Could we "terraform" Mars—that is, change its frozen, thinaired surface into something more friendly and Earthlike? Should we? The first question has a clear answer: Yes, we probably could. Spacecraft, including the ones now exploring Mars, have found evidence that it was warm in its youth，with rivers flowing into vast seas. And right here on Earth, we've learned how to warm a planet: just add greenhouse gases to its atmosphere. Much of the CO2 that once warmed Mars is probably still there，in frozen dirt and polar ice caps, and so is the water.
Most of the work in terraforming，says NASA scientist Chris Mackay, would be done by life itself. "You don't build Mars," Mackay says. "You just warm it up and throw some seeds." Powerful greenhouse gases could be produced from elements in dirt and air on Mars and blown into the atmosphere； by warming the planet, they would release the frozen CO2 , which would quicken the warming and increase atmospheric pressure to the point where liquid water could flow. Meanwhile, says botanist James Graham of the University of Wisconsin, human settlers could seed the red rock with a succession (系列) of ecosystems, first bacteria and lichens (地衣)，which survive in Antarctica, later mosses (苔藓)，and after one thousand years or so，redwoods. Getting breathable oxygen levels out of those forests，though，could take thousands of years.
However, Mars is in no immediate danger. Some space scientists recently recommended going to the moon or an asteroid (小行星)first，and pointed out the space agency lacks the funds to go anywhere. It didn't estimate the cost of gardening a dead planet. What is the most essential to make Mars fit for living?
| A．Turn ice into flowing water. |
| B．Clean the dirty atmosphere. |
| C．Make the atmosphere more suitable. |
| D．Go to the moon or an asteroid first. |
What does the author think of the idea of terraforming Mars?
| A．We could do it. | B．We couldn't do it. |
| C．We should do it. | D．We shouldn't do it. |
In the botanist's opinion, man needs to ______ .
| A．enable Mars to clean its atmosphere |
| B．build a greenhouse on Mars |
| C．send some people to settle on Mars |
| D．cultivate ecosystems from lower to higher life form |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Making Mars the New Earth. |
| B．A Good Way to Change the Universe. |
| C．Humans' Great Power. |
| D．Terrible Science and Technology. |
Last week when I was sitting in my office，I heard an elderly lady talking on the phone about her husband．Her husband’s name was Ed．He dropped her off for her doctor’s appointment and was going to park the car and wait for her．She was so upset that she started to cry．I knew I should take action．
The lady told me her name was Helen and she called the restaurant she and her husband were going to have lunch at after her appointment to see if he was waiting for her there．She explained that she thought her husband parked the car in the parking lot and waited for her in the car but she didn’t find him there so she returned to see if he entered the medical building，but Ed was not there either．She regretted making her husband park the car alone since some signs of Alzheimer’s(早老年性痴呆病)had happened in his behavior．I asked a few nurses to help look for Ed inside and outside the medical building according to Helen’s description．Then I offered to drive Helen to the restaurant to see if Ed was waiting for her there．
On arriving at the parking lot of the restaurant，Helen began to search for Ed’s car but she failed，which suggested Ed wasn’t there．We decided to have a talk with the manager before we returned to the hospital．On our way to the manager’s office．I received a call from a nurse，who said they had found Ed．What a relief! But we still needed to go on searching since he forgot where he parked his car! Fortunately, we didn’t have much difficulty finding it．
As I waved good-bye to the couple, I thought “This is true love in life．The love is not romantic but it stays with us all the time．’’We learn from this passage that Ed ．
| A．went to the restaurant himself |
| B．might have developed Alzheimer’s |
| C．visited his friend in the hospital |
| D．worried about his wife very much |
When did the author know that Ed was found?
| A．After the author and Helen returned from the restaurant． |
| B．While the author and Helen were on their way to the restaurant． |
| C．Before the author and Helen found the manager of the restaurant． |
| D．When the author and Helen arrived at the parking lot of the restaurant． |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The author was Helen’s friend． |
| B．The author had seen Ed before． |
| C．The author went to see his doctor． |
| D．The author worked in the hospital． |
The underlined word‘‘relief'’in the third paragraph means‘‘ ’’．
| A．a feeling of comfort | B．the final conclusion |
| C．something misleading | D．an important discovery |
From the passage, we can know that the author was .
| A．serious | B．hardworking |
| C．warm—hearted | D．experienced |
When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, they usually talk simultaneously(同时地) about a variety of subjects, including children, men, careers and what’s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen—they can’t do both—and they don’t understand that women can. Besides, women consider that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships—not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the subtle body language signals that reveal how the characters are feeling emotionally. Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group, they developed the ability to communicate successfully in order to maintain relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to relate the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a means of bonding（连接). A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls’ mothers talked to them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author of Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to, and looked at, baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents respond to the brains of their children. Since a girl’s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we therefore talk to them more. Consequently, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually disappointed to receive only short grunts(哼哼声） in reply.While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they .
