Make Your Brain Smarter
You know that eating a proper diet and getting plenty of exercise help make your body healthy and strong. But did you know that there are ways to make your brain healthier and smarter? Studies show that when the brain is forced to do something new, it creates new neural (神经的) pathways. 1.
● Limit your TV viewing.
Watching an average TV show requires very little brain power and brings the same result as neglecting (忽视) physical exercise. 2. If you watch TV, choose something educational and informative.
● Use your non-dominant (非支配的) hand.
If you are right-handed, use your left hand for everyday activities, or use your right hand if you are left-handed. Doing familiar things in a new way will cause your brain to create new neural networks. Brushing our teeth is something we do daily. 3. But maybe we should. Experts suggest that we can force the brain to work by changing things up and working with our non-dominant hand. So the next time you brush your teeth, open the tube, apply your toothpaste and brush with the opposite hand.
● 4.
Jump in the shower and shut your eyes. Even if you drop the soap—that’s okay. 5.Searching for the soap while feeling the textures (质地) with your eyes closed works. Using your fingers to make fine distinctions between objects or textures can reconnect the brain areas involved in touch, suggests Larry Katz, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center and author.
A. Shower with your eyes closed.
B. Smart people rarely follow a set pattern.
C. The more pathways you have, the smarter you will be.
D. Use your different senses.
E. We really don’t put that much thought into it.
F. Put your brain to best use.
G. Your brain will become weak just as your muscles do.
It’s official. Denmark—as well as being the world’s best country to live in for women with the second-happiest people and one of the best healthcare systems in Europe—has the most contented babies. Or, at least, the ones who cry the least. According to research published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Danish, German and Japanese babies cry the least, while British, Canadian and Italian babies cry the most.
“I’m not surprised,” Danish parenting expert and co-author of The Danish Way of Parenting Jessica Alexander tells me. “The first year of a child’s life is considered so important in Denmark. Danish parents are much less stressed because they get good maternity and paternity leave (孕产假). The atmosphere is much calmer and, if mothers are getting more time off, that goes hand in hand with less stress, more contact, more routines and less crying.” She pauses before throwing in a final tip: “Oh, and Danish babies sleep outdoors a lot.”
In Denmark, a woman is given four weeks pregnancy leave followed by 52 weeks of paid leave that can be shared between parents. And Alexander thinks there is another important reason why Danish babies cry less: breastfeeding. “It’s just the done thing in Denmark,” she says of a country that has the world’s highest breastfeeding rates. “In other countries, there are continual discussions about whether you should or shouldn’t breastfeed. In Denmark, breastfeeding has never gone out of style. And everyone does it for a year.”
For Iben Sandahl, Alexander’s co-author, it comes down to the Danish attitude to life in general. “We are an honest and pure people,” she tells me. “We are surrounded by social support and are less likely to become angry, sad or annoyed when our babies are crying. And we are good at embracing (拥抱) all kinds of feelings, so we aren’t scared. Instead, we try to connect with the babies when they cry. It’s how babies communicate and it’s about trying to understand it.”
1.Which of the following can make a baby cry less?
A. An effective healthcare system.
B. More company from a parent.
C. An energetic busy mother.
D. More chances to meet fellow babies.
2.It can be learned from the text that ________.
A. something in the milk from breastfeeding can keep babies happy
B. Demark is second to none in protecting its females’ rights
C. Danish parents’ attitudes to a baby’s first year vary considerably
D. breastfeeding is a common and accepted practice in Denmark
3.When babies cry, Danish parents will probably ________.
A. try to figure out what they want
B. put them outdoors for a good sleep
C. seek social support for guidance
D. wait a moment for them to calm down
It is made from grapes grown without pesticides (杀虫剂) and chemicals, is kind to the environment and rarely causes hangovers (酒后头痛). Sales of organic wine are booming in the UK.
According to the organic food and farming group Soil Association, sales of organic beers, wines and spirits rose by 14.3% last year to reach nearly £6 million, driven by the demand from consumers who are increasingly seeking “natural” food.
“It seems that people are rediscovering their link with the environment through organic food. Organic wines also taste better, perhaps due to less use of man-made chemicals.” said Finn Cottle of Soil Association. As well as the benefits of producing grapes without using pesticides, organic wine also contains less sulphur dioxide (二氧化硫), which can contribute towards hangovers.
