Scientific Progress
Most scientific progress is the result of careful consideration of work that has already been done. The wonderful world which lies before us today has been put up by hardworking men with clear heads and inventive mind, and these who follow them along life’s road will improve on their efforts. It is sometimes necessary to question and even to disbelieve some of the statements made by experts. Action or experiment can often end an argument or achieve a breakthrough.
When men were wondering whether it was possible to reach India by sailing westwards from Europe, and whether there was any land on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Christopher Columbus decides to act. He gathered some men, invited them to go on board his three ships, and set out across the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean. He was successful in finding land, but it was not India. The result of his action was that the arguments came to the end.
Any young man who wishes to do research must be courageous enough to question old beliefs and do some original thinking about them. Although we seem to know so much, there are many things we don’t know. Even when we pull an atom to pieces, we do not really know what the pieces are, we often do not reach the reality behind what we discover, and the more we learn, the better we realize our ignorance.Christopher Columbus decided to set out his trip because he wants to ________
| A．travel round the world |
| B．bring words into action |
| C．discover the truth with action |
| D．bring the argument to an end |
According to the passage, the more we learn _______
| A．the more ignorance we will become |
| B．the more brilliant we are |
| C．the more confident we are of ourselves |
| D．the more we know about our ignorance |
Our present wonderful world has been built up by _______
| A．men who do not believe in others but themselves |
| B．those who work hard and dare to break way from old ideas |
| C．those who can make improvements on other people’s work |
| D．men who work extremely hard in following their teachers |
Columbus succeeded in finding out that_______
| A．the Atlantic was dangerous to get across |
| B．India was to the west of the Atlantic |
| C．There was land on the other side of the Atlantic |
| D．it was possible sail to India by crossing the Atlantic |
Dog owners now have a little help understanding their furry friends . A new device called Bow-Lingual “translates” dog barks into English , Korea or Japanese.
Bow-Lingual’s Japanese inventors spent much time and money analyzing dog barks . They found that dog noises can be broken down into six different emotions : happiness , sadness , frustration , anger , assertion and desire .
Part of the Bow-Lingual device hangs on the dog’s collar . The other part is a handle-held unit for the owner . When the dogs barks , the unit displays translated phrases .
Some people have scoffed at Bow-Lingual. “Who would pay US$ 120 to read a dog’s mind?” they ask .
But those who have purchased Bow-Lingual praise the device . Pet owner Keiko Egawa , of Japan , says it helps her empathize with her dog , Harry . “Before we go to the park , he always says he wants to play,” says Egawa , “and after a walk , he always says he is hungry.”
Bow –Lingual is not yet available in Chinese . So you’d better keep studying Studio Classroom , or soon your dog may know more English than you do !This passage is mainly talking about .
| A．Bow-Lingual’s inventors | B．dog barks and their different emotions |
| C．talking dogs | D．a little help for dog owners |
Which of the following sentences is TRUE according to the passage ?
| A．Dog owners now can understand their dogs better . |
| B．Bow-Lingual is a new device that enables dogs to talk in English , Korean or Japanese . |
| C．More and more Chinese dog owners would keep studying Studio Classroom in order to know more English than their dogs . |
| D．People who have used the Bow-Lingual say it helps them better understand their dogs . |
What does “scoffed at” mean in the 3rd paragraph ?
| A．shouted at | B．questioned at | C．laughed at | D．doubted about |
How do you understand the sentence “Bow-Lingual is not yet available in Chinese” in the last paragraph ?
| A．Bow-Lingual has not yet appeared in Chinese market . |
| B．Bow-Lingual can not yet recognized Chinese dogs’ barks . |
| C．Chinese dog owners do not know yet how to use Bow-Lingual . |
| D．Dog barks can not yet be translated into Chinese phrases with Bow-Lingual . |
The writer of this passage is most likely to be .
| A．a dog owner | B．a reporter | C．an advertiser | D．an expert on dog barks |
I’m sure many of you have seen Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Multiplicity, or many of the other movies that describe cloning. Most of what you see in these movies is false. What you don’t know is that cloning could be dangerous, to the clone and to our society as a whole. I think human cloning is wrong mainly for four reasons.
What about identity? Humans are promised the right to their own personalities. What would happen if we ignore those rights by giving them someone else’s genetic identity? True, Cloning may prevent people from possessing their identities.
Also, these is a large power struggle here. Cloning means a degree of power and controls over another person’s physical identity and that ignores their rights and their only personalities. The person doing the cloning would have more power than any parent would have.
