From babies to body builders, we all have muscles. They grow, they bulge(鼓起), they stretch they stretch and sometimes they even painfully pull. But for all the work they do for us, we are still unable to crown one as "the strongest muscle."
Instead, a few muscles could claim the title, depending on how strength is measured.
If the title goes to the muscle that can exert(产生) the most force, the victor would be the soleus（小腿肚肌）, according to Gray's Anatomy（解剖学）. Without this muscle, we wouldn't be able to stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor. If the soleus was not continuously pulling, we would always be falling over ourselves (although some of us tend to do that from time to time anyway).
But perhaps the title should go to the muscle that exerts the most pressure. Pressure is different from force — pressure takes into account the area over which a force is exerted. The muscle that takes the prize for delivering the greatest amount of pressure is the masseter, or the jaw muscle, according to the book "Clinical Oral Science" (Reed Educational and Professional Publishing, 1998).
In 1986, Richard Hofmann of Lake City, Fla., achieved a bite strength of 975 pounds (442 kilograms) for two seconds, setting a Guinness Record. Talk about jaw dropping! The jaw is able to clench（咬紧） and chew because of the masseter muscle.
Others may argue the muscles used in childbirth are the most powerful.
When it comes to versatility, perhaps the tongue is the strongest muscle. Its combination of elasticity（伸缩性） and forcefulness gives us the ability to speak, eat and kiss – all things very desirable on a first date. However dexterous（灵巧的） it may be though, its power does not match that of muscles such as the soleus.
If slow and steady wins the race, the heart is certainly a contender for the title. When it contracts, the muscle pumps about 2 ounces (59 milliliters) of blood, and is constantly working over a lifetime. Beating about 40 million times a year, a person's heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times by the time of their 70th birthday.
【小题1】According the passage, the underlined word “contender” in the last paragraph is closet in meaning to “          ”.

A．failure

B．partner

C．muscle

D．competitor

【小题2】Which would be t he best title for the passage?

A．What’s the strongest muscle in the human body?

B．who is the strongest person in the world?

C．What are the functions of different muscles?

D．What are the standards of the strongest muscle?

【小题3】According to the passage,       .

A．Without the soleus, we could still stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor

B．a few muscles could be the winners, according to different measures

C．the muscles used in childbirth are the most powerful

D．tongue is the strongest muscle for delivering the greatest amount of pressure

【小题4】What would be discussed in the following paragraph?

A．Another possible strongest muscle.	B．the conclusion of the strongest muscle.
C．The functions of different muscles.	D．the Guinness record of strongest muscle.

So there are four of them in this car heading north from Coleman in the heart of Texas to the town of Abilene (阿比林), some 53 miles away. It is a hot day, and the drive is dusty and boring. Someone has had the bright idea to interrupt a nice family game of dominoes (多米诺) to go on a four-hour round-trip to eat at a really not very good restaurant.

When they are back home again, one family member admits that she hasn’t enjoyed herself all that much. One by one they all confess that they would rather have stayed at home. “I only went along with it because I thought the rest of you wanted to go,” says everyone. No one wanted to go to Abilene. It had just happened.

This story was first told by Professor Jerry Harvey in an article published in 1974 called The Abilene Paradox (悖论) and other meditations on management. It offers a wonderful insight into the way that decisions can sometimes just emerge, without ever being consciously “made”.

Whether they mean to or not, groups exert a pressure to conform (顺从). A senior management team can find itself a long way down the track to a bad decision without realizing that the idea has very little support around the table.

Close-knit (组织严密的) teams are easily influenced by the pull of groupthink. The late Professor Janis suggested several ways in which teams can avoid it. Two key steps are to invite experts from outside into meetings, and to appoint at least one person to the role of “devil’s advocate” — a role that should be played by different people in different meetings.

1.The four family members have decided to go on a four-hour round-trip to the town of Abilene because _______.

