Across the United States, universities and colleges have been looking to become more sustainable (可持续发展的) and more than 600 schools have already planned to become eco-friendly. The EcoDorm, home to 36 students at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, was designed to be sustainable from top to bottom, or in this case, from its rainwater-collection system to its garden. The dormitory is bringing new meaning to the concept of living “green” at college.
At Warren Wilson College, a biological science school with fewer than 1,000 students, the sustainability drive came from the student body. The EcoDorm concept was presented ten years ago by two students; a planning committee firstly suggested using building materials like corncob. Although the architects disagreed with the idea, they came up with other creative solutions: Wood siding was taken from the trees grown in the school yard that were suffering from a disease, and rainwater was collected in an old railway car and pumped back into the house to clean the toilets.
All in all, the dorm uses nearly two-thirds less electricity than a similar-sized traditional building world. But even the most sustainable homes need continued efforts from its livers. And in the case of EcoDorm, students live by their words. Most also take advantage of the dorm’s bio-garden, planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables. “I didn’t have to worry about paper towels being wasted or feel bad about drying my clothes outside,” Jeremy Lekich, the dorm’s gardener, said. “Basically, it has made my life easier.”
We can learn from the text that the EcoDorm in the US .
| A．offers students the chances to have a natural living at college |
| B．was firstly built by two college students |
| C．was designed for saving building materials |
| D．is only applicable in few schools |
The second paragraph is mainly about .
| A．where the EcoDorm was built |
| B．when the EcoDorm got its name |
| C．what the EcoDorm is made of |
| D．how the concept of EcoDorm started |
What is the advantage of the EcoDorm?
| A．It helps students to enjoy life at college. |
| B．It saves a lot of money and energy for the college. |
| C．It makes students study harder. |
| D．It brings new energy to the college. |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．A long-term development calls for students’ efforts. |
| B．Students’ ideas should be encouraged at college. |
| C．Green living is a new trend at American colleges. |
| D．Students can learn to protect the environment through practice. |
第三部分 阅读理解（共20 小题；每小题2分，满分40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。
“Can I see my baby?” asked the happy new mother. The bundle(婴儿包) was placed in her arms and when she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped—the baby had been born without ears. Time, however, proved that the baby’s hearing was perfect except his appearance.
One day when he rushed home from school and threw himself into his mother’s arms, he cried out bitterly, “A boy, a big boy called me—a f-…freak.” She sighed, knowing that his life was to be endless of heartbreaks.
He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have been class president, but for that. He developed a gift for literature and music.
The boy’s father had a talk with the family doctor. Could nothing be done? “I believe we could graft(移植) on a pair of outer ears, if they could be donated,” the doctor decided. So the search began for a person who would make such a sacrifice for a young man. Two years went by. “You’re going to the hospital, son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need. But it’s a secret,” said the father.
The operation was a brilliant success. His talents blossomed into genius. School and college became a series of successes. Later he married and entered the diplomatic(外交) service. “But I must know!” he urged his father. “Who gave so much for me? I could never do enough for him.”
“I do not believe you could,” said the father, “but the agreement was that you are not to know…, not yet.” The years kept the secret, but the day did come… one of the darkest days that ever pass through a son. He stood with his father over his mother’s casket(棺材). Slowly and tenderly, the father stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, reddish-brown hair to let out the secret.
1. The story is mainly about_______.
A. how a boy had new ears through an operation
B. what a devoted parent privately did for the child
C. how a disabled boy turned into a useful person
D. why a donator made a sacrifice to a bright boy
2 The underlined word “freak” in Paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.
A. slow-acting person B. ugly-looking child
C. badly-behaved student D. strangely-shaped creature
3. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. The agreement was between the donator and the family.
B. The boy was so popular that he was made class president.
C. Finally the boy came to know who the donator was.
D. The mother donated her ears to her son after she died.
4. We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. real love sometimes lies in what is done unknown
B. it is up to parents to help their children heart and soul
C. true beauty lies only in the heart not in appearance
D. it’s a virtue for young generations to learn to be grateful
第Ⅱ卷（非选择题，共35分）
第四部分：写作（共两节，满分35分）
第一节 任务型读写（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，根据所读内容在表格中的空白处填入恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填一个单词。
In a memory – based competition between you and a chimp (猩猩); who do you think would win? If you put yourself on top, you might want to guess again.
