阅读理解There seems never to have been a civilization without toys, but when and how they developed is unknown. They probably came about just to give children something to do. In the ancient world, as is today, most boys played with some kinds of toys and most girls with another. In societies where social roles are rigidly determined , boys pattern their play after the activities of their fathers and girls after the tasks of their mothers. This is true because boys and girls are being prepared, even in play, to step into the roles and responsibilities of the adult world. What is remarkable about the history of toys is not so much how they changed over the centuries but how much they have remained the same. The changes have been mostly in terms of craftsmanship, mechanics, and technology. It is the universality of toys with regard to their development in all parts of the world and their persistence to the present that is amazing. In Egypt, the Americas, China, Japan and among the Arctic peoples, generally the same kinds of toys appeared. Variations depended on local customs and ways of life because toys ''imitate their surroundings. Nearly every civilization had dolls, little weapons, toy soldiers, tiny animals and vehicles. Because toys can be generally regarded as a kind of art form, they have not been subject to technological leaps that characterize inventions for adult use. The progress from the wheel to the oxcart to the automobile is a direct line of ascent. The progress from a rattle used by a baby in 3000 BC to one used by an infant today, however, is not characterized by inventiveness. Each rattle is the product of the artistic tastes of the times and subject to the limitations of available materials.

阅读理解The author is ____ about the role of the lnternet in solving mysteries.

阅读理解For centuries in Spain and Latin America, heading home for lunch and a snooze with the family was some thing like a national right, but with global capitalism standardizing work hours, this idyllic habit is fast becoming an endangered pleasure. Ironically, all this is happening just as researchers are beginning to note the health benefits of the afternoon nap. According to a nationwide survey, less than 25 percent of Spaniards still enjoy siestas. And like Spain, much of Latin America has adopted Americanized work schedules, too, With shortened lunch breaks to one hour and requiring its employees to work their eight-hour shift between 7 a. m Before the mandate, workers would break up the shift--going home midday for a long break with the family and returning to work until about 9 or 10 p.m. The idea of siesta is changing in Greece, Italy and Portugal, too, as they rush to join their more "industrious" counterparts in the global market. Most Americans I know covet sleep, but the idea of taking a nap mid-afternoon equates with laziness, un employment and general sneakiness. Yet according to a National Sleep Survey poll, 65 percent of adults do not get enough sleep. Numerous scientific studies document the benefits of nap taking, including one 1997 study on the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation in the journal Internal Medicine. The researchers found that fatigue harms not only marital and social relations but worker productivity. According to Mark Rosekind, a former NASA scientist and founder of Solutions in Cupertino, Calif. , which educates businesses about the advantages of sanctioning naps, we''re biologically programmed to get sleepy between 3 and 5 p. m. and 3 and 5 a.m. Our internal timekeeper-called the circadian clock--operates on a 24-hour rotation and every 12 hours there''s a dip. In accordance with these natural sleep rhythms, Rosekind recommends that naps be either for 40 minutes or for two hours. Latin American countries, asserts Rosekind, have had it right all along. They''ve been in sync with their clocks; we haven''t. Since most of the world is sleep-deprived, getting well under the recommended eight hours a night (adults get an average of 6. S hours nightly), we usually operate on a kind of idle midday. Naps are even more useful now that most of us forfeit sleep because of insane work schedules, longer commute times and stress, In a study published last April, Brazilian medical researchers noted that blood pressure and arterial blood pressure dropped during a siesta.

阅读理解According to the passage, which of the following is CORRECT?

