We know them when we see them: The TV shows a...

We know them when we see them: The TV shows and movies we love, even though we just know they’re bad. The worthless books we simply can’t put down.

Yes, these are our guilty pleasures — what some people consider the junk food in our media diets. But if we enjoy them, why should we feel guilty? As it turns out, these so-called “guilty” pleasures can actually be good for us, so long as they’re enjoyed in moderation.

According to Robin Nabi, a professor at the University of California, a guilty pleasure is something that we enjoy, but we know we’re either not supposed to like, or that liking it says something negative about us.

Studies suggest that guilty pleasures can bring back some psychological resources. Besides, giving ourselves permission to enjoy downtime is also an important part of self-pity, which is an effective way of fighting anxiety and sadness. Perhaps the most important value of a guilty pleasure is the bond it can create between people.

If that’s true, why do guilty pleasures get such a bad reputation? Actually, it’s not the indulgences themselves, but the attitudes we take when talking about them. “We have the cultural value of media consumption being instructive, and that what we do should be about growing and achieving,” Dr. Nabi said. “We don’t focus as much on refreshment and enjoyment, and these are such important aspects of being a human being.”

Feeling guilty about activities we enjoy can diminish the benefits they offer us. But removing unnecessary embarrassment about our interests can enrich our social lives, which is why it’s time to get rid of “guilty pleasure” from our vocabulary.

While guilty pleasures benefit us in some cases, they can also push us to indulge in behaviors we feel guilty about. Therefore, it’s best to follow the age-old advice our parents taught us: Everything in moderation.

1.Which of the following might make us feel guilty pleasure?

A.Eating an entire bag of chips in one sitting. B.Telling an old bedtime story.

C.Staying up late doing your homework. D.Giving up seats to the elderly.

2.Why do people think poorly of guilty pleasures?

A.They take guilty pleasures too seriously. B.They dislike the behaviour of indulgence.

C.They ignore the benefits of guilty pleasures. D.They are influenced by their cultural value.

3.What does the underlined word “diminish” in paragraph 6 mean?

A.Reduce. B.Increase. C.Maximize. D.Destroy.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A.Guilty pleasure? Avoid it B.Guilty pleasure? No Such Thing

C.Everything in Moderation D.New Trend in Media Consumption

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Everyone knows about straight-A students．We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge（报复）of the Nerds．They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book．They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports．

How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?

Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School．She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society．For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject．Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque．He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station．Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses．

How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer．“Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students．“Knowing how to make the most of your innate（天生的）abilities counts for more．Much more．”

In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ．For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down．

Hard work isn’t the whole story, either．“It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed．“It’s what you do while you’re sitting．” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates．

The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn．

1.The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________．

2.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

3.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

4.What can we infer from the passage?

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Everyone knows about straight-A students．We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge（报复）of the Nerds．They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book．They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports．

How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?

Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School．She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society．For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject．Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque．He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station．Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses．

How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer．“Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students．“Knowing how to make the most of your innate（天生的）abilities counts for more．Much more．”

In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ．For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down．

Hard work isn’t the whole story, either．“It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed．“It’s what you do while you’re sitting．” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates．

The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn．

1.The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ ．

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

2.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students．

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students．

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films．

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society．

3.Some students become super-achievers mainly because________ ．

A．they are born cleverer than others          B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities          D．they know the shortcut to success

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study．

B．The brightest students can never get low grades．

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments．

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers．

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(报复)of the Nerds. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy(笨拙的) while doing sports.

How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?

Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.

How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer. “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students. “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts for more. Much more.”

In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.

Hard work isn’t the whole story, either. “It’s not how long you sit there with the books open,” said one of the many-A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.

The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.

1.The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ .

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

2.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students.

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students.

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films.

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society.

3.Some students become super-achievers mainly because_________ .

A．they are born cleverer than others

B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities

D．they know the shortcut to success

4.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students.

B．The role IQ plays in learning well.

