Songs that make our hearts happy can make them stronger too, US researchers repo
题型：不详难度：来源：
Songs that make our hearts happy can make them stronger too, US researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found that when people listened to their favorite music, their blood vessels (血管) dilated in much the same way as when they are laughing, or taking blood medications.
"We have a pretty impressive effect," said Dr Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology (心脏病学) at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.
"Blood vessel diameter improved," he said. "The vessel opened up pretty significantly. You can see the vessels opening up with other activities such as exercise." A similar effect is seen with drugs such as statins.
When blood vessels open up more, blood flows more smoothly and is less likely to form the clots (凝块) that cause heart attacks and strokes. "We are not saying to stop your statins or not to exercise but rather to add this to an overall program of heart health," said Miller, who presented his findings to a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans.
Miller"s team tested 10 healthy, non-smoking men and women, who were told to bring their favorite music. They spent half an hour listening to the recordings and half an hour listening to music they said made them feel anxious while the researchers did ultrasound tests designed to show blood vessel function.
Compared to their normal baseline measurements, blood vessel diameter increased 26 percent on average when the volunteers heard their joyful music. Listening to music they disliked — in most cases in this group heavy metal — blood vessels narrowed by six percent, Miller said.
Miller said he came up with the idea after discovering that laughter caused blood to literally flow more smoothly. "I asked myself what other things make us feel really good, besides calories from dark chocolate of course. Music came to mind. ... It makes me feel really good," he said.
Most of the volunteers chose country music but Miller said the style is not so important rather than what pleases each individual.
1. The underlined word dilate (in paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “_____”.
A. widen B. move C. change D. increase
2. According to the passage, which of the following will NOT cause blood vessels to open up?
A. Taking exercise. B. Listening to unpleasant music.
C. Bursting into laughter. D. Taking drugs like statins.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that _____.
A. blood clots are caused by heart attacks and strokes
B. music is better than chocolate for your health
C. the style of music has different effects on different people
D. a person’s overall health is more influenced by how much exercise he gets
4. What is the passage possibly taken out from?
A. A scientific journal. B. A school textbook.
C. A medical brochure. D. A local newspaper.
5. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Pleasant Music Cures B. Research into Blood Vessel
C. Music and Heart Attack D. Music and Happiness |
答案
小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:C
小题4:D
小题5:A |
解析
| 略 |
举一反三
Faces show emotions. Psychology; computer science, and engineering researchers are joining forces to teach machines to read expressions. If they succeed, your computer may one day "read" your mood and cooperate. Machines equipped with emotional skills could also be used in teaching , robotics, gaming, security, and for psychological diagnoses(诊断).
"Mind Reader", a system developed by Rosalind Picard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, uses input from a video camera to do real-time analysis of facial expressions. It reports on whether you seem "interested" or “agreeable” or if you"re "confused".
The system can help people detect others" emotions. Picard says this means we could teach a machine to be as sensitive as a human. In fact, a machine can be even smarter: than people since it can tell if a person is lying or just "performing" by analyzing one"s facial movements. Jeffrey Cohn, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh, uses the Facial Action Coding System to detect human emotions. "The face is always visible," Cohn says, "People communicate a lot about feelings and thoughts through facial expression."
Cohn studied a videotape of criminal who professed to be sad about the murder of several family members and tried to pin the blame on some one else． But Cohn saw no real sadness in the woman"s face. Sadness is a combination of facial action units that are difficult to do voluntarily. This means, even though your mouth lies, your face doesn"t, and the machine will know it all.
1．People can know a person"s emotions from his _____.
A．body movement B．facial expressions
C．psychological reactions D．mood and attitude
2．Recent technology development makes ______ by machines possible.
A．mind reading B．body reading
C．face reading D．mood reading
3．According to the passage,______.
A．people can no longer tell lies before the new machine
B．people still can tell lies in front of the new machine
C．people have different emotions before the new machine
D．sadness is often difficult to be seen
4．The underlined word "professed" most probably means_______.
A．to pretend something as trueB．to acknowledge
C．to show D．to prove
5．From the passage we can infer that ________.
A．the technology still needs improvement.
B．people can do everything with the new machine .
C．face reading technology is nothing new.
D．face reading technology will be widely used in the future. |
In recent years advances in medical technology have made it possible for people to live longer than in the past. New medicines and machines are being developed every day to extend life. However, some people, including some doctors, are not in favor of these life extending measures, and they argue that people should have the right to die when they want. They say that the quality of life is as important as life itself and that people should not be forced to go on living when conditions of life have become unbearable. They saw that people should be allowed to die with dignity (尊严) and to decide when they want to die. Others argue that life under any conditions is better than death and that the duty of doctors is always to extend life as long as possible. And so the battle goes on and on without a definite answer.
45、The best title for this passage is _____.
A. The Right to Live B. The Right to Die
C. The Doctor’s Duty D. Life Is Better Than Death
46、In recent years, people can live longer than in the past. It’s because of _____ .
A. the development of medical technology B. big hospitals
C. good doctors D. both B and C
47、According to some people whether a dying patient has the right to die or not is up to ___________ .
