Imagine this situation. You pass a group of people. The people are talking to each other. You cannot hear what they are saying. But suddenly they start laughing. What would you think? Would you think they were laughing at something funny that one of them said? Or -- be honest with yourself -- would you think they were laughing at you? Yes, you.
Being laughed at is a common fear. But a major study published in two thousand and nine found that this fear is not the same around the world. It differs from culture to culture.
People in Finland were the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence were making fun of them. Less than ten percent of Finns in the study said they would think that, compared to eighty percent of people in Thailand.
Some people in the study said they felt unsure of themselves in social situations but hid their feelings of insecurity. Others said they avoided social situations where they had been laughed at before.
The study found that people in Turkmenistan and Cambodia were more likely to be in the first group. They would hide their feelings of insecurity if they were around other people's laughter. But people in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan were more likely to try to avoid such situations if they felt they had been laughed at before.
Shy people often avoid situations that would force them into close contact with other people. They worry that something they say or do will make other people laugh at them. But some people worry much more than others. They may have a disorder called gelotophobia. Gelos is a Greek word. It means laughter. Phobia means fear. This fear of laughter can be truly sad for those who live with it. It can affect how they lead their lives.
In the study, a team from the University of Zurich led more than ninety researchers from around the world. They wanted to understand the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. Another purpose of the study was to compare the levels of fear of being laughed at in different cultures. The researchers surveyed more than twenty-two thousand people in forty-two different languages. The findings appeared in the scientific journal Humor.People in Finland don’t believe other people are making fun of them if _________________.
| A．they suddenly start to laugh. |
| B．they keep on laughing |
| C．they laugh in their presence |
| D．they stop laughing suddenly. |
What’s FALSE of the study led by a team from the University of Zurich?
| A．They wanted to study the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. |
| B．They wanted to compare the levels of fear of being laughed at in different cultures. |
| C．They did such a survey in order to prevent people from being laughed at in public. |
| D．They surveyed more than 22 thousand people coming from different cultures. |
The passage is likely to occur in _______________.
| A．an advertisement | B．a science magazine |
| C．a science fiction | D．a storybook |
According to the passage, people who suffer from gelotophobia ______________________.
| A．care more about being laughed at by others |
| B．shouldn’t hide their feelings of insecurity |
| C．should avoid having close contact with other people |
| D．will lead a happy life so long as they care |
第三部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项。
在答题卡卡上将该项涂黑。
“Wolf！”
Lydia Angiyou's five-year-old nephew Paulussie whispered with alarm as he touched her
arm. At first, she didn't believe him.
Angiyou, Paulussie, her another newphew Lueassie, also five, and her youngest son Jessie,
seven, were walking to her mother's house one night last February. Animals were often sighted
near lvujvik--a village of 274 Inuit on the shore of Hudson Bay--but rarely on its streets.
The 41-year-old teacher and mother of five turned around. Looking behind her into the
darkness, at first she thought that Jessie was the wolf. But a meter behind the boy was 350kg
polar bern -no wolf in sight--standing on the icy road. Jessie turned and saw it, too, then ran,
screaming, to his mother.
Angiyou felt a rush of blood to her brain. "Get as far away as you can!" she shouted to the
boys as she ran towards the bear. She stopped just in front of it, then faced it quiedy. It made a
move to go around her to get to the boys, who must have seemed like the easier meal.
But Angiyou moved with the bear to maintain her position blocking the children. Finally she
got the animal's attention. In response, it rose on its hind legs to its full 2.5m height. The bear
charged, and knocked her into a seated position. The skin under her nose tore. Falling onto her
back, she screamed for help and kicked at the animal in a bicycling motion. She soon passed out.
Sirqualuk Ainalik, a fellow teacher, had been at his brother's house nearby when Jessie
dashed inside for help. Grabing a rifle, the 33-year-old ran to the road, firing a warning shot into
the air. He then aimed his gun at the huge bear.
With two more shots, Ainalik killed the polar bear.
56. Lydia Angiyou and children went through the adventure.
A. two B. three C. four D. five
57. What's the right order of the following according to the passage?
a. Angiyou passed out.
b. The bear struck Angiyou on the nose.
c. Angiyou went to her mother's home.
d. A fellow teacher killed the bear.
e. Angiyou was warned of a wolf.
