More often than not, we think the taste of fo...

More often than not, we think the taste of food is largely to do with the way it's cooked. However, according to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, sitting and standing also affect the taste.

Lead author Dipayan Biswas, a professor from the University of South Florida in the US, looked specifically at how the vestibular（前庭的）sense, which is responsible for balance, posture（姿势）and location awareness, works with our sense of taste.

He found that standing for even a few minutes causes people to feel physical stress. Gravity pushes blood to the lower parts of the body, causing the heart to work harder. This increases the heart rate and leads to increased stress hormones（荷尔蒙）.All of these reduce sensory sensitivity, which affects taste. Our mouths fail to taste or feel temperature as well when this happens. When people experience discomfort, foods that normally taste good aren't as pleasing, says Science Daily.

Biswas gave 350 participants each a piece of biscuit and had them rate its tastiness. Those who stood while eating gave it a lower rating than those who sat in comfortable chairs. Next, Biswas and his team gave participants bite-sized cookies from a well-known local restaurant. These cookies are widely considered to be very tasty. Those who sat down to eat rated them highly. However, when the baker added extra salt, the results were opposite. Participants who stood up to eat the cookies didn't notice that the cookies tasted saltier, while those who were seated found the cookies weren't so tasty.

So if you really want to enjoy your meal, try to find yourself a comfortable seat. But if you're trying to lose weight, eating while standing could be helpful because people tend to eat less while standing.

1.What's the common belief about the taste of the food in the text?

A.It seems associated with people's preferences.

B.It is largely to do with how people sit or stand.

C.It has little to do with the way people eat food.

D.It is mainly determined by how food is cooked.

2.Why do people who stand less enjoy food?

A.Their mental health declines. B.Their hearts work more slowly.

C.They are less sensitive to taste. D.They have no sensory sensitivity.

3.How did Dipayan Biswas get his conclusions in paragraph 4?

A.By classifying examples. B.By doing experiments.

C.By studying previous theories. D.By analyzing abundant data.

4.What's the best title for the text?

A.Sitting Has Various Effects on Eating

B.Posture Affects How People Enjoy Food

C.Eating While Standing Helps to Lose Weight

D.Sitting and Standing Are Common Postures

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

请根据以下提示，并结合事例，用英语写一篇短文。

We can go as far as we think. The great minds, more often than not, think more and have more aggressive ideas of their life than ordinary people.

注意：

①无须写标题；

②除诗歌外，文体不限；

③文中不得透漏个人姓名和学校名称;

④词数为120左右，如引用提示语则不计入总词数。

高三英语书面表达中等难度题查看答案及解析

What does the man think of the cereal?

A.It is too sweet. B.It tastes delicious. C.It needs more sugar.

高三英语短对话中等难度题查看答案及解析

With the development of society, the choice of food and drinks for children is more diversified than ever before. However, every coin has two sides. Many facts suggest that children are overweight and the situation is getting worse, according to the statistics. I feel there are a number of reasons for this.

Some people blame the fact that we are surrounded by shops selling unhealthy, fatty foods, such as fried chicken and ice cream, at low prices. This has turned out a whole generation of grown-ups who seldom cook a meal for themselves. If there were fewer of these restaurants then probably children would buy less take-away food.

There is another argument that blames parents for allowing their children to become overweight. I agree to this, because good eating habits begin early in life, long before children start to visit fast food shops. If children are given fried chicken and chocolate rather than healthy food, or are always allowed to choose what they eat, they will go for sweet and salty foods every time, and this will carry on throughout their lives.

There is a third reason for this situation. Children these days take very little exercise. They do not walk to school. When they get home, they sit in front of the television or their computers. Not only is this an unhealthy pastime（消遣）, it also gives them time to eat more unhealthy food. What they need is to go outside and play active games or sports.

The above are the main reasons for this problem, and therefore we have to encourage young people to be more active, as well as guiding them away from fast food shops and bad eating habits.

