The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in California decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat.

Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhythm, and there are many videos of dancing birds online. Until now, scientists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music.

Thanks to Snowball, that scientific opinion is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and his favorite song is "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy band.

Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. After seeing Snowball's dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he's called home for two years. The scientist played "Everybody" for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down. Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm. In other experiments, scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children.

Patel isn't the only scientist who has studied Snowball's moves. Adena Schachner, who studies psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird. Schachner's team played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers. The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy.

Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music. Not all the animals could dance, however. From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to music.

63.   The underlined words “that scientific opinion” in the third paragraph refers to the theory that ______.

A.birds like Snowball have the ability to keep the beat

B.humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music

C.the brain and the nervous system contribute to some mental abilities

D.bird pets can have their special rhythm under human’s instruction

64.   From the fourth paragraph we may know that ______.

A.Patel is the only scientist who has studied Snowball’s moves.

B.Snowball is able to adjust his dancing to match the rhythm.

C.Snowball cannot dance to the versions of the song Everybody.

D.it is the brain and the nervous system that control the mental abilities.

65.   The idea of studying animals’ ability to keep the beat comes from ______.

A.bird lovers’ discovery

B.humans musical sense

C.the same abilities in children

D.videos of dancing birds

66.   According to the scientists, Snowball’s ability to dance to music is probably related to the fact that ______.

A.it is the only bird member of the Backstreet Boys band

B.it has the ability to imitate sounds

C.it is a kind of dancing parrot

D.it has the same abilities as preschool children

Just be happy. Sounds too simplistic, doesn’t it? But, in reality, we can have much more happiness if we choose to consider things from a positive point of view. Everyone experiences the ups and downs of life, however, we can make a decision to take advantage of the negative or pratice what the old saying says to do：“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”

     It really boils down to your attitude and you have the ability to work your attitude into any shape you like. Here are some tips:

●Ignore those who tell you life is too difficult to be happy. what do they know?

●When you awaken each morning, be thankful for another day, even if it’s raining.

●Smile at those you meet, even if they don’t return the favor.

● Don’t borrow trouble. Each day has enough of its own.

●Don’t allow trouble to bury you in its gray depth of sorrow.

●Don’t give in to negative thinking.

●Be positive even when others are not.

●Refuse to give up on anything worth having or doing.

●Do something you enjoy each day, even if it’s just a walk in your neighborhood.

● Whistle as you go though the day.

●Work at being happy because it’s worth it.

You’re human, like everyone else, and from time to time you need a little pick-me-up in your decision to be happy. When you reach that stage, find someone else who has decided to be happy. Join forces with him and march forward in your decision to be a happy person. Simply speaking, a happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.

Choose today to just be happy----as much as it depends on you!

55．The amount of happiness depends on________.

       A．the ups and downs you’ve experienced

       B．what attitude you take towards life

       C．how simple a life you manage to live

       D．the kind of environment you stay in

56．The underlined sentence advises us to________.

      A．work hard for a comfortable life    B．drink lemonade when in difficulty

       C．make the best of what we have           D．ignore the negative side of life

57．Which of the following doesn’t help maintain your good state of mind?

       A．Think in advance about future troubles.

       B．Greet others with a cheerful smile.

       C．Stay positive all the way through.

       D．Try to enjoy every single moment.

58．The best title for the passage might be “________”.

       A．Don’t lose heart         B．Share your happiness

       C．Live a simple life       D．Let’s cheer ourselves up

第二节：完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从31~50各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选 出最佳选项。

Four brothers left home for college, and they became successful doctors and lawyers. Some years later, they  31   after having dinner together. They discussed the  32   they gave their elderly mother who lived far away in another city. The first said,“I had a   33   house built for Mama.”The second said,“I had my Mercedes-Benz dealer（经销商）send a   34   to her.”The third said,“I built a beautiful  35   for Mama.”The fourth said,“You know  36   Mama loved reading poems and you know she can’t read anymore because she can’t  37   very well. I met a   38   who had a parrot（鹦鹉）that can recite many poems. It took him 12 years to  39   it and he earns his living by renting it out. I had to pay him $100,000 a year for twenty years,  40   it is worth it.”On hearing that, the other brothers were  41   by his good thought.

