What makes one person more intelligent than another? What makes one person a genius, like the brilliant Albert Einstein, and another person a fool? Are people born intelligent or stupid, or is intelligence the result of where and how you live? These are very old questions and the answers to them are still not clear.
We know, however, that just being born with a good mind is not enough. In some ways, the mind is like a leg or an arm muscle. It needs exercise. Mental (done with the mind) exercise is particularly important for young children. Many child psychologists (心理学家) think that parents should play with their children more often and give them problems to think about. The children are then more likely to grow up bright and intelligent. If, on the other hand, children are left alone a great deal with nothing to do, they are more likely to become dull and unintelligent.
Parents should also be careful with what they say to young children. According to some psychologists, if parents are always telling a child that he or she is a fool or an idiot, then the child is more likely to keep doing silly and foolish things. So it is probably better for parents to say very positive (helpful) things to their children, such as “That was a very clever thing you did.” or “You are such a smart child.”
【小题1】The words “intelligent” and “brilliant” in the first paragraph probably mean _______ while “dull” in the second paragraph means ________.

A.great and important; common
B.pretty and handsome; ordinary-looking
C.bright and splendid; slow in thinking and understanding
D.hopeful and helpful; careless
【小题2】A person ________ is more likely to become a genius.
A.whose parents are clever
B.often thinking about difficult problems
C.often helped by his parents and teachers
D.born with a good brain and putting it into active use
【小题3】It is better for parents ________.
A.to praise and encourage their children more often
B.to be hard on their children
C.to leave their children alone with nothing to do
D.to give their children as much help as possible
【小题4】Which of the following is NOT true according to the article?
A.Parents play an important part in their children’s growth.
B.Intelligence is obviously the result of where and how you live.
C.The less you use your mind the duller you may become.
D.What makes a person bright or stupid is still under discussion.

To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence?The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet.
If you ran into Smarter Child online, you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory. It can recite many facts. For example, Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season.
He knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US. However, if you ask Smarter Child other questions, you get strange answers. A question about Smarter Child’s age returns, “One year, 11 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets, “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”
Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank. To answer questions about spelling, for instance, Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online. For the weather, he visits www.intellicast.com.
Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet, an artificial(人工的) being with the combined knowledge of, say, Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However, if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A. I. Artificial Intelligence, he must solve two problems.
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files(文件) are sorted in different ways. That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather. It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself.
Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process(处理)information more exactly and faster than any human, he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child.
【小题1】From the text we can infer that www.intellicast.com is a website          .

A.which is specially designed to help Smarter Child
B.where we people can find Smarter Child
C.where weather forecasts are made
D.which is about artificial intelligence
【小题2】It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to         .
A.tell us how to spell a difficult word
B.tell us how the American government is run
C.provide us with a famous poem by Shakespeare
D.learn the ability to tell right behaviors from wrong ones.
【小题3】Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A. Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information.
B. A.I. Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer.
C. Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own.
D. We have similar product now which has the knowledge of Einstein, Nixon and Spears.
【小题4】Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A.A New Web ChildB.Smarter Child
C.The Future of InternetD.Intelligence Development

Scientists are making new studies of color and its effects on our health. They have known for a long time that the color of a room or the color of the light in it can affect our feelings and emotions. Many prisons and hospitals have at least one room that is painted pink. Officials have found that light and color can produce physical changes in our bodies.
Professor Falfan worked with a group of 9 disabled children at school in Albert. Two of the children were blind. The other seven had normal sight. The scientists changed the color of the school room, then looked for changes in blood pressure, heart beat and breathing rate. The effects of color changes were the same for the blind children as for those with normal sight. Their blood pressure dropped from about 120 to 100. Similar changes were reported in heart-beat and the breathing. The children also were calmer and less excited. Then the colors of the room were returned to orange and white. Blood pressure, heart-beat and breathing rate went up and the children became excited again.
Professor Falfan said different colors produce different levels of light energy. He said the differences seem to affect chemicals in the brain that carry messages from nerve to nerve and from nerve to muscle.
【小题1】Light and color can affect________.

