The ancient Maya mastered the art of ceramic (制陶艺术) in a manner which virtually no other culture did.
The Vase of the Seven Gods, made in the area of Naranjo, an ancient city of the Maya Civilization in the present-dayPeten,Guatemala,shows the fine way Maya handled clay. Like all art of Maya, this vase exhibits highly religious symbols. Furthermore, the artist’s name is carved along the bottom of this piece in the form of a small white rabbit.
Ceramics also served as reminders of ancestors and gods. The Flour De Lis Vase is a fine example of this. The water lilies are not only symbols of new birth and life giving qualities, but a constant reminder of purity. On this vase, the water lilies are white, which is undoubtedly a sign of purity. The black background shows the sea, in which the lilies float.
Furthermore, ceramics served practical functions in the Maya culture. Vases, which are quite commonly seen today, were used primarily to hold liquid chocolate and cocoa. Bowls were used to hold various maize (玉米) products. Maize was seen as the imaginary body of the Maize God and the ancient Maya thought that as one ate the maize or the body of God from the bowl, they actually became God. Plates were merely used for any object.
Finally, Maya used depictions on ceramics to resurrect (复活) family members and honor gods. Because they believe that they would come back to life with their names spoken or their figures drawn, the carvings and paintings on these ceramics played a vital role in Maya spirituality.
Clearly, ceramics served a key function in ancient Maya society from dinner plates to acts of God. What do we know from the passage?
| A．The art of ceramic of the ancient Maya was instructed by gods. |
| B．The Vase of the Seven Gods was made by the people of Guatemala. |
| C．The ceramic art of the ancient Maya was the best in the world at that time. |
| D．Naranjo is a well-known city of Guatemala at present. |
Which of the following is a characteristic of the art of Maya?
| A．Seven gods are carved on a vase. |
| B．A vase exhibits highly religious symbols. |
| C．The artist’s name is carved on the top of a vase. |
| D．There is a big white rabbit on a vase. |
The ancient Maya used the Flour De Lis Vase to _________.
| A．remind them of their ancestors and gods |
| B．hold water and grain or cook food |
| C．show the importance of new birth and life |
| D．express people’s pure friendship and love |
The Maya carved names and figures of family members on ceramics to ________.
| A．honor their family members |
| B．be remembered by their children |
| C．draw the attention of the shoppers |
| D．wish they would come back to life |
Every time Lionel Messi breaks a record, it seems appropriate to compare him to the legends that came before him.
In 2012, he rewrote soccer history on multiple occasions, and his latest record came when he scored his 86th goal of the calendar year, breaking Gerd Muller’s previous mark, before wrapping up the year with 91 goals.
All statistics indicate that Messi is currently the best player in the world, and that he will go down in history as the top footballer of his generation. But when he is judged against all-time greats like Pele and Diego Maradona, he still has work to do.
We don’t know whether the Barcelona striker will have another year in which he records more than 90 goals, but he must still sustain(维持)a similar level of production for the next several seasons.
Messi has already taken part in three of Barcelona’s victorious Champions League(冠军联赛)campaigns, and he played an important role in two of them. In order to firmly establish himself as the greatest club football player in history, he must win the tournament a few more times.
Most importantly, the Argentine(阿根廷人)needs to win on the international stage. Regardless of what Messi does for Barcelona, his legacy will be incomplete if he cannot win the World Cup with Argentina.
Both Pele and Maradona led their countries to the top of international soccer during their careers, and Messi’s performances for his country have been severely disappointing.
While he was still a teenager in 2006-and his lackluster(平淡的)showing is excusable due to his youth-he cannot brush off the disappointment that characterized Argentina’s performance in 2010.
But the 4-0 loss to Germany in the 2010 World Cup Quarter Final seems to have sparked Messi. He scored 12 times for Argentina last year, and the next World Cup could finally be Messi’s breakout performance in blue and white stripes.
Due to all of his accomplishments, it is easy to forget that the extraordinary footballer is just 25 years old. If he can avoid injury or lengthy slumps(低潮状态)until his speed and skills start to decline due to age, he may continue to break records and win trophies.What will Messi have to do in order to be complete in his soccer career?
| A．He must win the World Cup with Argentina. |
| B．He must win the tournament a few more times. |
| C．He must defeat Pele and Maradona. |
| D．He must avoid injury or lengthy slumps. |
How was Messi’s performance in 2010 World Cup?
| A．Excellent. |
| B．Inspiring. |
| C．Disappointing. |
| D．Normal. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Messi has firmly established himself as the greatest club soccer player in history. |
| B．Messi will try his best to win the next World Cup with Argentina. |
| C．Messi can avoid injury and lengthy slumps to break records and win trophies. |
| D．Pele and Maradona led their countries to the top of international soccer during their careers. |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Lionel Messi, the Best Soccer Player of All Time |
| B．Lionel Messi, the Greatest Soccer Player in History |
| C．Barcelona and Lionel Messi |
| D．World Cup and Lionel Messi |
Move Earth—It’s Not Science Fiction
LONDON—Scientists have found an unusual way to prevent our planet from overheating: move it to a cooler spot. All you have to do is send a few comets(彗星)in the direction of Earth, and its orbit will be changed. Our world will then be sent spinning into a safer, colder part of the solar system.
