In the quest for better health, many people turn to doctors, self help books or herbal supplements. But they overlook a powerful weapon that could help them fight illness and depression, speed recovery, slow aging and prolong life: their friends.

Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. A large 2007 study showed an increase of nearly 60 percent in the risk for obesity among people whose friends gained weight. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age.

“In general, the role of friendship in our lives isn’ t well appreciated,” said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. “There are a lot of things on families and marriage, but very little on friendship. It baffles me. Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well being than family relationships.”

Bella DePaulo, a visiting psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work focuses on single people and friendships, notes that in many studies, friendship has an even greater effect on health than a spouse or a family member.

It isn’ t entirely clear why friendship has such a big effect. It may be because people with strong social ties also have better access to health services and care. Beyond that, however, friendship clearly has a profound psychological effect. People with strong friendships are less likely than others to get colds, perhaps because they have lower stress levels.

Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone.

The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.

“People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to，” said Karen A．Roberto, director of the center for gerontology (老年医学) at Virginia Tech.“ Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.”

1.What’ s the main idea of the passage?

A. People should make friends as many as possible.

B. Friendships do great good to human health.

C. People with friends have optimistic attitude.

D. Several studies have been done on friendships.

2.Which of the following is true?

A. People haven’t attached importance to friendships.

B. A friend can replace doctors and self?help books.

C. People with many friends may have higher stress levels.

D. People who have friends tend to be fat.

3.The author mentioned the study in the last three paragraphs to indicate that ________.

A. students should climb the steep hill with friends

B. it takes a long time to make friends

C. a friend in need is a friend indeed

D. people accompanied by friends remain optimistic in the face of difficulty

4.In Paragraph 2 the author aims to tell us ________.

A. friendship has a strong physical effect on people’s health

B. we cannot be too careful when making friends

C. older people are likely to have fewer friends

D. 60 percent of the people without friends will become fat when they get old

5.According to Karen A. Roberto, ________.

A. the effect of friendships is overvalued

B. studies on friendships make our life better

C. friends are more important than family members

D. friends can help each other when faced with problems

（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）

[1]The key word is practice! Practice, Practice, Practice! There is no other way. There is no magic. The way to get better at listening to English is to listen to English. That’s the not-so-good news.

[2]The good news is there are many ways to listen and many things to listen to.

[3] Listening to English songs can be fun. But be careful! Most English songs use the language in a special way that you don’t hear every day. You don’t want to start speaking English like a poet or a songwriter. If you do listen to English songs, listen to different ones. This will help you train your ears to different voices, pronunciations and rhythms.

[4]If you can, get a copy of the lyrics so you can read them and listen to them at the same time. It is sometimes better to listen with your eyes as well as your ears---more information to help the brain.

[5]Watch English DVDs. But this time, don’t use your eyes to read the subtitles. Turn off the subtitles, because movies have so many other clues about what is happening that it is better not to use the subtitles. This enforces your ears do the work.

[6]Choose one character that interests you and pay attention to what they say and how they say it. If you can, repeat a line out loud after they have said it. Teach yourself one or more sayings, phrases or ways of talking that you will use after watching the movie. A new and growing resource of English language for listening can be found in blogs. Blogs are in MP3 format and can be loaded first onto your computer and then onto your MP3 player for very convenient take-with-you listening.

[7]You can find many English listening practices are fun, new, educational and in unending supply.

1. What is the main idea of the passage? ( no more than 8 words )

________________________________________________________________________

2.According to Paragraph 3, how can listening to English songs best help us? ( no more than 6 words )

_________________________________________________________________________

3.According to Paragraph4, why will we use both our eyes and ears to listen?.( no more than 8 words )

____________________________________________________________________________

4.What is the purpose of Paragraph 6( no more than 10words )

_______________________________________________________________

5.List three ways of practicing your English listening. ( no more than 15 words )

① ② ③

每年高考后，高考状元被“热炒”。他们被各种采访和社会活动所包围。对此现象，有

些人表示支持，有些人表示反对。请你结合下表，围绕“Should we give more attention to

Top-rated college entrance exam takers?”这一话题写一篇英语短文来介绍这一现象并给出自己的看法。

注意：1. 词数120左右

2. 可适当发挥，以使行文连贯；

3. 开头已给出，不计人总词数。

Every year after the college entrance exam，the top—rated exam takers will attract wide attention from all over the country.

