阅读理解。
     Encouraging pupils to keep noise to a minimum should be a valuable component of all children's
education, according to new research.
    Dr. Helen Lees, from Stirling University's school of education, says that "enforced(强制的)silence
" is seen as a punishment and often acts to suppress children's natural ability. But she says that teaching
children about the benefits of "enforced silence",--- deliberate stillness that gives them the opportunity
to focus and reflect in a stress-free environment--- can have a significant effect on pupils' concentration
and behavior.
    It is the latest in a string of researches to establish a link between the classroom environment and
pupils' academic ability.
    A study almost a decade ago in London found that children's exam results were cut by as much as
a third if they were taught in noisy classrooms. Teaching unions have also called for a limit of 26℃ to
be put on classroom temperatures because teachers and pupils struggle to work in hot conditions, and
some educationalists claim that too much clutter(杂乱的东西)on classroom walls can prevent children
from concentrating.
    Dr. Lees said, "When we take some research on school settings and put it all together, what we see
is that education without silence does not make much sense. In areas of better learning outcomes, better
self- confidence and well-being measures, enforced silence in a person's life and an individual's
education is shown throughout the relevant research to be a benefit."
    Dozens of schools across Britain have already introduced periods of "reflective silence" into the
timetable.
    Kevin Hogston, head of Sheringdale Primary, south London, has just introduced a minute's silence
at the start of twice-weekly meetings in which children are taught breathing techniques and encouraged
to reflect. The school plans to introduce it into classrooms every day.
1. According to Dr. Helen Lees, "enforced silence"_____.
A. is an effective way of punishment    
B. does not make much sense in class
C. can improve pupils' confidence      
D. makes pupils more creative
2. The underlined word, "suppress", in the second paragraph probably means "_________".
A. prevent        
B. improve          
C. apply                
D. reveal
3. What can be inferred from the research on school settings?  
A. Students are more active if taught in noisy classrooms.
B. Silence makes a great difference to pupils.
C. Clutter on the walls can help students concentrate.
D. Most schools are not satisfactory in terms of classroom temperatures.
4. What would be the best title for the text?
A. Arranging classroom settings benefits studies    
B. Achieving silence is beneficial for people
C. Using enforced silence is effective punishment        
D. Keeping quiet in class improves academic performance
阅读理解。
     "A good parent" can be a confusing phrase. It is almost impossible for one person to be "a good
parent" at all stages of a child's life. Some parents are at their best before their children begin to speak.
Others are most successful before their children enter elementary school. Still others make their finest
contribution to older children or teenagers. Every parent can understand one stage of a child's
development better than another. It is hard for a person to possess superior capacities throughout the
entire period of a child's growth.
     A mother might be "a good parent" from her baby's birth until it is three; that is the period when it
needs her protection and loving care. Then the start of her child's independence might upset and alarm
her, and she might then become less helpful for a few years. A father might be awkward and
uncomfortable with a younger child, but could turn into an excellent parent when the child is old enough
to be taught the skills of cycling, fishing and so on, or to be taken on trips. Some parents feel easier with
boys, and others with girls - and then only at certain ages or stages.
     It is important for parents to understand and accept their own limitations in these matters, just as they
must accept the child's faults of personality and limitations of talent. Otherwise, fathers and mothers will
feel guilty and blame themselves for weaknesses that may not be their faults. Much of the guilt
experienced by modern parents comes from the mistaken feeling that they ought to be all things at all
times to the child, which is clearly mistaken. In past ages, grandparents and uncles and aunts lived with
the family, and provided different kinds of support; in our present "nuclear" family, too many roles are
demanded of the two parents, which they cannot possibly fulfill.
1. Confusion arises about what it means to be "a good parent" because __________.
A. it is normal to be a successful parent during most stages of a child's development
B. most parents are only good at helping older children or teenagers
C. parents are usually at their best before their children go to school
D. parents do not realize they cannot perform equally well through a child's growth
2. Parents would feel guilty if __________.
A. their children can't accept their own limitations of talent
B. they realize their weaknesses in raising children
C. their grandfathers and uncles and aunts don't live with them
D. they don't know their limitations in raising children
3. Parents of "nuclear" families sometimes feel at a loss because __________.
A. they believe that such a family prevents the healthy growth of a child's personality and talent
B. they dislike the support that other family members give to their children
C. they do not always have the help of other family members in child-raising
D. they no longer regard grandparents, uncles and aunts as good educators of their children
阅读理解。

     Six-month-old babies are strictly limited in what they can remember about the objects they
see in the world. If you hide several objects from babies, they will only remember one of those
objects. But a new study, which was published in an issue of Psychological Science, a journal
of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that when babies “forget” about an object,
not all is lost. Researchers used to think that babies less than two years old did not understand
than an object continues to exist when it is not in the baby’s view. But in the mid-1980s, new
ways of doing experiments with babies found that they do, if fact, know that objects don’t
disappear when they are not looking at them- a concept know as object permanence. But it
was still unknown what babies needed to remember about objects in order to remember their
existence.
