第一次Why do smokers tend to weigh less than nonsmokers and gain weight when they give up the habit?Contrary to “common knowledge”, nonsmokers do not generally eat more than smokers, nor do they exercise less, studies find. Research performed on smokers at rest indicates that nicotine (尼古丁) itself can increase basal metabolic (新代的) rates, meaning smokers burn more energy than nonsmokers during periods of inactivity. But surveys suggest most smokers smoke not while completely at rest, but while performing light activities such as desk work that can increase metabolic rates by two or three times. Unless nicotine’s metabolic effects increase proportionally with metabolic rates, its influence on weight might be insignificant.Now a study shows that nicotine’s e ffects on body-fuel consumption indeed increase proportionally with increases in activity. “These results indicate that the metabolic effect of nicotine may play a greater part in accounting for body-weight differences between smokers and nonsmokers than was previously believed,” says Kenneth A. Perkins and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.The researchers gave a nicotine nose spray to individuals performing light work — in this case riding an exercise bicycle modified to allow easy riding while subjects remain seated in a comfortable armchair. The activity raised resting metabolic rates two to three times.By analyzing air breathed out, the researchers calculated energy consumption in the armchair bicyclists before and after giving the nose spray and compared the relative changes with subjects in the control group given placebo (（试验药物用的）无效对照剂) nose sprays. Relative to their baseline bicycle expenditures, individuals in the nicotine group expended considerably more energy than did those in control group while doing the same amount of work. With nicotine, Perkins says, “It’s as if the body is becoming much less efficient in using its stored energy.”While the results may seem discouraging to smokers who’d like to quit without gaining weight, Perkins notes that walking an extra mile a day should make up for the difference in metabolic efficiency. And he says smokers would have to gain “well more than 50 pounds” to counterbalance the health risks of continued smoking.1. What might “common knowledge” say about smokers and nonsmokers?A) Smokers eat more and exercise more than nonsmokers.B) Smokers eat less and exercise less than nonsmokers.C) Smokers eat less and exercise more than nonsmokers.√D) Smokers eat more and exercise less than nonsmokers.答案：C2. When might nicotine influence smokers’ weight significantly?A) When Nicotine’s metabolic effects and metabolicrates increase at the same rate. √B) While smokers are exercising.C) While smokers are at rest.D) When Nicotine’s metabolic effects increaseproportionally with the amount of light activities.答案：A3. The word “subjects” in the fourth paragraph means .A) people under medical treatmentB) researchersC) people undergoing an experiment √D) addicted smokers答案：C4. What have the researchers found out in their study?A) People in the armchair expended more energy thanpeople doing desk work.B) People in the control group breathed out more air.C) People without nicotine nose spray are becoming muchless efficient in using energy.D) People in the nicotine group consumed more energy.√答案：D5. Why do the study results seem discouraging to some smokers according to the passage?A) Because they want to gain weight to tackle the healthrisks of continued smoking.B) Because they want to quit smoking and still keep fit.√C) Because they want to walking an extra mile a day tolose some weight.D) Because they want to keep fit without having to quitsmoking.答案：BA certain amount of controversy has been caused by the publication of a new report by a team of educationalists headed by Pro. B. J. Smith. The report claims to have statistical evidence that children who attend a number of different schools through their parents having to move around the country are more than normally vulnerable to a vicious cycle of low academic achievement. There are also indications, says Professor Smith, of an unusually high rate of psychological dismay among such children.The professor, who has long suspected that the effect on children whose parents travel to different parts of the country in search of work has not been sufficiently researched, stresses that this is not merely an expression of prejudice. “We are not dealing here with opinions,” he says, “It’s true, my personal feeling is that for children’s well-being, they should stay in one school. However, our findings are based on research and not on any personal attitudes that I or my colleagues may have on the subject.”Capt. Thomas Muller, an Army lecturer for the past 20 years and himself a father of two, said, “I’ve never heard such rubbish. As far as I’m concerned, absolutely no harm is done to the education of children who change schools regularly — as long as they keep to the same system as in our Army school. In my experience —and I’ve known quite a few of them —Army children are as well-adjusted as any others, if not more so. What the Professor doesn’t appear to appreciate is the fact that in such situations children will adapt muc h better than adults.”When this was put to Professor Smith, he said that at no time had his team suggested that all such children were backward or dismayed in some way, but simply that in their experience there was a clear tendency.