Among rich countries, people in the United States work the longest hours. They work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.

     In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to “spend” a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be greatly lower taxes in America, which increase the rewards to work. Another may be more satisfying work, or less satisfying personal lives.

Longer hours do of course increase the GDP (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say, France. The United States also has more of its people at work, while in France many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home. The overall result is that American GDP per head is 40% higher than in France, even though productivity per hour worked is the same.

It is not clear which of the two situations is better. As we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in interest. It is too early to explain the different trends（趋势）in happiness over time in different countries. But it is a disappointing idea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has risen in Europe. Could this have anything to do with trends in the work-life balance?

1.From the text we know that the author      .          

A. believes that longer working hours is better

B. prefers shorter working hours to longer ones

C. says nothing certain about which pattern is better

D. thinks neither of the patterns is good

2.Which of the following countries has more of its people at work?                  

A. Spain.           B. France.        C. Germany.         D. America. 

3.In the last paragraph, the underlined word “which” refers to ______.                 

A. family life        B. situations      C. other values       D. trends

4.What message can we get from the text?                                        

A. The GDP of Europe is higher than that of America.

B. Two possible reasons are given for working longer hours in the US.

C. People all over the world choose to work less when they are richer.

D. Americans are happier than Europeans.

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

A. Americans and Europeans            B. Staying at Home

C. Work and Productivity               D. Work and Happiness

Like cats, geckos（壁虎）always land on their feet. If they happen to fall from a wall or leaf they’ve been climbing, a quick move of the tail makes sure that they always land on their feet first, a new study finds.

     Geckos are truly built for climbing: their feet have hairy toes that can fix themselves to a wall or other vertical（竖直的）surfaces. However, geckos’ feet can’t always keep hold and they may fall to the ground. When geckos fall or jump off a wall, they always land stomach-side down. Geckos’ long tails become necessary during their falls, the new study shows.

     Researchers did an experiment. They placed geckos up-side-down on the underside of a leaf. When they lost their foothold and fell, the geckos pitched （倾斜）their tails for balance. They then rotated（旋转）their tails to make their bodies rotate. As soon as they were right-side up, they stopped rotating. On average, it only took the geckos about a tenth of a second to right themselves so that they would land on their feet.

     Cats use a different way to land on their feet after a fall. As their tails don’t have the power like geckos’ tails, cats can’t use them to right themselves. Instead they twist their bodies around mid-air.

     Engineers are trying to build a robot that imitates the geckos’ climbing ability. A tail will be fixed to the robot to allow it to keep balance.

1.What do we know about geckos?

   A. Their toes make it possible for them to walk on walls.

B. Their tails can fix them to a wall or other vertical surfaces.

C. They often land on their backs when they jump off walls.

D. It takes them a second to right themselves in mid-air.

2.How do cats avoid their injury during a fall?

   A. By twisting their bodies.                 B. By fixing their toes to the ground.

C. By using their tails to right themselves.     D. By landing upside-down.

3.Geckos’special abilities have given engineers some new ideas to _________.

A. allow robots to climb vertical surfaces        B. reproduce geckos like robots

C. invent robots that can rotate on the ground

D. invent robots that can balance themselves using their tails

4.What is the text mainly talking about?

   A. The interesting living habits of geckos.   B. The differences between cats and geckos.

C. Why geckos always land on their feet.     D. How geckos climb up vertical walls.

Among rich countries, people in the United States work the longest hours. They work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.

     In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to “spend” a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be greatly lower taxes in America, which increase the rewards to work. Another may be more satisfying work, or less satisfying personal lives.

Longer hours do of course increase the GDP (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say, France. The United States also has more of its people at work, while in France many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home. The overall result is that American GDP per head is 40% higher than in France, even though productivity per hour worked is the same.

It is not clear which of the two situations is better. As we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in interest. It is too early to explain the different trends（趋势）in happiness over time in different countries. But it is a disappointing idea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has risen in Europe. Could this have anything to do with trends in the work-life balance?

1.From the text we know that the author      .          

A. believes that longer working hours is better

B. prefers shorter working hours to longer ones

C. says nothing certain about which pattern is better

D. thinks neither of the patterns is good

2.Which of the following countries has more of its people at work?                    

A. Spain.           B. France.        C. Germany.         D. America.                              

3.In the last paragraph, the underlined word “which” refers to ______.                 

A. family life        B. situations      C. other values       D. trends

4.What message can we get from the text?                                        

A. The GDP of Europe is higher than that of America.

B. Two possible reasons are given for working longer hours in the US.

C. People all over the world choose to work less when they are richer.

D. Americans are happier than Europeans.

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

A. Americans and Europeans            B. Staying at Home

C. Work and Productivity               D. Work and Happiness

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给四个选项(A，B，C和D)中，选出最佳选项．

　　Many experiments have been done to see what happens to people if they aren't allowed to naturally follow the sleep cycle (循环). In the experiments people are functional(起作用) normally if they aren't allowed to dream. They are woken as soon as they enter the active part of the sleep cycle where dreaming takes place. They are tested to decide how this has effects on them.

　　In many experiments, the people being tested went to sleep. As soon as their eyes began to move, a sign that dreaming had begun, they were awakened(唤醒). Two important changes took place in people. They became very nervous and easily to get angry if they weren't allowed to dream. And, the more often they were awakened, the more often they tried to dream. In other words, the length of the passive(消极的) part of the sleep cycle became shorter and shorter. The researchers came to the conclusion that dreaming was caused by some chemical in the brain and that the brain produced the chemical for dreaming to take place. The fact that people tried to dream more if they weren't allowed to dream naturally led us to believe that we need to dream in order to be in balance.

1．Scientists have done many experiments to see ________.

[　　]

A．whether or not people dream in their sleep

B．how many dreams a person has in his or her sleep

C．whether people can act normally if they aren't allowed to dream in their sleep

D．what kind of people dream in their sleep

2．When one is asleep, the movement of his eyes shows that ________.

[　　]

A．he is going to sleep

B．he is going to awake

C．he begins to dream

D．he is dreaming something interesting

3．One becomes ________ if he is not allowed to dream in his sleep.

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