Ok, I admit it: Emoticons(表情符号) are popular. Some people even think they are fun. Many seem unable to get through an e-mail or Instant Message chat sentence without using one. Some feel that they add feeling and character to otherwise cold digital communications.
Some, however, such as editor and Hollywood scriptwriter John Blumenthal, blast the use of emotions as “ infantile(幼稚的) just like the people who use them”. He believes that words themselves should be enough. “If you’re being funny, happy or sad, that should be apparent from the comment that goes before the emoticons,” he argues.
In the eyes of Blumenthal, the use of emoticons is a gender issue. “Men don’t use emoticons very much. Maybe not at all.,” he said. “Teenage girls and women seem to use them a lot. Maybe there’s an emoticons gene.”
It’s an interesting opinion, but it is not shared by all.
In an interview with The New York Times, Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, said that emoticons are popular because our brains are programmed “ to seek out representations of humanity”. He believes that they appeal not because they are shortcuts for the lazy, but because they tap into（输入）something beyond language. They reach to our need to be with and communicate with people.
All of these arguments may be somehow valid（正确的）. Each one of us will choose to communicate in our own way. I do not have much time for emoticons. I tried to use one once and felt like I was stealing into a primary school class that I had no place being in. I’d rather let my words do the talking.
Friends, however, send me messages and e-mails full of emoticons. I have no problem with this, I don’t regard any of my friends as lazy or immature. It’s just a question of individuality.
【小题1】According to the article, emoticons are popular because_________.

A．most of them look funny

B．they are easy for lazy people to use

C．they add feeling and character to a communication

D．a reader cannot understand a message without them

High Speed Book Scanner
Simply turning pages of a book quickly may not seem like the best way to scan it. A Japanese research group at Tokyo University has created new software that allows hundreds of pages to be scanned within minutes. Scanning text is normally a boring process with each page having to be inserted into a scanner, but the team led by Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa uses a high speed camera that takes 500 pictures a second to scan pages as they are turned by workers.
Normal scanners can only scan the information that is actually before them on the page. This high speed book scanner uses a camera that captures pages at 1000fps as they are turned. A system built in allows it to automatically correct any changes to the text due to the page bending as well as light differences due to shadows. “It takes a shot of the shape, then it calculates the shape and uses those calculations to film the scanning,” Ishikawa said, explaining the system used to reconstruct the original page.
The current system is able to scan an average 250-page book in a little over 60 seconds using basic computer hardware. While it now requires extra time to process the scanned images (影像), the researchers hope to eventually make the technology both faster and much smaller. “In the more distant future, once it becomes possible to put all of this processing on one chip (芯片) and then put that in an iPad or iPod, one could scan just using that chip. At that point, it becomes possible to scan something quickly to save for later reading,” Ishikawa said.
Being able to scan books with an iPhone may be further off, but Ishikawa says that a commercial version of the large-scale computer based scanning system could be available in two or three years. While the technology has the potential to take paper books into the digital age, it remains to be how publishers will react to people scanning their books while just turning pages quickly.
【小题1】According to the passage, the advantage of the new scanning software is that ______.