阅读理解Passage Two What comes to mind when you hear the word--diversity? Issues of race or gender may spring to mind.Equal rights? Or minority issues? 　　I encourage people to look at a much wider definition of the word.1 would tend to say diversity is “differentness” in any form.A good example of this kind of diversity has been experienced by every person who ever left behind the comforts of home and moved into uncharted territory.Issues of diversity are informed not only by your cultural background and context，but also by your religion，age，field of work，family situation， personality，and countless other factors that make us unique.Diversity affects everyone. 　　It’s for this reason that diversity has become such a buzz word.The buzz happens because it’s all about how you handle it.It’s very much like the job a composer has when creating a great musical composition.If the composer understands what each unique note and dynamic mark is capable of in combination with the other parts，the result achieved is extraordinary.If, however，none of the parts is communicating with the others，we’re left with a cacophony(刺耳的声音). 　　On a personal level.it’s this understanding and acceptance of “the other” which rests at the core of diversity.Whether we’re talking about navigating through a multicultural urban environment or uprooting and moving to a new foreign social context，it is necessary to set aside rigid assumptions about “the other” and put oneself in the other's shoes. So how do we make this leap? It's often as simple as asking questions and being careful not to assume that what you see is necessarily what the other side sees. 　　Often in my workshops I give a magic lesson to the audience to illustrate this principle. I first present the magic and accomplish the "impossible". The participants receive the same props but simply can't manage. We look more carefully at the situation and realize that the assumptions they made about it actually blocked them from achieving this feat; a feat they suddenly are empowered to do which, moments ago, was impossible. 　　The goal in being sensitive to diversity is to cultivate a culture of respect for people's differences and understand that such an environment is beneficial to everyone involved. 　　Diversity awareness is an evolution. We can't get there by snapping our fingers, and it isn't a matter of training people to have textbook politically correct attitudes. Instead it's a case of looking at the big picture of how we see the world, understanding why we see it that way, and then making sure we do our part to genuinely value difference and benefit from it.

阅读理解Foxes and farmers have never got on well. These small dog-like animals have long been accused of killing farm animals. They are officially classified as harmful and farmers try to keep their numbers down by shooting or poisoning them. Farmers can also call on the services of their local hunt to control the fox population. Hunting consists of pursuing a fox across the countryside, with a group of specially trained dogs, followed by men and women riding homes. When the dogs eventually catch the fox they kill it or a hunter shoots it. People who take part in hunting think of it as a sport; they wear a special uniform of red coats and white trousers, and follow strict codes of behavior. But owning a horse and hunting regularly is expensive, so most hunters are wealthy. It is estimated that up to 100,000 people watch or take part in fox hunting. But over the last couple of decades the number of people opposed to fox hunting, because they think it is brutal, has risen sharply. Nowadays it is rare for a hunt to pass off without some kind of confrontation between hunters and hunt saboteurs. Sometimes these incidents lead to violence, but mostly saboteurs interfere with the hunt by misleading riders and disturbing the trail of the fox''s smell, which the dogs follow. Noisy confrontations between hunters and saboteurs have become so common that they are almost as much a part of hunting as the pursuit of foxes itself. But this year supporters of fox hunting face a much bigger threat to their sport. A Labor Party Member of the Parliament, Mike Poster, is trying to get Parliament to approve a new law which will make the hunting of wild animals with dogs illegal. If the law is passed, wild animals like foxes will be protected under the ban in Britain.

阅读理解In the case of mobile phones, change is everything. Recent research indicates that the mobile phone is changing not only our culture, but our very bodies as well. First, let''s talk about culture. The difference between the mobile phone and its parent, the fixed-line phone, is that a mobile number corresponds to a person, while a landline goes to a place. If you call my mobile , you get me. If you call my fixed-line phone, you get whoever answers it. This has several implications. The most common one, however, and perhaps the thing that has changed our culture forever, is the "meeting" influence. People no longer need to make firm plans about when and where to meet. Twenty years ago, a Friday night would need to be arranged in advance. You needed enough time to allow everyone to get from their place of work to the first meeting place. Now, however, a night out can be arranged on the run. It is no longer "see you there at 8" ,but "text me around 8 and we''ll see where we all are". Texting changes people as well. In their paper, "Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging", two British researchers distinguished between two types of mobile phone users: the "talkers" and the "texters"— those who prefer voice to text messages and those who prefer text to voice. They found that the mobile phone''s individuality and privacy gave texters the ability to express a whole new outer personality. Texters were likely to report that their family would be surprised if they were to read their texts. This suggests that texting allowed texters to present a self-image that differed from the one familiar to those who knew them well. Another scientist wrote of the changes that mobiles have brought to body language. There are two kinds that people use while speaking on the phone. There is the "speakeasy"; the head is held high, in a self-confident way, chatting away. And there is the "spacemaker": these people focus on themselves and keep out other people. Who can blame them? Phone meetings get cancelled or reformed and camera-phones intrude on people''s privacy. So, it is understandable if your mobile makes you nervous. But perhaps you needn''t worry so much. After all, it is good to talk.

阅读理解The passage is mostly about ______.

