People come in all shapes and sizes,colors and races . Some speak differently while others act differently. My mother is in a wheelchair. I would like to say something about this special woman I call "Mommy". My mom does what a mom needs to do every day. She picks me up from school,drives me to meetings,cooks dinner,and helps me with my homework. This is just part of what makes her great,though. She is my best friend and can immediately notice when I am unhappy. She helps me solve problems that my friends do not understand. Mommy makes me laugh when times are tough. I look forward to coming home because I know there is someone there who cares about what I have done. Mommy has always tried to be like a "normal" mom. But I think my mother is a wonderful woman and she doesn't need to change. She teaches me life lessons that no teacher or friend can. She shows me how to accept everyone for what is inside,rather than what is on the outside. You may have realized that all the qualities I admire have nothing to do with what she looks like. Everyone could be the way she is,but most are not. I want everyone to look beyond the surface and see what is inside others. You may fail to notice someone who is very special like my mom because you cannot accept their outside features. Which of the following words can best describe the writer's mother? A) Ugly. B) Normal. C) Useless. D) Wonderful.
D
(Question)
One sixth of undergraduates in Beijing this year have registered at a driving school . The students , mostly from majors such as business management or international trade , will finish there driving courses within 20 days or so .Training costs have dropped to ,2,600yuan for students , according to the Haidian Driving School in Beijing . The price is not really low , but students will accept it , seeing it as an investment in their future . Familiarity with the operation of computers and fluent English are the basic skills graduating students need to find a job . But a driver's permit has become another factor. "In the job market , owning a driver's permit sometimes strengthens a graduating student's competitiveness for a good position ," says Zhou Yang , an undergraduate at the China University of Political Science and Law . Cars will become a necessary part of many people's lives in the coming years , and it's difficult to get a permit out of campus because of the pressures on working people's time . "Having a full-time job after graduation offers limited time to learn to drive . We senior students have plenty of spare time , plenty of opportunities to learn." Xu Jian , an official at the driving school, said undergraduates were very able and serious , and could grasp in an hour what it took ordinary people four hours to learn . In this driving school, middle-aged people , young women and college students are the main customers . To get a driver's permit , a beginner is now required to have at least 86 hours' practice before the final road test . Which of the following would be the best title of this passage ? A) Students Learn to Drive B) Welcome to Driving School C) It's Better to Learn to Drive at College D) Students Pay Less to Learn to Drive Now
(Answer)
A
Ques: FOR most people, life without plants is unimaginable. They feed us, clean up our air and brighten up our gardens. But what if someone told you that even our smartphones can benefit from plants? Meet the scientists from the Freiburg University of Mining and Technology in Germany. According to reports from Reuters, they have come up with a way to take the important element germanium from plants. The element was first discovered in Germany (hence the name) and was used to develop the first transistor because it can transport electricity very quickly. Nowadays, silicon-germanium alloy plays an important role in making computers, smartphones and fiber-optic cables . Although germanium can be found in soil around the world, it is difficult to extract . In the traditional process, people take the material after zinc mining or burning coal. But the Freiburg scientists decided to fall back on the natural world. Biology professor Hermann Heilmeier is one of the scientists who are using common plants for this uncommon process. "Different energy crops are being planted, for example, sunflowers, corn ... we want to use them for phytomining. In German we call it 'mining with plants'." Others have used this method in the past with metals like gold and copper . But in their study, the Freiburg scientists brought germanium from the soil into the roots and shoots of the plants, harvested them and then took the element from the plants. The process did not cost too much because germanium can be taken after plants are processed for use as biogas . So many of the costs are already covered in existing biogas plants. However, there is still a lot of work to do before we can all experience the benefits. At the moment germanium can only be harvested in very small amounts, just a few milligrams per liter. Now scientists are working on different plants to improve this. "As is so often the case, industry is still waiting because they want to see everything already working. Then they say, 'We'll have it.' But of course we have... What can we conclude from the article? A) Germanium can be easily produced during the process of mining zinc or burning coal. B) Sunflowers and corn are currently the most efficient plants to use when extracting germanium. C) The process of harvesting germanium from plants isn't costly because after harvesting, the plants can be used for biogas. D) The new method for extracting germanium that the Freiburg scientists are trying is greener and cheaper than the traditional one.
Ans: D
Ques: Faces that activate the same regions of the brain again and again are more likely to be remtembered. Practice makes perfect when it comes to remembering things, but exactly how that works has long been a mystery. A study published in Science recently indicates that reactivating neural patterns over and over again my store items into the memory. People find it easier to recall things if material is presented repeatedly at well-spaced intervals rather than all at once. For example, you're more likely to remember a face that your've seen on some occasions over a few days than one that you've seen once in one long period. One reason that a face linked to many different contexts -such as school, work and home- is easier to recognize than one that is associated with just one setting, such as a party, could be that there are some ways to access the memory. This idea, called the encoding variability hypothesis ,was proposed by psychologists about 40 years ago. Each different context or setting activates a clear set of brain regions; the hypothesis suggests that it is these differing neural responses that improve the memory. But neuroimaging research led by Russell Poldrack, a scientist at the University of Texas. Austin, now suggests that the opposite is true--items are better remembered when they activate the same neural patterns with each exposure. Poldrack's team measured brain activity in 24 people using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The subjects saw 120 unfamiliar faces, and each one repeated four times at varying intervals during the scan. One hour later, they were shown the faces again, mixed with 120 new ones, and asked to rate the familiarity of each. The researchers then looked at the brain responses that had been recorded when the subjects wee first shown the faces, focusing on 20 brain regions associated with visual perception and memory. Face that were later recognized evoked similar activation patterns at each repetition in nine of the regions, particularly those associated... Where can we most probably find the passage? A) in a traveling handbook. B) In a geography book. C) In a newspaper. D) In an advertisement.
Ans:
C