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Older adults with a better sense of smell may live longer than those who have a poor sense of smell, a new study suggests. The study was a project of researchers in the United States that was ongoing for over 13 years. They asked nearly 2,300 men and women to identify 12 common smells. All the subjects were from 71 to 82 years of age. The researchers gave the adults scores, from 0 to as high as 12, based on how many smells they identified correctly.
During the years of follow-up investigation, over 1,200 of the subjects died. When the study was launched, none of the adults were weak. They could walk a little under half a kilometer, climb 10 steps and independently complete daily activities. In the latest findings, the researchers noted that those with a weak nose were 30 percent more likely to die than people with a good sense of smell. The findings were reported last month in the scientific publication Annals of Internal Medicine.
Honglei Chen, a doctor with Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was the lead writer of a report on the study. He said the connection between a poor sense of smell and an increased risk of dying was limited to adults who first reported good-to-excellent health. This suggests that a poor sense of smell is an early and sensitive sign for worsening health before it is recognizable in medical tests. With a poor sense of smell, people are more likely to die of brain and heart diseases, but not of cancer or breathing disorders.
The results also suggest that a poor sense of smell may be an early warning for poor health in older age that goes beyond dementia or other neurodegenerative(神经变性的) diseases. These often signal the beginning of a weakening of the mind or body.
1.What do you know about the study mentioned?
A.The study involved researchers from the world.
B.All the participants were of different ages.
C.The study began to be performed about 13 years ago.
D.2 ,300 men and women were young and healthy.
2.What was the situation like at the beginning of the study?
A.More than 1,200 of the participants passed away.
B.Many of the subjects were found with health problems.
C.All the subjects were independent of others when walking.
D.One third of the participants had a poor smell sense.
3.What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?
A.People with a poor sense of smell have heart disease.
B.You should be careful with your health if you smell poorly.
C.People with a poor sense of smell won't suffer from cancer.
D.Most of the elder people may have the dementia disease.
4.Which is the best title for the passage?
A.Strong Sense of Smell May Be Linked to Longer Life
B.Old People Tend to Have a Poor Sense of Smell
C.A Number of Factors Result in Longer Life
D.Being Ill Means Losing the Sense of Smell
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Adult butterflies use their senses of sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste to survive in the world, find food and mates, lay eggs in an appropriate place, migrate, and avoid hungry predators.
Sight
Butterflies have large, compound (multifaceted) eyes, which allow them to see in all directions without turning their heads. Like most insects, butterflies are very nearsighted, so they are more attracted to a large stand of flowers rather than individual plants. Butterflies do not "see" colors such as red, green, and yellow, but sense polarized（偏振的） light, which indicates the direction the sun is shining, as well as ultraviolet light, which is present on many flowers and guides butterflies to nectar （花蜜）sources.
Smell
Butterflies have a very well-developed sense of smell, but it's not in their nose (since they don't have one). Sense receptors located in their antennae, feet, and many other parts of the body help butterflies find food (usually flower nectar), and mates (the female smells the male's pheromones).
Taste
Butterfly's feet have sense organs that can taste the sugar in nectar, letting the butterfly know if something is good to eat or not. Some females also taste host plants in order to find appropriate places to lay their eggs. Adult butterflies and moths feed using a proboscis, a long, coiled tube. Butterflies force blood into the tube to straighten it out, allowing them to feed. Butterflies get all their food from this tube.
Hearing
Butterflies don't have ears. Instead they "hear" sounds through their wings by sensing changes in sound vibrations.
Butterflies may possess senses we don't even know about yet because their anatomy is very different than ours, and therefore difficult to understand when perceived through our own human senses.
1.From the passage we can know that butterflies can see_____
A. thing behind them B. thing in the distance
C. most bright colors D. flower nectar from a distance
2. Butterflies can easily find food resources by using their______.
A. sense organs of sight and smell B. sense organs of sight and taste
C. sense organs of smell and hearing D. sense organs of smell and taste
3. How do butterflies feed themselves?
A. by using their feet B. by using a tube.
C. by using sense receptors D. by using their wings.
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. The food sources of butterflies. B. The habits of butterflies.
C. The unusual body of butterflies. D. the sense of butterflies.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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A report says older adults who test their minds with increasingly difficult projects have better mental ability than those who do less demanding activities.
To keep our brains sharp as we age, we are often told to keep our minds active. As the old saying goes, “Use it or lose it.” But, there is very little scientific evidence to support than.
Denise Park is head of the university’s Center for ? Vital Longevity. She designed a study in which she and her tern placed 221 healthy aging and older adults into one of three groups.
“We asked people to learn new things, like quilting or photography. We asked other people to just do fun things like being in a social group function but were not likely to have a very large effect.”