阅读理解So long as teachers fail to distinguish between teaching and learning, they will continue to undertake to do for children that which only children can do for themselves. Teaching children to read is not passing reading on to them. It is certainly not endless hours spent in activities about reading. Douglas insists that "reading cannot be taught directly and schools should stop trying to do the impossible." Teaching and learning are two entirely different processes. They differ in kind and function. 7he function of teaching is to create the conditions and the climate that will make it possible for children to devise the most efficient system for teaching themselves to read. Teaching is also a public activity: It can be seen and ob served. Learning to read involves all that each individual does to make sense of the world of printed language. Almost all of it is private, for learning is an occupation of the mind, and that process is not open to public serum. If teacher and learner roles are not interchangeable, what then can be done through teaching that will aid the child in the quest for knowledge? Smith has one principal rule for all teaching instructions. "Make learning to read easy, which means making reading a meaningful, enjoyable and frequent experience for children." When the roles of teacher and learner are seen for what they are, and when both teacher and learner fulfill them appropriately, then much of the pressure and feeling of failure for both is eliminated. Learning to read is made easier when teachers create an environment where children are given the opportunity to solve the problem of learning to read by reading.

阅读理解He was a funny looking man with a cheerful face, good-natured and a great talker. He was described by his student, the great philosopher Plato, as" the best and most just and wisest man." Yet, the same man was condemned to death for his beliefs. The man was the Greek philosopher, Socrates, and he was condemned for not believing in the recognized gods and for corrupting young people. The second charge stemmed from his association with numerous young men who came to Athens from all over the civilized world to study under him. Socrates'' method of teaching was to ask questions and, by pretending not to know the answers, to press his students into thinking for themselves. His teachings had unsurpassed influence on all the great Greek and Roman schools of philosophy. Yet, for all his fame and influence, Socrates himself never wrote a word. Socrates encouraged new ideas and free thinking in the young, and this was frightening to the conservative people. They wanted him silenced. Yet, many were probably surprised that he accepted death so readily. Socrates had the right to ask for a lesser penalty, and he probably could have won over enough of the people who had previously condemned him. But Socrates, as a firm believer in law, reasoned that it was proper to submit to the death sentence. So, he calmly accepted his fate and drank a cup of poison hemlock in the presence of his grief-stricken friends and students.

阅读理解Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together they will I can to live together, Others say that the opposite is true: the international contests encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred. There is probably some troth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sport encourages international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident involving the murder of athletes, but the Games were also mined by lesser incidents caused principally by minor national contests. One country received its second-place medals with visible indignation after the hockey. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the losers objecting to the final decisions. They were convinced that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents'' victory was unfair. Their manager was in a rage when he said "This wasn''t hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished." The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in suspension of the team for at least three years. The American basketball team announced that they wouldn''t yield the first place to Russia, after a disputable end to their contest. The game had ended in disturbance. It was thought at first that the United States had won, by a single point, but it was announced that there were three seconds still to play. A Russian player then threw the ball from one end of the court to the other, and another player popped it into the basket. It was the first time the USA had ever lost an Olympic basketball match. An appeal jury debated the matter for four and a half hours before announcing that the result would stand. The American players then voted not to receive the silver medals. Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for file love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals, or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages aggressive patriotism.

阅读理解Some pessimistic experts feel that the automobile is bound to fall into disuse, They see a day in the not. too-distant future when all autos will be abandoned and allowed to rust. Other authorities, however, think the auto is hem to stay. They hold that the car will remain a leading means of urban travel in the foreseeable future. The motorcar will undoubtedly change significantly over the next 30 yearn. It should become smaller, safer, and more economical, and should not be powered by the gasoline engine. The car of the future should be far more pollution-free than present types. Regardless of its power source, the auto in the future will still be the main problem in mi)an traffic congestion. One proposed solution to this problem is the automated highway system. When the auto enters the highway system, a retractable arm will drop from the auto and make contact with a mil, which is similar to those powering subway trains electrically. Once attached to the rail, the car will become electrically powered from the system, and control of the vehicle will pass to a central computer. The computer will then monitor all of the car''s movements. The driver will use a telephone to dial instructions about his destination into the system. The computer will calculate the best mute, and reserve space for the car an the way to the correct exit from the highway. The driver will then be free to relax and wait for the buzzer that win warn him of his coming exit. It is estimated that au automated highway will be able to handle 10,000 vehicles per hour, compared with the 1,500 to 2,000 vehicles that can be carried by a present-day highway.

