What if I took that big jump on my bike?What’s the worst thing that could happen if I go out at midnight?Should try smoking?The teen years can play out like a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

Teenagers must act on an endless parade of choices.Some choices.including smoking.Come with serious consequences.As a result, adolescents often find themselves trapped between their impulsive tendencies(-Just try it!)and their newfound ability to make well-informed and logical choices(-Wait, maybe that’s not such a good idea!).

So what makes the teenager’s brain so complex? What drives adolescents-more than any other age group-to sometimes make rash or questionable decisions?

If you have ever thought that the choices teenagers make are all about exploring and pushing limits, you are on to something. Experts Experts believe that this tendency marks a necessary period in teen development.The process helps prepare teenagers to confront the world on their own. It is something all humans have evolved to experience-yes, teens everywhere go through this exploratory period.Nor is it unique to people:Even laboratory mice experience a similar stage during their development.

For example,laboratory experiments show that young mice stay close by their mothers for safety. As mice grow.their behavior does too.“When they reach puberty,they’re like,‘I’m gonna start checking out how this environment looks without my mom,…explains Beatriz Luna,of the University of Pittsburgh.

As a developmental cognitive neuroscientist,Luna studies those changes that occur in the brain as children develop into adults.She and other researchers are showing how the teen experience can lead to powerful advantages later in life.Take mice again:Young mice that explore most tend to live longest——that is,unless a cat eats them,Luna adds.

1.What is the best title for the text?

A.Teenagers make endless choices

B.The teenage brain drives them to be different

C.How the teenage brain develops

D.Researches about the teenagers

2.What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?

A.It means “you are wrong”.

B.It means“you lose your way”.

C.It means“you get the point”.

D.It means“you are off the point”.

3.According to the text,the teenager who explores most wiIl

A.make no mistakes in his life.

B.have advantages over others.

C.loSe his confidence even his life.

D.experience no failure and live Iongest.

4.What does the writer want to tell us by taking mice for example?

A.young mice try to look for safety.

B.Young mice like to stay with their mothers.

C.Mice also experience a period to explore the world.

D.Mice experience different stages.

5.What may the text discuss in the next part?

A.How call a teenager make right choices

B.Why the parents shouldn’t allow teenagers to smoke

C.What has been discovered in the lab experiment.

D.What really goes on in the teenage brain.

 

When did you last see a polar bear(北极熊)? On a trip to a zoo, perhaps? If you had attended a winter activity in New York a few years ago, you would have seen a whole polar bear club. These "Polar Bears" are people who meet frequently in the winter to swim in freezing cold water. That day, the air temperature was 3℃,and the water temperature was a little higher. The members of the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island, New York are usually about the age of 60. Members must satisfy two requirements. First, they must get along well with everyone else in the group; this is very important because there are so many different kinds of people in the club. Polar Bears must also agree to swim outdoors at least twice a month from November through February.

Doctors don't agree about the medical effects of cold-winter swimming. Some are worried about the dangers of a condition in which the body's temperature drops so low that finally the heart stops. Other doctors, however, point out that there is more danger of a heart attack during summer swimming because the difference between the air temperature and water temperature is much greater in summer than in winter.

The Polar Bears themselves are satisfied with the benefits of cold-water swimming. They say that their favorite form of exercise is very good for the circulatory system(循环系统) because it forces the blood to move fast to keep the body warm. Cold-water swimmers usually turn bright red after a few minutes in the water. A person who turns blue probably has a very poor circulatory system and should not try cold-water swimming.

The main benefits of cold-water swimming are probably mental. The Polar Bears love to swim all year round; they find it fun and relaxing. As one 70-year-old woman says, "When I go into water, I pour my troubles into the ocean and let them float away."

1.The members of the Polar Bear Club must meet the following requirements except that____.

A.they must swim outdoors at least 8 times in the four cold months

B.they must reach the age of 60

C.they should be easy to make friends with

D.they must agree to swim outdoors from November through February

2.According to the passage, some doctors believe it is true that_____.

