Like many of my generation, I have a weakness for hero worship. At some point, however, we all begin to question our heroes and our need for them. This leads us to ask: What is a hero?

　　Despite immense differences in cultures, heroes around the world generally share a number of characteristics that instruct and inspire people.

　　A hero does something worth talking about. A hero has a story of adventure to tell and a community who will listen. But a hero goes beyond mere fame.

　　Heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves. Like high-voltage(电压) transformers, heroes take the energy of higher powers and step it down so that it can be used by ordinary people.

　　The hero lives a life worthy of imitation. Those who imitate a genuine hero experience life with new depth, enthusiasm, and meaning. A sure test for would-be heroes is what or whom do they serve? What are they willing to live and die for? If the answer or evidence suggests they serve only their own fame, they may be famous persons but not heroes. Madonna and Michael Jackson are famous, but who would claim that their fans find life more abundant?

　　Heroes are catalysts (催化剂) for change. They have a vision from the mountaintop. They have the skill and the charm to move the masses. They create new possibilities. Without Gandhi, India might still be part of the British Empire. Without Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., we might still have segregated(隔离的) buses, restaurants, and parks. It may be possible for large-scale change to occur without leaders with magnetic personalities, but the pace of change would be slow, the vision uncertain, and the committee meetings endless.

1. Although heroes may come from different cultures, they _______.

　　A. generally possess certain inspiring characteristics

　　B. probably share some weaknesses of ordinary people

　　C. are often influenced by previous generations

　　D. all unknowingly attract a large number of fans

2. According to the passage, heroes are compared to high-voltage transformers in that ____.

　　A. they have a vision from the mountaintop

　　B. they have warm feelings and emotions

　　C. they can serve as concrete(具体的) examples of noble principles

　　D. they can make people feel stronger and more confident

3. Madonna and Michael Jackson are not considered heroes because ________.

　　A. they are popular only among certain groups of people

　　B. their performances do not improve their fans morally

　　C. their primary concern is their own financial interests

　　D. they are not clear about the principles they should follow

4. Gandhi and Martin Luther King are typical examples of outstanding leaders who ___.

　　A. are good at demonstrating their charming characters

　　B. can move the masses with the skill and the charm

　　C. are capable of meeting all challenges and hardships

　　D. can provide an answer to the problems of their people

5. The author concludes that historical changes would ______.

　　A. be delayed without leaders with inspiring personal qualities

　　B. not happen without heroes making the necessary sacrifices

　　C. take place if there were heroes to lead the people

　　D. produce leaders with attractive personalities

      

　Not everyone in the world requires the same amount of living space. The amount of space a person needs around him is a cultural (文化的) difference, not an economic one. Knowing your own psychological (心理的) space needs is important because they strongly affect your choices, including, for example, the number of bedrooms in the home. If you were brought up in a two-child family and both you and your sister or brother had your own bedrooms, the chances are if you have two children or more, that you also will offer separate bedrooms for them. In America, for example, they train people to want to have their own rooms by giving them their own rooms when they are babies. This is very unusual in the world. In many other countries, the baby sleeps in the same bed with his parents or in bed near them.

　　 The space in the home also shows a lot about psychological space needs. Some families gather closer to each other and the size of their house has nothing to do with it. Others have separate little corners where family members go to be alone.

　　 Although it is true that psychological space needs are not decided by economic reasons, they sometimes have to be changed a little because of economic pressure（压力）. It is almost impossible, however, to completely change your psychological space needs.

　1.The first sentence in Paragraph 1 “Not everyone in the world requires the same amount          of space” means “______”.

　　 A. Not two people need exactly the same amount of living space

　　 B. Living space requirements are not always the same

　　 C. The world requires the same amount of living space

　　 D. Nobody needs a required amount of living space

2.Some families gather closer to each other at home than others because ______.

　　 A. they have limited living space　　　

　　 B. they are brought up in a large family

　　 C. it satisfies（满足） their psychological space needs

　　 D. the children in the family sleep in the same bed with their parents

3.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

　　 A. Americans are trained to live in the large rooms at birth.

　　 B. Economic situation decides one's amount of space needs.

　　 C. People in different countries demand(need) different psychological space.

　　 D. Knowing your psychological space needs is important, as it has effect on your future.

4.The best title for this passage is ______.

　　 A. American Way of Living

　　 B. Psychological Space

　　 C. Space Needs in Different Countries

　　 D. Psychological Space and Economic Pressure

 

 Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth, but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
　　Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
　　Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
　　“Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards life, women working,” says Martine. “They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people aware of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”
【小题1】According to the passage, Brazil has cut back its population growth _____.

A．by educating its citizens

B．by careful family planning

C．by developing TV programmes

D．by chance

【小题2】What can you infer from the passage about many Third World countries ?

A．They haven’t attached much importance to birth control.

B．They would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate.

C．They haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population.

D．They neglected the role of TV plays in family planning

【小题3】Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ______.

A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV

B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life

C．people are drawn to their attractive package

D．they popularize birth control measures

“Most experiences of absent-mindedness ,forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room , are caused by a simple lack of attention, ” says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something, but you haven’t encoded（编码） it deeply.”

　Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impression on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create troublesome situations. If you　put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did because you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in your cupboard.  “Your memory itself isn’t failing you, ” says Schacter, “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”  http://wx.jtyjy.com/

　Lack of interest can also lead to absent -mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago, ” says Zelinski, “ may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.”Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory depends on just that.

　　“Visual cues（ 视觉提示 ）can help prevent absent--mindedness, ”says Schacter, “But be sure the cue is clear and available. ”If you want to remember to take a medicine with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine box and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.

　　Another common experience of absent - mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time, ”says Zelinski. “The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.”

1.The writer of the passage thinks that encoding properly is very important because ________.

　　A. it enables us to recall something from our memory

　　B. it slows down the process of losing our memory

　　C. it helps us understand our memory system better

　　D. it helps us to get back to where we were

2.One possible reason why women have a little better memories than men is that________.

　　A. they rely more on the environment

　　B. they have a wider range of interests

　　C. they have an unusual power of focusing their attention

　　D. they are more interested in what’s happening around them

3.Why can a note in the pocket hardly serve as a reminder? ________.

　　A. It will easily get lost

　　B. It is out of your sight

　　C. It’s not clear enough for you to read

　　D. It might get mixed up with other things

4.From the last paragraph we can learn that________.

　　A. repetition might help improve our memory

　　B. memory depends to a certain extent on the environment

　　C. we’d better return to where we were if we forget things

　　D. we should think about something else while doing one thing

5.The passage is mainly about ________.

　　A. the memory system of persons

　　B. a way of encoding and recalling

　　C. the causes of absent-mindedness

　　D. the impression of the environment on memory

 

 Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth, but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.

　　Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.

　　Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.

　　“Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards life, women working,” says Martine. “They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people aware of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”

1.According to the passage, Brazil has cut back its population growth _____.

A．by educating its citizens

B．by careful family planning

C．by developing TV programmes

D．by chance

2.What can you infer from the passage about many Third World countries ?

A．They haven’t attached much importance to birth control.

B．They would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate.

C．They haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population.

D．They neglected the role of TV plays in family planning

3.Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ______.

A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV

B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life

C．people are drawn to their attractive package

D．they popularize birth control measures