Mona Lisa, the mysterious woman in Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century masterpiece, had just given birth to her second son when she sat for the painting, a French art expert said on Tuesday. The discovery was made by a team of Canadian scientists who used special infrared(红外线) and three-dimensional（三维的）technology to study the paint layers on the work, which now sits in the Louvre museum in Paris.
Bruno Mottin of the French Museums' Center for Research and Restoration said that on very close examination of the painting it became clear that the Mona Lisa's dress was covered in a thin transparent gauze veil.（透明面纱）
"This type of gauze dress was typical of the kind worn in early 16th century Italy by women who were pregnant or who had just given birth. This is something that had never been seen up to now because the painting was always judged to be dark and difficult to examine," he told a news conference.
"We can now say that this painting by Leonardo da Vinci was painted in memory of the birth of the second son of Mona Lisa, which helps us to date it more precisely to around 1503."The young woman with the ambiguous half smile has been identified as Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco de Giocondo. She had five children.
"People always wrote that Mona Lisa had allowed her hair to hang freely over her shoulders. This greatly surprised historians because letting your hair hang freely during the Renaissance was typical of young girls and women of poor virtue (美德)," he said.
The team had hoped to discover more details about Leonardo’s painting techniques, which the artist used to create a hazy (朦胧的) effect. But scientist John Taylor said the team had been disappointed by the lack of brush stroke（笔触）detail on the painting.According to the latest research, Mona Lisa was __________.
| A．a woman of poor virtue | B．da Vinci’s second wife |
| C．a woman who was pregnant | D．the wife of Florentine merchant |
We can infer from the test that ___________.
| A．The research has been carried out in France |
| B．Mona Lisa was painted in 1503 at the latest |
| C．In da Vinci’s time women could only wear short hair |
| D．the most difficulty is to identify the paint layers |
What is probably the best title for the test?
| A．Mona Lisa ,the Mysterious Woman |
| B．Mona Lisa was a New Mother |
| C．Great Discovery in Painting |
| D．Leonardo’s Painting Technique |
The information reported in the text was first got from _______________.
| A．a newspaper | B．the Internet |
| C．a news conference | D．the museum |
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有多余选项。
Have you ever seen any students whose trousers hang so low you can see their underwear? What do you think of that? Fashionable? Some of today’s teenagers are big fans of such a look. 71. __________
The headmaster of a school in central Italy has asked students to stop wearing low-rise jeans that expose underwear and parts of the body. His request came after a class trip. One day, he saw one boy’s baggy trousers slide to his feet. 72. ____________
But in Italy, a nation that takes fashion very seriously, the suggestion caused a debate among parents, teachers and students. The issue is whether the headmaster's request will limit students' freedom— or whether dress in Italian schools is too casual.
73. _________ “We do not want to kick fashion out,” the headmaster explained, “but extremes (极端) of fashion like this are not right in school.” Many other schools have now requested that their students also stop wearing such trousers.
74._________ Ludovica Gaudio, 14, wore extremely low trousers exposing orange underwear in class. It was cold, so she wore a matching orange scarf. 75._______________ “I don't really feel comfortable in those sort of jeans,” said Sarah Lattanzi, “in winter, when dressed like that, it's quite cold and I am afraid my stomach will ache.”
| A．But recently this trend has been at the center of an argument in Italian middle schools. |
| B．A parents’ group praised the move in favor of good taste, while others advised schools to stop worrying about fashion and fix up old school buildings. |
| C．He pointed out that this way of dressing is not suitable for school. |
| D．Most students have simply ignored the request. |
E. Another 14-year-old said she would probably respect the request, simply for practical reasons.
F. Let us see that Italian students react differently to schools’ requests.
G. Schools should pay attention to things more important than students’ clothes.
B
While still in its early stages, welfare reform has already been judged a great success in many states — at least in getting people off welfare. It’s estimated that more than 2 million people have left the rolls（名册） since 1994.
In the past four years, welfare rolls in Athens Country have been cut in half. But 70 percent of the people who left in the past two years took jobs that paid less than $6 an hour. The result: The Athens Country poverty rate still remains at more than 30 percent — twice the national average.
For advocates（代言人）for the poor, that’s an indication much more needs to be done.
