阅读理解训练（17）
A
Taking exams in a large group setting can be stressful for students and for the staff members who are watching over them. When classrooms are crowded and desks are close together, cheating might be tempting.One university in Thailand came up with an anti-cheating hat that makes it almost impossible for students to see other students’ papers. A photo of the students wearing the anti-cheating hats made its way to the internet, and the university was criticized for making students wear those ridiculous looking homemade hats. The hats were made by stapling two pieces of paper onto a headband, one to each side of the head.
After being criticized, senior academic staff at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand, released a statement saying that the hats idea came from students. They said that in a bid to prevent cheating they asked the students for ideas on how to prevent cheating in the upcoming exam, which was being taken by almost one hundred students. Students came up with different ideas, then the paper hat idea was selected by them as the most fit. The university claims that no-one was forced to use the hat, but they all chose to do so. “When wearing the hat during the exam, students felt more relaxed,” Nattadon Rungruangkitkrai, a lecturer at the university said.“It was not meant to indicate that Kasetsart students often cheat on exams. I apologize if the photo makes other people look at my students in a negative way,’ Rungruangkitkrai added.
1. Why was the university criticized on the Internet?
A．The homemade anti-cheating hat looked too simple.
B．Wearing the anti-cheating hat made students look ridiculous.
C．Wearing the anti-cheating hats couldn’t prevent students from cheating in the exam.
D．The university forced students to wear the anti-cheating hat.
2. What’s most of the Kasetsart University students’ attitude towards the cheating hat?
A. skeptical
B. supportive
C. objective
D. negative
3. It can be inferred from the passage that_______.
A. It’s useless wearing the anti-cheating hat in the exam.
B. Kasetsart students are often caught cheating in the exam.
C. Wearing the anti-cheating hat is effective in some degree.
D. Some students are forced to wear the anti-cheating hat.
参考答案1-3 BBC
B
We know that sugary sodas aren’t good for our bodies. Now it turns out that they may not be good for our minds, either. A new study of more than 260,000 people has found a link between sweetened soft-drinks and depression, and diet sodas may be making matters worse.
Americans drink far more sodas than people in other countries— as much as 170 liters per person per year. But the impact of this study isn’t limited to the United States. “Sweetened drinks, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical consequences. And they may have important mental-health consequences as well,” study author Dr Honglei Chen said in a statement.
The study studied 263,925 people between the ages of 50 and 71. Researchers followed their consumption of drinks like soda, tea coffee, and other soft drinks from 1995 to 1996 and then. 10 years later, asked them if they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000. More than 11,3000 of them had.
Participants who drank more than four servings of sodas per day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than participants who did not drink sodas at all. People who stuck with fruit punch(鸡尾酒), had a 38 percent higher risk than people who didn’t drink sweetened drinks. And all that extra sugar isn’t the actual problem. Researchers say that the artificial sweetener aspartame may be to blame.
The study found a link but could not surely determine whether sodas and other sweet soft drinks cause depression. Still, the results “are consistent with a small but growing body of evidence suggesting that artificially sweetened beverages may be linked to poor health outcomes.”
But there’s a bright side for those who can’t live without their daily sodas. Adults who drank coffee had a 10 percent lower risk of depression compared to people who didn’t drink any coffee, according to the study. “Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk,” said Chen.
4．What has the new study of more than 260,000 people found?
A. Sugary sodas aren’t good for the physical health of old people.
B. Americans have a special tooth for sweet foods.
C. Sweetened soft-drinks may increase the risk of depression.
D. Sweetened soft-drinks have important physical consequences.
5．What do we know about the process of the study?
A. About twenty-six thousand people participated in it.
B. The oldest participants were below 80 when the study was over.
C. Most of the participants had depression when the study was over.
D. The study lasted more than ten years from the beginning to the end.
6．It is implied in the passage that ______.
A. more research is needed to confirm the new findings
B. the new findings aren’t consistent with any previous findings
C. cutting one’s sodas intake will surely reduce one’s depression
D. the new findings won’t have an impact on people’s drinking habits
7．What should you drink in order to reduce the risk of depression?
A.Sodas.
B.Unsweetened coffee.
C.Sugary coffee.
D.Fruit punch.
参考答案4-7 CDAB
C
I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the easy carelessness of youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years later, and ever since have been of great value to me.
Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.
?Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?”
?I try to.”
?Well, don’t,” he said loudly. “When you grow up, time won’t come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life.”
When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript (手稿) ready for revision. Later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal (零碎的) method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were moments which could be caught and put to use.
There is an important trick in this time-using principle: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can’t afford to waste it in chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.
I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a significant influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I throw myself into it without delay.
8. The meaning of “stretch” in the underlined part is the same as that in the sentence “
”.
A. The dog woke up, had a good stretch and wandered off.
B. Bob worked as a government official for a stretch of over twenty years.
C. My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.
D. This material has a lot of stretch in it.
9. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The author didn’t take the teacher’s words to heart at first.
B. Rapid concentration is more difficult than people imagine.
C. The author thanked his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.
D. Carl Walter has influenced the writer greatly since he was a student.
10. We can infer that the author________.
A. has new books published each year however busy his teaching is
B. is tired of interruptions in life because he always has much work
C. has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels
D. makes mental preparations beforehand so as to focus on work quickly
11. What is probably the best title for this text?
A. Concentrate on Your Work
B. A Little at a Time
C. How I Became a Writer
D. Good Advice
参考答案8-11 BADB
D
Today, people all over the world are moving out of small villages in the country to go and live in big, noisy cities. They are moving from the peaceful hills, mountains, fields, rivers and streams of the countryside to the busy world of streets, buildings, traffic and crowds. This movement from rural areas to urban areas has been going on for over two hundred years.
In many countries, the main reason people come to live in towns and cities is work. After one or two large factories have been built in or near a town, people come to find work, and soon an industrial area begins to grow. There is usually a residential area nearby, too. The families of these workers need schools, hospitals and shops, so many people come to live in the area to provide these services and a city grows.
In every major city in the world, there is a business district where the big companies have their main offices. In the United States, this area is usually in the city center downtown. It is here that you can see many huge skyscrapers and office blocks. The people who work here often travel a long way to work each day. Many of them live in the suburbs of the city, far away from the industrial area and the city center. Some suburbs are very pleasant, with nice house and big gardens. There are usually parks for children to play in and large department stores where you can buy all you need.
But what is the future of the big cities? Will they continue to get bigger and bigger? Perhaps not. Some major cities have actually become smaller in the last ten years, and it is quite possible that one day we will see people moving out of the major cities and back into smaller towns and villages.
12. The underlined phrase “a residential area” means an area______.
A. where people can buy things
B. which is suitable for living in
C. where people can do business
D. which is near a city center
13. Why do people move to live in cities or towns?
A. Because they can live more comfortably there.
B. Because they like noisy life better than peaceful life.
C. Because they mainly want to find work there.
D. Because they are sure of having a better life there.
14. Which of the following statement is NOT true about the business district?
A. Big companies usually have their main offices in the business district.
B. People usually work and live in the business district.
C. A business district usually lies in the city center downtown.
D. Nearly every major city has its own business district.
15. We can infer that this movement from rural to urban areas_____.
A. has been going on for more than 2,000 years.
B. will surely continue in the future
C. may not continue in the future
D. has now stopped already
参考答案12-15 BCBC