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请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Homonym: a word that has the same spelling and the same pronunciation as another world, but a different meaning
Same spelling, different meaning
Imagine, then a situation where two words are spelt and pronounced exactly the same way, but have completely different meanings．Welcome to the world of homonyms．Take, for example, the word ‘fail’ --- it can be a kind of festival, and adjective to describe the color of your hair or how you should play a game．
Don’t take it literally
So how do you know which meaning someone is referring to? --- You don’t, except by the context．Obviously, if someone asks you to ‘give them a hand’, they don’t want you to remove what is at the end of your arm．
What’s in a name?
Sometimes even the context doesn’t help much --- the result can be amusing．These sentences play with the double meaning of a noun:
I used to be a banker, but I lost interest．
Have you heard about the cross-eyed teacher who couldn’t control his pupils?
A small boy swallowed some coins and had to go to hospital．When his grandmother phoned to ask how he was, the nurse said: ‘No change yet’．
More ambiguity
And these examples play with the different meanings of a verb:
I wondered why the ball was getting bigger．Then it hit me．
No one knew she had a dental implant until it came out in a conversation．
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat．
Double trouble
And sometimes a word can be a noun and a verb, but have different meanings．Can you work this one out?
Time flies like an arrow．Fruit flies like a banana．
If you like these homonyms, you will be pleased to know that English has plenty more!
Explanations of jokes in the text
I used to be banker, but I lost interest．(I became bored with the job / I lost money)
Have you heard about the cross-eyed teacher who couldn’t control his pupils? (students / parts of his eyes)
A small boy swallowed some coins and had to go to hospital．When his grandmother phoned to ask how he was, the nurse said: ‘No change yet’．(no difference in the situation / no money)
I wondered why the ball was getting bigger．Then it hit me．(the ball hit me / I suddenly realized)
No one knew she had a dental implant until it came out in a conversation．(became known / fell out)
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat．(can’t be better / difficult to mix with a fork)
Time flies like an arrow．(time goes quickly) Fruit flies like a banana．(insects enjoy eating fruit．)
1.Which of the following statements about homonyms is NOT true?
A．They share the same spellings regardless of meanings．
B．We can’t know their meanings without context．
C．We may still feel confused even with context．
D．Their ambiguity brings great trouble to our life．
2.The “beat” in the sentence “A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat, making for a satisfying breakfast．” has a similar meaning to _____．
A．The rain was beating down on the tin roof．
B．Taking the bus sure beats walking．
C．The doctor could feel no pulse beating．
D．You’ve been working too hard, you look dead beat．
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B
We might think we know which colours do what．The idea that red wakes us up or blue calms us down is deeply rooted in Western culture．But do they really change our behaviour in the ways that we assume?
When it comes to scientific research, the results are mixed and at times contested．Some studies have found that people do better on cognitive tasks when faced with red rather than blue or green; others show the opposite．The idea is that if you repeatedly have a particular experience surrounded by a certain colour, then you eventually begin to associate that colour with the way you were feeling or behaving．A school career spent reading your teacher’s red writing circling your mistakes forever makes you link red with danger．Blue meanwhile is more likely to be associated with calmer situations like marvelling at a big blue expanse of sky．
Of course there will always be exceptions --- the comment from the teacher saying “well done” is also written in red．It is true that people do make different associations with different colours, but whether this translates into behaving in a certain way or succeeding at a particular task is a different question．
In 2009 researchers tried to clarify the situation．They sat their participants at computer screens colored blue, red or “neutral” and tested them on various tasks．With a red screen people did better on tasks requiring attention to detail, but when the screen was blue they did better on creative tasks．In practice this might be tricky．In a classroom you might want to think creatively some of the time and pay attention to detail at others．
However, when another team tried to repeat the study with a larger group of people in 2014, the effect of color disappeared．The initial study consisted of just 69 people．In this new, bigger study, of 263 volunteers, background color made no difference．
So colors might well have an effect, but so far those effects have been difficult to demonstrate consistently and sometimes don’t seem to exist at all．
1.What’s the major function of the first paragraph?
