The Taj Mahal (泰姬陵) is considered to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the fines example of the late style of Indian architecture. It is at Agra in northern India. It lies beside the River Jumna in the middle of gardens with quiet pools. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mogul emperor (皇帝) Shah Jahan, who ruled India in the seventeenth century. It is in memory of his favorite wife, Arjum and Banu Bagam, known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631.
The building, which was completed between 1632 and 1638,was designed by a local Muslim architect (建筑师) Ustad Ahmad Lahori. Thewhole building, with gardens and gateway structures, was completed in 1643. The Taj Mahal stands at one end of the garden tomb with the marble (大理石) path. The room is softly lighted by the light that passes through double screens of carved marble set high in the walls. The building now is kept in good condition.
The Taj Mahal took 22 years to build. Shah Jahan planned a similar building, but in black instead of white, to lie on the other side of the river. But before it could be built, ShahJahan was imprisoned (监禁) by his son and buried next to his wife in the Taj Mahal.The Taj Mahal was built for _____.
| A．Mumtaz |
| B．Shah |
| C．Either Mumtaz or Shah |
| D．Both Mumtaz and Shah |
Why do you think Shah Jahan was buried next to his wife?
| A．His own tomb hadn’t been built. |
| B．He hoped to be buried there. |
| C．King and Queen should be buried together. |
| D．He liked Mumtaz all his life. |
The passage mainly tells us _____.
| A．why the Taj Mahal was built |
| B．the love story between Mumtaz and Shah |
| C．some information about the Taj Mahal |
| D．the Taj Mahal—the pride of Indians |
From the passage we can learn that _____.
| A．the Taj Mahal looks more beautiful than before |
| B．the Taj Mahal doesn’t exist now |
| C．the Taj Mahal has completely changed |
| D．the Taj Mahal has become a place of interest |
How many years did it take to build the Taj Mahal?
| A．20 years. |
| B．22 years. |
| C．12 years. |
| D．23 years. |
The report came to the British on May 21, 1941. The German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful warship in the world, was moving out into the Atlantic Ocean. Her task: to destroy the ships carrying supplies from the United States to war-torn England.
The British had feared such a task. No warship they had could match the Bismarck in speed or in firepower. The Bismarck had eight 15-inch guns and 81 smaller guns. She could move at 30 nautical miles(海里) an hour, she was believed to be unsinkable.
However, the British had to sink her. They sent out a task force headed by their best battleship Hood to hunt down the Bismarck. On May 24, the Hood found the Bismarck. It was a meeting that the German commander Luetjens did not want to see. His orders were to destroy the British ships that were carrying supplies, but to stay away from a fight with British warships.
The battle didn’t last long. The Bismarck’s first torpedo(鱼雷)hit the Hood, which went down taking all but three of her 1,419 men with her. But in the fight, the Bismarck was slightly damaged （损坏）. Her commander decided to run for repairs to France, which had at that time been taken by the Germans. The British force followed her. However, because of the Bismarck’s speed and the heavy fog, they lost sight of her.
For two days, every British ship in the Atlantic tried to find the Bismarck, but with no success. Finally, she was sighted by a plane from Ireland. Trying to slow the Bismarck down so that their ships could catch up with her, the British fired at her from the air. The Bismarck was hit. On the morning of May 27, the last battle was fought. Four British ships fired on the Bismarck. And she was finally sunk.The Bismarck sailed into the Atlantic Ocean ______.
| A．to sink the Hood | B．to gain control of France |
| C．to cut off American supplies to Britain | D．to stop British warships reaching Germany |
Many people believed that the Bismarck could not be defeated because she ______.
| A．was fast and powerful | B．had more men on board |
| C．was under Luetjens' command | D．had bigger guns than other ships |
We learn from the text that on 24 May______.
| A．the British won the battle against the Bismarck |
| B．the Bismarck won the battle against the British |
| C．the British gunfire damaged the Bismarch seriously |
| D．the Bismarck succeeded in keeping away from the British |
Which of the following is the immediate cause of the sinking of the Bismarck?
| A．The British air strikes. | B．The damage done by the Hood. |
| C．Gunfire from the British warships. | D．Luetjen's decision to run for France |
Work your brain!
