Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the

Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the

题型:不详难度:来源:
Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the morning. You jump out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with hardly a moment to think. A stressful journey to work gets your blood pressure climbing. Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disasters. In that sort of mood, who can get down to work, particularly some creative, original problem-solving work?
The way most of us spend our mornings is exactly opposite to the conditions that promote flexible, open-minded thinking. Imaginative ideas are most likely to come to us when we’re unfocused. If you are one of those energetic morning people, your most inventive time comes in the early evening when you are relaxed. Sleepy people’s lack of focus leads to an increase in creative problem solving. By not giving yourself time to tune into your wandering mind, you’re missing out on the surprising solutions it may offer.
The trip you take to work doesn’t help, either. The stress slows down the speed with which signals travel between neurons (神经细胞), making inspirations less likely to occur. And while we all should read a lot about what’s going on in the world, it would not make you feel good for sure, so put that news website or newspaper aside until after the day’s work is done.
So what would our mornings look like if we wanted to start them with a full capacity for creative problem solving? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead. We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, stopping thinking about tasks in favor of a few more minutes of relaxation. We’d take some deep breaths on our way to work, instead of complaining about heavy traffic. And once in the office—after we get a cup of coffee—we’d click on links not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer. 
小题1:According to the author, we are more creative when we are _______.
A.focused
B.relaxed
C.awake
D.busy
小题2:What does the author imply about newspapers?
A.They are solution providers.
B.They are a source of inspiration.
C.They are normally full of bad news.
D.They are more educational than websites.
小题3: By “tune into your wandering mind” (in Para. 2), the author means “_______”.
A.wander into the wild
B.listen to a beautiful tune
C.switch to the traffic channel
D.stop concentrating on anything
小题4:The author writes the last paragraph in order to _______.
A.offer practical suggestions
B.summarize past experiences
C.advocate diverse ways of life
D.establish a routine for the future

答案

小题1:B
小题2:C
小题3:D
小题4:A
解析
本文是一篇科普说明文。研究表明,放松心情更有利于提高工作效率,更有利于解决创造性的解决问题;压力阻滞了神经细胞信号的传输,只会导致工作效率下降。
小题1:细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据第二段第三句中“…your most inventive time comes in the early evening when you are relaxed.”以及下文对压力阻滞了神经细胞信号的传输可知,放松使我们更具有创造性,故B项正确。
小题2:细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据第一段倒数第二句中“…the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disaters.”,可知报纸上总是充满了负面新闻,故C项正确。
小题3:词义猜测题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据语境可知,若一味集中注意力而无暇放松,将错失有创造性的解决问题的方法。D项意为“不将注意力故放在某事物上”,符合语境,故D项正确。
小题4:主旨大意题。难度中等。
【解题思路】通读最后一段可知,该段主要讲述对如何放松心情提出一些建议,如提早起身、洗热水澡、做深呼吸等等,故A项正确。
举一反三
Do you know how it is when you see someone yawn and you start yawning too? Or how hard it is to be among people laughing and not laugh yourself? Well, apparently it"s because we have mirror neurons (神经元)in our brains.
Put simply, the existence of mirror neurons suggests that every time we see someone else do something, our brains imitate (模仿)it,whether or not we actually perform the same action. This explains a great deal about how we learn to smile, talk, walk, dance or play sports. But the idea goes further: mirror neurons not only appear to explain physical actions y they also tell us that there is a biological basis for the way we understand other people.
Mirror neurons can undoubtedly be found all over our brains, but especially in the areas which relate to our ability to use languages, and to understand how other people feel. Researchers have found that mirror neurons relate strongly to language. A group of researchers discovered that if they gave people sentences to listen to ( for example :"The hand took hold of the ball" ) , the same mirror neurons were triggered as when the action was actually performed (in this example, actually taking hold of a ball).
Any problems with mirror neurons may well result in problems with behavior. Much researeh suggests that people with social and behavioral problems have mirror neurons which are not fully functioning. However, it is not yet known exactly how these discoveries might help find treatments for social disorders.
Research into mirror neurons seems to provide us with ever more information concerning how humans behave and interact(互动).Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent (相等物)for ncurosciencc of what Einstein"s theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does--well,perhaps you"ll understand why.
小题1:Mirror neurons can explain         .
A.why we cry when we are hurt
B.why we cough when we suffer from a cold
C.why we smile when we see someone else smile
D.why we yawn when we see someone else stay up late
小题2:The underlined word "triggered" in the third paragraph probably means “  
A.set offB.cut offC.built upD.broken up
小题3:We can learn from the passage that mirror neurons  .
A.relate to human behavior and interaction
B.control human physical actions and feelings
C.result in bad behavior and social disorders
D.determine our knowledge and language abilities
小题4:What is the passage mainly about?
A.Ways to find mirror neurons.
B.Problems of mirror neurons.
C.Existence of mirror neurons.
D.Functions of mirror neurons.