After the holidays their mother  42   her thank-you notes. She wrote:

“Milton, the house you built is so huge. I only live in one room, but I have to  43   the whole house. It’s a tiring job. Thanks anyway.”

“Marvin, I am too old to  44  .I stay home and have my foods delivered, so I’ll  45   use the automobile. The  46   was good, although notpractical. Thanks.”

“Michael, you gave me an expensive building for 50 people to  47   plays or watch movies in it, but all my friends are dead. I’ve almost  48   my hearing and I’m nearly blind. I won’t use it. Thank you all the same.”

“Dearest Melvin, you were the  49   son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift. The chicken tasted so  50  . I liked it very much. Thank you.”

31.A.fought                        B.talked                               C.studied                   D.slept

32.A.gifts                            B.chances                           C.wishes                              D.challenges

33.A.warm                          B.big                                     C.safe                                   D.lonely

34.A.book                            B.bike                                   C.car                                     D.bag

35.A.station                       B.museum                          C.library                               D.theater

36.A.what                           B.how                                   C.why                                   D.when

37.A.listen                          B.feel                                    C.see                                    D.walk

38.A.nurse                          B.writer                               C.businessman                  D.scientist

39.A.protect                       B.beat                                  C.raise                                 D.teach

40.A.but                              B.so                                      C.unless                               D.although

41.A.treated                      B.impressed                       C.threatened                     D.hurt

42.A.sent out            B.put up                               C.took out                           D.picked up

43.A.sell                              B.borrow                    C.clean                                 D.visit

44.A.learn                           B.work                                 C.exercise                           D.travel

45.A.never                          B.often                                 C.regularly                          D.sometimes

46.A.future                         B.hobby                               C.idea                                   D.program

47.A.create                        B.enjoy                                 C.bring                                 D.record

48.A.lost                    B.admired                           C.remained                         D.discovered

49.A.same                          B.last                                    C.next                                  D.only

50A.strange                       B.unpleasant                      C.bitter                                D.delicious

If you______the right map , we wouldn’t have got lost.

       A．have bought     B．bought          C．had bought       D．would buy

Not until they left school________how much their teachers loved them and helped them.

       A．they realized           B．did they realized

       C．the would realized   D．had they realized

_________ the whole process for the studies of cancer took more than a year, the technology is moving so fast that it will soon take just weeks．

       A．How            B．Because         C．If   D．While

第三部分 阅读理解 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)

请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

Why You Should Celebrate Your Mistakes

When you make a mistake, big or small, cherish (珍视) it like it’s the most precious thing in the world. Because in some ways, it is.

Most of us feel bad when we make mistakes, beat ourselves up about it, feel like failures, get mad at ourselves.

And that’s only natural: most of us have been taught from a young age that mistakes are bad, that we should try to avoid mistakes. We’ve been scolded when we make mistakes—at home, school and work. Maybe not always, but probably enough times to make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction.

Yet without mistakes, we could not learn or grow. If you think about it that way, mistakes should be cherished and celebrated for being one of the most amazing things in the world: they make learning possible; they make growth and improvement possible.

By trial and error—trying things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes—we have figured out how to make electric light, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, to fly.

Mistakes make walking possible for the smallest toddler, make speech possible, make works of genius possible.

Think about how we learn: we don’t just consume information about something and instantly know it or know how to do it. You don’t just read about painting, or writing, or computer programming, or baking, or playing the piano, and know how to do them right away. Instead, you get information about something, from reading or from another person or from observing usually … then you construct a model in your mind … then you test it out by trying it in the real world … then you make mistakes … then you revise the model based on the results of your real-world experimentation … and repeat, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, until you’ve pretty much learned how to do something. That’s how we learn as babies and toddlers, and how we learn as adults. Mistakes are how we learn to do something new—because if you succeed at something, it’s probably something you already knew how to do. You haven’t really grown much from that success—at most it’s the last step on your journey, not the whole journey. Most of the journey was made up of mistakes, if it’s a good journey.

