With large and small keyboards everywhere, neither children nor adults need to w

题型：不详难度：来源：

With large and small keyboards everywhere, neither children nor adults need to write much of anything by hand. That’s a big problem. Study after study suggests that handwriting is important for brain development — helping kids get fine motor skills and learn to express and create ideas. Yet the time devoted to teaching penmanship in most schools has shrunk to just one hour a week. Is it time to give up handwriting? Have a look at the link between the brain and penmanship, and you may get the answer.
A test among students in grades 2, 4 and 6 found that they not only wrote faster by hand than by keyboard, but also created more ideas when composing essays with handwriting. And other research shows that the finger movements required to write by hand activate brain areas involved with thought, language, and short-term memory.
A recent Indiana University study had one group of children practice writing letters by hand while a second group just looked at those letters. Then, both groups of kids entered a functional MRI (核磁共振)that scanned their brains as the researchers showed them the same letters. Researchers found that the brain activity in the first group was far more advanced and “adult-like”.
Handwriting also affects other people’s way they think of adults and children. Several studies have shown that the same average essay will score much higher if written with good penmanship and much lower if written out in poor handwriting. These studies have also found that people judge the quality of a person’s ideas based on his or her handwriting. And the consequences are real: On standardized tests with handwritten sections, like the SAT, all essay that is considered hard to recognize gets a big zero.
Studies show that this isn’t only an English-language phenomenon. Chinese and Japanese youths are suffering from “character amnesia”. They can’t remember how to write characters, thanks to computers and text messaging. Some experts fear that Chinese writing and reading are so closely linked in the brain that China’s reading ability as a nation could suffer.
小题1:.
What does the Indiana University study imply?

A．Children should practice writing letters

B．Handwriting can increase brain activity

C．It’s good for children to enter a functional MRI.

D．Letters should often be shown to children

小题2:.
What does the 4th paragraph mainly talk about?

A．Handwriting affects both adults and children.

B．Handwriting helps a person write better essays.

C．SAT should be done with good handwriting.

D．Good handwriting makes a person seem smarter.

小题3:.
Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Essays written with keyboards will get lower scores.

B．The quality of your ideas depends on your handwriting.

C．Chinese and Japanese youths don’t know how to write.

D．Less handwriting may affect China’s reading ability.

小题4:.
The passage tries to tell us that __________________.

A．keyboards are more popular than handwriting

B．we shouldn’t judge people by their handwriting

C．handwriting is of great importance

D．it’s time to give up using keyboards

答案

小题1:.B
小题1:.D
小题1:.D
小题1:.C

解析

小题1:细节题：从第一段的句子：that handwriting is important for brain development — helping kids get fine motor skills and learn to express and create ideas. 可知手写可以增加大脑活动。选B
小题1:推理题：从第四段的句子：Several studies have shown that the same average essay will score much higher if written with good penmanship and much lower if written out in poor handwriting.可知好的书写可以让人看起来聪明。选D
小题1:推理题：从最后一段的句子：Some experts fear that Chinese writing and reading are so closely linked in the brain that China’s reading ability as a nation could suffer.可知缺少书写会影响中国人的阅读能力。选.D。
小题1:主旨题：文章主要讲的是书写的重要性。选C

举一反三

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.
As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “Ye O

lde Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.
However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.
That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of busi

ness. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.
This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.
In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men"s Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.
小题1:. The passage mainly tells us something about

A．the past and present of British pubs	B．the decline of British pubs
C．the long history of British pubs	D．the importance of British pubs

小题2:. Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?

A．The credit crunch.	B．The present closing time.
C．The ban of smoking.	D．Having no spare money.