第二节：完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
Today I am known for my voice. Perhaps the greatest honor came when I was asked to read a book on tape.
But it   36   a long time to believe such good things could happen to me. When I was a youngster I stuttered(口吃) so badly that I was completely   37   to speak in public.
38 , when I was 14, Professor Donald Crouch came to our school. He was a retired college professor. English was his favorite subject and   39   was his deepest love. He held a book of poems as if it were a diamond necklace,   40   pages as if uncovering treasures. When he heard our school was teaching Shakespeare and other classics, he could no longer   41   not being a part of our school.
When he   42   that I not only loved poetry but was   43   it, we became closer. There was, however, one   44   between us－Professor Crouch could not bear the   45   that I refused to read my poems to the class.
“Jim, poetry is   46   to be read aloud,” he said. “You should be able to speak those beautiful words.” I shook my head and turned away.
One day he   47   me. After handing in a poem, I waited for his   48   . It didn’t come. Instead, one day as the students gathered together, he   49   me, “Jim, I don’t think you wrote this poem.”
I stared at him in   50   . “Why,” I started, anger   51   me. “of course I did!” “Well, then,” he said, “you’ve got to prove it by getting up and reciting it    52   memory.”
By then the other students had settled at their desks. With knees shaking, I walked up to the front. For a moment I stood there,   53    . Then I began, and kept going. I recited my poem all the way   54   !
Afterwards, Professor Crouch congratulated me, and encouraged me to read other writers’ poetry before public. I discovered I did have a(n)   55   and found my fellow students actually looked forward to hearing me recite.
36. A. lasted     B. took           C. spent          D. wasted
37. A. uncertain    B. uncomfortable   C. unbelievable      D. unable
38. A. However    B. Besides         C. Then          D. Therefore
39. A. novel     B. architecture          C. art             D. poetry
40. A. drawing     B. writing          C. turning          D. finding
41. A. protect          B. help           C. keep          D. stand
42. A. learned      B. recognized     C. decided         D. proved
43. A. writing      B. reading         C. reciting         D. saving
44. A. difference  B. difficulty      C. promise       D. similarity
45. A. truth      B. idea           C. fact            D. belief
46. A. said       B. meant         C. taught         D. prepared
47. A. fooled     B. joked         C. tricked              D. scolded
48. A. idea       B. reward              C. congratulation    D. comment
49. A. told       B. noticed          C. attacked        D. challenged
50. A. disbelief     B. silence              C. sadness          D. excitement
51. A. flowing      B. flooding        C. filling         D. sweeping
52. A. with      B. by             C. from          D. in
53. A. terrified     B. hopeless        C. disappointed      D. breathless
54. A. down     B. along         C. through         D. around
55. A. voice    B. sound         C. appearance     D. interest

BUILDING up a close bond (关系) with friends is important in all cultures. But different cultures have different ways of socializing.
The Chinese love going to restaurants. Family, friends and colleagues all go out to eat as a way of relaxing. So Chinese restaurants are much louder and noisier places compared with those in the Western world.
Although British people do socialize by going out for dinner, most people meet in pubs. They go there in the evening and sometimes during the day. Most people order wine or beer.
Going for a drink with colleagues after work is a particularly important British tradition. A recent survey of office workers found three-quarters of people regard the after-work drink as the key to building positive relationships with colleagues.
But for the French, the preferred place to socialize is in cafés. They are a central part of daily life in France and its culture. People will go to cafes at all times during the day.
In the morning, people may go there to buy a newspaper and a cup of coffee. At lunch they may go there for something to eat. Then when it's evening they may return to enjoy a glass of wine.
While the meeting place is different from culture to culture, "Essentially (本质上) they serve the same purpose, which is that humans need a place to come together to meet," said Aidan Saunders, a professor of social history at the University College London. "We are sociable animals."
People from different parts of the world have different values, and sometimes these values are quite against each other. However, if we can understand them better, a multicultural environment will offer a wonderful chance for us to learn from each other.
【小题1】What is the passage mainly about?      

What if it isn’t a dog-eat-dog world? What if caring for a dog or for a mom with Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症) makes you stronger and allows you to live longer?
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley are challenging our long-held belief that humans are born to be selfish.
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was misunderstood by his male followers, the researchers say. Rather than “every man for himself”, Darwin believed that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our educational, selfless and sympathetic characteristics.
Why has it taken so long for Darwin’s central revelation(揭示) to be properly understood? “We’ve had too many men in social science,” Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner told me in an interview. “Female scientists acknowledge that caring for people is part of human nature according to the research, which shows the human ability to care exists in our brains and nerve systems.”
In my book Passages in Caregiving , I urge women who take the whole responsibility for taking care of an elderly parent or a sick relative to build a “Circle of Care”. Reach out to your brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors and community volunteers to help you care, because no one can perform this overwhelming role alone. You will be as shocked as I to learn how the most selfless caregivers are rewarded with longer life.
Sympathy is not a woman’s word. In fact it makes all of us stronger under stress and more highly respected by our peers. For so long we have repeated the false saying “Nice guys finish last”. But the 40 richest Americans committed to doing good by donating half their fortunes are no spring chickens. So here is my new explanation：Nice guys die last.
【小题1】The first paragraph serves to       .