—Did any signs come up before the earthquake?

—Yes. Unusual things all those days. For example, a number of animals got out their homes.

A． happening B． were happening C． has happened D． had happened

It doesn’t _______ if you are late to my party. I just want you to come.

A. take me by surprise B. make sense C. take a chance D. make a difference

I spent the whole day repairing the motorbike. The work was ____ simple.

A. anything but B. nothing but C. something of D. all except

—Do you think Real Madrid will win the UEFA Champions League?

—________.Barcelona is much stronger，I think.

A．Of course B．It depends

C．Don’t mention it D．By no means

The mental aspect of athletics is underrated. The common expression, “athletics are 90 percent ____ and 10 percent physical,” is often used by coaches, and stresses that mindsets make a huge ____ in competitions.

“The physical aspect of the sport can only take you ____ ,” said Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Shannon Miller during an interview with the Dana Foundation. “The mental aspect has to ____ , especially when you’re talking about the best of the best. In the Olympic games, everyone is talented. Everyone ____ hard. Everyone does the work. What ____ the gold medalists from the silver medalists is simply the mental game.”

Many athletes have used the technique of mental imagery, or ____ , to perform at their best. Research on the brain patterns of ____ found that the patterns activated when a weightlifter lifted heavy weights were activated ____ when they simply imagined lifting and some studies have suggested that mental ____ can be almost as effective as physical training. One study, published in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology in 1996, found that ____ weight lifting caused ____ changes in muscle activity.

“Mental imagery ____ many cognitive (认知的) processes in the brain: motor control, attention, perception, planning, and memory,” researcher Angie LeVan wrote in Psychology Today. “So the ____ is getting trained for actual performance during visualization. It’s been found that mental practices can enhance motivation, increase confidence, improve motor performance and ____ your brain for success.”

____ visualizing is more than just thinking about an upcoming event. ____ athletes use visualization, they truly feel the event taking place in their mind’s eye.

“During visualization, she incorporates (整合) all of her ____ into the experience,” sports psychologist Dr JoAnn Dahlkoetter wrote in a blog post on The Huffington Post ____ a speed skater she works with. “She feels her forefoot pushing off the track, she hears her skating splits, and she sees herself racing ahead of the competitors. She experiences all of the elements of her race ____ before executing (完成) her performance.”

1.A. lucky B. intelligent C. mental D. strategic

2.A. difference B. importance C. improvement D. challenge

3.A. so long B. so far C. so much D. so high

4.A. turn on B. show off C. take up D. set off

5.A. thinksB. moves C. runs D. trains

6.A. breaksB. pushes C. decidesD. distinguishes

7.A. activation B. visualization C. motivation D. perception

8.A. athletes B. gymnasts C. weightlifters D. skaters

9.A. regularly B. normally C. finally D. similarly

10.A. connection B. practice C. performances D. directions

11.A. imagining B. considering C. reviewing D. dreaming

12.A. few B. usual C. actual D. strange

13.A. impacts B. increases C. slows D. follows

14.A. brain B. body C. attention D. memory

15.A. help B. apply C. useD. prepare

16.A. Though B. But C. Thus D. Otherwise

17.A. Unless B. After C. When D. Until

18.A. observations B. spirit C. determination D. senses

19.A. to B. for C. about D. with

20.A. in surprise B. in detail C. on time D. for example

IT’S never a real problem for us when the weather gets cold. We can put on more clothes, stay next to a fireplace, turn on the air conditioner or simply travel to a warmer city to spend the winter – people have many different ways of coping with the cold.

But things are not as easy for plants. Unlike humans, plants can’t move to escape the cold or generate heat to keep themselves warm. So how do they manage to survive the freezing winter?

It turns out that plants have their own strategies too, said a study published on Dec 22 in the journal Nature.

According to researcher Amy Zanne of George Washington University, US, the cold is a big challenge for plants. Their living tissues can be damaged when they freeze. “It’s like a plant’s equivalent to frostbite (冻疮),” Zanne told Science Daily. Also, the process of freezing and thawing (解冻) can cause air bubbles to form in the plant’s water transport system. “If enough of these air bubbles come together as water thaws they can block the flow of water from the roots to the leaves and kill the plant,” she explained.

