A controversial new study has claimed that men really are more intelligent than women．The study concluded that men’s IQs are almost four points higher than women’s.
British-born researcher John Philippe Ruston says the finding could explain why so few women make it to the top in the workplace.
He claims the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is probably due to inferior intelligence，rather than lack of opportunity.
The University of Western Ontario psychologist reached his conclusion after scrutinizing the results of university ability tests taken by 1 00,000 students aged 17 and 18 of both sexes.
A focus on the factors such as the ability to quickly grasp a complex concept，verbal reasoning skills and creativity― some of the key factors of intelligence ―showed the male teenagers had IQs that were an average of 3.63 points higher. The average person has an IQ around 100.The findings，which held true for all classes and levels of education, overturn 100 year opinion that men and women average the same in general mental ability. They also conflict with evidence that girls do better in school exams than boys.
But Professor Ruston argues that the faster maturing of girls leads to them outshining boy in the classroom.
【小题1】 The report is mainly about ______.

A sunflower is a sunflower . A mobile phone is a mobile phone . But can you combine the two to do something for your local environment?
As early as next year it may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone you will be able to bury it in the garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower. A biodegradable (能进行生物递降分解的) mobile phone was, this month, introduced by scientists.
Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other plastic and can be hard or soft, and able to change shape. Overtime it can also break down into the soil without giving out any toxic chemicals. British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed. When this new type of cover turns into waste, it forms nitrates (硝酸钾). These feed the seed and help the flower grow. Engineers have designed a small transparent window to hold the seed. They have made sure it only grows when the phone is thrown away. "We've only put sunflower seeds into the covers so far. But we are working with plant experts to find out which flowers would perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time," said one scientist.
As phone technology is developing so quickly people are constantly  throwing their mobiles away. This means manufacturers are under pressure to find ways of recycling them. Some 650 million mobile phones have been sold this year. Most of them will be thrown away within two years, adding plastic, heavy metal and chemical waste to the environment. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, according to the scientists. "The seed is released and the flower grows in the pot so you don't have to concern yourself with the phone when you have finished using it," said Kerry Kirwan. She leads the research team, which is based at the University of Warwick in Britain.
【小题1】 The main idea of the passage is ________ .

Hi! Have you ever suddenly felt that someone you knew was in trouble — and was he? Have you ever dreamed something that came true later? Maybe you have ESP (超感觉知觉).
　　ESP stands for Extrasensory Perception. It may be called a sixth sense. It seems to let people know about events before they happen, or events that are happening some distance away.
　　Here's an example. A woman was ironing clothes. Suddenly she screamed, "My father is dead! I saw him sitting in the chair!" Just then, a telegram came. The woman's father died of a heart attack. He died sitting in a chair.
　　There are thousands of stories like this one on record. Scientists are studying them to find out what's behind these strange mental messages. Here's another example—one of hundreds of dreams that have come true.
　　A man dreamed he was walking along a road when a horse and carriage came by. The driver said, "There's room for one more." The man felt the driver seemed dead, so he ran away. The next day, when the man was getting on a crowded bus, the bus driver said, "There's room for one more."
　　Then the man saw that the driver's face was the same face he had seen in the dream. He wouldn't get on the bus. As the bus drove off, it crashed and burst into flames. Everyone was killed!
　　Some people say stories like these are coincidences. Others, including some scientists, say that ESP is real. From studies of ESP, we may someday learn more about the human mind.
【小题1】According to the passage, the author believes that the sixth sense is ________.

Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, with a US review finding musical training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills.
Although it was suggested in the past that listening to Mozart’s music or other classical music could make you smarter, there has been little evidence to show that music can boost(使增长) brain power.
But a data-driven review by Northwestern University has pulled reaserch together that links musical training to learning that spills over into (波及) skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion.
Researcher Nina Kraus said the data strongly suggested that the nervous connections made during musical training also prepared the brain for other aspects of human communication.
“ The effect of musical training suggests that, like physical exercise and its effect on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development, ” the researchers said in their study.
Kraus said learning musical sounds could improve the brain’s ability to adapt and change and also enable the nervous system to provide constructing patterns that are important to learning.
The study, published in Nature Review Neuroscience , looked at the explosion of research in recent years focusing on the effect of musical training on the nervous system which could have impacts for education.
The study found that playing an instrument prepares the brain to choose what is related in a complex process that may involve reading or remembering a score, timing issues and coordination with other musicians.
【小题1】What is the text mainly about ?

阅读下面短文，并根据短文后的要求答题（请注意问题后的字数要求）。
[1]Global difference in intelligence is a sensitive topic, long filled with a large number of different opinions. But recent data has indeed shown cognitive (认知的) ability to be higher in some countries than in others. What's more, IQ scores have risen as nations develop—a phenomenon known as the "Flynn effect". Many causes have been put forward for both the intelligence difference and the Flynn effect, including education, income, and even non-agricultural labor. Now, a new study from researchers at the University of New Mexico offers another interesting theory: intelligence may be linked to infectious-disease rates.
　　[2]The brain, say author Christopher Eppig and his colleagues, is the "most costly organ in the human body". Brainpower consumes almost up to 90 percent of a newborn's energy. It's clear that if something affects energy intake while the brain is growing, the impact could be long and serious. And for vast parts of the globe, the biggest threat to a child's body—and therefore brain—is parasitic (由寄生虫引起的) infection. These illnesses threaten brain development________________. They can directly attack live tissue, which the body must then try every means to replace. They can invade the digestive pipe and block nutritional intake. They can rob the body's cells for their own reproduction. And then there's the energy channeled (输送) to the immune system to fight the infection.
　　[3]Using data on national "disease burdens" (life years lost due to infectious diseases) and average intelligence scores, the authors found they are closely associated. The countries with the lowest average IQ scores have the highest disease burdens without exception. On the contrary, nations with low disease burdens top the IQ list.
　　[4]If the study holds water, it could be revolutionary for our understanding of the still-confusing variation in national intelligence scores.
【小题1】What is the main idea of the text？(no more than 10 words)________________________
【小题2】Complete the following statement with proper words.(no more than 4 words)
　　Those countries that have the ________________ are always at the bottom of the  IQ list.
【小题3】Fill in the blank in Paragraph 2 with proper words.(no more than 5 words)
___________                                                                
【小题4】What can cause intelligence difference？(no more than 8 words)
　　________________________________________________________________________
【小题5】What does the word "they" (Line 2, Paragraph 3) probably refer to？(no more than 8 words)
________________________________________________________________________

【小题1】The main aim of Environment Awareness Week is to _____．

阅读下面的短文，并根据短文后的要求答题（请注意问题后的字数要求）。
[1] I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day. But I became invisible, absent from the conversation.
[2] The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Recently I was in a car with three friends. The driver told us to be quiet because he could not hear the person on the other end of his cell phone. There we were, four friends going down the highway, unable to talk to one another because of a tool designed to make communication easier.
[3]Why is it that the more connected we get, ________________________ ? Every advance in communications technology is a hurt to the closeness of human interaction (互动). With e-mail and instant messaging over the Internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone.
[4] More and more, l find myself hiding behind e-mail to do a job meant for conversation. Or being relieved that voice mail picked up because I didn’t really have time to talk. The industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier.
[5] So I've put myself on technology restriction: no instant messaging with people who live near me, no cell-phoning in the presence of friends, no letting the voice mail pick up when I' m home.
【小题1】 What does the author say about communications technology according to the first two paragraphs? (within 15 words)
_________________________________________________________________________
【小题2】Which sentences in the text is the closest in meaning to the following one?
However, I felt left out as if we were not conducting the conversation.
_________________________________________________________________________
【小题3】 Fill in the blanks in Paragraph 3 with proper words. (within 10 words)
_________________________________________________________________________
【小题4】 Does the author restrict (约束) his own activity to improving the situation? Give an example. How？(within 15 words)
_________________________________________________________________________
【小题5】 Translate the underlined sentences in Paragraph 4 into Chinese.
________________________________________________________________________