“More people are getting jobs, but it’s not making their lives any better,” says Kathy Lairn, a policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
A center analysis of US Census data nationwide found that between 1995 and 1996, a greater percentage of single, female-headed households were earning money on their own, but that average income for these households actually went down.
But for many, the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well without government aid as they did with it is in itself a huge victory.
“Welfare was a poison. It was a toxin（毒素）that was poisoning the family,” says
Robert Rector, a welfare-reform policy analyst. “The reform is changing the moral climate in low-income communities. It’s beginning to rebuild the work ethic（道德观）, which is much more important.”
Mr. Rector and others argued that once “the habit of dependency is cracked,” then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards.
45. From the passage, it can be seen that the author _______.
A. believes the reform has reduced the government’s burden
B. insists that welfare reform is doing little good for the poor
C. is overenthusiastic about the success of welfare reform
D. considers welfare reform to be basically successful
46. Why aren’t people enjoying better lives when they have jobs?
A. Because many families are divorced.
B. Because government aid is now rare.
C. Because their wages are low.
D. Because the cost of living is rising.
47. From the passage we know that welfare reform aims at _______.
A. saving welfare funds
B. rebuilding the work ethic
C. providing more jobs
D. cutting government expenses
48. According to the passage before the welfare reform was carried out, _______.
A. the poverty rate was lower
B. average living standards were higher
C. the average worker was paid higher wages
D. the poor used to rely on government aid
E
Looking for a low-cost path to self-knowledge? A way to mine your subconscious (潜意识的) for clues to your motivations, desires and fears? No need to have years of treatments or analyses. Just look to your dreams.
“You can ignore your dreams, but you are really doing harm to yourself,” says Lauri Quinn Loewenberg. “If so, you're letting red flags pass you by, letting great ideas pass you by.”
Some sleep researchers believe dreams are more directly related to our moods and emotions and can serve as tools to self-understanding. Dreams occur during the REM (rapid eye movements) cycles of sleep each night. For adults, that means about every 90 minutes. The first period of REM sleep may be short, 5 to 10 minutes, followed by longer periods, finally reaching an hour or more in the fourth or fifth period.
When people are dreaming, brain scans show a lot of activities. The brain is online during dreams. The experiences you have during the day are connected during dream sleep. People we know or experiences we've had at different times in our lives may be different in the same dream.
AmyBeth Gilstrap has had the same recurring(再次发生;循环) dream that annoyed her since Hurricane Katrina drove her and her daughter and friends out of New Orleans. Mrs. Gilstrap says, “It is always spies. My job is to get people to some place.” She's certain the dream is related to her efforts in the hurricane to help several families leave. Sometimes her cats also are part of that dream. That's because she went back into New Orleans, before it was allowed, to rescue her cats.
Today, through brain scans scientists have known that the parts of the brain that control emotions and long-term memories are active during the REM sleep.
57. The passage is mainly to tell readers .
A. dreams are mainly caused by hard work B. dreams can offer us key to self-knowledge
C. dreams are only activities of our brains D. how dreams help us solve our problems
58. According to the words from Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, .
A. dreams can make you feel badly ill B. you often have red flags in your dreams
C. dreams will make your life colorful D. you may get great help from your dreams
59. According to the passage, the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 5 refers to .
A. Mrs. Gilstrap's dream B. Mrs. Gilstrap's job
C. Hurricane Katrina D. New Orleans
60. According to the passage, when you are dreaming at night, .
A. your dream is connected with your work in the day
B. the dream will generally last about 5 to 10 minutes
C. the longer dream should be in the later part of the sleep
D. your eyes will not move during the time
D
College libraries are designed primarily for research and study. To explain its use, let us choose a research topic and follow the step-by-step procedure of looking up the material for the paper. Suppose your assignment is to write a paper on a novel called “The Sun Also Rises” by American writer Hemingway. The first step is to go to the main catalog. Many small drawers on the large wooden cabinets are lined up in alphabetical(字母的) order. Each of the drawers contains hundreds of alphabetical ordered cards. These cards are printed references to all material available in the library. Title cards are cataloged() by the first word of the book title, leaving out the articles like “a”, “an” and “the”. And then you get the cards for the books you need. On the upper left corner of each card is the call number. This is the numerical code that shows where the book is located in the library. The library has open and closed stacks. If your book is on the open stacks, you can go to the open-stack room, and according to the call number find it out by yourself. There are only about 30,000 books on o pen stacks, while most of the 800,000 books in our library are kept in closed stacks, which are accessible only to teachers and graduate students. For undergraduates like you, borrowing books from the closed stacks have to be done with the help of our librarian. In that case, you must fill out a call slip(纸条) for the book, showing the call number, author and title. You can get call slips on tables near the catalog cabinets. You show your call slip together with your library card to a librarian at the information desk. He or she will help you find the book out in the closed stacks.
