Memory is the ability to keep track of things that have happened in the past. Memory really is learning. One needs memory to ride a bicycle. A dog needs to remember if it is to come when called.
Memory is said to be stored in the brain as a “memory trace（记忆痕）.” What makes up this trace is not known. Some scientists believe that certain chemical substances may carry certain memories. For example, one substance, when given to rats, causes them to fear the dark.
Other research into memory has to do with how the brain works. Psychologists use three means to find out how a person remembers. For example, give a person a grocery list. Let the person memorize the list, then put it away. The most natural way to find out how much a person remembers of the grocery list is to ask what he or she remembers. This is called the method of recall. Another method is called recognition. Give the person another grocery list. Ask him or her to choose items on the first list from the items that are on only the second list. Often a person will be able to recognize things that he or she cannot recall. A third method of finding how much a person remembers is called relearning. Here the person is asked to read over the first list. The person will probably learn the list the second time faster than he did the first time. The difference in the time it takes to relearn the list is thought of as a measure of how much a person has remembered.
One way of remembering something is to repeat it many times. Interest is very important. Boring lists of facts are much more difficult to remember than something that we understand and are interested in. Motivation, or wanting to do something, is also important. Motivation is linked with reward. For example, a hungry animal quickly learns how to do something if that action gets the animal food. In humans, wanting to learn is often motivation. The praise of a teacher or the knowledge that an answer is correct is rewarding.
【小题1】We can learn from the 2nd paragraph that ___________       .

第四节阅读理解（20×2分）
James Langston Hughes finally arrived in New York on September 4, 1921 to attend Colombia University. Langston felt frustrated at Colombia due to the discrimination of his white classmates. His grades began to suffer and finally he left and looked for a job.
Job were still hard to come by for most blacks. He longed to work on a ship that would sail abroad. After much persistence, he headed to Africa on a freighter ( 货船 ). Hughes was disturbed by the African tribes’ lack of political and economical freedom. The Africans considered him white because of his brown skin and stranded dark hair. It was here that he met a mulatto （白黑混血）child who was ignored by the Africans and the whites. This was a sourced of inspiration for his play, “Mulatto”.
Hughes found work on another freighter and ended up in Pairs. While there he worked at a night club that featured southern cooking and jazz performers. While moving on to Italy, Hughed was robbed and left stranded (helpless) wanting to return to the United States. He tried to get a job on a ship heading for the U.S.A. but was told they only hired the white. In this depressed state of mind he wrote, “I, Too, Sing America.”
He returned to America and found the Harlem Renaissance was spreading across racial boundaries（种族界线）. Many black poets and authors were now published in mainstream publications. Hughes was warmly welcomed by his peers （同辈）and recognized for the poetry he wrote while traveling. 
56. What inspired James Hughes to white the play “Mulatto”?
A. Neither the African nor the whites took care of a mulatto child he met.
B. The African did not like white people.
C. Blacks found it hard to find a decent job.
D. There was no political nor economical freedom in Africa.
57. How did Hughes pay for his trip from Africa to Paris?
A. He sold his poems.                 B. He got a job on ship.
C. He worked for a night club.     D. His African friends gave him some money.           58 . What happened to Hughes at Colombia University?
A. His white classmates were kind and helpful to him.
B. He was recognized as a promising poet.
C. He graduated with honors.   
D. He was very disappointed.   

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第二部分 阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分，满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
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 metres 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.
36. 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
37. 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?
38. 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.
39. 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.
40. 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.

Can people change their skin color without suffering like pop king Michael Jackson? Perhaps yes.Scientists have found the gene that determines skin color.
The gene comes in two versions, one of which is found in 99 per cent of Europeans.The other is found in 93 t0 100 per cent of Africans, researchers at Pennsylvania State University report in the latest issue of Science.
Scientists have changed the color of a dark - striped zebrafish(斑马鱼) to uniform gold by inserting a version of the pigment(色素) gene into a young fish.As with humans, zebrafish skin color is deter-mined  by pigment cells，which contain melanin(黑色素).The number,  size and darkness of melanin perpigment cell determine skin color.
It appears that, like the golden zebrafish, light - skinned Europeans also have a mutation (变异) in the gene for melanin production.This results in less pigrnented skin.
However, Keith Cheng, leader of the research team, points out that the mutation is different in hu-man ancl zebrafish genes.
Humans acquired dark skin in Africa about l.5 million years ago to protect bodies from ultra - violetrays of the sun. which can cause skin cancer.
But when modem humans leave Africa to live in northem latitudes, they need more sunlight on their skin to produce vitamin D. So the related gene changes, according to Cheng.
Asians have the same version of the gene as Africans, so they probably acquired their light skin through the action of some other gene that affects skin color, said Cheng.
The new discovery could lead to medical treatments for skin cancer.lt also could lead to research in-to ways to change skin color without damaging it like chemical treatment did on Michael Jackson.
【小题1】Scientists have done an experiment on a dark -striped zebrafish in order to

Among various programs, TV talk shows have covered every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one is different in style(风格). But no two shows are more opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “rubbish talk”. The contents on his show are as surprising as can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show titles of love, sex, cheating, and hate, to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is about the dark side of society, yet people are willing to eat up the troubles of other people’s lives.
Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its top. But Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show is mainly about the improvement of society and different quality(质量) of life. Contents are from teaching your children lessons, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.
Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being poured into society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech about the entire idea of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.
Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show’s main viewers are middleclass Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and ability to deal with life’s tough problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of a connection with the young adults of society. These are 18-to-21-year-olds whose main troubles in life include love, relationship, sex, money and drug. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned through the show’s exploitation.
【小题1】Compared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are ______.