Between 2 and 3 pounds of wonder，it controls everything we say，do or think，who we are and what we care about. The way we walk or laugh or figure out things. What we like and the talents we possess. How we see and talk and run and jump and process our food.
The brain uses 20 percent of our body's oxygen and 20 percent of its blood. Somewhere within its protein，fat, 100,000 miles of blood vessels and 100 billion nerve cells，it helps us remember where we put our gym shoes. Change our temperature so we don't die because of the heat or cold. Speed us up or slow us down. Help us choose between orange juice or orangeflavored drinks.
Its intricacies(复杂性)are stunning，far beyond anything most of us can imagine. To keep this work of art as polished(有光泽的) as possible we need to eat right，exercise and keep mentally stimulated(刺激)．
Good nutrition helps brain cells communicate with each other. Exercise stimulates a hormone(荷尔蒙)in our brain that improves memory. Mental stimulation keeps you sharp even as you age.
“It's very important that we tell people to be physically active and mentally active，” said neurologist Malcolm Stewart.
“People cannot stop aging，but you're able to reduce the damage；you're able to keep the function up.”
Following are Dr.Stewart's advice for improving brain health：
| Nutrition |
Avoid fast food. Follow the old adage(格言，谚语)：For breakfast，eat like a king；for lunch，like a queen；for supper，like a beggar. |
| Exercise |
Do a combination of stretching aerobic and musclestrengthening every day. |
| Mental games |
Try to have a sense of hope about the future. Do puzzles. Listen to music. Reach out to others to make their lives better. |
The purpose of the author in writing this passage is to ______.
| A．inform us how the brain works |
| B．give us advice on how to keep the brain healthy |
| C．tell us that the brain plays an important role in our lives |
| D．show how special the brain is to us |
The word “stunning” in Paragraph 5 means ______.
| A．interesting | B．strange | C．significant | D．amazing |
According to the text，more exercise ______.
| A．keeps our mind sharp |
| B．helps improve our memory |
| C．gives our brain a rest |
| D．is good for brain cells communicating with each other |
In order to keep brain healthy，we should avoid ______.
| A．eating a good lunch | B．doing puzzles |
| C．eating a large supper | D．taking aerobic exercise |
Geniuses amaze us，impress us and make us all a little jealous. How do they differ from the average person？Scientists are working hard to figure out that answer. Tune in to the National Geographic Channel to find out about the discoveries they’re making in the series My Brilliant Brain.
When Marc Yu was only two years old，he began to play the piano. After a year, he started learning pieces by Beethoven. Now he’s a world-famous concert pianist at age eight. He learns newer and more difficult pieces with ease and can identify any note he hears. He seems to be specially designed for music. In Born Genius, National Geographic looks at the science behind child prodigies （神童） to explain why some children seem to be born without limits.
Geniuses didn’t come naturally to Tommy McHugh. His came only after he nearly died from bleeding in his brain. After recovering, McHugh’s head was filled with new thoughts and picture. So, he began to express them in the form of poetry and art. Now, he’s a seemingly unstoppable creative machine. Suffers of brain injury have shown that great mental ability can sometimes come from damage or disease. Accidental Genius explores this puzzling relationship.
Can normal people be trained to be geniuses? Susan Polger has shown no sign of extraordinary intelligence. Yet, during her childhood, she studied thousands of chess patterns and learned to recognize them immediately. As a result, she was able to beat skilled adult players by age 10 and can now play up to five games at the same time without even seeing the boards. Make Me a Genius examines what is takes to turn an ordinary brain into that of a genius.