A. e c b d a B. c e d a b C. c e b a d D. c e a b d
58. The following are all right except
A. Lydia Angiyou was in her forties
B. A wolf was finally killed
C. Animals often appeared near the village
D. Angiyou called for help while fighting
59. The story shows that Lydia Angiyou is
A. strong and clever B. skilled and careful
C. devoted and fearless D.cautious and brave
If you don’t have a college degree, you’re at greater risk of developing memory problems or even Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆). Education plays a key role in lifelong memory performance and risk for mental disorder, and it's well documented that those with a college degree possess a cognitive（认知的） advantage over their less educated counterparts in middle and old age.
Now, a large national study from Brandeis University published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry shows that those with less schooling can significantly make up for poorer education by frequently engaging in mental exercises such as word games, puzzles, reading, and lectures.
“The lifelong benefits of higher education for memory in later life are quite impressive, but we do not clearly understand how and why these effects last so long,” said lead author Margie Lachman, a psychologist. She suggested that higher education may encourage lifelong interest in cognitive efforts, while those with less education may not engage as frequently in mental exercises that help keep the memory agile (敏捷地).
But education early in adulthood does not appear to be the only route to maintain your memory. The study found that intellectual activities undertaken regularly made a difference. “Among individuals with low education, those who are engaged in reading, writing, attending lectures, doing word games or puzzles once a week or more had memory scores similar to people with more education,” said Lachman.
The study, called Midlife in the United States, assessed 3,343 men and women between the ages of 32 and 84 with a mean age of 56 years. Almost 40 percent of the participants had at least a 4-year college degree. The researchers evaluated how the participants performed in two cognitive areas, verbal memory and executive function --- brain processes involved in planning, abstract thinking and cognitive flexibility. Participants were given a battery of tests, including tests of verbal fluency, word recall, and backward counting.
As expected, those with higher education said they engaged in cognitive activities more often and also did better on the memory tests, but some with lower education also did well, explained Lachman.
“The findings are promising because they suggest there may be ways to level the playing field for those with lower educational achievement, and protect those at greatest risk for memory declines,” said Lachman. “Although we can not rule out the possibility that those who have better memories are the ones who take on more activities, the evidence is consistent with cognitive plasticity (可塑性), and suggests some degree of personal control over cognitive functioning in adulthood by adopting an intellectually active lifestyle.”
57. What is the text mainly about?
A. Higher education has a better cognitive advantage.
B. Better memories result from college degree.
C. Cognitive activity does a mind good.
D. Poor education has more risk of memory declines.
58. According to the result of Margie Lachman’s study, we can conclude that ________.
A. education is responsible for the lifelong memory performance and risk for mental disorder
B. education early in adulthood can be the only route to maintain your memory
C. those with higher education did better on the memory tests than those with lower education
D. an intellectually active lifestyle does help to maintain your memory
59. What do we know about the study called Midlife?
A. Participants each were given a battery to test their memory.
B. The average age of the participants are 56 years old.
C. Participants had to perform in one of the two cognitive areas.
D. One in four of the participants had a 4-year college degree.
60. Why are the findings of the Lachman’s study promising?
A. The lower educated may have the same opportunities to keep up memory.
B. We may have ways to cure the people who have memory declines.
C. Adopting a different lifestyle can control over cognitive functioning.
D. We can find out the possibility to have better memories.
“Pay has little to do with motivation in the workplace”. That’s the argument put forward by best-selling author Daniel Pink in his new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. “Pay for performance is supposed to be a folk tale,” he says.
Daniel argues that, if employees receive a basic level of payment, three other factors matter more than money: a sense of independence, of mastery over one’s labor, and of serving a purpose larger than oneself. For example, in 2008 at the offices of Best Buy’s Richfield, salaried workers there were allowed to organize their own work day, putting in only as many hours as they felt necessary to get their jobs done. Productivity increased by 35% according to The Harvard Business Review.
But the managers at Goldman Sachs aren’t exactly making some efforts to adjust. Like others on Wall Street, the banking giant argues that fat bonuses (extra rewards) are essential to make its numbers. “That’s exactly the attitude that leads to the recent financial crisis in the United States,” responds Daniel, “as managers always focus on short-term rewards that encourage cheating, shortcuts, and dishonest behavior.”
