Life is strange. We don't know what will happen （at times).（)

A . /；the B . /；/ C . the；/ D . the；the

W：But big parties are so impersonal．I think we should have several small ones instead． Q：How does the woman feel about parties？ (15) A．She feels she has to pay a lot to hold parties. B．She feels small parties are impersonal. C．She feels big parties are very. personal. D．She dislikes many people at home at the same time.

A．exaggerated B．discounted C．overestimated D．verified

W: But big parties are so impersonal. I think we should have several small ones instead. Q: How does the woman feel about parties？ (17) A．She feels small parties are very impersonal. B．She feels big parties are very personal. C．She feels she has to pay much money to hold parties. D．She dislikes many people at home at the same time.

Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse's liver genes can be made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won't reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins. Spindler's team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed for a month when they were 34 months old—equivalent to about 70 human years. The researchers checked the activity of 11,000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production—probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted all their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 percent of these gene changes. "This is the first indication that these effects kick in pretty quickly," says Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington, D.C.. No one yet knows if calorie restriction works in people as it does in mice, but Spindler is hopeful. "There's attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work," he says. If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, our bodies are less efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective. But Spindler isn't sure the trade-off is worth it. "The mice get less disease, they live longer, but they're hungry," he says. "Even seeing what a diet does, it's still hard to go to a restaurant and say: 'I can only eat half of that'." Spindler hopes we soon won't need to diet at all. His company, Life Span Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of calorie restriction. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true？ A．Eating less than usual might make us live longer. B．If we go on a diet when old, we may keep healthy. C．Dieting might not be needed. ~ D．We have to begin dieting from childhood.

One area of change is【24】. Some changes have been improvements. Some changes, on the other hand, have been【25】. When I started school, most people didn't have a television; TV was just beginning to get【26】. My father decided to go all out and buy a 16-inch black and white Motorola【27】. I still remember watching the Lone Ranger save people from the【28】guys on that awesome electronic machine. That was exciting! Now,【29】have larger pictures in full color. The pictures are clearer and the sound is much more【30】. The new high definition sets are made to rival【31】screens. The variety and quantity of programming has【32】greatly. There are hundreds of channels "and more shows than one person could ever watch. There are many fine entertainment and educational【33】. There's also a lot of garbage, stuff that most【34】don't want their kids exposed to. Overall, we have more choices, and that is good. I wonder what【35】will be like when today's kids are my age. (41) A．young B．old C．sad D．happy

(21)

A．verify B．justify C．amplify D．rectify

is able to get and store energy. The first plants to exist out of the water were probably certain kinds of algae (海藻) which were followed by other plants that grew close to the ground and needed water in which to reproduce. Once their move to land had been made, however, evolution (进化) took place quickly. By the end of 100 million years, plants had developed their roots (根), and some had got tree-like forms since height was very important in gaining sunlight. About 300 million years ago, much of the world was covered with forests of huge trees. In most ways they were like modern trees. They had loots, leaves, wood, but mostly they had not developed seeds. The main idea of the first paragraph is ______. A．life on land probably began about 430 years ago B．the first animal on land came from oceans C．there wouldn't be animals without plants D．plants are the only form. of life that is able to get and store energy

I've twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. It's the one-upmanship among parents. We see our kids' college rating as medals proving how well or how poorly we've raised them. But we can't acknowledge that our obsession is more about us than them. So we've contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn't matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford. Admissions anxiety afflicts only a minority of parents. It's true that getting into college has generally become tougher because the number of high-school graduates has grown. From 1994 to 2006, the increase is 28 percent. Still, 64 percent of freshmen attend schools where acceptance rates exceed 70 percent, and the application surge at elite schools dwarfs population growth. Take Yale. In 1994, it accepted 18.9 percent of 12,991 applicants; this year it admitted only 8.6 percent of 21,000. We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won't be enough medals to go around. Fearful parents prod their children to apply to more schools than ever. "The epicenters (of parental anxiety) used to be on the coasts, Boston, New York, Washington, Los Angeles", says Tom Parker, Amherst's admissions dean. "But it's radiated throughout the country". Underlying the hysteria is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that's plausible and mostly wrong. "We haven't found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters", says Ernest T. Pascarella of the University of Iowa, co author of "How College Affects Students", an 827-page evaluation of hundreds of studies of the college experience. Selective schools don't systematically employ better instructional approaches than less-selective schools, according to a study by Pascarella and George Kuh of Indiana University. Some do; some don't. On two measures professors' feedback and the number of essay exams selective schools do slightly worse. In the author's eyes, parents pushing their kids to an elite degree are ______. A．aggressive B．misguided C．reasonable D．failing

Stress is natural part of everyday life and there is no way to 【C4】______ it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often 【C5】______ to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide 【C6】______ and give purpose to life. It is only 【C7】______ the stress gets out of control that it can lead to 【C8】______ performance and ill health. The amount of stress arsons can withstand depends very much 【C9】______ the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and 【C10】______ characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose 【C11】______ at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When 【C12】______ to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and 【C13】______ . In fact we make choice between "flight and fight" and in more primitive days the choices made the difference 【C14】______ life and death. The crises we meet today are 【C15】______ to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it 【C16】______ the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued 【C17】______ to stress, that health becomes 【C18】______ . Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart diseases have 【C19】______ links with stress. Since we cannot 【C20】______ stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it. 【C1】 A．routine B．habit C．principle D．rule