Cloning would also deal with killing embryos (胚胎). You might not have known, but Dolly, the sheep that was cloned in 1996, was one of over 200 sheep embryos and hers was the only embryo that survived. The rest died or were thrown away. Imagine if the failure rate was that high when we started to clone humans. cloning means running the risk of wasting too much effort
Cloning someone, at this present time, would be extremely dangerous to the birth mother and the clone. In studies done on cows, 4 out of 12 birth mothers died. There is a very high failure rate, which is shown in the cloning of Dolly. Even if you had a few good embryos, failures have been noticeable in animal tests.
So, should we work ahead in the world of cloning? I say no. the risks are greater than the benefits. It’s dangerous to the clone and to the birth mother. We would be killing human lives in the process. It would also be a violation(侵害) of the clone’s right to its own genetic identity and personality.The author thinks human cloning is wrong mainly for ______ reasons.
| A．4 | B．3 | C． 2 | D．5 |
According to the article, what is the author’s opinion about identity?
| A．Cloning itself gives parents great power over identity. |
| B．People’s identity is completely determined by their genes. |
| C．Government has the rights to confirm people’s identities. |
| D．Cloning may prevent people from possessing their identities. |
According to Paragraph 4 ,which is right ? ____.
| A．human cloning is much more difficult than animal cloning |
| B．there are 200 sheep successfully cloned. |
| C．cloning means running the risk of wasting too much effort |
| D．numbers of baby animals are likely to be created by cloning |
Why does the author mention some movies in the first paragraph?
| A．To introduce the topic of the article. |
| B．To present his idea about the movies. |
| C．To state the conclusion first. |
| D．To make the article unusual. |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．What Is Human Cloning |
| B．Human Cloning Is Wrong |
| C．How Does Human Cloning Happen |
| D．Discussion On Human Cloning |
The differences between men and women's friendships
Betty and Harold have been married for years. But one thing still puzzles (困扰) old Harold. How is it that he can leave Betty and her friend Joan sitting on the sofa, talking, go out to a ballgame, come back three and a half hours later, and they're still sitting on the sofa and talking?
What old Harold cannot understand or explain is the fact that women have so much to share.
Betty shrugs. Talk? We're friends.
Researching this matter called friendship, psychologist Lillian Rubin spent two years interviewing more than two hundred women and men. the results were completely clear: women have more friendships than men. Rubin's study shows that for emotional support a married woman is more likely to turn to a female friend.
"In general," writes Rubin in her new book, "women's friendships with each other lie on shared emotions and support, but men's relationships are marked by shared activities.”
“ Men keep their innermost(内心深处的) feelings to themselves. " Rubin writes, " Whereas(然而) a woman's closest female friend might be the first to tell her to leave a failing marriage. However, a man by society doesn’t complain about his marriage trouble. it wasn't unusual to hear a man say he didn't know his friend's marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa. "What old Harold cannot understand or explain is the fact that ________.
| A．he is treated as an outsider rather than a husband |
| B．women have so much to share. |
| C．women show little interest in ballgames |
| D．he find his wife difficult to talk to |
Rubin's study shows that for emotional support a married woman is more likely to turn to _________.
| A．a male friend | B．a female friend |
| C．her parents | D．her husband |
What do women's friendships with each other lie on in general?
| A．shared emotions | B．support |
| C．shared activities | D．shared emotions and support |
According to the last paragraph, which type of behavior is NOT expected of a man by society?
| A．Ending his marriage without good reason. |
| B．Spending too much time with his friends. |
| C．complaining about his marriage trouble. |
| D．going out to ballgames too often.. |
What is the article about? ________.
| A．happy and successful marriages |
| B．friendships of men and women |
| C．emotional problems in marriage |
| D．interactions between men and women |
In today's world, almost everyone knows that air pollution（污染）and water pollution are harmful to people's health. However, not all the persons know that noise is also a kind of pollution, and that is harmful to human health, too.
People who work and live under noisy conditions usually become deaf（聋）. Today, however, scientists believe that 10 percent of workers in Britain are being deafened by the noise where they work. Many of the workers who print newspapers and books, and who weave（织）cloth become deaf. Quite a few people living near airports also become deaf. Recently it was discovered that many teenagers（几十岁的人）in America could hear no better than 65-year-old persons, for these young people like to listen to pop music and most of pop music is a kind of noise. Besides, noise produced by jet planes or machines will make people's life difficult and unpleasant, or even make people ill or even drive them mad.
