11. A new study on birds' sleep has revealed that ____________. A) half-brain sleep is found in a wide variety of birds
B) half-brain sleep is characterized by slow brain waves
C) birds can control their half-brain sleep consciously
D) birds seldom sleep with the whole of their brain at rest
12. According to the passage, birds often half sleep because ______________.
A) they have to watch out for possible attacks
B) their brain hemisphere take turns to rest 跨段
C) the two halves of their brain are differently structured 没
D) they have to constantly keep an eye on their companions 反
13. The example of a bird sleeping in front of a mirror indicates that _____________.
A) the phenomenon of birds dozing in pairs is widespread
B) birds prefer to sleep in pairs for the sake of security
C) even an imagined companion gives the bird a sense of security
D) a single pet bird enjoys seeing its own reflection in the mirror
14. While sleeping, some water mammals tend to keep half awake in order to __________.
A) alert themselves to the approaching enemy
B) emerge from water now and then to breathe
C) be sensitive to the ever-changing environment
D) avoid being swept away by rapid currents
15. By "just the tip of the iceberg" (Line 2, Para.8), Siegel suggests that ____________.
A) half-brain sleep has something to do with icy weather
B) the mystery of half-brain sleep is close to being solved
C) most birds living in cold regions tend to be half sleepers
D) half-brain sleep is a phenomenon that could exist among other species
Birds that are literally half-asleep-with one brain hemisphere alert and the other sleeping-control which side of the brain remains awake, according to a new study of sleeping ducks.
Earlier studies have documented half-brain sleep in a wide range of birds. The brain hemispheres take turns sinking into the sleep stage characterized by slow brain waves. The eye controlled by the sleeping hemisphere keeps shut, while the wakeful hemisphere's eye stays open and alert. Birds also can sleep with both hemispheres resting at once.
Decades of studies of bird flocks led researchers to predict extra alertness in the more vulnerable, end-of-the-row sleepers, Sure enough, the end birds tended to watch carefully on the side away from their companions. Ducks in the inner spots showed no preference for gaze direction.
Also, birds dozing（打盹）at the end of the line resorted to single-hemisphere sleep, rather than total relaxation, more often than inner ducks did. Rotaing 16 birds through the positions in a four-duck row, the researchers found outer birds half-asleep during some 32 percent of dozing time versus about 12 percent for birds in internal spots.
"We believe this is the first evidence for an animal behaviorally controlling sleep and wakefulness simultaneously in different regions of the brain," the researchers say.
The results provide the best evidence for a long-standing supposition that single-hemisphere sleep evolved as creatures scanned for enemies. The preference for opening an eye on the lookout side could be widespread, he predicts. He's seen it in a pair of birds dozing side-by-side in the zoo and in a single pet bird sleeping by mirror. The mirror-side eye closed as if the reflection were a companion and the other eye stayed open.
Useful as half-sleeping might be, it's only been found in birds and such water mammals（哺乳动物）as dolphins, whales, and seals. Perhaps keeping one side of the brain awake allows a sleeping animal to surface occasionally to avoid drowning.
Studies of birds may offer unique insights into sleep. Jerome M. Siegel of the UGLA says he wonders if birds' half-brain sleep "is just the tip of the iceberg（冰山）". He speculates that more examples may turn up when we take a closer look at other species.
16. Which of the following is evidence that TT is widely practiced?
A) TT has been in existence for decades.
B) Many patients were cured by therapeutic touch.
C) TT therapists are often employed by leading hospitals.
D) More than 100,000 people are undergoing TT treatment.
注：D为迷惑选项数字必转化，C对应第二段末句。
17. Very few TT practitioners responded to the $1 million offer because ____________.
A) they didn't take the offer seriously
B) they didn't want to risk their career
C) they were unwilling to reveal their secret
D) they thought it was not in line with their practice
注：争议题，B、C皆可。
18. The purpose of Emily Rosa's experiment was ____________.
A) to see why TT could work the way it did
B) to find out how TT cured patient's illness
C) to test whether she could sense the human energy field
D) to test whether a human energy field really existed
注：对应文章第三段首句
19. Why did some TT practitioners agree to be the subjects of Emily's experiment?
A) It involved nothing more than mere guessing.
B) They thought it was going to be a lot of fun.
C) It was more straightforward than other experiments.
D) They sensed no harm in a little girl's experiment.
注：对应文章第三段末句，no harm对应innocent，little girl对应fourth-grade
20. What can we learn from the passage?
A) Some widely accepted beliefs can be deceiving.
B) Solid evidence weighs more than pure theories.
C) Little children can be as clever as trained TT practitioners.
D) The principle of TT is too profound to understand.
