Baby girls make their way directly for dolls as soon as they can crawl, while boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown. The findings, the first to show differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological basis to their preferences.
Psychologists Dr Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants aged nine months to 36 months. The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys. Some were stereotypically boys' toys - a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy. The rest were girls’ toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set. They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked. Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded.
Of the youngest children (nine to 14 months), girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did. Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it. The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched. There was no link between the parents’ view on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children’s choice.
Dr Brenda Todd said: “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization. Boys may be given ‘toys that go’ while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference. But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys. There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts（本能）, while girls prefer warmer colors such as pink, the color of a newborn baby.”Baby boys and girls have different toy preferences probably because .
| A．baby boys are much more active |
| B．baby girls like bright colors more |
| C．their parents treat them differently |
| D．there is a natural difference between them |
What can we infer from Paragraph 3 ?
| A．Nine-month-old baby boys don’t play with dolls at all. |
| B．Two-year-old baby girls sometimes play with cars and balls. |
| C．The older the babies are, the more obvious their preference is. |
| D．Parents should teach their babies to share each other’s toys. |
What conclusion did Dr. Brenda Todd draw from the results of the study?
| A．Adults purposely influence their babies preference. |
| B．Babies’ preference isn’t affected by social surroundings. |
| C．Baby boys preferring to moving toys will be good at hunting. |
| D．Baby girls preferring warmer colors will be warm-hearted. |
We may read this article in a section of a newspaper.
| A．science | B．health | C．education | D．entertainment |
Popular music is very popular with American students. Almost every student carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play music loudly as they drive on the street. Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programmes are music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make CDs or tapes which radio stations in many places broadcast (广播) . Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a pop star.
There are other kinds of music that are popular among Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. _____ kinds of music are mentioned in this passage.
| A．Two | B．Three | C．Four | D．Five |
When pop singers ______, they are regarded as pop stars.
| A．make much money | B．make a CD or tape |
| C．become popular with their fans | D．are wanted to sing on the radio |
From the passage we know that country music is about the______.
| A．common life of Americans。 | B．country life and love stories |
| C．life of cowboys | D．school life in America |
Which of the following is true?
| A．Few students in America like popular music. |
| B．Students with cars in America like to listen to music while driving. |
| C．Adult drivers in America only listen to music while driving. |
| D．Everyone in America wants to meet pop singers wherever they go. |
Millions of years ago dinosaurs (恐龙) lived on the earth. In the days of dinosaurs the whole earth was warm and wet. There were green forests and they could find enough to eat. Later, parts of the earth became cold and dry. and the forests there died. Then dinosaurs could not find enough to eat. This must be one reason why dinosaurs died out.
We can guess another reason. New kinds of animals came on the earth. Some had big brains and were fast and strong. They could kill dinosaurs. There may be other reasons that we don’t know about yet. Scientists are trying to make more discoveries about dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs were of many sizes and shapes (形状). Some were as small as chickens, while some were about 90 feet long.
There were also terrible fights between dinosaurs. They might have happened more than 100 million years ago. Though there was no man to see any of the fights, we can be told by the animal’s footprints (足迹) that fight did take place. According to the passage, dinosaurs did exist only ______on the earth.
| A．for millions of years | B．millions of years ago |
| C．more than 100 millions years ago | D．when it was warm and wet somewhere |
One reason why dinosaurs died out is that______.
| A．there were too many dinosaurs |
| B．parts of the earth became cold and dry |
| C．the dead forests there could not supply them with enough food |
| D．they couldn’t find enough to eat |
One more reason may be that ______.
| A．new kinds of animals came on the earth |
| B．some fast and strong animals with big brains could kill them |
| C．some dinosaurs were as small as chickens |
| D．some big dinosaurs died in the fights |
We can see from this passage ______.
| A．scientists are trying to make some dinosaurs | B．dinosaurs are dangerous enough |
| C．dinosaurs are worth studying | D．scientists know nothing about dinosaurs |
Do you know that a fast reader can get the ideas better than a slow reader can? Of course, you save time by reading fast, but this is not the main reason for fast reading. The main reason is that you understand better what you are reading when you read fast.
As your eyes move along the line of print, they make fixations (固定) or pauses. It is important that you see several words at a fixation. It is also important that your eyes leave a group of words quickly and move on to another group. The number of letters or words that you see at a fixation is called your eye span. Pay more attention to improving your rate of reading. With practice you can learn to read faster than you usually read.
The way in which you read always depends on what you are reading and for what purpose. You should know the different ways of reading so that you can apply whatever method that is necessary. Here are four ways of reading:
(1) Skimming is an important kind of reading. This method can be used when you wish to review something that you have forgotten. You can skim to get the main points.
(2) Rapid first reading and then rereading certain parts carefully is important. You may use this type of reading to study a science lesson or a history lesson.
(3) You need to do careful reading and rereading sometimes. This type of reading is necessary for making an intensive (精深的) study of your school subjects, solving Maths problems or reading directions.
