Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write.

       Dr.J.Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887.He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment (损伤) , such as in autism or retardation.  At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people.The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory.

       One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr.Benjamin Rush, an American doctor.His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds.Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.

       Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical pieces beautifully.

       In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.

       Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment.Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills.Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However,few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.

What does the passage mainly talk about?

       A.Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities.

       B.Human Beings have complicated thinking process.

       C.The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired.

       D.The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary.

Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?

       A.He can play wonderful pieces of classical music.

       B.He can guess out exactly the length of a man's life.

       C.He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast.

       D.He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly.

What can you infer from the passage?

       A.Idiot savants have real talents for art and math.

       B.Dr.Down is the first person who found idiot savants.

       C.Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations.

       D.Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants.

阅读下面短文,然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。

No One Dares to Help

On a recent Sunday, I was buying groceries in a supermarket when I heard the sound of a car accident. It was close but not very close, so I continued shopping.

As I took a right turn on Munadhama Street, I saw a man lying on the ground in a small pool of blood. He wasn’t dead.

The idea of stopping to help or to take him to a hospital crossed my mind, but I didn’t dare. Cars passed without stopping. Pedestrians and shop owners kept doing what they were doing, pretending nothing had happened.

I was still looking at the injured man and blaming myself for not stopping to help. Other shoppers peered at him from a distance, sorrowful and sympathetic, but did nothing.

I went on to another grocery store, staying for about five minutes while shopping for tomatoes, onions and other vegetables. During that time, the man managed to sit up and waved to passing cars.

No one stopped. No one did anything. No one lifted a finger.

The injured died on the street. The only reaction came from a woman in the grocery store. In a low voice, she said, “My God, bless his soul.”

An offer of aid could have saved the man’s life.

【写作内容】

1.以约30个词概括文章的内容;

2.以约120个词就“To help or not to help”为主题发表你的看法,并包括如下要点:

(1)读完文章后的感受;

(2)以你自己亲身经历为例,说明你或路人是伸出援助之手还是袖手旁观;

(3)从上述材料或在日常生活中所遇到的类似事件中所得到的一些启示。

[写作要求]

1.作文中可以使用亲身经历或虚构的故事,也可以参照阅读材料的内容,但不得直接引用原文中的句子。

2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。

[评分标准] 概括准确,语言规范,内容合适,语篇连贯。

 

回答问题(共3小题;每小题2分,满分6分)

阅读下面短文,根据第58至第60小题的具体要求,尽可能简要回答问题,并将答案转写到答题卡上。

Do you have a goal for life? What's it? Do you want to become a writer, singer or just become a rich person?

A recent survey shows that in modern society, most people pick up practical goals, such as “earning money to buy a house and a car”, “to improve one's life quality”, “finding a good job”.

Wang You worked in a small firm (商行) in Nanjing. The job was good and he didn't have to work for extra hours. However, he felt the work was not exciting at all and the life was boring. So he gave up his job and went to Beijing in February, 2007. When he arrived in Beijing, he set his new goal as finding a good job.

Nowadays more and more people want to live a better life. This fact shows that the society is making progress and people's life goals have become more practical. One researcher says, “Everybody has his/her own life goal, which will be surely different from people to people. If one is poor, one's life goal will be to earn more money; if one doesn't have a diploma, studying hard to get a diploma will become his life goal; and if one doesn't have love, his life goal will be to look for it. But if one has no life goal, he will idle away (虚度) his lifetime. {007}”

58.What will a poor man’s life goal be according to this passage? ( 回答词数不超过4个)

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59.  Why does the writer mention Wang You?    ( 回答词数不超过12个)

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60.  Give a short title for this article. (回答词数不超过6个)

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回答问题(共3小题;每小题2分,满分6分)

阅读下面短文,根据第58至第60小题的具体要求,尽可能简要回答问题,并将答案转写到答题卡上。

Do you have a goal for life? What's it? Do you want to become a writer, singer or just become a rich person?

A recent survey shows that in modern society, most people pick up practical goals, such as “earning money to buy a house and a car”, “to improve one's life quality”, “finding a good job”.

Wang You worked in a small firm (商行) in Nanjing. The job was good and he didn't have to work for extra hours. However, he felt the work was not exciting at all and the life was boring. So he gave up his job and went to Beijing in February, 2007. When he arrived in Beijing, he set his new goal as finding a good job.

Nowadays more and more people want to live a better life. This fact shows that the society is making progress and people's life goals have become more practical. One researcher says, “Everybody has his/her own life goal, which will be surely different from people to people. If one is poor, one's life goal will be to earn more money; if one doesn't have a diploma, studying hard to get a diploma will become his life goal; and if one doesn't have love, his life goal will be to look for it. But if one has no life goal, he will idle away (虚度) his lifetime. {007}”

58. What will a poor man’s life goal be according to this passage? ( 回答词数不超过4个)

____________________________________________________________________

59.  Why does the writer mention Wang You?     ( 回答词数不超过12个)

____________________________________________________________________

60.  Give a short title for this article. (回答词数不超过6个)

____________________________________________________________________

 

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