Psychologists(心理学家) have known that what"s going on inside our head affects our

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Psychologists(心理学家) have known that what"s going on inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Professor Remi Radel wanted to investigate(look into) how this happens -- whether it"s right away, as the brain receives signals from the eyes, or a little later, as the brain"s higher-level thinking processes get involved.
Radel chose 42 students and each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating on the day of the test. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word, the person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they"d seen -- a food-related word like gateau (cake) or a neutral (中性的) word like bateau (boat).
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food-related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception (直觉), Radel says—it"s not because of some kind of processing happening in the brain after you"ve already figured out what you"re looking at.
"This is something great to me, that humans can really realize what they need or what they hope for, to know that our brain can really arrange for our motives and needs," Radel says. "There is something inside us that selects information in the world to make life easier.”
小题1:The purpose of Radel"s research is to let us know ____.

A．how our thinking has effect on our senses happens

B．what it is the good time for students to have lunch

C．whether poorer children think coins are larger than they are

D．whether hungry people think pictures of food are brighter

小题2:In the experiment 20 words that flashed on the screen had something to do with “____”.

A．boat

B．food

C．mind

D．weather

小题3:Which of the following is true about the experiment?

A．The students should stare at the words in the book.

B．Each word appeared slowly in order that the participant could read it exactly.

C．After each word flashed on the screen, the person was asked to finish two tasks.

D．On the day of the test, all the students were very hungry because of the delay of their lunch.

小题4:What does the new study find?

A．Actually our brain can arrange for our motives and needs.

B．In the experiment the brain was totally controlled by the senses.

C．People who had just eaten saw all the words more clearly than hungry people.

D．The participants saw the words look different long after the brain dealt with the information.

答案

小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:C
小题4:A

解析

试题分析：
小题1:A 推理判断题。根据文章第一段:Psychologists have known that what"s going on inside
our head affects our senses.可得答案。
小题2:B 事实判断题。根据第三段:One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen. A quarter of the words were food-related.可知答案。
小题3:C 细节题。根据第三段:After each word, the person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they"d seen—a food-related word like gateau (cake) or a neutral (中性的) word like bateau (boat).可得答案。
小题4:A事实判断题。根据最后一段第一句话"This is something great to me, that humans can really realize what they need or what they hope for, to know that our brain can really arrange for our motives and needs,"可知答案。
点评：科普类阅读对细节把握要求很高，还要求要求考生阅读时能驾驭很多专业术语，抓住文章的中心和细节。

举一反三

Everybody hates rats. But in the earthquake capitals of the world—Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey—rats will soon be man’s new best friends.
What happens after an earthquake? We sent in rescue dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can’t get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.
How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat’s brain gives a signal (信号). This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat’s brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.
Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University,New York, says, “‘Robots ’noses don’t work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that.” Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don’t need electricity(电)!
The “rat project” is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Corps in Scotland says, “It would be fantastic. A rat could get into spaces we couldn’t get to and a rat would get out of it if it wasn’t safe.” Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).
小题1:In the world earthquake capitals, rats will become man’s best friends because they can .

A．take the place of man’s rescue jobs

B．find the position of people alive who are trapped in buildings

C．serve as food for people alive who are trapped in buildings.

D．get into small spaces

小题2:In doing rescue jobs, .

A．rats smell better than dogs

B．dogs don’t need to be trained to smell people

C．robots’ sense of smell can be affected by other smells around

D．rats can see in the dark and smaller than robots

小题3:Rats have all the following advantages EXCEPT that .

A．they are more fantastic than other animals

B．they are less expensive to train than dogs

C．they don’t need electricity

D．they are small and can get into small places

小题4:After reading the passage we can know .

A．at present rats have taken the place of dogs in searching for people

B．the “rat project” has been completed

C．people are now happy to see a rat in a building

D．now people still use dogs and robots in performing rescues

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

Honey from the African forest is not only a kind of natural sugar, it is also delicious. Most people and many animals like eating it. However, the only way for them to get that honey is to find a wild bees" nest and take the honey from it. Often, these nests are high up in trees, and it is difficult to find them. In parts of Africa, though, people and animals looking for honey have a strange and unexpected helper - a little bird called a honey guide.
The honey guide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax in the beehives (蜂房). The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees" nest. So, when it finds a suitable nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honey guide gives a loud cry that attracts the attention of both passing animals and people. Once it has their attention, it flies through the forest, waiting from time to time for the curious animal or person as it leads them to the nest. When they finally arrive at the nest, the follower reaches in to get at the delicious honey as the bird patiently waits and watches. Some of the honey and the wax always falls to the ground, and this is when the honey guide takes its share.
Scientists do not know why the honey guide likes eating the wax, but it is very determined(坚定的) in its efforts to get it. The birds seem to be able to smell wax from a long distance away. They will quickly arrive whenever a beekeeper is taking honey from his beehives, and will even enter churches when beeswax candles are being lit.
小题1:Why is it difficult to find a wild bees" nest?

A．It"s small in size.	B．It"s hidden in trees.
C．It"s covered with wax.	D．It"s hard to recognize.

小题2:What do the words "the follower" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．A bee.

B．A bird.

C．A honey seeker.

D．A beekeeper.

小题3:The honey guide is special in the way .

A．it gets its food	B．it goes to church
C．it sings in the forest	D．it reaches into bees" nests

小题4:What can be the best title for the text?

