Homework can put you in a bad mood (心情), and that might actually be a good thing. Researchers from the University of Plymouth in England doubted whether mood might affect the way kids learn. To find out the answer, they did two experiments with children.
The first experiment tested 30 kids. Some shapes (图片) were hidden inside a different, larger picture. The kids had to find the small shapes while sitting in a room with either cheerful or sad music playing in the background. To test their mood, the scientists asked the kids to point to one of five faces, from happy to sad. Children who listened to cheerful music tended to point to the smiley faces while the others pointed to the unhappy ones. The researchers found that sad kids took at least a second less to find the small shapes. They also found an average of three or four more shapes.
In the second experiment, 61 children watched one of two scenes from a film. One scene was happy, and the other was sad. Just like in the first experiment, kids who saw the sad scene acted better compared to the others.
The researchers guessed that feeling down makes people more likely to focus on a problem or difficult situation. Not all scientists agree with them, however. Other studies argued that maybe, that cheerful music in the first experiment distracted (使分心) kids from finding shapes.
While scientists work on finding out the answers, it still might be wise to choose when to do your tasks according to your mood. After eating a delicious ice cream, for example, write an essay. Researchers did experiments on kids in order to find out ______.
| A．how they really feel when they are learning |
| B．whether mood affects their learning ability |
| C．what methods are easy for kids to learn |
| D．the relationship between sadness and happiness |
The researchers found in the first experiment that ______.
| A．kids who listened to happy music turned out to be energetic |
| B．kids who listened to sad music liked to choose smiley faces |
| C．kids worked harder in the background of happy music |
| D．sad music helped kids find out small shapes quickly |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．The researchers will continue to do experiments. |
| B．The researchers have found a clear answer. |
| C．The experiments are popular among kids. |
| D．Kids change their feelings more easily. |
We can infer that the text is ______.
| A．a science survey | B．a research report |
| C．a school project | D．an introduction to an experiment |
“What is the most important thing you’ve done in your life?”The question was put to me during a presentation I gave to a group of lawyers.
The answer came to me in an instant. It’s not the one I gave, because the situation was not right. As a lawyer in the entertainment industry, I knew the audience wanted to hear some amusing stories about my work with well-known people. but here’s the true answer:
The most important thing I’ve ever done occurred on October 8,1990. I began the day playing tennis with an old friend I hadn’t seen for a while. Between points we talked about what had been happening in each other’s lives. He and his wife had just had a baby boy, who was keeping them up at night.
While we were playing, a car came screaming up the road toward the courts. It was my friend’s father, who shouted to my friend that his baby had stopped breathing and was being rushed to the hospital. In a flash my friend was
in the car and gone, disappearing in a cloud of dust.
For a moment I just stood there, paralyzed(呆若木鸡). Then I tried to figure out what I should do. Follow my friend to the hospital? There was nothing I could accomplish there, I convinced myself. My friend’s son was in the care of doctors and nurses, and nothing I could do or say would affect the outcome. Be there for moral support? Well, maybe. But my friend and his wife both had large families, and I knew they’d be surrounded by relatives who would provide more than enough comfort and support, whatever happened. All I could do at the hospital, I decided, was to get in the way. Also, I had planned a full day with my family, who were waiting for me to get home. So I decided to head back to my house and check in my friend later.
As I started my car, I realized that my friend had left his truck and keys at the courts. I now faced another problem. I couldn’t leave the keys in the truck. So I decided to go to the hospital and give him the keys.
When I arrived, I was directed to a room where my friend and his wife were waiting. As I had thought, the room was filled with family members silently watching my friend comfort his wife. I went in and stood by the door, trying to decide what to do next. Soon a doctor appeared. He approached my friend and his wife, and in a quiet voice told them that their son had died.
For a long time the two held each other and cried, unaware of the rest of us standing around in pained silence. After they had calmed themselves, the doctor suggested they spend a few moments with their son.
