We all know what a brain is. A doctor will tell you that the brain is the organ of the body in the head. It controls our body's functions, movements, emotions and thoughts. But a brain can mean so much more.
A brain can also simply be a smart person, If a person is called brainy, she is smart and intelligent. If a family has many children but one of them is super smart, you could say, "She's the brains in the family. " And if you are the brains behind something you are responsible for developing or organizing something. For example, Bill Gates is the brains behind Microsoft.
Brain trust is a group of experts who give advice. Word experts say the phrase"brain trust" became popular when Franklin D. Roosevelt first ran for president in 1932, Several professors gave him advice on social and political issues facing the U. S.These professors were called his "brain trust. "
These ways we use the word "brain" all make sense. But other ways we use the word are not so easy to understand. For example, to understand the next brain expression, you first need to know the word“drain." As a verb to drain means to remove something by letting it flow away. So a brain drain may sound like a disease where the brain flows out the ears. But, brain drain is when a country's most educated people leave their countries to live in another. The brains are,sort of,draining out of the country.
However,if people are responsible for a great idea,you could say they brainstormed it. Here,brainstorm is not an act of weather. It is a process of thinking creatively about a complex topic. For example, business leaders may use brainstorming to create new products, and government leaders may brainstorm to solve problems.
If people are brainwashed, it does not mean their brains are nice and clean. To brainwash means to make someone accept new beliefs by using repeated pressure in a forceful or tricky way. Keep in mind that brainwash is never used in a positive way.
According to the text, if you're the CEO of Bai Du you can be called________.
| A．the brains behind Bai Du |
| B．Bai Du's brain trust |
| C．the brain drain of Bai Du |
| D．the organ of Bai Du |
Why did Roosevelt successfully win the election?
| A．Because he was smart at giving advice. |
| B．Because word experts were popular. |
| C．Because he got his brain trust. |
| D．Because he was the brains behind America. |
Which of the following expression is always used in a negative way?
| A．Brain trust | B．Brain drain |
| C．Brainstorm | D．Brainwash |
B
Oprah Winfrey, the queen of American daytime talk TV, is considered one of the most powerful women in the world．Now, after 25 years’ hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show, the star has announced she is calling it quits．
According to the Los Angeles Times, the move “signals the beginning of the decline for the daytime talk show．” More women are working full-time jobs, and people are turning to cable (有线电视) and pre-recorded shows for their entertainment．
It may be that Oprah isn’t quitting so much as moving on．She has created the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), and will most likely move her show to the network．If audiences around the world need Oprah, they well know where to look．
Oprah Winfrey was born to a single teenage mother in a small town in rural Mississippi, US．As a child, she lived with poverty and abuse．But she got a job at a local radio station, where her honesty, emotional style won her many fans．She quickly rose through the ranks of radio and television before launching her own production company and starting her own show．
Oprah’s talk show was not the first of its kind, but it quickly became the best and most popular．It made talk shows popular, and others jumped in to start similar shows．But while other talk shows turned ugly, featuring guests who argued and attacked each other with chairs, Oprah rose above the mess．
“Part of her power lies in the fact that her life story resonates (产生共鸣) with her audience, as a kind of version of the American dream,” writes Kevin Connolly, a reporter with the BBC．
She became a star because of the way she opened up about her problems to her audience．She shared her own struggles with relationships and weight．She focused on self-help．Connolly believes “something in her honesty and her sometimes painfully emotional directness struck home with a certain type of American”．
60．Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A．The stop of Oprah’s show reflects the decrease of audience．
B．Oprah hosted her show for about 25 years．
C．American talk show was pioneered by Oprah．
D．Oprah used to be a radio presenter．
61．What does the underlined sentence mean?
A．Oprah could deal with the guests fighting very well．
B．Oprah’s show stood out with her unique style．
C．Oprah turned a deaf ear to other people’s quarrel．
D．Oprah’s fame rose because lots of people watch her show．
62．From Kevin Connolly, we know people like Oprah’s show for all the reasons EXCEPT ________．
A．Oprah always shares people’s life stories in her show
B．the audiences are touched by Oprah’s honesty and frankness
C．Oprah’s life story reflects the truth of American dream
D．some audiences are inspired by Oprah’s show
63．According to the text, Oprah ________．
A．always volunteers to help those who need help
B．has practiced presentational skills since she was young
C．believes that one should rely on himself to solve problems
D．calls on women to work full-time jobs
第三部分 阅读理解 (共两节，满分40分)
第一节 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Recently, one of my best friends, whom I’ve shared just about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the weekend with me．Since I moved to a new town several years ago, we’ve both always looked forward to the few times a year when we can see each other．
Over the weekend, we spent hours and hours, staying up late into the night, talking about the people she was hanging around with．She started telling me stories about her new boyfriend, about how he experimented with drugs and was into other self-destructive behavior．I was blown away! She told me how she had been lying to her parents about where she was going and even stealing out to see this guy because they didn’t want her around him．No matter how hard I tried to tell her that she deserved better, she didn’t believe me．Her self-respect seemed to have disappeared．
I tried to convince her that she was ruining her future and heading for big trouble．I felt like I was getting nowhere．I just couldn’t believe that she really thought it was acceptable to hang with a bunch of losers, especially her boyfriend．
By the time she left, I was really worried about her and exhausted by the experience．It had been so frustrating, I had come close to telling her several times during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to continue our friendship，but I didn’t．I put the power of friendship to the final test．We’d been friends for far too long．I had to hope that she valued me enough to know that I was trying to save her from hurting herself．I wanted to believe that our friendship could conquer anything．
A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our conversation, and then she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend．I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face．It was one of the truly rewarding moments in my life．Never had I been so proud of a friend．
56．In the writer’s opinion, her friend ________．
A．was a girl with no self-respect
B．could find a better boyfriend
C．was brave enough to stick to her own choice
D．didn’t value the writer’s suggestion
57．What did the writer worry about?
