If you think English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.
The study also found the earlier people learn a second language, the greater the effect is.
A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London(UCL), took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals(通兩種語言的人)”, who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference was.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.
It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills.
“Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible,” he said, “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of 2 and 34. Reading, writing and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the earlier they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.
小題1: What does the underlined part “grey matter” (in Paragraph 2) refer to?
A．Grey hair.B．Material of the brain.
C．Intelligence.D．Difficult situations.
小題2: The experience of learning a second language can ________.
A．change one’s brain completelyB．improve one’s maths skills
C．make one smarter than othersD．increase the ability to learn
小題3:We can learn from the passage that ________.
A．the researchers from UCL did another study in Italy
B．a(chǎn) similar study was done on native Italian speakers who learn English as a second language
C．the research done on the Italians showed a totally different result
D．it will be easier for one to travel around the world by learning a second language
小題4:What’s the main idea of the passage?
A．Learning a second language can help improve your brain power.
B．You should learn a second language that is not your native language.
C．If you want to learn a second language, you should do it at a certain age.
D．The research done by the researchers from UCL is very successful.
小題1:B
小題2:D
小題3:B
小題4:A

小題1:B 詞義猜測題。選項(xiàng)A意為“斑白的頭發(fā)；灰發(fā)”；選項(xiàng)B意為“大腦的材料”；選項(xiàng)C意為“智力”；選項(xiàng)D意為“困境”。根據(jù)短文第二段“This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.”可知B為最佳選項(xiàng)。
小題2:D 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文中的““Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.
It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.”可知D為最佳選項(xiàng)。
小題3:B 根據(jù)短文的最后一段可知選項(xiàng)B為最佳答案。
小題4:A  主旨大意題。根據(jù)短文第二段第一句“According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power.”可知選項(xiàng)A為最佳答案。
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解


There are some things humans can go without. We can lose a kidney or a lung, an arm or two and still live perfectly well. But some fish put us to shame. They can get by without stomachs.
One such fish is the stout longtom. The group it belongs to carries a more appropriate name: the needlefish. All needlefish lack stomachs. Their ancestors had them, but later they were lost.
The stout longtom can reach 1.3 meters in length, and lives near the sea surface. Like all needlefish, it can jump out of the water to escape its enemies. Tropical fishermen are sometimes injured by needlefish. In 1977, a 10-year-old Hawaiian boy was killed when a needlefish jumped through his brain. The longtom eats smaller fish. It teeth are not good at cutting fish into pieces, so it swallows fish whole.
Ryan Day from Australia and his colleagues wanted to know how the longtom digests its meaty meals without a stomach, so they ran some chemical tests about the fish.
Day’s results show that the longtom can consume food without the help of a stomach. It uses a special material called trypsin that can break down proteins without acid — although the approach is less efficient than using a stomach.
Because it’s a meat-eating animal, the longtom gets a lot of protein in its food, so it can afford this slightly less efficient system for absorbing it. Two plant-eating fish that Day studies actually had higher levels of trypsin in their body, as their food was low in protein.
Day thinks that the longtom and its stomachless relatives might actually have arrived at an energy-saving solution. He says that although the stomach is critical to many kinds of animal, the organ is “a fairly expensive organ to run”. This perhaps explains why some animals have got rid of theirs.
小題1:What does the underlined phrase “get by” mean?
A．Recover.B．Fight.C．Hunt.D．Live.
小題2:Ryan Day ran the chemical tests in order to find out how the longtom ______.
A．catches smaller fish in the waterB．digests the smaller fish in its body
C．can jump so high to escape its enemiesD．uses acid to break down the protein
小題3:What plays a key role in the longtom’s digestion process?
A．Trypsin.B．AcidC．The stomach.D．Protein in its body.
小題4:Ryan Day’s results show that ______.
A．the longtom can make acid easily
B．the longtom often waste energy
C．the longtom’s high-protein food helps its unique way of consuming food.
D．meat –eating fish have higher levels of trypsin in their bodies than plant-eating fish

