D

Have you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it? Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to make it clear in your own mind. How can you use this to increase your brain power? Start writing.

By putting thoughts into words, you are telling yourself the logic behind what you think, feel, or only partly understand. Often, explaining a thought is the process of understanding. In other words, you increase your brain power by exercising your “explain power”.

Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember. Many, if not most, highly productive people are always taking notes. You can try keeping it all in your head, but if you keep a journal(日志) of your ideas the next time you’re working on a big project, you’ll probably have more success.

Want to understand a topic? Write a book about it. That’s an extreme example, but if you are learning something new, write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better. Want to invent something? Write an explanation of the problem—why you want to solve it, and why it is worth solving, and you’re half way there.

Writers don’t always write because they clearly understand something beforehand. Often, they write about something because they want to understand it. You can do the same. Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try.

47.What would be the best title for the passage?

A.A Way on How to Write

B.Increase Your Brain Power Through Writing

C.Brain Power Helps Improve Your Writing

D.How to Start Your Writing

48.According to the passage, writing can help you a lot EXCEPT_______.

A.to increase your brain power      B.to improve the ability to remember

C.to develop your interest in study   D.to strengthen the understanding of a topic

49.The underlined sentence “you’re half?way there” in the fourth paragraph means that_______.

A.you are already successful

B.there’s a long way for you to go to reach your goal

C.you are left wondering what to do

D.you have been on the way to success

50.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A.Writing can cure people of their brain disease.

B.People who can keep all thoughts in mind are more likely to succeed.

C.Writing a book about one topic is the only way to understand it.

D.The more you write, the more logical you will be.

People have been burying the dead at Salem’s Hope Cemetery since 1833. The place is filled with old gravestones and gothic mausoleums(哥特式陵墓), the spirits of the dead hanging over the land like an early morning fog.
Keeping watch, a few steps from the road with her skirt over the pedestal (基座), is Goldie Belle Taylor, her face weathered but otherwise in good condition. On this day, she is holding a bunch of pink rises because Goldie Belle always holds flowers. Someone makes sure of that.
“And she has had fresh flowers in her hands for the last 150 years.” Karen Biery lives in Damascus, about five miles west of Hope Cemetery. She’s written a book based on the legend of Goldie Belle Taylor titled Believe. In 1886, at the age of two, young Goldie Belle used her hands to sop up (抹去) the left over elderberry juice from her father’s iron kettle. She died not long after from poisoning. She was the love of her dad’s life, and he was so upset that he sold the family farm to buy the Italian made statue, which today marks her grave.
At first, it was her father who brought the flowers and laid them in her hands. When he died in 1896, the flowers kept coming. Her flowers are different per season. Why do the flowers keep miraculously appearing? People have tried to find out by having camped by the statue, but not even the groundskeepers have been able to catch the criminal.
It’s said that a fairy arrives at Hope Cemetery looking for the grave of her birth mother. She comes across Goldie Belle’s statue.

1. 1.

   The underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 probably refers to________.

   1. A.
      her face in good condition
   2. B.
      her bunch of pink roses
   3. C.
      Goldie Belle Taylor is holding pink roses
   4. D.
      Goldie Belle Taylor always holds flowers
2. 2.

   It can be inferred from the third paragraph __________.

   1. A.
      her father was poisonous
   2. B.
      the iron kettle was poisonous
   3. C.
      elderberry juice was poisonous
   4. D.
      it was her father that hated her
3. 3.

   After her father died, the flowers in the hands of Goldie Belle Taylor_______.

   1. A.
      usually change
   2. B.
      were stolen
   3. C.
      are no longer fresh
   4. D.
      come from a criminal
4. 4.

   What would be the best title for the passage?

   1. A.
      A fairy brings the flowers.
   2. B.
      The mystery of Goldie’s flowers.
   3. C.
      What happens to the girl?
   4. D.
      How do the flowers get there?

Geologists have been studying volcanoes for a long time.Though they have learned a great deal,they still have not discovered the cause of volcanic action.They know that the inside of the earth is very hot,but they are not sure exactly what causes the great heat.Some geologists have thought that the heat is caused by the great pressure of the earth’s outer layers.Or the heat may be left from the time when the earth was formed.During the last sixty years scientists have learned about radium,uranium,thorium,and other radioactive elements.Many scientists now believe that much of the heat inside the earth is produced by radioactive elements.