A young man returns to his hometown of Aractataca, Colombia. He visits the house where he lived as a child. Here, he remembers the most important memories of his childhood. Standing in front of his old house, the young man makes an important decision. He says to himself, “I will start my life over again. I will become a writer.”

This man is the world famous writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1928. During his early life, Garcia Marquez’s grandmother and grandfather told him many stories. His grandmother would tell him legends as if they were real. Garcia Marquez says that his grandmother’s way of storytelling later influenced his own methods.

When Garcia Marquez was about 20 years old, he left Aractataca and attended university in Bogota. He began studying law because this was what his father wanted him to study. However, Garcia Marquez was not happy.

During this time Garcia Marquez returned to Aractataca. It was on this visit that he realized he must stop studying law. And he recognized that he must return to the dream of his childhood-writing. For the next few years, Garcia Marquez wrote for many different newspapers. And in 1955, he published his first book called “Leaf Storm”.

For many years, Garcia Marquez knew he wanted to write about his grandfather’s house in Aractataca. To write this book, Garcia Marquez and his wife had to sell almost all of their possessions to survive. But their act was worth it. The book, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was immediately successful. And this book created a path for Garcia Marquez’s future success.

In 1982, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was given the Nobel Prize in Literature for his book “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, making him the first Colombian and the fourth Latin American to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.

1.Who influenced Garcia Marquez’s writing style?

A. His grandfather. B. His father.

C. His grandmother. D. His wife.

2.Garcia decided to take up writing_________.

A. when he worked for a newspaper

B. under the influence of his family

C. when he graduated from college

D. after a visit to his hometown

3. Garcia’s book “One Hundred Years of Solitude” .

A. was written in the 1950s

B. enjoyed a quick success

C. helped Garcia lead a better life

D. was about Garcia’s grandfather

4.What do we know from the text about Garcia Marquez?

A. He is the first Latin American to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.

B. He wrote for newspapers before publishing his own books.

C. His book “Leaf Storm” marked his great success in literature.

D. He followed his father’s wish to become a writer.

MAP ARTIST PROGRAM

Map Artist is the perfect tool for creating customized maps to include in research projects and reports. Map Artist offers endless possibilities. It has a huge collection of map styles to choose from, and they can be customized to suit your special needs. In this program, we will assume you have been asked to create a map for a social studies report.

Step 1. When you open Map Artist, a world map will be displayed. Type “USA” in the dialogue box. Click GO. A map of USA will be displayed.

Step 2. Click on the drop-down menu next to the outline map of the state. Click on the type of map you need for your report.

· OUTLINE shows only the outline shape of the state with no highways or population centers indicated.

· TOPOGRAPHIC indicates elevations（海拔）as well as the location of major cities.

· SHADED RELIEF shows only natural landforms (mountains, valleys, rivers) and national parks.

· POLITICAL shows major cities, interstates, and major highways.

· HISTORICAL recalls the oldest maps on record.

For the purposes of this program, select OUTLINE. A map showing an outline of USA will be displayed.

Step 3. Click CUSTOMIZE on the menu bar down the left side of the screen.

CUSTOMIZE allows you to place custom data on the map you have selected.

1．Click on the button next to the appropriate symbol. For practice, click on the shovel, which symbolizes archaeology.

2．Next to the word TEXT, type “The Presidio”, which is an archaeological site near San Francisco.

3．Now use your mouse to click on the spot on the map where you would like this data to be placed.

4．You can add as many sites as you wish.

