C

Once when I was nine, I came down with a horrible case of tonsillitis (扁桃腺炎). I remember going to the doctor, feeling miserable and scared, but also knowing that this man would somehow fix me. As he declared his conclusion regarding my illness, he asked my mother “Is your daughter allergic (过敏的) to any medicine? ” My mom hesitated for a moment, while I was looking at her questioningly. Was I allergic to anything? What if I was? What would happen to me?  My mother said no.

That evening after taking my pill, I began to shake uncontrollably. I complained of a terrible headache and continued shaking as my mother held me. She didn’t seem very concerned, yet I believed I was allergic to the pill. Before I fell asleep that night, I told my mom the medicine had made me sick and I wouldn’t take it anymore. The next morning, my mother had me drink a tall glass of iced tea that tasted funny. Later that afternoon, my mom asked me how I felt. I told her I was doing much better, and that was when she dropped the bomb on me. She told me she had mixed my ice tea that morning with my medicine. Guess what, no allergic reaction. I was never allergic to the pills, but my powerful subconscious (潜意识的) mind, accepted a mere suggestion by the doctor that I might be, and my body acted accordingly.

Most of us have no idea how powerful our minds are, and how incoming information continually affects our experience. When I took that pill, it had a negative effect on my mind. Researchers are finding more and more evidence that what we believe, or expect to happen medically, has a deep effect on what actually does happen. 

In some medical trials, the patients never took any medicine, only sugar pills, but were told they had been given expensive medicine, and their conditions improved anyway. They simply believed they would get better. On the other side of the coin, people who believe they are going to die in an operation have a higher death rate than people who don’t.

What we expect often tends to get realized. The power of your mind to heal your body is absolutely fantastic.  Take care in what information you choose to believe about your health and well-being. Think positively about your outcome in medical situations and allow your power of belief to help you heal.

49. The girl shook uncontrollably that evening because she _______.

A. had a horrible case of tonsillitis at the time

B. was allergic to the medicine she had taken

C. imagined the medicine was doing its harm

D. wanted to cheat her mother for more concern

50. The underlined “ she dropped the bomb on me ” can be understood as “ _______ ”.

A. she told me the truth that awakened me

B. she beat me like a plane dropping a bomb

C. she scolded me with heart-breaking words

D. she hurt my pride by telling me the truth

51. We can infer from the passage that _______.

A. most people believe our minds can function powerfully

B. it’s harmful to our health to take in negative information

C. the powerful subconscious mind can cure all diseases

D. sugar pills with proper mind are as good as costly medicine

52. The passage is mainly about _______.

A. a nine-year-old girl’s experience      B. people being allergic to medicine

C. a fantastic way to treat diseases      D. the effect of the mind on the result

A

A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension, will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and the general principles apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much more rapidly than a physics or economics textbook-but you can raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned with.

The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you might skim (浏览) through a newspaper at perhaps 650-700, while with a difficult textbook you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty.

Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds are common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, USA, for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy's War and Peace in translation, at speeds of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim that after twelve half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.

According to the passage, the purpose of effective reading with higher speed is most likely to help you ________.

A. only in your reading of a physics textbook

B. improve your understanding of an economics textbook

C. not only in your language study but also in other subjects

D. choose the suitable materials to read

Which of the following does not describe the types of reading materials mentioned in the second paragraph?

A. Those beyond one's reading comprehension.

B. Those concerned with common knowledge.

C. Those without much demand for specialized knowledge.

D. Those with the length of about five hundred words.

The average speed of untrained native speakers in the University of Minnesota is ________.

A. about 300 words per minute

B. about 245 words per minute

C. about 650-700 words per minute

D. about 500 words per minute

According to the passage, how fast can you expect to read after you have attended twelve half-hour lessons in the University of Minnesota?

A. You can increase your reading speed by three times.

B. No real increase in reading speed can be achieved.

C. Yon can increase your reading speed by four times.

D. You can double your reading speed.

After years of hearing drivers complain about scratches on their cars, Japan’s Nissan Motor Company has officially announced the next big thing — a paint that not only resists scratches and scrapes, but actually repairs itself within a few days.

The new material, developed by Nippon Paint Company, contains an elastic rubbery-like resin (弹性树脂) that is able to heal minor marks caused by car wash equipment, parking lot encounters, road debris (石头碎片) or even on-purpose destruction.

    The automaker admits its results vary depending on the temperature and the depth of the damage, but adds this is the only paint like it in the world, and tests prove it works.

Minor scratches, the most common type, are said to slowly fade over about a week. And once they’re gone, there is no trace that they were ever there.

The special paint is said to last for at least three years after it is first applied, but there is no word yet on whether more can be added after that period.

Nissan claims car washes are the worst offenders for this type of damage, accounting for at least 80 percent of all incidents.

    But the complete auto-healing won’t come without scratching your wallet. The vehicle maker notes the special paint adds about $100 US to the price of a car.

It plans to use its new chemical mixture only on its X-Trail SUVs in Japan for now, as it looks for a more widespread presentation. And while plans to offer the feature overseas haven’t been made yet, if it’s a hit there, you can be almost sure market forces will drive it to these shores, as well.

From the article, we can find that _________.

A. the paint has already been used on cars by now

B. it beats other products of its kind in its lengthy effect

C. car damage is mainly caused by scratches and scrapes

D. marketing this paint in Europe is not under way

The paint used on cars can _________.