A．To present a widely held view
B．To raise a question of behavior change
C．To introduce the theme of the passage
D．To summarize the whole passage
2.The author mentions the exception in Paragraph 3 in order to show _____．
A．there are exceptions to every rule
B．people tend to associate colors with behaviors
C．colors don’t necessarily mean particular behaviors
D．colors do matter to those who desire success
3.It can be concluded from the results of the studies in 2009 and 2014 that _____．
A．the research findings are practical in indoor decoration
B．solid evidence is inadequate to prove how colors affect us
C．a larger study may help confirm colors’ effects on our behaviors
D．walls should be painted different colors depending on different tasks
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C
My father was, by nature, a cheerful, kindly man．Until he was thirty-four years old he worked as a farm-hand for Thomas Butterworth near the town of Bidwell, Ohio．On Saturday evenings he drove his horse into town to spend a few hours in social intercourse with other farm-hands．He was quite happy in his position in life．
It was in his thirty-fifth year that father married my mother, a school teacher．Something happened to the two people．The American passion for getting up in the world took possession of them．Mother induced father to give up his place as a farm-hand, sell his horse and start an independent enterprise of his own．They rented ten acres of poor stony land and launched into chicken raising．
One inexperienced in such matters can have no idea of the many and tragic things that can happen to a chicken．It is born out of an egg, lives for a few weeks as a tiny fluffy thing, then becomes naked, gets diseases, and dies．A few hens, and now and then a rooster, intended to serve God’s mysterious ends, struggle through to maturity．The hens lay eggs out of which come other chickens and the awful cycle is thus made complete．It is all unbelievably complex．Most philosophers must have been raised on chicken farms．One hopes for so much from a chicken and is so awfully disappointed．Small chickens, look so bright and in fact so awfully stupid．They are so much like people they mix one up in one’s judgments of life．If disease does not kill them they wait until your expectations are thoroughly aroused and then walk under the wheels of a carriage．
In later life I have seen how a literature has been built up on the subject of fortunes to be made out of the raising of chickens．It is intended to be read by the gods who have just eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil．It is a hopeful literature and declares that much may be done by simple ambitious people who own a few hens．Do not be misguided by it．It was not written for you．Go hunt for gold on the frozen hills of Alaska, put your faith in the honesty of a politician, believe if you will that good will defeat evil, but do not read and believe the literature that is written concerning the hen．
For ten years my father and mother struggled to make our chicken farm pay and then they gave up that struggle and began another．They moved into the town of Bidwell, Ohio and began the restaurant business, with the tiny hope of looking for a new place from which to start on our upward journey through life．
1.Which of the following is the right order of what happened?
a．Father got married to Mother, a school teacher．
b．Father quitted working at Butterworth’s．
c．My parents launched a business in Bidwell．
d．Father socialized in town on Saturday evenings
e．My parents started their job of chicken farming．
A．d-a-b-e-c
B．d-a-c-b-e
C．d-b-a-e-c
D．d-b-a-c-e
2.By saying “Most philosophers must have been raised on chicken farms”, the author means that chicken farming _____．
A．is so complex that only philosophers can comprehend it
B．gives you a philosophical insight into life
C．exposes you to a complete circle of life
D．allows you the time to judge the life
3.In the author’s opinion, the literature about chicken raising _____．
A．is full of hope and positive energy
B．proves the victory of good over evil
C．persuades you to believe in politicians
D．tends to be blindly optimistic about its rewards
4.What’s the author’s attitude towards parents’ dream of rise to success?
