阅读理解。 Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry

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阅读理解。     Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty.
In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were
eighteen years old.
     The findings came from a survey of more than 340,000 adults in the United States. The Gallup (民意调查)
Organization questioned them by telephone in 2008. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen
and eighty-five.
     The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about
mental or emotional stress.
     Arthur Stone at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress
were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. The findings showed that stress
levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties. Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and
those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their
seventies and eighties.
      Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as
people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions.
They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
     Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or
maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
     The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being
single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to
age.
     The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However,
women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry 1. We can learn from the research that ____.

A. only when people get older will they feel happier
B. stress levels among the youngest are the highest
C. older people tend to be grateful
D. older people usually have no worries

2. According to the research, when people get older, ____. A. they miss the old days
B. they are physically weak
C. they have better self-control
D. they are more emotional 3. What would the author probably talk about next? A. What influences happiness.
B. How to live better.
C. How to keep happier.
D. Why women are less happier. 4. The author is intended to ____.A. advise how to reduce stress
B. introduce a scientific finding
C. describe how to do research
D. talk about human emotions

答案

1-4: CCDB

举一反三

阅读理解。     Few of us make money by losing sleep. But three graduate students at Brown University in Providence
built a company around sleep deprivation (睡眠不足).
     Jason Donahue, Ben Rubin and Eric Shashoua were working late nights in Brown"s business and
engineering schools. They began thinking about ways to sleep better. They discovered they weren"t alone in
burning the midnight oil. Around 20% of Americans get less than six hours of rest a night.
     The friends imagined a smart alarm clock that could track how much time people spend in the most
restorative (有回复作用的) stages of the sleep cycle: REM (rapid eye movement)and deep sleep. What would
it cost to design such a thing? Five years of research, 20 employees, $14 million and a whole lot of doubting
from investors and scientists.
     Their company, Zeo, based in Newton, Mass, launched its product in June, 2009. The Zeo device uses a
headband with tiny sensors (传感器) that scan your brain for signs of four sleep states-REM, light, deep and
waking sleep.The smart alarm clock displays a graph of your sleep pattern and wakes you as you"re not in
REM sleep (which is when you"re least groggy). In the morning you can upload the data to the company"s
Web site, and so track your sleep over time.Most of the feedback comes in the form of Zeo"s ZQ score
showing how well you"ve slept.
     "Zeo allows people to unlock this black box of sleep," says Dave Dickinson, a health-care CEO.
     Whether any of this actually improves sleep is up to the consumer, who will also need to make lifestyle
changes like cutting out alcohol before bedtime or caffeine after 3 pm.
     For now the company is selling Zeo online only. Dickinson also plans to spread it to countries such as
Australia, where sleep deprivation approaches US level1. Who will support Zeo? A. People full of imagination.
B. People suffering sleeping problems.
C. People having access to the Internet.
D. People having bad lifestyles.2. Why did the three graduate students imagine a smart alarm clock? A. To wake them up on time in the morning.
B. To earn enough money for their study.
C. To improve the quality of people"s sleep.
D. To enjoy their life while working at night. 3. To design the Zeo device, the three graduate students ____. A. spent much time and money
B. were widely supported by scientists
C. worked by themselves all the time
D. attracted many investors .4. What can we know from the passage? A. Zeo has a direct effect on users" lifestyles.
B. It needs more personal efforts to make Zeo function better.
C. A large quantity of Zeo devices have been sold in Australia.
D. Consumers can go to the Zeo company to purchase Zeo in person

