Part III Reading Comprehension(40 minutes)

Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.

Worried about what people are saying about you? Concerns about gossip could influence behavior, including generosity, researchers said.

“As it turns out, the act of gossip can indeed be quite powerful,”said Jared Piazza of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Piazza and Jesse M. Beringa studied the 26 of 72 college students who were asked to distribute tokens(代金券)with a monetary value between themselves and someone else.

Half of the group were 27 told their decision would be discussed with a third party.

“Participants who were told that the receiver would be communicating their economic decision with the third party were 28 more generous in their allocations of the tokens than participants who were not 29 to believe that their decisions would be discussed,”Piazza and Beringa said in the study published in the journal Human Behavior.

They added that the most 30 strategy from an economic standpoint would have been for a student to 31 all 10 tokens to him or herself, but the threat of gossip seemed to have 32 their decision.

Although gender did not play a major role in the study, men were slightly more 33 than women.

“Allocations of males were, on average, slightly greater than allocations of females, although there were almost twice as many female participants,”the researchers 34 .

A previous study showed that gossip is more powerful than truth, suggesting people believe what they hear through the grapevine even if they have evidence to the 35 .

A) added

B) beneficial

C) swayed

D) fabricated

E) reactions

F) made

G) still

H) significantly

I) allocate

J) thought

K) contrary

L) also

M) generous

N) led

O) economical

Section B

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Want to Learn Quicker? Use Your Body

A) Ever dealt with a problem? Picked up a new skill? Grasped a difficult concept? The language of learning is full of references to parts of the body outside the brain. Researchers discover that learning is easier, quicker and more long-lasting if lessons involve the body as well as the mind—whether it's gesturing with the arms or moving around a room. Can these insights enhance teaching and learning in the future? And should it inform the way technology is employed in the classroom?

B) “In the past, people have argued that as we learn we become more able to think abstractly,”says Andrew Manches, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Conventional thinking might suggest that teachers should help children get rid of physical objects and body gestures to prepare them for the adult world. But in truth, the physical world never really leaves our thinking. For example, when we process verbs such as lick, kick and pick, medical scanners show that the parts of our brain that control the muscles in our face, legs and hands, respectively, light up with activity. And even the most abstract of concepts may have grounding in the real world.

C) Body and mind—This theory is called embodied cognition(体验认知), and it suggests that what goes on in our minds stems from our actions and interactions with the world around us. It means that encouraging children to think and learn in a purely abstract way might actually make lessons harder for them to understand and remember. Science is beginning to back up the idea that actions really might speak louder than words in the classroom.

D) Spencer Kelly, a psychologist at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, has found that people spend three times as much time gesturing when they think it is particularly important that they get a message across, suggesting that even at the subconscious level, we appreciate the communicative value of our body language. Studies show that young children learn more if their teacher uses gestures when explaining a concept.

E) Meanwhile, Susan Wagner Cook, a psychologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, has found that children pick up new concepts more effectively if they are taught to mirror and repeat the gestures their teacher uses, and that lessons involving words and gestures live longer in a student's memory than lessons using words alone.

F) There's a place for technology—particularly with the rise of gesture-recognition devices like the Nintendo Wii(任天堂游戏机), Microsoft's Kinect add-on (外设设备)for the Xbox and touchscreen tablet PCs. Resear-chers at the University of California, Berkeley, turned two Wii-mote video game controllers into a device that helps children visualize equivalence ratios (等值比)—for instance, understanding how if one plant grows twice as fast as another, the difference between their respective heights will become larger over time. This can be a tricky concept for children to understand. When asked to use their hands to represent the different growth rates, some students will place one hand slightly higher than the other, but then raise both hands at the same speed. The Berkeley team's device gives the children instant feedback, helping them work out when their hand gestures correctly match what would happen as the two plants grow. Afterwards, almost all students say that they actually understand why moving their hands at different speeds is the correct response.