Whatever the cause of the heat may be,we do know that the earth gets hotter the farther down we dig.In deep mines and oil wells the temperatures rise about 1°F for every 50 feet.At this rate of the temperature 40 miles below the earth’s surface should be over 4 000°.This is much hotter than necessary to melt rock.However,the pressure of the rock above keeps most materials from melting at their usual melting points.Geologists believe that the rock deep in the earth may be plastic,or puttylike（油灰状的）.In other words,the rock yields slowly to pressure but is not liquid.But if some change in the earth’s crust releases the pressure,the rock melts.Then the hot,liquid rock can move up toward the surface.

The cause for the great heat inside of the earth is______.

 A.great pressure of the earth’s outer layers

 B.the heat left from the time when the earth was formed

 C.radioactive elements giving out heat

 D.not sure

According to the passage,______ prevents most rock from melting at its usual melting points.

 A.the pressure of the rock itself

 B.the pressure of the rock above

 C.the pressure of the earth’s outer layers

 D.the heat given out by some radioactive elements

According to the passage,which of the following is NOT true?

 A.The farther down,the hotter the earth gets.

 B.The rock deep in the earth is liquid.

 C.When the pressure releases from the earth’s crust,the rock melts.

 D.Rock would be melted at 4 000°.

People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.

About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.

The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture-writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.

By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.

These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But we still need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily, and they can make a story much more interesting.

Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because ______.

A. the hunters wanted to see the pictures    

B. the painters were animal lovers

C. the painters wanted to show imagination

D. the pictures were thought to be helpful

The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons      EXCEPT that _______.

   A. the former was easy to write    

B. there were fewer signs in the former    

C. the former was easy to pronounce

D. each sign stood for only one sound

Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.

B. The Egyptians liked to write comic-strip stories.

C. The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.    

D. The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.

In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ___________.

A. should be made comprehensible

B. should be made interesting

C. are of much use in our life     

D. have disappeared from our life

Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made．In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I would almost always get up late the next morning．

But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high relationship between success and rising early．On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was almost always higher．So I set out to become a habitual early riser．But whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that noise and go back to sleep．Eventually some sleep research showed me that I was using the wrong strategy．

The most common wrong strategy is this: You assume that if you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier．It sounds very reasonable, but will usually fail.

There are two main schools(流派) of thought on sleep patterns．One is that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day．The second school says you should go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up．However, I have found both of them are wrong if you care about productivity．If you sleep at set hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough．You’re wasting time lying in bed awake and not being asleep.

If your sleep is based on what your body tells you, you’ll probably be sleeping more than you need．Also, your mornings may be less predictable if you’re getting up at different times．

The solution for me has been to combine both methods．I go to bed when I’m sleepy and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time．So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5 am), but I go to bed at different times every night — sometimes at 9:30pm, and other times at midnight．Most of the time I go to bed between 10-11 pm．

 However, going to bed only when I’m sleepy, and getting up at a fixed time every morning is my way．If you want to become an early riser, you can try your own.

According to the passage, the underlined phrase refers to ____.

      A．people who stay up until the next morning.

      B．people who get up early in the morning.

      C．people who feel sleepy in the morning.

      D．people whose productivity is the highest in the morning.

Why did the author want to become a habitual early riser?

      A．Because he / she wanted to form the habit of going to bed early and getting up early.

      B．Because he / she had found that his / her productivity was higher when he / she got up early.

      C．Because he / she wanted to see which of the two main schools of thought on sleep patterns was right.

      D．Because he / she was told the high relationship between success and rising early.

The author experienced all the following EXCEPT ____.

      A．going to bed after midnight．        

       B．getting up early occasionally.

      C．pressing off the alarm to go on sleeping.

      D．asking scholars for advice on sleeping habits.

The passage is mainly about ____。

      A．how to become an early riser．       

       B．how to have good sleep.

       C．wrong strategies for getting up early.

       D．main schools of thought on sleep patterns.