1.What is suggested by the author to deal with “overweight”?

A. Blaming the shops selling unhealthy and fatty foods.

B. Asking young children to walk to school every day.

C. Living an active life and removing bad eating habits.

D. Not watching TV or playing computer games after school.

2.Which of the following shows the structure of the whole text?

3.The author writes the passage to ______________

A. show people a social problem　　　　　　　 B. provide facts for government

C. advise solutions to a problem　　　　　　　　 D. compare opinions with people

4.The underlined word “diversified” in the first paragraph most probably means ________.

A. various　　　　 B. difficult　　　　　　 C. expensive　　　　　　 D. available

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

More often than not, the enterprise around us are getting even richer, ________ recipe is don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

A.of which B.which

C.whose D.of whom

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

More often than not, the enterprise around us are getting even richer, ________ recipe is don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

A. of which　　 B. which

C. whose　　 D. of whom

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

You may think, salt is just a simple cooking element we shake on our food for a little extra taste. But salt is much more than that. Without salt our muscles would not move. Our nervous systems would not operate. Our hearts would not beat.

But do not think rubbing salt in a wound will help. Doing that would be painful and not heal the wound. To rub salt in a wound is an idiom that means to purposefully make a bad situation worse.

Early humans got the salt they needed to stay alive from the animals they killed. But advances in agriculture led to a diet low in salt. So, humans needed to find other sources. Those who lived near the ocean or other natural sources for salt were lucky. Those who did not had to trade for salt. In fact, people used salt as a method of payment in many parts of the ancient world. The word "salary" comes from the word "salt".

Salt also played an important part in population movement and world exploration. Explorers understood that if they could keep food fresh，they could travel longer distances. So they used salt to preserve food and explored the world.

Salt was so important that, according to food historians. it was traded pound-for-pound for gold. Today, people still use the expressions "to be worth one's salt" or "worth one's weight in salt". The expressions describe a person of value.

A person might also be called salt of the earth. That description means he or she is dependable and trustworthy. However, when you say "I think we should take what he said with a grain of salt" you mean you accept it but maintain a degree of doubt about its truth.

1.What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A. Salt plays an important part in our life.

B. Salt makes food tasty.

C. Salt is considered to be part of our muscles.

D. Salt is sure to damage nervous systems.

2.A beggar's bread was stolen last night.，which means 　　　　 .

A. salt of the earth　　　　　　　　　　 B. rubbing salt in a wound

C. a diet low in salt　　　　　　　　　　 D. worth his salt

3.If you describe a person as a great help, you mean　　　　　　　　 .

A. he is called salt of the earth

B. he is often taken as a grain of salt

C. he often uses salt to preserve meat

D. he is worth his weight in salt

4.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A. Salt Is More Than a Four-letter Word.

B. Salt Is a Basic Element in Cooking.

C. Salt Is a Word with a Long History.

D. Salt Is Popular with Different Persons.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

I have finished a large part of the book, the rest of which___ more difficult.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

We know more about the surface of the planet Mars than we know about what is at the bottom of Earth’s oceans.

Until recently, scientists had mapped only about 20 percent of the sea floor. But our knowledge of the deep seas is changing because of information from satellites. Scientists have produced a new map that provides a detailed picture of the oceans. The map is expected to help oceanographers, industry and governments.

The new map is twice as detailed as the map made 20 years ago. David Sandwell is a geophysics professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California. He and other scientists worked on the mapping project. He says they turned to space to look deeper into the ocean. He spoke to VOA on SKYPE.

“The way we’re doing that is to use a satellite altimeter (高度计), a radar to map the topography (地貌) of the ocean surface. Now that seems sort of strange that you’d map the topography of the ocean surface when you really want to get at the sea floor. But, the ocean surface topography has these bumps and dips due to gravitational effects that mimic what’s on the sea floor.”