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Imagine the following scenario(情景): A woman buys her lunch every day from a fast food outlet near her job. After some years, she finds herself 30 pounds overweight, and feeling unhealthy. So what does she do? She chooses to bring a lawsuit against the fast food outlet, claiming that the food served there was the cause of her being overweight and in poor health.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t? The only thing more absurd than the story itself is the fact that is not fiction. There are people who have sued（控告）fast food chains for causing their weight problems.
This is an example of one of the ways in which many of us spend enormous amounts of energy trying to deny the undeniable and universal fact that we are all ultimately responsible for our own choices and our own lives.
How much easier would we make it for ourselves if we could accept this fact rather than resist it? But how can we embrace the truth, that we are living the lives we choose to live, that we are enjoying or suffering the consequences(結(jié)果) of our own choices, and that blaming others for our problems and shortcomings is nothing more than a comfortable fantasy?
We must acknowledge the truth of our lives, however unpleasant this may be. If we are overweight, in a bad relationship, in a dead end, we need to accept that this is where we are, at this moment in time.
Imagine that woman decided that she was unhappy with the extra pounds she’d gained after many years of eating fast food on a regular basis. Imagine that this woman took the time to really understand and accept that she and no one else was responsible for her eating choices. Having acknowledged this fact, she then decides to make the changes in her lifestyle to become the healthier, slimmer person she wants to be.
小題1:What would be the best title for the passage?
A．Be responsible for Our Own Choices.
B．Overcome the Challenges in Our Life.
C．Acknowledge the Truth Rather than Deny It.
D．More than a Comfortable Fantasy.
小題2: Why is the woman mentioned twice in the passage?
A．To show the right way of dealing with weight problems.
B．To describe a familiar scenario in life.
C．To give support to the author’s viewpoint.
D．To compare the consequences of different choices.
小題3: What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A．Fast food chains contribute little to people’s overweight problems actually.
B．Fast food outlets are responsible for many people to become overweight.
C．Many people tend to blame others for their own problems.
D．The author himself is a supporter of fast food chains.
小題4: What should a person do if he is in a bad relationship with his roommates, according to the author?
A．Acknowledge the truth of his life and let it be.
B．Think about what’s wrong with himself and then put it right.
C．Accept that this is where we are and wait for things to improve.
D．Do whatever he likes regardless of what others think and say.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

All plant cells are capable of taking up（吸收）water. Even dead ones do to a certain degree. Absorption（吸收）of water by dead cell walls makes wood become larger.
In common land plants, the living cells of roots take upmost of the water. Land plants without roots do exist, however. Those greenish-yellow lichens（苔蘚）you see on rocks in the high mountains have no roots. Half a billion years ago, when water plants started to enter the land, the first land plants did not have roots.
Even among the flowering plants, one finds rootless forms. These flowering plants are “the higher plants” because they evolved（進(jìn)化）recently and are thus considered higher on the evolutionary scale（進(jìn)化度）.
In the Peruvian desert, there grows one of these rootless higher plants, a bromeliad. It is a relative of the pineapple. Even if this plant had roots, they would be of no use, because where the plant grows, it never rains. The plant gets its water only from the dew（露水）it collects at night, when its leaves cool off. Such rootless plants, of course, can be moved with ease, but they will only grow when they are placed out in the open. If they are placed too near a house, the radiation from the heat of the house prevents the leaves from cooling and so prevents dew from forming, and the plant dies.
In the southern United States and in Puerto Rico, one sees bromeliads growing high above the streets on the insulation（絕緣物）of electric wires. These plants get their water from rain, and the only soil they ever come in contact with is the dust that may blow on their leaves.
小題1:Wood becomes larger because of       .
A．dead cell wallsB．water entering dead cells
C．the growth of cellsD．the death of cells
小題2:From the passage we know that the evolutionary scale is graded according to      .
A．evolutionary cyclesB．heights and depths
C．timeD．kinds
小題3:The “bromeliad” is a plant that     .
A．has no rootsB．is a pineapple
C．can grow anywhereD．takes up water through its leaves
小題4:The most suitable title for this passage is “      ”.
A．Absorption of water by plantsB．Rootless plants in America
C．Plants in the desertD．Higher plants

