Did you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? The average women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent(聪明的) than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain consists of  “grey matter” and

It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls tend to learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of information from different sources at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.

   There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial(空间的) tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!

   The differences begin when fetuses(胎儿) are about mine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children ad young as one. A boy would try to climb a barrier (障碍物) before him or push it down while a girl would attract help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors(祖先) ,among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.

   If all this disappoints you, it shouldn’t. “The brain changes throughout our lives according to what we do with it.” says a biologist.

Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?

   A. Women’s brain is 10% less than men’s

   B. Grey matter plays the same role as white matter.

   C. Grey matter controls thinking in the brain.

   D. Both sexes have the same amount of white matter.

What can we infer from the second and third paragraphs?

   A. Women prefer doing many things at a time.

   B. Men do better dealing with one job at a time.   

   C. Women do not need to tell directions.

   D. Men have weaker spatial abilities.

Which of the following do you agree with according to the fourth paragraph?

   A. Young boys may be stronger than young girls.

   B. More women take up jobs requiring speech skills

   C. Women may have stronger feelings than men.

   D. Our ancestors needed more spatial skills.

What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?

A. Defensive.    B. Persuasive.    C. Supportive.   D. Objective.

There is one difference between the sexes on which every expert and study agrees: men are more aggressive than women. It shows up in 2-year-olds. It continues through school days and persists into adulthood. It is even constant across cultures. And there is little doubt that it is rooted in biology.
If there's a woman’s trait(特点) which is the same as men’s aggressiveness, it's what social scientists refer to as the result of "education". Feminists have argued that the caring nature of women is not biological in origin, but rather has been forced into women by a society that wanted to keep them in the home. But the signs that it is at least partly inborn are too numerous to ignore. Just as tiny infant girls respond more readily to human faces, female toddlers(学步者) learn much faster than males how to pick up nonverbal cues(非言语暗示) from others. And grown women are far more skilful than men at interpreting facial expressions: A recent study by University of Pennsylvania brain researcher Ruben Gur showed that they easily read emotions such as anger, sadness and fear. The only such emotion men could pick up was disgust.
  What difference do such differences make in the real world? Among other things, women appear to be somewhat less competitive--or at least competitive in different ways--than men. At the Harvard Law School, for instance, female students enter with qualities just as outstanding as those of their male peers. But they don' t qualify for the well-known Law Review in proper numbers, a fact some school officials owe to women' s discomfort in the incredibly competitive atmosphere.
  Students of management styles have found fewer differences than they expected between men and women who reach leadership positions, perhaps because many successful women deliberately imitate men. But an analysis by Purdue social psychologist Alice Eagly of 166 studies of leadership style did find one difference: Men tend to be more “autocratic”-making decisions on their own--while women tend to consult colleagues more often.  Studies of behavior in small groups turn up even more differences. Men will typically dominate the discussion, says University of Toronto psychologist Kenneth Dion, spending more time talking and less time listening.
【小题1】The passage mainly discusses__________.
           

A.how sex differences are demonstrated in social relations
  
B.how hormone determines sex differences
  
C.why there are differences between males and females
  
D.why men and women have different social roles
【小题2】Which of the following is true of women's nurturing nature according to the passage?
A.It is not inborn in any sense.
B.It is inspired by women’s families.
C.It is caused by social prejudice.
D.It is partly biological in origin.
【小题3】The Harvard Law School example in paragraph 3 suggests that_________.
A.women are not as competitive as men
B.law is not the fight profession for women
C.women are as excellent as men when they are young
D.academic qualities are not equal to performance
【小题4】Which of the following statement is true according to paragraph 4?
A.Men leaders should consult colleagues and subordinates more often.
B.Female leaders' success is due to their imitating male leaders.
C.Men and women are different in their leadership style.
D.Decisiveness is an important quality for a successful politician.
【小题5】It can be inferred from the passage that the writer_________.
A.denies the difference sexes make in real life
B.is prejudiced against men
C.discourages women to be competitive
D.treats sex difference objectively

Everyone knows about straight—A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge of the Nerds(《菜鸟大反攻》),a comedy film satirizing(讽刺)social life in college. They get high grades,all right,but only by becoming dull laborers,their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How,then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the school singing group, serves on the students’ union and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has kept up A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico,was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair,and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony,he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes,plus rewarding points for A’s in two college-level course.
How do super—achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super—achieving students “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts far more. Much more.”
In fact,Walberg says,students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them,learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either.“it’s not how long you sit there with the books open.”said one of the many—A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed,some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates. The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
【小题1】What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A.Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students
B.People have unfavorable impression on straight—A students
C.Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films
D.Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society
【小题2】What will be talked about after the last paragraph?
A.The interviews with more students
B.The role IQ plays in learning well
C.The techniques to be better learners
D.The achievements top students make
【小题3】What can we infer from the passage?
A.IQ is more important than hard work in study
B.The brightest students can never get low glades
C.Top students certainly achieve all-around developments
D.Students with average IQ can become super-achievers

As a nation we are becoming more aware of the food we and our children are eating.The recent campaign to improve school dinners by celebrity(名人) chef Jamie Oliver has helped raise awareness of our fast food lifestyles.While we may be trying to eat more healthilyit seems we still have some bad habits.