My friend and his wife stood up and walked past their families. When they reached the door, my friend saw me standing in the corner. He came over and hugged me and started to cry. My friend’s wife hugged me, too, and said , “Thanks for being here.”
For the rest of that morning, I sat in the emergency room of that hospital and watched my friend and his wife hold the body of their infant son, and say goodbye.
It’s the most important thing I have ever done.
The experience taught me two lessons.
First: The most important thing I’ve ever done happened when I was completely helpless. None of the things I had learned in university, in three years of law school or in six years of legal practice were of any use in that situation. Something terrible was happening to people I cared about, and I was powerless to change the outcome. All I could do was standing by and watching it happen. And yet it was critical that I do just that--- just be there when someone needed me.
Second: The most important thing I’ve done almost didn’t happen because of things I had learned in classroom and professional life. Law school taught me how to take a set of facts, break them down and organized them. These skills are critical for lawyers. When people come to us for help, they’re often stressed out and depend on a lawyer to think logically. But while learning to think, I almost forget how to feel. Today I have no doubt that I should have leapt into my car without hesitation and followed my friend to the hospital.
From that one experience I learned that the most important thing in life isn’t the money you make, the status you attain or the honors you achieve. The most important thing in life is the kids’ team you coach or the poem you write----or the time when you’re just somebody’s friend. When he was asked about the most important thing he had done in life at a presentation, the author __________.
A felt it was not an interesting question
B. thought for a while and spoke his mind
C. gave an answer from a lawyer’s point of view
D. didn’t give the real answerWhen he saw his friend rush to the hospital, the author could not decide whether to follow mainly because he thought _________.
| A．He had to stay with his family | B．His friend did not need his help. |
| C．He would not be of much help | D．the baby would be in the doctor’s care |
What can we infer from the author’s description of the scene at the hospital?
| A．He found out that he was in the way. |
| B．He would have felt guilty if he had not been there. |
| C．He regretted that he went too later. |
| D．His friend would have felt better if he had not been there. |
Which of the following is conveyed in this story?
| A．Family and relatives can not take the place of friends. |
| B．More people are a great comfort when one is in trouble. |
| C．It is best to be here when someone needs you. |
| D．You can certainly help a friend if you want to. |
The author learned from his own experience that_______.
| A．what is taught in school is usually of no use. |
| B．a lawyer cannot learn much in classrooms |
| C．a lawyer should know people’s feeling first |
| D．he needs to be able to feel as well as think logically |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph suggests that the author_______.
| A．is fond of writing poems |
| B．is going to coach the kid’s team |
| C．is determined to make friends with everybody |
| D．is fully aware of the importance of being helpful to those in need |
The first time I saw Carlos I would never have believed he was going to change my life. I had my arms full of books and I was tearing into the classroom when 1 ran into something solid. It was Carlos.
“My God, you’re tall,” he said.
Of course, the class began to laugh. Angry, I walked to my seat without a word.
I glanced back to see if Reed Harrington was laughing with the rest. That would be the last straw. But Reed was studying chemistry and did not seem to be aware of anything else. I didn’t know why I considered Reed my friend. Maybe just because he was a good two inches taller than I. Anyway, every time I blew out my birthday candles and made a wish, it was for a date with Reed Harrington.
“Take that seat，” Mr. McCarthy told the cocky newcomer Carlos，pointing to the only empty one，in the back of the room.
Carlos laughed widely. “But I need a couple of dictionaries.” Again the class laughed, but now they were laughing with Carlos，not at him. He had been here only 10 minutes and already he had them on his side.
The bell rang for classes. As I stood up to go, I saw Carlos coming toward me. “ I’ sorry I embarrassed you,” he said. I looked straight head over the top of his black hair. “That’s all right.”
“ I ought to know better.” He was still blocking my way.” What’s your name?”“Karen Forbes.”“ You probably heard me say I’m Carlos Herrera.” He held out his hand. Unwillingly, I shook hands with him. He looked up at me seriously with his brown eyes.”“ I don’t see why you’re so touchy.”
I brushed by him and said sharply, “You wouldn’t understand.”