To live through cold weather, plants have developed three traits, according to the study. Some plants, such as oak trees, avoid freezing damage by dropping their leaves before the winter chill sets in – effectively shutting off the flow of water between roots and leaves – and growing new leaves and water transport cells when the warm spring returns.

Other plants, pine trees for example, protect themselves by narrowing their water transport cells, which makes it easier for cells to travel among air bubbles.

The third strategy is also the most extreme – some plants die on the ground in winter and start growing as new plants from seeds when conditions get warmer.

However, the study also found that these smart strategies were developed very slowly – over millions of years of evolution. This leads scientists to worry that plants may not be able to deal with human-caused climate change, which has only started occurring over the past few decades.

Scientists are hoping that this study can help people find possible ways to save plants from the threat of climate change.

1.What is the article mainly about?

A. Why plants are not afraid of the winter chill.

B. The ways that plants survive cold weather.

C. Changes in plants’ water transport system in winter.

D. How plants evolve to keep up with climate change.

2.According to the article, if a plant freezes in the winter, ______.

A. it produces more living tissues to stay alive

B. its leaves quickly fall out and its roots begin to die

C. lots of air bubbles form in its water transport system

D. its water transport system could be blocked in the spring

3.How do oak trees usually survive the cold winters?

A. By dropping their leaves before winter.

B. By narrowing their water transport cells.

C. By widening their water transport cells.

D. By leaving only the seeds alive and growing from the seeds in the spring.

4.What are scientists worried about when it comes to plants according to the article?

A. Plants may not be able to adapt to the increasingly cold climate.

B. Human activities might have a great impact on the pace of plants’ evolution.

C. Plants may not be able to evolve fast enough to adapt to human-caused climate change.

D. The strategies plants develop are not good enough to protect them against cold.

HE is one of the most charming young heroes since Harry Potter. Like Potter, he is chosen by fate to carry out a mission, but unlike the boy wizard, he doesn’t get any chances to have fun or hang out with friends because he’s a little too busy preparing to lead during an upcoming war to save the Earth.

Meet Ender Wiggin, 15, the main character of the hit US sci-fi movie Ender’s Game (《安德的游戏》), which will come out on Jan 7 in China.

The story opens in 2086, 50 years after an insect-like alien race, called the Formics, attacked the Earth and killed tens of millions of people before being driven back to their home planet. Since then, human beings have been in a state of fear, awaiting a second attack.

Earth’s military leaders seek young warriors to risk going into space for battle, and children are taught to compete for these positions. As the film explains, youths can make leaps of logic and intuition, devising effective attack strategies more quickly than adults.

So here comes Ender, the savior (救世主) of all mankind. Though Ender is a skinny kid, smaller than most, he is also smarter than average. He tends to analyze situations and easily find ways to achieve the most positive outcomes. This rare gift makes him stand out in the program and get promoted to the Battle School, where he is directed to plan and carry out a series of virtual attacks on the Formics.

Can he use his military talents to wipe out Earth’s enemies?

Despite the obvious “be all you can be” subtext (潜台词), the movie “explores complex issues, including the consequences of violence and maintaining humanity and morality during wartime with intelligence and insight,” commented Yahoo.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film best presents the power of empathy (感情移入), which is what makes Ender a good leader. “The reason Ender succeeds is because he understands what makes his opponents tick (有某种行为) on the battlefield,” explained the entertainment news site.

1.The underlined words “a mission” in the first paragraph probably refer to “______”.

A. having fun and hanging out with friends

B. being a boy wizard to save the Earth

C. working to save all of mankind

D. acting as a leader of the Formics

2.Earth’s military leaders want to choose youths to be warriors because they think ______.

A. youths are smarter and more fearless than adults

B. youths are more willing to take risks in space

C. youths have sharper intuition and quicker reactions than adults

D. youths adapt to new battle environments more quickly than adults

3.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?

A. The movie intends to encourage people to try to be what they want to be and never give up.

B. Ender is able to defeat Earth’s enemies because he possesses a super power that enables him to read his enemies’ minds.

C. Ender’s success proves that a good leader should have intelligence and insight and make full use of his or her teammates’ talents.

