A

Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men's hearts go into rapid decline（衰退） when they reach middle age.

The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women's longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping（输送）power with age.

"We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20--25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,”said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

"Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70，one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,”said Goldspink. "This is part of the ageing process."

What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman's heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one's.

"This gender（性别）difference might just explain why women live longer than men,”said Goldspink.

They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80，focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.

The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart, said Goldspink.

The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.

21. The underlined word“longevity" in the second paragraph probably refers to ______.

A. health B. long life C. ageing D. effect

22. According to the text, the UK scientists have known that_________.

A. women have more cells than men when they are born

B. women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat

C. the female heart loses few of the cells with age

D. women never lose their pumping power with age

23. If you want to live longer, you should_____________.

A. enable your heart to beat much faster

B. find out the reason for ageing

C. exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy

D. prevent your cells from being lost

24. We can know from the passage that_________.

A. the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out

B. scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells

C. the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss

D. women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20

B

Life gets noisier every day and very few people can be free from noise of some sort or another. It doesn't matter where you live--in the middle of a modern city, or a faraway village--the chances are that you'll be disturbed by jet planes, transistor radios, oil-powered engines, etc. We seem to be getting used to noise, too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they' re working.

Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be a very frightening experience for a human being. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums(耳鼓). The noise level in some discos is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.

One recent report about noise and concentration(专心) suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration, what really influences their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise which doesn't change too much(music, for example) may even help people to concentrate.

60. According to this passage, the noise pollution ____.

A. has become the worst in the countryside B. has become better in big cities

C. has spread from cities to villages D. has been controlled in modern cities

61. What does background music refer to?

A. Music played while people are working.

B. Music played in the backyard.

C. Noise that continues while you' re listening to other noises.

D. Music used to help people to concentrate.

63. Which of the following isn't included among the things causing noise?

A. trucks B. motorcycles C. electric engines D. jet planes

64. Scientists have discovered that what prevents people from concentrating on something is___.

A. all kinds of noise B. great changes in the level of noise

C. background noise D. popular music

C

Have you ever been in a meeting while someone was making a speech and realized suddenly that your mind was a million miles away? You probably felt sorry and made up your mind to pay attention and always have been told that daydreaming is a waste of time.

"On the contrary, "says L. Giambra, an expert in psychology, "daydreaming is quite necessary. Without it, the mind couldn't get done all the thinking it has to do during a normal day. You can't possibly do all your thinking with a conscious (有意识) mind. Instead, your unconscious mind is working out problems all the time. Daydreaming then may be one way that the unconscious and conscious states of mind have silent dialogues."

Early experts in psychology paid no attention to the importance of daydreams or even considered them harmful. At one time daydreaming was thought to be a cause of some mental illnesses. They did not have a better understanding of daydreams until the late 1980s. Eric Klinger, a professor of psychology, is the writer of the book Daydreaming. Klinger says, "We know now that daydreaming is one of the main ways that we organize our lives, learn from our experiences, and plan for our futures. Day-dreams really are a window on the things we fear and the things we long for in life."

Daydreams are usually very simple and direct, quite unlike sleep dreams, which may be hard to understand. It's easier to gain a deep understanding of your life by paying close attention to your day-dreams than by trying to examine your sleep dreams carefully. Daydreams help you recognize the difficult situations in your life and find out a possible way of dealing with them.

Daydreams cannot be predicated (预料). They move off in unexpected directions which may be creative (创造性的) and full of ideas. For many famous artists and scientists, daydreams were and are a main source of creative energy.

68. The writer of this passage considers daydreams_________.

A. hard to understand B. important and helpful

C. harmful and unimportant D. the same as sleep dreams

69. The writer quoted (引用) L. Giambra and Eric Klinger to __________.

A. point out the wrong ideas of early experts B. list two different ideas

D. report the latest research on daydreams C. support his own idea

70. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. An unconscious mind can work all the problems out.

B. Daydreaming can give artists and scientists ideas for creation.

C. Professor Eric Klinger has a better idea than L. Giambra.

D. Early experts didn't understand what daydreams were.

71. What is the main difference between daydreams and sleep dreams?

A. People have daydreams and sleep dreams at different times.

B. Daydreams are the result of unconscious mind while sleep dreams are that of conscious mind.

C. Daydreams are more harmful.

D. Daydreams are more helpful in solving problems.

E

When nature is left alone, a balance is reached among the animals and plants living in one area. But when man starts his work in nature, the balance is likely to be destroyed. He grows a crop and takes it away to eat; then there are no dead leaves to fall on the ground, holding water while it sinks into the surface, or decaying(腐烂) and adding humus(腐殖质) to the soil. Unless a farmer acts with knowledge and skill, he is therefore most likely to make the land poorer. To take the place of the useful matter in the crops that he removes, he uses some kind of fertilizer (肥料). Chemical fertilizers are of great help, but the waste products of animals and decaying remains of plants should also be put on the land. In some places, it is a habit to burn waste material lying about, but such burning destroys the useful matter in the dead plants. Although the ashes that are left are valuable when put on the land, a better practice is to bury the waste so that it decays and increases the humus in the soil.

In the past, when the world population was much lower than it is now, a man had little difficulty in ordinary times in growing the food that was needed. When a field had been used some years and had become tired, the farmer could move to another place. The tired land then slowly recovered. Gradually grasses and other plants would appear on it and its productive power would slowly return to normal through their decay. But nature, left alone, would take a long time to bring back the land to its former state; the length of time required would depend on local conditions, but it might well be ten years.

It is a bad practice to grow the same crop in a field year after year. If the crop is changed, the land will suffer less because it is treated and used in a different way. Different plants have different effects on the soil. Therefore, a change of crop will do less harm than the growing of the same crop year after year and a regular change to grass will do good to the soil. Much will therefore be gained if different crops are grown one after another, a method known as the rotation(轮作) of crops.

72. According to the passage, the land will become poorer ________.

A. if all the dead leaves are cleared away

B. if the humus is increased after the harvest

C. if dead leaves decay in the soil by themselves

D. if waste plant material lying about is buried

73. We can learn from the passage that the tired land has gradually recovered ________.

A. when grasses and other plants appear again

B. when the treatment is given by nature alone

C. after new grasses and other plants have decayed again

D. after nature has been left alone for several months

74. A modern farmer can hardly move to another place as he did before because_________.

A. the productive power of a new field isn't higher than that of an old one

B. there are few free fields left for him to do farming

C. it takes a farmer more than ten years to start farming in a new field

D. there will be too many grasses in a new field to grow crops

75. It is most likely that the author will go on to ____ in the paragraph following the passage.

A. introduce other methods of planting crops

B. deal with how to prevent land getting tired

C. start another topic of how to make use of land

D. further explain what the rotation of crops is

BCCB, CACB , BCBD, ACBD

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