Professor Reason recently persuaded 35 people to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for two weeks. When he came to analyze their embarrassing errors, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groups.
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her pet dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly.” It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. “But somehow the action got reversed（颠倒）in the programme.” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programme assembly failures.”
Twenty percent of all errors were “test failures” — mainly due to not verifying the progress of what the body was doing. A man about to get his car out of the garage passed through the back yard where his garden jacket and boots were kept, put them on — much to his surprise. A woman reported, “I got into the bath with my socks on.”
The commonest problem was information “storage failures”. People forgot the names of people whose faces they knew, went into a room and forgot why they were there, mislaid something, or smoked a cigarette without realizing it.
The research so far suggests that while the central processor of the brain is liberated from second-to-second control of a well-practiced routine, it must repeatedly switch back its attention at important decision points to check that the action goes on as intended. Otherwise the activity may be gotten by another frequently and recently used programme, resulting in embarrassing errors.
【小题1】The purpose of the professor’s research is to __________.

   Each year, prizes are presented to adults who accomplish great things in art, writing, science, and economics．So why not give awards to kids?

   Harry Leibowitz asked himself that question in 1996．As an answer, he and his wife, Kay, created the World of Children organization and began handing out awards to kids and adults whose work has helped kids all over the world．The awards World of Children presents are nicknamed the "Children's Nobel Prize．" On Thursday, World of Children honored six adults and two kids at its 11th Annual Changemakers for Children awards ceremony held at the UNICEF House at United Nations Plaza in New York City．

   Talia Leman, from Iowa, was awarded a Founder's Youth Award for Leadership．She is only 13 years old, but she has accomplished a lot．In 2005, she founded "RandomKid．" Since then, the nonprofit organization has raised more than $10 million to help kids in 48 states in the U．S．and in 19 other countries develop funding solutions to real-world problems．One place helped by RandomKid was a school built in Cambodia to enable 300 kids to go to school．The organization has also helped fix a school for 200 kids in Slidell, Louisiana, and provided interactive play centers that serve more than 500 kids in hospitals in Iowa．In faraway places like Africa, RandomKid has provided money for the purchase of water pumps．

   Talia never thought that the organization she founded would be as successful as it has become．"I did a project called TLC, which meant Trick or Treat for the Levy Catastrophe, where kids would trick-or-treat for coins along with getting candy," she told me．"My goal was to raise $1 million．That seemed really high, but when you reach a goal, you always wind up reaching higher--and we actually raised $10 million．" The money RandomKid raised provided help to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita．

56．The World of Children organization was created to _____．

       A．answer questions from chilren      B．match the Adults’ Nobel Prize

       C．give awards to chilren in poor areas     D．honour anyone who has helped kids in need

57．Talia Leman was honourd by the World of Children _____．

       A．because of her sucessful work in RandomKid

       B．because she gave the organization over $10 million

       C．because of her solutions to the many world affairs

       D．because she was chairman of RandomKid

58．In order to help kids, the organization RandomKid has done all the following EXCEPT _____．

       A．building a school in Asia  

       B．providing play centers for sick children

       C．solving the water-drinking problem for African children

       D．helping 300 Cambodian kids to go to school in America

59．How did the kids in RandomKid collect money?

       A．They got paid by working at a building project at weekends．

       B．They called at houses and threatened to play tricks if they receive nothing．

       C．They gave performances to passers-by by playing trick-or treat games．

       D．They helped a project called TLC sell candy after school．

Several different stories are told about the origin of Saint Valentine’s Day. One story dates as far back as the days of Roman Empire. According to the story. Claudius, the Emperor of Rome, wanted to increase the size of the army. He knew that it would be easier to get young men who were not married to join the army; therefore, he made a rule that no young men could marry until he had served in the army for a number of years.
A priest(man working in church) named Valentine broke the rule and secretly married a great number of young people. Finally, Claudius found out about Valentine and put the priest in prison, where he remained until his death on February 14.
After his death, Valentine was made a saint(圣人) and the day of his death was named Saint Valentine’s Day----which is a time for people to send one another their greeting of many kinds.
February 14, Valentine’s Day, is sweetheart’s day, on which people in love with each other express their soft feelings.
People sometimes put their
love message in a heart shaped box of chocolate or a bunch of flowers tied with red ribbons. Words of letters may be written on the flower covered card, or something else. Whatever the form may be, the message is almost the same “Will you be my Valentine?”
64. According to the rule_______.
A. no young men could get married unless they were old enough.
B. Young men could get married if they had served the army for a number of years.
no one could get married without the emperor’s permission
young men could get married only in the army.
65. The passage mainly tells us about_______.
A. How Valentine died                B. The emperor of Rome   
C. How Valentine’s Day is celebrated    D. The origin of Valentine’s Day
66. February 14 is chosen as Valentine’s Day because_______.
A. people want to remember Valentine
lovers express their soft feelings on this day
people send one another greeting of many kinds on this day
people want to fix a date for lovers to express their emotion
67. Valentine was put in prison for ________.
A. he helped the couples who were not supposed to get married 
B. he got married 
C. he fell in love with more than one woman.  
D. he broke the emperor’s rule on purpose

