Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block. No specific purpose in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat. As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become.

When I was a kid in the New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine. Most stores were closed, almost nobody worked, and the highways, as a result, were not the desperate steeplechases（障碍赛跑） they have become today. My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother—the same house my father was raised in, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek.

The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly. It was the repetition to church, our reward for an hour of devotion, an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there were no chores that couldn’t wait until Monday. Sunday was, indeed, different from all the other days of the week, because everyone seemed to be on the same schedule, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else.

         Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it’s surprising to consider that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association. In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visiting someone else’s home on Sunday. But now the question is, “What do you plan to DO this Sunday?” The answer can range from going to the mall to participating in a road race to jetting to Montreal for lunch. If one were to respond, “I’m making a Sunday visit to family,” such an answer would feel sepia-toned, an echo from another era.

I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land and tight relationships. Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state’s powerfully rural cast（特质）still harbors at least remnants of the ethic of yesterday’s America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries（反复无常的情况）and a challenging environment.

1．The writer’s general impression of the Sunday in the past was a day when _______.

A. everyone was paying a visit to some relative far away

B. everyone seemed to be free and could have some leisure

C. Dad was not at work while Mom was busy cleaning the house

D. nearly every adult would go to church and children were not at school

2．In the fourth paragraph, the writer compares the response “I’m making a Sunday visit to family” to an echo from another era because _______.

       A. people nowadays prefer staying at home on Sunday

       B. such answers are rarely heard in our modern society

       C. people in the city dislike being disturbed on Sunday

       D. visiting someone on Sunday might take a lot of time

3．From the last paragraph we may infer that _______.

A. people in Maine suffer more from economic depression and the changed environment

B. people in Maine has abandoned their tradition and lived an absolute new life

C. land in Maine is short, thus the relationship between people is tense

D. people in Maine always help each other when they are in need

4．Which word we may use to describe the writer’s attitude towards the Sunday today?

A. Unsatisfied.           B. Anxious.              C. Treasured.            D. Teased.

B
Advice to “sleep on it” could be well founded, scientists say. After a good night’s sleep a problem that couldn’t be solved the night before can often appear more manageable, although the evidence（证据）until now has been personal experience. But researchers at the University of Luebek in Germany have designed an experiment that shows a good night’s sleep can improve insight（洞察力）and problem-solving.
“If you have some newly-got memories in your brain, sleep acts on these memories and rebuild them, so that after sleep the insight into problem which you could not solve before increases,” said Dr Jan Born, a neuroscientist（神经病学专家）at the university. To test the theory, they taught volunteers two simple rules to help them turn some numbers into a new order．There was also a third，hidden rule，which could help them increase their speed in solving the problem．The researchers divided the volunteers into two groups：half were allowed to sleep after the training while the rest were forced to stay awake．Dr Jan Born and his team noticed that the group that had slept after the training were twice as likely to figure out the third rule as the other group．“Sleep helped，”Born said in a telephone interview．“The important thing is that you have to have a memory representation in your brain of the problem you want to solve and then you sleep，so it can act on the problem．”But Born admitted that he and his team don’t know how rebuilding of memories occurs or what governs it．Pierre Maquet and Perrine Ruby of the University of Liege in Belgium said the experimental evidence supports the suggestions that sleep can help develop creative thinking．Although the role of sleep in human creativity will still be a mystery，the research gives people good reason to fully respect their periods of sleep，they added．
60．The underlined phrase“sleep on it”in Paragraph 1 probably means_________．
A．to delay deciding something until the next day
B．to get as much sleep as possible
C．to go on sleeping without being disturbed
D．to sleep till after the time you usually get up in the morning
61．Jan Born and his team carried out the experiment through________．
A．comparison    B．interview        C．survey          D．imagination
62．It can be inferred from the passage that___________．
A．people should sleep so long as they have time
B．sleep is the only way to solve hard problems
C．people have various periods of sleep   D．people know how sleep rebuilds memories
63．What would be the best title for the passage?
A．How Sleep Works．               B．Sleep Helps Solve Problems．
C．No Evidence，But Well Founded．   D．Born’s Discovery on Sleep．

That couldn’t be better means____.

A．That wasn’t good                      B．That’s exellent news

C．That could be worse                     D．Well done

Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block. No specific purpose in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat. As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become.
When I was a kid in the New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine. Most stores were closed and almost nobody worked. My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek.
The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly. It was the repetition to church, our reward for and hour of devotion, and opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there were no chores that couldn’t wait until Monday. Sunday was, indeed, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else.
Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it’s surprising to consider that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association.^① In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visit someone else’s home on Sunday. But now the question is, “What do you plan to Do this Sunday?” The answer can range from going to the mall to participating in a road to jetting to Montreal for lunch. If one were to respond, “I’m making a Sunday visit to family,” such and answer would feel strange, an echo from another era.
I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land tight relationships. Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state’s powerfully rural cast（特质）still harbors at least remnants（剩余部分）of the ethic of yesterday’s America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries（反复无常的情况）and a challenging environment.^②
【小题1】The writer’s general impression of the Sunday in the past was a day when_________.

My husband Mike hated Christmas. He didn’t hate the true meaning of ___36___, but the commercial aspects (方面) of it. Knowing he felt this ____37__, I decided one year to__38__the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so on. I reached for something __39_just for Mike. The idea came in an unusual way.
　　 Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was____40__at the junior level at the school he attended and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match___41____a team sponsored（资助） by a church.
　　 These youngsters from the church, dressed in shoes so____42___that shoestrings(鞋带) seemed to be the only thing holding them together,___43_____our son’s team were in their beautiful new wrestling shoes.
　　 As the match began, I was___44___to see that the other team was wrestling without a helmet(头盔) designed to___45____a wrestler’s head. They clearly could not____46___ them. Well, our son’s team ended up defeating them and took every weight class. But as the other team ____47__up from the mat(垫子), they walked around with a sense of pride that couldn’t admit___48____.
　　 Mike, seated beside me, shook his head___49___, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential(潜力), but___50___like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved__51____and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball. That’s when the __52____for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and ___53____some wrestling helmets and shoes and sent them to the church.
　　 On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his____54___from me. His smile was the____55___ thing about Christmas that year.