题目内容
___ was his past, a bitter life without any pleasure.
B
解析
We hear with our ears, right? Yes, but scientists have known for years that we also hear with our eyes. In a study published in 1976, researchers found that people combined both auditory cues(听力提示) and visual ones，like mouth and face movements, when they heard speech.
A new study that looks at a different set of sensory cues adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests such combination is natural. In a paper, Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick report that people can hear with their skin.
The researchers had volunteers listen to spoken syllables. Meanwhile, they connected the volunteers to a device that would blow a tiny puff (气流) of air onto the skin of their hands or necks. The syllables included “ba” and “pa”, which produce brief puffs from the mouth when spoken, and “da” and “ta,” which do not produce puffs. They found that when listeners heard “da” or “ta” while a puff of air was blown onto their skin, they considered the sounds as “ba” or “pa”.
Dr. Gick said the findings were similar to those from the 1976 study, in which visual cues defeated auditory ones — volunteers listened to one syllable but thought it another because they were watching a video of mouth movements corresponding to the second syllable. In his study，he said，cues from sensory receivers on the skin defeated the ears as well. “Our skin is doing the hearing for us,” he said.
Dr. Gick noted that it would normally be rare that someone actually sensed a puff of air produced by another, although people might occasionally sense their own puffs. “What’s so persuasive about this particular effect,” he added. “is that people are picking up on this information that they don’t know they are using.” That supports the idea that combining different sensory cues is natural.
Dr. Gick said the finding also suggested that other sensory cues might be at work in speech perception(知觉) — that, as he put it, “we are these fantastic perception machines that take in all the information available to us and combine it faultlessly.”
“Da” or “ta” were considered as “ba” or “pa” when __________.
A. they were spoken quickly
B. puffs of air were blown onto the listener’s skin
C. they were pronounced using a special device
D. they were made with face movements
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Humans combine different sensory cues through experience.
B. Dr. Gick’s new study is more important than the one in 1976.
C. People sometimes can sense their own puffs when speaking
D. Only auditory and visual cues are at work in speech perception.
What is the best title of the text?
A. We Can Hear with Our Skin
B. Our Visual Cues Is Doing the Hearing for Us
C. Facial Expressions Are Important
D. We Are Fantastic Machines
第三节．完形填空(共20小题；每小题1．5分，满分30分)
阅读下面的短文，掌握其大意，然后从21--40各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
Greg Mortenson is a mountaineer. In 1993, he 21 but failed to reach K2, one of the most forbidding of the Himalyayan 22 . He staggered(蹒跚) into a tiny village of Korphe in Pakistan, barely alive. The 23 villagers cared for him and fed him back to health. The __24 they showed to a stranger moved Mortenson, and filled him with a' desire to 25 it.
Looking around, he saw that the poor villagers had actually nothing. 26 , he could see the desire of the villagers to 27 their community. For example, they dreamed of 28 for their children. The children received schooling two days a week from a teacher they 29 with another village, because they couldn't 30 to hire one alone. Naturally, the village had no schoolhouse. Moretenson thought it was by building a school 31 he could best express his 32 for their kindness to him. He left, 33 he would return with necessary materials.
However, things didn't go 34 as he had expected. He was a nurse by profession, and wasn't well 35 It was a struggle for him to raise the $10,000 or so needed to buy the building materials. 36 problems, including his then Cultural 37 of the area led to a series of frustrations. But with his efforts and cooperation of the villagers, he eventually overcame the __ 38 . He fulfilled his promise.
After that he wanted to return to America,build a career and start a family. However, it ba-came clear that a school for Korphe was just the start. There were so many other villagers in Pa-kistan that had the similar needs. The more 39 he became, the more he came to understand the area and the more he realized how important education was. The 40 was that, in the pe-riod of over a decade, 55 schools were built.
21. A. approached B. paused C. hesitated D. attempted
22. A. peaks B. levels C. hills D. slopes
23. A. cold B. mean C. kind D. tiny
24. A. bravery Ｂ. ability C.poverty D.generosity
25. A. receive B. repay C. respect D. recycle
26. A. Besides B. However C. Therefore D. Moreover
27. A. develop B. visit C. design D. increase
28. A. career B. development C. education D. health
29. A. traded B. worked C. communicated D. shared
30. A. help B. manage C. decide D. afford
31. A. that B. which C. what D. if
32. A. sympathy B. gratitude C. attitude D. anger
33. A. adding B. promising C. demanding D. warning
34. A. smoothly B. badly C. closely D. properly
35. A. dressed B. received C. respected D. paid
36. A. Some B. Others C. Other D. Another
37. A. interaction B. ignorance C. background D. difference
38. A. difficulities B. fears C. temptations(诱惑)D, shortcomings
39. A. interested B. rooted C. involved D. lost
40. A. result B. idea C. cause D. report
第四部分：任务型阅读(共10小题；每小题l分，满分10分)
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
Experts debunk Maya doomsday（末日） predictions -- But that hasn't stopped books, movies from cashing in.
If the ancient Maya and filmmaker Roland Emmerich are correct, the apocalypse（大灾变） will happen very fast, maybe quicker than his new 2½-hour movie.