This idea for improving our climate comes from a group of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)engineers and American astronomers. They say their plan could add another six billion years to the useful lifetime of our planet—effectively doubling its working life.
The plan put forward by Dr. Laughlin, and his colleagues Don Korycansky and Fred Adams, needs carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it passes close by our planet and sends some of its gravitational energy to Earth.
“Earth’s orbital speed would increase as a result and we would move to a higher orbit away from the Sun, ”Laughlin said.
Engineers would then direct their comet so that it passed close to Jupiter or Saturn. The comet would pick up energy from one of these giant planets. Later its orbit would bring it back to Earth, and the process would be repeated.
In the short term, the plan provides an ideal way to global warming, although the team was actually concerned with a much greater danger. The Sun is certain to heat up in about a billion years and so“seriously compromise” our biosphere(生物圈)—by cooking us.
That’s why the group decided to try to save Earth.
The plan has one or two worrying aspects, however. For a start, space engineers would have to be very careful about how they directed their asteroid or comet towards Earth. The smallest miscalculation(误算)in orbit could fire it straight at Earth—with deadly consequences.
There is also the question of the Moon. As the current issue of Scientific American magazine points out, if Earth was pushed out of its current position, it is“most likely the Moon would be stripped away from Earth”. This would greatly change our planet’s climate.What makes the scientists plan to move Earth?
| A．A few comets are moving to the direction of Earth. |
| B．Earth’s working life is coming to an end soon. |
| C．Earth will become too hot for mankind to keep alive. |
| D．The moon is moving farther and farther away from Earth. |
If the plan is successful, Earth will have a working life of years.
| A．12 billion | B．6 billion |
| C．18 billion | D．24 billion |
What serious problems might the plan cause according to the passage?
| A．The comet might hit Earth and man might lose the Moon. |
| B．Earth might be moved too far away and man might be frozen to death. |
| C．The comet might hit Jupiter or Saturn and never return to Earth. |
| D．Earth’s working life might be greatly shortened. |
What does the underlined word“compromise”mean?
| A．Provide. | B．Benefit. |
| C．Share. | D．Endanger. |
Every year Chris Brogan posts his three words for a new year. Many others and I have followed his lead for the past three or four years. They helped me a lot. My words for last year were“passion”, “focus”and“delegate”and I stayed true to them. This year, 2013, my goals are more personal and less professional.
FOCUS
Focus is making a repeat appearance on my list this year because I’m too much of a multitasker. The problem is that I have trouble finishing one thing with so many things calling me. When I was working as a writer, all my projects were handled via a schedule, I’m putting a fitness and housekeeping routine into my schedule.
HEALTH
I get so busy taking care of everyone else, and I forget to take care of myself and this has to change. My health suffers and my weight suffers. I have to get my health in check, not only for me but because I promised my 9-year-old son. I’ll make good food and lifestyle choices. I miss being thin, and it’s time to get it back.
CELEBRATE
What good is having it if I’m not taking time to enjoy it? I have a wonderful job, a happy family, and so much to be thankful for. So how come I spend all my time working? Last summer my family took our first vacation in four years, the best thing I’ve done for myself and my family in a long time. This year, I’m making sure to take time to enjoy life and celebrate its many blessings.
Do you have any words for 2013?The underlined word “multitasker” probably refers to a person who .
| A．makes a living by writing |
| B．always fails to finish a task on time |
| C．has several things to do at the same time |
| D．pays more attention to fitness and housekeeping |
Why does the writer have“HEALTH”as one of his three words?
| A．He wants to take better care of others. |
| B．He’s gaining weight and feeling bad. |
| C．He did not take any exercise in the past. |
| D．He got the idea from his son. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The word“CELEBRATE”can remind the writer to enjoy life. |
| B．The writer has a vacation with his family every four years. |
| C．The word“FOCUS”can help the writer focus on his family. |
| D．The writer used to be overweight for lack of exercise. |
The best title for the passage might be .
| A．Three Words for 2013 |
| B．Health Should Go First |
| C．Keep Organized |
| D．Goals for 2013 |
What makes humans smarter than other animals? We’ve got a bigger brain, of course. But when it comes to brains, is bigger always better?