The subjects took part in their assigned activities for 15 hours a week over three months. At the end of that time, the researchers found that the adults who learned new skills, such as digital photography, showed the greatest improvements on memory tests.
No improvements were seen in the results of those in the social group that did activities together like going on field trips. There were also no improvements among the third group that listened to classical music or did crossword puzzles.
Denise Park believes one reason for improved memory in the active learning group is that its members were being pushed to learn new skills. The other groups took part in what she call receptive activities. Learning new skills may not cure age-related mental decline. But, Ms. Park thinks being mentally active slows down the process.
Denise Park says the latest information shows that the improvements lasted for at least a year. She and her team plan to do longer follow-up studies with all three groups. She also is interested in learning whether taking part in demanding mental activities delays the development of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
1.What may the social group be asked to do?
A. Learn to take photos.
B. Listen to music at home.
C. Go hiking together.
D. Do the dishes.
2.What did Denise Park and her team find?
A. Doing more exercise can help slow down our age-related mental decline.
B. Having a relaxing life is beneficial to keeping our minds sharp.
C. Keeping our minds active is associated with our health.
D. Learning new skills may help to keep our minds active.
3.If you want to keep your brain sharp you could_______.
A. go swimming with your friends.
B. play chess with your family.
C. learn how to repair the computer.
D. do crossword puzzles online
4.The text is likely to be selected from a book of______.
A. medicine B. education
C. aging D. science
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Hard as it may be____ that Kobe is no longer with us, his unbreakable will lives on.
A.accepting B.accepted C.to accept D.to have accepted
高三英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析
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Older people with hearing loss may suffer faster rates of mental decline. People who have hearing trouble suffered meaningful impairments in memory, attention and learning about three years earlier than people with normal hearing, a study published online January 21 in JAMA Internal Medicine reveals.
The finding supports the idea that hearing loss can have serious consequences for the brain，says Patricia Tun of Brandeis University in Waltham，Mass., who studies aging. “I'm hoping it will be a real wake-up call in terms of realizing the importance of hearing. ”
Compared with other senses, hearing is often overlooked, Tun says. “We are made to interact with language and to listen to each other, and it can have damaging effects if we don't.”
Frank Lin of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and colleagues tested the hearing of 1,984 older adults. Most of the participants, who averaged 77 years old, showed some hearing loss — 1,162 volunteers had trouble hearing noises of less than 25 decibels, comparable to a whisper or rustling leaves. The volunteers; deficits reflect the hearing loss in the general population: Over half of people older than 70 have trouble hearing.
Over the next six years, these participants underwent mental evaluations that measured factors such as short-term memory, attention and the ability to quickly match numbers to symbols. Everybody got worse at the tasks as time wore on, but people with hearing loss had an especially sharp decline, the team found. On average, a substantial drop in performance would come about three years earlier to people with hearing loss.
Lin cautions that the study has found an association between hearing loss and mental abilities; the researchers can't conclude that hearing loss directly causes the decline. Yet more and more studies are turning up ways that diminished hearing could damage the brain.
A person who can't hear well might avoid social situations, and isolation(孤立)is known to be bad for the brain. “You gradually become more socially withdrawn, ” Lin says. “Social isolation is a major, major factor for dementia(痴呆)and cognitive decline. ”
Other studies suggest that when people struggle to interpret and decode(译解）words, their brains divert energy away from other tasks, such as memory. Audiologist and psychologist Kathy Pichora — Fuller says that this brain drain happens to everyone, even people without hearing loss. Studies have shown that people are worse at remembering things when they're in a noisy room, for instance. People with hearing loss may be constantly diverting a large swath(—大片)of their brainpower，leaving less for other mental tasks, says Pichora— Fuller, of the University of Toronto Mississauga.
1. Mass does the research to _____ .
A. present the mental decline
B. attach importance to hearing
C. compare hearing with other senses
D. exaggerate the damaging effects
2.What is paragraph 4 mainly about?
A. The outcome of the test.
B. The design of the test
C. The participants of the test.
D. The purpose of the test.
3.Dementia and cognitive decline mainly result from ____ .
A. social isolation B. hearing loss
C. memory loss D. speech impairment
4.The underlined word “divert” probably means _____ .
A. block B. accumulate C. shift D. change
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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—What do you think of the blind man?
—I've never seen a man with_________sense of touch．
A．the better
B．a better
C．a good
D．the best
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
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Happiness through Honorable Actions
Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self-respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as “honor” help you create this life of good feelings.