“Our findings in dicate that while the extremely bright child can cope with regular emotional turbulence without harming his or her generalacademic progress, the majority of children suffer from constantly having to enter a new learning environment.”6. What does Professo r Smith’s report suggest?A) Children shouldn’t change schools too often. √B) Children who have to move around the country arebetter at academic achievement.C) Children attending many schools have caused a certainamount of controversy.D) Children who attend different schools are morevulnerable to vicious diseases.答案：A7. What does Professor Smith think of the findings of the research?A) They are proved by the research. √B) They are just based on his personal feeling.C) They may merely be an expression of prejudice.D) They are based on personal attitudes.答案：A8. What does Capt. Thomas Muller think of children who change schools regularly?A) They can actually deal with the new environmentbetter than adults. √B) They do no harm to the education.C) They find it difficult to keep to the same system.D) They are generally ill-adjusted.答案：A9. How does Professor Smith defend himself again Capt. Thomas Muller?A) He suggests that children having regular emotionalturbulence do not harm their academic progress.B) He argues that only a few children will suffer fromchanging schools regularly.C) He stresses that the majority of children tend tosuffer from constantly adapting to a new learningenvironment. √D) He believes that extremely bright child likes toenter a new learning environment.答案：C10. What does the passage mainly talk about?A) How army children get used to a new learningenvironment.B) Whether children would be affected by changingschool s regularly. √C) The procedure Professor Smith followed to conduct astudy.D) The opinions people have about children who oftenchange schools.答案：BRecently there has been a tendency to sympathize with thieves whose operations have been carried out on a grand scale, and no attempt whatever has been made to hold them responsible. Some of the most thievish (像窃贼的) transactions have flourished and are still flourishing. Their success and their wealth are the only things recognized. They are honored as financiers and men of affairs, looked up to and respected.In reality they are nothing more and nothing less than a lot of merciless and heartless thieves. Fraud is fraud and cheating is cheating despite the artistic manner in which it is committed or the size of the scale upon which it is operated.It is time these men were classed properly and placed where they rightly belong, for they are no better than the miserable sneak-thief who steals a penny from a blind man’s dog.For the past two or three years working people who have made sacrifices to save a few pennies have been cheated most unmercifully. Their hard-earned savings have been stolen from them by every possible scheme from the obvious looting (打劫) of a bank to the higher and more artistic method of legalized high risk, complex financial products. Men high up in the financial world have lent their names to some of the most shadyand notorious schemes that ever dishonored a community or a people. Because of this the most diligent and economical (节俭的) American people have been induced to place their hard-earned and carefully guarded savings in what they were led to believe was a safe investment, only to find out when too late that they had fallen into the hands of a gang of extremely respectable cheats. They cannot recover what they have lost.The thief is too powerful to be affected by the law while the victim is too weak to put its machinery in motion. It may be that the law is defective, or it may be that those having its machinery in charge are influenced by the wealth of the transgressors (违犯者). Whatever or whichever it is that is responsible ought to be investigated and the evil remedied.11. What does the tendency mentioned in the first paragraph reflect?A) People encourage some of the most thievishtransactions to flourish.B) People only respect success and wealth without anymoral judgment. √C) People prefer to carry out operations on a grandscale.D) People have made attempt to hold thieves responsible.答案：B12. How did working people lose their hard-earned savings?A) They lent their money to men high up in the financialworld.B) They were cheated by the bank. √C) They were unlucky in investment.D) They were robbed by the thieves nearby.答案：B13. When the w riter says “a gang of extremely respectable cheats” in Paragraph Four, it is implied that .A) they are well-educated but ill-behaved √B) they are respectable in artistic cheatingC) they are cheats with respectable goalsD) they are not well-educated but respected答案：A14. What could be a possible reason for the thieves to escape from law according to the passage?A) They are powerful enough to ignore the law.B) There are defects in the law. √C) They are wealthy enough to compensate the victims.D) The victim is too weak to investigate them.