A. last 3 years before it is reapplied again

B. fade only in a few days

C. help to protect minor paint damage

D. reduce car scrape incidents to 20 percent

What does the underlined part refer to?

A. certain models of Nissan                        B. name for one kind of paint

C. somewhere in Japan                              D. a word standing for a car-dealer store

What can be inferred from the article?

A. The paint was developed by Nissan Motor Company.

B. The paint might work better in summer than in winter.

C. The mark on the car could disappear as soon as the pain is applied.

D. The paint is very popular in Japan.

If you were to walk up to Arthur Bonner and say, “ Hey, Butterfly Man,” his face would break into a smile. The title suits him. And he loves it.

Arthur Bonner works with the Palos Verdes blue butterfly(蝴蝶), once thought to have died out. Today the butterfly is coming back — thanks to him. But years ago if you’d told him this was what he’d be doing someday, he would have laughed, “ You’re crazy.” As a boy, he used to be “ a little tough guy on the streets”. At age thirteen, he was caught by police for stealing. At eighteen, he landed in prison for shooting a man..

“ I knew it had hurt my mom,” Bonner said after he got out of prison. “ So I told myself I would not put my mom through that pain again.”

One day he met Professor Mattoni, who was working to rebuild the habitat(栖息地) for an endangered butterfly called El Segundo blue.

“ I saw the sign ‘ Butterfly Habitat’ and asked, ‘ How can you have a habitat when the butterflies can just fly away?’” Bonner recalls. “ Dr. Mattoni laughed and handed me a magnifying glass(放大镜) , ‘Look at the leaves.’ I could see all these caterpillars(蝴蝶的幼虫) on the plant. Dr Mattoni explained, ‘ Without the plant, there are no butterflies.’”

Weeks later, Bonner received a call from Dr. Mattoni, who told him there was a butterfly that needed help. That was how he met the Palos Verdes blue. Since then he’s been working for four years to help bring the butterfly back. He grows astragalus, the only plant the butterfly eats. He collects butterflies and brings them into a lab to lay eggs. Then he puts new butterflies into the habitat.

The butterfly’s population, once almost zero, is now up to 900. For their work, Bonner and Dr. Mattoni received lots of awards. But for Bonner, he earned something more: he turned his life around.

For six years now Bonner has kept his promise to stay out of prison. While he’s bringing back the Palos Verdes blue, the butterfly has helped bring him back, too.

41. When he was young, Arthur Bonner _______.

   A. broke the law and ended up in prison         B. was fond of shooting and hurt his mom

   C. often laughed at people on the streets          D. often caught butterflies and took them home

42. Bonner came to know the Palos Verdes blue after he _______.

   A. found the butterfly had died out                 B. won many prizes from his professor

   C. met Dr. Mattoni, a professor of biology             D. collected butterflies and put them into a lab

43. From the last sentence of the text, we learn that raising butterflies has _________.

   A. made Bonner famous                               B. changed Bonner’s life

   C. brought Bonner wealth                            D. enriched Bonner’s knowledge

44. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

   A. A Promise to Mom                                         B. A Man Saved by Butterflies

   C. A Story of Butterflies                                     D. A Job Offered by Dr. Mattoni

A man and his wife arrived in Boston by train．After getting off the train, they walked without an    36     into the outer office of Harvard’s president．So they were stopped by his secretary and kept    37    ．For hours, the secretary took no notice of them,  38  that the couple would finally become disappointed and    39   ．But they didn’t．The secretary finally decided to disturb the president, though  40  ．

       A few minutes later, the president walked towards the couple with a  41  face．The lady told him, “We had a son that  42  Harvard for one year．He loved Harvard．He was  43  here．But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed．My husband and I would like to  44  a memorial（纪念物）to him, somewhere on campus．”

The president wasn’t moved ．Instead, he was    45   ．“Madam,” he said, “we can’t put up a statue for every person who studied at Harvard and died．If we did, this place would look like a   46   ,” “Oh, no,” the lady  47  quickly．“We don’t want to put up a statue．We would like to give a  48  to Harvard．” The president rolled his eyes and  49  at the couple and then exclaimed, ” A building! Do you have any 50   how much a building costs? We have spent over ＄7,500,000 on the campus building at Harvard．” For a moment the lady was silent．The president was  51  , because he could get rid of them now．Then the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all it costs to start a  52  ? Why don’t we just start our own?” Her husband nodded． 53  their offer was turned down．Mr．and Mrs．Stanford traveled to California where they founded Stanford University     54   after them, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer  55  about．

A．choice        B．decision  C．acquaintance     D．appointment

A．waiting       B．standing   C．sitting          D．talking

A．hoping       B．finding     C．realizing       D．imagining

A．go down           B．go out      C．go away        D．go around

A．hopelessly     B．carefully   C．unexpectedly    D．unwillingly

A．pleasant     B．funny       C．cold          D．sad

A．attended     B．visited      C．studied         D．served

A．clever        B．brave     C．proud           D．happy

A．set about       B．set up       C．set down       D．set off

A．satisfied      B．excited     C．shocked        D．ashamed

A．park         B．cemetery  C．garden         D．museum

A．explained    B．expressed  C．refused         D．admitted

A．building      B．yard       C．playground      D．square

A．laughed       B．shouted     C．glanced         D．called

A．suggestion   B．idea       C．thought         D．opinion

A．bored       B．astonished C．interested      D．pleased

A．department  B．university C．business        D．club

A．Once        B．While       C．Since         D．Though

A．named      B．looked     C．taken         D．followed

A．talked      B．knew     C．heard         D．cared