Nearly two thousand years have passed since a census decreed by Caesar Augustus become part of the greatest story ever told. Many things have changed in the intervening years. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manager to accommodate the weary guests. Now it is the census taker that does the traveling in the fond hope that a highly mobile population will stay long enough to get a good sampling. Methods of gathering, recording, and evaluating information have presumably been improved a great deal. And where then it was the modest purpose of Rome to obtain a simple head count as an adequate basis for levying taxes, now batteries of complicated statistical series furnished by governmental agencies and private organizations are eagerly scanned and interpreted by sages and seers to get a clue to future events. The Bible does not tell us how the Roman census takers made out, and as regards our more immediate concern, the reliability of present day economic forecasting, there are considerable differences of opinion. They were aired at the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. There was the thought that business forecasting might well be on its way from an art to a science, and some speakers talked about newfangled computers and high-falutin mathematical system in terms of excitement and endearment which we, at least in our younger years when these things mattered, would have associated more readily with the description of a fair maiden. But others pointed to the deplorable record of highly esteemed forecasts and forecasters with a batting average below that of the Mets, and the President-elect of the Association cautioned that “high powered statistical methods are usually in order where the facts are crude and inadequate, the exact contrary of what crude and inadequate statisticians assume.” We left his birthday party somewhere between hope and despair and with the conviction, not really newly acquired, that proper statistical methods applied to ascertainable facts have their merits in economic forecasting as long as neither forecaster nor public is deluded into mistaking the delineation of probabilities and trends for a prediction of certainties of mathematical exactitude.

Taxation in Roman days apparently was based on

[A]. wealth. [B]. mobility. [C]. population. [D]. census takers.

The American Statistical Association

[A]. is converting statistical study from an art to a science.

[B]. has an excellent record in business forecasting.

[C]. is neither hopeful nor pessimistic.

[D]. speaks with mathematical exactitude.

The message the author wishes the reader to get is

[A]. statisticians have not advanced since the days of the Roman.

[B]. statistics is not as yet a science.

[C]. statisticians love their machine.

[D].computer is hopeful.

The “greatest story ever told” referred to in the passage is the story of

[A]. Christmas. [B]. The Mets.

[C]. Moses. [D]. Roman Census Takers.

Many people don't realize the importance of music education in the schools today．A new study showed, however, music education is extremely important．

??? In college, music education is one of the largest programs．Teachers have to learn general education materials and techniques． They must learn to play every instrument; they must learn music history and music theory; they must learn instrument repair and teaching methods; they must learn conducting and so much more．At the same time, much of our culture and tradition is absorbed in music．

??? Music plays a very important role in our education．

??? Music helps with math and science． Students learn to count, and how to multiply and divide．Students also use science to help them discover what sounds good together and what doesn't．Students also need science to understand something called the “overtone series", which is about how music is produced by vibration（颤动）and why．

??? Students learn a lot about languages through music．Many songs are written in other languages, including ancient ones．Students must learn to translate these works to understand what they are singing about． A song is likely to be a famous short work set to music; so students are exposed to that very often while singing．

??? Students learn a huge amount of cooperation （协作）of body parts through music, so parts of the body can work better together．Students must use motor（肌肉运动的）skills in order to play an instrument．Singers and wind（管乐器）players must learn breath control and be in good shape to play．

??? Students learn about art． Some famous pieces were written about important pieces of art, and students learn about the artists and styles as they're playing the music．

???? Music education also brings higher thinking to our children．It allows them to think about complex patterns．Students have to be aware of what every other musician does at every time．In that way, it develops cooperation, as well．They tend to develop more ability for learning．

??? As one can see, music is very important to education．

1.According to the passage, learning music in college will be quite????????? ．

A． easy????????? B． stressful????? ????????????? C． attractive????? ????????????? D． useless

2.As to the benefits from music, which of the following is NOT included in the passage?

A． Calculation． ????????????? ????????????? B． Language study．

C． Relaxation． ????????????? ????????????? D． Cooperation of body parts．

3.The underlined word "that" in Para．5 refers to“ ?????????? "．

A． the music?????????????????????????? ????????????? B． the language

C． the culture?????????????????????????? D． the work

4.What can we know from the passage?