答案：B15. It can be inferred from the passage that .A) there are too many thieves and robbersB) industrious and honest people should be highly paidC) moral standards are always upheldD) any thief should be punished √答案：DPeople often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because there are many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, in a first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn is only relevant when learning a second language.A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second language. The greater the differences between the second language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn. Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman alphabet.Some people seem to learn languages readily, while others find it very difficult. Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as well as each learner's motivation for learning. If people learn a language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life.Apparently, British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian. This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulties.Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of the writing system, which uses a similar alphabet, but the grammatical complexity, though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while struggling with languages that the British find relatively easy.16. Why is it hard to say which language is the most difficult to learn?A) Because it is only relevant when learning a secondlanguage.B) Because differences between languages areunimportant.C) Because people learn their mother tongue naturally.D) Because many factors have to be considered. √答案：D17. Who will find Portuguese much easier to learn?A) A native speaker of JapaneseB) A native speaker of HungarianC) A native speaker of Spanish √D) A native speaker of Chinese答案：C18. What is the most problematic language to British diplomats and other embassy staff?A) Japanese B) Spanish C) Hungarian√D) Chinese答案：C19. Why do many people think Chinese is the hardest language to learn?A) Because the pronunciation of Chinese is difficult.√B) Because the grammar of Chinese is complex.C) Because Chinese is not directly used in their life.D) Because Chinese uses the Roman alphabet.答案：A20. What factors cannot affect learning a second language according to the passage?A) each learner's motivation for learningB) neighboring countries √C) teachers and the circumstancesD) first language答案：BIn 1976, Winkler wrote a My Turn about the overwhelming reaction to the character he played on the popular television sitcom (情景喜剧), “Happy Days”. The show was at its peak, and Fonzie was its supe rstar. In fact, Americans related so strongly to the character that Winkler became apparently permanently part of the country’s broad, extended family. Three decades later, fans still greet the actor with Fonzie’s signature thumbs-up sign and a long, drawn out “Aaay!”“All these years later, the warmth I am treated with is unbelievable, and it’s all over the world,” Winkler says. He no longer receives the 50,000 fan letters a year that he got during “Happy Days”’s original run, but they still come by the hundreds. And on the street, folks tend to have a common reaction. “They thank me for making them laugh for so long. They say, ‘I grew up with you,’ or ‘my child ren grew up withyou,’ or, ‘we sat and watched it together’,” he says.Winkler says his Fonzie days came back to him vividly as he read over his old My Turn. Cast on his 28th birthday, the Yale-trained performer had been a struggling actor, dreaming of fame. The dream turned real very quickly. “We were hardly on the air when this thing sta rted to snowball, going from zero to 60 in about three seconds,” Winkler recalls.Today, Winkler gives speeches to college students about living their dreams, focusing on how to become a successful actor. “If you are determined, have a sense of humor and never take your eye off what it is you want, you can actually have it,” he says.Winkler is also at work on his first children’s book, co-authoring with L in Oliver. He was recently named executive producer of “Hollywood Squares” and produces the show “Intuition” on the Game Show Network. His next movie, “Holes”, based on a children’s book, is scheduled for release this winter. In October 2000, Winkler made his Broadway debut costarring with John Ritter in the show “The Dinner Party.”But th rough it all, Winkler remains Fonzie. “I think he is the architect of my home, of my professional life, and of my good fortune in the world,” Winkler says. “He liter ally is the foundation for everything that was to come.”21. Which of the following is NO T mentioned as fans’ reaction to Fonzie?A) Fans write lots of letters to Winkler for many years.B) Fans thank Winkler when they meet him on the street.C) Fan s greet Winkler by imitating Fonzie’s signature.D) Fans sit and watch the sitcom together with Winkler.