A nine-year-old schoolgirl single-handedly cooks up a science-fair experiment that ends up debunking（揭穿．．．的真相）a widely practiced medical treatment. Emily Rosa's target was a practice known as therapeutic（治疗）touch (TT for short), whose advocates manipulate patients' "energy field" to make them feel better and even, say some, to cure them of various ills. Yet Emily's test shows that these energy fields can't be detected, even by trained TT practitioners（行医者）. Obviously mindful of the publicity value of the situation, Journal editor George Lundberg appeared on TV to declare, "Age doesn't matter. It's good science that matters, and this is good science."
Emily's mother Linda Rosa, a registered nurse, has been campaigning against TT for nearly a decade. Linda first thought about TT in the late '80s, when she learned it was on the approved list for continuing nursing education in Colorado. Its 100,000 trained practitioners (48,000 in the U.S.) don't even touch their patients. Instead, they waved their hands a few inches from the patient's body, pushing energy fields around until they're in "balance." TT advocates say these manipulations can help heal wounds, relieve pain and reduce fever. The claims are taken seriously enough that TT therapists are frequently hired by leading hospitals, at up to $70 an hour, the smooth patients' energy, sometimes during surgery.
Yet Rosa could not find any evidence that it works. To provide such proof, TT therapists would have to sit down for independent testing-something they haven't been eager to do, even though James Randi has offered more than $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate the existence of a human energy field. (He's had one taker so far. She failed.) A skeptic might conclude that TT practitioners are afraid to lay their beliefs on the line. But who could turn down an innocent fourth-grader? Says Emily: "I think they didn't take me very seriously because I'm a kid."
The experiment was straightforward: 21 TT therapists stuck their hands, palms up, through a screen. Emily held her own hand over one of theirs-left or right-and the practitioners had to say which hand it was. When the results were recorded, they'd done no better than they would have by simply guessing. if there was an energy field, they couldn't feel it.
大学英语六级阅读理解题冲刺辅导(十一)
26. According to the author, the conventional notion of intelligence measured n terms of one's ability to read, write and compute _____________.
A) is a widely held but wrong concept
B) will help eliminate intellectual prejudice
C) is the root of all mental distress
D) will contribute to one's self-fulfillment
注：作者态度题，应该选负选项
27. It is implied in the passage that holding a university degree _____________.
A) may result in one's inability to solve complex real-life problems
B) does not indicate one's ability to write properly worded documents
C) may make one mentally sick and physically weak
D) does not meat that one is highly intelligent
28. The author thinks that an intelligent person knows _____________.
A) how to put up with some very prevalent myths
B) how to find the best way to achieve success in life
C) how to avoid depression and make his life worthwhile
D) how to persuade others to compromise
注：对应第二段第一句话
29. In the last paragraph, the author tells us that _____________.
A) difficulties are but part of everyone's life
B) depression and unhappiness are unavoidable in life反
C) everybody should learn to avoid trying circumstances反
D) good feelings can contribute to eventual academic excellence
30. According to the passage, what kind of people are rare?
A) Those who don't emphasize bookish excellence in their pursuit of happiness.
B) Those who are aware of difficulties in life but know how to avoid unhappiness.
C) Those who measure happiness by an absence of problems but seldom suffer form N. B. D.'s.
D) Those who are able to secure happiness though having to struggle against trying circumstances.
注：文章最后一句
Taking charge of yourself involves putting to rest some very prevalent myths. At the top of the list is the notion that intelligence is measured by your ability to solve complex problems; to read, write and compute at certain levels, and to resolve abstract equations quickly. This vision of intelligence asserts formal education and bookish excellence as the true measures of self-fulfillment. It encourages a kind of intellectual prejudice that has brought with it some discouraging results. We have come to believe that someone who has more educational merit badges, who is very good at some form of school discipline is "intelligent." Yet mental hospitals are filled with patients who have all of the properly lettered certificates. A truer indicator of intelligence is an effective, happy life lived each day and each present moment of every day.
If you are happy, if you live each moment for everything it's worth, then you are an intelligent person. Problem solving is a useful help to your happiness, but if you know that given your inability to resolve a particular concern you can still choose happiness for yourself, or at a minimum refuse to choose unhappiness, then you are intelligent. You are intelligent because you have the ultimate weapon against the big N. B. D-Nervous Break Down.
"Intelligent" people do not have N. B. D.'s because they are in charge of themselves. They know how to choose happiness over depression, because they know how go deal with the problems of their lives.
You can begin to think of yourself as truly intelligent on the basis of how you choose to feel in the face of trying circumstances. The life struggles are pretty much the same for each of us. Everyone who is involved with other human beings in any social context has similar difficulties. Disagreements, conflicts and compromises are a part of what it means to be human Similarly, money, growing old, sickness, deaths natural disasters and accidents are all events which present problems to virtually all human beings. But some people are able to make it, to avoid immobilizing depression and unhappiness despite such occurrences, while others collapse or have an N. B. D. Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don't measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare.
英语四级