53.What is the main purpose of this text?
A. To present readers a brief introduction to a college library.
B. To guide readers how to find books needed in a college library.
C. To tell readers how to fill out a call slip in a college library.
D. To show readers where to find books in a college library.
54.What letter you should look for on the title card for the book “The Old Man and the Sea” by the Hemingway?
A. The letter “t”. B. The letter “h”. C. The letter “s”. D. The letter “o”.
55.How are books arranged and shelved in the library?
A. By call numbers. B. By call slips of authors’ names.
C. In alphabetical order. D. By the first word of book title.
56.Suppose you are an undergraduate and you want to borrow a book from the closed stacks, which is the correct order to do it?
a. go to the main catalog b. show your call slip and library card
c. find out the call number d. fill out a call slip
e. get the cards for the books
A.a-b-e-d-c B. a-e-c-d-b C. b-a-c-d-e D. b-c-a-e-d
C
Among the more colorful characters of Leadville’s golden age were H.A.W. Tabor and his second wife, Elizabeth McCourt, better known as "Baby Doe". Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West. Horace Austin Warner Tabor was a school teacher in Vermont. With his first wife and two children he left Vermont by covered wagon in 1855 to homestead in Kansas. Perhaps he did not find farming to his liking, or perhaps he was attracted by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines. At any rate, a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch, which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. "A large amount of lead is sure to be found here." he said.
As it turned out, it was silver, not lead, that was to make Leadville’s fortune and wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself, so he opened a general store, which sold everything from boots to salt, flour, and tobacco. It was his custom to "grubstake" prospective（预期的） miners, in other words, to supply them with food and supplies, or"grub", while they looked for ore（矿石）, in return for which he would get a share in the mine if one was discovered. He did this for a number of years, but no one that he aided ever found anything of value.
Finally one day in the year 1878, so the story goes, two miners came in and asked for "grub". Tabor had decided to quit supplying it because he had lost too much money that way. These were persistent（坚持的）, however, and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. "Oh help yourself. One more time won’t make any difference," He said and went on selling shoes and hats to other customers. The two miners took $17 worth of supplies, in return for which they gave Tabor a one-third interest in their findings. They picked a barren place on the mountainside and began to dig. After nine days they struck a rich vein of silver. Tabor bought the shares of the other two men, and so the mine belonged to him alone. This mine, known as the "Pittsburgh Mine," made $1,300, 000 for Tabor in return for his $17 investment.
Later Tabor bought the Matchless Mine on another barren hillside just outside the town for $117,000.This turned out to be even more abundant than the Pittsburgh, producing $35 000 worth of silver per day at one time. Leadville grew. Tabor became its first mayor, and later became the governor of the state.
49. The word "grubstake" in paragraph 2 means __________ .
A. to supply miners with food and supplies
B. to open a general store
C. to do one’s contribution to the development of the mine
D. to supply miners with food and supplies and in return get a share in the mine, if one was discovered
50.Tabor made his first fortune_________.
A. by supplying two prospective miners and getting in return a one-third interest in the findings
B. because he was persuaded by the two miners to quit supplying
C. by buying the shares of the other
D. as a land speculator（投机商）
51. The underlying（潜在的）reason for Tabor’s successful life career is __________.
A. purely accidental
B. based on the analysis of miner’s being very poor and their possibility of discovering
profitable mining site
C. through the help from his second wife
D. he planned well and accomplished targets step by step
52. If this passage is the first part of an article, who might be introduced in the following part?
A. Tabor’s life. B. Tabor’s second wife, Elizabeth McCourt.
C. Other colorful characters. D. Tabor’s other careers.
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