2. On roads painted with chevrons, drivers tend to feel that ________.

A. they should avoid speed-related hazards

B. they are driving in the wrong lane

C. they should slow down their speed

D. they are coming near to the speed limit

1. The passage mainly discusses ________.

A. a new way of highway speed control

B. a new pattern for painting highways

C. a new way of training drivers

D. a new type of optical illusion

3. A。推断题。根据文章第2段第1句和第3段第1句可推知此题答案为 A。

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Believe it or not, optical illusion(错觉) can cut highway crashes.

Japan is a case in point. It has reduced automobile crashes on some roads by nearly 75 percent using a simple optical illusion. But stripes, called chevrons(人字形), painted on the roads make drivers think that they are driving faster than they really are, and thus drivers slow down.

Now the American Automobile Association Foundation(基金会) for Traffic Safety in Washington D.C. is planning to repeat Japan’s success. Starting next year, the foundation will paint chevrons and other patterns of stripes on selected roads around the country to test how well the patterns reduce highway crashes.

Excessive (too great) speed plays a major role in as much as one fifth of all fatal traffic accidents, according to the foundation. To help reduce those accidents, the foundation will conduct its tests in areas where speed-related hazards (danger) are the greatest curves, exit slopes, traffic circles, and bridges.

Some studies suggest that straight, horizontal bars painted across roads can initially cut the average speed of drivers in half. However, traffic often returns to full speed within months as drivers become used to seeing the painted bars.

Chevrons, scientists say, not only give drivers the impression that they are driving faster than they really are but also make a lane appear to be narrower. The result is a longer lasting reduction in highway speed and the number of traffic accidents.

2. C。推断题。根据文章第2段第3句when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous可推知此题答案为C。

1. B。推断题。根据文章第2段第1句evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason可推知此题答案为B。

3. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

A. Evolution has equipped all creatures with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking.

B. The study of sleep is an important art of the evolutionary theory.

C. Sleeping patterns must be taken into consideration in the designing of robots.

D. The sleeping pattern of a living creature is determined by the food it eats.

[答案解析]

本文介绍了有关睡觉进化论方面的知识。

2. Evolution has programmed man to sleep at night chiefly to help him ______.

A. keep up a regular pattern of life

B. prevent trouble that comes looking for him

C. avoid danger and inefficient labor 　

D. restore his bodily functions

1. The author uses the example of the robot in space exploration to tell us _______.

A. the differences between robots and men

B. the reason why men need to sleep

C. about the need for robots to save power

D. about the danger of men working at night

4. D。推断题。根据文章的内容与选项的比较，发现选项A、B、C与文章内容毫无关系，从而可推知此题答案为D。

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Suppose we built a robot to explore the planet Mars. We provide the robot with seeing detectors(探测器) to keep it away from danger. It is powered entirely by the sun. Should we program the robot to be equally active at all times? No, the robot would be using up energy at a time when it was not receiving any. So we would probably program it to stop its activity at night and to wake up at dawn the next morning.

According to evolutionary(进化的) theory of sleep, evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason. The theory does not deny that sleep provides some important restorative functions. It merely says that evolution has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous. However, sleep protects us only from the sort of trouble we might walk into; it does not protect us from trouble that comes looking for us. So we sleep well when we are in a familiar, safe place, but we sleep lightly, if at all, when we fear that bears will nose into the tent.

The evolutionary theory explain the differences in sleep among creatures. Why do cats, for instance, sleep so much, while horses sleep so little? Surely cats do not need five times as much repair and restoration as horses do. But cats can afford to have long periods of inactivity because they spend little time eating and are unlikely to be attacked while they sleep. Horses must spend almost all their waking hours eating, because what they eat is very low in energy value. Moreover, they cannot afford to sleep too long or too deeply, because their survival depends on their ability to run away from attackers.

3. A。推断题。根据文章末尾部分对各个地方人笑的多少的归纳可推知此题答案为A。