阅读理解 Scientists recently revealed an instinct in women untouched and unaffected by the age of technology. Glancing through glossy art books Lee Salk noticed that four times out of five Mary is depicted holding the infant Jesus against her left breast. The Madonna sparked off (bring into action) a series of experiments and observations to determine on which side women hold their babies and why. First he determined that modern mothers still tend to hold their baby on the left. Of 255 right- handed mothers, 83 % held the baby on the left. And out of 32 left-handed women, 78 % held the baby on the left. As a control, women were watched emerging from supermarkets carrying baby-sized packages; the bundles were held with no side preference. Then, dental patients were given a large rubber ball to hold during treatment. The majority clutched the ball to their left side, even when it interfered with the dentist''s activities. This suggested that in times of tress objects are held against the left side. At that point an apparently contradictory phenomenon was observed. A large number of mothers who brought their premature babies to a follow-up clinic were seen to hold their babies against their right side. So, 115 mothers who had been separated from their babies for 24 hours after birth were observed for holding response. The experimenters presented the baby directly to the midline of the mother’s body, and noted how she held the baby. 53 % placed the baby on the left and 47 % on the right. And it was also noted that the mothers of the group who had held their baby on the left had already had a baby from which they had not been separated after birth. The author suggests that the time immediately after birth is a critical period when the stimulus of holding the baby releases a certain maternal response. That is to say, she senses the baby is better off on her left. Left-handed holding enables the baby to hear the heart-beat-a sound associated with the security of the womb. in order to discover whether hearing heart has a beneficial effect on the baby, the sound of a human heart-beat was played to 102 babies in a New York nursery for 4 days. A control group of babies was not exposed to heart-beats. The babies in the beat group gained markedly more weight and cried far less than the babies in the control group.
单选题 Looking at art books inspired Lee Salk to investigate _____.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】事实细节题。根据文章第一段第二、三句话，Lee Salk在浏览印有彩色照片的亮页纸艺术画册时注意到，在五分之四的画中，圣母玛丽亚怀抱的耶酥是靠在她的左胸上。圣母怀抱耶酥的画像激发了灵感，就妇女将婴儿抱在哪一侧及其原因进行了的观察和试验。由此可见B是正确答案。
单选题 The experiment on the dental patients holding a rubber ball was to see _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推断题。根据文中第三段内容可知，让牙科病人抱着橡皮球的目的是想知道在紧张、疼痛的时候人把物品抱在哪一侧。所以D是正确答案。
单选题 The "apparently contradictory phenomenon" is that _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推断题。阅读第四段内容可知，绝大多数早产婴儿的母亲将孩子抱在右侧，这与Lee Salk的观察结果相反。所以C是正确答案。
单选题 The time right after birth is of great importance because it is a period when _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推断题。根据文中第六段内容，婴儿刚刚离开母体的那段时间是非常重要的，因为这时对母亲来说，要去抱婴儿的动机产生一种特定的母亲做出的反应，这就是说，她感觉到把婴儿抱在左侧会使她更舒服 (．．．the time immediately after birth is a critical period when the stimulus of holding the baby releases a certain maternal response．That is to say，she senses the baby is better off on her left．)故D是正确答案。
单选题 Salk''s experiments proved that _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】主旨大意题。通读全文可知，文章的叙述顺序是按Lee Salk所进行的观察、实验的时间顺序，因此文中虽然只出现过一次Lee Salk这个名字(在第一段中)，后文中的“he”，“then”，“at that point”，“the author”等词都显示出他在一步步地进行各种实验活动。目的是为了他看画时获得灵感，母亲把初生儿抱在左侧。所以A是正确答案。