People have often wondered about Margaret Thatcher"s famous claim that she

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     People have often wondered about Margaret Thatcher"s famous claim that she only needed four
hours of sleep a night. People were amazed that former British Prime Minister had managed to run the
country on so little sleep. Most people need at least seven or eight hours rest every night.
     But now scientists have discovered a gene(基因)that affects the amount of sleep we need and which
allows some people to survive on fewer hours. They found a mother and a daughter who have a rare
gene that allows them to sleep less than the rest of their family -but still feel alert during the day. The pair
managed to stay alert on about six hours sleep a night, two hours less than the rest of their family needs.
     The finding, published in Science magazine, offers a new direction for studies on how sleep affects
health. Experts say adults need seven to nine hours of sleep for good health, while teenagers and kids
need more. People who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to get sick and suffer from memory loss.
     In 2001,scientists at the University of California discovered a mutation(突变)in a gene that causes
people with that gene to have very unusual sleeping patterns. These people go to bed around 7:30 pm
and wake around 3:30 am.
     Now the team has found a gene that affects how long a person can stay asleep. In the family they
studied, the 69-year-old mother and her 44-year-old daughter usually went to bed around 10 pm. The
mother woke up around 4 am, and her daughter woke up around 4:30 am. Both of them felt fully rested.
     Blood tests showed the women have a mutation in a gene named DEC2, which regulates the body"s
clock.
     Researcher Ying-Hui Fu bred(培育) mice and fruit flies to carry the mutation. The flies and mice with
the mutation slept less than ordinary flies and mice, and needed less time to recover from little sleep.1. What is the main idea of the passage?A. Less sleep does not affect people"s health.
B. Different people have different sleeping patterns.
C. New measures can reduce the effect of less sleep on health.
D. The hours we need to sleep may be affected by some gene in our body.2. The underlined word "alert" in Paragraph 4 is similar in meaning to        .A. comfortable
B. wide awake
C. quite alive
D. sleepy3. In the study, the mother and the daughter       .A. were found to have a mutation in the gene DEC2
B. were asked to sleep less than other family members
C. had the same sleeping pattern as other family members
D. suffered from memory loss for sleeping only six hours a night 4. According to the passage, the new finding can help       .A. recover memory loss
B. cure sleeping problems
C. get rid of mice and fruit flies more easily
D. explain why some people need less sleep to feel fully rested

答案

1-4: DBAD

举一反三

阅读理解    For many parents,  raising a teenager is like fighting a long war,  but years go by without any clear
winner.Like a border conflict between neighboring countries,  the parentteen war is about boundaries:
Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
     Both sides want peace,  but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict.In part,  this is because
neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it.From the parents" point of view,  the only cause
of their fight is their adolescents" complete unreasonableness.And of course,  the_teens_see_it_in_exactly_
the_same_way, _except_oppositely.Both feel trapped.
     In this article,  I"ll describe three nowin situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and
then suggest some ways out of the trap.The first nowin situation is quarrels over unimportant things.
Examples include the color of the teen"s hair,  the cleanliness of the bedroom,  the preferred style of
clothing,  the child"s failure to eat a good breakfast before school,  or his tendency to sleep until noon on
the weekends.Second,  blaming.The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad
attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong.Third,  needing to be right.It doesn"t matter what the
topic is-politics,  the laws of physics,  or the proper way to break an egg-the point of these arguments is
to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong,  for both wish to be considered an
authority-someone who actually knows something-and therefore to command respect.Unfortunately,  as
long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other,  they"ll continue to fight
these battles forever and never make any real progress.

1. Why does the author compare the parentteen war to a border conflict?
A. Both can continue for generations.
B. Both are about where to draw the line.
C. Neither has any clear winner.
D. Neither can be put to an end.

2. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict.
B. The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict.
C. The teens accuse their parents of misleading them.
D. The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents.

3. Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
A. give orders to the other
B. know more than the other
C. gain respect from the other
D. get the other to behave properly

4. What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A. Causes for the parentteen conflicts.
B. Examples of the parentteen war.
C. Solutions for the parentteen problems.
D. Future of the parentteen relationship.

