阅读理解 How Room Designs Affect Our Work and Feelings
Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and
behaviors.But now scientists are giving this feeling an empirical (经验的,实证的) basis.They are
discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused, and lead to relaxation.
Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity.In 2007, Joan
MeyersLevy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room"s ceiling affects how
people think.Her research indicates that higher ceilings encourage people to think more freely, which may
lead them to make more abstract connections.Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.
In addition to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant"s ability to concentrate.Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of
attention.
Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design & Planning Laboratory at the University of Georgia.Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet
outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students
whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.
Recent study on room lighting design suggests that dim (暗淡的) light helps people to loosen up.If that
is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation.Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.
So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings."We have a very l
imited number of studies, so we"re_almost_looking_ at_the_problem_through_a_straw_(吸管),"architect David Allison says."How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That"s what
we"re all struggling with."
1. What does Joan MeyersLevy focus on in her research?
A. Light.
B. Ceilings.
C. Windows.
D. Furniture.
2. The passage tells us that ________.
A. the shape of furniture may affect people"s feelings
B. lower ceilings may help improve students" creativity
C. children in a dim classroom may improve their grades
D. students in rooms with unblocked views may feel relaxed
3. The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that ________.
A. the problem is not approached step by step
B. the researches so far have faults in themselves
C. the problem is too difficult for researchers to detect
D. research
in this area is not enough to make generalized patterns4. Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
CP:Central PointP:PointSp:Subpoint (次要点)C:Conclusion
born worldwide, according to a new study.
Scientists noted these types of atmospheric blasts rather than ontheground incidents like Chernobyl
(切尔诺贝利), effected birth gender across the globe.
Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum M?nchen, Germany, analysed population data from 1975 to 2007
for the U．S. and 39 European countries.
There was an increase in the number of baby boys relative to girls in all of the countries from 1964
to 1975. This was the case in many eastern European countries for several years after 1986.
Scientists are putting the first spike down to the atomic bomb tests of the 1960s and 1970s where
radioactive atoms were blasted into the atmosphere. Air currents caught these atoms and then distributed
them around the world.
They think the second spike is due to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in which the reactor exploded in
the Ukraine(乌克兰)．
The effects of Chernobyl were felt locally and no effect was seen in the U．S., probably because it
was too far from the disaster to have an effect.
"The closer the country was to Chernobyl, the stronger the effect," said study coauthor Hagen Scherb, a biostatistician(生物统计学家) at the German Research Center for Environmental Health in Munich.
More males were born relative to females in Belarus-the Ukraine"s neighbour-than in France.
The study is based largely on Cold Warera statistics, but the findings are highly relevant for how
gender could be affected after future nuclear disasters.
And in the wake of Japan"s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident experts are predicting
another baby boy boom could come, especially on the U．S. West Coast.
Previous radiation experiments on animals may give a clue for the increase in male births. Tests showed that radiation caused damage to the X chromosome(染色体) in sperm, Dr Scherb said.
A human sperm cell contains either an X or Y chromosome, while an egg only has an X chromosome. An XY combination will become a boy, while an XX combination will be a girl.
B．2.
C．3.
D．4.
B．There was an increase in the number of baby boys in many eastern European countries for several
years after 1986.
C．The Japan"s nuclear accident will not effect the birth gender of the U．S. because of the long distance.
D．Where radioactive material has spread, women can"t give birth to children.
B．It stops X chromosomes and Y chromosomes combining.
C．It kills baby girls before they are born.
D．It damages the X chromosome in sperm.
B．Nuclear radiation has bad effects upon people"s health.
C．Worries about radiation risks.
D．Nuclear age helps reduce the world population.
difficult tasks.Their specialized behavior due to chemical communication is so well developed, in fact, that
humans can learn a lot from them about how to work best in teams.
