In modem society there is a great deal of argument about competition．Some value it highly，believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity．Others say that competition is bad, that it sets one person against another and that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people．
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied(依赖)on how well they performed at tennis and other skills．For them，playing well and winning are often life-and-death affair. In their single-minded pursuit(追求)of success，the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten．
However，while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed，others take an opposite attitude．In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players，they strongly blame competition．Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society．Teaching these young people，I often observe in them a desire to fail．They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success .By not trying，they always have an excuse：“I may have lost，but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.’’ What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost，that would mean a lot．Such a loss would be a measure of their worth．
Clearly，this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves．Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others．Both are afraid of not being valued．Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve(缓解)can we discover a new meaning in competition．
【小题1】What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Competition helps to set up self-respect．

B．Opinions about competition are different among people．

C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development．

D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition．

【小题2】Why do some people favor competition according to the passage?

A．It pushes society forward．

B．it builds up a sense of duty．

C．It improves personal abilities．

D．It encourages individual efforts．

【小题3】The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means________．

A．those who try their best to win

B．those who value competition most highly

C．those who are against competition most strongly

D．those who rely on others most for success

【小题4】What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a “desire to fail”?

A．One’s worth lies in his performance compared with others’．

B．One’s success in competition needs great efforts．

C．One’s achievement is determined by his particular skills．

D．One’s success is based on how hard he has tried．

【小题5】Which point of view may the author agree to?

A．Every effort should be paid back．

B．Competition should be encouraged．

C．Winning should be a life—and—death matter．

D．Fear of failure should be removed in competition．

The ability to memorize things seems to be a vanishing （消失的） technique．So what can we do to bring out brain cells back into action? A newly published book on memory, Moomvalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by American journalist Joshua Foer, makes a telling point, one that is an analysis of the importance of memorising events and stories in human history; the decline of its role in modem life; and the techniques that we need to adopt to restore the art of remembering．
As For points out, we no longer need to remember telephone numbers．Our mobile phones do that for us．We don't recall addresses either．We send emails from computers that store electronic addresses．Nor do we bother to remember multiplication tables （乘法表） ．Pocket calculators do the job of multiplying quite nicely．Museums, photographs, the digital media and books also act as storehouses for memories that once we had to keep in mind．
As a result, we no longer remember long poems or folk stories by heart, feats （技艺） of memory that were once the cornerstones of most people's lives．Indeed, society has changed so much that we no longer know what techniques we should employ to remember such lengthy works．We are, quite simply, forgetting how to remember．
And let's face it, there is nothing sadder than someone who has lost their mobile phone and who finds they cannot even phone home or call their parents or partners because they cannot remember a single telephone number．That is a sad example of loss of personal independence．So, yes, there is a need for us to he able to remember certain things in life．
Therefore, Foer's book outlines the methods that need to be mastered in order to promote our memories and regain the ability to recall long strings of names, numbers or faces．In the process, he adds, we will become more aware of the world about us．
The trick, Foer says, is to adopt a process known as " elaborative encoding", which involves transforming information, such as a shopping list, into a series of "absorbing visual images"．If you want to remember a list of household objects—potatoes, cottage cheese, sugar and other items, then visualise them in an unforgettable manner, he says．Start by creating an image of a large jar of potatoes standing in the garden．Next to it, imagine a giant tub of cottage cheese—the size of an outdoor pool—and then picture Lady Gaga swimming in it．And so on．Each image should be as fantastic and memorable as possible．
Using methods like this, it becomes possible to achieve great feats of memory quite easily, Foer says．It certainly seems to have worked for him: he won the annual US Memory Championships after learning how to memorize 120 random digits in five minutes; the first and last names of 156 strangers in 15 minutes; and a deck of cards in under two minutes．"What I had really trained my brain to do, as much as to memorise, was to be more mindful and to pay attention to the world around," he says．
These techniques employed by Foer to master his memory were developed by Ed Cooke—a British writer and a world memory championship grandmaster．He acted as Foer's trainer during preparations for the book and helped him achieve his championship performances．" Memory techniques do just one thing: they make information more meaningful to the mind, making the things we try to learn unforgettably bright and amusing," said Cooke．
【小题1】Which of the following is conveyed in this article?