Social networking isn't only for the under 40s. More than 25 percent of Americans 50 years and older stay connected using sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, according to new research.
"The latest data tells us that more and more social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50 plus," said Kevin Donnellan, the chief communications officer at AARP, which released the report.
Nearly a quarter of older Americans are on Facebook and 73 percent said they use it to stay in touch with relatives, but not just their children and grandchildren. "They are using the Internet to keep up with the world and the people who are important to them," said Jean Koppen, the author of the report. She added that older adults are also on Facebook to stay connected, not only with their family, but with their friends and peers. Almost 50 percent of older adults were introduced to the social networking sites by a family member, mainly a child or grandchild. "Just under one-fifth of adults aged 50 and older say they do not use the Internet," according to the report.
The findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,863 adults. In addition to keeping up on Facebook and Twitter older adults are also aware of the latest technology. Eighty-three percent had heard about the Apple iPad and 11 percent intended to buy one.
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the passage?             
A.       Social networking isn’t for the under 40s in the U.S.A.
B.       American old people’s way of life is quite fashionable.
C.       The Internet is also popular among the American over 50s.
D.       Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are hot websites in America.
【小题2】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?    

In 1963,former Senator Gaylord Nelson began to worry about our planet (A senator is a person that the people of the United States have chosen to help make the laws.). Senator Nelson knew that our world was getting dirty and that many of our plants and animals were dying .He wondered why most people weren’t trying to solve these problems. He talked to other lawmakers and to the President. They decided that the President would go around the country and tell people about these concerns（关系重大之事）. He did, but still not enough people were working on the problem.
Then, in 1969, Senator Nelson had another idea. He decided to have a special day to teach everyone about the things that needed changing in our environment .He wrote letters to all of the colleges and put a special article in Scholastic Magazine to tell them about the special day he had planned (Most of the schools got this magazine) and he knew that kids would help him.
On April 22,1970, the first Earth Day was held .People all over the country made promises to help the environment. Everyone got involved and since then, Earth Day has spread all over the planet. People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing. Isn’t it great? One person had an idea and kept working until everyone began working together to solve it. See what happens when people care about our world?
【小题1】The passage mainly talks about _________.

The researchers, led by Hwang Woo-suk, insist they cloned an Afghan hound, only to help investigate (研究) human disease, including the possibility of cloning stem cells (干细胞) for treatment purposes.
But others immediately renewed calls for a global ban on human reproductive cloning before the technology moves any farther.
“Successful cloning of an increasing number of species confirms the general impression that it would be possible to clone any species of mammals, including humans,” said Ian Wilmut, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh who produced the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, from an adult cell nearly a decade ago.
Researchers have since cloned cats, goats, cows, mice, pigs, rabbits, horses, deer, mules and gaur, a large wild ox of Southeast Asia. So far, efforts to clone a monkey or another primate with the same techniques have failed.
Uncertainties about the health and life span (寿命) of cloned animals continue to exsist; Dolly died at a young age in 2003 after developing cancer and arthritis.
Wilmut and others complimented Hwang’s achievement, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. But they said politicians and scientists must face the larger issue — how to go on with the research without crossing the moral boundary of copying human life in the lab.
“The ability to use the technology is hopeful,” said Robert Schenken, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. “However, the paper also points out that in dogs as in most species, cloning for reproductive purposes is unsafe.”
The cloned puppy was the lone success from more than 100 dogs implanted (嵌入)with more than 1,000 cloned embryos.
In a news conference in Seoul, the cloning team also condemnedthe reproductive cloning of humans as “unsafe and inefficient.” Human reproductive cloning already is banned in South Korea. Other nations, including the United States, are divided on whether to ban just human cloning or cloning of all kinds, including the production of stem cells.
【小题1】 An Afghan hound is a kind of ______.