Supermarkets are increasing supplies on their shelves to meet consumer demand, while the switch to online shopping has also helped, as people are more easily able to find what they are looking for. Vintage Roots is now one of the UK’s biggest online shops of organic wine, while Ocado provides more than 100 different organic wines and Daylesford, best-known for its organic vegetable boxes, has branched out into organic wine and spirits.
The discount supermarket Aldi is set to start its first collection of so-called “green” wines this week, offering eight wines with organic certificates. Aldi expects the wines to appeal to the young shoppers who are increasingly concerned about the environmental influence of the produce that they are buying and consuming.
English organic wine producer Oxney Estate’s Noir Rosé recently won the Waitrose prize for the most outstanding rosé wine at the competition. A spokeswoman for Waitrose said: “Organic wine is a growing trend globally and we have seen sales increase by 16% in the last year”.
1.Sales of organic wine are increasing probably because ________.
A. consumers are now more environmentally aware
B. it offers a very different taste from traditional wine
C. consumers are tired of hangovers after drinking
D. it contains no sulphur dioxide or pesticide
2.What’s the main idea of paragraph 4?
A. UK supermarkets welcome organic wine and spirits.
B. Online shopping promotes the sales of organic wine.
C. There’re not enough supplies of organic wine in the UK.
D. Supermarkets should go online to sell more wine.
3.“Waitrose” in the last paragraph is probably ________.
A. a wine producer B. an organic wine
C. a wine competition D. a news agency
4.The writing purpose of the text is to ________.
A. persuade readers to go green while drinking
B. compare organic wine and traditional wine
C. share with readers wines without hangovers
D. introduce a new consuming trend in the UK
On 29 May last year, I was doing my swim training for a half Ironman race in the bay near my home.
I was finishing my first loop (圈) when I felt jaws coming around my body and a sharp pain. The water was dark, so I couldn’t see anything. It just came out of nowhere and then it was gone in a flash. I knew it was something really big and assumed it was a shark. I panicked, but knew I needed to get out of the water. I was kicking wildly in case it came back. There was a lifeguard boat close by, so I waved my arms in the air and screamed for help. It got to me within 20 seconds. At that point I didn’t feel anything; adrenaline (肾上腺素) had taken over. The lifeguards held me under the arms and pulled me up out of the water. Then the pain kicked in and it was pretty hard to bear. Some muscle had been bitten off my right arm. I felt a lot of warm, gushing blood.
My chest felt heavy, as if someone had put their foot on it, and I was having trouble breathing. It was extremely painful. When I got to the hospital, I told the nurses to put me to sleep because of the pain. I just wanted them to fix me.
I woke up after surgery four hours later. My doctor was amazed when I managed to move my fingers: the bite just missed a major nerve. My right lung had been damaged; I had several broken bones and a nerve in my leg was cut, so I have reduced feeling at the top of my leg. The shark also bit through my upper back muscle.
Local experts determined that the shark was probably 9-10 feet long. It was young, about seven years old. It just attacked me, left and didn’t come back because it figured I wasn’t food.
1.The writer mentions Adrenaline in Paragraph 2 to ________.
A. explain why she didn’t feel pain at that time
B. offer a possible reason the shark attacked her
C. show how dangerous the situation was then
D. describe the suffering a shark bite could cause
2.The writer of the text can be best described as ________.
A. grateful B. confident
C. tough D. aggressive
3.Which of the following might be the best title for the text?
A. A Shark from Nowhere
B. Surviving a Shark Attack
C. A Race against Time
D. No Panic over Sharks at Sea
假如你是李华，你的英国笔友Issac曾表示希望来中国教书。你现在开办一家英文培训学校，招聘外籍教师。请给他写封信，告知招聘信息。内容主要包括：
1．教授课程：英语口语和写作；
2．授课对象：大学本科生；
3．工作量及报酬：每周12学时，一学时200元。
注意：1.词数100左右
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
3.开头语已为你写好，请将完整的内容与在答题卡上。
Dear Issac,
I remember you are interested in teaching in China.____________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best regards,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Children have their own rules in playing games. They seldom need the referee and rarely trouble to keeping scores. We don’t care much about two wins or loses, but it doesn’t seem to worry them if the game is not finished. Yet, they like games that depend a lot of on luck, so that their personal abilities cannot directly compared. They also enjoy games that move in stage, in which each stage, the choosing of leaders, the picking-up of sides, or the deciding of which side shall started, is almost a game itself. Grown-ups can hard find children’s games exciting, and they often feel puzzled at how their kids play such simple games again and again.
