When most people travel, they spend some time booking hotel rooms. However, my friend Ashley and I were not like most people many years ago. We decided that backpacking through Ireland would be more fun if we “winged it”.

  Winging it, of course, meant that we’d each buy a one-way ticket to Dublin, and give ourselves ten days to get back to Bath, England, where we were enrolled in a study-abroad program. The plan was to visit Dublin, Galway, Cong, and finally end things in Belfast, where we figured we could catch a flight back to England.

  Unfortunately, Ireland had other plans for us, as nothing worked out the way in which we thought it would. After getting stuck in Galway and Cong for about seven days, we finally managed to take a bus trip from Cong to Belfast. The twelve-hour bus ride started at ten in the morning, which meant that we’d arrive in the heart of Belfast at around ten at night. Of course, like all transport, the bus ran late, and we ended up in Belfast at around eleven-thirty at night. As there were a ton of hotels around the area where it dropped us off, we weren’t too worried about finding a hotel room. But hotel after hotel turned us down.

  After the third hotel turned us down and the fourth one was locked up for the night, Ashley and I started to realize that we had to spend a long night sleeping on a city bench. Like militant soldiers, we slept in turn as we were worried we would get robbed. The system worked, as we were able to stay safe while catching as much sleep as we could on the bench.

  From this experience, I really learnt a good lesson.

1.Why did the author and his friend decide to wing it when they went to travel in Ireland? (No more than 8 words)

2.What did the author and his friend do in Bath, England? (No more than 8 words)

3.How long did it take the author and his friend to get to Belfast from Cong by bus? (No more than 5 words)

4.Why did the author and his friend have to take turns to sleep? (No more than 8 words)

Throughout time, people have loved music for its ability to transport them into a world of rhythm and melody. Recently more and more hospitals and clinics have been tapping into the power of music –not only to comfort patients, but to help cure them as well. Welcome to the world of music therapy(疗法).
After each of the two world wars, musicians visited hospitals and played instruments for injured soldiers suffering from emotional and physical pain. Today's music therapists continue this practice, playing instruments such as guitars and harps to bring comfort to their audiences.
Therapist Eric Mammen encourages his patients at a children’s hospital to participate with him as he plays. During visits with 13-year-old cancer patient Lawrence Garcia, Mammen encourages Garcia to beat on electric drums while he plays the guitar. The therapy won’t cure his cancer, but it does, according to Garcia’s mom, take away much of the boy’s depression(沮丧).
Music therapy can put patients in better moods and ease the symptoms of depression according to the American Music Therapy Association. Other benefits include relieving pain, calming tension, aiding sleep, reducing worry or fear, and easing muscle tension.
Jose Haro personally experienced the benefits of music therapy when he was recovering from heart surgery. During his recovery, he played a piano whose keys lit up, indicating which keys to touch to play along with the background music. Soon he was playing tunes and noticing something strange. “I was searching for my pain.” He says of his experience, “but it was gone.”
While Haro's experience provides an evidence of the power of music to relieve pain, scientific research has proven music also helps patients with Alzheimer's disease and arthritis.
In addition, music therapy helps premature babies. Doctors are tapping into a powerful way to teach premature babies that haven’t yet learned how to suck. Doctors use a device that comforts the babies by playing music when they suck on a pacifier（奶嘴）. Soon the babies learn to suck in return for music, gaining weight faster and going home earlier than those who do not use the device.
Even perfectly healthy people are discovering the power of music to calm and heal. Drum circles attract people who find stress relief in beating out rhythms. While music is not a cure-all, it does make life a little easier.
【小题1】In the first paragraph, the underlined phrase “ tapping into “ can be replaced by “_________”

Hundreds of years ago, a Roman army came north from England to make war on Scotland. The Scots, a brave people, love their country. They fought hard to drive the enemy out of Scotland. But there were too many of the Romans. It looked as if the Romans would win.

　　One night, the leader of the Scots marched his soldiers to the top of a hill. “We will rest here tonight, my men,” he said, “Tomorrow we will fight one more battle①. We must win, or we will die.”

　　They were all very tired. So they ate their supper quickly and fell asleep. There were four guards on duty, but they were very tired, too, and one by one, they fell asleep.

　　The Romans were not asleep. Quickly they gathered at the foot of the hill. Slowly they went up the hill. Closer they came to the sleeping Scots. They were almost at the top. A few minutes more the war would be over. Suddenly, one of them put his foot on a thistle (蓟). He cried out and his sudden cry woke the Scots. In a minute they were on their feet and ready for a battle. The fighting was hard, but it did not last long. The Scots wiped out the Romans and saved Scotland②.

　　The thistle is not a beautiful plant. It has sharp needles all over it. Few people liked it. But the people of Scotland liked it so much that they made it their national flower.

　1. Hundreds of years ago, the Romans ____ .

　2.At the shout of a Roman soldier, all the Scots who were asleep at the hill ____ .

　3.The result of the war is that ____ .

　4. The Scots made thistle their national flower because thistle ____ .

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NOT all memories are sweet. Some people spend all their lives trying to forget bad experiences. Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars. Often they relive these experiences in nightmares.

Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a frightening experience. They hope it might reduce, or possibly erase(抹去) the effect of painful memories.

In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body releasing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are erased.

The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it.

Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers’ troubling memories after war. They say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories.

“Some memories can ruin people’s lives. They come back to you when you don’t want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions,” said Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatryat Harvard Medical School. : “This could relieve a lot of that suffering.”

But those who are against the research say that changing memories is very dangerous because memories give us our identity（特质）. They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past.

“All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were horrible at the time but make us who we are. I’m not sure we want to wipe those memories out,” said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist

53．The passage is mainly about            .

A．a new medical invention

B．a new research on the pill

C．a way of erasing painful memories

D．an argument about the research on the pill

54．The drug tested on people can            .

A．cause the brain to fix memories     

B．stop people remembering bad experiences

C．prevent body producing certain chemicals

D．wipe out t he emotional effects of memories

55．We can infer from the passage that                  .

A．people doubt t he effects of the pills

B．the pill will stop people’s bad experiences

C．taking the pill will do harm to people’s health

D．the pill has probably been produced in America

56．Which of the following does Rebecca Dresser agree with?

A．Some memories can ruin people’s lives.

B．People want to get rid of bad memories.

C．Experiencing bad events  makes us different from others.  

D．The pill will reduce people’s sufferings from bad memories.