and filled with laughter. I date and have a bunch of new friends. My life is hardly recognizable. I have created a whole new reality.
I have always known that great changes are possible. I am the great-grandchild of Eastern European immigrants who left their countries with almost nothing. But they created businesses and munities here. My own parents moved to a new city with two small children and started a brand new life with a new set of friends. And even my late grandmother lived two pletely different lives within her lifetime. In my childhood, she was a widow (遗孀）after my grandfather died at 43. She raised her daughters alone, rarely traveling out of her hometown. However, after being single for 26 years, she surprised us all by falling in love and remarrying. She and Harry socialized endlessly, traveled around the country and spent summers at their second home by the sea. They lived their new, adventurous lives well into their nineties.
Life is full of possibilities. It is full of changes. We assume that our lives are linear (直线的), leading from birth to death in a straight path. But they can change. They can have sharp twists. They can double back and leap forward and begin another story altogether. 14. What can we know about the author’s life? A. She is leading a totally different life now. B. She feels as if she loses control of her life. C. Her unhappy marriage lasted five years. D. She makes new friends but forgets old ones.
15. How does the author prove her argument in Paragraph 3? A. By explaining in a logical way. B. By describing in vivid words. C. By telling imaginary stories. D. By giving proper examples.
16. The underlined word “twists” in the last paragraph probably means . A. endings
B. turns
D. edges
C. conflicts
17. What is the author's attitude towards the changes of life? A. Positive.
B. Doubtful. D. Disappointed.
C
Scientists believe that knowledge could be directly fed into your brain while you are falling asleep, just like what happened in the famous science fiction film-The Matrix. Researchers claim
C. Uninterested.
to have developed a stimulator which can feed information directly into a person's brain and teach him new skills in a shorter amount of time.
In the film called The Matrix, the hero Neo is able to learn kung fu in seconds after the fighting skills are ‘'uploaded” straight into his brain.
Researchers from the HRL Laboratories in California, say they have found a way to multiply learning, only on a much smaller scale than seen in the Hollywood film. They studied the electric signals in the brain of a trained pilot and then fed the data into the new learners as they learned to pilot a plane in a realistic flight simulator. The study, published in the journal Frontiers magazine, found that new learners who received brain stimulation(刺激）improved their piloting abilities and learnt the task 33 percent better than those who didn't accept brain stimulation.
“Our system is one of the first of its kind. It’s a brain stimulation system,”
explained Dr. Matthew Phillips. “It sounds kind of scientific-fiction, but there is
enough large scientific basis for the development of our system. When you learn something, your brain physically changes. What our system does is that it actually targets those changes to specific parts of the brain as you learn,'' he added. It turns out that certain functions of the brain, like speech and memory, are located in very specific areas of the brain, about the size of one of your fingers
Dr Matthew believes that brain stimulation could eventually be applied to daily tasks like] learning to drive, exam preparations and language learning.
The method itself is actually quite old. In fact, the ancient Egyptians 4000 years ago used electric fish to stimulate and reduce pain.
18. Why did the author mention the science fiction film-The Matrix? A. To invent a new scientific simulator. B. To develop this passage more directly. C. To make his idea understood more easily. D. To introduce a new interesting film to readers. 19. What can we learn from the study in the passage? A. The trained pilot has helped the new learners. B. The new learners only learned 33% of the task. C. All the new pilots' brains have been fed data into
D. The brain stimulation improved the new learners' learning. 20. How does the system work according to Dr. Matthew Phillips.?
A. It changes the brain physically. B. It influences the brain mentally.
C. It aims at the changes in the special part of the brain. D. It influences the functions of the brain in many ways. 21. What could be the best title for this passage? A. A brain-changing system B. Feed data into your brain
C. A science fiction has been realized D. Brain Stimulation helps learn better
D
Having a year-round fortable climate and being close to many European countries, many people thought that Paris was the perfect location for Europe's first Disneyland. But culturally speaking, Paris was probably the least logical choice. This is because France had a reputation for laughing at anything American - an attitude called “anti-Americanism”.
Despite this, Disney built a park in Paris anyway. Opening in 1992, this year marks its 25th anniversary. So how has it managed to survive for so long in a country that may not wele it?
America creates a danger to everything the French cherish. For example, France is famous for its fancy cuisine and people there usually spend a long time over meals. But the American fast food like hotdogs and hamburgers introduces a pletely different dining style. And in the film industry, French culture values high-art films while Hollywood's fast-food-style film productions may seem low-taste in the eyes of the French.
“In the land of Louis XIV’s real Castle of Versailles (凡尔赛宫), why do we need the fake Castle of Sleeping Beauty?” It is the reaction of many French people toward the US theme park. This is why people used to doubt whether the Disney magic would work in France. But the doubt has proved to be unnecessary since the park has been standing for 25 years. According to The Telegraph, the park was visited by nearly 15 million people last year, half of whom were French.
“France is changing. Slowly, its way of life is beginning to bee like that of the country it hates,” mented The Economist. Today, even though French people are still proud of their own culture more than anything, they are already a part of the trend of globalization and there is no way to get out of it.
“ America gives us the same effect as ice cream,” French journalist Jacqueline Remy wrote. “It makes us sick, but we keep asking for it.\
22. Why does the author mention the examples in Paragraph 3?
A. To show French people have a better taste in films. B. To show France is famous for its cuisine and movies. C. To show American culture is important to the French. D. To show American culture may threaten French culture. 23. From the passage we can learn Disneyland Paris . A. is as popular as the Castle of Versailles B. mixes American and French culture C. is very popular with French tourists D. is rarely visited by most French people 24. What is the article mainly about? A. Europe's first Disneyland in Paris. B. The characteristics of French culture. C. French peopled anti-Americanism attitude. D. France’s changing attitude toward US culture. 25. What can be inferred from the article?
A. American culture has an influence on French people. B. Most French people consider globalization harmful. C. French people are no longer proud of their own culture. D. French people are pletely open to American culture. 第二节（共5小题；每小题2分；满分10分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项为多余选项。 Volunteering can be a rewarding experience. However, a poorly performed volunteer project can leave you feeling frustrated. 26
Select the right volunteer project. Before you search for volunteer projects, consider which task you enjoy or don't like to do. Maybe you like physical work like painting. Maybe you prefer playing with children and animals. Pick a project that allows you to contribute and have fun.
27 Maybe you want to meet new people. Maybe you want to build a network for your business or get along with a friend who is volunteering. When you begin a task with clear expectation, you will have a more positive experience.
Get training. 28 If not, or if you still don’t know where to begin, ask to work with an experienced volunteer or group. Then, ask lots of questions and give it a shot.
Speak up if there are problems. When you are at the project site, don’t hesitate to tell the organization's staffs about any problems or safety risks. 29