Evelyn Glennie was the first lady of solo percussion in Scotland. In an interview, she recalled how she became a percussion soloist (打击乐器独奏演员) in spite of her disability.

“Early on I decided not to allow the  36  of others to stop me from becoming a musician. I grew up on a farm in northeast Scotland and began  37  piano lessons when I was eight. The older I got, the more my passion (酷爱) for music grew. But I also began to gradually lose my  38 . Doctors concluded that the nerve damage was the  39  and by age twelve, I was completely deaf. But my love for music never  40  me.

“My  41  was to become a percussion soloist, even though there were none at that time. To perform, I  42  to hear music differently from others. I play in my stocking feet and can  43  the pitch of a note (音调高低) by the vibrations (振动). I feel through my body and through my  44 . My entire sound world exists by making use of almost every 45  that I have.

“I was  46  to be assessed as a musician, not as a deaf musician, and I applied to the famous Royal Academy of Music in London. No other deaf student had  47  this before and some teachers  48  my admission. Based on my performance, I was  49 admitted and went to  50  with the academy’s highest honours.

“After that, I established myself as the first full-time solo percussionist. I  51  and arranged a lot of musical compositions since  52  had been written specially for solo percussionists.

“I have been a soloist for over ten years.  53  the doctor thought a was totally deaf, it didn’t  54  that my passion couldn’t be realized. I would encourage people not to allow themselves to be  55  by others. Follow your passion; follow your heart, they will lead you to to the place you want to go.”

36. A. conditions   B . opinions           C. actions                D. recommendations

37. A. enjoying           B. choosing          C. taking                 D. giving

38. A. sight                B. hearing            C. touch                  D. taste

39. A. evidence           B. result               C. excuse                 D. cause

40. A. left                  B. excited            C. accompanied        D. disappointed

41. A. purpose            B. decision           C. promise               D. goal

42. A. turned              B. learned            C. used                    D. ought

43. A. tell                  B. see                  C. hear                    D. smell

44. A. carefulness   B. movement        C. imagination         D. experience

45. A. sense                B. effort              C. feeling                D. idea

46. A. dissatisfied    B. astonished      C. determined        D. discouraged

47. A. done                B. accepted          C. advised               D. admitted

48. A. supported     B. followed          C. required              D. opposed

49. A. usually             B. finally             C. possibly              D. hopefully

50. A. study               B. research           C. graduate              D. progress

51. A. wrote               B. translated         C. copied                 D. read

52. A. enough              B. some             C. many                  D. few

53. A. However            B. Although        C. When                  D. Since

54. A. mean                 B. seem              C. conclude             D. say

55. 55. A. directed   B. guided            C. taught                 D. limited

A research by the National Center for Health Statistics is seen as an important confirmation of the“Hispanic mortality paradox（西班牙裔死亡率悖论）.”

On average，Hispanics outlive whites by 2.5 years and blacks by 7.7 years. Their life expectancy at birth in 2006 was 80.6 years，compared with 78.1 for whites，72.9 for blacks and 77.7 years for the total population.

The report shows that the Hispanic population has higher life expectancy at birth and at almost every age despite a socioeconomic status lower than that of whites.“Mortality is very correlated with income，education and health care access，”says Elizabeth Arias，author of the report.“You would expect the Hispanic population would have higher mortality，”in line with the black population.

The Hispanic paradox has been documented for more than two decades，but this is the first time the government has had enough data to issue national numbers. Researchers are struggling to explain why Hispanics live longer.

“We don’t know，”says David Hayes-Bautista，director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.“We thought it was a problem in the data，but we can pretty much say this is real.”

Potential factors:

·Culture and lifestyle.  Support from extended family and lower rates of smoking and drinking.Latino groups in particular have very strong family and social ties.

·Migration.  The“healthy migrant effect”argues that healthy people are more likely to emigrate. And when immigrants become ill，they might return home and die there.

    Solving the puzzle may help the nation deal with health care issues because Hispanics use health services less—they make fewer doctors visits and spend less time in hospitals，Hayes-Bautista says.“It’s clearly something in the Latino culture，”he says.

In 2006，Hispanics’life expectancy is           years longer than the average of the total population.

    A. 2.5                 B. 7.7               C. 2.9              D. 80.6

What does the underlined word“outlive”in the second paragraph probably mean？

A. To live longer than…                      B. To live shorter than…

C. To die out.                              D. To expect to live.

What is the main idea of paragraph three？

A. Hispanics were born better than whites.

B. Morality is closely related with health care access.

C. Whites should have longer life expectancy.

D. Even experts can’t explain the phenomenon.

What is Mr.Hayes-Bautista’s opinion about the paradox？

A. He supports there is a problem with the data.

B. He intends to trust the cultural factor.

C. He believes in the“healthy migrant effect”.

D. He thinks health care the most important factor.

Which of the following inferences is true according to the passage？

A. Black people suffer the lowest social status in America.

B. Hispanics might have healthier ways of life.

C. Only healthy people can immigrate into America.

D. White people don’t have strong family ties.

I have been consistently opposed to feeding a baby regularly. As a doctor, mother and scientist in child development I believe there is nothing to recommend it, from the baby’s point of view.

Mothers, doctors and nurse alike have no idea of where a baby’s blood sugar level lies. All we know is that a low level is harmful to brain development and makes a baby easily annoyed. In this state, the baby is difficult to calm down and sleep is impossible. The baby asks for attention by crying and searching for food with its mouth.

It is not just unkind but also dangerous to say a four-hourly feeding schedule will make a baby satisfied. The first of the experts to advocate a strict clock-watching schedule was Dr Frederic Truby King who was against feeding in the night. I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. Baby feeding shouldn’t follow a timetable set by the mum. What is important is feeding a baby in the best way, though it may cause some inconvenience in the first few weeks.

Well, at last we have copper-bottomed research that supports demand feeding and points out the weaknesses of strictly timed feeding. The research finds out that babies who are fed on demand do better at school at age 5, 7, 11 and 14, than babies fed according to the clock. By the age of 8, their IQ （智商）scores are four to five percent higher than babies fed by a rigid timetable. This research comes from Oxford and Essex University using a sample （样本）of 10,419 children born in the early 1990s,taking account of parental education, family income, a child’s sex and age, the mother’s health and feeling style. These results don’t surprise me. Feeling according to schedule runs the risk of harming the rapidly growing brain by taking no account of sinking blood sugar levels.

I hope this research will put an end to advocating strictly timed baby feeling practices.

1.According to Paragraph 2, one reason why a baby cries is that it feels______.

2.What does the author think about Dr King?

3.The word copper-bottomed in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _________.

4.What does the research tell us about feeling a baby on demand?

5.The author supports feeling the baby_______.

B

What happens inside the skull of a soccer player when repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.

For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.

Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.

According to the data they presented at Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.

This pattern of white matter loss is “similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury”, like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.

The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.

1.The passage is most probably a ________.

A．news report                           B．research report

C．story for soccer players                   D．text for doctors

2. In which way can researchers find the structural changes in the brain?

A．Computerized test                       B．Questionnaire

C．Scanning                              D．M.R.I. technique

3. From the passage we can conclude that frequent heading may have ________.

A．significant effect on brain                 B．little effect on one’s brain

C．nothing to do with the brain injury           D．one’s memory improved

4.What is likely to be the cause of memory loss?

A．Playing soccer frequently                 B．Tests of their memory

C．White matter loss                       D．Information processing

5.The underlined word “fumbling” is closest in meaning to ________?

A．remembering      B．misunderstanding   C．recalling          D．missing

Doctors are doing research to find out what happens physically when people _________ smoking.