单选题
It is not the thrill of winning, but the thrill of almost winning that sets a problem gambler apart from those who just fancy a flutter. A strong reaction in the brain in response to "near misses" is correlated with a greater tendency to compulsive gambling, according to new research. Gambling touches almost everyone, from friends playing online poker to grannies buying lotto tickets. For many it is just good fun, but for some it becomes a terrible addiction which wrecks lives: they need bigger wins to satisfy their craving, and when forced to stop they suffer withdrawal symptoms. Henry Chase of the University of Nottingham and Luke Clark of the University of Cambridge, are interested in the cognitive complexities of gamblers. For instance, gamblers often believe that games like roulette, or picking lottery numbers, involve some degree of skill, even though they do not. In games where skill does matter, such as football, a near miss like kicking a ball into the goalpost can rightly be associated with almost scoring a goal. So assigning value to an almost-goal makes some sense. But in games of chance, near misses are meaningless. They say nothing about the future likelihood of winning. Yet that is not the way many people think about it. Dr. Chase and Dr. Clark have found that in normal healthy volunteers, near misses that won participants not a penny still activated parts of the brain associated with monetary wins. In a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience they set out to discover just how that brain activation was related to gambling "severity". They invited 20 volunteers, two of whom were women, to play a kind of slot machine while a functional magnetic-resonance imaging scanner examined their brain activity. These machines show certain parts of the brain "lighting up" with increased blood flow as they become active. The volunteers all enjoyed some gambling, ranging from off-course betting on race horses and football matches to playing slot machines, scratch cards and lotteries. All but one volunteer—who had been abstinent for a year—gambled at least once a week. Bets ranged from five people who routinely spent ?10～100 ($15～150) a day on gambling and two who were willing to drop over ?10,000. Perhaps not surprisingly, 13 of the volunteers would have been considered to have an excessive gambling habit on conventional tests. The game was simple: when an icon on the left-hand reel lined up with the same icon on a right- hand one, the volunteer won a cash prize of 50 pence (75 cents). Sometimes the volunteers could pick the left-hand icon. At other times it was selected for them. A near miss came with the agonising deceleration of the right-hand reel so that something like a cowboy boot, an anchor or a banana eventually stopped within a space or two of lining up with a matching icon on the left. In fact, the results were manipulated and all participants got 30 wins, 60 near misses and 90 clear misses. The researchers found that those who scored highest in gambling severity also showed the most activity in the midbrain area in response to near misses. (They did not differ in their response to real wins, however.) This area of the brain is of interest to researchers because it is where dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is produced. Dopamine has been implicated in other addiction studies. It could be the near misses that enhance dopamine transmission in gamblers who suffer the most severe problems, the study suggests. Which means it might be possible to find treatments that reduce dopamine transmission in the brain to take some of the compulsion out of gambling.
单选题
According to Paragraph 3, which statement is wrong? A. The cognitive complexities attract some researchers. B. All gamblings need skill especially in football. C. The techniques play an important part in football gambling. D. The possibility couldn't be predicted in a game that depends on density.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 注意本题是要求选出与第三段内容不符的选项，A选项符合第三段第一句话…are interested in…的意思；根据原文第三段第二句…even though they do not可知，对于大多数的赌博，技巧是没有作用的，至于“赌球”需要技巧，只是插人的一个特例，故B选项错误；D选项是第三段最后两句话的另一种说法。
单选题
We can know about the volunteers that ______. A. 13 of them have proved to have an excessive gambling habit B. all of them spend a lot of money on gambling C. the two women are the main subjects because of the data that show their brain activity D. there is at most one person can refuse to be swamped by gambling
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 第六段最后一句…13 of the volunteers would have been considered to have…只是说被认为有赌瘾，不是被证实，因此A选项曲解了原文意思；B错在原文没有证据说明All of them…，阅读理解中出现all, nevel, must, always, only等有绝对语气的一般不是正确答案；其中的两个女士只是插入例子，后面的机器测试的对象是所有的20名志愿者，因此C错误；D选项暗指很多人都容易陷入赌博，而只有极个别的人有能力拒绝陷入其中，表达符合文意。
单选题
What does the underlined word "it" in Line 3 Paragraph 7 refer to? A. the left-hand icon B. the right-hand icon C. the numbers D. a lottery ticket
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 第七段中的Sometimes the volunteers could pick the left-hand icon是指有时候志愿者自己就能挑到左手图像，接着后面一句At othdr times it was selected for them是说有时候左手图像不能被志愿者自己挑选，而是(被动的)由机器挑选，them是指the volunteers，因此it指的是前一句的the left-hand icon。
单选题
Which is right in the following sentences? A. Gambling can refer to everyone. B. The majority of the players are swamped by the gambling. C. The whole brain will be active with the rushing blood. D. Almost all the volunteers are cheated by the owner behind the scenes.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 从第二段第一句中的almost everyone一词可以看出A选项过于绝对，是阅读中常见的程度加深干扰项；第二段第二句For many it is just good fun…说明大部分的人只是为了好玩，只有一些人嗜赌成瘾，而B项正好与原文意思相反；第五段中These machines show certain parts of the brain…说明只有大脑的某些特定区域会由于血流量增强异常活跃，而不是The whole brain，因此C项错误；第七段最后一句In fact, the results were manipulated…指事实上，赌博游戏的结果都是人为操作的，D选项意为几乎所有的志愿者都被幕后的游戏老板算计了，almost在程度上恰当，故为正确选项。
单选题
Which is the topic of this text? A. How to Differ the Gambler and Game Lovers B. How to Discover the Brain Activation Related to Gambling Severity C. Near Misses Could Heighten Gambling Addiction D. A New Solution of Gambling Addiction