So if you value learning, if you value growing and improving, then you should value mistakes. They are amazing things that make a world of brilliance possible.

56. Why do most of us feel bad about making mistakes?

A. Because mistakes make us suffer a lot.

B. Because it’s a natural part in our life.

C. Because we’ve been taught so from a young age.

D. Because mistakes have ruined many people’s careers.

57. According to the passage, what is the right attitude to mistakes?

A. We should try to avoid making mistakes.

B. We should owe great inventions mainly to mistakes.

C. We should treat mistakes as good chances to learn.

D. We should make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction.

58. The underlined word “toddler” in Paragraph Six probably means _______.

A. a small child learning to walk              B. a kindergarten child learning to draw

C. a primary pupil learning to read                     D. a school teenager learning to write

59. We can learn from the passage that _______.

A. most of us can really grow from success

B. growing and improving are based on mistakes

C. mistakes are the most precious things in the world 

D. we read about something and know how to do it right away

D

We can make mistakes at any age . Some mistakes we make are about money . But most mistakes are about people . “ Did Jerry really care when I broke up with Helen ?” “ When I got that great job , did Jim really feel good about it , as a friend ? Or did he envy my luck ?” When we look back , doubts like these can make us feel bad . But when we look back , it’s too late .

Why do we go wrong about our friends—or our enemies ? Sometimes what people say hides their real meaning . And if we don’t really listen we miss the feeling behind the words . Suppose someone tells you , “ You’re a lucky dog ,” and that’s being friendly . But “ lucky dog ”? There’s a bit of envy in those words . Maybe he doesn’t see it himself . But bringing in the “dog ” bit puts you down a little , what he may be saying is that he doesn’t think you deserve your luck .

“ Just think of all the things you have to be thankful for ” is another noise that says one thing and means another . It could mean that the speaker is trying to get you to see your problem as part of your life as a whole . But is he ? Wrapped up in this phrase is the thought that your problem isn’t important . It’s telling you to think of all the starving people in the world when you haven’t got a date for Saturday night .

How can you tell the real meaning behind someone’s words ? One way is to take a good look at the person talking . Do his words fit the way he looks ? Does what he says agree with the tone of voice ? His posture ? The look in his eyes ? Stop and think . The minute you spend thinking about the real meaning of what people say to you may save another mistake .

68. This passage is mainly about_______.

A. how to understand what people say

B. what to do when you listen to others talking

C. why we go wrong with people and how to avoid these mistakes

D. why we go wrong with people sometimes

69. According to the author , the reason why we go wrong about our friends is that_______.

A. we fail to listen carefully when they talk

B. people tend to be angry when we check what they say

C. people usually state one thing but mean another

D. we tend to doubt what our friends say

70. The underlind word “ it ” in the second paragraph refers to_______ .

A. being friendly     B. a bit of envy     C. lucky dog     D. your luck

71. When we listen to a person talking , the most important thing for us to do is _______.

A. notice the way the person is talking

B. take a good look at the person talking

C. mind his tone , his posture and the look in his eyes

D. consider the real meaning of what he says based on his manner , his tone and his posture

第三节:书面表达（满分30分）

请根据下列提示，写一篇短文记叙你星期天乘车回家时的经历。

上午8：30，汽车在某站停靠时上来一位抱小孩的妇女；

车上已经没有座位，你把自己的座位让给她；

这位妇女微笑着向你道谢，你感到非常自豪；

通过这次经历你认识到：只要我们乐于助人，世界将变得更加美好。

注意：1. 词数100左右；2. 可适当增加细节以使行文连贯。

All ________is needed for life on board the submarine comes from the ocean.

A. /               B. what                    C. that                    D. which