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阅读理解     Two recent studies have found that punishment is not the best way to influence behavior.
     One showed that adults are much more cooperative if they work in a system based on rewards.
Researchers at Harvard University in the United States and the Stockholm School of Economics in
Sweden did the study.
    They had about two hundred college students play a version of the game known as the Prisoner"s
Dilemma. The game is based on the tension between the interests of an individual and a group. The
students played in groups of four. Each player could win points for the group,   so they would all gain
equally. But each player could also reward or punish each of the other three players,   at a cost to the
punisher. Harvard researcher David Rand says the most successful behavior proved to be cooperation.
The groups that rewarded it the most earned about twice as much in the game as the groups that
rewarded it the least. And the more a group punished itself,   the lower its earnings. The group with the
most punishment earned twentyfive percent less than the group with the least punishment. The study
appeared last month in the journal Science.
     The other study involved children. It was presented last month in California at a conference on
violence and abuse. Researchers used intelligence tests given to two groups. More than eight hundred
children were aged two to four the first time they were tested. More than seven hundred children were
aged five to nine.  The two groups were retested four years later,   and the study compared the results
with the first test. Both groups contained children whose parents used physical punishment and children
whose parents did not.
     The study says the IQs of the younger children who were not spanked were five points higher than
those who were. In the older group,   the difference was almost three points. The more they are
spanked,   the slower their mental development is.

1. According to the first study,   we mainly infer that________.
A. the game is called Prisoner"s Dilemma
B. the less a group punished itself,   the lower its earnings
C. adults are much more cooperative if rewarded
D. the game is introduced in the journal Science

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the second study?
A. Children"s IQs have much to do with physical punishment.
B. The study is about violence and abuse of children.
C. The children tested were divided into groups of four.
D. Children"s mental development only relies on their IQs.

3. What does the underlined word "spanked" refer to?
A. Punished.
B. Blamed.
C. Tested.
D. Praised.

4. What might be the best title for the text?
A. The Best Way to Correct Misbehavior
B. Punishment Is the Best Way of Education
C. Cooperation Is the Most Successful Behavior
D. Punishment or Reward: Which Works Better on Behavior?

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阅读理解     "Tweenager" is the new term being used in the UK to describe kids at either 8-12 or 10-13 years
old.
     More and more companies are beginning to create products and services for tweenagers. The
Disney company sells music and film to tweenagers and their parents. You can get everything from
branded lunchboxes and mobile phone covers, to monthly fan magazines and clothing. It"s all about sales, which suggests that tweenagers must have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than
they"ve ever had before.
     Most kids in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago.Parents have more
money to give their kids than previously, since parents are having fewer children. In addition, the divorce
rate in the UK is continually rising and parents spend less time with their children than they used to, so
many parents try to compensate by buying presents for their children. It"s a bad habit for both parents
and kids to get into, but parents are under constant pressure from commercial marketing and the pleas
of their children.
     UK kids today are very media and computer literate. A lot of kids have a TV, if not a computer, in
their bedrooms. They have access to much more information about life and the world. They may have
experienced a lot in life as well, since 24% of UK kids live in singleparent families, so people now say
that "kids are getting older younger". With such maturity at such a young age, it"s no wonder tweenagers
are able to influence their parents and have more freedom than previous generations.
     UK tweenagers never used to be worried about spending money on clothes. That"s changed. Now,
they  are much more fashion conscious and concerned about their image. Many tweenagers outgrow the
bright colours and fashions of their tweenage years and go for something darker and more rebellious.
Surely none of the above is a good thing. The UK government is certainly concerned, and for that reason
has strict laws preventing companies from explicitly marketing their products and services at children.1. Why are more products and services created for tweenagers?A. Because children education is becoming more important.
B. Because children have more money to buy them.
C. Because it is better to study music from an early age.
D. Because more companies are creating products and services.2. Kids today can get more money partly because ________.A. parents always accompany their kids
B. parents have more expectation of kids
C. more and more parents divorce nowadays
D. kids know how to make money3. Tweenagers have more freedom due to the following facts EXCEPT that ________.A. their parents cannot influence them any more
B. they know more information than kids before
C. they become mature at a younger age
D. they have a lot of experience in life4. What is the purpose of the passage?A. To teach a new word "tweenager".
B. To introduce a new phenomenon.
C. To urge parents to care about their kids.
D. To blame today’s young people.