Step 4. Click SAVE if you would like to save the map to a file. Later, after opening the saved document, click on the map with your right mouse button and select COPY. And then PASTE it at the location where you want the map to appear.

1. If your report is about Plants and Animals in New York, you may click on__________ map.

A. HISTORICAL B. SHADED RELIEF

C. TOPOGRAPHIC D. POLITICAL

2.Which function is required to place a specific location on a CUSTOMIZE map?

A. Clicking on GO. B. Cutting and pasting.

C. Clicking on the map. D. Opening the file.

3. Which of the following orders is true according to the Map Artist Program?

People aren’t walking any more--- if they can figure out a way to avoid it.

I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn’t in any hurry, either, I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.

It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune, for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day’s walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as a sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced –and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.

Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrhams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercise. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise--- the most familiar and natural of all. It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world. He cannot learn in a car.

The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don’t dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

I say that the green of forests is the mind’s best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.

1.What was life like when the author was young?

A. people often walked 25 miles a day

B. People usually went around on foot.

C. People used to climb the Statue of Liberty.

D. people considered a ten-hour walk as a hardship.

2.The author mentions Henry Thoreau to prove that ________.

A. middle-aged people like getting back to nature

B. people need regular exercise to keep fit

C. walking in nature helps enrich one’s mind

D. going on foot prevents heart disease

3.What is compared to “a steel river” in Paragraph6?

A. A ray of traffic light B. A queue of cars

C. A flash of lightning D. A stream of people

4.What is the author’s intention of writing this passage?

A. To encourage people to return to walking.

B. To recommend people to give up driving

C. To advise people to do outdoor activities.

D. To tell people to reflect more on life.

A scientist turns out to be able to see the future by offering each of some four-year-olds a piece of candy and watching how he or she deals with it. Some children reach eagerly for the treat they see. Some last a few minutes before they give in. But others are determined to wait until the last moment.

By the time the children reach high school, something remarkable has happened. A survey found that those who as four-year-olds had enough self-control to hold out generally grew up to be more popular, adventurous, confident and dependable. The children who gave in to temptation early were more likely to be lonely, easily frustrated and inflexible.

Actually, the ability to delay reward is a sign of emotional intelligence which doesn’t show up on an IQ test.

The hardware of the brain and the software of the mind have long been scientists’ concerns. But brain theory can’t explain what we wonder about most, like the question why some people remain upbeat in the face of troubles that would sink a less resistant soul.

Here comes the theory of Daniel Goleman, writer of Emotional Intelligence: when it comes to predicting people’s success, brain ability as measured by IQ may actually matter less than the qualities of mind once thought of as “character”.

EQ is not the opposite of IQ. What researchers have been trying to understand is how they work together; how one’s ability to handle stress, for instance, affects the ability to concentrate and put intelligence to use. Among the elements for success, researchers now generally agree that IQ counts for about 20%; the rest depends on everything from social class to luck.

While many researchers in this relatively new field are glad to see emotional issues finally taken seriously, some few fear EQ invites misuse.

1.The experiment with the four-year-olds makes it clear that ______.

A. the age of 4 is a proper time for scientific experiment

B. emotional intelligence won’t show up until adolescence

C. candy can be used to measure a person’s emotional intelligence

D. the ability of self-control plays a role in personal success

2.Which of the following is True of EQ and IQ according to the text?

A. Scientists are trying to discover the way in which EQ and IQ work together.

B. The higher a person’s IQ is, the higher his or her EQ is.

C. Some people can be blessed with lots of both, but some with little of either.

D. There is no link between EQ and IQ.

3.The underlined word “upbeat” in Paragraph 4 probably means ______.

A. optimistic B. floating

C. excited D. kind

4.What is most likely to be written in the paragraph that follows?

A. Information about famous people with high EQ.

B. Some reasons why EQ is a relatively new field.

C. Examples showing the opposite voice about EQ.

D. Strong demand for basic emotional education.

Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? ___1.____. Yet a very young child – or even an animal, such as a pigeon , can learn to recognize faces. We all take this for granted.