If becoming a genius were easy, we’d all be done. Yet, there is much more to super intelligence than simply being born lucky. Learn more about amazing brains this month on National Geographic’s My Brilliant Brain. In paragraph 2, Marc Yu’s story tells us_________________.
| A．a child prodigy can work easier than others. |
| B．a child prodigy is trained by family. |
| C．a child prodigy has an unbelievable listening skill. |
| D．a child prodigy always practise his skills. |
In paragraph 3, the sentence “Geniuses didn’t come naturally to Tommy McHugh.” means that ______________.
| A．Tommy McHugh could not be called a genius. |
| B．Tommy McHugh became a genius when he was young. |
| C．Tommy McHugh was a robot but not a real human being. |
| D．Tommy McHugh became a genius after a sudden accident. |
The writer provides different examples to _____________.
| A．show how people can be geniuses. | B．show becoming a genius is easy. |
| C．show geniuses are common. | D．show people know how to explain geniuses. |
The passage may come from_________.
| A．a report | B．a novel | C．a TV program | D．a newspaper |
As a boy, Charles Robert Darwin collected anything that caught his interest: insects, coins and interesting stones. He was not very clever, but Darwin was good at doing the things that interested him.
His father was a doctor, so Darwin was sent to Edinburgh to study medicine, and was planned to follow a medical career. But Charles found the lectures boring. Then his father sent him to Cambridge University to study to be a priest. While at C
ambridge, Darwin’s interest 
in zoology and geography grew. Later he got a letter from Robert Fitzroy who was planning to make a voyage around the world on a ship, the Beagle. He wanted a naturalist to join the ship, and Darwin was recommended(推荐). That voyage was the start of Darwin’s great life.
As the Beagle sailed around the world, Darwin began to wonder how life had developed on earth. He began to observe everything. After he was home, he set to work, getting his collection in order. His first great work The Zoo
logy of the Beagle was well received, but
he was slow to make p
ublic his ideas on the origin of life.
Later Darwin and Wallace, another naturalist who had the same opinions as Darwin, produced a paper together. Darwin’s great book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (《物种起源》) appeared. It attracted a storm. People thought that Darwin was saying they were descended from monkeys. What a shameful idea! Although most scientists agreed that Darwin was right, the Church was still so strong that Darwin never received any honors for his work.
Afterwards, he published another great work, The Descent of Man. His health grew worse, but he still worked. “When I have to give up observation, I shall die,” he said. He was still working on 17, April, 1882. He was dead two days later.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Charles Darwin’s ideas |
| B．Charles Darwin’s works |
| C．Father of modern biology: Charles Darwin |
D．The  greatest scientist: Charles Darwin |
Darwin’s father sent him to Edinburgh to _____.
| A．make him like natural history |
| B．make him become a doctor |
| C．let him change his hobbies |
| D．have him give up his collection |
According to the passage, Charles Darwin’s whole life was changed by _____.
A．his study at Cambr idge University |
| B．his collection of coins |
| C．the naturalists at Cambridge |
| D．the voyage of the Beagle |
The underlined part “they were descended from monkeys” probably means “_____”.
| A．they gave monkeys life |
| B．they were different from monkeys |
C．they were developed from monkeys |
| D．they had to live with monkeys |
In the United States, 30 percent of the adult (成年人) population has a “weight problem”. To many people, the case is clear: we eat too much. But scientific evidence（证据）does little to support the idea. Going back to the America of 1910, we find that people were thinner than today. Yet they ate m
ore food. In those days, people worked harder physically, walked more, used machines much less, and didn’t watch TV.
Several modern studies, moreover, have shown that fat people do not eat more on average (平均) than thinner people. In fact, some investigations (调查), such as a 1990 study of 3,545 London office workers, show that fatter people eat less than slimmer people.
Studies show that slim people are more active than fat people. A study by a research group of Stanford University School of Medicine found the following interesting facts:
The more the men ran, the more fat they lost.
The more they ran, the more they ate.
Thus, those who ran the most ate the most, yet lost 
the greatest amount of body fat.What kind of physical problem do many adult Americans have?
| A．They are too thin. | B．They work too hard. |
| C．They are too fat. | D．They lose too much fat. |
Which of the following words can take the place of the word “slim” in this passage?
| A．poor | B．thin | C．healthy | D．rich |
Compared with the adult American population today, the Americans of 1910 ___
___.
| A．ate more food and had more activities | B．ate less food but had more activities |
| C．ate less food and had less physical activities | D．had more weight problems |
What have modern medical and scientific researches reported to us?
A．Fat people eat less food and ar e less active. |
B．Fat people eat more food than slim people but are les s active. |
| C．Fat people eat more food than slim people but are more active. |
| D．Thin people run less, but have greater increase in food intake. |
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