Several different stories are told about the origin（由来） of Saint Valentine's Day（情人节）. One legend(传奇) dates as far back as the clays of the Roman Empire, according to the story, Claudius, the Emperor of Rome, wanted to increase the size of the army. He knew that it would be easier to get young man who were not married to join. Therefore he made a rule that no young man could marry until he had served a certain number of years in the army.

A priest（牧师） named Valentine broke the rule and secretly married a great many young people. Finally, Claudius found out about Valentine and put the priest in prison, where he remained until his death on February 14.

After his death, Valentine was made a saint, and the day of his death was named Saint Valentine's Day. It became the custom for lovers to send each other message on this day. Now Saint Valentine's Day is a time for people to send one another greeting of many kinds.

February 14, Valentine's Day, is a sweethearts' day, on which people in love with each other express their tender emotions. People sometimes put their love message in a heart-shaped box of chocolates, or a bunch of flowers tied with red ribbons. Words of letters may be written on the flower covered card, or something else. Whatever the form may be, the message is almost the same "will you be my Valentine?"

Valentine was put in prison because ________.

A. he secretly got married                                        

B. he didn't serve in the army

C. he married many young people secretly              

D. he broke the laws

According to the rule ________.

A. no young men could get married unless they were old enough

B. young men could marry if they served in the army for several years

C. no one could get married without the emperor's permission

D. young could marry only in the army

This passage mainly tells us about _________.

A. how Valentine died                                             

B. the Emperor of Rome

C. how Valentine's Day is celebrated                    

D. the origin of Valentine's Day

February 14 is chosen Valentine's Day because __________.

A. lovers express their tender emotions on this day   

   B. people want to remember Valentine

C. people send one another greetings of many kinds on this day

D. people want to fix a date for lovers to express their emotions

The campaign is over. The celebrations have ended. And the work for US president-elect Barack Obama has begun.
The 47-year-old politician rose to the highest post because of his stand against the war in Iraq and his plans to fix a weak economy. But what will the first 47-year-old African-American president do for race relations.
Obama’s victory appears to have given blacks and other minorities a true national role model. For years, many looked to athletes and musicians for inspiration. As Darius Turner, an African-American high school student in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times.“Kobe( the basketball player) doesn’t have to be everybody’s role model anymore.”
Recent polls also suggest that Obama’s victory has given Americans new optimism about race relations. For example, a USA Today poll found that two-thirds of Americans believe relations between blacks and whites“will finally be worked out”. This is the most hopeful response since the question was first asked during the civil rights revolution in 1963.
However, it’s still too early to tell whether Obama’s presidency will begin to solve many of the social problems facing low-income black communities.
Although blacks make up only 13 percent of the US population, 55 percent of all prisoners are African-American. Such numbers can be blamed on any number of factors on America’s racist past, a failure of government policy and the collapse of the family unit in black communities.
It is unlikely that Obama will be able to reverse（扭转）such trends overnight. However, Bill Bank, an expert of African-American Studies, say that eventually young blacks need to find role models in their own communities.“That’s not Martin Luther King, and not Barack Obama,”he told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s actually the people closest to them. Barack only has so much influence.”
In the opinion of black British politician Trevor Phillips, Obama’s rise will contribute more to multiculturalism than to race relations in the US.
52: For years, before Obama was elected president of the US,      .
A. Kobe was the only role model for all the blacks
B. blacks could only find role models on the basketball court
C. minorities in America couldn’t find role models in their real life
D. American blacks had no role model who was successful in political area
53. According to Bill Bank,      .
A. Obama is not the proper role model for African-Americans
B. young blacks should not be so much influenced by Obama
C. blacks should find other role models because Obama is far from their reality
D. it’s better for young blacks to find role models in those who are close to them
54. What do you think the author is probably going to talk about in the next paragraph?
A. In what ways Obama will contribute to racial relations in the US.
B. How Obama will influence Americans as a national role model.
C. How Obama will contribute to multiculturalism in the US.
D. How to choose a role model in his community as a young black.
55.What would be the best title for this passage?
A. The First African-American President
B. America’s New Role Model
C. Obama—a Successful Black
D. Choosing a Right Role Model