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第三节 阅读理解（共20题，每题2分，共40分）
President Barack Obama has apologized for a gaffe (失言) in which he described his bowling skills as akin to participants in the Special Olympics, a sports program for people with intellectual disabilities.
Obama made the mistake during an interview on Thursday night on “The Tonight Show” with host Jay Leno, the first time a sitting U.S. president had been on the show.
Talking about living in the White House, Obama said he had been practicing his bowling in the home’s bowling alley and had scored a 129 out of a possible 300.
It was an improvement on the embarrassing 37 he had rolled during a stop on the presidential campaign trail a year ago. “It’s like—it was like Special Olympics or something,” Obama said.
The Special Olympics is a global nonprofit organization serving some 200 million people with intellectual disabilities, with a presence in nearly 200 countries worldwide.
Soon after the Jay Leno interview, Obama telephoned Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver to apologize.
Shriver told ABC’s “Good Morning America” television show that Obama had apologized “in a way that I think was very moving” and that he said “he did not intend to humiliate (羞辱) the population, didn’t want to embarrass or give anybody any more reason for pain or kind of suffering.”
Shriver said people should gain a lesson from the incident.
“I think it’s important to see that words hurt. Words do matter. And these words in some respect, can be seen as humiliating or a put-down to people with special needs, do cause pain. And they do result in stereotypes,” Shriver said.
White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama “made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to look down upon the Special Olympics.”
“He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world,” Burton said.
1. What does the underlined word “akin” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A. skillful B. similar C. appealing D. superior
2. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Obama loves sports and is especially gifted at bowling.
B. Obama apologized for his remarks via ABC’s TV show.
C. The Special Olympics are for various disabled people.
D. The Special Olympics don’t intend to make any money.
3. What does Shriver mean by saying people should gain a lesson from the incident?
A. Disabled people cannot be humiliated. B. One should be careful with his words.
C. An apology for wrong words is wanted. D. Words matter even more than actions.
4. The passage is mainly about ________.
A. Obama receiving a TV interview B. Obama looking down on the disabled
C. Obama apologizing for his gaffe D. Obama being attacked for his words
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uChildren start out as natural scientists, eager to look into the world around them. Helping them enjoy science can be easy; there’s no need for a lot of scientific terms or expensive lab equipment. You only have to share your children’s curiosity. Firstly, listen to their questions. I once visited a classroom of seven-year-olds to talk about science as a job. The children asked me “textbook questions” about schooling, salary and whether I liked my job. When I finished answering, we sat facing one another in silence. Finally I said, “Now that we’ve finished with your lists, do you have questions of your own about science?”
After a long pause, a boy raised his hand,” Have you ever seen a grasshopper（蚱蜢） eat? When I try eating leaves like that, I get a stomachache. Why?”
This began a set of questions that lasted nearly two hours.
Secondly, give them time to think. Studies over the past 30 years have shown that, after asking a question, adults typically wait only one second or less for an answer, no time for a child to think. When adults increase their “wait time” to three seconds or more, children give more logical（符合逻辑的）,complete and creative answers.
Thirdly, watch your language. Once you have a child involved in a science discussion, don’t jump in with “That’s right” or “Very good”. These words work well when it comes to encouraging good behavior. But in talking about science, quick praise can signal that discussion is over. Instead, keep things going by saying, “That’s interesting” or “I’d never thought of it that way before”, or coming up with more questions or ideas.
Never push a child to “Think”. It doesn’t make sense, children are always thinking, without your telling them to. What’s more, this can turn a conversation into a performance. The child will try to find the answer you want, in as few words as possible, so that he will be a smaller target for your disagreement.
Lastly, show doesn’t tell. Real-life impressions of nature are far more impressive than any lesson children can learn from a book or a television program. Let children look at their fingertips through a magnifying glass（放大镜）, and they’ll understand why you want them to wash before dinner. Rather than saying that water evaporates （蒸发）,set a pot of water to boil and let them watch the water level drop.
1. According to the passage, children are natural scientists, and to raise their interest, the most important thing for adults to do is__________
A. to share the children’s curiosity
B. to let them see the world around
C. to explain difficult phrases about science
D. to supply the children with lab equipment
2. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, the word “lists” could best be replaced by_______
A. any questions B. textbook questions
C. questions about science D. questions seven-year-olds are curious about
3. According to the passage, children can answer questions in a more logical, complete and creative way if adult____________.
A. wait at least for three seconds after a question
B. tell them to answer the next day
C. ask them to answer quickly
D. wait for one or two seconds after a question
4. In which of the following paragraph（s） does the author tell us what to say to encourage children in a science discussion?
A. The second and third. B. The fourth and fifth.
C. The fifth and sixth. D. The seventh.
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The twentieth century saw greater changes than any century before: changes for the better, changes for the worse; changes that brought a lot of benefits to human beings, changes that put man in danger. Many things caused the changes, but, in my opinion, the most important was the progress in science.
Scientific research in physics and biology has vastly broadened our views. It has given us a deeper knowledge of the structure of matter and of the universe; it has brought us a better understanding of the nature of life and of its continuous development. Technology—the application of science—has made big advances that have benefited us in nearly every part of life.
The continuation of such activities in the twenty-first century will result in even greater advantages to human beings: in pure science — a wider and deeper knowledge in all fields of learning; in applied science — a more reasonable sharing of material benefits, and better protection of the environment.
