People who enjoy a dream-filled sleep are better at recalling information and making links between facts when waking. But recharging with a shallow (小睡) offers no such mental improvement, the research suggests. The results of the study added to the growing body of evidence that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is very important to the brain’s ability to form strong memories.
An average night's rest includes four or five spells of REM sleep, but these bursts tend to be lengthier towards the end of the night. This means adults getting less than the recommended seven to eight hours a night -- and therefore inadequate REM sleep -- may be damaging their mind's ability to memorize: Although REM sleep is not classified as a type of deep sleep, it is only reached after the brain has passed through deep sleep stages.
In the recent study, participants were shown groups of three words and asked to find another word that can be associated with all three words. They were tested once in the morning and then given the same task again in the afternoon. In between, some were allowed a nap with REM sleep, some a nap without REM sleep, while the others had a quiet rest period. The quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups didn't improve, but the REM sleep group improved on their morning performance by an average of almost 40 per cent. Dr Sara Mednick, a sleep researcher at the University of California who led the study, believes the formation of connections between previously unassociated information in the brain occurs during REM sleep.
It is believed that sleep acts as a sort of mental filing system, enabling the brain to sort relevant information from useless information. This process may take place as memories are removed hem one art of the brain to others.
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Title |
REM Sleep 1.______ Memory |
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The result of the study |
Rapid Eye Movement sleep is of great importance to the brain's ability to2.______ memories. |
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The 3.____ of the study |
◆ 4.______ were required to think of another word associated with all three words. ◆The same task was given to participants 5.______ a day. ◆ The quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups showed no 6.______. ◆ The REM sleep group7.______ well by an average of almost 40 per cent. |
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Dr Sara Mednick's 8._____ |
Connections between previous unassociated information in the brain are 9.______ during REM sleep |
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Conclusion |
Sleep acts as a sort of mental filing system, enabling the brain to abandon useless information and keep the 10. ______ information. |
Since the pre-historic times, man has had an urge to satisfy his needs. Be it hunger, shelter or search for a mate, he has always controlled the situations to his advantage. Probably this might be the reason why we humans are the most developed of all living species on the earth. As we climbed the steps of development, we somehow left behind common sense and logical thinking -- we forgot that we have stopped thinking ahead of time.
If you are hungry, what do you do? Get a piece of your favorite meal and stay quiet. Just like your stomach, even your mind is hungry. But it never lets you know, because you keep it busy thinking about your dream lover, favorite star and many such things. So it silently began to care about your needs and never let itself grow. When mind looses its freedom to grow, creativity gets a full stop. This might be the reason why we all sometimes think "What happens next?", "Why can't I think?" "Why am I always given the difficult problems?" Well, this is the result of using our brain for thinking of not-so-worthy things.
Hunger of the mind can be actually satisfied through reading. Now why reading and not watching TV? Because reading has been the most educative tool used by us right from the childhood. Just like that to develop other aspects of our life, we have to turn to reading. You have innumerable number of books in this world which will answer all your "How to?" questions. The interesting part of the book is stored in your mind as a seed. Now this seed is unknowingly used by you in your future to develop new ideas. The same seed, if used many times, can help you link and relate a lot of things, of which you would have never thought in your wildest dreams! This is nothing but creativity. More the number of books you read, your mind will open up like never before.
1.What is the function of the first paragraph?
A．To show humans are the most developed.
B．To introduce the topic of the passage.
C．To indicate people have different needs to satisfy.
D．To explain why people need to read.
2.What does the author mean by saying "When mind looses its freedom to grow, creativity gets a full stop."
A．When mind keeps growing, creativity fully stops.
B．When freedom is lost, creativity gets a full stop.
C．When mind stops growing, creativity fully stops.
D．When growing is lost, creativity gets a flail stop.
3.The paragraph following the passage is probably about ______.
A．how the pre-historic man feeds his mind
B．what other advantages reading brings
C．how to develop creativity
D．how to satisfy your mind by watching TV
4. The author tends to tell us ______.
A．reading can satisfy your all needs B．reading can result from creativity
C．reading can feed your mind D．reading can realize your dreams
Cleveland has won the distinction of being the worst city in the United States, according to a new survey. The city has high unemployment, terrible weather, heavy taxes, and ordinary sports teams, all of which have pushed it to the No. 1 position in the Forbes.com list.
"Cleveland was the only city that fell in the bottom half of rankings in all nine categories. And it has been entitled with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the lake," Forbes said on its website,
The economic downturn hit cities across the United States last year particularly in the mid-west section of the country. Crime and unemployment secured the No. 2 spot for Stockton, which held the top position in last year's ranking. Memphis got third place thanks to its violent crime rate and the number of officials who are guilty, while the poor auto industry drove the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint into the top five.
"A lot of the cities that showed up on our list are going through hard times fight now, dealing with high unemployment, with declining producing bases. Many have experienced strong movement out of the city over the last 20 and 30 years."
Despite (尽管) its fine weather, Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in commuting (上下班往返) time, and violent crime which sent it into sixth place.
"One of the biggest surprises is Miami. The good weather and no state income taxes blur some of the severe problems that Miami has related to crime as well as long commutes," Badenhausen added.
Florida was followed in the poor ranking by St Louis, Buffalo, Canton, Ohio and Chicago, which has the country's highest sales tax at 10.25 percent. New York, the nation's biggest city, is rich in culture but its lengthy commuting time and high income taxes pushed it into 16th place.
1.From the text we can learn that ______.
A．Cleveland has been entitled a lovely nickname
B．the economic downturn hit cities in the mid-east section
C．Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in all nine categories
D．commuting time in New York is too long
2.What information can be inferred according to the text?