阅读理解One reason why the outbreak of the disease was not discovered sooner

阅读理解Going on computer may be the toughest job a remodeling contractor ever does. In order to make a conversion within a year, a company will need to make a major shakeup. This does not mean it will take a year to start using the computer for one function such as estimating, accounting, or word processing. The total conversion process will not be accomplished in a short period with little effort. A contractor in Indiana recently said he wished someone had warned him about how tough it was going to be. With an annual volume of more than $ 500,000 and a good staff in place he still had fear. For effective use of the computer in a remodeling business, a complete change in methods of doing business usually is required. All management staff must get involved. Changes may include pre-selecting and standardizing products and systems. Developing specifications, changing the estimating system, and requiring more detailed information on time card. The list goes on and on. Without the support and active leadership of top management, this process, in all likelihood, will be fought by employees and will fail. It is true that as computer can save money by stepping up the speed of estimating and making job costing, bookkeeping, and accounting more efficient. Word processing will certainly reduce time in typing contracts, writing letters, and so on. Still, most companies do not save money using the computer. Once they have mastered the basic computer operation, they become so enthralled with its ability to do other things they never considered when it was purchased. The computer business is changing so fast that a company on computer will want to spend money on the latest hardware, newest software, and so on. That is the bad news. The good news is that the computer simply revolutionizes the company''s ability to manage and innovate. The change in management methods, the ability to use numbers, and other new capabilities provide greater control over the company and allow it to grow and make more money.

阅读理解In the 1960s, medical researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed a checklist of stressful events. They appreciated the tricky point that any major change can be stressful. Negative events like "serious illness of a family member" were high on the list, but so were some positive life-changing events, like marriage. When you take the Holmes-Rahe test you must remember that the score does not reflect how you deal with stress--it only shows how much you have to deal with. And we now know that the way you handle these events dramatically affects your chances of staying healthy. By the early 1970s, hundreds of similar studies had followed Holmes and Rahe. And millions of Americans who work and live under stress worried over the reports. Somehow, the research got boiled down to a memorable message. Women''s magazines ran headlines like "Stress causes illness!" If you want to stay physically and mentally healthy, the articles said, avoid stressful events. But such simplistic advice is impossible to follow. Even if stressful events are dangerous, many--like the death of a loved one--are impossible to avoid. Moreover, any warning to avoid all stressful events is a prescription for staying away from opportunities as well as trouble. Since any change can be stressful, a person who wanted to be completely free of stress would never marry, have a child, take a new job or move. The notion that all stress makes you sick also ignores a lot of what we know about people. It assumes we''re all vulnerable and passive in the face of adversity. But what about human initiative and creativity? Many come through periods of stress with more physical and mental vigor than they had Ira. fore. We also know that a long time without change or challenge can lead to boredom, and physical and mental swain.

阅读理解The biggest safety threat facing airlines today may not be a terrorist with a gun, but the man with the portable computer in business class. In the last 15 years, pilots have reported well over 100 incidents that could have been caused by electromagnetic interference. The source of this interference remains unconfirmed, but increasingly, experts are pointing the blame at portable electronic devices such as portable computers, radio and cassette players and mobile telephones. RTCA, an organization which advises the aviation industry, has recommended that all airlines ban such devices from being used during "critical" stages of flight, particularly take-off and landing. Some experts have gone further, calling for a total ban during all flights. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airlines. And although some airlines prohibit passengers from using such equipment during ail flights. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airiness. And although some airlines prohibit passengers from using such equipment during take-off and landing, most are reluctant to enforce a total ban, given that many passengers want to work during flights. The difficulty is predicting how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft'' s computers. Experts know that portable devices emit radiation which affects those wavelengths which aircraft'' s use for navigation and communication. But because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a laboratory, they have no way of knowing whether the interference might be dangerous or not. The fact that aircrafts may be vulnerable to interference raises the risk that terrorists may use radio systems in order to damage navigation equipment. As worrying, though, is the passenger who can''t hear the instructions to turn off his radio because the music'' s too loud.