G) The Kinect sensor, meanwhile, is being used in studies to help children learn to more accurately map numbers onto physical space—a simple skill but one that is fundamental to our understanding of mathematics. Most people know, for instance, to place the number 50 exactly midway along a line marked “0”at one end and “100”at the other. Researchers at Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany, found that seven-year?olds can place numbers along such a line more accurately if they physically walk the line on the floor—with their motion captured and analysed by the Kinect sensor—than if they use a mouse to interact with a computer screen representation of the line. Manches has begun exploring whether Kinect offers a way to re-imagine traditional children's blocks(积木). The technology allows children to pick up and manipulate virtual blocks on the screen using the same gestures they would use to play with real blocks—but the virtual blocks can do new things like change colour as they are pulled apart into smaller units, giving children fresh ideas about the way numbers can be broken down.

H) In light of all this, it's tempting to conclude that teachers, and their students, should be jumping up and down, or waving their arms about during lessons. Manches, however, advises caution. The trouble is, science has not quite worked out exactly how the relationship between body and mind effects work. “You can't jump into the prediction and intervention stage too early,”says Manches.

I) This isn't to say there aren't working theories for what's going on, particularly when it comes to understanding why gesturing helps store information more firmly in the mind, says Cook. The lessons we learn at school usually involve declarative memory(陈述性记忆)—these are the facts that we can consciously recall or “declare”at a later date. But some of our memories are non-declarative—things we can remember without really being able to explain why.

J) The classic example is how we never really forget how to ride a bike. Physical movements seem to be particularly suitable fodder(素材)for making non-declarative memories, and so by both speaking and gesturing, we may encourage our brains to make two independent memories of an event, boosting our chances of remembering the event later.

K) Even though researchers like Manches and Cook remain reluctant to set out prescriptive guidelines for teachers, their caution is beginning to weaken. “Five years ago I might have said there's potential for real harm in giving teachers instructions from this research,”says Cook. Today, she is less worried of the potential to do damage—in part because none of her studies to-date has uncovered any evidence of side effects.

36．Based on the theory of embodied cognition, science is starting to pay more attention to the importance of actions in the classroom.

37．Researchers find that the involvement of both the mind and the body can make learning easier and quicker.

38．The knowledge we get from school often has to do with declarative memories.

39．Contrary to conventional thinking, the physical world is closely linked with our thinking.

40．Our brain can make two independent memories of an event through language and action.

41．Young students can learn more if their teacher uses gestures when explaining a concept.

42．Seven-year-olds can put numbers along a certain line more accurately if they actually walk the line.

43．Up to now, Cook's studies have not shown any evidence of side effects.

44．Manches warns that we should enter prediction and intervention stage when it is the right time.

45．A student can remember for a longer time lessons using words and gestures than lessons involving words alone.

Section C

Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

Without regular supplies of some hormones our capacity to behave would be seriously impaired; without others we would soon die. Tiny amounts of some hormones can modify our moods and our actions, our inclination to eat or drink, our aggressiveness or submissiveness (顺从), and our reproductive and parental behavior. And hormones do more than influence adult behavior; early in life they help to determine the development of bodily form and may even determine an individual's behavioral capacities. Later in life the changing outputs of some endocrine (内分泌)glands (腺体)and the body's changing sensitivity to some hormones are essential aspects of the phenomena of aging.

Communication within the body and the consequent integration of behavior were considered the exclusive province of the nervous system up to the beginning of the present century. The emergence of endocrinology (内分泌学)as a separate discipline can probably be traced to the experiments of Bayliss and Starling on the hormones secreting. This substance is secreted from cells in the intestinal (肠的)walls when food enters the stomach; it travels through the bloodstream and stimulates the pancreas (胰)to liberate pancreatic juice, which aids in digestion. By showing that special cells secret chemical agents that are conveyed by the bloodstream and regulate distant target organs or tissues, Bayliss and Starling demonstrated that chemical integration can occur without participation of the nervous system.

