it is time to end class distinction |
| B．most people belong to middle class |
| C．it is easy to recognize a person’s class |
| D．people regard themselves socially different |
The word stratification in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．variety |
| B．most people belong to middle class |
| C．authority |
| D．qualification |
The study in the US showed that BBC English was regarded as _________.
| A．regional |
| B．educated |
| C．prejudiced |
| D．unattractive |
British attitudes towards accent _________.
| A．have a long tradition |
| B．are based on regional status |
| C．are shared by the Americans |
| D．have changed in recent years |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．The middle class is expanding |
| B．A person’s accent reflects his class |
| C．Class is a key part of British society |
| D．Each class has unique characteristics. |
【2015·广东】B
When I was nine years old, I loved to go fishing with my dad. But the only thing that wasn’t very fun about it was that he could catch many fish while I couldn’t catch anything. I usually got pretty upset and kept asking him why. He always answered, “Son, if you want to catch a fish, you have to think like a fish”, I remember being even more upset then because, “I’m not a fish!” I didn’t know how to think like a fish. Besides, I reasoned, how could what I think influence what a fish does?
As I got a little older I began to understand what my dad really meant. So, I read some books on fish. And I even joined the local fishing club and started attending the monthly meetings. I learned that a fish is a cold-blooded animal and therefore is very sensitive to water temperature. That is why fish prefer shallow water to deep water because the former is warmer. Besides, water is usually warmer in direct sunlight than in the shade. Yet, fish don’t have any eyelids(眼皮) and the sun huts their eyes… The more I understood fish, the more I became effective at finding and catching them.
When I grew up and entered the business world, I remember hearing my first boss say, “We all need to think like sales people.” But it didn’t completely make sense. My dad never once said, “If you want to catch a fish you need to think like a fisherman.” What he said was, “You need to think like a fish.” Years later, with great efforts to promote long-term services to people much older and richer than me, I gradually learned what we all need is to think more like customers. It is not an easy job. I will show you how in the following chapters.Why was the author upset in fishing trips when he was nine?
| A．He could not catch a fish. |
| B．His father was not patient with him. |
| C．His father did not teach him fishing. |
| D．He could not influence a fish as his father did. |
What did the author’s father really mean?
| A．To read about fish. |
| B．To learn fishing by oneself. |
| C．To understand what fish think. |
| D．To study fishing in many ways. |
According to the author, fish are most likely to be found _________.
| A．in deep water on sunny days |
| B．in deep water on cloudy days |
| C．in shallow water under sunlight |
| D．in shallow water under waterside trees. |
After entering the business world, the author found _________.
| A．it easy to think like a customer |
| B．his father’s fishing advice inspiring |
| C．his first boss’s sales ideas reasonable |
| D．it difficult to sell services to poor people |
This passage most likely comes from _________.
| A．a fishing guide |
| B．a popular sales book |
| C．a novel on childhood |
| D．a millionaire’s biography |
【2015·北京卷】D
Technological change is everywhere and affects every aspect of life, mostly for the better. However, social changes are brought about by new technology are often mistaken for a change in attitudes. An example at hand is the involvement of parents in the lives of their children who are attending college. Surveys (调查) on this topic suggests that parents today continue to be “very” or “somewhat” overly-protective even after their children move into college dormitories. The same surveys also indicate that the rate of parental involvement is greater today than it was a generation ago. This is usually interpreted as a sign that today’s parents are trying to manage their children’s lives past the point where this behavior is appropriate.
However, greater parental involvement does not necessarily indicate that parents are failing to let go of their “adult” children.
In the context (背景) of this discussion, it seems valuable to first find out the cause of change in the case of parents’ involvement with their grown children. If parents of earlier generations had wanted to be in touch with their college-age children frequently, would this have been possible? Probably not. On the other hand, does the possibility of frequent communication today mean that the urge to do so wasn’t present a generation ago? Many studies show that older parents - today’s grandparents - would have called their children more often if the means and cost of doing so had not been a barrier.
Furthermore, studies show that finances are the most frequent subject of communication between parents and their college children. The fact that college students are financially dependent on their parents is nothing new; nor are requests for more money to be sent from home. This phenomenon is neither good nor bad; it is a fact of college life, today and in the past.
Thanks to the advanced technology, we live in an age of bettered communication. This has many implications well beyondthe role that parents seem to play in the lives of their children who have left for college. But it is useful to bear in mind that all such changes come from the technology and not some imagined desire by parents to keep their children under their wings.The surveys inform us of ______.
| A．the development of technology |
| B．the changes of adult children’s behavior |
| C．the parents’ over-protection of their college children |
| D．the means and expenses of students’ communication |
The writer believes that ______.
| A．parents today are more protective than those in the past |
| B．the disadvantages of new technology outweigh itsadvantages |
| C．technology explains greater parental involvement with theirchildren |
| D．parents’ changed attitudes lead to college children’s delayedindependence |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Technology or Attitude |
| B．Dependence or Independence |
| C．Family Influence or Social Changes |
| D．College Management or Communication Advancement |
Which of the following shows the development of ideas in this passage?
【2015·湖北卷】E
Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there’s always a temptation(诱惑) to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character,and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.
Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science revealed about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren’t?
To answer these questions, Brooks surveys a wide range of disciplines（学科）. Considering this, you might expect the book to be a dry recitation of facts. But Brooks has structured his book in an unorthodox(非常规的), and perhaps unfortunate, way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader’s attention.So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters. On the whole,Brooks’s story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks’s attempt to translate his tale into science.The author mentions the functions of science at the beginning of the passage to__________.
| A．illustrate where science can be applied |
| B．demonstrate the value of Brooks’s new book |
| C．remind the reader of the importance of science |
| D．explain why many writers use science in their works |
According to the author, which of the following could be a strength of the book?
| A．Its strong basis. |
| B．Its convincing points. |
| C．Its clear writing. |
| D．Its memorable characters. |
What is the author’s general attitude towards the book?
| A．Contradictory. |
| B．Supportive. |
| C．Cautious. |
| D．Critical. |
What is the author likely to write about after the last paragraph?
| A．Problems with the book. |
| B．Brooks’s life experience. |
| C．Death of the characters. |
| D．Brooks’s translation skills. |
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