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Did you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? The average women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain consists of “grey matter” and  “white matter”. While men have more of the latter, the amount of “thinking” brain is almost exactly the same in both sexes.

It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls tend to learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of information from different sources（来源）at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.

There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial (空间的) tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: Why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!

The differences begin when fetuses (胎儿) are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children as young as one. A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would attract help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.

If all this disappoints you, it shouldn’t. “The brain changes throughout our lives according to what we do with it,” says a biologist.

1.Which of the following is TRUE according to the first paragraph?

2.What can we infer from the second and third paragraphs?

3.Which of the following do you agree with according to the fourth paragraph?

4.What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?

Futurologists predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.

TV channels will have disappeared. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers, and books will come to us by computer.

Cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Space planes will take people halfway around the world in 2 hours. Today, the United States Space Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just 2 hours.

Robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots — they don’t ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere — in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.

Medical technology will have conquered many diseases. Today, there are devices（设备）that connect directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people to see and hear again.

Scientist will have discovered how to control genes（基因）. Scientists have already produced clones of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people, and decide how they look, how they behave and how clever they are. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?

1.We can learn from the passage that some big companies prefer robots to human workers, because human workers __________.

2.The underlined word “conquered” in Paragraph 5 most probably means ________.

3.It can be inferred from Paragraph 5 that _________.

4.What is the author’s attitude towards the cloning technology?

5.According to the passage, which of the following can be realized today?

Parent fans, both dads and mums, are shaming British football with their bad behaviour. Hundreds of junior soccer matches had to be abandoned last season because parent fans were swearing or even fighting on the touchline. At schools and clubs across the UK, hundreds of more matches also had to be called off for the same reason.

Reports tell of abuse at referees（裁判）, players and coaches and fight breaking out on the touchline.

Enough is enough    Peter Wright, a keen referee of junior soccer, finally hung up his boots last season. He decided to walk away for good. He said “Every week I have had to take abuse and I’ve had enough of it.”

“Parents’ behaviour is reducing many school teachers, referees, coaches and volunteers to despair.”

The kids are suffering    Jim Peter, a referee, said, “We are getting desperate and the kids are suffering.” He described the way spectators（观众）behave as abysmal and getting worse year by year. The big question is why so many parents shame their children in this way. Aggressive Behavior Contracts may have to be introduced to stop the violence and abuse. If not, the game will suffer.

Sign up to good conduct    Last season players and parents were made to sign a new good behavior contract. “If a parent breaks the contract, I take his or her child off the pitch and get him or her to explain why I have done so to the child,” said Marc Nash, Wallsend’s assistant leader.

“The next step is to ban both the parent and the child, but happily, so far this has not been necessary.”

1.A number of junior soccer matches were abandoned last season because       .

2.Who’s an assistant leader in the passage?

3.The underlined word “abysmal” in the passage means       .

I grew up in a house where the TV was seldom turned on and with one wall in my bedroom entirely lined with bookshelves, most of my childhood was spent on books I could get hold of. In fact, I grew up thinking of reading as natural as breathing and books unbelievably powerful in shaping perspectives（观点）by creating worlds we could step into, take part in and live in.

With this unshakable belief, I, at fourteen, decided to become a writer. Here too, reading became useful. Every writer starts off knowing that he has something to say, but being unable to find the right ways to say it. He has to find his own voice by reading widely and discovering which parts of the writers he agrees or disagrees with, or agrees with so strongly that it reshapes his own world. He cannot write without loving to read, because only through reading other people’s writing can one discover what works, what doesn’t and, in the end, together with lots of practice, what voice he has.

Now I am in college, and have come to realize how important it is to read fiction. As a law student, my reading is in fact limited to subject matter — the volume（量）of what I have to read for classes every week means there is little time to read anything else. Such reading made it all the clearer to me that I live in a very small part in this great place called life. Reading fiction reminds me that there is life beyond my own. It allows me to travel across the high seas and along the Silk Road, all from the comfort of my own armchair, to experience, though secondhand, exciting experiences that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to have in my lifetime.

1.What can be inferred about the author as a child?

2.The underlined word “voice” in the second paragraph most probably means _________.

3.What effect does reading have on the author?

4.Which of the following can be the best title of this text?

It is well known that Einstein was the father of the famous Theory of Relativity. But do you know it owes a great deal to Marits, Einstein’s former wife?

In 1896, 17-year-old Einstein went to Zurich to study physics. There he met a girl from Hungary. They studied in the same class. The same interest brought the two together and the young man fell in love with Marits. In 1903, when Einstein was 24 years old, he married Marits, who was 4 years older than he.

After their marriage, Einstein devoted himself to the research of the great theory. To give her husband more help, Marits gave up her own work, and became a good wife and assistant. She tried her best to encourage him whenever possible and she was sure that her husband would succeed. They often discussed the theory while walking outside or sitting together in the room. They even discussed it in their letters when one of them was away from home.

In 1914, the Einstein moved to Berlin and settled there. At that time, Einstein’s theory proved to be correct and he had become famous all over the world. Marits was very proud of him and his success. But it was not long before the First World War broke out. Marits as well as her two sons, who were all on holidays in Switzerland, couldn’t come back to Berlin. The war not only stopped Einstein’s work but broke up the warm, happy family. In 1919, Einstein and Marits had to get divorced.

Einstein himself, however, later said that Marits was really an outstanding woman.

1.From the first paragraph, we can infer that the passage is mostly about __________.

2.Einstein fell in love with Marits mainly because they ________.

3.By the year of 1914, Einstein had _________________.

4.Einstein and Marits got divorced because ________________.