A．approving
B．optimistic
C．skeptical
D．indifferent
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D
A four-year-old girl sees three biscuits divided between a stuffed crocodile and a teddy bear．The crocodile gets two; the bear one．“Is that fair?” asks the experimenter．The girl judges that it is not．“How about now?” asks the experimenter, breaking the bear’s single biscuit in half．The girl cheers up: “Oh yes, now it’s fair．They both have two．” Strangely, children feel very strongly about fairness, even when they hardly understand it．
Adults care about fairness too --- but how much? One way to find out is by using the ultimatum (最后通牒) game, created by economist Werner Guth．Jack is given a pile of money and proposes how it should be divided with Jill．Jill can accept Jack’s “ultimatum”, otherwise the deal is off, and neither gets anything．
Suppose Jack and Jill don’t care about fairness, just about accumulating cash．Then Jack can offer Jill as little as he likes and Jill will still accept．After all, a little money is more than no money．But imagine, instead, that Jack and Jill both care only about fairness and that the fairest outcome is equality．Then Jack would offer Jill half the money; and Jill wouldn’t accept otherwise．
What happens when we ask people to play this game for real? It turns out that people value fairness a lot．Anyone offered less than 20-30% of the money is likely to reject it．Receiving an unfair offers makes us feel sick．Happily, most offers are pretty equitable; indeed, by far the most common is a 50-50 split．
But children, and adults, also care about a very different sort of (un)fairness, namely cheating．Think how many games of snakes and ladders have ended in arguments when one child “accidentally” miscounts her moves and another child objects．But this sense of fairness isn’t about equality of outcome: games inevitably have winners and losers．Here, fairness is about playing by the rules．
Both fairness-as-equality and fairness-as-no-cheating matter．Which is more important: equality or no-cheating? I think the answer is neither．The national lottery(彩票), like other lotteries, certainly doesn’t make the world more equal: a few people get rich and most people get nothing．Nevertheless, we hope, it is fair --- but what does this mean? The fairness-as-no-cheating viewpoint has a ready answer: a lottery is fair if it is conducted according to the “rules”．But which rules? None of us has the slightest idea, I suspect．Suppose that buried in the small print at lottery HQ is a rule that forbids people with a particular surname (let’s say, Moriarty)．So a Ms Moriarty could buy a ticket each week for years without any chance of success．
How would she react if she found out? Surely with anger: how dare the organisers let her play, week after week, without mentioning that she couldn’t possibly win! She’d reasonably feel unfairly treated because ___________________．
To protest(抗议) against unfairness, then, is to make an accusation of bad faith．From this viewpoint, an equal split between the crocodile and the bear seems fair because (normally, at least), it is the only split they would both agree to．But were the girl to learn that the crocodile doesn’t like biscuits or that the bear isn’t hungry, I suspect she’d think it perfectly fair for one toy to take the whole．Inequality of biscuits (or anything else) isn’t necessarily unfair, if both parties are happy．And the unfairness of cheating comes from the same source: we’d never accept that someone else can unilaterally(单方面地) violate agreements that we have all signed up to．
So perhaps the four-year-old’s intuitions(直觉) about fairness is the beginnings of an understanding of negotiation．With a sense of fairness, people will have to make us acceptable offers (or we’ll reject their ultimatums) and stick by the (reasonable) rules, or we’ll be on the warpath．So a sense of fairness is crucial to effective negotiation; and negotiation, over toys, treats etc, is part of life．
1.It can be inferred that in the ultimatum game, _____．
A．Jack keeps back all the money
B．Jill can negotiate fair division with Jack
C．Jack has the final say in the division of money
D．Jill has no choice but to accept any amount of money
2.From Paragraph 2 to 4, we can conclude _____．
A．people will sacrifice money to avoid unfairness
B．fairness means as much to adults as to children
C．something is better than nothing after all
D．a 30-70 split is acceptable to the majority
3.Which of the following does fairness-as-no-cheating apply to?
A．divisions of housework
B．favoritism between children
C．banned drugs in sport
D．schooling opportunities
4.Which of the following best fits in the blank in Paragraph 7?
A．the lottery didn’t follow the rules
B．she was cheated out of the money
C．the lottery wasn’t equal at all
D．she would never have agreed to those rules
5.The chief factor in preventing unfairness is to _____．
A．observe agreements
B．establish rules
C．strengthen morality
D．understand negotiation
6. The main purpose of the passage is to ______
A．declare the importance of fairness
B．suggest how to achieve fairness
C．present different attitudes to fairness
D．explain why we love fairness