Sadly, however, there is another side to the picture. The creativity of science has been employed in doing damage to mankind. The application of science and technology to the development and production of weapons of mass destruction has created a real danger to the continued existence of the human race on this planet. We have seen this happen in the case of nuclear weapons, Although
their actual use has so far occurred only the Second World War, the number of nuclear weapons that were produced and made ready for us was so large that if the weapons had actually been used, the result could have been the ruin of the human race, as well as of many kinds of animals.
William Shakespeare said, “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn(沙线), good and ill together.” The above brief review of the application of only one part of human activities — science seems to prove what Shakespeare said. But does it have to be so? Must the ill always go together with the good? Are we biologically programmed for war?
1．Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
①=Paragraph 1, ②=Paragraph 2, ③=Paragraph 3, ④=Paragraph 4, ⑤=Paragraph 5
2．From the fourth paragraph, we can infer that ___________.
A．a great many nuclear weapons actually used for war
B．a large number of nuclear weapons should have been used for war
C．the author is doubtful about the ruin of human beings by nuclear weapons
D．the author is anxious about the huge number of nuclear weapons on the earth
3．The underlined word “mingled” in the last paragraph most probably means ___________.
A．simple B．mixed C．sad D．happy
4．What do you think the author is most likely to suggest if he continues to write?
A．Further application of science to war.
B．More reading of William Shakespeare.
C．Proper us of science in the new century.
D．Effective ways to separate the good from the ill.
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I entered St Thoma’s Hospital as a medical student at the age of 18 and spent five years there. I was an unsatisfactory student, for my heart, as you might have guessed, was not in it. I wanted, I had always wanted to be a writer, and in the evening, after my high tea, I wrote and read. Before long, I wrote a novel, called “Liza of Lambeth”, which I sent to a publisher and was accepted. It appeared during my last year at the hospital and had something of a success. It was of course an accident, but naturally I did not know that. I felt I could afford to give up medicine and make writing my profession; so, three days after I graduated from the school of medicine, I set out for Spain to write another book. Looking back now and knowing as I do the terrible difficulties of making a living by writing, I realize I was taking a fearful risk. It never even occurred to me.
The next ten years were very hard, and I earned an average of £100 a year. Then I had a bit of luck. The manager of the Court Theatre put on a play that failed ; the next play he arranged to put on was not ready , and he was at his wits’ end. He read a play of mine and, though he did not much like it, he thought it might just run for the six weeks till the play he had in mind to follow it with could be produced. It ran for fifteen months. Within a short while I had four plays running in London at the same time. Nothing of the kind had ever happened before. I was the talk of the town. One of the students at St Thomas’s Hospital asked the famous surgeon with whom I had worked whether he remembered me. “Yes, I remember him quite well, “he said. “ One of our failures, I’m afraid. “
1. Which of the following statements is not true?
A. The author was very pleased to have his book published but he didn’t realize it was something of an accident.
B. The success of his first book led the author to think he could afford to make writing his profession.
C. The author knew he was running a terrible risk when he decided to become a writer.
D. The author became a writer after graduation but was not a successful one.
2. In the second paragraph, “… he was at his wits’ end “means ________.
A. he was having a nervous breakdown B. he was out of his wisdom
C. he did not know what to do D. he almost went mad
3. The manager of the Court Theatre agreed to put the author’s play on the stage because _____________.
A. he thought it would run for fifteen months
B. he knew it was one of the author’s best plays shown in London
C. he had just put on a play that failed
D. the play he had arranged to put on was not ready
4. The author became the talk of the town. The reason was that __________.
A. he talked with a great many people in London about his plays
B. the plays he wrote were excellently performed in London
C. his performances in the Court Theatre were unexpectedly
D. he was criticized by an eminent surgeon as one of their failures
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A survey has found that in adolescence (青春期) a lack of physical activity is connected with emotional and behavioral problems. More than 7,000 teenagers in Finland took part in the survey that judged their levels of physical activity and mental and emotional health. Boys who reported less than one hour of physical activity a week were more likely to be anxious and sad than boys who were more active. Girls who were not active had similar problems, and were more likely than boys who were not active to have sleep problems and break school rules.
The researchers concluded that both boys and girls who are not active are more likely than active ones to have social and attention problems.
“Adolescence is already a difficult stage of life-emotionally, mentally and physically,” study author Marko T.Kantomaa said in the American College of Sports Medicine.
“Mixing that with negative mental and emotional effects brought on by lack of physical activity does not help young people enter adulthood smoothly. Physical activity could be a highly effective and relatively easy way to help that transition and could lead to healthy habits for one’s whole life,” Kantomaa said.
Researchers said that evidence suggests that an increase in physical activity helps reduce problems of sadness and anxiety in both adolescents and adults. “It seems that there is a psychological(心理的)and physiological(生理的)connection that helps explain the beneficial effects of exercise on mental health,”Kantomaa said.
1. The first paragraph leads us to believe that________.
A. a lack of physical activity may cause many mental problems
B. a lack of physical exercise is common among teenagers
C. girls have more physical and mental problems than boys
D. inactive boys are more likely to break rules than inactive girls
2. Which of the following problems may NOT be caused by a lack of activity according to the passage?
A. Anxiety. B. sleeplessness. C. Inattention. D. unkindness.
3. From the passage we can conclude that___________.
A. boys take more physical exercise than girls
B. teenagers who aren’t active spend a lot of time studying
C. plenty of physical activity is effective in developing healthy habits
D. physical exercise is the only way to cure mental problems
4. The underlined word “transition” in the fourth paragraph is closest in meaning to“_______”.
A. change B. condition C. balance D. activity
A. Faced B. Face C. Facing D. To face
--- Yes, completely. __________ is left.
A. Faced B. Face C. Facing D. To face