Here is an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk’s mistake, we would drive home with a sense of mean excitement. Later we might tell our family of friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don’t tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk’s attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it’s easy to think and act honorably again when we’re happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it’s started, it’s easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
1. According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our ______.
A. self-respect B. financial rewards
C. advertising ability D. friendly relationship
2.The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to ______.
A. lying B. stealing C. cheating D. advertising
3.The underlined phrase “bringing the error to the clerk’s attention” means ______.
A. offering advice to the clerk B. telling the truth to the clerk
C. asking the clerk to be more attentive D. reminding the clerk of the charged item
4.How does the positive cycle work according to the author?
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Living near the beach may come with an extra perk (利益): better health. A new study analyzed information from more than 48 million people in England and found that the nearer they lived to the coast, the more likely people were to report good health within the past year.
Living near the coast may be associated with better health because the seaside environment reduces stress, the researchers said. They pointed to another British study that found that people who took trips to the coast experienced more feelings of calmness and relaxation than those who visited urban parks or the countryside.
The difference from living near the coast was relatively small. But a small effect, when applied to an entire population, can have a substantial impact on public health, said study researcher Ben Wheeler of Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Exeter, England.
However, it’s too soon to advise people to hit the beach to improve health, Wheeler said. The study only found an association, not a cause-effect link, and it’s possible that other factors could explain the results. For instance, it could be that people who are wealthier, and therefore healthier, are more able to move to desired locations such as the coast, Wheeler said, a phenomenon known as the migrant effect. But the study did find that the association between coastal living and better health was strongest for those living in the poorest areas, which perhaps indicates that wealth cannot explain the results, Wheeler said.
Because the study looked at only England—an island country in which everyone lives within 72 miles of the coast—it’s not clear whether the findings would apply to other populations. Far from England, a health expert not involved in the study said that while the British research certainly doesn’t prove that people’s health and the place they live are linked, it’s possible that proximity to the seas does something for our bodies.
If future studies confirm the results, the next step would be to find out it is what coastal environments that can benefit health. Wheeler said it may then be possible to bring those benefits to people living in other areas, through virtual environments, for instance.
1.We can conclude from the passage that ______.
A. people are encouraged to move to the coast
B. people living near the sea may be healthier.
C. people pay increasingly attention to health
D. people are worried about residential environment
2.According to the researchers, living near the sea ______.
A. doesn’t nearly affect the British population
B. can cure some difficult diseases in a way
C. can help get over one’s stress
D. means freeing from sadness or troubles
3.What Ben Wheeler said means ______.
A. the British public health is decreasing
B. concrete evidence favors life near the sea
C. wealthier people are likely to be healthier
D. exact reasons are proposed for further research
4.What does the underlined word “proximity” in the passage mean?
A. being close B. being distant
C. being similar D. being opposite
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self- respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as "honor" help you create this life of good feelings.
Here's an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk's mistake, we would drive home with a sense of sneaky excitement. Later we might tell our family or friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don't tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot lie trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk's attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it's easy to think and act honorably again when we're happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it's started, it's easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
1.According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our
A. self-respect B. financial rewards C. advertising ability D. friendly relationship
2.The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to___.
A. lying B. stealing C. cheating D. advertising
3.The phrase "bringing the error to the clerk's attention" (in para. 5) means___.
A. telling the truth to the clerk B. offering advice to the clerk
C. asking the clerk to be more attentive D. reminding the clerk of the charged item
4.How will we feel if we let the clerk know her mistake?
A. We'll be very excited. B. We'll feel unfortunate.
C. We'll have a sense of honor. D. We'll feel sorry for the clerk.
5.Which of the following can be the best title of this passage.*
A. How to Live Truthfully B. Importance of Peacefulness
C. Ways of Gaining Self-respect D. Happiness through Honorable Actions
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self- respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as "honor" help you create this life of good feelings.
Here's an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk's mistake, we would drive home with a sense of sneaky excitement. Later we might tell our family or friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don't tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk's attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it's easy to think and act honorably again when we're happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it's started, it's easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
1. According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our_________.
A. self-respect B. financial rewards
C. advertising ability D. friendly relationship
2.The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to___.
A. lying B. stealing
C. cheating D. advertising
3. The phrase "bringing the error to the clerk's attention" (in para. 5) means___.
A. telling the truth to the clerk
B. offering advice to the clerk
C. asking the clerk to be more attentive
D. reminding the clerk of the charged item
4. How will we feel if we let the clerk know her mistake?
A. We'll be very excited.
B. We'll feel unfortunate.
C. We'll have a sense of honor.
D. We'll feel sorry for the clerk.
5.Which of the following can be the best title of this passage.
A. How to Live Truthfully
B. Importance of Peacefulness
C. Ways of Gaining Self-respect
D. Happiness through Honorable Actions
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析