In a test that challenged participants to remember numbers, a young chimp performed better than Japanese college students.
Here's how the test worked. At Kyoto University in Japan, human students and chimpanzee participants sat in front of a computer. Five numbers, ranging from 1 to 9, were combined with one another and then, they appeared at random places on the screen.
The numbers stayed on the screen for less than a second. In the first test, for example, participants saw the numbers for 650 milliseconds (about two- thirds of a second).
Then, each number disappeared and they saw a white square instead. Participants had to touch the squares in numerical order, based on the numbers that had been there a moment before.
In this test, the students touched the boxes in the correct order about 80 percent of the time. A young chimp named Ayumu performed equally well.
During a harder test, participants were only able to see the numbers for 210 milliseconds.
This time, students only succeeded in putting the boxes in the correct order about 40 percent of the time. But Ayumustill could select the boxes in the right order nearly 80 percent of the time.
Some people have what's called a "photographic memory", which allows them to remember a surprising number of details after just a quick glimpse of something. Ayumu's memory might work in a similar way, says lead researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa.
The chimp's young age might have something to do with his impressive performance, too. In previous tests, the Japanese researchers found that young chimps performed better than their mothers.
The scientists are interested to see whether Ayumu loses his strong memory as he arrows older. They already know that young children sometimes have sharp memories when offered something photographical, but they lose this ability over time.
| Topic |
A (76) competition between human beings and chimps |
| Purpose |
To judge whose memory is better |
| The (77) of the first test |
◆A chimp and some Japanese students participated in the competition and sat before a computer. ◆Different (78) of five numbers appeared on the screen. ◆Each of the number was (79) by a white square. |
| The results of the second test |
◆Students (80) to put the boxes in the right order about 40% of the time. ◆Ayumu got the right order (81) the time of the students |
| Conclusion |
◆Some people have “photographic memory”, (82) some people to remember numbers after they (83) at something. ◆The chimps have the similar (84) to human beings’. ◆Young children, just like chimps, have strong memory but they’ll lose it when they (85) . |
A team from Krakow, in Poland, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (机能性核共振成像) (FMRI) to assess brain activity when 40 volunteers were shown various images. Men showed activity in areas which dealt with what action they should take in order to avoid or face up to danger. But the study found more activity in the emotional centers of women's brains. The researchers, from another university, carried out scans on 21 men and 19 women. Brain activity was monitored while the volunteers were shown images of objects and images from ordinary life designed to remind different emotional states.
The images were displayed in two runs. For the first run, only negative pictures were shown. For the second run, only positive pictures were shown.
While viewing the negative images, women showed stronger and broader activity in the left thalamus（神经床）. This is an area which passes sense information to the pain and pleasure centres of the brain. Men showed more activity in an area of the brain called the left insula（脑岛）, which plays a key role in controlling natural functions, including breath, heart rate and digestion. Generally, activity in this area tells the body to either run away from danger, or meet it head on - the so-called "fight or flight response".
While viewing positive images, women showed stronger activity in an area of the brain associated with memory. With men, the stronger activity was recorded in an area associated with visual processing. Dr Urbanik believes these differences suggest women may analyze positive stimuli（刺激）in a broader social context and associate positive images with a particular memory.
For instance, viewing a picture of a smiling child might remind memories of a woman's own child at this age. On the contrary, male responses tend to be less emotional.
1．The research shows that men response differently to compared with women.
A．different images B．ordinary life
C．different activities D．medical scan
2．According to the passage, when faced with danger, .
A．women react more slowly than men B．women usually try to avoid it
C．men usually have no reaction D．men react to it more directly
3．What is discussed in the 4 th paragraph? .
A．Men and women’s different memories
B．The different responses to the children
C．Different reactions to positive stimuli
D．Negative results of the visual processing
4．The passage mainly develops .
A．by inferring B．by comparing
C．by listing examples D．by giving explanations
An Experiment
Materials: Newspaper, ‘ACE’ hardware ruler (1/8 “think”), a flat table.
