Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write.

Dr. J. Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887. He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental injury, such as in autism (自閉癥) or retardation. At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people. The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory.

One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, an American doctor. His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.

Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully.

In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.

Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment. Yet not all brain injury leads to savant skills. Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one’s brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.

1.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities.

B. Human Beings have complicated thinking process.

C. The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired.

D. The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary.

2.Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?

A. He can play wonderful pieces of classical music.

B. He can guess out exactly the length of a man’s life.

C. He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast.

D. He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly.

3.What can you infer from the passage?

A. Idiot savants have real talents for art and math.

B. Dr. Down is the first person who found idiot savants.

C. Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations.

D. Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants.

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Ask any group of teenagers in the UK what they most like to eat, and foods like pizza, burgers and chips are always mentioned.

But what teenagers like to eat is not necessarily what they should be eating. According to the National Diet and Nutrition (營(yíng)養(yǎng)) Survey, far too many young people in the UK between the ages of 4 and 18 eat too much fat, sugar and salt in their diet and take in too many calories. And their intake of starchy carbohydrates (含淀粉的碳水化合物), fiber, iron, vitamins and calcium (鈣) is too low.

For a growing body, eating foods containing plenty of calcium, such as milk, yoghurt and cheese, is very important as calcium is essential for the development of healthy, strong bones. Similarly, foods that are rich in iron are good for young rapidly developing bodies, so red meat, bread, green vegetables, and dried fruit are also good to eat.

It is during our teenage years that lifestyle habits can become entrenched (根深蒂固的), so it is important that young people are educated about what foods are good for them. In 2005, in order to change eating habits and open teenagers' minds to new tastes, chef Jamie Oliver started a "Feed Me Better" project. As part of a television series, "Jamie' s School Dinners", he worked with teachers and cooks in a number of schools across the UK to provide more nutritious school meals. Although some teenagers and parents refused to have a try at first, the project went very well and helped to influence governmental policy on nutritional standards for school meals.

No one expects to end the teenage love affair with fast and junk food but, hopefully, if projects like "Feed Me Better" continue to give out the right messages, more young people will understand the importance of eating healthily.

1.What problem do teenagers in the UK have?

A. Most of them are too fat.

B. Most of them eat too little.

C. Many of them don' t eat healthily.

D. Many of them are short of exercise.

2.The underlined word "essential" in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to" "

A. difficult B. possible C. common D. necessary

3.According to the text, the "Feed Me Better" project _ _

A. proved to be a success

B. taught teachers how to cook

C. was started by the government

D. was started at Jamie's school first

4.Which of the following opinions does the author probably agree to?

A. Lifestyle habits are difficult to change.

B. Too much red meat is also bad for health.

C. Teenagers should learn to feed them better.

D. Teenagers should stop eating fast and junk food.

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The bright morning light shone through the window onto farmer Tom’s pillow, making the room hot. Tom is not a(n) riser but the heat woke him up. He hurriedly _ and started to head for his poultry farm(家禽飼養(yǎng)場(chǎng)). He had put all his money in .

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Tom came back just in time to the boy. He then made a funny quacking sound and the ducks to come to him. He put them back into cages, changed the tire and , leaving the boy in the hands of the schoolmaster.

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9.A. if B. while C. after D. though

10.A. opened B. discovered C. repaired D. checked

11.A. decided B. refused C. expected D. happened

12.A. escaping B. swimming C. waiting D. standing

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14.A. listening B. jumping C. shouting D. laughing

15.A. music B. story C. noise D. joke

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17.A. make fun of B. take care of C. catch hold of D. take notice of

18.A. woke B. promised C. agreed D. began

19.A. happily B. secretly C. selflessly D. frequently

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完型填空

Jane was walking round the department store. She remembered how difficult _1. was to choose a suitable Christmas present for her father. She wished that he was as easy _2. (please) as her mother, who was always delighted with perfume.

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假設(shè)你是李華，在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上看到英國(guó)高中生David登的一則啟事：希望結(jié)識(shí)一位中國(guó)朋友，以便學(xué)習(xí)中國(guó)的語(yǔ)言、文化。請(qǐng)你以李華的名義用英文給David發(fā)一封電子郵件，主要內(nèi)容包括：

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2.你愿意成為他的朋友；

3.你打算如何幫助他；

4.你盼望他的回復(fù)。

注意：(1)電子郵件的格式已為你寫好，不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)； (2)詞數(shù)：100左右。

Dear David,

I’ve learned____________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

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單詞拼寫

1.The meeting had scarcely begun when it was ________(打斷).

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3.The government is _________(呼吁）to people to protect the environment.

4.I am glad to hear that you have _________(克服）such difficulties.

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7.The two men q________ bitterly and it was clear that the argument could only be settled by the police.

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The reason why I was late was that I was ______ by the traffic jam.

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閱讀下面材料，在空白處填入適當(dāng)?shù)膬?nèi)容 (不多于3個(gè)單詞) 或括號(hào)內(nèi)單詞的正確形式。

How Learning Habits Influence On Learning Results. It is useful and necessary to discuss learning habits. There is a famous saying “Good habits lead to good endings”, 1. shows the importance of habits.

“An apple a day keeps doctor away” also shows how a healthy everyday habit helps to build up our body.2., good learning habits can help us gain great learning results 3. (include) high scores and abundant knowledge. At first, learning habits form our ways of thinking and attitudes 4._ the content of our learning. Obviously, a good habit can help us to speed up to reach our destinations.5. we can see, cultivating a good habit is so important 6.I would like to introduce one kind of good learning habits --- --- keep a learning diary every day. We can start the habit by 7. (write) learning summary and remember to record something impressive and 8. (mean). Keep it in mind, and gradually we can gain this good learning habit and benefit from it.

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I believe that through my efforts, I can gain good learning results by having good habits.

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閱讀理解

What makes a gift special? Is it the price you see on the gift receipt？Or is it the look on the recipient's face when they receive it that determines the true value? What gift is worth the most?

This Christmas I was debating what to give my father. My dad is a hard person to buy for because he never wants anything. I pulled out my phone to read a text message from my mom saying that we were leaving for Christmas shopping for him when I came across a message on my phone that I had locked. The message was from my father. My eyes fell on a photo of a flower taken in Wyoming, and underneath a poem by William Blake. The flower, a lone dandelion (蒲公英) standing against the bright blue sky, inspired me. My dad had been reciting those words to me since I was a kid. That may even be the reason why I love writing. I decided that those words would be my gift to my father.

I called back. I told my mom to go without me and that I already created my gift. I sent the photo of the cream-colored flower to my computer and typed the poem on top of it. As I was arranging the details another poem came to mind. The poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe; my dad recited it as much as he did the other. I typed that out as well and searched online for a background to the words of it. The poem was focused around dreaming, and after searching I found the perfect picture. The image was painted with blues and greens and purples, twisting together to create the theme and wonder of a dream. As I watched both poems passing through the printer, the white paper coloring with words that shaped my childhood, I felt that this was a gift that my father would truly appreciate. Christmas soon arrived. The minute I saw the look on my dad’s face as he unwrapped those black letters carefully placed in a cheap frame, I knew I had given the perfect gift.

1.The author's inspiration for the gift came from _________.

A. a photo of a flower B. a story about a kid

C. a call from the mother D. a text about Christmas

2.The author made the gift by ________.

A. searching for the poems online

B. drawing the background by hand

C. painting the letters in three colors

D. matching the words with pictures

3. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A. To show how to design images for gifts

B. To suggest making gifts from one’s heart

C. To explain how computers help create gifts

D. To describe the gifts the author has received

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