A．Wild Bees	B．Wax and Honey
C．Beekeeping in Africa	D．Honey-Lover"s Helper

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

What will city life be like in the future? Some people think that life in the cities is going to be horrible. They say that cities will become more and more crowded. As the number of people increases, there will be less space for each person. This overcrowding will cause other problems — more crime, dirtier streets , and worse problems with traffic than we have now. How will people find enough drinking water, energy (such as gas and electricity ), and housing? Because life will be hard, people who live in cities will worry more, and they may become sick. For these reasons, some say that nobody will want to live in city areas.
How can we deal with such problems as overcrowding, crime, and traffic? In some cities, thousands of people are already sleeping in the streets because there is little suitable housing — and because houses are too expensive. The crime rate isn’t going down. Instead, it is increasing so fast that many people are afraid to go out at night. Traffic is also getting worse. More and more often, traffic jams are so bad that cars don’t move at all for several streets. These problems have been getting worse, not better, so many people see no hope for the future of the city.
Los Angeles, California, for example, has no subway system and buses are slow. Instead, many commuters (乘、开车上班族) drive many miles from their homes to work. Many of these drivers spend several hours each day on busy freeways. New York, however, has a big transit system — buses, commuter trains, and subways. Because the public transportation is crowded and dirty, many people drive private cars, and the traffic jams are worse than that in Los Angeles. A taxi driver complains, “I was driving home, but in forty-five minutes I moved only two miles! Finally, I turned off the engine and just sat there. A lot of people left their cars where they were in the middle of the street and went into a bar for a few beers!”
On the other hand, some cities have clean, fast and pleasant public transportation systems. In Paris, France, and Toronto, Canada, for example, anyone can use buses or subways to move quickly from one part of the city to another.
小题1:What do some people think is the main problem of the future city like?

A．Poor housing.	B．Overcrowding.
C．Environmental pollution.	D．Traffic jams.

小题2:The best way to work out the traffic problem in Los Angels might be _________________.

A．cutting down the number of private cars

B．providing more buses in the freeway

C．building a subway system

D．persuading people to live nearer to their workplaces

小题3:Which of the following sentences is NOT TRUE?

A．Thousands of people are already sleeping in the streets.

B．The crime rate isn’t going down.

C．The traffic jams are so bad that cars don’t move at all for several streets.

D．Many people have a positive attitude towards the future of the city.

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice: There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.
Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meanings of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.
As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.
For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.
If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.
小题1:According to the author, which should you improve first among the four skills?

A．Reading and listening.

B．Reading and writing.

C．Writing and speaking.

D．Speaking and listening.

小题2:The underlined phrase “come across” in Paragraph 2 can probably be replaced by“ ”.

A．meet by accident

B．discover

C．find on purpose

D．look for

小题3:The author seems to agree with the view that .

A．everyone should listen to VOA or BBC programs every day

B．you needn’t practice listening if you keep on reading every day

C．being good at reading is helpful in improving your listening

D．you should take notes of whatever you are hearing

小题4:The passage is mainly about how to .

A．choose suitable listening materials

B．deal with new words in reading

C．improve your English as quickly as possible

D．become fluent in speaking and writing English

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

It was a Sunday morning, and I was in a terrible mood. Two of my friends had gone to the movies the night before and hadn’t invited me. I was in my room thinking of ways to make them sorry when my father came in. “Want to go for a ride, today, Beck? It’s a beautiful day.”
“No! Leave me alone!” Those were the last words I said to him that morning.
My friends called and invited me to go to the mall with them a few hours later. I forgot to be mad at them and went with them. I came home to find a note on the table. My mother put it where I would be sure to see it. “Dad has had an accident. Please meet us at Highland Park Hospital”.
When I reached the hospital, my mother came out and told me my father’s injuries were extensive. “Your father told the driver to leave him alone and just call 911, thank God! If he had moved Daddy, there’s no telling what might have happened. A broken rib(肋骨) might have pierced(穿透) a lung....”
My mother may have said more, but I didn’t hear. I didn’t hear anything except those terrible words: Leave me alone. My dad said them to save himself from being hurt more. How much had I hurt him when I hurled those words at him earlier in the day?
It was several days later that he was finally able to have a conversation. I held his hand gently, afraid of hurting him.
“Daddy... I am so sorry....”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll be okay.”
“No,” I said, “I mean about what I said to you that day. You know, that morning?”
My father could no more tell a lie than he could fly. He looked at me and said, “Sweetheart, I don’t remember anything about that day, not before, during or after the accident. I remember kissing you goodnight the night before, though.” He managed a weak smile.
My English teacher once told me that words have immeasurable power. They can hurt or they can heal. And we all have the power to choose our words. I intend to do that very carefully from now on.
小题1:The author was in bad mood that morning because _______.

A．his father had a terrible accident

B．he couldn’t drive to the mall with his friends

C．his friends hadn’t invited him to the cinema

D．his father didn’t allow him to go out with his friends

小题2:Why did the author say sorry to his father in the hospital?

A．Because he didn’t go along with his father.

B．Because he was rude to his father that morning.

C．Because he failed to come earlier after the accident.

D．Because he couldn’t look after his father in the hospital.

小题3: The reason why the author’s father said he forgot everything about that day is that _______.

A．he had a poor memory

B．he didn’t want to forgive his son

C．he just wanted to comfort his son

D．he lost his memory after the accident

小题4:What lesson did Beck learn from the matter?

A．Don’t treat your parents badly.

B．Don’t hurt others with rude words.

C．Don’t move the injured in an accident.

D．Don’t be angry with friends at small things.

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案