阅读理解 The sweet confection known as chocolate is consumed to the delight of millions worldwide every day. Few of those sweet-toothed nibblers fully appreciate the long process by which chocolate is brought to their mouths, however. With an illustrious history, the story of chocolate is a fascinating one, almost rivaling its taste for the attention of its fans.
The dark treat's life begins in the form of the dark, pulpy seeds of the cocoa tree, known as chocolate beans. The Mayans of Southern Mexico harvested these beans to produce a bitter drink, marking them as the first to consume chocolate. The first westerner to encounter chocolate, however, was none other than Christopher Columbus, who discovered an abandoned canoe in the American containing various trading goods, including the aforementioned chocolate beans, on August 15, 1502.
After Hernando Cortez encountered the Mayans and their curious drink, chocolate quickly became popular among the nobility in Europe, who sweetened it with sugar. In 1882, chocolate pioneer Conrad J. Von Houten earned the distinction of being the inventor of solid chocolate when he pulverized the beans to create a powder, which could then be mixed to create a solid form. Von Houten's innovation made chocolate even more popular, allowing it to spread to the masses, particular in England, which was more egalitarian than most other European nations. Solid chocolate took off, never looking back, and has yet to slow down at all.
The health implications of eating chocolate are varied, depending on which reports one chooses to read. In general, most of the negative press that chocolate has received over the years has been refuted. The claim that consuming chocolate produces acne has been disproved in recent years, and it has even been concluded in some studies that eating chocolate can contribute to preventing heart disease.
As to why chocolate lovers seem so happy, science has provided some insight into that question as well. It has been determined that chocolate contains certain elements such as caffeine that increase the production of anandamides, the chemical produced by the body that makes us feel good. Further, other chemicals contained in chocolate have been proven to inhibit the breakdown of those anandamides, making the good feeling last longer.

单选题 6.The main purpose of this text is to______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】属主旨思想题。文章第一段第二、三句指出：这些喜爱吃甜食的人当中很少有人充分认识到巧克力在人口之前经历的漫长过程。巧克力曾经有过辉煌的历史，它的故事很吸引人……。第二、三段详细介绍了巧克力的发展史；第四、五段介绍了有关巧克力的研究发现。由此可知，本文的主要目的是告诉读者有关巧克力的历史与研究发现。因此，选项C正确。选项A是文章最后两段的内容，不能概括全文；选项B是第二、三段的内容，也不全面；选项D的内容在最后一段提及，不能概括全文。

单选题 7.The health effects of eating chocolate are discussed in paragraph 4 so as to______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】属信息推断题。相关信息在第四段第二句：从总体来看，这些年来大多数关于巧克力的负面评论都遭到了驳斥。下文是举例说明，由此可知，选项C正确，探讨吃巧克力对健康的影响，目的就是反驳吃巧克力对人体健康不利的主张)。选项A、D与本句的意思不符：只有大多数有关巧克力的负面评论被驳斥，这不能肯定地说明吃巧克力就没有害处。选项B与本段最后一句不符，句中使用了现在完成时态has been和时间状语in recent years，由此可推断这些都是最近几年的研究发现，并不是现在的。

单选题 8.It can be inferred from the text that______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】属信息推断题。通过第四段第一、二句：关于吃巧克力与健康的密切关系有不同的说法，……这些年来，大多数有关巧克力的负面评论都遭到了驳斥，可推断选项B正确(过去，人们认为吃巧克力对身体有害)。选项A在文中没有推理依据；选项C与第二段内容不符，该段非常肯定地说明了巧克力的历史；选项D中的constantly和sustained无法从文中推出。

单选题 9.Von Houten's contribution to the development of chocolate is important because it______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】属信息归纳题。题目中的关键词Von Houten出现在第三段第二、三、四句：1882年，巧克力的先驱康拉德·J·凡·胡腾因为发明了固体巧克力而成名……他的革新使巧克力更加受人欢迎，还使它深入到了平民尤其是英格兰的平民当中，……此后从没有出现过停滞，也没有降温的迹象。由此可知，选项D正确。选项A不是主要原因；选项B只是部分原因；选项C在文中没有提到。