     Now Melissa Kibbe, of Johns Hopkins University, and Alan Leslie, of Rutgers University, are
working to figure out exactly what it is that babies remember about objects. For the new study,
they showed six-month-old babies two objects, a disk and a triangle. Then they hid the objects
behind small screens, first one shape, then the other. Earlier research has shown that young babies
can remember what was hidden most recently, but have more trouble remembering the first object
that was hidden. Once the shapes were hidden, they lifted the screen in front of the first object.
Sometimes they showed babies the shape that was hidden there originally, but sometimes it was
 the other shape, and sometimes the object had vanished completely.
     Psychologists measure how long babies look at something to see how surprised they are. In
Kibbe and Leslie’s study, babies weren’t particularly surprised to see that the shape hidden behind
the screen had changed, for example, from a triangle to a disk. But if the object was gone altogether,
the babies looked significantly longer, indicating surprise at an unexpected outcome. “This shows
that even though babies don’t remember the shape of the object, they know that it should continue
to exist,” Kibbe says. “They remember the object without remembering the features that identify that
object.”
     This helps explain how the young brain processes information about objects, Leslie says. He
thinks the brain has a structure that acts like a kind of pointer, a mental finger that points at an object.

1. Before the study, which of the following was unclear?
A. Whether babies know objects are gone.
B. Why babies were interested in what was hidden.
C. What made babies remember objects’ existence.
D. Whether babies can remember what was hidden first.
2. In the second paragraph, the underlined word “vanished” probably means ______.
A. disappeared
B. forgotten
C. discovered
D. hidden
3. The study is beneficial to know ______.
A. whether babies can remember features of hidden objects
B. how the young brain deals with information about objects
C. whether babies were surprised when they found the objects disappeared
D. why babies less than two years did not understand a hidden object still existed
4. Which would be the best title for the passage?
A. A new concept- object permanence
B. What babies remember about objects
C. A new study on psychology
D. All remembered isn’t lost
阅读理解。
     Consider the following three facts from a research about 1,292 kindergartens, elementary schools,
middle schools and high schools.
     78% of the schools have at least one fastfood place within less than a half mile or about a 10minute
walk.
     Half the area's schools have a fastfood restaurant a third of a mile or closer, about a fiveminute walk.
In some cases, the restaurant is right next door or across the street.
     There are three to four times as many fastfood restaurants within less than a mile of schools than they
would be expected.
     Most public and private schools in Chicago are only a fiveto10minute walk from at least one fastfood
restaurant. The city is facing the same problem like other areas. Children and teens are surrounded by
unhealthy options.
    Students can pick up fast foods, including hamburgers, French fries, fried chicken and doughnuts, on
the way to and from school. Some high school students can go off campus at lunchtime to eat it. "Five
days a week we send children to an environment where there's an abundance of highcalorie,
lownutritionalquality, inexpensive food," says Bryn Austin.
     The research comes from growing concerns that American schoolchildren are gaining weight. About
31% of kids aged 6 to 19 are overweight or at risk of becoming so. On days when kids eat fast food,
they have more calories, more fat, more sugar and fewer fruits and vegetables than on other days.
     Kelly Brownell from Yale University said, "Just like there are drugfree zones around schools, there
should be zones around schools that are free of junk food, including fastfood restaurants, minimarkets
and gas stations that sell food inside."
1. The passage mainly wants to show that ________. 
A. the number of fastfood restaurants is increasing
B. fastfood restaurants are doing harm to students
C. there are many fastfood restaurants around schools
D. fastfood restaurants around schools have been a problem
2. According to the passage, the "junk food" that Kelly Brownell mentioned should be foods ________.  
A. that are popular with the students
B. high in calories and low in nutrition
C. inexpensive for students to buy
D. high in nutrition and low in calories
3. According to Kelly Brownell, the best way to solve the problem is to ________.
A. have rules to stop students from going out for food
B. set up zones free of junk food around schools
C. charge fastfood restaurants around school
D. close all the gas stations around schools
4. What would be the best title for the passage? 
A. Students Are Taking More Calories than They Need
B. Zones Free of Junk Food in Need Around Schools
C. FastFood Restaurants Crowd Chicago Schools
D. FastFood Restaurants Should Not Be Allowed
阅读理解
     On a PC (个人电脑), having to fill out a form and type in a credit card number to buy something
is only mildly annoying. On a cellphone, it could make you want to skip the purchase entirely.