小题3:.. We can infer from the passage that

A．British people used to like drinking slowly

B．closing the pubs early will reduce social problems

C．binge drinking means drinking less beer

D．British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking

小题4:. We can see from the last paragraph that the author ________

A．is against the admission of too many women to the pubs

B．holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs

C．thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems

D．thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

Terraforming (Earth-forming) other planets, also known as planetary engineering (行星工程), seems like a task still centuries away for mankind to accomplish. However, it is a vigorous topic that attracts both popular and scientific interest. Why should the possibility of terraforming other planets be studied when it may be centuries before we know enough to even decide if it’s a good idea?
Mankind is getting more and more hard facts about other planets. The atmosphere of Venus has been explored; robots have surveyed the surface of Mars; Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn have been studied by spacecraft. Speculations have been answered; new questions have been raised, and enough hard data is right now becoming available to allow us to make the first attempt of planetary engineering.
In the past, people with excellent ideas about terraforming have kept them to themselves, or buried them in a desk drawer because they did not realize that anyone else was interested. But now, a wide circle of people has begun to do this kind of work. For instance, NASA funded a project on transforming Mars.
There are several strong reasons which demand that the possibilities of terraforming be studied carefully. First, it’s an exciting idea of a possible future for human beings. Such thinking has a valuable role in providing options for our future directions. Secondly, the techniques of terraforming will also help contemporary technologies in weather and climate control. Thirdly, such study may assist us in detecting any possible existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 地外文明搜索) and alien (异己的) civilizations on other planets.
Though the mission is far beyond our reach at the moment, we should at least keep our options open. Through debate and study on this subject, the possibility of rebuilding other planets to make them suitable homes for people may come true some day in the future.
小题1:.
. According to the context, what’s the meaning of the word “speculation” in paragraph 2?

A．The act of discussing something with a group of people.

B．The act of studying and researching.

C．The act of guessing without knowing all the facts about something.

D．The acting of writing letters to a certain organization.

小题2:.
Why did people keep the idea of terraforming to themselves in the past?

A．They thought no one else would show interest in the idea.

B．They gradually came to find the idea crazy.

C．They thought the idea would never come true.

D．They had few resources for further study on this topic.

小题3:.
. Which is NOT the reason to support the study of terraforming?

A．Even if we don’t succeed in terraforming, such study may help us to better understand technologies such as climate and weather control.

B．Such study may explore a new direction of development for human beings.

C．Such study may enable us to find the lives on other planets.

D．As the resources on Earth are being drained, it’s very urgent to study how to migrate (迁移) to other planets。

小题4:.
What’s the main idea of the article?

A．It’s highly possible that terraforming other planets will come true so we should increase investing in this program.

B．Even if the idea of terraforming other planets may take centuries to realize, we have many reasons to support such studies.

C．Terraforming other planets is the best option for human being’s future.

D．More and more people are taking planetary engineering as their occupation.

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

Being a mother is apparently not like it was in the good old days.
　　Today’s parents yearn for the golden age that their own mothers enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers found. Mothers have less time to themselves and feel under greater pressure to handle work and family life than the previous generation. As a result, 88 per cent said they felt guilty about the lack of time they spent with their children.
The survey of 1,000 mothers also found that more than a third said they had less time to themselves than their mothers did – just three hours a week or 26 minutes a day. And 64 per cent said this was because they felt they ‘had’ to go out to work, while nearly a third (29 per cent) said they were under constant pressure to be the ‘perfect mother’, the report found.
Other findings showed social networking and parenting websites, as well as technology such as Skype, were important in providing help and support among female communities. Kate Fox, a member of the Social Issues Rese

arch Centre, which conducted the survey for Procter & Gamble, said: ‘With increasing pressure on

mothers to work a “double shift” — to be the perfect mother as well as a wage-earner — support networks are more important than ever.
It comes as a separate report examining childcare in the leading industrialised nations found that working mothers in Britain spend just 81 minutes a day caring for their children as a ‘primary activity’. Mothers who stay at home, on the other hand, manage twice as much time – more than two and a half hours – looking after their offspring, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
　　Critics say the pressure on women to work long hours, and leave their offspring in the hands of nurseries or childminders, is putting the well-being of their children at risk.
　　The study also reveals that, despite the fact that more and more modern mothers go out to work, the burden of childcare still falls on them - even if their husband is not in work. A father who is not in work tends to spend just 63 minutes a day looking after his child - 18 minutes less than a mother who goes out to work. Working fathers spare less than three quarters of an hour with their children.
小题1:. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The good old days of mothers in the 1970s and 1980s.

B．The great sufferings of today’s children.

C．The statistics of working mothers and full-time mothers.

D．The big problems that today’s working mothers face.

小题2:. What does the underlined phrase “yearn for” probably means ___________.

A．hate

B．miss

C．abandon

D．control

小题3: Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．Today’s mothers have less time left for their children and themselves.

B．The working mothers can hardly strike the balance between work and family.

C．Most of the mothers can not control their husbands nowadays.

D．Modern fathers do not spend enough time with their children.

小题4: From para. 4, we can infer that ___________.

A．working mothers can seek help on line

B．Skype is a very famous expert in studying social issues

C．working mothers’ double shift is to be a wife and a mother

D．Kate Fox has opened a website offering help to working mothers

小题5:. What critics say means that _____________.