√答案：D22. Which of the following influences him most according to the author?A) The television sitcom “Happy Days”. √B) The show “The Dinner Party”.C) The movie “Holes”.D) The show “Intuition”.答案：A23. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?A) Winkler spent long time struggling to make his dreamcome true.B) successful actor must have a sense of humor.C) Fans like Winkler as a superstar only for a few years.D) Fonzie usually utters a long, dra wn out “Aaay!” in“Happy Days”. √答案：D24. What does the word “snowball” in Paragraph three most probably mean?.A) throw at B) a ball made of snowC) grow r apidly √D) melt easily答案：C25. Which of the following is the author primarily concerned with in this passage?A) Winkler’s article My TurnB) Fans’ reaction to Fonzie played by WinklerC) Winkler’s life as an actorD) Winkler and his sitcom “Happy Days” √答案：D第二次We all laugh. We all hurt. We all make mistakes. We all dream, th at’s life. It’s a journey. Please follow these rules to make the journey of your life a journey of joy! Staying positive through the cold season could be your best defense against getting ill, new study findings suggest.In an experiment that exposed healthy volunteers to a cold or flu virus, researchers found that people with a generally sunny disposition (性格) were less likely to fall ill. The findings, published in the journalPsychosomatic Medicine, build on evidence that a “positive emotional style” c an help ward off the common cold and other illnesses.Researchers believe the reasons may be both objective as in happiness boosting immune function and subjective as in happy people being less troubled by a scratchy throat or runny nose. “People with a positive emotional style may have different immune response to the virus,” explained lead study author Dr Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “And when they do get a cold, they may interpret their illness as being less severe.”Cohen and his colleagues had found in a previous study that happier people seemed less likely to catch a cold, but some questions remained as to whether the emotional trait itself had the effect.For the new study, the researchers had 193 healthy adults with complete standard measures of personality traits, self-perceived health and emotional “style”. Those who tended to be happy, energetic and easy-going were judged as having a positive emotional style, while those who were often unhappy, tense and hostile had a negative style. The researchers gave them nose drops containing either a cold virus or a particular flu virus. Over the next six days, the volunteers reported on any aches, pains, or sneezing (打喷嚏) they had, while the researchers collected objective data. Cohen and his colleagues found that based on objective measures of nasal woes (鼻部的不适), happy people were less likely to develop a cold.1. The new study findings in the experiment suggest that _________.A) Having a good disposition is more likely to get ill.B) Being optimistic is more probable to keep healthy.√C) Having a negative emotion is harmful to thecharacter.D) Staying positive is more likely to catch cold.答案：B2. The phrase “ward off” in Paragraph 2 most probably means“_________”.A) shrug off B) give inC) keepaway √D) setaside答案：C3. It can be inferred from Dr. Sheldon Cohen’s interpretation that ______________.A) people with a positive emotion are more likely tointerpret their illness objectively.B) people with a negative emotion are more likely toboost immune function to the virus.C) people with a negative emotion are more likely tointerpret their illness subjectively.D) people with a positive emotion are more likely toregard their illness a s less serious. √答案：D4. It can be learnt from the passage that the benefits of having a positive emotional style are _____________.A) to be further studiedB) still dubiousC) self-evidentD) proven by scientific research √答案：D5. Which of the following would be the best TITLE for the passage?A) A Happy Journey Full of JoyB) Scientific Evidence of Staying HealthyC) The Secrets of Staying PositiveD) The Health Benefits of Staying Positive √答案：DHow is it that despite our amazing powers of production there are still hundreds of millions of people all over the earth in continuous want and poverty, and dangerously near the brink of starvation? What are the causes of poverty? Everyone is forced to realize and recognize its existence and no one has yet found a cure for it.Every thinking man has realized that poverty and starvation are not inevitable in the scheme of things. On the contrary, the fruitful earth yields enough for every one of the human beings inhabiting its surface without the twisted distribution of nature’s generosity (慷慨). This twisting is caused by our crude and ill developed ideas of distribution and the improper ordering of human services. In the first place, these services can be hindered at their source, and among the factors that operate in this direction may be war, crime, lack of healthy supervision, insufficient attention to rising