C．The techniques to be better learners.

D．The achievements top students make.

5.What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study.

B．The brightest students can never get low grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(报复)of the Nerds. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.

How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?

Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.

How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer. “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students.“Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts for more. Much more.”

In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.

Hard work isn’t the whole story, either.“It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed.“It’s what you do while you’re sitting.”Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.

The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.

1.The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ .

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

2.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students.

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students.

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films.

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society.

3.Some students become super-achievers mainly because_________ .

A．they are born cleverer than others

B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities

D．they know the shortcut to success

4.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students.

B．The role IQ plays in learning well.

C．The techniques to be better learners.

D．The achievements top students make.

5.What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study.

B．The brightest students can never get low grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge (报复) of the Nerds. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.

How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres? Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.

How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer. “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students. “Knowing how to make full use of your innate (天生的) abilities counts for more. Much more.”

In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down. Hard work isn’t the whole story, either. “It’s not how long you sit there with the books open,” said one of the many-A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.

The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.

1.The underlined word “nerds” in paragraph 1 can probably be ________.

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

2.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students.

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students.

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films.

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society.

3.Some students become super-achievers mainly because ________.

A．they are born cleverer than others          B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities          D．they know the shortcut to success

4.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students.          B．The role IQ plays in learning well.

C．The techniques to be better learners.        D．The achievements top students make.

5.What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study.

B．The brightest students can never get low grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

When we know somewhere well，we say we “know it like the back of our hand”. But new research has shown that we don’t actually know as much about our hands as we think we do.

Wider and shorter

Professor Matthew Longo at the University of London and his team did an experiment, covering the left hands of 100 people. Then they asked the people to point to where they thought their fingertips and knuckles (指关节) were. They made some quite big mistakes.

“People think their hand is wider than it actually is,” said Longo. The fingers also seem shorter than they are. This mistake gets worse as you go across the hand from the thumb to the little finger.

Sense of position

“It is connected to our sense of position,” explained Longo. This is our ability to tell where different parts of our bodies are, even when we can’t see them. “It tells us whether a joint is straight, or not” he said. It also tells us whether we are going up or down in an elevator. All this information comes from signs from nerves in real time. It’s like our brain has maps — maps that show the size and shape of our body. “This experiment tried to find those maps,” said Longo.

Strength(强度) of feeling

But these maps make mistakes. These mistakes may be made because of how the brain understands different parts of the skin. “Our brains ‘see’ areas as larger where the skin feels touch strongly,” said Longo. Body parts don’t appear as their true size, but appear bigger or smaller depending on how strongly they feel touch. Our lips, for example, have more nerves than our nose. So brain “sees” lips on its map of the body as being bigger than our nose. The same thing happens for other parts of the body that have lots of nerves.

Longo believes that more research in this area may help us to understand eating problem better, because people suffering from these problems may not know their bodies properly.

1.Which of following statement is TRUE about the experiment according to the article?

A. People think their body parts are larger than they actually are.

B. People made more mistakes about their little fingers length than their thumbs’ length.

C. People’s fingers are actually shorter than they think.

D. People were asked to draw their hands from memory

2.What does the underlined “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. The new experiment.　　 B. The location information.

C. The mistake people made.　　 D. The sizes of fingers and hands.

3.We can learn from the article that ________.

A. the maps of people’s bodies form before they are born

B. the maps of our body are based on information from nerves

C. our sense of position tells how different parts of the body work

D. how we feel about our body shape is only decided by our sense of position

4.We can infer from the article that ________.