A. the doctors B. the surroundings
C. his or her family D. the patient himself or herself
48、In the writer’s opinion _____ .
A. death is better than life B. life is better that death
C. neither death nor life is good D. none of the above |
Bacteria(细菌) are extremely small living things. While we measure our own sizes in inches or centimeters, bacterial size is measured in micron. One micron is a thousandth of a millimeter; a pinhead is about a millimeter across, Rod-shaped bacteria are usually from two to four microns long, while rounded ones are generally one micron across. Thus, if you magnified a rounded bacterium a thousand times, it would be just the size of a pinhead, while a grown-up human enlarged by the same amount would be over a mile tall.
Even with an ordinary microscope(显微镜), you must look closely to see bacteria. Using a magnification of 100 times, one can hardly find bacteria. Nor can one make out anything of their structure(结构), of course. Only by using special colors, can one see that some bacteria have wavy-looking “hairs” called flagella. Others have only one flagellum. The flagella move round a central point, pushing the bacteria through the water. Many bacteria lack flagella and cannot move about by their own power, while others can move along over surface by some little-understood “machinery”.
From the bacterial point of view, the world is a very different place from what it is to humans. To a bacterium, water is as thick as molasses(糖浆) is to us. Bacteria are so small that they are affected by the movements of the chemical molecules(分子) around them. Bacteria under microscopes, even those with no flagella, often jump up and down in the water. This is because they knock with the water molecules and are pushed this way and that.
36. The underlined word magnified means _______________.
A. enlarged B. widened
C. killed D. caught
37. We know from the passage that _______________ is the smallest.
A. a pinhead B. a rounded bacterium
C. a microscope D. a rod-shaped bacterium
38. The relationship between a bacterium and its flagella is most nearly like which of the following?
A. A rider jumping on a horse back
B. A ball being hit by a bet
C. A boat powered by a motor
D. A door closed by wind
39. Why does the writer compares water to molasses in the third paragraph?
A. To tell us how difficult it is for bacteria to move through water.
B. To suggest that bacteria are fond of different liquids.
C. To show different chemicals are of different structures.
D. To show that bacteria are the best swimmers.
40. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage?
A. The characteristic (特点) of bacteria.
B. How bacteria reproduce.
C. The various parts of a bacterium’s body
D. How bacteria cause diseases. |
第一部分 完形填空（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
完形填空（1） 阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1~10各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卷上将该项涂黑。
A bar manager was so sure that he himself was the strongest man around 1 he offered a standing $ 1,000 bet that no one could beat him.
The 2 was that the landlord would squeeze a lemon until all the 3 ran out into a beer glass, then hand the lemon to the customer. Anyone who could squeeze even one more 4 out of the lemon would win the money.
0ver the years many people had tried this, truck drivers, weightlifters, karate masters, and 5 had failed. Then one day a little fellow with heavy black rimmed glasses came into the bar and asked if he 6 try the challenge.
After the laughter had quieted down, the landlord said that it was only 7 that the man be given a chance at the bet, so he picked up a lemon and started squeezing. 8 he had done he handed the 9 to the little man who promptly squeezed out 4 more drops of juice onto the bar!
Everyone looked on in amazement as the landlord handed over the prize and asked “What do you do 10 a living that has given you such strength? Are you a lumberjack, weightlifter?” “No.” the man replied, “I work for the IRS（国税局）.”
1. A. that B. there C. therefore D. since
2. A. fact B. trap C. challenge D. match
3. A. flesh B. juice C. seeds D. peel
4. A. water B. lemon C. beer glass D. drop
5. A. none B. neither C. either D. all
6. A. / B. could C. had to D. ought to
7. A. then B. likely C. fair D. chance
8. A. Once B. Right C. Immediately D. In case
9. A. container B. money C. remains D. other
10. A. with B. for C. on D. in |
About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier; only about one in two hundred is affected in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman!
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shadows of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In rare cases an unlucky man may see everything in shades of green －a strange world indeed.
Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called “cones”. These help us to see in a bright light and to tell difference between colors. There are also millions of “rods”, but these are used for seeing when it is near dark. They show us shape but no color.
Some insects have favorite colors. Mosquitoes prefer blue to yellow. A red light will not attract insects, but a blue lamp will. In a similar way human beings also have favorite colors. Yet we are lucky. With the aid of the cones in our eyes we can see many beautiful colors by day, and with the aid of the rods we can see shapes at night. One day we may even learn more about the invisible colors around us.
1. The passage is mainly about _____________.
A. color and its surprising effects. B. women being luckier than men
C. danger caused by color blindness D. color blindness
2. According to the passage, with the help of the “cones”, we can_______________.
A. tell different shapes B. see in a weak light
C. kill mosquitoes D. tell orange from yellow
3. Why do some people say it is safer to be driven by women?
A. Women are more careful. B. There are fewer color-blind women
C. Women are fonder of driving than men. D. Women are weaker but quicker in thinking.
4. Which of the statements about the color- blind is true?
A. Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing color.
B. None of them can see deep red.
C. None of them can tell the difference between blue and green.
D. All of them see everything in shades of green.
5. We can attract and kill mosquitoes by using a _____________.
A. red light B. yellow light C. blue light D. green light |
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