Where is that noise coming from? Not sure? Try living with your eyes closed for a few years.

Blind people are better at locating sounds than people who can see, a new study says, without the benefits of vision the ears seem to work much better.

Previous studies have shown that blind people are better than others at reaching out and touching the sources of sounds that are close by. Researchers from the University of Montreal wanted to see if blind people were also better at locating sounds that are far away.

Twenty-three blind people participated in the study. All had been sightless for at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had lost their vision before age 11. the rest went blind after age 16. The experiment also included 10 people who could see but were wearing blind-folds.

In one task, volunteers had to pick the direction of a sound coming from about 3 meters away. When the sound was in front of them or slightly off center in front, both groups performed equally well.

When sounds came from the side or the back, however, the blind group performed much better than the blindfolded group. The participants who had been blind since childhood did slightly better than those who lost their sight later.

Recognizing the locations of distant sounds can be a matter of life-or-death for blind people, say the researchers. Crossing the street, for instance, is much harder when you can’t see the cars coming.

Still, the researchers were surprised by how well the blind participants did, especially those who went blind after age 16. In another experiment, the scientists also found that parts of the brain that normally deal with visual information became active in locating sound in the people who were blind by age 11. These brain parts didn’t show sound-location activity in the other group of blind people or in the sighted people. The scientists now want to learn more about the working of brains of “late-onset” blind people.

The recent study shows blind people are better at telling __________.

A. The sources of loud sounds.     B. the locations of distant sounds

C. the direction of sharp sounds    D. the distance of a sound in front of them

Which would be a proper title for the passage?

A. A Research on Blind People     B. Where is That Noise Coming from?

C. Hearing Better in the Dark      D. What If Living Without Your Eyes?

If people were asked to tell the direction of a sound from the side, who would perform best?

A. Those who are blind.              B. Those who have gone blind since children.

C. Those who went blind at age 16.     D. Those who are blindfolded.

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Whether to be able to locate the sounds can be of vital importance for the blind.

B. All the volunteers in the experiment are sightless.

C. All the participants did equally well when picking sounds from whatever direction.

D. The later people become blind, the better they can perform in telling the direction of sounds.

What do we know about that parts of brain dealing with visual information are active in locating sounds?

A. This happens in almost all the testers.

B. This only occurs in the people who were blind after age 16.

C. It remains nothing new to the scientists any more.

D. It remains a mystery why it is so.

A week ago, I read When Money Talks, Listen! by Rich Ezzo. It took only about an hour to read, and that included one trip to the coffee maker and about 10 distractions (分心)from Alex, our cat, who thinks he is the center of the universe.

When I first received a copy, I thought it was a get-rich-quick type of publication. There is nothing wrong with that kind of book, but my mind just doesn’t chase after dreams of wealth. I figure that if God ever wants me to be rich, he knows where to find my purse.

When I began reading When Money Talks, Listen!, I was overjoyed to find that Rich Ezzo isn’t money hungry either. He, too, is hungry for things far more important than money.

I absolutely love this e-book. Why did I wait a week to write the review ? simple. I wanted to see if the impact it had on me could keep up. After reading the last word of the e-book, I totally agreed with the subtitle(副标题)which promised to forever change the way we thought about money. I had so many thoughts running around my mind that I had to install a stop light to stop some while others made their way into the picture. I had a mental traffic jam, which only goes to show how slow the traffic usually is.

It has been a week and the impact is the same. I guarantee this is an e-book you’ll want to read. I urge you to visit the author’s website, MysterMoney. Com, and to download the e-book. You won’t

regret it.

What’s the purpose of the passage?

     A．to strongly recommend an e-book          

         B．to show the author’s attitude to money

     C．to introduce the general idea of an e-book

     D．to tell us Rich Ezzo isn’t money hungry

The author didn’t write the review right after reading because _____.