阅读理解Some people believe that you have to be a special kind of person to sell a product. But although it is clear that a successful salesman does need special talents and an outgoing personality, many of the skills he uses are used by us all: we build and maintain relationships with different kinds of people, we listen to and take notes of what they tell us and don’t just enjoy the sound of our own voices, and we explain things to them or discuss ideas with them. A firm may depend on their own sales team and or on the salesmanship of their distributors, Wholesalers or retailers. But any company needs to establish a personal relationship with its major clients (''key accounts'' ) and potential customers ('' prospects'' ). It is often said that '' people do business with people''s a firm doesn''t just deal impersonally with another firm, but a person in the buying department receives personal visits from people representing the firm’s suppliers on a regular basis. Keeping sales people '' on the road'' is much more expensive than employing them to work in the office and much of their time is spent unproductively travelling. Telephone selling may use this time more productively, but a face-to-face meeting and discussion is much more effective. Companies involved in the export trade often have a separate export sales force, whose travel and accommodation expenses may be very high. Serving overseas customers may consequently often be done by phone, telex or letter and personal visits may be infrequent. Many firms appoint an overseas agent or distributor whose own sales force takes over responsibility for selling their products in another county. A sales department consists of many people who are based in different parts of the country or the world, who don’t have the day-to-day contact and opportunities for communicating with each other that office-base staff have. For this reason, firms holds regular sales conferences where their entire sales force can meet, receive information and ask questions about new products and receive training.

阅读理解Why does cream go bad faster than butter? Some researchers think they have the answer, and it comes down to the structure of the food, not its chemical composition---a finding that could help rid some processed foods of chemical preservatives. Cream and butter contain pretty much the same substances, so why cream should sour much faster has been a mystery. Both are emulsions--tiny globules of one liquid evenly distributed throughout another. The difference lies in what'' s in the globules and what'' s in the surrounding liquid, says Brocklehurst, who led the investigation. In cream, fatty globules drift about in a sea of water. In butter, globules of a watery solution are locked away in a sea of fat. The bacteria which make the food go bad prefer to live in the watery regions of the mixture. "This means that in cream, the bacteria are free to grow throughout the mixture," he says. When the situation is reversed, the bacteria are locked away in compartments buried deep in the sea of fat. Trapped in this way, individual colonies cannot spread and rapidly nm out of nutrients. They also slowly poison themselves with their waste products. "In butter, you get a serf-limiting system which stops the bacteria growing," says Brocklehurst. The researchers already working with food companies keen to see if their products can be made resistant to bacterial attack flux)ugh alterations to the food''s structure. Brocklehurst believes it will be possible to make the emulsions used in salad cream, for instance, more like that in butter, The key will be to do this while keeping the salad cream liquid and not turning it into a solid lump.

阅读理解passage two A controversy erupted in the scientific community in early 1998over the use of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fingerprinting incriminal investigations. DNA fingerprinting was introduced in1987 as a method to identify individuals based on a patternseen in their DNA, the molecule of which genes are made. DNAis present in every cell of the body except red blood cells. DNAfingerprinting has been used successfully in various ways, suchas to determine paternity where it is not clear who the father ofa particular child is. However, it is in the area of criminalinvestigations that DNA fingerprinting has potentially powerful and controversial uses. 　　DNA fingerprinting and other DNA analysis techniques have revolutionized criminal investigationsby giving investigators powerful new tools in the attempt to trove guilt, not just establishinnocence. When used in criminal investigations, a DNA fingerprint pattern from a suspect iscompared with a DNA fingerprint pattern obtained from such material as hairs or blood found atthe scene of a crime. A match between the two DNA samples can be used as evidence to convict asuspect. 　　The controversy in 1998 stemmed form a report published in December 1991 by populationgeneticists Richard C. Lewontin of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and Daniel L. Hartlcalled into question the methods to calculate how likely it is that a match between two DNAfingerprints might occur by chance alone. In particular, they argued that the current methodcannot properly determine the likelihood that two DNA samples will match because they camefrom the same individual rather than simply from two different individuals who are members ofthe same ethnic group. Lewontin and Hartl called for better surveys of DNA patterns methods areadequate. 　　In response to their criticisms, population geneticists Ranajit Chakraborty of the University ofTexas in Dallas and Kenneth K.Kidd of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., argued that enoughdata are already available to show that the methods currently being used are adequate. InJanuary 1998, however, the federal Bureau of Investigation and laboratories that conduct DNAtests announced that they would collect additional DNA samples form various ethnic groups in anattempt to resolve some of these questions. And, in April, a National Academy of Sciences calledfor strict standards and system of accreditation for DNA testing laboratories.

阅读理解Towards the end of the passage，the author implies that