题目内容

D

      Among rich countries, people in the United States work the longest hours. They work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.

     In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to "spend" a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be greatly lower taxes in America, which increase the rewards to work. Another may be more satisfying work, or less satisfying personal lives.

     Longer hours do of course increase the GDP (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say, France. The United States also has more of its people at work, while in France many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home. The overall result is that American GDP per head is 40% higher than in France, even though productivity per hour worked is the same.

     It is not clear which of the two situations is better. As we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in its interest. It is too early to explain the different trends (趋势)in happiness over time in different countries. But it is a disappointing idea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has risen in Europe. Could this have anything to do with trends in the work-life balance ?

51. From the text we know that the author __________.

  A. believes that longer working hours is better

  B. prefers shorter working hours to longer ones

  C. says nothing certain about which pattern is better

  D. thinks neither of the patterns is good

52. Which of the following countries has more of its people at work?

   A. Spain.      B. France.    C. Germany.    D. America.

53. In the last paragraph, the underlined word "which" refers to_________.

   A. family life  B. situations  C. other values  D. trends

54. What message can we get from the text?

   A. The GDP of Europe, is higher than that of America.

   B. Two possible reasons are given for working longer hours in the US.

   C. People all over the world choose to work less when they are richer.

  D. Americans are happier than Europeans.

55. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

  A. Americans and Europeans.              B. Staying at Home.

  C. Work and Productivity.                 D. Work and Happiness.

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What happens inside the skull of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.

For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.

Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.

According to the data they presented at a Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.

This pattern of white matter loss is “similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury”, like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.

The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.

1.The passage is most probably a______.

A.news report                           B.research report

C.story for soccer players                   D.text for doctors

2.In which way can we find the structural changes in the brain?

A.Computerized test.                      B.Questionnaire..

C.Scanning.                             D.M.R.I. technique.

3.From the passage we can conclude that frequent heading may have_____.

A.significant effect on brain                 B.little effect on one’s brain

C.nothing to do with the brain injury          D.one’s memory improved

4.The underlined word "fumbling" is closest in meaning to______.

A.remembering                          B.misunderstanding

C.recalling                              D.missing

 

In modern society, receiving systematic college education seems a necessary way for success as a graduate from first-class university may always get more opportunities than others. However, if it is gold, it will shine one day. In this article, we will get to know three most successful people in U.S. who never finished their college education. Following experiences of these successful dropouts may give you some inspiration.

1. Bill Gates

Harvard’s campus paper “Harvard Crimson” called Bill Gates “Harvard’s most successful dropout,” while the rest of the world preferred to name him “the world’s richest man” for more than a decade. Now, even not on the top, he is still among the list of the world’s wealthiest people. Gates entered Harvard in the fall of 1973. Two years later, he dropped out to found Microsoft with friend Paul Allen. And in 2007, he finally received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.

2. Steve Jobs

The iPad, even Buzz Lightyear probably wouldn’t have existed if Steve Jobs stayed in school. Because his family couldn’t afford his college education, Jobs had to drop out of Reed College just after entering for 6 months. Then he found Apple, NeXT Computer and Pixar, which had made great influences on development of modern technique and culture. However, this wizard thought that his brief college education was not worthless.

3. Frank Lloyd Wright

As the America’s most celebrated architect, Wright spent more time on designing colleges rather than attending classes in them. Once spent one year in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then he left for Chicago and started to learn from Louis Sullivan, the “father of modernism." Wright’ s splendid resume included more than 500 works, most famous of which are Fallingwater and New York City's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

1.What does“dropouts”in Paragraph One mean?

   A. Hardworking students.

B. Very successful students.

   C. Students failing to finish their school education.

D. Students from poor families.

2.Which of the following is right according to Paragraph One?

   A. People graduating from famous universities are more likely to get jobs.

   B. Many successful people had the experience of giving up their school education.

   C. If one has a lot of gold, he will become very rich one day.

   D. We should stop our college education to follow in those successful people’s steps.

3.According to the writer, Bill Gates _________.

   A. is richer than any other man in the world

B. is well-known in Harvard University 

C. finally finished his study at Harvard and got a doctorate degree

   D. is the only founder of Microsoft

4.Which of the following statements can’t be learned from the last two paragraphs?

A. The reason for Jobs’ dropping his college education is that his parents couldn’t pay for it.

B. Jobs thought his six-month college education gave him no help.

C. Wright’s teacher was a very famous artist.

D. Wright is the designer of New York City’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

5.What does the author want to tell us in this passage?

A. Successful people often have unordinary life experience.

B. College education is not so important to one’s success.

C. People from poor families are more likely to give up their college education.

D. Even without college education, one can still achieve success with one’s hard work.

 

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