     A．he was too excited to write anything 

         B．he was not sure whether he liked the book

     C．he had to wait for Rich Ezzo’s permission

     D．he wondered if this book had a long influence on him

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

         A．The author had known Rich Ezzo before

         B．The author hasn’t dreamed of getting rich instantly

         C．The author always prefers e-books to paper books

         D．The author likes the get-rich type of publication

A speech is a wonderful opportunity to inform, persuade or entertain. The best speeches often take on a combination of all three of these components（组成部分）. However, before you can go about the writing of a great speech, it is important to set goals. Goals keep you，your speech and your audience focused.
What a goal is
In the context of a speech, a goal is the purpose of the speech, and what it hopes to accomplish. For example, the goal of a eulogy(颂歌) might be to celebrate the life of a loved one. The goal of a speech at a political gathering would be to inform the crowd about the political position of a candidate and persuade them to vote and campaign for the candidate in question（正被讨论的）.
Why a goal is important
Without a goal, a speech is without direction. The goal informs the structure and content of the speech. For example, if a speech's goal is to convince people that smoking is bad for them, the speech will be structured with persuasive arguments to back up the goal. A speech with a goal of informing the audience will keep the information fair and factual.
A goal is incredibly important to the speech's ability to connect with an audience. If the speaker is unaware of the goal of the speech, the audience will likely be unaware as well. This severely reduces the effectiveness of the message.
Aside from informing the audience of the content and structure, a speech's goal drives the speaker to greater heights. If a speaker is asked to speak on a specific subject, but never establishes the goal, they won't know where to start in the research, organizing and writing of the speech.
______________
If you have been charged with(被委以) delivering a speech, establishing a goal can seem difficult at first. There are several things to take into consideration. First, think about who you will be speaking to. The demographic(人口统计) of your audience will likely determine whether you will be able to persuade them, or whether they will be able to sit through（一直坐到……结束）. Second, think about the topic itself. If the topic is something controversial（有争议的）, it may worth your while to consider an informative approach to present both sides of the issue. Finally, consider your resources. A speech with an informative or persuasive goal usually requires a great deal of research, and sometimes takes more time to write.
【小题1】According to the passage, what three components does the best speech combine?

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and loved the boy very much. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked the wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. The mother, preoccupied in the kitchen, totally forgot the matter.
The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle and, fascinated with its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed, the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned. She was terrified how to face her husband.
When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just four words. The husband just said ‘I am with you, Darling’. The husband's totally unexpected reaction is proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he have taken time to keep the bottle away, this will not have happened. No point in attaching blame. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her.
If everyone can look at life with this kind of viewpoint, there would be much fewer problems in the world. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears and you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think. Sometimes we spend time asking who is responsible or whom to blame, whether in a relationship, in a job or with the people we know. By this way we miss out some warmth in human relationship.
56．The uncapped medical bottle was not put back into the cupboard because         .
A．the husband was careless                            B．the husband was busy
C．the wife wasn’t informed of the matter   D．the wife ignored the matter
57．What do we know about the bottle?          .
A．It contained poison only for adults             B．It appeared like a nice drink
C．It was broken by the child                             D．It was kept in the kitchen
58．The husband’s attitude towards his wife can be described as           .
A．optimistic                B．confident                 C．considerate            D．generous
59．What did the writer intend to tell us about life?          .
A．Let go the negative side and we can enjoy life.
B．It is always useless finding who is responsible
C．Think of nothing and life will be easy
D．Life should give way to responsibility

A lot of grown-ups worry that spending too much time playing video games isn’t good for a kid’s health. Now some doctors have noticed that kids who bring their hand-held game players to the hospital seem less worried about being there. These patients also seem to experience less pain when they are concentrating on a superhero adventure or a car race. At the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Maryland, young patients are finding hospital visits easier to deal with, thanks to a test program called the Hospital-based On-line Pediatric Environment (HOPE). Patients in HOPE have a life-threatening condition where their kidneys(肾脏)no longer filter(过滤)wastes from their blood. To get their blood cleaned, these kids must be hooked up to dialysis(透析) machines at the hospital three times a week, for at least three hours each time. HOPE allows kids to play online sports, racing, and adventure games with each other. Eventually they will be able to connect with kids in other hospitals who are suffering from the same problem. "We want to use the power of the Internet to bring together kids who feel that they are separated by their illness, and let them know that they are not alone," said Arun Mathews, the doctor who heads the program. He loves video games himself and got the idea to connect kids all over the country. Many researchers elsewhere are testing video game programs that might help young patients. For example, nine-year-old Ben Duskin of San Francisco, who was struggling with cancer helped to design a video game where players get rid of cancer cells. That’s all great news, because doctors already know that reducing pain and worry helps patients heal faster.
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the passage?