Can you believe your eyes? A recent experiment suggests that the answer to that question may depend on your age.
Martin Doherty, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland, led the team of scientists. In this experiment, Doherty and his team tested the perception(观察力) of some people, using pictures of some orange circles. The researchers showed the same pictures to two groups of people. The first group included 151 children aged 4 to 10, and the second group included 24 adults aged 18 to 25.
The first group of pictures showed two circles alone on a white background. One of the circles was larger than the other, and these people were asked to identify the larger one. Four-year-olds identified the correct circle 79 percent of the time. Adults identified the correct circle 95 percent of the time.
Next, both groups were shown a picture where the orange circles, again of different sizes, were surrounded by gray circles. Here’s where the trick lies in. In some of the pictures, the smaller orange circle was surrounded by even smaller gray circles — making the orange circle appear larger than the other orange circle, which was the real larger one. And the larger orange circle was surrounded by even bigger gray circles — so it appeared to be smaller than the real smaller orange circle.
When young children aged 4 to 6 looked at these tricky pictures, they weren’t fooled — they were still able to find the bigger circle with roughly the same accuracy as before. Older children and adults, on the other hand, did not do as well. Older children often identified the smaller circle as the larger one, and adults got it wrong most of the time.
As children get older, Doherty said, their brains may develop the ability to identify visual context. In other words, they will begin to process the whole picture at once: the tricky gray circles, as well as the orange circle in the middle. As a result, they’re more likely to fall for this kind of visual trick.
【小题1】Doherty and his team of scientists did an experiment to evaluate        .

B
Have you ever been to the beautiful country of Holland and its capital Amsterdam? Anyone who has traveled to Amsterdam would probably agree on one thing: Amsterdam’s story is a tale of two cities—one during the day and a completely different one at night.
　　During the day, the largest city in Holland sits quietly on the Amstel River. You can rent a bicycle, visit the Van Gogh or Anne Frank museum, or take a water taxi. But when the sun goes down, the partying begins. In the big clubs and in coffee shops, tourists gather to hang out, talk politics and smoke.
　　Several areas of the city clearly show the two worlds that rule Amsterdam. And they’re all within a short taxi ride of each other. For example, Dam Square attracts daytime sightseers to its festivals, open markets, concerts and other events. Several beautiful and very popular hotels can be found there. And there’s the Royal Palace and the Magna Plaza shopping mall.
But at night party-seekers come to the square. Hip hop or funk music is heard there. So if you come, be ready to dance. The clubs don’t close down until 4 am.
And while you’re there, check out the various inexpensive ways to tour the city. Don’t worry about getting lost. Although Dutch is the official language, most people in Amsterdam speak English and are happy to help you with directions. And you’ll notice that half the people in the streets are on bicycles they rent.
　　Amsterdam also has a well-planned canal system. For about 10 dollars, you can use the canal bus or a water taxi to cruise (巡游) the "Venice of the North".
　The city has a historic past. One impressive place to visit is the Anne Frank House on Nine Streets. It was there that the young Jewish girl wrote her famous diary during World War II. Visitors can view Anne’s original diary and climb behind the bookcase to the room where she and her family hid from the Nazis for two years.
59. The following means of transport are available to visitors in Amsterdam EXCEPT __________.
A. a carriage.                B. a bicycle.                 C. a canal bus.                     D. a water taxi.
60. When getting lost, a visitor can ask natives for directions in           .
A. only Dutch             B. Dutch or English              C. only English          D. Spanish and English
61. What can you learn about by visiting the Anne Frank House?
A. The happy experience of a girl survivor.     B. The glorious past of Amsterdam.
C. The hard life of the Jewish in World WarⅡ.    D. The hobbies of the Dutch.
62. The passage is intended to           .
A. call up people’s memories of World WarⅡ    
B. tell readers what A Tale of Two Cities is about
C. instruct visitors what to do and see in Holland
D. offer readers some information about Amsterdam

