完形填空。阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的四个选项A、B、C和D中，选出最佳答案。
When I first came to the USA, I made friends with a neighbor who used to live only two blocks away from my street. We used to visit each other and go out together sometimes. This friend taught me a lot about American
1
,but in some cases I had to learn the
2
way, because we didn’t have enough time together for me to learn all about American culture from him.
One day this same friend invited me to a party. It wasn’t a(n)
3
party, only some kind of informal get-together. Since it was
4
time, we had a cookout,
5
most of his American friends and relatives were known to me, but there were others I had never met before.
It was the most
6
party for me when I noticed that everybody was wearing jeans and simple T-shirts for the day,
7
I arrived in proper dress with my shoes and my hair all fixed for a fancy party. It was hard to explain my embarrassment(窘迫)to the other
.When one of them turned around and said, “What nice clothes! What’s the occasion?” I felt my
9
burning hot. I didn’t
10
at all. If she knew how
11
I already felt, she wouldn’t have said that to me.
Maybe she didn’t
12
to make me feel uncomfortable, but my reaction had to do with the way I already felt.
Many times I thought of going home and
13
but I knew they would
14
.It would be even
15
for me because I knew they would quickly think that I felt out of
16
.So I wanted to pretend that I was
17
....
I have already realized their
18
are different from mine. They care less about formality(形式)
it is a special occasion, like a
20
or a very formal invitation.
(
) 1. A. art
B. culture
C. history
D. people
提示:由文章第一段可知，朋友教作者了解学习了许多美国文化，而不是“艺术、历史和种族”。
答案:B
. A. easy
B. simple
C. hard
D. different
提示:在一些情况下通过艰难的方式我才了解到美国的文化，本题的干扰是different。
答案:C
. A. real
B. pleasant
C. usual
D. evening
提示:后面提到“这只是某种非正式的聚会”，因为这不是真正的party。pleasant 令人愉快的；usual 通常的；自然也不属于evening party。
答案:A
. A. summer
B. dark
C. cold
D. autumn
提示:下文提到cookout意为“在外面野餐”，也提到其余人都穿牛仔服和T恤衫，故只有 “summer” 才合文意。
答案:A
. A. which
B. when
C. where
D. as
提示:这里where引导表地点的定语从句，修饰cookout,意为“在那里他的大多数美国朋友和亲戚我都认识”；when表时间，而which和as均可充当从句的主语。
答案:C
. A. exciting
B. surprising
C. embarrassing
D. enjoyable
提示:人人穿牛仔服和T恤衫而我穿正统的套服，头发梳成适合化装舞会的发型，与众不同，自然是“令人窘迫的(embarrassing)”。
答案:C
. A. as
B. while
C. when
D. and
提示:while在此表对比，意为“然而”。
答案:B
. A. guests
B. friends
C. neighbors
D. Americans
提示:本题可采用排除法。Americans、neighbors均可排除，而朋友只有一个，故friends也可排除。
答案:A
. A. heart
B. body
C. face
D. hand
提示:遇到窘迫的事时常感到脸发烫，心跳加快。
答案:C
. A. repeat
B. answer
C. laugh
D. say
提示:repeat重复，laugh大笑，say是及物动词,要带宾语。answer最恰当，“我没有回答”。
答案:B
. A. nice
B. happy
C. bad
D. lucky
提示:根据文意可知，如果她知道我多么难受，她是不会对我说这话的。
答案:C
. A. mean
B. expect
C. wish
D. prepare
提示:expect to do, wish to do想干某事。该句的意思是:也许她并非有意使我感到不舒服。
答案:A
. A. changing
B. crying
C. sleeping
D. dancing
提示:由于与众不同，因此想回家换衣服。
答案:A
. A. mind
B. notice
C. watch
D. care
提示:也许其余人并不在意“我”穿什么衣服，但一旦离开，倒会使他(她)们注意到这回事。
答案:B
. A. worse
B. luckier
C. better
D. easier
提示:若人人注意我，这会使我更难受。
答案:A
. A. order
B. breath
C. place
D. mind
提示:
out of order出故障；out of breath上气不接下气；out of mind不正常；out of place不合适。
答案:C
. A. OK
B. sad
C. angry
D. well
提示:sad, angry不和文意，well作形容词是指身体好、健康，故A项最佳。
答案:A
. A. lives
B. customs
C. parties
D. beliefs
提示:本文谈文化或习惯的不同。
答案:B
. A. unless
B. if
C. as long as
D. since
提示:除非正式场合，否则美国人不太关心形式。
答案:A
. A. party
B. picnic
C. meeting
D. wedding
提示:wedding属于正式场合，meeting可指非正式的聚会、相遇。
答案:D
完形填空
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从1~各题所给的四个选项A、B、C和D中，选出最佳答案。Why laughter matters
Although most people believe that laughter is one of the nature's great treatments for a whole range of mental and physical diseases, it is still a serious scientific subject that researchers are trying to figure out.
“Laughter above all else is a social thing，” says Baltimore neuroscientist, Robert Provine, who has studied laughter for decades. “All laughter groups laugh ‘hahaha’ basically the same way. Whether you speak Mandarin, French or English, everyone will understand laughter. There is a pattern generator(发生器) in our brain that produces this sound.”
