C. concerned about social welfare
D. happy at school Passage 4
In the United States, 30 percent of the adult population has a ―weight problem‖. To many people, the cause is obvious: they eat too much. But scientific evidence does little to support this idea. Going back to the America of the 1910s, we find that people were thinner than today, yet they ate more food. In those days people worked harder physically, walked more, used machines much less and didn‘t watch television. Several modern studies, moreover, have shown that fatter people do not eat more on the average than thinner people. In fact, some investigations, such as the 1979 study of 3,545 London office workers, report that, on balance, fat people eat less than slimmer people.
Studies show that slim people are more active than fat people. A study by a research group at Stanford University School of Medicine found the following interesting facts:
The more the men ran, the more body fat they lost.
The more they ran, the greater amount of food they ate.
Thus, those who ran the most ate the most, yet lost the greatest amount of body fat.
16. The physical problem that many adult Americans have is that ________.
A. they are too slim B. they work too hard
C. they are too fat D. they lose too much body fat
17． According to the article, given 500 adult Americans, _______ people will have a “weight problem.”
A. 30 B. 50 C. 100 D. 150
18. Is there any scientific evidence to support that eating too much is the cause of a ― weight problem?‖
A. Yes, there is plenty of evidence.
B. Of course, there is some evidence to show this is true.
C. There is hardly any scientific evidence to support this.
D. We don‘t know because the information is not given.
19. In comparison with the adult American population today, the Americans of the 1910s_______.
A. ate more food and had more physical activities
B. ate less food but had more activities
C. ate less food and had less physical exercise
D. had more weight problems
20. Modern scientific researches have reported to us that ________.
A. fat people eat less food and are less active
B. fat people eat more food than slim people and are more active
C. fat people eat more food than slim people but are less active
D. thin people run less, but have greater increase in food intake
Passage 5
By adopting a few simple techniques, parents who read to their children can greatly increase their children‘s language development. It is surprising but true. How parents talk to their children makes a big difference in the children‘s language development. If a parent encourages the child to actively respond to what the parent is reading, the child‘s language skills increase.
A study was done with 30 three-year-old children and their parents. Half of the children participated in the experimental study; the other half acted as the control group. In the experimental group, the parents were given a two-hour training session in which they were taught to ask open-ended questions rather than yes-or-no questions. For example, the parent should ask, ―What is the doggie doing?‖ rather than ―Is the doggie running away?‖ The parents in the experimental group were also instructed in how to help children find answers, how to suggest alternative possibilities and how to praise correct answers.
At the beginning of the study, the children did not differ in measures of language development, but at the end of one month, the children in the experimental group showed 5. 5 months ahead of the
control group on a test of verbal expression and vocabulary. Nine months later, the children in the experimental group still showed an advance of 6 months over the children in the control group.
21. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. Children who talk a lot are more intelligent.
B. Parents who listen to their children can teach them more.
C. Active children should read more and be given more attention. D. Verbal ability can easily be developed with proper methods.
22. What does ―it‖ in line 2 can most probably be replaced by?
A. Parents increasing children‘s language development
B. Reading techniques being simple
C. Parents reading to children
D. Children‘s intelligence development
23. According to the author, which of the following questions is the best type to ask children about?
A. Do you see the elephant? B. Is the elephant in the cage?
C. What animals do you like? D. Shall we go to the zoo?
24. The difference between the control group and the experimental group was _______.
A. the training that parents received
B. the age of the children
C. the books that were read
D. the number of the children
25. The best conclusion we can draw from the passage is that _______.
A. parents should be trained to read to their children
B. the more children read, the more intelligent they will become
C. children‘s language skills increase when they are required to respond actively
D. children who read actively seem six months older Passage 6
The agriculture revolution in the nineteenth century involved two things: the invention of labor-saving machinery and the development of scientific agriculture. Labor-saving machinery naturally appeared first where labor was scarce. ―In Europe‖, said Thomas Jefferson, ―the object is to make the most of their land, labor being sufficient; here it is to make the most of our labor, land being abundant.‖ It was in America, therefore, that the great advances in nineteenth century agricultural machinery first came. At the opening of the century, with the exception of a crude (粗糙的) plow, farmers could have carried practically all of the existing agricultural tools on their backs. By 1860, most of the machinery in use today had been designed in an early form. The most important of the early inventions was the iron plow. As early as 1890 Charles Newbolt of New Jersey had been working on the idea of a cast-iron plow and spent his entire fortune in introducing his invention. The farmers, However, would home none of it, claiming that the iron poisoned the soil and made the weeds grow. Nevertheless, many people devoted their attention to the plow, until in 1869,James Oliver of South Bend, Indiana, turned out the first chilled steel plow.
26. The word ―here‖(Para,1,Line 5) refers to ______.
A. Europe B. America C. New Jersey D. Indiana
27. Which of the following statement is NOT true?
A. The need for labor helped the invention of machinery in America
B. The farmer rejected Charles Newbolt‘s plow for fear of ruin of their fields.
C. Both Europe and America had great need for farm machinery .
D. It was in Indiana that the first chilled-steel plow was produced.
28. The passage is mainly about _____.
A. the agriculture revolution
B. the invention of labor –saving machinery
C. the development of scientific agriculture
D. the farming machinery in America
29. At the opening of the nineteenth century, farmers in America_____.
A. preferred light tools
B. were extremely self-reliant(自给的)
C. had many tools
D. had very few tools
30. It is implied but not stated in the passage that_____.
A. there was a shortage of workers on American farms
B. the most important of the early invention was the iron plow
C. after 1869, many people devoted their attention to the plow
D. Charles Newbolt had made a fortune by his cast-iron plow Passage 7
Human needs seem endless. When a hungry man gets a meal, he begins to think about an overcoat, when a manager gets a new sports car, a big house and pleasure boats dance into view.
The many needs of mankind might be regarded as making up several levels. When there is money enough to satisfy one level of needs, another level appears.