A.polar Bears are bears swimming in freezing water

B.cold-water swimming can make the body temperature dangerously high

C.you are healthy if cold-water swimming turns your skin color blue

D.cold-water swimming causes more heart attacks in summer than in winter

3.The Polar Bears like to swim year-round, for_____.

A.it is an easy way to keep the body warm in winter

B.they can remain young

C.they find it enjoyable and interesting

D.they might meet fewer troubles in life

4.The passage is mainly about_____.

A.the requirements of the Polar Bear Club

B.a group of cold-water-swimming lovers

C.the Polar Bears' life in New York

D.doctors' ideas about cold-water swimming

 

第三部分:阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)

阅读下列短文,从每篇短文后所给各题的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

“Tell me, Wally,” my amazed friend asked the driver, “have you always served customers like this?”

Wally smiled into the back-view mirror.

“No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the taxi drivers do. Then I heard the personal growth of Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called You’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining! Distinguish yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles fly high above the crowd.’”

“That hit me right between the eyes. Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other taxis and their drivers. The taxis were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.”

“I take it that has paid off for you,” I said.

“It sure has,” Wally replied. “My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple(增四倍) it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at taxi-stands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a trustworthy friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.”

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a first-class service out of a Yellow Taxi.

I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty taxi drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally, the Taxi Driver, made a different choice.

51.   The underlined word “phenomenal” means ______.

A.easy-going           B.warm-hearted      C.flexible              D.remarkable

52.   Wally doesn’t park his taxi at taxi-stands just because _______.

A.his income doubles.

B.his taxi is usually fully booked

C.he has a company of his own.

D.he has a look of a disgusting eagle

53.   Wally’s income doubled when he improved his service about ______.

A.one year ago                                        B.two years ago

C.five years ago                                       D.seven years ago

54.   After reading the passage we may draw a safe conclusion that ______.

A.kindness must be rewarded

B.it’s easy to say but hard to do

C.good service pays off in the end

D.the early bird catches the worm

 

Johnny was a cashier (收银员) in a large store. Every night when he came home from work, he would find a saying for the day and print it out on fifty pages of paper. Johnny would cut out each saying and sign his name at the bottom of each one. Then he would put them in a paper bag and put the bag beside him at work. Each time he finished bagging someone’s purchases, he would put one of his saying pieces in the customer’s bag as well. It touched me to think that this young man —with a job that most people thought not important —had made it important by creating precious memories for all of his customers. A month later the store manager called me and said, "Barbara, you won’t believe what happened today. When I went up to where the cashiers were, I found Johnny’s line was three times longer than anyone else’s! So I got more cashiers out there and opened more lanes (通道), but no one would move. They all said they wanted Johnny’s saying for the day." The store manager continued, "I got a lump in my throat when a woman came up to me and said, 'I used to shop at your store only once a week, but now I come in every time I go by for Johnny’s sayings.’" A few months later, the store manager called me again. "Johnny has changed our store completely," he said. "All of our cashiers now have their own personal signatures (签名). Everyone’s having a lot of fun creating good memories. Our customers are talking about us in a good way and are coming back with their friends."

1. How did Johnny deal with his saying pieces?

A. He put them in customers’ pockets.

B. He had others hand them to customers.

C. He put them in customers’ shopping bags.

D. He handed them to customers before they left.

2. With those sayings Johnny ___________.

A. drew the other cashiers’ attention to himself

B. got paid more than before

C. made good memories for his customers

D. encouraged himself to work harder

3. What did the store manager see a month later?

A. All of his cashiers had their own personal signatures.

B. Many customers chose Johnny’s lane to pay for their goods.

C. The store went out of order because there were too many customers.

D. Customers asked for Johnny’s sayings instead of buying goods.

4. The underlined part in the passage showed the store manager _________.

A. didn’t know why this happened

B. felt a little uncomfortable

C. felt extremely sad

D. was moved by what Johnny had done

 

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