Our brains work in complex and strange ways．There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two．Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write．
Dr．J．Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887．He called these people idiot savants．An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment （损伤） , such as in autism ( 孤独症，自闭症) or retardation．At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people．The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory．
One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr．Benjamin Rush, an American doctor．His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in1724．It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds．Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write．
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s．Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical pieces beautifully．
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly．
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment．Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills．Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills．However few people wish to participate in such experiments．There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain．The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate．Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots．
1.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A．Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities．
B．Human Beings have complicated thinking process．
C．The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired．
D．The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary．
2.Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?
A．He can play wonderful pieces of classical music．
B．He can guess out exactly the length of a man's life．
C．He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast．
D．He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly．
3.What can you infer from the passage?
A．Idiot savants have real talents for art and math．
B．Dr．Down is the first person who found idiot savants．
C．Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations．
D．Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants．
4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
科目：高中英语 来源：2010年普通高等学校招生全国统一考试（江西卷）英语 题型：阅读理解
Modcm inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a bundred miles in little more than an hour. Aireraft cross the world a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every ycar motor-cars are produced which go even faster each new computer boasts（吹嘘）of saving preeious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves timc, but at a prick.When we lose or gain half a day in speeding aeross the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfoerable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel tlru they have been left bebind in anot ar nine zoors Again pending too long at compulers resul’s in painti ninrts and fingers. Mobile phones also to dange according to some seientists; too much uss may thesmit h bul radiation into our brains, a we do not like to think about.
Howave, what do we do with the time we have saved?Certainly not or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Pcrhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imavination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devotcd simply to the cultivation of the land or the eare of eattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives wenl on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so ,we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faeed;:they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modem machinery has freed peope fre that primitive existcnee.
1.The new rooucts opcome more and more time-saving beeause_________.
A.our love of speed secure never-ending
B.time is limited
C.theprices are increasingly high
D.the manufacturers boast a lot
2.What does“the days”in Parag
raph 3 refer to?
A.I maginary life B.Simple life in the past
C.Times of inventions D.Time for constant activity
3.What is the author’s attitude towards the modem teehnology?
A.Critical B.Objective C.Optimistic D.Negative
4.What does the pa mge mainly diseuss?
A.The present and past times B.Machinary and human beings
C.Imaginations and inventions D.Modem technology and its influenec
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科目：高中英语 来源：2012-2013学年广东省惠州市实验中学高二上学期期中考试英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
What will man be like in the future — in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make guesses, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today, for man is slowly changing all the time.
Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is relatively a short period of time, so we may suppose that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain’s capacity(容量). As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and finally we shall need our brains more and more, and finally we shall need larger ones! This is likely to bring a physical change too: the head, in particular the forehead, will grow larger.
Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over long period of time it is likely that man’s eyes will grow stronger.
On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.
But what about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald.
Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and motions similar to our own.
【小题1】The passage mainly tells us that __________.
| A．Man’s life will be different in the future |
| B．Future man will look quite different from us |
| C．Man is growing taller and uglier as time passes |
| D．Man’s organs’ functions will change |
| A．Man has got stronger eyes now than he ever had. |
| B．Man’s hair is getting thinner and thinner. |
| C．Man’s arms and legs have become lighter and weaker. |
| D．Man has been growing taller over the past 500 years. |
| A．he makes use of only 20% of the brain’s capacity |
| B．his brain has grown larger over the past centuries |
| C．he will use his brain more and more as time goes on |
| D．the other 80% of his brain will grow in due time |
| A．He is hairless because hair is no longer useful. |
| B．He has smaller eyes and wears better glasses. |
| C．His fingers grow weaker because he doesn’t have to make use of them. |
| D．He thinks and feels in a different way. |
| A．human beings will become less attractive in the future |
| B．body organs will become poorer if they are not used often |
| C．human beings hope for a change in the future life |
| D．future life is always predictable |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2013届浙江省嘉兴市高三上学期基础测试英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
You are careful with your money: you collect all kinds of coupons; look for group-buy deals if you eat out; you don't buy clothes unless in a sale. Does all this make you a wise consumer?
Let's do the math first: you walk into a coffee shop and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33 percent extra coffee. The second takes 33 percent off the regular price. What's the better deal? Well, they are about the same, you'd think. And you'd be wrong. The deals appear to be equal, but in fact, they are different. Here's the math: Let's say the standard coffee is 10 yuan and let's divide the amount of coffee into three portions(部分). That makes about 3.3 yuan per portion, The first deal gets you 4 portions for 10 yuan (2.5 yuan per portion) and the second gets you 3 portions of coffee for 6.6 yuan (2.2 yuan per portion) and is therefore a better deal.
In a new study published by the Journal of Marketing, participants were asked the same question, and most of them chose the first deal, the Atlantic website reported. Why? Because getting something extra for free feels better than getting the same for less. The applications of this view into consumer psychology(心理) are huge. Instead of offering direct discounts, shops offer larger sizes or free samples.
According to the study, the reason why these marketing tricks work is that consumers don't really know how much anything should cost, so we rely on parts of our brains that aren't strictly quantitative.