The term “hormone”was first used with reference to secreting. Starling derived the word from the Greek hormone, meaning “to excite or set in motion”. The term “endocrine”was introduced shortly thereafter. “Endocrine”is used to refer to glands that secrete products into the bloodstream. The term “endocrine”contrasts with “exocrine (外分泌)”, which is applied to glands that secrete their products through ducts (导管)to the site of action. Examples of exocrine glands are the tear glands, the sweat glands, and the pancreas, which secretes pancreatic juice through a duct into the intestine. Exocrine glands are also called duct glands, while endocrine glands are called ductless glands.

46．The author's main purpose in this passage is to ______.

A) explain the specific functions

B) provide general information about hormones

C) explain how the term “hormone”evolved

D) report on experiments in endocrinology

47．What conclusion can we draw from the passage?

A) The human body requires a large amount of hormones.

B) Synthetic hormones can replace a person's natural supply of hormones if necessary.

C) The quantity of hormones produced and their effect on the body are related to a person's age.

D) The short child of tall parents probably had a hormone deficiency early in life.

48．The word “liberate”(Line 5, Paragraph 2)could be best replaced by ______.

A) emancipate

B) discharge

C) surrender

D) save

49．It can be inferred from the passage that, before the experiments of Bayliss and Starling, most people believed that chemical integration occurred only ______.

A) during sleep

B) in the endocrine glands

C) under control of the nervous system

D) during strenuous exercise

50．According to the passage, another term for exocrine glands is ______.

A) duct glands

B) endocrine

C) ductless glands

D) intestinal glands

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

For reasons that are deeply rooted in culture and tradition, men significantly outnumber women in mathematics-based careers. As students progress through the mathematics courses, girls and boys show little difference in ability, effort, or interest in mathematics until adolescent years when course and career choices begin influencing school effort. Then, as social pressure increases and career goals are formed, girls' decisions to reduce effort in the study of mathematics progressively cut them off from many professional careers in the future.

Many girls drop mathematics in high school or in the transition to college. Others drop out later. Women perform virtually as well as men in college mathematics courses, but beyond the bachelor's degree women drop out of mathematics at twice the rate of men. Women now enter college nearly as well prepared in mathematics as men, and 46 percent of mathematics baccalaureates (学士学位)go to women. Despite this record, only 35 percent of the master's degrees and 17 percent of the Ph. D degrees in the mathematical sciences are earned by women.

Overall, women receive approximately one third of university degrees in science and engineering. The highest percentages of women are found in those sciences with the least mathematical prerequisite: psychology, biology, and sociology. The lowest percentages of women enter fields requiring the most mathematics, namely, physics, engineering, economics, geo-science, and chemistry. Evidence from many sources suggest that it is differences in course patterns rather than lack of ability that matter most in limiting women's access to careers in mathematically intensive sciences.

Widely reported studies concerning the high percentage of boys among mathematical prodigies(天才)—those who at age 12 perform at the level of average college students—often convey the impression that gender differences in mathematics are biologically determined. But evidence from the vast majority of students shows almost no difference in performance among male and female students who have taken equal advantage of similar opportunities to study mathematics. Inferences (推论)from very exceptional students—child prodigies—mean little about the performance of the general population.

51．According to the author, the learning abilities of males and females in mathematics are similar until they ______.

A) enter high school

B) enter college

C) acquire their bachelor's degree

D) acquire their master's degree

52．Of the following degrees, the lowest percentage of degree earned by women is ______.

A) master's degree in economics

B) master's degree in biology

C) doctor's degree in economics

D) doctor's degree in biology

53．______ is the factor that limits women's access to careers in mathematically intensive sciences.

A) Lack of ability

B) Culture

C) Effort

D) Course pattern

54．The high percentage of boys among mathematical prodigies ______.

A) means that boys are cleverer in mathematics than girls

B) doesn't mean that boys are cleverer in mathematics than girls

C) means that boys do much better in math exams than girls

D) may be explained by the fact that boys work harder than girls

55．According to this passage, which of the following is NOT TRUE?

A) Many girls decide to reduce effort in the study of mathematics as social pressure increases.

B) More women drop out of mathematics than men beyond the bachelor's degree.

C) Women tend to prefer the majors such as psychology, biology, and sociology.

D) Women's less interest in mathematics limits their access to some careers.