Purposes: We’ll show that there is air pressure pushing on us, from every direction while we’re on this Earth.
|
Procedure:
First put a thin ruler on a flat table with a littleless than half of it hanging off the edge of the table
(see the drawing below). Next place a sheet of newspaper
over the ruler flat against the table. Make sure to have
as little air as possible under the paper so that the fold line of the newspaper is at the ruler. Then quickly strike the end of the ruler hanging off the edge of the table. If you strike it quick enough, the ruler will break near the table edge.
What’s going on?
The Earth is covered in a layer of air that is nearly 80 miles thick and at sea level (the bottom) exerts or ‘pushes’ hard almost 15 pounds of pressure per square inch. That means that a full sheet of newspaper laid out flat has nearly 9,300 pounds of air above it.
When you break the ruler above, you are able to break it because of the 'heavy' air pushing down on the paper while you quickly strike the ruler. At first the table is pushing back on the paper, and if you move the ruler quick enough, other air around the edges of the paper can't get under the paper fast enough, so you are trying to lift that 9,300 pounds with the ruler! Some air gets under the paper, but not enough, so the ruler breaks.
1．By doing the experiment, we may realize .
A．that air exits everywhere
B．why there are directions
C．that we live with air pressure
D．how air helps on the earth
2．How many steps are there in this experiment? .
A．2 B．3 C．4 D．5
3．The underlined word “exert” probably means .
A．cover completely B．advocate actively
C．influence gradually D．press heavily
4．The ruler breaks under a quick strike mainly because of .
A．the air pressure on the newspaper B．the heavy weight of the newspaper
C．the heavy weight of the flat table D．the strong power used on the ruler
On December 18, 1620, passengers on the British ship Mayflower came on shore at modern – day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony.
The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of reform-minded people in England built their own church, which was separate from the state – supported Church of England. Because of this, they were forced to leave the country and settle in Netherlands. After 12 years of struggling to adapt and make a hard living, the group sought financial backing from some London merchants to set up a colony in America.
On Septmeber 6,1620, one hundred and two passengers – called Pilgrims (朝圣者) by William Bradford, a passenger who would become the first governor of Plymouth Colony – crowded on the Mayflower to begin the long, hard journey to a new life in the New World. On November 11,1620, the Mayflower landed at Provincetown Harbor. Before going on shore, 41 male passengers – heads of families, single men and three male servants – signed the famous Mayflower contract, agreeing to form a government chosen by common election and to obey all laws made for the good of the colony.
Over the next month, several small leading teams were sent on shore to collect firewood and hunt for a good place to build a settlement. Around December 10, one of these groups found a harbor they liked on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. They returned to the Mayflower to tell the other passengers, but bad weather prevented then reaching the harbor until December 16. Two days later, the first group of Pilgrims went on shore. After exploring the region, the settlers chose a cleared area once controlled by members of a local Native American tribe (部落). The tribe had abandoned the village several years earlier, after an outbreak of European disease.
That winter of 1620 – 1621 was really hard, as the Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food and take care of the sick. By spring, 50 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers were dead. The remaining settlers made contact with returning members of the Native American tribe and in March they signed a peace treaty (条约) with the tribe chief. In the spring time, helped by the locals, the Pilgrims were able to plant crops – especially corn and beans – that were necessary to their survival.
On April 5,1621, the Mayflower and its crew left Plymouth to return to England. Over the next several decades, more and more settlers made the voyage across the Atlantic to Plymouth, which gradually grew into a successful shipbuilding and fishing center.
1．A group of English were forced to leave their country in 1606 because .
A．their belief was different from the official Church
B．they built their own churches in a foreign country
C．they lacked financial support from the government
D．they were ambitious to build the colony in America
2．How many days did the sea journey to Provincetown Harbor last? .
A．103 B．96 C．66 D．35
3．Several leading teams were sent in order to .
A．hunt for food for the passengers B．control local Native Americans
C．build a settlement for the passengers D．explore the region for their settlement
4．From the passage we know that between 1620 – 1621.
A．52 Mayflower passengers died of some illnesses
B．Pilgrims had a good relationship with the locals
C．Plymouth turned a main center for shipbuilding
D．Pilgrims tried to plant corns and beans in winter
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