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阅读理解。     Scientists have devised a way to determine roughly where a person has lived using a strand (缕) of hair,
a technique that could help track the movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.
     The method relies on measuring how chemical variations in drinking water show up in people"s hair.
     "You"re what you eat and drink, and that"s recorded in your hair," said Thure Cerling, a geologist at the
University of Utah.
     While U.S. diet is relatively identical, water supplies vary. The differences result from weather patterns.
The chemical composition of rainfall changes slightly as rain clouds move.
     Most hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are stable, but traces of both elements are also present as
heavier isotopes (同位素). The heaviest rain falls first. As a result, storms that form over the Pacific deliver
heavier water to California than to Utah.
     Similar patterns exist throughout the U.S. By measuring the proportion of heavier hydrogen and oxygen
isotopes along a strand of hair, scientists can construct a geographic timeline. Each inch of hair corresponds
to about two months. Cerling"s team collected tap water samples from 600 cities and constructed a map of
the regional difference. They checked the accuracy of the map by testing 200 hair samples collected from
65 barber shops. They were able to accurately place the hair samples in broad region roughly corresponding
to the movement of rain systems.
     "It"s not good for pinpointing (精确定位)," Cerling said. "It"s good for eliminating many possibilities."
     Todd Park, a local detective, said the method has helped him learn more about an unidentified woman
whose skeleton was found near Great Salt Lake. The woman was 5 feet tall. Police recovered 26 bones, a
T-shirt and several strands of hair. When Park heard about the research, he gave the hair samples to the
researches. Chemical testing showed that over the two years before her death, she moved about every two
months. She stayed in the Northwest, although the test could not be more specific than somewhere between
eastern Oregon and western Wyoming.
     "It"s still a substantial area," Park said,"But it narrows its way down for me." 1. What is the scientists" new discovery? A. One"s hair growth has to do with the amount of water and drink.
B. A person"s hair may show where they have lived.
C. Hair analysis accurately identifies criminal suspects.
D. The chemical composition of hair varies from person to person. 2. What is said about the rainfall in America"s West? A. There is much more rainfall in California than in Utah.
B. The water it delivers becomes lighter when it moves inland.
C. Its chemical composition is less stable than in other areas.
D. It gathers more light isotopes as it moves eastward.3. What did Cerling"s team produce in their research? A. A map showing the regional difference of tap water.
B. A collection of hair samples from various barber shops.
C. A method to measure the amount of water in human hair.
D. A chart illustrating the movement of the rain system. 4. What is the practical value of Cerling"s research?A. It helps analyze the quantity of water in different regions.
B. It helps the police determine where a crime is committed.
C. It helps the police narrow down possibilities in detective work.
D. It helps identify the drinking habits of the person under investigation.

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阅读理解。     "Hey, little buddy, will you support me when I"m getting old?" Han Wenshan, 35 years old, asked his
new-born baby as he picked him up at home.
     The Chinese tradition of raising sons to support parents in their old age has been weakened by the rapidly
growing economy and improved standard of living. As is the case with developed countries, China faces an
aging society. People are living longer and having fewer children. Therefore many Chinese families are falling
into a 4-2-1 family pattern: a couple raises one child and supports four elderly parents. But few realize this
problem.
     The aging of the population is a trend that now affects a growing number of countries. Not long ago, the
Information Office of the State Council, China"s cabinet, issued a white paper on measures China is taking to
help its elderly population. The paper said China"s population entered the aging phase (阶段) at the end of the
20th century as the proportion of people aged 60 and above accounted for over 10 percent of the entire
population. By the end of 2005, China had nearly 144 million people over 60, accounting for 11 percent of the
population, according to the white paper.
     An expanding aged population inevitably means that many issues must be settled, as the problem concerns
every aspect of society. It puts more pressure on each family, causing disturbing economic consequences
and serious social problems. It also challenges the labor force supply and the pension system.
     "I used to think that it"s not an issue for me to provide for the aged," said Han, whose parents and
parents-in-law all enjoy pensions and medical insurance. But last year Han"s father suffered a serious illness
and afterward Han began to feel the pressure on his shoulders. 1. Which of the following is not caused by an aging society? A. Social problems.
B. The problem of the pension system.
C. More pressure on the family.
D. Unemployment. 55. From the passage we can infer ______. A. the aging problem is one of the concerns for the Chinese government
B. China will encourage young couples to have more than one child
C. many people haven"t realized the problem of an aging society
D. children will not support their parents in an aging society2. Which of the following can be used to replace the underlined word inevitably?A. surprisingly
B. naturally
C. hopefully
D. unluckily 3. From the passage we can see that ______. A. China is the only country to face an aging society
B. most of the developing countries face an aging society
C. countries with a large population face an aging society
D. more and more developed countries face an aging society