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
You may think that sailing is a difficult sport, but it is really not hard to learn it. You do not need to be strong. But you need to be quick. And you need to understand a few basic rules about the wind.
First, you must ask yourself, “Where is the wind coming from? Is it coming from ahead or behind or from the side?” You must think about this all the time on the boat. The wind direction tells you what to do with the sail.
Let’s start with the wind blowing from the behind. This means the wind and the boat are going in the same direction. Then you must always keep the sail outside the boat. It should be at a 90° angle (角度) to the boat. Then it will catch the wind best.
If the wind is blowing from the side, it is blowing across the boat. In this case, you must keep the sail half way outside the boat. It should be at a 45° angle to the boat. It needs to be out far enough to catch the wind, but it shouldn’t flap (摆动). It shouldn’t look like on a flagpole. If it is flapping, it is probably out too far, and the boat will slow down.
Sailing into the wind is not possible. If you try, the sail will flap and the boat will stop. You may want to go in that direction. It is possible, but you can’t go in a straight line. You must go first in one direction and then in another. This is called tacking. When you are tacking, you must always keep the sail inside the boat.
小题1:What should you consider first while sailing?
A.Sailors’ strength.B.Wave levels.
C.Wind directions.D.Size of sails.
小题2:What does the word “It” underlined in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A.The boat.B.The wind.C.The sail.D.The angle.
小题3:What do you have to do when sailing against the wind?
A.Move in a straight line.B.Allow the sail to flap.
C.Lower the sail.D.Tack the boat.
小题4:Where can you probably find the text?
A.In a popular magazine.B.In a tourist guidebook.
C.In a physics textbook.D.In an official report.

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Sea turtles come in many different sizes, shapes and colors. The shell of each sea turtle species is different in length, color, shape and the arrangement of the scales(鳞片).
Sea turtles do not have teeth but use their jaws (下巴)to eat. Their sense of smell is excellent. Their eyesight underwater is good, but they have near-sighted eyes out of water. Their special bodies make them adapt to life at sea. However, sea turtles maintain(保持) close ties to land.
Female sea turtles have to go to the seaside to lay their eggs in the sand; therefore, all baby sea turtles begin their lives on land. Most research on sea turtles has been focused on female turtles nesting and the baby sea turtles in the nest, largely because they can be found most easily. After decades of studying sea turtles, much has been learned about. However, many mysteries(谜) still remain.
Researchers do not yet know how long baby turtles spend in the open sea, or exactly where they go. People believe they spend their earliest years floating in the sea, where they do little more than eat and grow. Once turtles reach dinner-plate size, they appear at feeding grounds in waters near the shore. They grow slowly and take between 15 and 50 years to grow old enough to bear baby sea turtles, depending on the species. There is no way to know the age of a sea turtle from its physical appearance. It is believed that some species can live for over 100 years.
小题1:Which of the following statements is NOT true about sea turtles?
A.They don’t use teeth to eat.
B.They have a good sense of smell.
C.Sea turtles are more adaptable to life at sea.
D.Different species have different shells.
小题2:The underlined phrase “near-sighted eyes” in the second paragraph means_____.
A.good eyesightB.bad eyes
C.excellent eyesD.poor eyesight
小题3:Which of the following questions is answered in the text?
A.Why do female turtles lay eggs on land?
B.Why can’t people tell how old a sea turtle is from its appearance?
C.Where do the baby turtles usually go?
D.Do sea turtles grow very fast?
小题4:What would be the best title for the text?
A.Mysteries About Sea Turtles
B.Baby and Female Sea Turtles
C.The Growth of Different Sea Turtles
D.The Characteristics(特点) of Sea Turtles

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By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns(酒馆), and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor (前身) of the modern fridge, had been invented.
  Making an efficient icebox as not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary(未发展的). The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation(绝缘) and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
  But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price(高价) for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.
小题1:Where was ice used after the Civil War?
A.In refrigerating freight cars and households.
B.In hotels, taverns and hospitals
C.In families of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
D.In fresh meat, fish and butter by city dealers.
小题2:What was essential to to make an icebox efficient according to the passage?
A.Keeping the ice from melting
B.Knowledge of the physics of heat.
C.Balance of insulation and circulation
D.Making efforts to reduce the use of ice
小题3:The second paragraph is mainly about_____
A.the deveopment of icebox
B.the theoretical foundation of icebox
C.the wrong ideas about icebox
D.the way of using icebox
小题4: What can we infer from the text?
A.Thomas Moore is the inventor of modern fridge
B.The butter produced by Thomas Moored is better in quality than other famers’
C.Knowledge of the physics of heat plays an important part in inventing a good icebox
D.Before 1880, most of the sold ice was used for family use.
小题5: Without an ice box, farmers had to go to the market at night ________.
A.to sell their produce at high price
B.to go home earlier
C.to keep their produce fresh
D.to win more customers than their competitors

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Our surroundings are being polluted faster than nature and man’s present efforts cannot prevent it. Time is bringing us more people, and more people will bring us more industry, more cars, larger cities, and the growing use of man-made materials.
What can explain and solve this problem? The fact is that pollution is caused by man—by his desire for a modern way of life. We make “increasing industrialization” our chief aim. So we are often ready to offer everything: clean air, pure water, good food, our health and the future of our children. There is a constant flow of people from the countryside into the cities, eager for the benefits of our modern society. But as our technological achievements have grown in the last twenty years, pollution has become a serious problem.
Isn’t it time we stopped to ask ourselves where we are going—and why? It makes one think of the story about the airline pilot who told his passengers over the loudspeaker, “I’ve some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we’re making rapid progress at 530 miles per hour. The bad news is that we’re lost and don’t know where we’re going.” The sad fact is that this becomes a true story when spoken of our modern society.
小题1:Man cannot prevent the world from being polluted mainly because______.
A.the population of the world is decreasing fast
B.people use too many man-made materials
C.we have more and more industry
D.we are producing more cars, trucks and buses
小题2:According to the passage, what does man value most?
A.Industry.B.Health.
C.Clean air.D.The future of the children.
小题3:The story about the airline pilot tells us that ______.
A.man knows where the society is going
B.people do not welcome the rapid development of modern society
C.man can do little about the problem of pollution
D.the writer is worried about the future of our society
小题4:People crowd into the cities because ______.
A.they want very much to find well-paid jobs
B.they are anxious to enjoy the achievements of our society
C.they have become tired of their homeland
D.they have a strong wish to become industrial workers

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