A．it is wise for working mothers to put their kids in nurseries or childminders

B．too much time in nurseries or childminders is bad for kids’ mental and physical health

C．nurseries or childminders are dangerous places for children

D．children do not like nurseries or childminders at all

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

XI"AN - China"s conservation work for the endangered crested ibis（朱鹮）is facing new challenges, including an increasing mortality rate due to inbreeding, and the conflict between the need to expand natural habitats and local communities" economic interests, bird experts have warned.
The crested ibis, once widespread in Japan, China, Russia and the Korean Peninsula, almost

became extinct in the first half of the 20th century.
Before 1981, when seven crested ibis were accidentally found in Yangxian county, in Northwest China"s Shaanxi province, academics thought the species had been extinct in China for almost 17 years.
Due to the huge effort put into species protection since 1981, the number of crested ibis in China has risen to an estimated 1,617, including 997 in the wild, the State Forestry Administration said at a meeting on crested ibis protection in Xi"an on Monday.
However, although the ibis population exceeds 1,000, the birds are still not free from the threat of extinction, said Fang Shengguo, director of the State Conservation Center for Gene Resources of Endangered Wildlife at Zhejiang University.
“Ornithologists used inbreeding in the early stages of protection so that numbers of the precious birds could increase quickly, but that method had conseque

nces,” Fang said.
"Studies have proved that as a result of inbreeding, crested ibis have the lowest genetic diversity of all endangered birds," Fan

g said.
"It means a high mortality rate and more physical defects for hatched chicks."
“The government should collect genetic information from all crested ibis and establish a genetic database as soon as possible, then design a scientific mating plan for the species,” Fang said.
So far, about 90 percent of crested ibis live in Shaanxi province, and fewer than 140 ibis live in three zoos in other parts of the country, including Beijing Zoo, according to Liu Dongping, an assistant researcher at the National Bird Banding Center of China, which is affiliated to the Chinese

Academy of Forestry.
The bird has lost the ability to migrate, he said, adding that if an unexpected natural disaster occurred in Shaanxi province or an infectious disease spread through the area, the ibis population could be greatly reduced.
Experts also warned that the increased population of ibis, whether in the wild or in captivity, requires a

larger and more varied natural habitat.
Rampant hunting, the massive loss of habitat caused by deforestation and the overuse of pesticides, which killed aquatic insects on which the ibis feed, are believed to be the main reasons for the sharp reduction in the ibis population before 1981.
So, in 1983, a State-level natural reserve was set up in Shaanxi province to protect the bird. But the struggle for living space between human and animal has never stopped, said Lu Baozhong, deputy director of the Shaanxi Crested Ibis Conservation Station.
"For example, ibis often look for loaches in farmers" rice fields. Sometimes their claws trample the rice seedlings. In another case, villagers discovered some land with abundant mineral resources which happened to be a habitat for ibis," said Lu, who has devoted 30 years to ibis protection.
A long-term win-win solution for ibis and local communities needs to be developed, one that would provide ecological compensation for local residents, Lu said.
小题1:. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．The Rare Bird in China	B．New Problems for the Crested Ibis
C．The Way to Save the Crested Ibis	D．The Reason for the Crested Ibis’s Extinction

小题2: Which of the following statement is TRUE ?

A．The crested ibis is a native of China.

B．Before 1981, the crested ibis was extinct in China.

C．The crested ibis is now free from the threat of extinction.

D．Most of the crested ibis are in Shaanxi province.

小题3:. Why did the experts adopt the way of inbreeding to protect the crested ib

is?

A．To increase the mortality rate.

B．To increase the number of the crested ibis.

C．To get more physical defects for hatched chicks

D．To have the lowest diversity of the endangered bird.

小题4:. What may be the reason for the reduction in the population of the crested ibis before 1981?

A．inbreeding	B．economic development
C．over hunting	D．sandstorm

小题5:. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Due to our great efforts, the crested ibis lives in the wild well.

B．Scientists will choose a better habitat for the crested ibis.

C．The problems of the crested ibis have not been solved

now.

D．The government has established a genetic database of the crested ibis.

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案

It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides (***虫剂）and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job — eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.
小题1:.
. From Paragraph 1 we learn that the villagers .

A．worked very hard for centuries	B．dreamed of having a better life
C．were poor but somewhat content	D．lived a different life from their forefathers

小题2:.
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?

A．The frogs were easy money.	B．They needed money to buy medicine.
C．They wanted to please the visitors.	D．The frogs made too much noise.

小题3:.
. What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?

A．The crops didn’t do well.	B．There were too many insects.
C．The visitors brought in diseases.	D．The pesticides were overused.

小题4:.
What can we infer from the last

sentence of the text?

A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country.

B．Health is more important than money.

C．The harmony between man and nature is important.

D．Good old days will never be forgotten.

题型：不详难度：| 查看答案