A. the hand feels touch more strongly than fingers do

B. our lips have a weaker sense of touch than our nose

C. there are more nerves in the finger than in the hand

D. our sense of position should not be trusted because it is too often incorrect

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

We all know the saying“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and the fact that there are a whole lot of strange—looking people out there happily loved up would suggest that it’s true．But scientists have now performed the biggest test so far，analyzing the preferences of more than 35，000 people，and have shown that we really do all have a unique “type”．

In fact，the study showed that even identical twins，who share nearly l00 percent of their DNA, aren’t attracted to the same people，suggesting that it’s our experiences，more than our genes，that determine whether we find someone hot or not．

“We estimate that an individual’s aesthetic(审美的)preferences for faces agree about 50 percent，and disagree about 50 percent，with others，’’explained Laura Germine from Harvard University，and Jeremy Wilmer of Wellesley College，lead researchers of the project．

“This fits with the phenomenon that on one hand，fashion models can make a fortune with their good looks，while on the other hand，friends can endlessly debate about who is attractive and who is not，”they added．“Of course，there are some things that people seem to find pretty much universally pleasant to look at，eg，most people prefer faces that are symmetric(对称的)．”But after analyzing the facial preferences of more than 35，000 volunteers, the researchers found that，it was experiences that seemed to be what shape the “eye of the beholder”．And those experiences are highly specific to each individual．

So in other words，it’s not your family，where you grew up，or how much money your parents make that shape who you’re attracted to，it’s things like the magazines you read, the social activities you’ve take part in，and even your first boyfriend or girlfriend，that determine these preferences．

1.What does the underlined word “identical” in Para 2 mean?

A．unique　　　　 　 　 B．same

C．distinguishing　 D．considerate

2.Why does the writer talk about the “fashion model”?

A．To tell us they own beautiful faces which help them earn money．

B．To emphasize they have symmetric faces which people widely enjoy．

C．To show people’s preference for faces partly agree and disagree．

D．To explain the role genes play in people’s preference．

3.Which of the following statements agrees with the theme of the passage?

A．Symmetric faces look beautiful in eastern culture but not in western culture．

B．The more beautiful a person looks，the more likely he is to get a success．

C．A person’s aesthetic preferences for beauty will remain the same in the future．

D．Some think the movie star Huang Xiaoming handsome while some don’t think so．

4.What is the title of the passage?

A．Gene preference or social preference?

B．Difficult to meet every taste．

C．Beauty is in the eye of beholder．

D．Love me，love my dog?

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?

To see whether babies know objects are solid, T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could reach out and touch, and then to show them the illusion. If they knew that objects are solid and they reached out for the illusion and found empty air, they could be expected to show surprise in their faces and movements. All the 16 to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.

Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?

Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to reappear. If the experimenter took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The researcher substituted a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch. Thus, the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence, while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.

1.The passage is mainly about _____.

A. babies’ sense of sight

B. effects of experiments on babies

C. babies’ understanding of objects

D. different tests on babies’ feelings

2. In Paragraph 3, “object permanence” means that when out of sight, an object ________.

A. still exists                                B. keeps its shape

C. still stays solid                        D. is beyond reach

3.What did Bower use in his experiments?

A. A chair.     B. A screen.       C. A film.          D. A box.

4.Which of the following statements is true?

A. The babies didn’t have a sense of direction.

B. The older babies preferred toy trains to balls.

C. The younger babies liked looking for missing objects.

D. The babies couldn’t tell a ball from its optical illusion.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?

To see whether babies know objects are solid. T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion (视觉影像) of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could be expected to show surprised in their faces and movements. All the 16 to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.

Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?

Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to re-appear. If the experiment took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The researcher substituted (替换) a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch (更换). Thus, the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.

1.The passage is mainly about ________ .

A. babies’ sense of sight                   B. effects of experiments on babies

C. babies’ understanding of objects         D. different tests on babies’ feelings

2.In Paragraph 3, “object permanence” means that when out of sight, an object ________ .

A. still exists          B. keeps its shape    C. still stays solid      D. is beyond reach

3.What did Bower use in his experiments?

A. A chair             B. A screen         C. A film             D. A box

4.Which of the following statements is true?

A. The babies didn’t have a sense of direction.

B. The older babies preferred toy trains to balls.

C. The younger babies liked looking for missing objects

D. The babies couldn’t tell a ball from its optical illusion.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析