It is said that a continuous noise of over 85 decibels（分贝）can make people deaf. Now The governments in many countries have made laws to control noise and make it less than 85 decibels. In China, the government is trying to solve not only air and water pollution problems but also noise pollution problems.The text is mainly about ____________ .
| A．air pollution | B．water pollution | C．noise pollution | D．world pollution |
10 percent of the workers in Britain are being deafened because _________.
| A．they are working in noisy places |
| B．they often listen to pop music |
| C．they live near airports |
| D．they are too busy to listen to others' talk |
About noise produced by jet planes or machines, which is wrong?
| A．It will make people's life difficult |
| B．It will make people's life unpleasant |
| C．It will even make people ill or even drive them mad. |
| D．It will even make people hear better |
According to the text, a continuous noise of _____ decibels can make people deaf.
| A．less than 85 | B．less than 65 | C．about 65 | D．over 85 |
The government of China is trying to solve _______________ .
| A．only air pollution |
| B．only air and water pollution |
| C．only water pollution |
| D．air, water and noise pollution |
There is a lot of misunderstanding about studying. Most students have not been taught the principles behind really effective working. Imagine a graph showing the amount a person learns against the number of hours he works in a day. If he doesn’t do any work, he learns nothing (point 0). If he does an hour’s work he learns a certain amount (point 1). If he does two hours’ work he learns about twice as much (point 2). If he does more work he’ll learn still more (point 3). However, if he tries to do twenty-three and a half hours’ work in a day, he will be so tired that he’ll hardly remember anything: what he learns will be very little (point 4). If he did less work he’d learn more (point 5).
Now whatever the exact shape of the graph’s curve(曲线), made by joining these points, it must have a high point. Point “X” is the very maximum anyone can learn in the day. And this represents the optimum(最适度), the best, amount of work to do. It is the best possible compromise between adequate time at the books and fatigue(劳累). Fatigue is an absolutely real thing; one can’t escape it or ignore it. If you try to ignore it and press yourself to work past the optimum, you will only get on this downward slope and achieve less than the best – and then become very tired and lose your power of concentration.
The skill in being a student consists of getting one’s daily study as near the optimum point as possible. I cannot tell you what the optimum is. It differs with the type of work, it differs from person to person, and even in the same person it varies from week to week. You must try to find your own. Every day you study, bear this principle of the optimum in mind. When you feel yourself getting fatigued, if you find yourself reading the same paragraph over and over again and not taking it in, that’s a pretty good sign you’ve reached your highest point for the day and should stop. Most ordinary students find their optimum at five hours a day. Yours may be a little more or a little less – but if you get in five hours’ good work a day, you will be doing well.
Now, what are you doing with yourself when you aren’t working? Before examinations some students do nothing at all except sit in a chair and worry. Here is another misunderstanding. People often think that the mind works like the body; it does not. If one wanted to save one’s physical energy in order to cut the maximum amount of firewood, one would lie flat on a bed and rest when one wasn’t chopping. But the mind cannot rest. Even in sleep you dream, even if you forget your dreams. The mind is always turning. It gets its relaxation only by variety. That is what makes the mind rest.
When you’ve finished your optimum number of hours you must stop. You must not then sit around in the chair thinking about the work – that only tires without any learning. You must get out and do something. It doesn’t matter what – anything so long as you are actively doing something else but work.According to the passage, _______.
| A．the longer you study every day, the more you will learn |
| B．you’ll achieve better learning results if you work three hours every day |
| C．the less work you do, the better you will learn |
| D．your work efficiency will decrease once you exceed a certain point of work |
Fatigue can result in ________.
| A．loss of memory | B．a need for relaxation |
| C．a lot of anxiety | D．loss of concentration |
The passage tells us that a person’s optimum number of working hours _______.
| A．follows a regular pattern with each individual |
| B．changes regularly from week to week |
| C．can be partly determined by the sort of work he is doing |
| D．should be determined before he gets too tired |
The only way the mind can relax is by ________.
| A．doing a variety of things in turn |
| B．not thinking about anything |
| C．turning continuously |
| D．getting oneself in a state of fatigue |
After you have reached the optimum point of study in a day, you should ________.
| A．lie in bed and rest |
| B．do something else actively |
| C．do some physical labor |
| D．stop thinking about your studies |
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