A．She would lose the friendship with her．
B．Her friend’s parents would be worried about their daughter．
C．Her friend would get into great trouble with the boy．
D．Her friend’s boyfriend would be in great trouble．
58．We may leam from Paragraph 3 that the writer ________．
A．didn’t want to go anywhere else
B．hated her friend’s hanging with her boyfriend
C．couldn’t believe that her friend’s choice was acceptable
D．doubted that she could in any way help her friend
59．What can be concluded from the passage?
A．Friendship starting from childhood is not reliable．
B．Friendship is a cure for any injury in life．
C．Friendship should be everlasting once begun．
D．Friendship can have magical power in life．
NOT all memories are sweet. Some people spend all their lives trying to forget bad memories. Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars.
Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a scary events. They hope it might reduce, or possibly erase, the effect of painful memories.
In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body producing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are erased.
The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it.
Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers’ troubling memories after war. They say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories.
“Some memories can ruin people's lives. They come back to you when you don’t want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions,” said Roger Pitman.
But those who are against the research say that changing memories is very dangerous because memories make us different from others. They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past.
“All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were horrible at the time but make us who we are. I’m not sure whether we want to wipe those memories out,” said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist.What does the underlined word “erase” mean?
| A．change | B．forgive | C．add | D．remove |
The passage is mainly about _________.
| A．a new medical invention | B．a new research on the pill |
| C．the argument about the research on the pill | D．a way of erasing painful memories |
The drug tested on people can _________.
| A．cause the brain to fix memories | B．stop people remembering bad events |
| C．prevent body producing certain chemicals | D．wipe out the bad memories |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．Some people doubt if the pills should be used to help people forget bad memories. |
| B．The pill will stop people’s bad memories. |
| C．Taking the pill will do harm to people’s health. |
| D．The pill has been produced in America. |
Which of the following does Rebecca Dresser agree with?
| A．Some memories can ruin people’s lives. |
| B．People want to get rid of bad memories. |
| C．The pill will reduce people’s sufferings from bad memories. |
| D．Having bad events makes us different from others. |
What is eBay? The simple answer is that it is a global trading platform where nearly anyone can trade practically anything. People can sell and buy all kinds of products and goods, including cars, movies and DVDs, sporting goods, travel tickets, musical instruments, clothes and shoes — the list goes on and on
The idea came from Peter Omidyar, who was born in Paris and moved to Washington when he was still a child. At high school, he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tuft University in 1988, he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started Bay as a kind of hobby, at first offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the website that he had to upgrade (升级) and he began charging a fee to members. Joined by a friend, Peter Skill, and in 1998 by his capable CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great crashes of the late 1990s, ebay has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping websites on the Internet
Ebay sells connections, not goods, putting buyer and seller into contact with each other. All you have to do is lake an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you are in business. The world is your market place. Of course for each item, eBay gets a percentage and that is a great deal of money. Every day there are more than sixteen million items listed on eBay and eighty percent of the items are sold.
We learn from the text that eBay provides people with _________.
| A．a way of buying and selling goods |
| B．a place to show their own photos |
| C．a website for them to upgrade |
| D．a chance to buy things at low prices |
Why did Peter create eBay after graduating from university?
| A．For fun | B．To make money |
| C．For gathering the engineers | D．To fulfill a task of his company |
From “he has never looked back” in Paragraph 2 we learn that Peter _________.
| A．did not feel lonely | B．was always hopeful |
| C．did not think about the past | D．became more and more successful |
How does eBay make money from its website?
| A．By bringing sellers together. | B．By charging for each sale |
| C．By listing items online | D．By making e-photos. |
I know what you’re thinking: Pizza? For breakfast? But the truth is that you can have last night’s leftovers with it in the morning, if you want to.
I know lots of women who skip breakfast, and they have a ton of different excuses for doing it. Some say they don’t have time. Others think they’re “saving” calories (卡路里), still others say they just don’t like breakfast food .
But the fact is that eating in the morning is very important when you’re trying to lose weight. “Eating anything from 300 to 400 calories would be better than nothing at all,” says Katherine Brooking, who developed the super-easy eating plan for this year’s “SELF CHALLENGE”. And even pizza can be healthy if it’s loaded with vegetables, as long as you stick to only one small piece.
Breakfast is one meal I never miss, and the same goes for most weight loss success stories. Research shows that eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that breakfast skippers have a bigger chance of gaining weight than those who regularly have a morning meal.
So eat something in the morning, anything. I know plenty of friends who end up having no breakfast, or they just have coffee or orange juice. I say, try heating up last night’s leftovers. It may sound crazy, but if it works for you, do it! I find if I tell myself, “You can always eat it tomorrow,” I put away the leftovers instead of eating more that night. Try it, and you may save yourself some pre-bedtime calories. And you will watch your body gain the fat-burning effects.
The underlined word “leftovers” in Paragraph 1 probably means _________.
| A．food remaining after a meal | B．breakfast |
| C．meals made of vegetables | D．pizza with fruit |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Working women usually have breakfast in a hurry. |
| B．Many people have wrong ideas about breakfast. |
| C．If we have pizza loaded with vegetables, we will certainly not gain weight. |
| D．Eating vegetables helps us to save energy. |
According to the last paragraph, it is important to_________.
| A．eat something for breakfast | B．be careful about what you eat |
| C．heat up food before eating it | D．eat calorie-controlled food |
The text is written mainly for those _________.
| A．who go to work early | B．who want to lose weight |
| C．who stay up late | D．who eat before sleep |
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