Predictions of global ruination are rippling around the globe with seismic（地震的） force, all loosely based on a 5,000-year Maya calendar that ends Dec. 21, 2012. Countless Web sites and blogs anticipate(预料) the end of days, as do various New Age groups and would-be prophets(预言者) offering guidance and how-to tips. On Amazon.com , you can read hundreds of book titles combining the year 2012 with terms such as “apocalypse,” “catastrophe” and “end of the world.”
As always, doomsday sells — and a lot of people are buying it.
“There's the psychobabble(心理呓语) aspect,” said Robert Epstein, former editor of Psychology Today magazine and a lecturer at the University of California San Diego. “It's the Sigmund Freud/death wish idea: People glom onto（对…感兴趣） doomsday predictions because there's some small part of them that wants to die, and die spectacularly（壮观的）. I don't believe it, but it's one way to look at this.”
It's Emmerich's way. The German director specializes in wreaking havoc on an epic scale, from climatic cataclysm in 2004's “The Day After Tomorrow” to angry aliens and reptiles in “Independence Day” and “Godzilla.” In “2012,” he finishes the job.
The digitized disasters of “2012” are oversized, overwrought and sometimes literally over the top, as when a humongous tsunami washes over the Himalayan mountains, whose average height exceeds 20,000 feet. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a 10.5-magnitude earthquake — a temblor at least 30 times more powerful than any real quake ever recorded — yanks the city apart like a giant zipper, sending chunks sliding into the Pacific Ocean.
That's not physically possible, of course. Nor is a 10.5-magnitude quake, said Thomas Rockwell, a geologist at San Diego State University. To generate that much energy, “you'd need a rupture that extends all around the planet.”
All of that other stuff “is pure Hollywood bunk,” said Bernard Jackson at the UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences.
Entertaining, though, unless you happen to believe the Maya really predicted the end of the world. They didn't, said Geoff Braswell, a UCSD anthropologist. The long-count calendar doesn't signal the end of anything except the end of that particular calendar. “It's just like a car odometer. Unfortunately, hardly anybody reads ancient Mayan. Modern media hype（骗局）, on the other hand, is almost inescapable.
Nicholas Christenfeld, a professor of psychology at UCSD, suggests a more elemental human need. Being swallowed by the Earth or incinerated in a giant fireball “fits neatly with the idea that people want to believe there's a plan, that existence isn't random and pointless,” Christenfeld said.
“We all missed creation, but if we can bear witness at the other end, be part of some grand cosmic destruction, that gives life meaning,” he said.
It helps, too, not to think very hard about the facts, said Lou Manza, a professor of psychology at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. “These claims have been around forever, and they have all been false, 100 percent wrong,” Manza said.
Of course, prognosticators（预言者, 占卜者） usually have an explanation for that, Christenfeld said.
“They might say it was a misinterpretation,” he said. “They got the date wrong. They might claim humanity acted in time to prevent the destruction. Or faith came to the rescue because people believed something bad was going to happen, it didn't have to happen.”
1.“Da” or “ta” were considered as “ba” or “pa” when __________.
2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?
3.What is the best title of the text?
The girl looking for the job turned out to be excellent but she ended up giving her employer a headache when it also turned out that she used an unreal diploma(文凭).
In December, a Civil Administration Bureau in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, announced that it needed five new staff members. Some 120 people applied and took the exam. Applicants were required to show proof of a college degree at least.
Mei Jing beat everyone in the test and the interview. When a follow-up check was done, however, her education certificate(证书) was discovered to be an unreal one.
This was a bit of an embarrassment for the employers. A dilemma, one might say. If she were hired because of her excellent performance, she still wouldn't have the qualifications on paper. But, if she were dropped because she didn't meet the education requirements, they would lose a good worker. Tough problem!
While Mei's future hangs in the balance, the public having learned of the case got involved. Some people said the Bureau should employ her, since results are the only important thing. “After all, ability is more important than a diploma, ”said one office worker.
Others, however, have attacked Mei's dishonesty. They said that morality was, after all, more important than talent, especially in the case of a government position. Mei wasn't honest, so she shouldn't be hired.
But, Shen Ronghua, the head of the Shanghai Public Administration and Human Resources Institute, tries to be a bit more philosophical.
“There is still a sort of 'diploma means this' prejudice among people,” Shen explains, “Many employers regard a diploma as the only sign of ability and talent.”
So, with this in mind, people may pay little attention to whether someone has real ability or not. They turn to chasing a diploma instead. The unreal diploma is the natural product of this thought.
The conclusion? "China needs a new human resource system. The new system will not define a person only by his or her diploma, " Shen says.
1.What's the meaning of the underlined word “dilemma” in Paragraph Four?
A. A problem easy to deal with or solve.
B. A situation in which it is difficult for you to make the decision.
C. A difference in two or more statements, ideas, or stories.
D. Something said or done that is funny.
2.What can we infer from this news report?
A. The Civil Administration Bureau of Wuhan employed the girl.
B. The girl was not employed because of dishonesty.
C. It remained to be seen whether the girl was to be employed or not.
D. Another Human Resource Institute employed the girl.
3.What does Shen Ronghua mean by saying “diploma means this”?
A. A diploma can tell whether a person is honest or not.
B. A diploma is the only sign of ability and talent.
C. A diploma is what you get after you finish a course.
D. A diploma means a job.
4. Which of the following do you think is the best title of this news report?
A. A Girl's Unlucky Experience. B. Unreal Diploma.
C. Dishonesty Has Been Attacked. D. Can A Diploma Be All There Is.