A．The number of officials who are guilty is large in Memphis.
B．Stockton got second place in last year's ranking.
C．High income taxes made New York get 16th place.
D．Ohio has the country's highest sales tax.
3.The word "blur" underlined in the last paragraph but one probably means ______.
A．make it possible B．make it unclear C．make if obvious D．make it important
4.Which of the following is the correct ranking order?
A．Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Buffalo, Florida.
B．Stockton, Miami, Flint, Florida, Canton.
C．Cleveland, Stockton, Miami, Chicago, Florida.
D．Stockton, Detroit, Miami, Florida, St Louis.
Some plants get so hungry they eat flies, and even small frogs. What's more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they're found on every continent except Antarctica.
You've probably seen a Venus' flytrap -- a small plant, which grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks (茎) are leaves that act like traps (陷阱). Inside each trap is a lining of tiny hairs. When an insect lands on them, the traps suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.
The Venus' flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society's Newsletter. He states although you might have read some science-fiction stories, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.
Barry says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: "attract, kill, digest, and absorb" some form of insects. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants -- well, most of the time.
All green plants make sugar to produce food. What makes meat-eating plants different is their special leaves, which need insects for one reason: nitrogen (氮). Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can't obtain any other way. Why?
Almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil. Meat-eating plants can't. They live in places where nutrients are hard to get from the soil because of its acidity. So they've come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soft is poisonous to meat-eating plants. Never fertilize (施肥) them! But don't worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they'll grow very slowly.
1.According to the passage, a Venus' flytrap ______.
A．is a small plant which grows in a container
B．is a kind of plant which gets hungry easily
C．can trap and feed on some form of insects
D．can only grow 6-8 inches tall
2.From the passage, we can infer that ______.
A．meat-eating plants are found nowhere else except Antarctica
B．all green plants get nitrogen from the soil
C．meat-eating plants endanger humans in science-fiction stories
D．the nutrient-poor soil is beneficial to meat-eating plants
3.Meat-eating plants grow very slowly, ______.
A．so you'd better fertilize them
B．probably because the supply of nitrogen is cut off
C．simply because they can't absorb nitrogen from the soil
D．and then they will die slowly
4.Which of the following is true?
A．Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants.
B．It's hard to get nutrients in the soil when acidity is high.
C．The Venus' flytrap eats flies to get nutrient from them.
D．Green plants make sugar at night.
There are many theories about how drama (戏剧) came into being in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama developed gradually from ceremonies. The argument for this view goes as follows.
In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to control these unknown powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then kept and repeated until they hardened into fixed ceremonies. Eventually stories arose which explained the mysteries of the ceremonies. As time passed, some of them were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths (神话), provided materials for art and drama
Those who believe that drama came out of ceremonies also argue that those ceremonies contained the seed of theater because music, dance, and masks were almost always used. In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the rules of ceremonies, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks, they often impersonated (扮演) other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and performed the desired effect by gestures -- success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival (复活) of the Sun -- as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory finds out the theater came from the human Interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other events) are gradually formed, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a speaker and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person A closely related theory about drama traces to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations (模仿) of animal movements and sounds.
1.Which of the following is Not true according to the passage?
A．Three theories about how drama came into being are mentioned.
B．The majority of people believe drama came from ceremonies.
C．Stories were made up to explain the mysteries of the ceremonies.
D．Religious activities developed gradually from ceremonies.
2.We can infer from the passage that ______.
A．all measures couldn't bring the desired results
B．religious leaders usually didn't perform in the ceremonies
C．mistakes are unavoidable in the religious ceremonies
D．performers usually used languages to reach the desired results
3.The underlined part "traces to" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.
A．dates back to B．is devoted to C．gives way to D．is familiar to
4. The best title for the text would be ______.
A．The Development of Drama B．The History of Drama
C．The Origin of Drama D．The Popularity of Drama
Charlton Heston was born in 1923 in Evanston, Illinois. Charlton Heston discovered his interest in acting while performing in plays at his high school. He later spent two years studying theater at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. But he left college to join the Army Air Forces during World War Two.
After the war, he found small roles in the theater as well as in television shows. His performance in a television version of the book Jane Eyre caught the attention of the Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille who later asked Heston to play the role of Moses in his movie The Ten Commandments which came out in 1956. This role made Heston famous and defined (明确) his career as a hero and leader. His face and body represented strength and heroism in many different roles. He played cowboys, soldiers and athletes.
The 1959 movie Ben Hur made Charlton Heston an even bigger star. Ben Hur won eleven Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Charlton Heston. Heston starred in many adventure movies during the 1960s. In the 1970s, Heston appeared in popular disaster movies like Earthquake,. Skyjacked and Airport 1975.
Charlton Heston was also very active in the movie industry. He worked to help set up the American Film Institute. In 1977 he was honored for his service in the industry. He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1997 he was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor. And, in 2003, President Bush gave Charlton Heston a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
In 2000, Charlton Heston issued a statement announcing that he had an Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2008 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
1.What kind of role did Charlton Heston often play in films?
A．Heroes. B．Cowboys. C．Soldiers. D．Athletes.
2.Which film won Best Actor for Charlton Heston?
A．Jane Eyre.
B．Earthquake.
C．Ben Hur.
D．The Ten Commandments.
3.What can we learn about Charlton Heston according to the passage?
A．He began to show his talent in Ben Hut. B．He used to be a soldier.
C．He was once awarded by Kennedy. D．He won eleven Academy Awards.
4.What's the main idea of Paragraph 2?
A．How Charlton Heston became famous.
B．How Charlton Heston began his career.
C．Who made Charlton Heston a popular star.
D．Who made Charlton Heston win so many awards.