A． Science and music are extreme poles．

B． Only the wisest person can learn music well．

C． Music is good to our all-round development．

D． All of us know the importance of music clearly．

One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions (假设) in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. I exercise all the time, but I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn’t all the exercise getting rid of it?
It’s a question many of us could ask. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. Still, as one major study — the Minnesota Heart Survey — found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly.
And yet obesity (肥胖) figures have risen sharply in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government’s definition. Yes, it’s entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don’t. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?
The popular belief that exercise is essential for weight control is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against too much exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly over-evaluated.
“In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, exercise researcher at Louisiana State University. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.
The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can make one hungry. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate (使无效) the weight-loss benefits we just gained. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.
【小题1】 From the passage we learn that ____.

A．has long been believed to be good for older adults

B．is not properly advertised as an effective way to lose weight

C．was first recognized as an effective way to lose weight in the 1960s

D．is less effective in preventing heart disease than what doctors believe

认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡相应题号的横线上。

Have you ever intended to be fully absorbed in your work but found yourself distracted by e-mail, the Internet and other things throughout the day?

"People often lose their concentration when they are bored, of course, but also when they are engaged in challenging tasks," says Peter Bregman. "They sometimes have a feeling to escape from what's difficult or boring, so they jump out," he says. The part of the brain devoted to attention is connected to the brain's emotional center. Any strong emotion—quarrels with colleagues, problems at home—can interrupt our attention. Studies over the last decade have shown that too much work to do at a time can easily lead to distraction.

Refocusing is hard for many people. Robert Epstein suggests the following, "Stop and listen to music for a few minutes. Go for a short walk or take a deep breath, where you breathe in deeply, count to five slowly, hold it and breathe out very slowly." This can "blow out all the tension and the unwanted in your mind to restore your focus."

Take more control by structuring your time and becoming more aware of your behaviors. "Setting the phone alarm to go off every hour is my way of creating awareness," Mr. Bregman says," You have to inform yourself that you've lost focus in order to do something about it." Starting the day with a to-do list is important, such as when to eat, when to go to the gym or take a walk. But if it's overly ambitious, you will put yourself in a state of anxiety, which makes it hard for the brain to concentrate. "Choosing three or four things as your priority for the day allows your brain to settle down and focus," he says.

In our discussion with people on how education can help them succeed in life, a woman remembered the first meeting of an introductory____course about 20 years ago.

The professor ____the lecture hall, placed upon his desk a large jar filled with dried beans（豆）, and invited the students to _  _how many beans the jar contained. After ____shouts of wildly wrong guesses the professor smiled a thin, dry smile, announced the ____ answer, and went on saying,” You have just ___an important lesson about science. That is Never____ your own senses.”

Twenty years later, the ___could guess what the professor had in mind. He ____himself, perhaps, as inviting his students to start an exciting____into an unknown world

Invisible（无形的）to the     ,which can be discovered only through scientific         .But the seventeen-year-old girl could not accept or even         the invitation. She was just        to understand the world. And she        that her firsthand experience could be the        .The professor, however, said that it was      .he was taking away her only      for knowing and was providing her with no substitute. “I remember feeling small and         ,”the women says, “and I did the only thing I could do.  I           the course that afternoon, and I haven’t gone near science since.”

1.A .art      B. history    C. science      D. math

2.A. searched for  B. looked at         C. got through   D. marched  into

3.A. count          B. guess    C. report   D. watch

4.A. warning      B. giving    C. turning away D. listening to

5.A. ready          B. possible         C. correct D. difficult

6.A. learned      B. prepared       C. taught   D. taken

7.A. lose      B. trust         C. sharpen         D. show

8.A. lecturer       B. scientist     C. speaker         D. woman

9.A. described    B. respected C. saw        D. served

10.A. voyage       B. movement          C. change D. rush

11.A. professor     B. eye          C. knowledge       D. light

12.A. model       B. senses         C. spirit          D. methods

13.A. hear         B. make         C. present        D. refuse

14.A. suggesting    B. beginning      C. pretending      D. waiting

15.A. believed      B. doubted       C. proved         D. explained

16.A. growth        B. strength      C. faith            D. truth

17.A .firm          B. interesting      C. wrong           D. acceptable

18.A. task          B. tool         C. success          D. connection

19.A. cruel         B. proud       C. frightened       D. brave

20.A. dropped       B. started      C. passed           D .missed