The scientists collected and studied information from two satellites. Some of the data came from the European Space Agency’s Cryo-2 satellite. It was placed in Earth’s orbit to watch sea ice. The other satellite is the American space agency’s Jason-1. It is studying the surface of the oceans. Scientists combined the satellite data with images gathered by sonar ( 声呐：利用声波探测水下物体的装置或系统) equipment on ships. Sonar works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed.

“That enables us to look at smaller-scale features and also features that are buried by sediments in the ocean basins.”

The new map shows the sea floor as it has never been seen before. It shows thousands of underwater mountains and places where continents pulled apart. It shows where earthquakes were active many years ago. They all are buried deep underneath the ocean floor.

In one place, three mountain ridges join at the same area. Huge tectonic (构造的) plates can be seen clearly there.

1.The passage is likely to _____.

A. be an advertisement　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. appear on VOA

C. make a comment on radar　　　　　　　　　　 D. appear on SKYPE

2.What will be mentioned in the following paragraph, according to the last paragraph? _____.

A. The detailed information about the place.

B. The more important thing in the ocean.

C. The things buried in the ocean.

D. Scientists told SKYPE they will explore at the same area.

3.Scientists collected and studied information by _____.

A. the European Space Agency’s Cryo-2 satellite

B. the American space agency’s Jason-1

C. sonar equipment on ships

D. the Cryo-2 and the Jason-1

4. What’s the best title of the passage? _____.

A. Scientists Create New Maps of Ocean Floor

B. Scientists Knows More Oceans Than Mars

C. Oceans Will Provide Us With Maps

D. People Knows Easily About Mars

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

The United States is not part of the Kyoto Protocol.But since 2005 more than 1,000 mayors across the country have agreed to sign their own version of the protocol.

It is called the United States Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.Local leaders have agreed to follow the suggestions of the Kyoto Protocol in their communities.They have also agreed to urge state and federal governments to follow these suggestions.One goal is to reduce air pollution to the 1990 levels by 2012.

A “green” city might work on several kinds of environmental goals and programs.These include air quality，reducing electricity use, green building, public health, the reuse of materials, water quality and clean transportation.

The Natural Resources Defense Council works to protect the environment through action, law and science.One of its online projects is called Smarter Cities, which lists some cities that have made important environmental steps.

Washington，D.C.is also a leading city for green roofs，with over 92,000 square meters of green rooftops.The city also launched a program called “Skip the Bag，Save the River.”Stores charge people a five­cent　 tax for using plastic or paper shopping bags instead of reusable bags.Money from the tax will be used to clean up a local river.

New York City is using water as a renewable energy source.For several years, the city has experimented with water in the East River to create energy.Officials operating the program recently asked for permission to put into place 30 river turbine devices.

The people of Portland, Oregon are among the top recyclers in the nation.People living there recycle over half of the waste they throw out.The city has also worked to provide green transportation by providing safe bike paths and free parking spaces where electric cars can get recharged.

In Oakland, California, you can ride on one of several public hydrogen­powered(氢气作燃料的) buses.These buses release zero pollution into the air.However，they cost about five times more than common buses.

1.The United States Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement is aimed at________.

A．reducing energy use

B．reducing air pollution

C．improving public health

D．reusing waste materials

2.Why are shoppers charged a five­cent tax for buying shopping bags?

A．To clean a local lake that has been polluted.

B．To get enough money for the green roof project.

C．To prevent shoppers from using reusable bags.

D．To collect money for an environmental project.

3.New York City is cited as an example of________.

A．building green rooftops

B．making transportation clean

C．being good at recycling waste

D．using renewable energy source

4.Which of the following cities encourage citizens to use bicycles?

A．Washington，D.C.　    B．New York.

C．Portland.　    D．Oakland.

5.One obvious disadvantage of adopting hydrogen­powered buses is________.

A．its high cost　    B．side effect

C．zero pollution　    D．large space

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析