In his new show, Evan Ruggiero plays guitar, sings pop standards and shows everybody his fine footwork. What makes all of these especially unusual is that Ruggiero, 24, has only one leg.

When he was a 19-year-old musical theater student at New Jersey's Montclair State University, Ruggiero had a rare bone cancer in his right leg. Finally his leg would have to be amputated(截)below the knee.

Such a setback could have easily ended the career of a less tough person, but Ruggiero, who has been dancing since he was five, now puts the experience into his performance. His show, "The One-Legged Song and Dance Man: Volume 3", explains how he returned to dance just 18 months after the amputation. His dance now relies on the use of a peg leg(假肢),he explains.

The secret to his surprising success, he says, was being a "stubborn" patient who refused to give up on his dance and performing studies, despite the advice of his doctor.

“It was a real setback, but after it was all over, I said, ' You know what? I need to pick up right where I left off and continue my career, '” Ruggiero said.

Ruggiero has come to view his peg leg as an instrument. "Tap dancers-they're always calling themselves musicians, and their feet are their instrument, " he said.

Noting that many audience members will never have seen a one-legged dancer before coming to his show, Ruggiero says he won't shy away from the physical "weakness" his performance shows because of his condition.

"A lot of people have come up to me, and they always say, 'You're such a role model and an inspiration, ' "he said. "I'm honored when people say that, of course, but I'm just trying to get on with my life."

1.What makes Ruggiero's new show unusual?

A. One-legged dance. B. His own artworks.

C. The use of instrument. D. Songs of pop standard.

2.According to the passage, it is true that__________.

A. Ruggiero is a tough person with a strong will

B. the setback has ended Ruggiero's dance career

C. Ruggiero is dancing relying on others' support

D. his doctor agreed he kept on dancing and studying

3.When audience attend his performance, they may notice_______.

A. Ruggiero plays piano, sings and dances

B. Ruggiero is a dancer with the help of a peg leg

C. there are many tap dancers in the performance

D. Ruggiero pretends to be a physically normal person

4.What's the author's attitude to Evan?

A. Worry B. Sympathy

C. Encouragement D. Pity

As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information an the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”

According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

1.The passage begins with two questions to ________.

A. introduce the main topic B. show the author’s altitude

C. describe how to use the Interne D. explain how to store information

2.What can we learn about the first experiment?

A. Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer.

B. The two groups remembered the information equally well.

C. The first group did not try to remember the formation.

D. The second group did not understand the information.

3.In transactive memory, people ________.

A. keep the information in mind

B. change the quantity of information

C. organize information like a computer

D. remember how to find the information

4.What is the effect of the Internet according to Sparrow's research?

A. We are using memory differently.

B. We are becoming more intelligent.

C. We have poorer memories than before.

D. We need a better way to access information.

He knew his colors and shapes, he learned more than 100 English words, and with his own brand of one-liners he established (确立) himself in TV shows, scientific reports, and news articles as perhaps the world’s most famous talking bird.

But last week, Alex, an African parrot, died, obviously of natural causes, said Dr Irene Pepperberg, an expert at Brandeis University and Harvard who studied and worked with the parrot for most of its life and published reports of his progress in scientific journals. The parrot was 31.

Scientists have long debated whether any other species can develop the ability to learn human language. Alex’s language ability was, in some ways, more surprising than the efforts of those animals that have been taught, like Koko, the gorilla (猩猩) trained by Penny Patterson at the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, or Washoe, another gorilla studied by R. Allen and Beatrice Gardner at the University of Nevada in the 1960s and 1970s.

When Dr Pepperberg, who was then a doctoral student in chemistry at Harvard, found Alex was good at remembering words in a pet store in 1977 and bought it, scientists had little expectation that birds could learn to communicate with humans. Most of the research had been done on pigeons, and was not promising.

But by using novel methods of teaching, Dr Pepperberg taught Alex to learn about 150 words, which he could put into categories. He could count small numbers and tell colors and shapes. “The work changed the way we think of bird brains,” said Diana Reiss, a psychologist at Hunter College who works with dolphins and elephants. “We used to look down upon those birds, but now we look at those brains — at least Alex’s — with some awe.”

1.Alex is very famous because ________.

A. it died of a strange disease

B. it lived longer than any other parrot

C. it hosted many famous TV shows

D. it has a special talent in learning human language

2.What was the direct reason why Dr Pepperberg bought Alex?

A. He found it was good at remembering words.

B. He liked its colors and shapes.

C. He wanted to do research on birds.

D. Diana Reiss asked him to do that.

3.What does the underlined word “novel” mean in the last paragraph?

A. Special. B. New.

C. Great. D. Unique.

4.According to the last paragraph, we can learn that ________.

A. people used to think dolphins were the cleverest

B. Alex’s ability of learning human language has changed some researchers’ ideas about birds

C. elephants are better at learning human language

D. birds’ great ability in learning human language has already been noticed before

5.What would be the best title for this passage?

A. Who are cleverer, birds or gorillas?

B. A famous talking bird died

C. Have you ever talked with a bird?

D. The keeper of a famous bird

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