Remember how great exercise was when you were a little kid? Back then, racing around the playground or skipping rope for hours, you weren’t thinking fitness, you were thinking entertainment. But in this age of high-tech home equipment and underused gym memberships, the simple joy of jumping rope has been forgotten. Rediscovering it will give you a total-body exercise you can find.
Although considered an excellent form of exercise, jumping rope has never gained widespread acceptance because of two fundamental reasons. First, most people recognize jumping rope as an excellent form of cardiovascular (心血管的) exercise, but they also believe that it is simply too difficult. In other words, they don’t think they’ll be able to continue jumping for the near 20 minutes that it takes to achieve a beneficial physical outcome. Second, many view it as somewhat boring and overly repetitive—not as something fun or enjoyable.
As a matter of fact, jumping rope can be great fun if you find a proper way to practice it. Instead of doing the usual two-foot bounce over and over again, people good at rope-jumping often change their pattern every 10 or 20 jumps. A single bounce, a double–bounce, a skip, a knee-up, side swings, as well as a variety of other easy-to-learn free-style rope-jumping.
Now researchers are learning that jumping rope also prepares the brain for learning. It is an exercise allowing both brain hemispheres to perform in parallel to each other. In short , jumping rope can be a life-long activity requiring little equipment, time and space, yet leading to a much healthier life.
【小题1】 From the first paragraph we learn that         .

Ever since I was little I loved doing things for other people. As I got older I began doing random ( 随意的 ) things for people. For example, during holidays, such as Christmas, I would make an extra   21  along with the ones for my relatives. Then I would go and find someone in the grocery store and just hand it to them and walk away. It was so much fun. I admit,   22 , the first time I did it I was so   23 . I didn’t know who to give the card to. So I said a little prayer and knew that the   24  person would just appear. About that time an elderly man ran   25  me with his shopping cart. It was an accident, and he   26  a million times. We smiled and he walked away, and I knew that he was the one.  Later I found him in a different isle(过道), handed him the card, and smiled. I said Happy Holidays, and then walked away. It was so great, and the   27  I had afterwards was unexplainable.
Then one day I came across your website (the coolest website ever) and   28  some Smile Cards. When they came in, I started a new project. When I go into a store, I locate a person who I think needs a   29 . Then, I buy a flower, a carnation, to be exact, and   30  it in the most beautiful paper they have. I tie lots of ribbons on it to make it   31 , and then slip the smile card into an envelope and   32  it to the flower. After that, I pay for it and explain to the cashier   33  it is to go to (I live in a pretty small town so it’s easy to get the help of the cashiers). They then give it to that person when they come through.. Once in a while I’ll buy the flower and then just leave it for the cashier. That gets smiles.
My favorite time was when I picked out this elderly woman who was walking around the   34  somewhat confused. I had come across her numerous times and she only smiled slightly once. When she came to the check out (I was watching from outside) her face   35  and the smile was the biggest I had ever seen. Later that week the cashier whom I had had   36  me told me that the lady had been so surprised and while she was walking out with the grocery bag to her car, she was planning what she was going to do for someone else. It was awesome.
I absolutely love the random acts of kindness cards. I   37  at least two in my purse and others in my car, locker and everywhere I go. As I mentioned, my club, STARS, is doing a Random Acts of Kindness Project with the smile cards so they also are using them. I look forward to hearing about their success. It’s really great. I   38  used them in school. I bought my entire math class cans of pop after lunch one day. They came in from lunch and a can of pop and a smile card were setting   39  that day. It totally lightened the mood in the class that day   40  we were studying for a test. Thank you for all of the help that you provide. The smile cards are a great program that brings smiles into the lives of many!

One morning more than thirty years ago, I entered the Track Kitchen, a restaurant where everyone from the humblest(卑微的)to the most powerful came for breakfast. I noticed an empty chair next to an elderly, unshaven man, who looked somewhat untidy. He was wearing a worn-out hat and was alone. I asked if I might join him. He agreed quietly and I sat down to have my breakfast.
We cautiously began a conversation and spoke about a wide rang of things. We never introduced ourselves. I was concerned that he might have no money and not be able to afford something to eat. So as I rose to go back to the counter and buy a second cup of coffee, I asked,
“May I get you something ?”
“A coffee would be nice.”
Then I bought him a cup of coffee. We talked more, and he accepted another cup of coffee. Finally, I rose to leave, wished him well, and headed for the exit. At the door I met one of my friends. He asked,
“How did you get to know Mr. Gal breath?”
“Who?”
“The man you were sitting with. He is chairman of the Board of Churchill Downs.”
I could hardly believe it. I was buying, offering a free breakfast, and feeling pity for one of the world’s richest and most powerful men!
My few minutes with Mr. Gal breath changed my life. Now I try to treat everyone with respect, no matter who I think they are, and to meet another human being with kindness and sincerity.
【小题1】The author bought coffee for the old man because     

Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard patterns into which they plug each day’s events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard patterns" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedes, and trade stocks, and they’re less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The surprising distrust of the news media isn’t rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
【小题1】What is the passage mainly about?

There is one difference between the sexes on which every expert and study agrees: men are more aggressive than women．It shows up in 2-year-olds．It continues through school days and persists into adulthood．It is even constant across cultures．And there is little doubt that it is rooted in biology．
If there's a woman’s trait（特点） which is the same as men’s aggressiveness, it's what social scientists refer to as the result of "education"．Feminists have argued that the caring nature of women is not biological in origin, but rather has been forced into women by a society that wanted to keep them in the home．But the signs that it is at least partly inborn are too numerous to ignore．Just as tiny infant girls respond more readily to human faces, female toddlers（学步者） learn much faster than males how to pick up nonverbal cues（非言语暗示） from others．And grown women are far more skilful than men at interpreting facial expressions: A recent study by University of Pennsylvania brain researcher Ruben Gur showed that they easily read emotions such as anger, sadness and fear．The only such emotion men could pick up was disgust．
What difference do such differences make in the real world? Among other things, women appear to be somewhat less competitive--or at least competitive in different ways--than men．At the Harvard Law School, for instance, female students enter with qualities just as outstanding as those of their male peers．But they don' t qualify for the well-known Law Review in proper numbers, a fact some school officials owe to women' s discomfort in the incredibly competitive atmosphere．
Students of management styles have found fewer differences than they expected between men and women who reach leadership positions, perhaps because many successful women deliberately imitate men．But an analysis by Purdue social psychologist Alice Eagly of 166 studies of leadership style did find one difference: Men tend to be more “autocratic”-making decisions on their own--while women tend to consult colleagues more often． Studies of behavior in small groups turn up even more differences．Men will typically dominate the discussion, says University of Toronto psychologist Kenneth Dion, spending more time talking and less time listening．
53．The passage mainly discusses__________．
A．how sex differences are demonstrated in social relations
B．how hormone determines sex differences
C．why there are differences between males and females
D．why men and women have different social roles
54．According to the writer, women’s caring nature is      .
A．not inborn in any sense   B．inspired by women’s families
C．caused by social prejudice       D．partly biological in origin
55．The Harvard Law School example in paragraph 3 suggests that_________．
A．women are not as competitive as men
B．law is not the fight profession for women
C．women are as excellent as men when they are young
D．academic qualities are not equal to performance
56．We can say from paragraph 4 that ___________.
A．men leaders should consult colleagues and subordinates more often．
B．female leaders' success is due to their imitating male leaders．
C．men and women are different in their leadership style．
D．decisiveness is an important quality for a successful politician．