generations, monopolies (垄断) and various private ownerships that limit the usefulness of property, and neglected and wasteful destruction of property.In the second place, the great cause of poverty is unproductive consumption. Services become unproductive when they are devoted to supplying luxuries or an excessive quantity of necessaries, which may be summed up in a single word: waste. These are the primary causes of poverty; they are responsible for the presence of starvation.Is there a remedy?The elimination of waste through perfect production and distribution is a problem that is slowly but surely being solved by the great combinations of capital that have destroyed competition. These monopolies, selfish in the extreme and with no thought beyond profit at any price, are rendering us useful service by teaching us the importance of cooperation and cooperative methods. When these great industrial combinations, these wonderfully smooth running great business machines become the property of all the people and cease to be operated for private gain, a great step will have been taken in the direction of the solution of the starvation problem. When everyone will produce according to his ability and consume according to his needs, then, and not until then will poverty and starvation depart entirely and forever from the minds of men.6. According to the passage, starvation _____.A) is due to excessive consumption by human beingsB) is inevitable in whatever conditionC) is owing to the improper distribution of nature’sgenerosity √D) is the result of insufficient production答案：C7. Which of the following can hinder human services at their source?A) Crime and lack of wealthy supervision.B) Private ownerships and unproductive consumption.C) War and destruction of property. √D) Luxuries and an excessive quantity of necessaries.答案：C8. Why does unproductive consumption is considered as the great cause of poverty in Paragraph Three?A) Because people stop producing but only consume.B) Because people who don’t produce are responsible forthe presence of starvation.C) Because people devote too much to lux uries and don’tproduce anything.D) Because people are supplied with excessive quantityof necessaries and waste a lot. √答案：D9. How to eliminate waste through production and distribution according to the passage?A) By seeking profit at any price and being selfish.B) By cooperating and making the industrialcombinations public property. √C) By creating more monopolies to make more profits.D) By privatizing business machines and teaching theimportance of cooperation.答案：B10. When can the starvation problem be solved according to the passage?A) When the great industrial combinations cease to beoperated for private gain.B) When private monopolies become public property andthe element of profit is eliminated.C) When production is organized based on personalcapabilities and distribution on individual needs. √D) When efficiency of production has been greatlyenhanced.答案：CMY NEIGHBOR HAS A GUN. In fact, not having the good fortune to live in the last house on a dead-end street, I am surrounded by neighbors with guns. My situation is hardly novel, since most American households own at least one weapon. We now have enough privately owned guns to arm nearly every man, woman and child in the country. And some of those children are not just imaginary gun users, as recent statistics indicate.My neighbors’ guns make me nervous; I’m afraid that they might go off at the wrong time, pointed in the wrong direction. I’ve asked why such dangerous items are allowed to clutter up the house. I’ve gotten several answers, from constitutional rights to the innocent sport of b lasting birds out of the skies. I’d like to focus on just one of these reasons.My neighbor tells me that curling up at night with his gun nearby makes him feel safer. Safer from what? A madman out to better the going entry in the “Guinness Book of World Records” for bloody brutality? My neighbor faces far less danger from the mentally ill killer, who fortunately is extremely rare, than he does from my other neighbor who also has a gun. Contrary to the public myth, mental patients have crime rates far below those of my neighbor or me; for all categories of crime and for homicide in particular. One of the few safe places left to live in this gun-packing country is on the grounds of your local mental hospital, where the residents are far less aggressive than my neighbor and guns are checked in at the gate.Safer from some intruder (侵入者) in the night seeking to deprive his wife of her virtue or him of his new color television? According to best available estimates, my neighbor’s odds of doing himself in accidentally with his own gun are about five times higher than his odds of being done in by some intruder. As a gun owner, my neighbor would be better advised to invest his money in locks and a loud dog. Actually, the intruder in the night accounts for fewer than three percent of our gun deaths. The bulk comes from perfectly law-abiding (守法的) but gun-toting (持枪的) people like my neighbors, who kill each other, themselves, or me.。