Moreover, the 45-year-old author and former Al Gore speechwriter refers to social-science experiments and experiences at such workplaces as Google and 3M. In one 2005 experiment he describes, economists working for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston tested the power of incentives (激励) by offering cash rewards to those who did well in games that included reciting a series of numbers and throwing tennis balls at a target. The researchers’ finding: Over and over, higher incentives led to worse performance --- and those given the highest incentives did the poorest job.
From this and other cases, Daniel draws a conclusion that monetary incentives remove the element of play and creativity, transforming “an interesting task into a dull one.” It’s even possible, he adds, for oversized rewards to have dangerous side effects, like those of a drug dependency in which an addicted requires ever larger amounts. He refers to scientific testing that shows the promise of cash rewards increase a chemical in the brain similar to that brought on by cocaine or nicotine.
Daniel, however, is also aware that his company examples --- no GE, no IBM, no Microsoft --- hardly represent the commanding heights of the economy. But he thinks his approach will catch on, even in the biggest companies. “Managers tend to be realistic, and in time they will respond,” he says.
53. In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink is promoting the idea that _____.
A. it is a money-driven society B. all workers are not driven by money
C. money plays a key role in management D. pay has nothing to do with workplaces
54. In Daniel’s point of view, many Wall Street managers are _______.
A. dishonest B. considerate C. short-sighted D. ridiculous
55. In paragraph 5, the example of drug-taking is given to show _______.
A. money is as addictive as cocaine or nicotine
B. big rewards bring about dangerous side effect
C. nicotine and money bring the same chemical
D. workers do not need the incentives of money at all
56. We can learn from the last paragraph that _______.
A. Daniel’s approach will be popular in a wider field
B. realistic managers will first consider Daniel’s approach
C. Daniel’s approach meets the demand of economic crisis
D. GE, IBM and Microsoft will join in Daniel’s approach next
A car that runs on coffee is unveiled（shown to the public for the first time）today but at between 25 and 50 times the cost of running a car on petrol, the invention won’t please any motor industry accountants.
Nicknamed the Car-puccino, it has been created using a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco bought for £400 and it was chosen because it looked like the time-traveling DeLorean in the movie Back ToThe Future. The car will be driven the 210 miles between Manchester and London powered only by roasted coffee granules (颗粒). It has been built by a team from the BBC1 science programme Bang Goes The Theory and will go on display at the Big Bang science fair in Manchester to show how fuels other than traditional petrol can power vehicles.
The team calculates the Car-puccino will do three miles per kilo of ground coffee (咖啡粉) — about 56 cups of espressos (浓咖啡) per mile. The journey will use about 70 kilos of ground coffee which, at supermarket prices of between £13 and £26 a kilo depending on brand and quality, will cost between £910 and £1,820, or between 25 and 50 times the £36 cost of petrol for the journey. In total, the trip will cost 11,760 espressos, and the team will have to take ‘coffee breaks’ roughly every 30 to 45 miles to pour in more granules. They will also have to stop about every 60 miles to clean out the ‘coffee filters’ to rid them of the soot and tar which is also generated by the process. So despite a top speed of 60mph, the many stops mean the going will be slow, with the journey taking around ten hours.
Sadly, the inventors will still have to pay duty on their coffee fuel---even though tax collectors at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom haven’t yet worked out how much.
Nick Watson, producer of Bang Goes The Theory, said, “Coffee, like wood or coal, has some carbon content so you can use it as a fuel. The coffee needs to be very dry and in granules to allow the air to move through the pile of coffee as it burns. The brand doesn’t matter.” He said the same technology could be used to power a car on other unusual fuels, such as woodchips or nut shells, construction or agricultural waste.
49. Which is the right way to choose the coffee used as fuels to run the Car-puccino?
A. It should be very dry. B. The stronger, the better.
C. The smaller the granules are, the better. D. It should be of a certain brand.
50. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. All kinds of materials can be used as fuels.
B. The Car-puccino will be put into the market soon.
C. Nick W
atson is the designer of the Car-puccino
D. Much remains to be improved for the Car-puccino.
51. The Car-puccino has its disadvantages EXCEPT that ________.
A. it makes a lot of noise
B. it runs at a very high cost
C. it has to stop to be refueled very often.
D. it’s not good enough for long-distance journey
52. How much ground coffee will be used to cover a distance of 126 miles in this car?
A. About 70 kilos B. About 42 kilos. C. About 32 kilos D. About 30 kilos
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How many adverts are trying to be price competitive?
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