A．they really like the restaurant they are going to

B．they are tired of the game they have been playing

C．they have not been to Abilene for a long time

D．everyone thinks all the other family members want to go

2.When they are back home, they find that______.

A．they have not really trusted each other

B．they have all enjoyed the trip except one family member

C．they would have had a better time if they had stayed at home

D．they have all had a good time although none of them wanted to go

3.A senior management team can make a bad decision because ______.

A．the idea has the support of everyone around the table

B．everyone on the team is too tired to think clearly

C．the group puts a pressure to conform

D．they understand what each member means

4.According to Professor Janis, at least one person should be appointed to the role of “devil’s advocate ” at each meeting so that _______.

A．the pull of groupthink can be avoided

B．each member will play a different role

C．team members can agree with each other more easily

D．experts from the outside can be invited into meetings

 

The earth is not the only body that travels around the sun. With it are eight other planets, fellow members of the sun’s family.

Two of them, Mercury (水星) and Venus, are nearer while the other six, namely Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, also in their given order from the sun, are farther from the sun than the earth is. The farther they are, the longer trips they make around the sun. People noticed long ago that these traveling bodies moved around in the sky in definite paths. It is a force called gravity that holds them in their paths.

We know that every little bit of matter in the universe pulls upon every other bit of matter. The pull between two bodies is proportional (成比例的) to the product of their masses. Because the sun is so large the pull between the sun and the planets are thus great. If it were not for this pull, the planets would fly off into space. In the same way there exists a pull between the earth and the moon, which keeps the moon traveling in its orbit around our planet, the earth. Gravity holds you to its surface, and pulls back to it the ball which you throw into the air. Of course the ball also pulls on the larger earth but the earth is so much larger that the pull is not noticed.

Now remember that large bodies exert a greater pull than smaller ones which contain less material. But each object in the universe, no matter how small, pulls on all other objects to some degree.

1.There are ________ that travel around the sun in the sun’s family.

A．nine planets                           B．eight planets

C．one star and ten planets                  D．the earth and the sun

2.Which two planets make the longest trips around the sun among all the planets in the solar system?

A．Mercury and Venus.                     B．Neptune and Pluto.

C．Saturn and Uranus.                      D．Mars and Jupiter.

3.From the passage we can see__________

A．all the objects, big or small, must exert the same pull on one another

B．large objects exert the same pull on anybody as small objects

C．small objects exert the same on large ones

D．each object in the universe exerts a pull on all other objects

4.From the sentence “The pull between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses.” We can infer that the pull between__________

A．the sun and the moon is greater than between the sun and the earth

B．the earth and the moon is greater than that between the sun and the earth

C．the sun and the earth is greater than that between the earth and the moon

D．the sun and the earth is the same as that between the earth and the moon

 

From babies to body builders, we all have muscles. They grow, they bulge(鼓起), they stretch they stretch and sometimes they even painfully pull. But for all the work they do for us, we are still unable to crown one as "the strongest muscle."

       Instead, a few muscles could claim the title, depending on how strength is measured.

       If the title goes to the muscle that can exert(产生) the most force, the victor would be the soleus（小腿肚肌）, according to Gray's Anatomy（解剖学）. Without this muscle, we wouldn't be able to stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor. If the soleus was not continuously pulling, we would always be falling over ourselves (although some of us tend to do that from time to time anyway).

       But perhaps the title should go to the muscle that exerts the most pressure. Pressure is different from force — pressure takes into account the area over which a force is exerted. The muscle that takes the prize for delivering the greatest amount of pressure is the masseter, or the jaw muscle, according to the book "Clinical Oral Science" (Reed Educational and Professional Publishing, 1998).

       In 1986, Richard Hofmann of Lake City, Fla., achieved a bite strength of 975 pounds (442 kilograms) for two seconds, setting a Guinness Record. Talk about jaw dropping! The jaw is able to clench（咬紧） and chew because of the masseter muscle.

       Others may argue the muscles used in childbirth are the most powerful.

