You have probably heard of the Mozart effect. It’s the idea that if children or even babies listen to music composed by Mozart, they will become more intelligent. A quick Internet search suggests plenty of products to assist you in the task. Whatever your age there are CDs and books to help you taste the power of Mozart’s music, but when it comes to scientific evidence that it can make you more clever, the picture is more mixed.

The phrase “the Mozart effect” was made up in 1991, but it was a study described two years later in the journal Nature that sparked real media and public interest about the idea that listening to classical music somehow improves the brain. It is one of those ideas that sound reasonable. Mozart was undoubtedly a genius himself; his music is complex (复杂的)and there is a hope that if we listen to enough of it, we’ll become more intelligent.

The idea got across to the public, with thousands of parents playing Mozart to their children, and in 1998 Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the US, even asked for money to be set aside in the state budget so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. It was not just babies and children who were exposed to Mozart’s music on purpose, even an Italian farmer proudly explained that the cows were played Mozart three times a day to help them to produce better milk.

I’ll leave the debate on the impact on milk yield to farmers, but what about the evidence that listening to Mozart makes people more intelligent? More research was carried out but an analysis of sixteen different studies confirmed that listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to handle shapes mentally, but the benefits are short-lived and it doesn’t make us more intelligent.

1.What can we learn from paragraph 1?

A. Mozart composed many musical pieces for children.

B. Children listening to Mozart will be more intelligent.

C. There are few products on the Internet about Mozart’s music.

D. There is little scientific evidence to support Mozart effect.

2.The underlined sentence in paragraph 3 suggests that ________.

A. the idea was accepted by many people

B. people were strongly against the idea

C. Mozart played an important part in people’s life

D. the US government helped promote the idea

3.What is the author’s attitude towards the Mozart effect?

A. Favorable.B. Objective.C. Positive.D. Doubtful.

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A. Listening to Mozart, necessary?

B. What music is beneficial?

C. What is the Mozart effect?

D. To accept Mozart or not to?

Driving on up to Yosemite with my family was exciting but nerve-racking (神经紧张的). I had never been to such an amazing national park before, yet I wasn’t the most athletic person so I knew that I couldn’t stick through all the hiking up and down. It actually ended up being a fun and adventurous experience.

The ride there was definitely long but worth it. As I woke up from my nap, I saw the beautiful scenery of the tall mountains and beautiful streams. The trails were made nicely for visitors. The waterfalls were breathtaking. Climbing up rocks was one of my favorite parts. Even though I fell a couple of times, I still have a lot of fun. The fact that my family and I spent so much time together all trying to find out which route to take and what views to watch really brought us closer together.

The great thing about nature is that, it’s just you, the views, and the people around you. There’s nothing there to bother you and it’s the best way to relax and enjoy yourself. Yosemite has 5 of the world’s highest waterfalls, and about 300 lakes. The structure of each mountain is incredible; it’s formed in ways that almost take your breath away. Some of them are of a deep dark color with waterfalls forming; some are formed with spots of green peeking (窥探) out. It’s definitely something you wouldn’t want to miss.

Yosemite isn’t the only great National Park but based on my experience I highly recommend going out and enjoying nature with family and friends. It’s a great time to bond, laugh, and take in what Mother Nature offers.

1.The author writes the first paragraph mainly to ________.

A. introduce the topic of this passage

B. offer an example to us

C. tell us his future plan for hiking

D. describe a national park

2.While climbing up rocks, the author was ________.

A. nerve-rackingB. injuredC. pleasedD. worried

3.According to the passage, Yosemite ________.

A. is crowded with visitors every day

B. is the only great National Park

C. is worth travelling to

D. is nothing but a common destination

4.The author suggests us ________.

A. keeping a good bond with other people

B. visiting Yosemite now and then

C. trying to protect the environment

D. going out to enjoy the beauty of nature

Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought. Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from

left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They put something that can separate words in a sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum,

which means a dot.

When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma (逗号).

Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark (感叹号) comes from the Latin word io. It means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.

Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example the “interrobang”. This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, “She did what?” or “How much did you pay for that dress?” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.

1.From the first paragraph, we can know that _______.

A. good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks

B. a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece

C. ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks

D. the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times

2.The passage is developed _______.

A. by time B. by space

C. by comparison D. by importance

3.We can learn from the passage that _______.

A. ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks

B. exclamation and question marks came from Latin

C. spaces and slashes were already used before the 5th century

D. Aldus Manutius first started to use commas

4.What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

A. The combination of two marks will not work.

B. It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks.

C. Old punctuation marks need to be standardized.

D. Punctuation marks are still changing today.

It does not have to be January 1st to give yourself a chance to make the most out of your day. Every day is a new day and a fresh start to learn, grow, develop your strengths, free yourself from past regrets or hurts, and move forward older and wiser. Every day gives you chance to reinvent yourself. It is never too late to change things that are not working in your life.

Each day is a new beginning and a piece of blank paper. How would you like to create your day? If you wake up in a negative mind, you are more likely to paint a dark picture throughout the day, and your picture will not show hope, happiness and joy.

If you take each day to think actively, and have a positive intention for how you would like to create your day, how would your life different? What can daily positive intentions do for you? Every day you will give yourself the gift of an “attitude of gratitude”.

Each day is a chance to look at things in a different way. You can experience each day in the beauty of the world—and the beauty of you who is in it! You find yourself changing from “I can’t” to “I can”. With a focus on positive intentions, you feel you are full of power and more like a “winner” than a “loser”.

You pay more attention to the present, and will be more likely to live fully in the present each moment of each day. After all, the past is a great place to visit, but you don’t want to live there! So how about starting each day taking a moment to think of a positive intention for the day?

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us ________.

A. we should make every day a new start

B. January 1st is the most important day

C. learning is helpful in reinventing ourselves

D. we needn’t change ourselves at all

2.The underlined word “negative” in Paragraph 2 probably means ________.

A. not clearB. not wiseC. not happyD. not careful

3.If you have daily positive intentions, you will ________.

A. get a positive resultB. have a busy life

C. get gifts from othersD. be a complete loser

4.From the passage we can learn that ________.

A. past regrets or hurts can make you older and wiser

B. think actively and you will be a winner, not a loser

C. the present is not where you should live for ever

D. positive intentions for each day are of great help

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