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

In the 1960s Professor Bolin predicted that the “greenhouse effect”, caused by an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, would lead to important changes in the Earth’s climate. At the time his prediction were regarded as science fiction. But it is now gradually agreed that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will double from 0.03% to 0.06% in the next 50 years and that temperatures worldwide will rise by 2°Celsius.
Although a temperature rise of 2°may not seem significant, the local effects may be much greater: in polar regions a rise of 10°by 2025 is expected and in Northern Europe a rise of 4°. Indeed the first effects were expected to be felt before the end of the 20th century,
But how does the “greenhouse effect”operate and why should such a tiny proportion（比例）of CO2 have such a harmful effect? When living creatures breathe out or when things are burned, CO2 enters the atmosphere. Until recently all of this was absorbed by plants, which converted it back into oxygen.
However, the balance of nature has been disturbed. In power stations, in factories and in our cars, we are burning more and more fossil fuels( coal, oil and natural gas ) and this produces huge quantities of CO2---18 billion tons of it enter the atmosphere every year. Added to this, the destruction of forests means that less CO2 can be converted into oxygen by plants. So, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing every year.
小題1:Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A．Professor Bolin’s predictions were taken seriously in the first place
B．Only a small portion of the atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide
C．No changes in climate will become noticeable for 50 years or more
D．The rise in temperature will probably be 2 degrees in every part of the world.
小題2:The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing every year because       .
A．Carbon dioxide is produced when we breathe
B．Carbon dioxide is produced when we burn things
C．More forests are destroyed and more fossil fuels are burned
D．The global temperature keeps rising
小題3:The “greenhouse effect”refers to         
A．the problem of the rising global temperature
B．the problem of increasing population worldwide
C．the problem of decreasing population worldwide
D．the problem of air pollution
小題4:The underlined word“operate”in the third paragraph most probably means“      ”.
A．playB．moveC．manageD．function

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Parents often believe that they have a good relationship（關(guān)系）with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son: suddenly he seemed to be talking more to his friends than to his parents. “The door to his room is always shut,” Joanna noted.
Tina and Mark noticed similar changed in their 14-year-old daughter. “She used to cuddle up (蜷伏) with me on the sofa and talk,” said Mark. “Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady.”
Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what’s on their minds. “In fact, parents are first on the list,” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. “This completely changes during the teen years,” Riera explained. “They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last.”
Parents who know what’s going on in their teenagers’ lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental break(休息), for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.
小題1:“The door to his room is always shut” suggests that the son ______.
A．is always busy with his studiesB．doesn’t want to be disturbed
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小題2: What troubles Tina and Mark most is that _____.
their daughter isn’t as lovely as before  
they can’t read their daughter’s mind exactly
they don’t know what to say to their daughter
their daughter talks with them only when she needs help
小題3: Which of the following best explains “the wall of silence” in the last paragraph?
A． Teenagers talk a lot with their friends
B． Teenagers do not want to understand their parents.
C． Teenagers do not talk much with their parents
D． Teenagers talk little about their own lives
小題4:What can be learned from the passage?
A.  Parents are unhappy with their growing children.
Parents have suitable ways to talk with their teenagers
C.   Parents should be patient with their silent teenagers.
D.   Parents should try to understand their teenagers.