| A．are afraid of awkward silence with their families and friends |
| B．can both talk and watch the screen at the same time |
| C．think they can have a good time and develop relationships |
| D．have to explain the plot and body language to their husbands |
After a vacation with her girlfriend, a woman would talk to her again on the phone for hours in order to .
| A．experience the happy time again |
| B．keep a close tie with her |
| C．recommend her a new scenic spot |
| D．remind her of something forgotten |
What does the author want to tell us most?
| A．Women’s brains are better organized for language and communication. |
| B．Women love to talk because they are more sociable than men. |
| C．Men do not like talking because they rely more on facts. |
| D．Social conditioning is not the reason why women love talking. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Women are Socially Trained to Talk |
| B．Talking Maintains Relationships |
| C．Women Love to Talk |
| D．Men Talk Differently from Women |
| 1.How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday? ·Finding：A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day. ·Step：Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery－operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day. 2．How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday? ·Finding：Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30% wash their hands only 4 times a day—half of the number doctors recommend. ·Step：We touch our faces around 3，000 times a day—often inviting germs(病菌)to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds. 3．How often do you think about fighting germs? ·Finding：Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should. ·Step：Be aware of germs. Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge(海绵)that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds. |
What is found out about American seniors?
| A．Most of them have good habits. |
| B．Nearly 30% of them bathe three days a week. |
| C．All of them are fighting germs better than expected. |
| D．About one third of them brush their teeth only once a day. |
Doctors suggest that people should wash their hands ________．
| A．twice a day | B．three times a day |
| C．four times a day | D．eight times a day |
Which of the following is true according to the text?
| A．We should keep from touching our faces. |
| B．There are less than 300 types of bacteria in the mouth. |
| C．A kitchen sponge can carry more germs than a toilet. |
| D．We should wash our hands before touching a door handle. |
If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise—and as a result, we are aging unnecessarily soon.
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age, and how the process of aging could be slowed down.
With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying occupations.
Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side sections of the brain, which relate to intellect (智能) and emotion, and determine the human character. (The rear section of the brain, which controls functions like eating and breathing, does not contract with age, and one can continue living without intellectual or emotional faculties.)
Contraction of front and side parts—as cells die off—was observed in some subjects in their thirties, but it was still not evident in some sixty- and seventy-year-olds.
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple remedy to the contraction normally associated with age—using the head. The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns. Those least at risk, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White collar workers doing routine work in government offices are, however, as likely to have shrinking brains as the farm worker, bus driver and shop assistant. Matsuzawa’s findings show that thinking can prevent the brain from shrinking. Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells need. “The best way to maintain good blood circulation is through using the brain,” he says, “Think hard and engage in conversation. Don’t rely on pocket calculators.”The team of doctors wanted to find out ________.
why certain people age sooner than others
B. how to make people live longer
C. the size of certain people’s brains
D. which people are most intelligentOn what are their research findings based?
A survey of farmers in northern Japan.
B. Tests performed on a thousand old people.
C. The study of brain volumes of different people
D. The latest development of computer technology.The word “subjects” in Paragraph 5 means ________.
something to be considered
B. branches of knowledge studied
C. persons chosen to be studied in an experiment
D. any member of a state except the supreme ruler.According to the passage, which people seem to age slower than the others?
| A．Lawyers. | B．Farmers. |
| C．Clerks. | D．Shop assistants. |
When asked about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, an absolute delight, which seems to get rarer the older we get.
For kids, happiness has a magical quality. Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved(毫无掩饰的)．
In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement, love and popularity. I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party.
In adulthood the things that bring deep joy—love, marriage, birth—also bring responsibility and the risk of loss.For adults, happiness is complicated(复杂的)．
My definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”．The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are.It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even good health.
I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunch－box and had the house to myself. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids and my husband came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.
Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work.I don't think that my grandmother, who raised 14 children, had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what satisfied her.
We, however, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we've got to have. We're so self－conscious about our “right” to it that it's making us miserable. So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren't necessarily happier.
Happiness isn't about what happens to us—it's about how we see what happens to us. It's the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative. It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess.As people grow older, they ________．
| A．feel it harder to experience happiness . |
| B．associate their happiness less with others |
| C．will take fewer risks in pursuing happiness |
| D．tend to believe responsibility means happiness |
What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 5 and 6?
| A．She cares little about her own health. |
| B．She enjoys the freedom of traveling. |
| C．She is easily pleased by things in daily life. |
| D．She prefers getting pleasure from housework. |
What can be inferred from Paragraph 7?
| A．Psychologists think satisfying work is key to happiness. |
| B．Psychologists' opinion is well proved by Grandma's case. |
| C．Grandma often found time for social gatherings. |
| D．Grandma's happiness came from modest expectations of life. |
People who equal happiness with wealth and success ________．
| A．consider pressure something blocking their way |
| B．stress their right to happiness too much |
| C．are at a loss to make correct choices |
| D．are more likely to be happy |
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