D. The movie discusses a variety of issues such as the effects of violence and the importance of morality and humanity during wartime.

EVERYONE has those nights – you lie in your bed for hours, tossing and turning, totally unable to fall asleep. You wish you could just turn your brain off as if it were a light. That would make things much easier, wouldn’t it?

Now it looks like you are one step closer to this wild dream of yours – scientists from Oxford University, UK have just discovered the “switch” that tells the brain to go to sleep, reported Forbes.

To understand the study, you first need to know that there are two mechanisms (机能) that regulate sleep. There’s one that we’re already familiar with – our body clock, which works in a 24-hour cycle based on the light changes throughout the day.

The other one is what scientists call the sleep “homeostat (动态平衡系统)”. This mechanism has nothing to do with daylight. Instead, it keeps track of the brain’s waking hours and urges it to rest if it has been awake for a long time. “It is similar to the thermostat (自动调温器) in your home. A thermostat measures temperature and switches on the heating if it’s too cold,” Professor Gero Miesenb?ck, who led the study, told The Telegraph.

Our bodies use both of the mechanisms to regulate sleep. “The body clock says it’s the right time, and the sleep thermostat has built up pressure during a long waking day,” explained Miesenb?ck.

There is no way that scientists can trick the body clock. But with the sleep homeostat, there might be something they can do.

The researchers found that the sleep homeostat works by activating a specific group of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. They tested their theory on fruit flies by removing the neurons from the insects’ brains. And as expected, they found that the flies without the homeostat neurons did not keep a regular sleep pattern anymore.

Now that scientists have pinpointed (定位) the exact place in the brain – or, the “switch” – that regulates sleep, they can begin investigating (研究) how to activate these cells at any given time so that people can be sent to sleep instantly.

More importantly, figuring out how sleep mechanisms work may also help us to one day unravel one of the oldest mysteries of all: why do we need to sleep in the first place?

1.What is the article mainly about?

A. A new way to treat sleep disorders.

B. The discovery of the sleep “homeostat”.

C. Advice on what to do when you fail to fall asleep.

D. A comparison of the two mechanisms that regulate sleep.

2.How does the author explain the function of the sleep homeostat?

A. Through examples.

B. With comparisons.

C. Through cause and effect analysis.

D. By presenting research findings.

3.What can we conclude from the article?

A. Generally, the sleep homeostat has less effect on people during the day than at night.

B. There is little scientists can do to affect the way the sleep homeostat works.

C. What makes us go to sleep at night is probably a combination of the two mechanisms.

D. The more homeostat neurons there are in one’s brain, the more easily one can fall asleep.

4.The underlined word “unravel” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.

A. put up with B. figure out C. keep track of D. take notice of

About this time every year, I get very nostalgic(怀旧的). Walking through my neighborhood on a fall afternoon reminds me of a time not too long ago when sounds of children filled the air, children playing games on a hill, and throwing leaves around in the street below. I was one of those children, carefree and happy. I live on a street that is only one block long. I have lived on the same street for sixteen years. I love my street. One side has six houses on it, and the other has only two houses, with a small hill in the middle and a huge cottonwood tree on one end. When I think of home, I think of my street. Only I see it as it was before. Unfortunately things change. One day, not long ago, I looked around and saw how different everything has become. Life on my street will never be the same because neighbors are quickly grown old, friends are growing up and leaving, and the city is planning to destroy my precious hill and sell the property to contractors.

It is hard for me to accept that many of my wonderful neighbors are growing old and won’t be around much longer. I have fond memories of the couple across the street, who sat together on their porch swing almost every evening, the widow next door who yelled at my brother and me for being too loud, and the crazy old man in a black suit who drove an old car. In contrast to those people, the people I see today are very old neighbors who have seen better days. The man in the black suit says he wants to die, and another neighbor just sold his house and moved into a nursing home. The lady who used to yell at us is too tired to bother any more, and the couple across the street rarely go out to their front porch these days. It is difficult to watch these precious people as they near the end of their lives because at once I thought they would live forever.

