| 阅读理解。 |
| American society is not nap (午睡)-friendly. In fact, says David Dinges, a sleep specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,"There's even a prohibition against admitting we need sleep". Nobody wants to be caught napping or found asleep at work. To quote a prov  erb:"Some sleep five hours, nature requires seven, laziness nine and wickedness eleven."Wrong. The way not to fall asleep at work is to take naps when you need them."We have to totally changeour attitude toward napping,"says Dr. William Dement of Stanford University, the godfather of sleep research. Last year a national commission led by Dement identified an"American sleep debt" which one member said was as important as the national debt. The commission was concerned about the dangers of sleepiness: people causing industrial accidents or falling asleep while driving. This may be why we have a new sleep policy in the White House. According to recent reports, President Clinton is trying to take a ha1f-hour snooze (瞌睡) every afternoon. About 60 percent of American adults nap when given the opportunity. We seem to have"a mid afternoon quiet phase," also called "a secondary sleep gate." Sleeping 15 minutes to two hours in the  early afternoon can reduce stress and make us refreshed. Clearly, we were bornto nap. We Superstars of Snooze don't nap to replace lost shut-eye or to prepare for a night shift. Rather, we "snack" on sleep, whenever, wherever and at whatever time we feel like it. I myself have napped in buses, cars, planes and on boats; on floors and beds; and in libraries, offices and museums. |
| l. It is commonly accepted in American society that too much sleep is ._____ |
A. unreasonable B. criminal C. harmful D. costly |
| 2. The research done by the Dement Commission shows that Americans ________. |
| A. don't like to take naps B. are terribly worried about their national debt C. sleep less than is good for them D. have caused many industrial and traffic accidents |
| 3. The purpose of this article is to.______ |
| A. warn us of the wickedness of napping B. explain the danger of sleepiness C. discuss the side effects of napping D. convince the reader of the necessity of napping |
| 4. The underlined phrase "American sleep debt" in Para. 3 is the result of ._____ |
| A. the traditional misconception the Americans have about sleep B. the new sleep policy of the Clinton Administration C. the rapid development of American industry  D. the Americans' worry about the danger of sleepiness |
| 5. The second sentence of the last paragraph tells us that it is .______ |
| A. preferable to have a sound sleep before a night shift B. good pr  actice to eat something light before we go to bedC. essential to make up for cost sleep D. natural to take a nap whenever we feel the need for it |
| 阅读理解。 |
Violin prodigies (神童), I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world's greatest violinists, the reason for this phenomenon."It is very clear," he told me. "They were all Jews (犹太人) and Jews at the time were severely oppressed  and i ll-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowedinto the professional fields, bu  t they were allowed t o achieve excellence on a concert stage." As a result, every Jewish parent's dream was to have a child in the music school because it was a passport to the West. Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field and is able to nurture (培育) talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. "In Japan, a most competitive society with stronger discipline than ours,"says Isaac Stern,"children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well." The Koreans and Chinese, as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese. That's a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music. |
| 1. Jewish parents in Eastern Europe longed for their children to attend music school because_____. |
| A. it would allow them access to a better life in the West B. Jewish children are born  with excellent musical talentC. they wanted their children to enter into the professional fields D. it would enable the family to get better treatment in their own country |
| 2. Nurturing societies as mentioned in the passage refer to societies that_____ |
| A. enforce strong discipline on students who want to achieve excellence B. treasure talent and provide opportunities for its full development C. encourage people to compete with each other D. promise talented children high positions |
| 3. Japan is described in the passage as a country that attaches importance to ._____ |
| A. all-round development B. the learning of Western music C. strict training of children D. variety in acad  emic studies |
| 4. Which of the following contributes to the emergence of musical prodigies according to the passage?_____ |
| A. A natural gift. B. Extensive knowledge of music- C. Very early training. D. A prejudice-free society. |
| 5. Which of the following titles best summarizes the main idea of the passage?_____ |
| A. Jewish Contribution to Music. B. Training of Musicians in the World. C. Music and Society. D. The Making of Prodigies |
| 阅读理解。 |
| Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to"think and concentrate." Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived (被剥夺) of cigarettes through a series of tests. In the first test, each subject (试验对象) sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and non-smokers performed equally well. The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster, but under the stimulation of nicotine, active smokers were faster than deprived smokers. In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers. The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non-smokers remembered l9 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing- Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insignificant details. "As our tests became more complex." sums up Spilich," non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins". He predicts, 'smokers might perform adequately at many jobs- until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity." |
| l. The purpose of George Spilich's experiments is ._____ |
| A. to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers B. to show how smoking damages people's mental capacity C. to prove that smoking affects people's regular performance D. to find out whether smoking helps people's short-term memory |
| 2. George Spilich's experiment was conducted in such a way as to ._____ |
| A. compel the subjects to separate major information from minor details B. put the subjects through increasingly complex tests C. check the effectiveness of nicotine on smokers D. register the prompt responses of the subjects |
| 3. The underlined word "bested" in Para. 5most probably means_____ |
| A. beat B. envied C. caught up with  D. made the best of |
| 4. Which of the following statements is true?_____ |
| A. Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers. B. Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects. C. Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks. D. Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks. |
| 5. We can infer from the last paragraph that ._____ |
| A. smokers should not expect to become airline pilots B. smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness C. no airline pilots smoke during flights D. smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency cases |