       When it comes to versatility, perhaps the tongue is the strongest muscle. Its combination of elasticity（伸缩性） and forcefulness gives us the ability to speak, eat and kiss – all things very desirable on a first date. However dexterous（灵巧的） it may be though, its power does not match that of muscles such as the soleus.

       If slow and steady wins the race, the heart is certainly a contender for the title. When it contracts, the muscle pumps about 2 ounces (59 milliliters) of blood, and is constantly working over a lifetime. Beating about 40 million times a year, a person's heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times by the time of their 70th birthday.

According the passage, the underlined word “contender” in the last paragraph is closet in meaning to “           ”.

       A．failure      B．partner     C．muscle      D．competitor

Which would be t he best title for the passage?

       A．What’s the strongest muscle in the human body?

       B．who is the strongest person in the world?

       C．What are the functions of different muscles?

       D．What are the standards of the strongest muscle?

According to the passage,        .

       A．Without the soleus, we could still stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor

       B．a few muscles could be the winners, according to different measures

       C．the muscles used in childbirth are the most powerful

       D．tongue is the strongest muscle for delivering the greatest amount of pressure

What would be discussed in the following paragraph?

       A．Another possible strongest muscle. B．the conclusion of the strongest muscle.

       C．The functions of different muscles. D．the Guinness record of strongest muscle.

From babies to body builders, we all have muscles. They grow, they bulge(鼓起), they stretch they stretch and sometimes they even painfully pull. But for all the work they do for us, we are still unable to crown one as "the strongest muscle."

Instead, a few muscles could claim the title, depending on how strength is measured.

If the title goes to the muscle that can exert(产生) the most force, the victor would be the soleus（小腿肚肌）, according to Gray's Anatomy（解剖学）. Without this muscle, we wouldn't be able to stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor. If the soleus was not continuously pulling, we would always be falling over ourselves (although some of us tend to do that from time to time anyway).

But perhaps the title should go to the muscle that exerts the most pressure. Pressure is different from force — pressure takes into account the area over which a force is exerted. The muscle that takes the prize for delivering the greatest amount of pressure is the masseter, or the jaw muscle, according to the book "Clinical Oral Science" (Reed Educational and Professional Publishing, 1998).

In 1986, Richard Hofmann of Lake City, Fla., achieved a bite strength of 975 pounds (442 kilograms) for two seconds, setting a Guinness Record. Talk about jaw dropping! The jaw is able to clench（咬紧） and chew because of the masseter muscle.

Others may argue the muscles used in childbirth are the most powerful.

When it comes to versatility, perhaps the tongue is the strongest muscle. Its combination of elasticity（伸缩性） and forcefulness gives us the ability to speak, eat and kiss – all things very desirable on a first date. However dexterous（灵巧的） it may be though, its power does not match that of muscles such as the soleus.

If slow and steady wins the race, the heart is certainly a contender for the title. When it contracts, the muscle pumps about 2 ounces (59 milliliters) of blood, and is constantly working over a lifetime. Beating about 40 million times a year, a person's heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times by the time of their 70th birthday.

1.According the passage, the underlined word “contender” in the last paragraph is closet in meaning to “          ”.

A．failure

B．partner

C．muscle

D．competitor

2.Which would be t he best title for the passage?

A．What’s the strongest muscle in the human body?

B．who is the strongest person in the world?

C．What are the functions of different muscles?

D．What are the standards of the strongest muscle?

3.According to the passage,       .

A．Without the soleus, we could still stand, walk, run or shake our bodies on the dance floor

B．a few muscles could be the winners, according to different measures

C．the muscles used in childbirth are the most powerful

D．tongue is the strongest muscle for delivering the greatest amount of pressure

4.What would be discussed in the following paragraph?

A．Another possible strongest muscle.	B．the conclusion of the strongest muscle.
C．The functions of different muscles.	D．the Guinness record of strongest muscle.