British scientists at the University of Bristol are studying colonies(群体)of army ants to understand
how they organize themselves and share knowledge.These insects-which come in various sizes-are known for using their bodies as living plugs to cover holes on the uneven ground between their nest and their prey.When they meet a hole in their path, they can quickly determine which of them is the best fit.The
appropriate ant then lies across the gap, allowing the remainder of the group-as many as 200,000 other
ants-to step on its back.This important minority of ants makes the food collection of the entire colony in
the best possible way by "paving the way" for the others.
The collective behavior that emerges from a group of social insects, such as ants, can be called
"swarm intelligence". Swarm intelligence consists of the selforganization of many individuals that work
collectively to find the best solution to a difficult problem.The concepts of swarm intelligence have been
used in a variety of human applications.It has been used as a method that improves the efficiency of
goods transfers on airplanes, and has even become a routing technique for moving data across
telecommunications networks more smoothly.You could say that our daily lives benefit from the tireless
work of ants.
1. What can we learn from ants according to the text?
A. How to help others to achieve great goals.
B. Good communication skills are important.
C. How to achieve the best result by working as a team.
D. The hardworking spirit in teamwork.
2. A study made by British scientists suggests that________.
A. ants are a group of clever insects
B. army ants" behavior is difficult to understand
C. ants enjoy using their bodies as living plugs
D. ants" collective behavior ensures their food supply
3. What can we learn about "swarm intelligence"?
A. It is a kind of collective behavior in social insects.
B. It refers to the selforganization of many insects.
C. The concepts of it will be used by many animals.
D. It is the best method of processing data.
4. The study of ants" behavior can be applied in ________.
A. road transportation and education
B. aerial transport and telecommunications
C. team organization and engineering
D. computer and information technology
Surface Exploration. Robots make great explorers on planets,moons,and other landing areas.Aside
from Earth,just about every surface in the solar system is unsafe for humans to explore.The air on most
other planets is insufficient for humans to breathe,making it necessary to wear a space suit and oxygen
equipment.The temperatures on these surfaces are much too hot or much too cold for any humans to
withstand.Plus there would be complications with radiation,weather,and a lack of gravity.Robots have
much less limitation in these areas and can survive much longer under these conditions.
Data Collection. Robots are designed for collecting scientific data.Robots are also able to perform
many tasks at one time and can process information much quicker and more efficiently.Important scientific projects from detecting minerals,analyzing ground samples,and finding water are all performed much quicker and more accurately(精确地)by robots.
Cost Effective. The use of robots has made the cost of space exploration much less expensive than it would cost for humans to do the work.In order to successfully send humans into space we would need to build a vehicle that can not only carry humans,but also have enough food and water to keep them alive for
the duration of the trip.Moreover,robots have no problems working for hours on end.Robots never
complain,they don"t require food or water,and they never need a bathroom break.
Space Travel. Over the past 30 years or so there have been many different types of robots used
successfully in the exploration of space.Perhaps the most famous and successful robots are the Spirit and Opportunity who have both been exploring the surface of Mars.They have both been very successful with experiments on soil and rocks and have even found evidence of water in Mars" history.
1. According to the passage,which of the following is NOT true?
A. The use of robots in space exploration costs more than the use of humans.
B. It may be dangerous for human to explore the solar system except the earth.
C. Both the Spirit and Opportunity have found the evidence of water in the Mars.
D. Many different types of robots have explored the space successfully.
2. Which column of the passage could come from?
A. Education.
B. Finance.
C. Travel.
D. Science.
3. The underlined phrase "withstand" most probably means "________".
A. arise
B. bear
C. defeat
D. diverse
4. What is the writer"s attitude in writing this passage?
A. Negative.
B. Persuasive.
C. Subjective.
D. Objective.
物) from the earth.This idea may sound like something from a science fiction (科幻小说), but it is
actually being taken seriously by many researchers.
This suggested future for the "red planet" will be the main topic for discussion at an international
conference hosted by NASA (美国宇航局) this week.Leading researchers as well as science fiction
writers will attend the event.It comes as NASA is preparing a multibilliondollar Mars research programme."Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction, "said Dr Michael Meyer, NASA"s senior scientist for astrobiology (太空生物学). "Now, with scientists exploring the reality, we can
ask what are the real possibilities of changing Mars."
Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money
would be needed to achieve this goal.
But many experts are shocked by the idea."We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable
speed and now we are talking about ruining another planet, " said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of
Astronomy, Cambridge, UK.Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they
will find Martian life forms.Europe and America"s robot explorers have found proof that water, mixed
with soil, exists in large amounts on the planet.
In addition, two different groups of scientistsannounced on March 28 that they had found signs of
methane (甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere (大气). The gas is a waste product of living creatures and
could be produced by microbes (微生物) living in the red planet"s soil.
But scientists such as Dr Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be
put in danger by the little earth project."Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are
talking about carrying out projects that would destroy all these native life forms, all the strange microbes
that we hope to find buried in the soil, " said Dr Pratt.This view is shared by Monica Grady, a planetary
scientist at the Natural History Museum, London."We cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for." she said, "This is just wrong."
1. The passage is about________.
A. a plan turning Mars into a little earth
B. the necessity of changing Mars
C. Mars supporting life
D. finding water in the Mars
2. Which of the following is NOT the reason why some scientists are against the plan?
A. The project would wipe out all the native life forms on the Mars.
B. The project will cost too much money and work.
C. We would ruin Mars.
D. We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed.
3. We can infer from the passage that________.
A. water is a crucial factor for life
B. the project will have little effect on the native life forms supposed to live on the Mars
C. Monica Grady is in favour of carrying out the little earth project
D. the idea turning Mars into a little earth is nothing but a science fiction
4. Which of the following supports the conclusion of microbes living in the Mars soil?
A. Scientists found liquid water in the Mars.
B. Scientists found signs of methane in the Martianatmosphere.
C. Scientists found a lot of good soil on the Mars.
D. Scientists found some creatures living on the Mars.
The latest research suggests that the key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is
not IQ, a generally bad predictor of success. Instead, it"s purposeful practice. Top performers spend
more hours practising their craft. If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you"d take
a girl who possessed a slightly above average language ability. It wouldn"t have to be a big talent, just
enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a
novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar qualities. Maybe the writer was from the same town,
had the same family background, or shared the same birthday.
This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would give her some idea of a fascinating
circle she might someday join. It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, giving her
a strong sense of insecurity and fuelling a desperate need for success. Armed with this ambition, she
would read novels and life stories of writers without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her
field. She"d be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly understand its inner workings.
Then she would practise writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and errorfocused. By
practising in this way, she delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious, newly
learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. By practising slowly, by breaking skills
down into tiny parts and repeating, she forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance.
Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her
performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges.
By now she is redoing problems-how do I get characters into a room-dozens and dozens of times. She
is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.
The primary quality our young writer possesses is not some mysterious genius. It"s the ability to
develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine. The latest research takes some of the magic
out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is affected by
genetics and what we"re "hardwired" to do. And it"s true that genes play a role in our capabilities. But the
brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behaviour.
1. The passage mainly deals with ________.
A. the function of IQ in cultivating a writer
B. the relationship between genius and success
C. the decisive factor in making a genius
D. the way of gaining some sense of distinction
2. By reading novels and writers" stories, the girl could________.
A. come to understand the inner structure of writing
B. join a fascinating circle of writers someday
C. share with a novelist her likes and dislikes
D. learn from the living examples to establish a sense of security
3. In the girl"s long painstaking training process, ________.
A. her adviser forms a primary challenging force to her success
B. her writing turns into an automatic pattern of performance
C. she acquires the magic of some great achievement
D. she comes to realize she is "hardwired" to write
4. What can be concluded from the passage?
A. A fuelling ambition plays a leading role in one"s success.
B. A responsible adviser is more important than the knowledge of writing.
C. As to the growth of a genius, IQ doesn"t matter, but just his/her effort.
D. What really matters is what you do rather than who you are.
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