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

?New York State has passed the USA’s first state law banning motorists talking on hand-held cell phones. The ban will begin November 1st, although drivers caught using hand-held cell phones will be given only warnings during the first month. 
First-time violators（違法者）will face a ＄100 fine. A second time call for a ＄200 fine and every violation after that will cost＄500. 
At least a dozen localities（地方）have established bans, starting in 1999; and 40 states have had bans proposed but not passed. At least 23 countries, including the Great Britain, Italy, Israel and Japan, ban drivers from using hand-held cell phones. 
There are about 115 million cell phones in use in the United States and more than 6 million in New York State. 
“To think that I’m not going to use cell phone when at the same time I can still use my laptop(膝上電腦), I still can read a paper, I can still change my trousers while driving 65 mph. I think there’s just something wrong,” an official said. 
Other critics noted that other things like eating, drinking coffee and applying make up while driving caused at least as much of a concern. They suggested that the ban include a broader range of things. 
小題1: How much fine will a hand-held cell phone user receive if he has been caught using it four times while driving after November？
A．＄500.B．＄1000.C．＄1200.D．＄1300.
小題2:. We can see from this passage that ____. 
A．the ban has been put into effect in most states in the U. S.
B．many of the developed countries forbid drivers using hand-held cell phones
C．over fifty localities or states ban drivers from using hand-held cell phones
D．more people in the U. S. are against the ban than for it
小題3:The official mentioned in this passage ____. 
A．does not agree with this ban
B．doesn’t believe using hand-held cell phones while driving will cause any danger
C．doesn’t understand why hand-held cell phones alone should be banned among many others
D．believes changing pants while driving will cause greater danger
小題4:The writer intends to tell us in the last paragraph that ______. 
A．it is not fair to have this ban passed
B．the ban will never be passed in the whole country
C．more activities of the same kind should also be banned
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved everything：animals, spiders, insects．．．
One day while walking through the woods, the nice old man found a cocoon（繭）of a butterfly．He took it home．A few days later, a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole．Then it seemed to stop making any progress．It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther．Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon．
The butterfly then appeared easily．
But it had a swollen body and small, fragile wings．The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would be smaller in time．Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling （慢慢爬行）around with a swollen body and fragile wings．
It never was able to fly．
What the man in his kindness and hurry did not understand was that the limited cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Nature’s way of forcing fluid （液體）from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon．
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life．If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles and difficulties, it would disable us．We would not be as strong as what we could have been．And we could never fly．
小題1:The butterfly could never fly because ________．
A．it was too fat and strong．
B．it loved crawling around．
C．it got out of the cocoon easily．
D．it didn’t get through the cocoon ．
小題2:The text is most likely to be found in a book about__________．
A．popular scienceB．humorous stories．
C．successful peopleD．philosophy events ．
小題3:What is the implied meaning of the passage?
A．Life without any obstacles and difficulties is perfect．
B．Obstacles and difficulties contribute to success．
C．Never help a butterfly to get out of the cocoon．
D．A butterfly can never fly without going through the cocoon．

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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

An inventor seeks to create a new product that serves a specific need and fulfills a role that other products do not. Sometimes an inventor comes up with a wholly new idea, but more often inventions are simply improvements on an older design. With a little imagination and creativity (創(chuàng)造力), an old idea can suddenly become something new.
However, creating a new invention means much more than having a brilliant idea. A good designer follows the design process: identifying the challenge, researching and brainstorming ideas(集思廣益), designing a solution, testing and evaluating the ideas, and finally building the product. Designers also use science, math, technology, and engineering to design a tool that satisfies the need they identified.
Anyone can be an inventor —even kids! For example, Chester Greenwood was just fifteen years old when he invented a product that changed his life. In fact, his idea was so good that his invention supported him for the rest of his life. You may not know his name, but you probably know his invention —earmuffs (保暖耳罩)!
The inspiration for his earmuff design came to Chester when he was ice-skating. His ears were cold, and he decided to find a way to keep them warm. With the help of his grandmother, he made a new product to protect his ears and at the age of eighteen, Chester patented his earmuff design.
Many other famous inventors started young as well. Margaret Knight —the inventor of the flat-bottomed brown paper bag —is said to have created a safety device for textile looms(織布機(jī)) when she was just twelve years old. Another example is Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in history, who applied for his first patent when he was just twenty-one years old. Over the course of his life, Thomas Edison patented a total of 1,093 inventions!
小題1: In most cases, an invention ________ according to the first paragraph.
A．comes from a complete new idea
B．is usually based on an old product or idea
C．will change its creator’s life completely
D．is created by scientists in different fields
小題2:The second paragraph mainly wants to tell us _______.
A．the difficulty in making a new invention
B．the common steps of creating new things
C．having a good idea is the key to creation
D．designing a tool is the first step in inventing
小題3:The example of Chester Greenwood is used to show that ________.
A．children can also invent something
B．it is easy even for children to make inventions
C．kids have more advantages in inventing things
D．to be an inventor is the best way to change one’s life
小題4:At first Chester designed his earmuffs in order to ________.
A．protect his ears while ice-skating
B．earn money to support his poor family
C．realize his dream of becoming an inventor
D．make himself look fashionable while ice-skating

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