     This is why investors, startups (初创企业) and major corporations are pouring money into
services that make it easier to use cellphones to buy goods and transfer money. The aim is to turn
phones into virtual credit cards or checkbooks, enabling the kind of clickandbuy commerce and online
banking that people have come to expect on their PCs. But shrinking down (缩小) those services
presents serious challenges.
     The services must work on many different phones and through many cellphone service providers,
which usually control the billing relationships with customers. That adds complexity to the already tricky
business of safely and securely transferring funds among financial institutions and merchants.
     Mobile payment systems have been tried before, with only modest success. Driving a new flurry
(一阵兴奋) of deal making, industry analysts and executives say, is the success of the iPhone,
BlackBerry and other sophisticated (尖端的) devices. These phones make complex interactions easier.
     Now the race is on to develop new payment systems-and to get several percentage points in fees
from each transaction. They're seeing that returns could be so huge. Obopay, a startup that lets people
transmit money to one another via text message, raised $ 35 million from Nokia's investment. Also, a
mobile payments startup called Boku announced that it had received $ 13 million in venture capital
financing.
     When people can use their phone numbers to make a purchase, they are 10 times as likely to follow
through on a transaction as when they have to type in credit card and billing information, said David
Marcus, chief executive of a startup called Zong.
     Mobile payment companies also need to get cooperation from merchants, which must add a payment
option to their mobile sites or applications.
     But the potential opportunity to get fees from the growing number of mobile transactions is too
__juicy__to__pass__up,__despite the risks, said an analyst with IDC Financial Insights, a market
research company.
1. From the passage, we should face ________ great difficulties while purchasing 
    through cellphones instead of PCs.
A. one                
B. two
C. three                
D. four
2. According to the passage, using phones to make a purchase is ________.
A. expensive            
B. convenient
C. troublesome          
D. impossible
3. What does the underlined phrase "too juicy to pass up" in the last paragraph probably mean?
A. Too profitable to ignore.                            
B. Too difficult to seize.
C. Too heavy to lift.                                    
D. Too unsafe to handle.
4. What would be the best title for the passage? 
A. The Benefit of Purchasing via Cellphone
B. The Great Risks on Payments via Cellphone
C. How to Deal with Payments via Cellphone
D. Investors Bet on Payments via Cellphone
阅读理解
     Similar things continuously happened in Haiti and Chile. Thousands of people were buried in the
earthquake and lost their lives. What if we could have warned them? People are always trying hard
to find a way of preventing building collapsing (倒塌). Better materials and technology help, but are
not a solution. Just like humans, a building has its own life circle from "birth" to "death". If we know
when a building is going to collapse, we can repair it in advance or get out before it falls.
     Now, scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a material that turns red before it breaks.
The invention could be used in things like climbing ropes, or bridge supports. The secret behind the
colorchanging material is a type of molecule (分子).  A molecule is a group of atoms held together by
chemical bonds (化学键).  Imagine you and your friends standing in a circle, holding hands. Each
person stands for one atom, your hands represent the bonds, and the entire circle represents a molecule.
If one person lets go of his or her hands, the molecule changes color. The research team put the
molecule into a soft material.  When the researchers stretched (拉紧) the material, it turned bright red
a few seconds before it broke into two pieces. When they repeatedly stretched and relaxed the
material,  without breaking it,  it only turned a little red.
    The major problem is, light can get rid of the red color. When the team shone a bright light on the
molecule, the broken bond was fixed, and the color disappeared. If bright light keeps the red color
from appearing, the material's warning system will be useless. Scientists still have a lot of work to do
before  the  colorchanging  molecule  can  be  used  outside the lab.