A.only one’s feelings and emotions
B.one’s energy
C.one’s mental changes
D.one’s heart-beat, brain activities, blood pressure, feelings and emotions
【小题2】The color of pink had a calming effect, that is to say, the color affects __________.
A.the chemicals in the brainB.the eyes
C.the skinD.the muscle
【小题3】According to the text, orange and white are colors which can make people ________.
A.calm B.activeC.sickD.blind
【小题4】The colors in the school room mentioned in the passage were changed from _________.
A.orange to whiteB.orange and white to dark blue
C.orange and white to pink or some other colorsD.gray to more colors
【小题5】After reading the passage we can conclude that ________.
A.blind people can be affected by colors, too
B.one’s heart will beat fast in a colorful room than in a white room
C.the chemicals in the brain change with feelings and emotions
D.if one’s blood pressure drops, his breathing will get slower and slower


第二部分 阅读理解(共两节,满分50分)
第一节 阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳答案,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)
A
Liverpool, with its half a million citizens, is a big city. It's a city with variety and options.
Every year, tourists from all over the world go to Liverpool, most of whom head straight for the stadium to catch the city's two football teams in action. Liverpool and Everton are both world-famous clubs with fans from all corners of the World, as well as a good number of home grown supporters.
Another big draw to the city is the four local boys. Paul, John, George and Ringo, collectively famous as The Beatles. The pop quartet (四重唱表演小组) first put Liverpool on the world map in the 1960s. The Beatles Story, situated at the Albert Dock, is a huge draw for fans, and you'll find the Beatles shop and ever-popular Cavern Club, the “birthplace of the perfect Four”, in the Cavern Quarter of the city. Fans can also join one of the coach trips around the sights associated with the band, from the houses they grew up in, to the places including Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.
But Liverpool is about more than music and sport. It is rich in history, with some of the most shocking architecture in the UK. The city has two great cathedrals(教堂): Anglican-the largest of its kind in Europe; and the more modern-styled Metropolitan. The famous waterfront, with the Pierhead and the Albert Docks, is also worth a visit. Many of the city's great museums are situated here, including the Walker Art Gallery, the Liverpool Maritime Museum, and the Tate Gallery, which is home to the largest modern art collection in the North. The nightlife in the city also has a lot to offer. With more than 250 bars, pubs and restaurants, there is always something for everyone to do in Liverpool. Music, museums, shopping, history, pubs and bars——it's all there. It is the world in one city, a place truly deserving of the Capital of Culture title.
41.Liverpool and Everton are___________clubs.
A.architecture             B.music                     C.tourist                    D.football
42.What made Liverpool first known to the world?
A.The Beatles Story.                                      B.Cavern Club.
C.The Beatles.                                               D.The Beatles shop.
43.Compared with Metropolitan, the cathedral Anglican is__________.
A.more traditional                                         B.more shocking
C.better-known                                           D.smaller
44.Why does the author say “It is the world in one city” in the last paragraph?
A.Liverpool belongs to the world.
B.Liverpool is world famous now.
C.Liverpool owns lots of museums well-known in the world.
D.Liverpool is a lively city with various cultures.

 

 

Elixir

Written by Eric Walter

   Twelve-year-old Roth become a friend of Dr. Banting and his  Assistant,Mr.Best. who are in search of a cure for diabetes(糖尿病).She finds herself torn between her sympathy for the animals.

Being experimented on and her friendship with Banting and Best.

 

George Washington Carver

Written by Elizabeth Macleod

Meet the “Peanut specialist”, George Washington Carver,

The inventor and professor who made over and above25 products out of peanuts. Through his agricultural research, he also greatly improved the lives of countless black farmers in the southern United States. See also MacLeod’s Albert Einstein: A life of Genius.

 The Inuit Thought of it :Amazing Arctic Innovation

Written by Alootook Ipellie and David MacD1.

  Explore more than one can help0 ideas necessary to Inuit survival. From ideas familiar to us today to inventive concept that shaped their lives, celebrate the creativity of a remarkably intelligent people. Also see other books: the Chinese thought of it by Tingxing Ye and A Native American Thought of it by Rocky Landon and David MacDonald.

 

Made in Canada:101 Amazing Achievements

Written by Bew Spencer

   What things do we use daily that have a Canadian connection? Here

Are 101common things that were invented in Canada or by a Canadian,

Including the Blackberry ,alkaline (碱)batteries the Blue Box recycling program.

 

Newton and the Time Machine

Written by Michael McGowan

   Ten-year-old boy Newton has invented a time machine to see

Dinosaur up close. But it disappear on a test run with his two huge friends, King Herbert and Queen Certrude.in it !Can he save them

Before time runs out?

 

1.Which of the following best describes Roth’s feeling in Book 1?

A. Painful          B. Curious

C. Frightened       D. Disappointed.

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Animals are mentioned in Book 1 and Book 5.

B. Book 3 introduces 40 inventive concepts.

C. Alkalines batteries were invented by Dr. Banting.

D. George Washington Carver was a black farmer in the US.

3. In Book 5, King Herbert and Queen Certrude are_____________

A. Newton’s human friends     B. the names of the time machine

C. two dinosaurs              D. the inventors of the time machine

4.If you are interested in native Americans, you may read the book by____________.

A. Elizabeth Macleod                  B. Eric Walters

C. Rocky Landon & David MacDonald    D.  Bev Spencer

 

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