(4) Rapid reading is used when reading stories for enjoyment. you may also do rapid reading when reviewing material that you already know well.The main reason for reading fast is that you can _______what you are fast reading.
| A．get the ideas | B．save time | C．understand better | D．learn well |
The way of reading always depends on _______.
| A．the method that you like | B．your reading material |
| C．your reading purpose | D．both B and C |
The underlined word "skimming" in the fourth paragraph means _______.
| A．reading very fast | B．looking carefully |
| C．reading only the main points | D．reading some parts of the material |
Careful reading is an important kind of reading _________.
| A．when you read a story for enjoyment |
| B．when you go over a lesson that you have already known well |
| C．when you read the directions before using a camera which is expensive |
| D．when you wish to find a lost place that you have read |
Increasingly, Americans are becoming their own doctors, by going online to diagnose their symptoms, order home health tests or medical devices, or even self-treat their illnesses with drugs from Internet pharmacies(药店). Some avoid doctors because of the high cost of medical care, especially if they lack health insurance. Or they may stay because they find it embarrassing to discuss their weight, alcohol consumption or couch potato habits. Patients may also fear what they might learn about their health, or they distrust physicians because of negative experiences in the past. But playing doctor can also be a deadly game.
Every day, more than six million Americans turn to the Internet for medical answers – most of them aren’t nearly skeptical enough of what they find. A 2002 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 72 percent of those surveyed believe all or most of what they read on health websites. They shouldn’t. Look up “headache”, and the chances of finding reliable and complete information, free from a motivation for commercial gain, are only one in ten, reports an April 2005 Brown Medical School study. Of the 169 websites the researchers rated, only 16 scored as “high quality”. Recent studies found faulty facts about all sorts of other disorders, causing one research team to warn that a large amount of incomplete, inaccurate and even dangerous information exists on the Internet.
The problem is most people don’t know the safe way to surf the Web. “They use a search engine like Google, get 18 trillion choices and start clicking. But that’s risky, because almost anybody can put up a site that looks authoritative(权威的), so it’d hard to know if what you’re reading is reasonable or not,” says Dr. Sarah Bass from the National Cancer Institute. According to the text, an increasing number of American _____.
| A．are suffering from mental disorders |
| B．turn to Internet pharmacies for help |
| C．like to play deadly games with doctors |
| D．are skeptical about surfing medical websites |
Some Americans stay away from doctors because they _____.
| A．find medical devices easy to operate |
| B．prefer to be diagnosed online by doctors |
| C．are afraid to face the truth of their health |
| D．are afraid to misuse their health insurance |
According to the study of Brown Medical School, ______.
| A．more than 6 million Americans distrust doctors |
| B．only 1/10 of medical websites aim to make a profit |
| C．about 1/10 of the websites surveyed are of high quality |
| D．72% of health websites offer incomplete and faulty facts |
Which of the following is the author’s main argument?
| A．It’s cheap to self-treat your own illness. |
| B．It’s embarrassing to discuss your bad habits. |
| C．It’s reasonable to put up a medical website. |
| D．It’s dangerous to be your own doctor. |
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
Back to the Future
With the help of a local inventor’s time machine, Marty travels back to the 1950s. There his 80s hipness stands out, and he inadvertently interferes with the fledgling romance of his parents-to-be. Can Marty keep them together? He’d better, or his own future will fade away. Featuring: Christopher Lloyd, Michael J.Fox. A universal Pictures release, 1 hr. 55 min.
Beethoven’s 2nd
In this sequel to the popular Beethoven, our canine hero falls for Missy, who soon has puppies. Missy’s greedy owner, Regina, who sees only money in the little purebreds, separates mom and pups from Beethoven. His owners rescue the puppies, but Regina still has Missy. Featuring: Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt. A Universal Pictures release, 1 hr. 26 min.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Despite the popularity of his treats, candy maker Willy Wonka shuts himself inside his factory. But then Willy holds a contest, offering five lucky children the chance to see his company. Poor but pleasant Charlie Bucket finds a ticket, as do four less-deserving children. Featuring:
Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore. A Warner Bros. Release, 1 hr. 56 min.
Cinderella Man
Based on actual events, this film follows the life of Jim Braddock, a boxer in New York City during the Great Depression. After a series of losses, Braddock is forced into retirement. But he never gives up his boxing dream, and neither does his manager. Featuring: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger. A Universal Pictures release, 2 hr. 14 min.
Liar Liar
Lawyer Fletcher Reede has never told the truth in his life. Then his son makes a birthday wish that his dad would stop lying for 24 hours. Suddenly, Fletcher’s mouth spouts everything he thinks. His compulsion brings disaster to courtroom, where he must defend a client whose case was built on lies. Featuring: Jim Carrey, Justin Cooper. A Universal Pictures release, 1 hr. 25 min. Which of the following is probably the name of a dog?
| A．Marty. | B．Missy. | C．Fletcher. | D．Charlie |
Willy Wonka is _______.
| A．a boxer who suffers a series of losses |
| B．a lawyer who has never told the truth |
| C．a man who runs a chocolate factory |
| D．a man who invents a time machine |
Which film is about the life of a real person?
| A．Beethoven’s 2nd | B．Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |
| C．Cinderella Man | D．Liar Liar |
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