A．People become more independent with modern equipment．

B．The memory's role in life is declining in modem society．

C．Memory techniques can make information less meaningful．

D．Ed Cooke is the first one who benefited from Foer's techniques．

【小题2】According to Joshua Foer, people no longer memorize information today because________．

A．museums can do everything for them．

B．they no longer have the ability to memorize things．

C．they have things that can act as storehouses for memories．

D．it is not necessary to memorize anything in modem life．

【小题3】One method of memorizing things mentioned in the passage is to ________．

A．link things to famous pop stars

B．find the connection between different things

C．form vivid, unforgettable images of certain things

D．use advanced digital imaging technology to help

【小题4】The underlined word "visualise" in the last paragraph most probably means "_______"．

A．imagine

B．undertake

C．remark

D．indicate

【小题5】This passage can be sorted as ________．

A．a news report	B．an advertisement
C．a scientific discovery	D．a book review

When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.

Cigarette? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modem life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

The costs are becoming more and more evident, and I don't mean just the monthly bill. Dr.Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on -one personal contact, and an escape from reality. Sounds extreme, but we' ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell - phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e - mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says.

If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987, there were only l million cell phones in use. Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.

1.From the first two paragraphs, we can know                   ．

A．cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes

B．cell phone addiction is good for building personal relationships

C．people are longing to have their own cell phones

D．cell phones are the same as cigarettes

2.Cell phone addiction has caused the following effects EXCEPT            .

A．a barrier to personal contact               B．fewer friends

C．an escape from reality                    D．a serious illness

3.The underlined word "curb" in Paragraph 2 means “           ．”

A．ignore            B．control           C．develop           D．rescue

4.The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that        .

A．women Use cell phones more often than men

B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

D．cell phones make one - on - one personal contact easy

5.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Cell phones Are the New Cigarettes

B．Cell phones Are Harmful to the Society

C．The New Report about the Cell phone

D．The Disadvantages of the Cell phone

 

It has been argued that an infant under three who is cared for outside the home may suffer because of the separation from his parents．The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby believes that separation from the parents during the sensitive "attachment" period from birth to three may scar （留下疤痕） a child's personality and incline to emotional problems in later life．Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby's work that children should not be sent to day care before the age of three, and many people do believe this．But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion．

Firstly, anthropologists （人类学家） point out that the hidden love between children and parents found in modem societies does not usually exist in traditional societies．For example, we saw earlier that among the Ngonis the father and mother of a child did not raise their infant alone．But traditional societies are so different from modern societies that comparisons based on just one factor are hard to understand．

Secondly, common sense tells us that day care would not be so widespread today if parents and caretakers found that children had problems with it．But Bowlby's analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects．The possibility that such care might lead to more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later can only be noticed by the use of statistics．Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out, and even if they were, the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial．

Thirdly, in the last decade, there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care, and they have reported that day care had a neutral of slightly positive effect on children's development．But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue．

1.This passage is mainly talking about________．

    A．children's personality                     

B．advantages of infants' early care

    C．infants' education                    

D．negative effect of infant school

2.The phrase "day care   in the first paragraph probably means_____.

    A．nursing school                          B．baby-sitter

    C．boarding school                         D．primary school

3.According to Bowlby, children under the age of three______．

    A．should not be sent to school

    B．should be cared for outside the home

    C．will not suffer fro m parental separation

    D．don't mind who will look after them

4.The argument against Bowlby's conclusion shows that___．

    A．children have problems with day care

    B．there is no negative effect on infants who go to school before three

    C．there is a long-term effect on infants who go to school before three

    D．children who are sent to school before three are sent to mental illness

 

When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.

Cigarette? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modem life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

The costs are becoming more and more evident, and I don't mean just the monthly bill. Dr. Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality. Sounds extreme, but we' ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell - phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e - mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents.  " Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends," he says.

If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987, there were only l million cell phones in use.  Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.

1. From the first two paragraphs, we can know________.

A．cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes

B．cell phone addiction is good for building personal relationships

C．people are longing to have their own cell phones

D．cell phones are the same as cigarettes

2.Cell phone addiction has caused the following effects EXCEPT________  .

A．a barrier to personal contact	B．fewer friends
C．an escape from reality	D．a serious illness

3. The underlined word "curb" in Paragraph 2 means “________. ”

A．ignore

B．control

C．develop

D．rescue

4.The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that________  .

A．women Use cell phones more often than men

B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

D．cell phones make one - on - one personal contact easy

5.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Cell phones Are the New Cigarettes

B．Cell phones Are Harmful to the Society

C．The New Report about the Cell phone

D．The Disadvantages of the Cell phone