Laughing is our first way of communicating. Babies laugh long before they speak. No one teaches them how to laugh. They just do. People may laugh at a prank(恶作剧) on April Fools' Day. But surprisingly, only 10 to 15 percent of laughter is the result of someone making a joke. Laughter is mostly about social responses rather than to a joke. Deaf people laugh without hearing and people on cell phones laugh without seeing, showing that laughter isn't dependent on single sense but on social interactions.
And laughter is not just a thing of people. Chimps tickle(挠痒) each other and even laugh when another chimp pretends to tickle them.
Jaak Panksepp, a Bowling Green University Psychology professor, studies rats that laugh when he tickles them. It turns out rats love to be tickled—they return again and again to the hands of researchers tickling them.
By studying rats, scientists can figure out what's going on in the brain during laughter. Northwestern University biomedical engineering professor, Jeffrey Burgdorf has found that laughter in rats produces a chemical that acts as an antidepressant(抗抑郁药). He thinks the same thing probably happens in humans, too. This would give doctors a new chemical target to develop drugs that can fight depression.
Even so, laughter itself has not been proved to be the best medicine, experts say. Margaret Stuber, a professor at University of California, studied whether laugher helped patients. She found that distraction(分心) and mood improvement helped, but she could not find a benefit of laughter alone.
“No study has shown that laughter produces a direct health benefit，” Provine said, largely because it's hard to separate laughter from just feeling good. But he thinks it doesn't really matter, “Isn't the fact that laughter feels good when you do it enough？”
1．The most important finding of Robert Provine's research is that ________．
A．laughter makes a person feel good
B．laughter depends on different senses
C．laughter is a quality people are born with
D．laughter is a social response shared by all creatures
2．According to the passage, scientists studied rats in order to find ________．
A．if they can laugh
B．if they like laughing
C．what laughter in rats produces
D．how rats react while being tickled
3．What can we learn from the passage?
A．Patients will recover if they laugh enough.
B．Laughter is a means of communication as well as a language.
C．A new medicine has been developed based on the laughter research.
D．Scientists can know what is happening in a human brain when he laughs.
4．Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
A.
B.
C.
D.
CP: Central point P: Point Sp: Subpoint(次要点)
C: Conclusion
【要点综述】“笑”既是人类也是动物的一种交际行为，多数人认为“笑”是治疗身体疾病和心理疾病的有效方式之一。“笑”是否与健康有直接的联系，尚无科学定论，但是，“笑”能使你身心愉悦，这毕竟是一件好事。
1．A 推理判断题。根据最后一段“Isn't the fact that laughter feels good when you do it enough？”可知A项正确。
2．C 事实细节题。根据第六段“…laughter in rats produces a chemical that acts as an antidepressant(抗抑郁药)．”可知。故C项正确。
3．B 事实细节题。根据第二段“All laughter groups laugh‘hahaha’ basically the same way.”以及第三段“Laughing is our first way of communicating.”可知，“笑”既是一种交际方式也是一种所有物种都能理解的语言。故B项正确。
4．D 篇章结构题。文章第一节首先提出话题：尽管“笑”被认为是治疗身体疾病和心理疾病的方式之一，但是它仍旧是研究者们试图想弄明白的一个严肃的科研项目；接着文章从两个方面来论述主观点：(1)“笑”是人类的行为：①Laughter above all else is a social thing②Laughing is our first way of communicating；(2)“笑”也是动物的行为：And laughter is not just a thing of people；最后得出结论：“笑”是否与健康有直接的联系尚无科学定论，但是，“笑”能使人身心愉悦，这毕竟是一件好事。综上可知D项正确。
阅读理解
How Room Designs Affect Our Work and Feelings
Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. But now scientists are giving this feeling an empirical（经验的，实证的） basis. They are discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused and lead to relaxation.
Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity. In 2007, Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room's ceiling affects how people think. Her research indicates that higher ceilings encourage people to think more freely, which may lead them to make more abstract connections. Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.
In additions to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant's ability to concentrate. Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of attention.
Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off
academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design & Planning Laboratory at the University of Georgia. Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.
Recent study on room lighting design suggests than dim（暗淡的） light helps people to loosen up. If that is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation. Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.
So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings. "We have a very limited number of studies, so we're almost looking at the problem through a straw（吸管）," architect David Allison says. "How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That's what we're all struggling with."
(
) 1. What does Joan Meyers-Levy focus on in her research?
A. Light.
B. Ceilings.
C. Windows.
D. Furniture.
(
) 2. The passage tells us that ______.
A. the shape of furniture may affect people's feelings
B. lower ceilings may help improve students' creativity
C. children in a dim classroom may improve their grades
D. students in rooms with unblocked views may feel relaxed
(
) 3. The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that ______.
A. the problem is not approached step by step
B. the researches so far have faults in themselves
C. the problem is too difficult for researchers to detect
D. research in this area is not enough to make generalized patterns
(
) 4. Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
CP: Central Point
P: Point
SP: Sub-point（次要点）
C: Conclusion
64.B。
细节理解题。根据第二段内容可知Joan Meyers-Levy focus on ceilings.
65.A。
细节判断题。根据文中内容可知B,C和D均是错误的。
66.D。
句意猜测题。根据划线句子后面的一句话可以知道该题的正确答案为:D。
67.C。
考查文章结构。注意解题技巧。第一段为总要点，最后一段为结论，要点123
共同服务于结论，重要的是要点二又包含了两个次要点。综上分析可知答案为:C。