题目内容
The works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are “rocket-boosters” to the brain and better therapy than self-help books, researchers will say this week.
Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the Bard and other classical writers has a beneficial effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and cause moments of self-reflection.
Using scanners, they monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S Eliot and others.
They then “translated” the texts into more “straightforward”, modern language and again monitored the readers’ brains as they read the words.
Scans showed that the more “challenging” prose (散文)and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the more pedestrian versions.
Scientists were able to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and record how it “lit up” as the readers encountered unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentence structure.
This “lighting up” of the mind lasts longer than the initial electrical spark, shifting the brain to a higher gear, encouraging further reading.
The research also found that reading poetry, in particular, increases activity in the right hemisphere (半球)of the brain, an area concerned with “autobiographical memory”, helping the reader to reflect on and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they have read. The academics said this meant the classics were more useful than self-help books.
Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study with the university’s magnetic resonance centre, will tell a conference this week: “Serious literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain.
"The research shows the power of literature to shift mental pathways, to create new thoughts, shapes and connections in the young and the elderly alike.”
【小题1】How do classics such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth benefit the readers?
A.They set off far less electrical activity in the brain. |
B.They light up the mind shorter than the initial electrical spark. |
C.They shift physical pathways in the young and the elderly. |
D.They draw readers’ attention and help make self-examination. |
A.To prove that classics are more useful than ordinary versions. |
B.To show self-help books act like rocket-boosters to the brain. |
C.To tell serious literature sets off far less electrical activity. |
D.To make known ordinary versions set off more electrical activity |
A.Self-help books are more valuable than classics. |
B.Serious literature lights up the mind shorter than ordinary versions. |
C.The right hemisphere of the brain is related to autobiographical memory. |
D.Literature has a beneficial effect only on the mind of the young. |
A.Ordinary Versions Create New Thoughts |
B.Modern Language Increases the Brain |
C.Classics Help lmprove the Brain Activity |
D.Self-help Books, Rocket-boosters |
【小题1】D
【小题2】A
【小题3】C
【小题4】C
解析试题分析:本文介绍了最新研究的成果,作者引述了一些人的观点和研究成果来证明经典的文学对提高大脑的活动非常有益。
【小题1】细节题。从文章reading the works of the Bard and other classical writers has a beneficial effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and cause moments of self-reflection. 可知,读这些经典著作有助于自我的反省,故选D
【小题2】细节题。从文章Scans showed that the more “challenging” prose (散文)and poetry set off far more electrical activity in the brain than the more pedestrian versions.可知作者之所以提到以上的话是为了给我们说明经典的书要比普通的书要更加有用,故选A
【小题3】推断题。从文章The research also found that reading poetry, in particular, increases activity in the right hemisphere (半球)of the brain, an area concerned with “autobiographical memory”,可知,大脑的右半球与自传式记忆有关,故选C
【小题4】主旨题。从第一段The works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are “rocket-boosters” to the brain and better therapy than self-help books, researchers will say this week.及最后一段可知,本文的标题应该为经典的东西能够提高大脑的活动,故选C
考点:科普类说明文
点评:本文文脉清晰,句意中生词有一定的难度。说明文是历年高考很常见的文体,对于科技类的说明文比较难。本文中,把握好一个中心即作者对读经典著作的好处进行了对比介绍。同时,此类文章中推断题要理解作者写作的意图,方可作答。
The painter Georgia O’keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and grew up on her family’s farm. At seventeen she decided she wanted to be an artist and left the farm for schools in Chicago and New York, but she never lost her bond with the land. Like most painters, O’Keeffe painted the things that were most important to her, and nearly all her works are simplified portrayals of nature.
O’Keeffe became famous when her paintings were discovered and exhibited in New York by the photographer Levered Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. During a visit to New York in 1929, O’Keeffe was so moved by the bleak(荒凉的) landscape and broad skies of the Western desert that she began to paint its images. Cows’ skulls and other bleached(变白的) bones found in the desert figured prominently(突出的) in her paintings. When her husband died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico permanently and used the horizon lines of the desert, colorful flowers, rocks, barren(贫瘠的) hills, and the sky as subjects for her paintings. Although O’Keeffe painted her best known works in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, she continued to produce tributes(贡品、颂词) to the Western desert until her death in 1986.
O’Keeffe is widely considered to have been a pioneering American modernist painter. While most early modern American artists were strongly influenced by European art, O’Keeffe’s position was more independent. She established her own vision and preferred to view her painting as a private endeavor. Almost from the beginning, her work was more indentifiably American than that of her contemporaries in its simplified and idealized treatment of color, light, space, and natural forms.
1. Which of the following best tells what this passage is about ?
A.O’Keeffe was a distinctive modern American painter. |
B.O’Keeffe was the best painter of her generation. |
C.O’Keeffe liked to paint only what was familiar to her. |
D.O’Keeffe used colors and shapes that are too reduced and simple. |
2.Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an influence on O’Keeffe’s paintings ?
A.Her rural upbringing |
B.Her life in the West |
C.The works of European artists |
D.The appearance of the natural landscape |
3.Which of the following is most similar to O’Keeffe’s relationship with nature?
A.A photoghrapher’s relationship with a model. |
B.A writer’s relationship with a publisher. |
C.A student’s relationship with a teacher |
D.A carpenter’s relationship with a hammer. |
4.Why is O’Keeffe considered an artistic pioneer ?
A.Her work became influential in Europe. |
B.She painted the American Southwest. |
C.Her paintings had a definite American style. |
D.She painted things that were familiar to her. |