___2.____. When we talk about someone’s personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others.

Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone’s personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. ____3.____. But if you were asked to describe a “nice person”, you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth.

There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon Airport, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people’s behavior. _ _4.___. Bookworms, conservatives, military types – people are described with such terms.

People have always tried to “type” each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain’s or the hero’s role. In fact, the words “person” and “personality” come from the Latin persona, meaning “mask”. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. __5.____.

A. If you were asked to describe what a “nice face” look like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so.

B. But we can easily tell the “good guys” from the “bad guys” because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.

C. We also tell people apart by how they behave.

D. People have difficulty in describing the features of fingerprints.

E. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing, or typing one`s personality.

F. Experts say that actors differ in their behavioral and physical characteristics in acting.

G. Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another.

Tracy Wong is a well-known Chinese-American writer. But her writing ____ was something she picked up by herself. After her first____, teaching disabled children, she became a part-time writer for IBM. ____, writing stories was simply a ____ interest. Tracy sent three of her stories to a publisher. ____, they immediately suggested that she put them together to make a single one long ____ and paid Tracy a $ 15,000 advance. “A pretty money,” said the publisher, “for ____ writer.”

____ Tracy’s characters are interesting, her stories sometimes ____ readers uneasy: those about the supernatural. “My mother believed I could ____ the afterlife world,” she told a close friend. “She used to have me speak with my grandmother, who died many years ago.”

“Can I ? I don’t think I can,” Tracy said with a laugh. “But I do have ____ when things come to me ____. “Once, she was wondering how to complete a ____ set in ancient China. ____ the doorbell rang. It was a FedEx delivery man, with a copy of a book on Chinese ____. It came without her having ____ it.

Though she has published 45 books, Tracy has remained ____ by her fame. She lives in the same ____ she lived 27 years ago — although in a more comfortable home. There’s more room for ____ in her life — and it wasn’t just __ __.

1.A. practice B. experience C. skill D. method

2.A. job B. effort C. duty D. task

3.A. Instead B. Then C. Certainly D. Normally

4.A. general B. deep C. lively D. personal

5.A. Interested B. Anxiously C. Seriously D. Encouraged

6.A. story B. film C. program D. article

7.A. a foreign B. a popular C. an unknown D. an unusual

8.A. Now that B. Even though C. Just because D. Except that

9.A. find B. turn C. hold D. leave

10.A. connect with B. make up C. control D. explain

11.A. events B. moments C. feelings D. chances

12.A. as gifts B. from a distance C. by accident D. for no reason

13.A. description B. condition C. scene D. talk

14.A. Surprisingly B. Fortunately C. Expectedly D. Suddenly

15.A. cooking B. medicine C. history D. play

16.A. ordered B. sent C. realized D. known

17.A. determined B. excited C. unchanged D. unmoved

18.A. life B. way C. house D. city

19.A. success B. joy C. work D. variety

20.A. reporting B. fun C. luck D. writing

One day, an old monk named Wisdom, followed by two young monks, was walking from one town to another__1.__ they caught sight of a lake. Tired and thirsty, they stopped to have a rest. __2._old monk, pointing to the lake, asked the __3.__ (young) one to get him some water.

When the little monk reached the lake, a cart_4._ (draw) by an ox started crossing the lake, __5.___made the water very muddy. The little monk thought, “How can I give this muddy water to my master to drink!” So he came back_6.___ any water, saying, “The water is very muddy. I don’t think __7.__is suitable to drink.”

After a while, the same monk ___8.___to get water again. When he went back to the lake, he found that the mud _9.__ (settle) down already, so he collected back a pot of water. Wisdom looked at the water happily and then up at the monk, “To make the water clean, __10.__ you need to do is just to let it be and the mud would settle down on its own.”

It is also the same with your mind. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time and it will settle down itself.