1. The passage mainly about ________. 
A. a way of preventing buildings from breaking down
B. a way of warning before buildings collapse
C. a series of earthquakes in Haiti and Chile
D. a newlydiscovered structure of a molecule
2. According to the passage, we can conclude that ________. 
A. scientists have found the life circle of buildings from "birth" to "death"
B. there are problems to solve before putting the new material to use
C. bright light makes the red color visible to human eyes
D. the new material is unlikely to be used in building bridges
3. The colorchanging molecule can ________. 
A. remind people to leave buildings before they fall
B. help building materials get stretched if necessary
C. prevent the earthquake from killing people
D. make building materials much stronger
4. The warning system is based on the fact that ________.  
A. red color won't show up when it meets bright light
B. a building has its own life circle of "birth" to "death"
C. a material with a certain type of molecule can turn red when stretched
D. the broken bond will fix itself when a molecule meets bright light
阅读理解。
      When people lose legs after accidents or illnesses, emergency care and artificial limbs(假肢)
often allow them to walk again. Newts (蝾螈)in the same situation, on the other hand, can grow
limbs back on their own! Scientists have known for a long time that certain animals can regrow
limbs, but they haven't quite figured out how these creatures do it.
     Researchers have now come up with some new ideas. Their work may give people the ability
to regrow lost limbs.  The researchers started with two simple experiments: when you cut a newt's
 leg at the ankle, only the foot grows back; when you cut off a leg at the very end, the whole leg
grows back.  In both cases, the regrowth begins with stem cells.  Stem cells can develop into nearly
any type of cell in the body.
     How do a newt's stem cells know when to grow only a foot and when to regrow a whole leg?
     This question relates to another mystery. In newt's, a cutoff leg will grow back only if the nerve
bundle(神经束) in it also grows back, but if something prevents the nerve bundle from growing the
stem cells at the wound won't  regrow a new leg.
     In its study, a British team focused on a protein called nAG.  When the team prevented nerves in
a limb from growing, but added the nAG protein to stem cells in the limb, the limb still regrew. That
protein seems to guide limb regrowth. People have proteins that are similar to nAG.  Further research
into these materials may someday help human limbs recover by themselves.
1. A newt will regrow its leg if________.
A. its ankle was cut off but the nerve bundle was good
B. its leg was cut off and the nerve bundle stopped growing
C. its leg was cut off and the nerve bundle could grow back
D. its ankle and the nerve bundle could grow back
2. What do the underlined words "these materials"  refer to?
A. Nerve bundles and proteins.  
B. Proteins similar to nAG.
C. Stem cells and proteins.  
D. Stem cells and nerve bundles.
3. The first sentence of the passage________.
A. acts as a leadin
B. shows where researchers got their new ideas
C. states the author's opinion
D. describes the result of researchers' studies
4. What's the purpose of studying the newts?
A. To find out whether newts would regrow after being cutting off.
B. To find out the similarity between human and newts.
C. To find out what is nAG.
D. To find a way of helping human limbs recover by themselves.
阅读理解。
     Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome
surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobiliser (锁止器), and a radio signal from a control centre
miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
     The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro-processor
and memory, and a GPS (全球定位系统) satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded
cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicle's engine management system and prevent
the engine being restarted.
     In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. 'The pattern of vehicle
crime has changed,' says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes
to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10
years old.
     Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer won't allow them to start
unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition (点火) key. In the UK, technologies
like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
     But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting bold of
the owner's keys. And key theft is responsible for 40% of the thefts of vehicles fitted with a tracking
system.
     If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to
an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms due to
inaccuracies in the GPS signal.
     Staff at the centre will then contact the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police
informed of the vehicle's movements via the car's GPS unit.
1. What's the function of the remote immobilizer fitted to a car?
A.  To help the police make a surprise attack on the car thief.
B.  To allow the car to lock automatically when stolen.
C.  To prevent the car thief from restarting it once it stops.
D.  To prevent car theft by sending a radio signal to the car owner.
2. By saying "The pattern of vehicle crime has changed" (Lines 1-2. Para. 3. , Martyn Randall
suggests that ________.
A.  it takes a longer time for the car thief to do the stealing
B.  self-prepared tools are no longer enough for car theft
C.  the thief has to make use of computer technology
D.  the thief has lost interest in stealing cars over 10 years old
3. What is essential in making a modem car tougher to steal?
A.  A coded ignition key.
B.  A unique ID card.
C.  A special cellphone signal.
D.  A GPS satellite positioning receiver.
4. Why does the tracking system set a 100-metre minimum before sending an alarm to the operations
centre?