He followed me a few steps. “I’m just the one who should, Karen,” he said. “ You and I have a lot in common.”
It was the school elections that made me think of Carlos again. Reed Harrington was voted president and Carlos vice-president. “How come?” I kept asking myself,” How come this shrimp who’s only been in town for a little over a month gets to be so popular?”
So that morning，I stopped Carlos and said，“It doesn’t seem to bother you — being short.” He looked up at me, “Of course I mind being short. But there isn’t anything I can do about it. When I realized I was going to have to spend my life in this undersized skin，I just decided to make the best of it and concentrate on being myself.”“You seem to get along great,” I admitted, “But what about me? Nobody wants to date a girl taller than he is.”“The trouble with you is that you’re afraid to be yourself. You’re smart. And you could be pretty. In fact, you might be more than pretty.” I felt myself turning red…The author was angry because ________.
| A．the class made fun of her | B．Carlos was too rude to her |
| C．she had to carry many books | D．Reed Harrington didn’t date her |
Which of the following about Carlos is NOT TRUE?
A．He was popular. |
B．He was new in the school. |
| C．He was shorter than the author. | D．He was chosen president in the school elections. |
The underlined word “ touchy” in paragraph 8 probably means________
| A．moved | B．cheerful | C．curious | D．annoyed |
We can infer from Paragraph 4 that the author ________.
| A．cared much about Reed’s attitude | B．hoped Reed was laughing with others |
| C．thought Reed was the same as others | D．couldn’t stand Carlos playing tricks on her |
According to the text, which is the most likely ending?
| A．Carlos and Reed became very good friends |
| B．Carlos and the author argued with each other. |
| C．The author changed her attitude towards Carlos. |
| D．Carlos was elected president of the student committee. |
LONDON----Here’s a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly.
Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for prolonged periods — even if you also exercise regularly — could be bad for your health. And it doesn’t matter where the sitting takes place — at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or TV — just the overall number of hours it occurs. Several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.
In an editorial published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin EkblomBak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting.
While health officials have issued guidelines recommending minimum amounts of physical activity, they haven’t suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated position.
"After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals," Ekblom-Bak said. She explained that genes regulating(调节) the amount of glucose（葡萄糖） and fat in the body start to shut down.
Even for people who exercise, spending long periods of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day — but still spend a lot of time sitting — might get more benefit if that exercise were spread across the day, rather than in a single bout.（一回）
Still, in a study published last year that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about a dozen years, researchers found people who sat more had a higher death risk, independently of whether or not they exercised.
"We don’t have enough evidence yet to say how much sitting is bad," said Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, who led the Canadian study. "But it seems the more you can get up and interrupt this sedentary behavior, the better."
Figures from a U.S. survey in 2003-2004 found Americans spend more than half their time sitting, from working at their desks to sitting in cars.
Experts said more research is needed to figure out just how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible tooffset those effects.
"People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits," Ekblom-Bak said. "But when they’re in the office, they should try to interrupt sitting as often as possible," she said. What is the best title for the text?
| A．Not Sitting Too Much While Working | B．How To Avoid Sitting Too Much |
| C．Sitting Too Much Could Be Deadly | D．More And More People Sit Too Much |
According to the research,______________.
| A．the more time you spend in exercising in a single bout, the healthier you will be. |
| B．those who often sit too much are sure to grow fat or suffer from a heart attack. |
| C．regular exercise is effective to get rid of the side effect of sitting too much. |
| D．you had better not sit for more than four hours in a single bout. |
How does the danger of sitting too much affect the human body?
| A．It results in a higher death risk. |
| B．It increases glucose and fat in the body. |
| C．It makes a person unable to exercise long enough in a day. |
| D．It causes the gene to fail to balance the glucose and fat in the body. |
In the opinion of Ekblom-Bak, you’d better have a rest in the office by________.
| A．sending your friends e-mails |
| B．having a walk around your office |
| C．chatting online or playing computer games |
| D．listening to music with your head on the desk. |
One genetic mutation(基因突变)occurs on average for every 15 cigarettes that a typical lung-cancer patient smokes, according to a study that has found for the first time all of the mutations happen during the lifetime of a cancer patient.