二、完形填空(20%)
Living one’s life is really like driving on a highway. First, to make a good driving, the driver must carefully examine the  31   of his car, just as he cares for his health for a good life.   32   he enters into the highway, he must   33   certain rules for his own safety. It also can be said that he must obey certain rules of society when living as a decent (体面的) adult. For example, on the highway, he is   34   to keep a constant (不断的)  35  , which can be compared with his  36   activities through his life. Neither driving nor living must be taken at too  37   a speed nor at too slow a speed. If he drives too  38  , the police will give him a  39  , just as he will be arrested when he breaks the law.   40   too conservatively (保守地), he will be called an out-of-date person   41   the others driving at a(an)   42   speed. When he wants to change his lanes, he must give careful   43   to every direction of his car. It is sometimes dangerous to change the way of life   44   he can be sure of completion (完成,结束) by doing so. He  45   not make any unnecessary changing of lanes（车道）which gives him only danger. Finally, he must  46   where he is now by recognizing some 47   appearing now and then. If he takes the wrong way, he must return to the right as soon as he can. But he may thus lose  48   and energy both on the road and in life. On the whole, driving on a highway and living one’s life are both hard work.  49   if he is careful and serious enough,   50   will provide him with much pleasure.
31.  A. seats       B. condition       C. petrol     D. passengers
32.   A. Once        B. While        C. For         D. Although
33.   A. listen to       B. find           C. follow    D. insist on
34.   A. ordered        B. supposed        C. believed         D. hoped
35.   A. state        B. speed         C. mind      D. level
36.   A. outdoor        B. broken              C. good       D. continuous
37.   A. large        B. high          C. limited    D. expected
38.   A. speedily       B. slowly       C. Hurriedly  D. willingly
39.   A. ticket       B. lift                C. chance    D. hand
40.   A. Acting            B. Running         C. Getting    D. Working
41.   A. persuading    B. getting       C. Bothering  D. refusing
42.   A. average        B. normal       C. usual      D. fast
43.   A. notice       B. attention        C. signs       D. regards
44.   A. if                B. when         C. unless     D. because
45.   A. dare         B. need          C. may        D. should
46.   A. think       B. discover         C. prove      D. seem
47.   A. signs        B. signals       C. posters    D. symbols
48.   A. money            B. luck           C. time       D. trust
49.   A. Therefore     B. But            C. And        D. Then
50.   A. it           B. he           C. they       D. You

Tim Becker and his neighbors are doing something to make their neighborhood a trouble-free area.
When Tim Becker gets in his car to go shopping, he doesn’t  36  drive to a store and back home. He always looks  37  up and down the streets of his neighborhood. He looks for anything 38  such as strange cars, loud noises,  39  windows , or people gathering on street corners.
Tim  40  to a neighborhood watch group in Stoneville Indiana, USA. The neighborhood watch group  41  on the third Wednesday of every month. That’s   42  Tim gets together with about ten of his neighbors to discuss community  43  . Members of the neighborhood watch group want to help the police  44  their homes , streets, and families safe.
Tina Stedman , president of  45  neighborhood watch group , agrees with Tim . “People seem to think that crime(犯罪) happens to other people but not  46  them. Well , it’s never happened to me,” she said, “but I don’t think anyone has the 47  to steal from other people or to make them feel  48 sitting in their own homes.
Alex, a member of the group, said that all the neighbors  49  out for one another. “We 50 each other’s homes. We keep watch on the neighborhood at night and on weekends .Usually a 51  of four or five of us goes out together. If something doesn’t look right, then we call the 52  . For example, if we notice a group of teenagers who seem to be looking for 53 ,  or someone destroying property（财产）, we report to the police.”
Alex feels the neighborhood watch groups   54 a lot in keeping crime down. Her husband Jim agrees, “Police are good people, but they don’t do  55  .”

Dear Cary,
I'm writing because I've understood you've struggled with alcoholism （酗酒）．I've been fighting mine ever since I went through 9-11．After that, I've been more or less useless professionally - I'm a lawyer - and have had to resien（辞职） from my job because I was discovered passed - out drunk in front of my computer．I've taken some medicine and it has helped somewhat．I can manage about a month without drinking, but after that I end up having a crazy stage where nothing matters except drinking．After a week or so of heavy drinking,! start having nightmares of people jumping．After that, it's a week of not being able to get out of bed．
I was supposed to travel to a conference but didn't make it because I got so drunk at the airport that I fell down on my face and spent the rest of the day in the emergency room．I have been hiding from my family since then．Fortunately they won't be expecting me to come back for a week or so．Otherwise, they would notice the bump on my forehead and two black eyes．
I don't really know what I'm asking you．Cary, I need a way out that doesn't involve causing pain to my family．I'm taking medicine, but' I still have these attacks every few months．If there's alcohol in the house, I can't stay away from it．It seems that this will never end．I'm afraid of what will happen if something bad happens, like a family member dying, or getting fired again．
Thanks for reading．
Yours T
【小题1】The underlined sentence shows us all the following EXCEPT _____．