We humans spend about one-third of life asleep. Sleep helps us stay healthy, and it also helps our brain remember. Our brains need good sleep to remember what we do and learn during the other two thirds of our life when we are awake. Besides keeping us healthy, some new research shows that a good night’s sleep helps make us more intelligent.
Researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that sleep helps improve brain performance by shrinking synapses in the brain. A synapse is the area where cells pass messages to other cells.
Cirelli is a leading scientist at the school’s Center for Sleep and Consciousness. She found that sleep is when the human brain mixes information it has learned while awake into its general collection of knowledge. However, the brain forgets unimportant details. This forgetting is important. It makes space for new learning and new memories.
Cirelli said that the Center’s research began with this hypothesis: We sleep so that our brain can repair and refresh itself. She said the idea seems simple and reasonable. However, testing and discovering how it works has been extremely difficult. Cirelli and Center director Giulio Tononi have been trying to prove the connection between sleep and the brain’s synapses since 2003. Cirelli said the researchers knew that “stronger synapses are also bigger.” So, they began their study by “measuring the size of the synapses” in the brain.
They also knew that during sleep, the brain checks on all its synapses and resets itself for the next day. The team wanted to see if the synapses of the brain are bigger after being awake all day and smaller after a good night’s sleep. Synapses are only about 20-40 nanometers wide. So, the team looked for changes in these already tiny spaces between nerve cells. The team had lo wail until improvements in laboratory technology made it possible to see these tiny changes.
Cirelli says they found that synapse size and strength are upset by being awake and restored by sleeping. She says our synapses shrink as our brains clean themselves during sleep. We wake up refreshed and ready to fill those synapses with new information.
1.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Sleep can only keep us healthy.
B. Sleep can help our brain function better.
C. Sleep can mix all the information.
D. Sleep can take up two-thirds of our life.
2.What does it refer to in Paragraph 4?
A. The measuring the size of the synapses.
B. The space for new learning and new memories.
C. The way our brain can repair and refresh itself.
D. The connection between sleep and the brain’s synapses.
Life is not always easy. One day you wake up feeling like you can take over the world, and the next day you wake up feeling like all you want to do is to lie in bed and hide from everything.
People walk into your life, grab your hand, and lead you through the most beautiful path you’ve known, but sometimes the same people let go of your hand without warning, and you become stranded at a place where you never thought you’d feel lost.
Let’s be honest, sometimes everything is going so great and it seems like nothing could go wrong, but right when you begin to think that, something so horrible comes crashing down and all of a sudden more problems come drowning around you and you just feel so hopeless because it’s so bad…
It’s so hard to understand why such things happen in life, and I personally wish I had an answer to that “why” you always ask yourself, but all I can say is no matter how hard life gets, you have to keep going. The life around you will never stop going on.
I’ll be honest and say that sometimes I feel a little bit worried and all I can think is “Will I be able to keep up? What if everything goes too fast?” But I realize that being scared and living with that burden of running away from problems only slow me down even more.
And I’ve come to the point where I believe that because life never stops, I shouldn’t stop either. It’s okay to take a break and to give yourself time to heal, but you cannot give up and you cannot quit.
Keep positive, fill your heart with gratitude for what you already have, and always remind yourself to be humble and true to who you are!
1.How does the author illustrate “Life is not always easy”?
A. By making comparisons B. By using some famous sayings
C. By presenting his own experience D. By listing statistics
2.According to the author, it is to try running away from problems.
A. pointless B. reasonable
C. helpful D. considerate
3.Which saying can exhibit the author’s attitude towards life?
A. Save against a rainy day.
B. Constant dripping wears away the stone.
C. A good medicine tastes bitter.
D. Think it over before you leap.
假定你是李华，贵校在学生中征集意见，询问学生是否赞成开设iPad课堂（iPad classrooms)。你支持开设iPad课堂。请给校长写一封建议信，要点如下：
1.资源丰富；
2.促进交流；
3.利于环保；
4.其他理由。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Headmaster,
We have been asked about our opinions on opening iPad classrooms.
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Li Hua
Today is Sunday. I’ve been in Canada for two months. This is the first time that I’ve been away my family for such a long time. With the help of Katia, a roommate of me, I’ve soon got used to live without my parents around. Katia, like many other Russian girls, are nice and lively. We became friends shortly after we meet each other. Although her English is a little hardly to understand, we enjoy chatting and we usually talk a lot about our own family. We’re both surprised that Chinese culture or Russian culture are so different. Now we are planning a small party for the next Sunday. There, Katia will introduce me to some of her friends, one of who has been to China several times. I just can’t wait.
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。错误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：在错的词下划一横线，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。
There was a rich man who carried many treasures to look into happiness. But after a long march, he fails to find happiness. Annoyed, he sat by a path of the mountain while a farmer carrying a large bunch of firewood came down from the mountain. The rich man said, “I’m a wealth man. Can you tell me that why I’m unhappy?” The farmer put down the heavy firewood, wiped the sweat pleasant and said, “Happiness is very simple: put down and you’ll be happy!” The rich man inspired suddenly. Anxious and tiring all day, he carried that heavy jewelry, afraid of being robbed or murdered. How could you be happy? So the rich man helped the poor with jewelry and money, doing some good deed. He enjoyed the taste of happiness.
Visiting the city when you are six months pregnant and have a two-year-old girl can be really 1. (challenge). One spring afternoon, we went to one of the grocery stores nearby to buy some food for dinner. There was no sign of rain, and the store was just around the comer, so we went there 2. an umbrella. However, we were about to leave the store 3. the rain came in full force. It seemed that the streets would be flooded 4. water within minutes.
I noticed a young Chinese couple staring at 5. (we) when we came to a crossroads and were waiting for the light to change. I figured they were probably wondering 6. a pregnant foreigner was dragging her little kid out through the rain. But as we crossed the street,7. woman offered me her umbrella. I told her I couldn’t take it when it was clearly starting to storm. She insisted,8. (hand) it to me and hurried off with her husband.
Though caught in the rain 9. (expect), we still treasured the memory and will always recall the 10. (friend) and kindness of the Chinese couple.