Traditionally, scientists have thought that humans’ superior intelligence derived(源于)mostly from the fact that our brains are three times bigger than those of our nearest living relatives, chimpanzees. People even used to believe that because men have slightly larger brains than women that men are smarter.
This, however, is not the truth. Scientists at University College London in the UK have found that brain organization, and not brain size, is the key to the superiority of human intelligence, reported Live Science.
Through millions of years of evolution, our ancestors were constantly pushed to get smarter so that they could meet the demands of new environments. However, holding this growing intelligence in increasingly large brains was not the best choice because bigger brains require more energy to power. “This is when reorganization may come into play, ”said Christophe Soligo, a member of the London research team.
In the study, scientists looked at the brains of 17 species of primates(灵长目动物), including monkeys, apes and humans. They found that in the process of evolution, brains didn’t keep growing as a whole. Certain regions of the brain grew prior to others in response to species’ needs, and in this way they could make the best use of their limited brain space.
For example, when early humans were struggling to survive, the brain region in charge of using tools and finding food grew in size more than other regions. But in modern times, the prefrontal cortex(前额皮质)—the region in charge of social cognition(认知), moral judgments and goal-directed planning—grew more than the rest of the brain.
Think of the brain as a room. If a big room is poorly organized, it doesn’t necessarily store more stuff than a smaller one.
Paul Manger, professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, explains this principle using the example of whales. He told Scientific American: “Whales have big brains, absolutely. But if you look at the actual structure of the brain, it’s not very complex. Brain size only matters if the rest of the brain is organized properly. ”It has recently been found that humans are smarter than the other animals mainly because .
| A．they are a species of primates |
| B．they have much larger brains |
| C．their brain structure is more complex |
| D．they were constantly pushed to get smarter |
According to the article, in recent human evolution, .
| A．the brain kept growing in size to adapt to new environments |
| B．most regions of the brain didn’t change |
| C．the prefrontal cortex grew more than the rest of the brain |
| D．humans’ brains became increasingly simple so that humans could survive |
What can we conclude from the article?
| A．Gender makes a difference in intelligence. |
| B．The size of the brain has nothing to do with intelligence. |
| C．Species whose brain is organized properly tend to be smarter. |
| D．Larger brains are usually organized better than smaller ones. |
The method the writer uses to develop the last paragraph is .
| A．by presenting research data |
| B．by giving examples |
| C．by making a comparison |
| D．by analyzing cause and effect |
From Avatar to Lord of the Rings, plants are no strangers to playing big movie roles. However, no one has ever shot a film that plants themselves can watch until now. In a New York art gallery, seven house plants have spent the last seven weeks watching Strange Skies, the first travel documentary for a vegetable audience. All the plants sat in the cinema in rows, enjoying themselves in Italian sunshine.
The movie was made by American artist Jonathon Keats. It consists of Italian skies recorded over two months and made into a six-minute-long movie. The film shows the clear dawn(黎明), high clouds, amazing dusk and then beautiful night. The movie has no sound and the plants, of course, do not applaud. But Stephen Squibb, a professor from Harvard University, said these plants could benefit from it—the light of the movie keeps them alive because they can continue the process of turning light into energy.
“I realized there was a much larger audience—plants—that were not being serviced, ”Keats said. “I wanted to provide plants with entertainment that companies such as Disney provide for humans. ”Meanwhile, Keats also wants to explore plants’ sensibilities(敏感性)further. He plans to open a“restaurant for plants”at a Californian museum.
One visitor, photographer Abbas Ebrahimi, admired(羡慕)the green audience, “Plants are better than us. We die and go, while in spring they come back each time. ”But when talking about the movie, he said after thinking for a few minutes, “It doesn’t mean anything to me at all. It’s just about light. For some people, it might mean something. ”What can we learn about Keats according to the passage?
| A．He is an artist from Harvard University. |
| B．He opened a restaurant for plants. |
| C．He made the film Strange Skies. |
| D．He liked recording Italian skies. |
It can be learned that Strange Skies .
| A．has already created beautiful sound |
| B．was shot from dawn to dusk |
| C．made plants play roles in it |
| D．is the first travel film for plants |
What did Stephen Squibb think of Strange Skies?
| A．He thought it had explored plants’ sensibilities. |
| B．He thought it meant nothing to him. |
| C．He thought it could keep plants growing. |
| D．He thought it offered entertainment to plants. |
Why did Abbas Ebrahimi admire the green audience?
| A．Because they die and re-grow in spring. |
| B．Because they mean something to him. |
| C．Because there are more plants than people. |
| D．Because they can enjoy the movie. |
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