There are some traps we should be aware of when shopping. First of all, we are heavily influenced by the first number. Suppose you are shopping in Hong Kong. You walk into Hermes, and you see a 100,000 yuan bag. "That's crazy." You shake your head and leave. The next shop is Gucci, a handbag here costs 25,000 yuan. The price is still high, but compared to the 100,000 yuan price tag you just committed to your memory, this is a steal. Stores often use the price difference to set consumers' expectation. zxxk
Another trap we often fall to Is that we are not really sure what things are worth. And so we use clues(暗示) to tell us what we ought to pay for them. US economist Dan Ariely has done an experiment to prove this. According to the Atlantic, Ariely pretended he was giving a lecture on poetry. He told one group of students that the tickets cost money and another group that they would be paid to attend. Then he informed both groups that thelecture was free. The first group was anxious to attend, believing they were getting something of value for free. The second group mostly declined, believing they were being forced to volunteer for the same event without reward.
What's a lecture on poetry by an economist worth? The students had no idea. That's the point. Do we really know what a shirt is worth ? What about a cup of coffee? What's the worth of a life insurance.policy? Who knows? Most of us don't. As a result, our shopping brain uses only what is knowable: visual(祝觉的) clues, invited emotions, comparisons, and a sense of bargain. We are not stupid. We are just easily influenced.
【小题1】The first paragraph of the passage is intended to
| A．ask a question | B．introduce a topic |
| C．give some examples | D．describe a phenomenon |
| A．consumers usually fall into marketing traps |
| B．consumers' expectation is difficult to predict |
| C．consumers' purchasing power is always changing |
| D．consumers rely on their own judgment when shopping |
| A．The first number has little influence on which item should be bought. |
| B．Consumers never use visual clues to decide how much should be paid. |
| C．Getting something extra for free is better than getting the same for less. |
| D．Consumers never rely on parts of the brains that aren't strictly quantitative. |
| A．showing price differences | B．offering larger sizes |
| C．providing free samples | D．giving direct discounts |
| A．Ariely's free lecture enjoyed popularity among students. |
| B．The students actually didn't know what the lecture was worth. |
| C．The second group was willing to be volunteers without reward. |
| D．The first group was eager to find out the value of Ariely's lecture. |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2011甘肃兰州一中高三第三次模拟考试英语试题 题型：阅读理解
Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computer results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.
1. The new products become more and more time-saving because .
A. the manufacturers boast a lot B. time is limited
C. the prices are increasingly high D. our love of speed seems never-ending
2. What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Simple life in the past. B. Imaginary life.
C. Times of inventions. D. Time for constant activity.
3.. What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
A. Critical. B. Optimistic. C. Objective. D. Negative.
4.. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. The present and past times. B. Modern technology and its influence.
C. Imaginations and inventions. D. Machinery and human beings.
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科目：高中英语 来源：2013届度广东惠阳高级中学高一第一学期期末英语卷（二） 题型：阅读理解
Dreams are expressions of thoughts, feelings and events that pass through our mind while we are sleeping. Everybody dreams. But only some people remember their dreams. Our dreams often include all the senses (感觉)—smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. We dream in colour. Sometimes we dream the same dream over and over again. These repeated（重复的） dreams are often unpleasant. They may even be nightmares—bad dreams that frighten us.
Early in the twentieth century, two famous scientists developed their personal ideas about dreams. Austrian psychiatrist(心里学家) Sigmund Freud published a book called “The Interpretation(诠释) of Dreams” in 1900. Freud believed people often dream about things they want but can’t have. These dreams often have something to do with sex and aggression(侵犯). Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung worked closely with Freud for several years, but he believed dreams could help people grow and understand themselves. He believed dreams provide solutions(解答) to problems we face when we are awake. He didn’t believe dreams hide our feelings about sex or aggression. Today we know more about the science of dreaming because researchers can take pictures of people’s brains while they are sleeping.
Other researchers are studying how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions(感情). Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Doctor Stickgold says that when we dream, the brain is trying to make sense of the world. He does not agree with Sigmund Freud that dreaming is the way we express our hidden feelings and desires(愿望).
Scientists believe it is important to keep researching dreams. Doctor Stickgold says it has been more than one hundred years since Sigmund Freud published his important book about dreaming. Yet there is still no agreement on exactly how the brain works when we are dreaming or why we dream.
1.Dreams _________.
A. are remembered by everyone
B. express all that we think in our mind
C. include few senses and things we touch
D. are sometimes nightmares(恶梦) that repeat and frighten us
2. A book on dreaming was published by _________.
A. Sigmund Freud B. Robert Stickgold C. Carl Jung D. the writer
3. In the passage, all the psychiatrists _________.
A. believe dreams can help people understand all the problems that they face
B. think dreams always hide someone’s feelings about sex or aggression
C. study dream and dreaming and have their own ideas
D. have the same idea that people often dream about the things they want
4. From the passage, we know that _________.
A. Jung thought that dreams provide solutions to problems we face when we are sleeping
B. Freud developed the idea that dreams are expressions of people’s hidden feelings
C. scientists have known quite well why we dream because they can take pictures of our brains
D. other researchers have discovered how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions
5.Which would be the best title(标题) for the passage?
A. The Explanations of Dreams B. The Ways of Dreams
C. The Solutions to Dreams D. The Mystery(奥秘) of Dreams and Dreaming
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