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阅读理解。     Rooftops covered with plants - called "green roofs" - could help fight global warming, scientists
now suggest.
     Green roofs are growing more popular in cities, with the number of green roofs increasing in the
United States. In Germany, widely considered the leader in green roofing, some 12 percent of all flat
roofs are green, with the German green roof industry growing 10 to 15 percent annually.
     These roofs can reduce heating and air conditioning costs, with a roughly 10 percent reduction in
natural gas usage and a 2 percent drop in electricity use for a typical building. Moreover, green roofs
last two to three times longer than standard roofs. They also store storm water, which could otherwise
exacerbate (加剧)flooding. "They can also bring in birds and butterflies, help improve biodiversity(多
样性)," Rowe said. In addition to taking in pollution and noise, the plants in green roofs naturally absorb
carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas behind global warming. However, nobody had measured
the potential effect of green roofs on carbon dioxide levels until now.
     Scientists at Michigan State University found that replacing traditional roofing materials with green
roofs in an urban area the size of Detroit, with a population of about one million, would take in more
than 55,000 tons of carbon. That is roughly similar to getting rid of a year"s worth of carbon dioxide
sent out by 10,000 mid-sized SUVs and trucks.
     The challenges green roofs now face in the United States are something about policy and costs.
"The government should not necessarily mandate(强制执行) them, but it can provide support for them,
just as they do in Germany and elsewhere," Rowe told LiveScience. "And green roofs are more
expensive, but only initially. Over time, they"re cheaper once you consider their benefits energy-wise.
It takes about 11 to 14 years to break even(不赢不亏)." 1. Which of the following is NOT true?A. Green roofs can take in the leading greenhouse gas behind global warming.
B. It is easier for green roofs to break than standard roofs.
C. A building with a green roof takes less energy to be heated.
D. Green roofs are of higher building cost.2. We can learn from the passage that___.A. Rowe is not optimistic about the future of green roofs
B. Germany has made it a rule to build green roofs
C. The United States is widely considered the leader in green roofing
D. Green roofs can provide habitats for birds and butterflies3. The underlined word in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ____.A. at times
B. at first
C. at present
D. at last4. Which of the following can be the best title?A. Standard Roofs and Green Roofs
B. Green Roofs Are Growing More Popular
C. Green Roofs Help Control Global Warming,
D. Advantages of Green Roofs

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阅读理解     Too much TVwatching can harm children"s ability to learn and even reduce their chances of getting
a college degree, new studies suggest in the latest effort to examine the effects of television on children.
     One of the studies looked at nearly 400 northern California thirdgraders. Those with TVs in their
bedrooms scored about eight points lower on math and language arts tests than children without
bedroom TVs.
     A second study, looking at nearly 1, 000 grownups in New Zealand, found lower education levels
among 26yearolds who had watched lots of TV during childhood. But the results don"t prove that TV
is the cause and don"t rule out that already poorly motivated youngsters (年轻人) may watch lots of TV.
     Their study measured the TV habits of 26yearolds between ages 5 and 15. Those with college
degrees had watched an average of less than two hours of TV per weeknight during childhood,
compared with an average of more than 2 hours for those who had no education beyond high school.
     In the California study, children with TVs in their rooms but no computer at home scored the lowest,
while those with no bedroom TV but who had home computers scored the highest.
     While this study does not prove that bedroom TV sets caused the lower scores, it adds to
accumulating findings that children shouldn"t have TVs in their bedrooms.1. According to the California study, the lowscoring group might ________.A. have watched a lot of TV
B. not be interested in math
C. be unable to go to college
D. have had computers in their bedrooms2. What is the researchers" understanding of the New Zealand study results?A. Poorly motivated 26yearolds watch more TV.
B. Habits of TV watching reduce learning interest.
C. TV watching leads to lower education levels of the 15yearolds.
D. The connection between TV and education levels is difficult to explain.3. What can we learn from the last two paragraphs?A. More time should be spent on computers.
B. Children should be forbidden from watching TV.
C. TV sets shouldn"t be allowed in children"s bedrooms.
D. Further studies on highachieving students should be done.4. What would be the best title for this text?A. Computers or Television
B. Effects of Television on Children
C. Studies on TV and College Education
D. Television and Children"s Learning Habits

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