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阅读理解。     Plants grow faster if you talk to them and the effect is even better if you"re a woman. Researchers at
Royal Horticultural (园艺的) Society carried out an experiment to find that the voice of a woman gardener
makes plants grow faster.
     The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato
plants grew two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.
    Sarah Darwin was the one of making the plants registered the best growth. Her voice was the most
"inspiring" for plants than the voices of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of
Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist Charles Darwin found that her plant grew
about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.
     Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent (主管人) at RHS, said that the findings cannot yet be explained.
He presumes (认定) that that women have a greater range of pitch (音调) and tone which might have a
certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. "Sound waves are an environmental effect just like
rain or light," said Mr. Crosbie.
     The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey. Scientists started with open auditions (试听,
试演) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham"s The day of the Triffids,
Shakespeare"s A Midsummer Night"s Dream and Darwin"s The Origin of Species.
     Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during
a period of a month. Each plant had headphones connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves
could hit the plants. Scientists decided to leave two plants in silence, thus to be positive that the experiment
is fair. It was discovered that plants that"listened" to female voices on average grew taller by an inch in
comparison to plants that heard male voices.
     Sarah Darwin said, "I think it is an honor to have a voice that can make tomatoes grow, and especially
fitting because for a number of years I have been studying wild tomatoes from the Galapagos Islands at the
Natural History Museum in London." 1. What does this passage mainly talk about? A. Plants enjoy men"s voices more than women"s.
B. A botanical experiment in a museum.
C. Strange phenomenon at Royal Horticultural Society.
D. Voice influence on plant growing. 2. What do the underlined words mean? A. Plants need sound as well as rain and light.
B. Sound is basic nutrition to the plant.
C. Sound has a good effect as rain or light does.
D. Plants are hungry for sound as well as rain and light. 3. What can we infer Sarah Darwin is? A. A botanist.
B. A garden superintendent.
C. A gardener.
D. An environmentalist.

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阅读理解。     Pushy parents and teachers who"hothouse" the under-5s risk causing damage to the children"s long term
development, a leading education expert said.
     Lilian Katz, Professor of Education at the University of Illinois, said that four-year-olds engaged in reading
and writing went on to perform worse academically than those engaged in imaginative learning. They scored
higher in tests at the age of 5, but children whose first year at school was stimulating outstripped them four
years later.
     The findings suggest that the government"s structured approach to early years" learning could be storing
up problems for children. They also raise serious questions about the plan for all children to be able to read
by the age of 6.
     In many countries formal teaching does not start until children are 6 or 7 and have improved their social
and manual skills. Children start learning to read and write at 6 in the United States, France and Germany,
and at 7 in Finland and Sweden.
     Professor Katz said that in many schools the courses were"boring children to tears". Much academic
teaching required children to learn by memorizing pieces of information out of context, she said. Teaching
in reception class should instead allow children to develop their intellect by exploring their environments
and asking questions.
     "Research suggests the benefits of formal academic instruction for four-and five-year-olds seem to be
promising when they are tested early, but considerably less so in the long term. When these children are
followed over a period of three or more years, those who had early experience in more intellectually engaging
curricula were more likely to do well in school than their peers, who had received early academic instruction."
She advocates teaching children through first-hand experience and play, in mixed-aged classes. This can
include puppet shows, drawing or running a pretend shop in the classroom. 1. According to the passage, those who "hothouse" the under-5s would probably ______.

A. prefer a lot of interaction and stimulation while teaching
B. teach in a lively way to motivate kids" interest
C. push the kids to memorize pieces of information
D. care about the kids" physical development

2. What does the underlined word "outstripped" in Paragraph 2 mean? A. did better than
B. looked down upon
C. caught up with
D. performed worse than 3. The message the author wants to deliver through the passage is that formal teaching ______. A. can start at different times in different countries.
B. should not be started too early
C. is best carried out in Finland and Sweden
D. should include teaching children social and manual skills 4. Which of the following is NOT the opinion of Lilian Katz?A. Children should be taught through first-hand experience.
B. Learning in a mixed-age class is good for children.
C. Running a shop can help children get good marks.
D. Puppet shows and drawing are useful and easy in teaching children.

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