The “comings and goings” of the younger generation of my street are now mostly “goings” as friends and peers move on. Once upon a time, my life and the lives of my peers revolved around home. The boundary of our world was the gutter at the end of the street. We got pleasure from playing night games or from a breathtaking ride on a tricycle. Things are different now, as my friends become adults and move on. Children who rode tricycles now drive cars. The kids who once played with me now have new interests and values as they go their separate ways. Some have gone away to college like me, a few got married, two went into the army, and one went to prison. Watching all these people grow up and go away makes me long for the good old days.

Perhaps the biggest change on my street is the fact that the city is going to turn my precious hill into several lots for now homes. For sixteen years, the view out of my kitchen window has been a view of that hill. The hill was a fundamental part of my childhood life; it was the hub of social activity for the children of my street. We spent hours there building forts, sledding, and playing tag. The view out of my kitchen window now is very different; it is one of tractors and dump trucks tearing up the hill. When the hill goes, the neighborhood will not be the same. It is a piece of my childhood. It is a visual reminder of being a kid. Without the hill, my street will be just another pea in the pod.

There was a time when my street was my world, and I thought my world would never change. But something happened. People grow up, and people grow old. Places changes, and with the change comes the heartache of knowing I can never go back to the times I loved. In a year or so, I will be gone just like many of my neighbors. I will always look back to my years as a child, but the place I remember will not be the silent street whose peace is interrupted by the sounds of construction. It will be the happy, noisy, somewhat strange, but wonderful street I knew as a child.

1.The writer finds it hard to accept the fact that _____________.

A. many of his good neighbors are growing old

B. the lady next door who used to yell at him and his brother is now a widow

C. the life of his neighbors has become very boring

D. the man in his black suit even wanted to end his own life

2.The biggest change on the writer's street is _____________.

A. removing the hill to make way for residential development

B. the building of new homes behind his kitchen window

C. the fact that there are much fewer people around than in the past

D. the change in his childhood friends' attitude towards their neighborhood

3.What does the writer mean by saying “my street will be another pea in the pod”?

A. his street will be very noisy and dirty

B. his street will soon be crowded with people

C. his street will have some new attractions

D. his street will be no different from any other street

4.Which could be a good title for the passage?

A. The Past of My Street will Live Forever

B. Unforgettable People and Things of My Street

C. Memory Street Isn’t What It Used to Be

D. The Big Changes of My Street

阅读下列短文并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词，每空格1词（共10个小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

Zebras have their own bug repellent(驱虫剂)?

Eww bugs! They are so annoying! We humans are lucky that we can apply repellents to avoid nasty bites. But what’s an animal to do? They have no choice but to spend their days shooing them off with their tails, unless, of course, they are zebras, who apparently have their own automatic repellent--- their striped skin!

Scientists had originally thought that the reason why the animal had developed the black and white lines was to help protect itself from predators in the African savannah, because the stripes make it difficult to single out one zebra that is traveling with a herd.While that may be true, the theory has never been tested or proven. Now the experts have another---that the stripes have evolved to repel the annoying horse flies that not only feed off their blood, but also, transmit dangerous germs into the bodies of these innocent animals.

The study was performed by a team of Swedish scientists. One of the clues that got them thinking along these lines was the fact that darker horses got bitten more often than light-colored or white ones.

The fact that zebras are born black and only develop strips as they grow older made the scientists theorize that the stripes may be something the animals have developed to make themselves less attractive to flies.

To test if this may be the case, they painted some boards at a horse-infested horse farm in Budapest with patterns of black and white stripes of varying widths and applied a layer of glue on them. What they noticed was that the places where the black and white stripes were at their narrowest (similar to what zebras have) attracted the fewest flies. They achieved similar results when they painted horses with black and white zebra-like stripes.

While the research are not sure why this may be the case, they believe it may be something to do with the way insects operate---horseflies are attracted to horizontally polarized light（偏振光）; since white does not reflect it, white horses are luckier than black ones. But zebras seem to be the luckiest of all. When the researchers measured the polarized light reflected from real zebra skins, they found that it matched light patterns that were the least attractive to horseflies.

While this theory does make logical sense, nobody is 100 percent sure that it is really true, given that it has never been tested on a real zebra. If it is true, it does raise the question of why a horse, a close relative of the zebra has failed to develop stripes. The researchers believe that this could be because there are more horseflies in Africa, where zebras reside, then anywhere else in the world.