?Healthy eaters or just trendy?

Are there certain things that you do and don’t eat and whyWith so many food programmes and books telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat to be healthyit’s hard to make choices.

Some people are vegetarians for moral reasonssome don’t like the taste of meat and there are one or two people who do it because it’s trendy.Likewiseit can be trendy to follow the latest celebrity’s diet because it’s what the famous are doing.

?Eating out

People are eating out more often nownot just on special occasions as in the past.The choice of restaurants has also diversified.ItalianChinese and Indian restaurants have been around for years but have now been joined by MongolianJapaneseMexican and so on.Bars and pubs are still popular for food and often promote English cuisine made with local produce.

“We enjoy eating out a couple of times every month whether with friends or just as a couple.We like trying new things so we go to different restaurants.” said Craig,25County Durham.

?Eating on the go

From chocolate bars to sandwiches more people are eating on the go—on the streetin cars or on buses and trains.While our parents and grandparents may frown at this behaviourconsidering it to be bad mannerspeople eat on the go because they are rushing from one place to another.And in the home the number of people sitting down at a dining table for their evening meal is on the decrease as meal times become more informal.

“If I’m running late for work I don’t think twice about eating toast in the car or on the bus but I know my mum wouldn’t approve” said Stacey,24.

1.What can we infer from the text?

AOur parents think highly of the eating habits mentioned in the text.

BWe should get rid of the bad habits and try to be healthier.

CJapanese restaurants have been around for years.

DIt’s good for people to eat out more frequently.

2.People find it difficult to decide what to eat to keep healthy because ________.

Adifferent programmes and books have different ideas about healthy eating

Bthere are many celebrities having different diet styles

Cwhat the famous are doing is different from ours

Dthey have some bad eating habits

3.The underlined word “diversified” in Paragraph 4 probably means “________”

Amade a great change

Bmade a big difference

Chad a rapid increase

Dhad a wide variety

4.Craig often goes to different restaurants because ________.

Ahe likes trying new things

Bhe follows the latest celebrity diet

Che enjoys the meal with his friends

Dhe has more special occasions to celebrate

 

B

Whether rich or poor, we all have problems: that unfaithful mate, that annoying colleague, that persistent(持久的) disease, and the investment that is turning into a huge loss.

How can we remain calm, positive and even elegant in the face of all these difficulties of

life?

The following suggestions may help.

It comes with the pay. I have a friend who used to complain about her dead-end job and

unreasonable boss. Sounds familiar? One day I told her, "Look at it this way. You are getting

paid for the annoyance as well as the work. It comes with the pay. "

This has become my favorite saying for work-related frustrations. "Take every day as a bo-

nus. " When we learn to treasure every moment of what we have, we begin to see life in a whole

new attitude.

It's all in the mind. Sure, the psychologists tell us it is important that we work at resol-

ving problems. But they also say if you try to resolve a problem that would not go away, it would

only compound(使更复杂) the frustration.

If you tell yourself there isn' t a problem, there won' t be one. It is all in the mind.

Stop thinking about your own problem-help others instead. A lady who is struggling a

life-threatening disease showed she coped with her illness by making herself useful, by offering

help to others in a similar situation.

She has spoken to at least five other women with breast cancer. She says that the sharing

has helped her to find fresh meaning in her own life.

Never give up on your dream. Why do we give in or give up when we meet difficulities?

ls it because we have no confidenee in our cause and no commitment (承担义务)for what we

pursue?

One strong-hearted lady was the late head of the tragic Kennedy family, Rose Kennedy.

She said this on nationwide television one week after losing yet another son to assassin's( 暗杀者) bullet--Boddy Kennedy:"And we go on our way with no regrets not looking backwards to

the past, but we shall carry on with courage. "

Not the end of the world. Do you know something else? I' ve learned that care as you

might, love as,you might, some people don't care back.

And it is not the end of the world. After all, it's not the event that makes a person, is it?

It's what we do about what happens to us.

It was said that Albert Einstein' s last request on his death bed was to be given his equa-

tions(方程式) and his unfinished statement. Einstein first picked up his equations and lament-

ed(悲叹) to his son, "if only I had more mathematics!" What a great persistent spirit!

45. All of the followings are wrong EXCEPT_____.

A. some people have many problems while some have none

B. Albert Einstein pursued his dream till the last minute of his life

C. Rose Kennedy must be a timid (缺乏自信的) woman

D. we shouldn' t love those who don' t care about us

46. The passage is intended to inform the readers_____ .

A. how to face problems                       B. how to resolve problems

C. how to hold on to your dreams              D. how to help others

47. By saying "Take every day as a bonus", the author is trying to tell us __.

A. we should get a bonus every day     B. we should treasure every day in our life

C. we should make advances every day  D. we should enjoy ourselves every day

48. The last paragraph of the passage is out of place; it should be put under the subtitle of_____.

A. It comes with the pay                      B. It' s all in the mind

C. Never give up on your dream               D. Not the end of the world

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网