A.  To leave time for the operations centre to give an alarm.
B.  To keep police informed of the car's movements.
C.  To give the driver time to contact the operations centre.
D.  To allow for possible errors in the GPS system.
5. What will the operations centre do first after receiving an alarm?
A.  Start the tracking system.
B.  Contact the car owner.
C.  Block the car engine.
D.  Locate the missing car.
阅读理解。
     When a Swedish ship that sank in 1628 was recovered from the port of Stockholm, historians and
scientists were overjoyed with the chance to examine the remains of the past. The ship construction
showed how ships were built and operated during the seventeenth century. In this way, artifacts,
objects made by human beings, provided a picture of daily life almost 400 years ago.
    Underwater archaeology-the study of ships, aircrafts(工艺品) and human settlements that have sunk
under large bodies of water-is really a product of the last 50 years. The rapid growth of this new area
of study has occurred because of the invention of better diving equipment. Besides the Swedish ship
wreck(残骸),underwater archaeologists have made more exciting discoveries such as the
5000-year-old boats in the Mediterranean Sea.
     Underwater archaeology can provide facts about the past. In ancient ports all over the world are
ships sunken in the past 6,000 years. There are also sunken settlements in seas and lakes telling of
people's way of life and their systems of trade in ancient times.                                                                        
     Underwater archaeologists want to study these objects to add to the world's knowledge of history,
but they have to fight two enemies. One enemy is treasure hunters who dive for ancient artifacts that
they can sell to collectors. Once sold, these objects are lost to experts. The second enemy is dredging
machines(挖掘机)often used to repair ports. These machines destroy wrecks and artifacts or bury
them deeper under sand and mud. By teaching the public about the importance of underwater
"museums" of the past, archaeologists are hoping to get support for laws to protect underwater treasures.                                                    
1. What purpose does Paragraph 1 serve in the passage?
A. To provide background information of the topic
B. To attract readers' attention to the topic
C. To use an example to support the topic
D. To offer basic knowledge of the topic
2. The aim of underwater archaeology is to_________ .
A. explore water bodies          
B. search for underwater life                      
C. study underwater artifacts    
D. examine underwater environment
3.Underwater archaeologists are worried because_____.
A. sea hunters have better diving equipment                                  
B. their knowledge of world history is limited                                                  
C. dredging machines cause damage to the ports                                
D. sold artifacts can hardly be regained for research
4.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A. To introduce a young branch of learning.
B. To discuss the scientists' problems.  
C. To explain people's way of life in the past.
D. To describe the sunken ships.
阅读理解。
      A study published in September suggests there is a surprising way to get people to avoid unhealthy
foods: change their memories. Scientist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine asked
volunteers to answer some questions on their personalities and food experiences. "One week later,"
Loftus says, "we told those people we'd fed their answers into our smart computer and it came up with
an account of their early childhood experiences." Some accounts included one key additional detail.
"You got sick after eating strawberry ice-cream." The researchers then changed this detail into a
manufactured (人为促成的) memory through leading questions -Who were you with? How did you
feel? By the end of the study, up to 41% of those given a false memory believed strawberry ice-cream
once made them sick, and many said they'd avoid eating it.                                               
     When Loftus published her findings, she started getting calls from people begging her to make them
remember hating chocolate or French fries. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. False memories appear to
work only for foods you don't eat on a regular basis. But most importantly, it is likely that false memories
can be implanted (灌输) only in people who are unaware of the mental control. And lying to a patient is
immoral(不道德的), even if a doctor believes it's for the patient's benefit.                            
     Loftus says there's nothing to stop parents from trying it with their overweight children. "I say, wake
up -parents have been lying about Father Christmas for years, and nobody seems to mind. If they can
prevent diseases caused by fatness and all the other problems that come with that, you might think that's
more moral lie. Decide that for yourself."                                                          
1. Why did Loftus ask the volunteers to answer some questions?
A. To improve her computer program.                                                                                              
B. To find out details she can make use of.                                                  
C. To find out their attitudes towards food.                                                            
D. To predict what food they'll like in the future.
2. What did Loftus find out from her research?                                
A. People believe what the computer tells them.                                                      
B. People tend to forget their childhood experiences.                                    
C. People can be led to believe in something false.                                
D. People are not always aware of their personalities.
3. According to the study, people may stop having a certain food if they _______.      
A. think they once had a bad experience of eating it                                            
B. learn it is harmful for health                                                    
C. lie to themselves that they don't want it                                                  
D. are willing to let doctors control their minds  
4. What is the biggest concern with the method?                                    
A. Who it is best for              
B. When it is effective.                                  
C. How it should be used.          
D. Whether it is moral.
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