Scientists have completed a full genetic examinations of the genomes（基因组） of cancer patients, and hope the information will lead to a basic understanding of the causes of cancer—and possibly drugs and treatments—by making out the mutations that turn a healthy cell into a cancerous tumor cell.
They studied a lung-cancer patient who had about 23,000 DNA mutations in his lung cells that were connected with exposure(暴露) to the toxins found in cigarette smoke and had built up over his lifetime.
They also looked at a patient with malignant melanoma(恶性黑色肿瘤), the most dangerous form of skin cancer, who had got 30,000 special mutations known to be connected with exposure to sunlight.
Scientists believe this new finding into the genetics of cancer will finally lead to new drugs and perfect treatments that aim at the specific changes to the gene that cause the
disease, as well as new techniques for discovering following cancers that have escaped from treatment in other parts of the body.
“For the first time, we have a complete map of all mutations in a cancer cell,” said Dr. Peter Campbell, who led the Cancer Genome project to work out the whole DNA system of tumor cells in order find the mutations.
A similar method was performed on the cells of a patient with skin cancer, which is how the researchers were able to show that the malignant skin cells contained changes that resulted from exposure to light.
“These are the two main cancers in the developed world for which we know the chief exposure. For lung cancer it is cigarette smoke, and for malignant melanoma it is exposure to sunlight,” Professor Campbell said.What can the genetic examination of the genomes of cancer patients be used for?
| A．To help the professors to win the Nobel Prizes. |
| B．To advance the study of reason and cure of cancer. |
| C．To make the medicine industries earn more money. |
| D．To help the cancer patients reduce their pain. |
The underlined word in the third paragraph can be placed by_____.
| A．smoke | B．sunlight | C．cell | D．poison |
Which of the following statements is right according to the passage?
| A．The lung-cancer patient had 30,000 mutations in his lung cells. |
| B．The genetics of cancer will finally lead to new drugs soon. |
| C．It’s the first time that people mapped mutations in a cancer cell. |
| D．Dr. Peter tries to invent a new drug with the DNA system. |
What’s the similarity between malignant melanoma and skin cancer of patients?
| A．Their smoking too much in daily life. |
| B．Their receiving too much sunshine. |
| C．Their refusing to accept treatment. |
| D．Their interest in travelling abroad. |
19King's College Summer School
More information is as follows:
| Application (申请) date l Students in New York should send their applications before July 18, 2011. l Students of other cities should send their applications before July 16, 2011. l Foreign students should send their applications before July 10, 2011. |
Coursesl English LanguageSpoken English: 22 hours Reading and Writing: 10 hours l American History: 16 hours l American Culture: 16 hours |
Stepsl A letter of self-introductionl A letter of recommendation(推荐) ﹡ The letters should be written in English with all the necessary information. |
Costl Daily lessons: $200l Sports and activities: $100 l Travels: $200 l Hotel service: $400 ﹡You may choose to live with your friends or relatives in the same city. |
| Please write to: Thompson, Sanders 1026 King' s Street New York, NY 10016, USA E-mail: KC-Summer-School@ yahoo.com |
You can most probably read the text in ________.
| A．a textbook | B．a travel guide |
| C．a newspaper | D．a telephone book |
Which of the following is true about King' s College Summer School?
| A．Only top students can take part in the program. |
| B．Visits to museums and culture centers are part of the program. |
| C．King' s College Summer School is run every other year |
| D．Only the teachers of King' s College give courses. |
If you are to live with your relatives in New York, you will have to pay the school __
| A．$200 | B．$400 | C．$900 | D．$500 |
What information can you get from the text?
A. You can write to Thompson only in English.
B
. The program will last two months.
C. As a Chinese student, you can send your application on July 14, 2011.
D. You can get in touch with the school by e-mail or by telephone.
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