閱讀下列材料，從每題所給的四個選項（A、B、C和D）中，選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項。
A
Any foreigner who has tried to learn Chinese can tell how hardit is to master the tones required to speak and understand. Andanyone who has tried to learn to play the violin or otherinstruments can report similar challenges.
Now researchers have found that people with musical traininghave an easier time learning Chinese. Writing in the online editionof Nature Neuroscience，researchers from NorthwesternUniversity say that both skills draw on the same parts of the brainthat help people discover changes in pitch(音調)．
One of the study’s authors，Nina Kraus，said the findingssuggested that studying music “actually tunes our sensorysystem”．This means that schools that want children to do well inlanguages should hesitate before cutting music programs，Dr.Kraussaid. She said music training might also help children withlanguage problems.
Mandarin(普通話)speakers have been shown to have a more complexencoding(編碼) of pitch patterns in their brains than Englishspeakers do. This is because in Mandarin and other Asianlanguages，pitch plays a central role. Asingle-syllable word can have several meaningsdepending on how it is intoned.
For this study，the researchers looked at 20non-Chinese speaking volunteers，half with nomusical background and half who have studied an instrument for atleast six years.
As they were shown a movie，the volunteers also heard an audiotape of the Mandarin word “mi” in three of itsmeanings：squint，bewilder and rice. The researchers recordedactivities in their brain stems to see how well they wereprocessing the sounds. Those with a music background showed muchmore brain activities in response to the Chinese sounds.
The lead author of the study，Patrick C．M.Wong，said it might workboth ways. It appears that native speakers of tonal languages maydo better at learning instruments.
1. When learning Chinese，a foreigner will find ________.
A．he has a difficult time learning music at the same time
B．he has an easier time learning music at the same time
C．it is hard to master the tones required to speak andunderstand
D．it is easy to use the brain to help him discover changes inpitch
2. Why does Chinese learning have something to do with musictraining?
A．Because there is the same difficulty in learning Chinese andmusic.
B．Because skills to learn the two make use of the same parts ofthe brain.
C．Because music training might help people with languagestudy.
D．Because people who do well in Chinese study do well inmusic.
3. The underlined word “intoned” in the fourth paragraph can bereplaced by the word “____”．
A．created
C．seemed
4. What would be the best title for this passage?
A．Mandarin Speakers Are Smarter than English Speakers
B．Skilled Ear for Music May Help Language Study
C．Pitch Plays a Central Role in Chinese Learning
D．Schools Need to Develop Music Programs
B
Today, there’s hardly an aspect of our life that isn’t beingupended by the tons of information available on the hundreds ofmillions of sites crowding the Internet, not to mention its abilityto keep us in constant touch with each other via electronic mail.“If the automobile and aerospace technology had exploded at thesame pace as computer and information technology,” says Microsoft,“a new car would cost about $ 2 and go 600 miles on a smallquantity of gas. And you could buy a Boeing 747 for the cost of apizza.”
Probably the biggest payoff, however, is the billions of dollarsthe Internet is saving companies in producing goods and serving forthe needs of their customers. Nothing like it has been seen sincethe beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when power-drivenmachines began producing more in a day than men could turn out innearly a year. “We view the growth of the Internet and e-commerceas a global trend,” says Merrill Lynch, “along the lines ofprinting press, the telephone, the computer, and electricity.”
You would be hard pressed to name something that isn’t availableon the Internet. Consider: books, health care, movie tickets,construction materials, baby clothes, stocks, cattle feed, music,electronics, antiques, tools, real estate, toys, autographs offamous people, wine and airline tickets. And even after you’vemoved on to your final resting place, there’s no reason those youlove can’t keep in touch. A company called FinalThoughts.com offersa place for you to store “afterlife e-mails” you can send to Heavenwith the help of a “guardian angel”.
Kids today are so computer literate that it in fact ensures theUnited States will remain the unchallenged leader in cyberspace forthe foreseeable future. Nearly all children in families withincomes of more than $75,000 a year have home computers, accordingto a study by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Youngstersfrom ages 2 to 17 at all income levels have computers, with 52% ofthose connected to the Internet. Most kids use computers to playgames (some for 30 hours or more a week), and many teenage girlsthink nothing of rushing home from school to havee-mail chats with friends they have just left.
What’s clear is that, whether we like it or not, the Internet isan ever growing part of our lives and there is no turning back.“The Internet is just 20% invented,” says cyber pioneer JakeWinebaum. “The last 80% is happening now.”
5. What can we learn from the Microsoft’s remark?
6. According to the author, the biggest benefit of the Internetis that___.
7. The author gives the example of FinalThoughts.com to make thepoint that____.
8. What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?
9. Which sentence has the phrase that has the same meaning asthe one underlined in the fifth paragraph?
A. Some can tell you that he has changed their lives, whileothers think nothing of him.
B. Think nothing of it. It was my pleasure.
C. He thinks nothing of staying up all night in the Cafébar.
D. He thinks nothing of the pain in his back for themoment.
10. What is the message the author intends to convey?
The new studies show that fewer than half of the 9th graders inmany of the nation’s largest cities, can ever graduate. The studiesclearly show that the dropout rate isn’t dropping. And, inparticular, the dropout rate isn’t dropping for poor and minoritystudents.
Amazingly, though so many regret the rising dropout rate, ourschools continue to lack formal plans--or any plans--to teachstudents motivation(動機). Most schools have no game plan to ensurethat students understand that schooling will be completelynecessary. Schools expect youth and children to act as thoughschooling is important, but they never teach them to believethat.
Ask students to devise a way that the employee could bereplaced. For example, the coming trend in fast food is to usecomputers rather than people to run the restaurant. A prototype isapparently already being tested. The students should discover thatmost jobs that lack education and diploma requirements may be ripefor automation.
11. What does the underlined part mean in Paragraph1?
12. Without the help of youth professionals,_____.
13. The author takes factory work for example mainly to______.
14. It can be inferred that______.
15. If students play the “Replace Me” game, the result would be“______”.
A. They will know that they can ‘always’ do without adiploma
B. More of them will drop out early to go to work
C. They will discover that lack of education is a disadvantagein choosing jobs
D. They will become better at using computers to hunt for ajob
D
Hans was an honest fellow with a funny round good-humored face.Living alone, every day he worked in his garden. In all thecountryside there was no garden so lovely as his. All sorts offlowers grew there, blooming in their proper order as the monthswent by, one flower taking another flower’s place, so that therewere always beautiful things to see, and pleasant odors tosmell.
16. From the passage, we can learn that Hans ___________.
B. was highly valued by the Miller
D. had a strong desire for fortune
17. “Flour is one thing, and friendship is another” can beunderstood as ___________.
18. From the Miller’s talk at home, we can see he was___________.
B. helpful and generous
C. caring but strict
D. selfish and cold-hearted
19. What’s the main cause of Hans’ tragedy?
B. A lack of formal education.
D. Blind devotion to a friend.
20. The author described the Miller’s behavior in order to___________.
CBDB
