Decisions, decisions! Our lives are full of them, from the small ones to the life-changing. The right to choos...

题型：阅读选择题类：模拟题难易度：普通

    Decisions, decisions! Our lives are full of them, from the small ones to the life-changing. The right to choose is central to everyone. Yet sometimes we make bad decisions that leave us unhappy or full of regret. Can science help?
    Most of us know little about the mental processes that lie behind our decisions. Luckily, what psychologists(心理学家)are finding may help us all make better choices. Here are some of their amazing discoveries to help you make up your mind.
    Consider your emotions. You might think that emotions are the enemy of decision making, but in fact they are a part of it. Whenever you make up your mind, your brain's emotional centre is active. University of Southern California scientist, Antonio Damasia, has studied people with damage to only the emotional parts of their brains , and found that they were unable to make basic choices about what to wear or eat. Damasia thinks this may be because our brains store emotional memories of past choice, which we use to help the present decision-making.
However, making choices under the influence of an emotion can greatly affect the result. Take anger, for example. A study by Nitika Garg of the University of Mississippi and other scientists found the angry shoppers were more likely to choose the first thing they were offered rather than considering other choices. It seems that anger can lead us to make quick decisions without much thinking.
    All emotions affect our thinking and motivation（动机），so it may be best to avoid making important decisions under their influence. Yet strangely there is one emotion that seems to help us make good choices. The American researchers found that sad people took time to consider the various choices on offer, and ended up making the best choices. In fact many studies show that people who feel unhappy have the most reasonable view of the world.

（1）、According to the text, what may help us make better decisions?

A、To think about happy times B、To make many decisions at a time C、To stop feeling regretful about the past. D、To learn about the process of decision-making.

（2）、What does the underlined word “central” mean?

A、中心的 B、中央的 C、起决定作用的 D、后悔的

（3）、Damasia's study suggests that ________.

A、emotions are the enemy of decision making B、our brain has nothing to do with decision making C、people with physical damage find it hard to make up their minds D、our emotional memories of past choices can affect present decisions.

（4）、Why are angry shoppers more likely to choose the first thing they are offered?

A、They often forget their past choices. B、They make decisions without much thinking. C、They tend to save time when shopping D、They are too angry to bargain.

（5）、What do we learn from the text?

A、Emotions are a part of decision-making B、Sad people always make worse choices C、No emotion seems to help us make good choices. D、Only sad feeling affect our thinking and motivation.

举一反三

Disasters happen all the time somewhere in the world. Are you ready if one hits your neighborhood next week? Find out what you need to do now before it is too late. Let's take an earthquake for example.
During an earthquake, get under a strong object like the kitchen table. Don't leave the building during the shaking, or you might be hurt by falling objects from the outside of the building.
When you are in bed during the night and an earthquake happens，simply roll off the bed. There will be a safe void around the bed.
If you are watching TV and you cannot easily run away by getting out through the door or window, then lie down and curl up(蜷伏) next to a sofa, or a large chair.
Never go to the stairs. The stairs are likely part of the building to be broken. Even if the stairs are not destroyed by the earthquake，they may fall down later when people run down.
Try to get into an open area away from trees，buildings，walls，advertisement boards and power lines if you are outdoors.
If you are driving when an earthquake suddenly happens，just stay in your car until the shaking ends. However, if the footbridge falls and breaks your car，get out of it and sit or lie next to it. All the broken cars have voids 3 feet high next to it.

You can't see any object unless light from that object gets into your eyes. Some of the things you see give off light of their own. The sun, the stars, a lighted lamp are the examples that can be seen by their own light. But most of the things you see are not giving off light of their own. They are just reflecting(反射) light that falls on them from the sun or some other luminous bodies. The moon, for example, doesn't give off any light of its own. It is not luminous. You see it because sunlight falls on it and some of the sunlight reflects on the earth. So moonlight is only second—hand sunlight.
When you look at a book, it sends some of the light which fails on it to your eyes, and you see the book. If light could be kept out from where you're so that there would be no light from the book to reflect. Then you couldn't see the book even with your eyes wide open. Light travels so fast that the time in which it travels from the book you're reading to your eyes is as short as if there were no time at time. Light reaches us from the moon, which is about 380, 000 kilometres away, in only a little more than a second.

The first telephone cards, produced in 1976, were Italian. Five years later the first British card appeared, and now you can buy cards in more than a hundred countries. People usually start collecting cards because they are small and light and you do not need much space for them. It is also a cheap hobby for beginners, although for some people it becomes a serious business. In Paris, for example, there is a market where you can only buy telephone cards, and some cards cost up to ￡4,000.The first Japanese card has a value of about ￡28,000. Most people only see cards with prices like these in their collectors' magazine.

    In some science fiction movies, evil robots refuse to die, no matter how hard people fight back.
    Now science fiction has become science fact. For the first time, scientists have made a robot that can take a beating and keep on going. Scientists from Cornell University made the robot, which looks like a spider with four legs.
    Until now, even the most advanced (先进的) robot was almost certain to break down when it was damaged (毁坏). That is because its computer inside simply doesn't know how to make the machine work after its shape has changed.
    To deal with this problem, the scientists put eight motors (发动机) and two sensors (传感器) that read how the machine is working. They all give signals to the machine's software. Using this information, the computer can then figure out the machine's shape at any moment.
    The new technology is a big advance in robot-making, scientists say, and it's far from scary. It may someday help scientists create better artificial (假的) arms and legs and give new freedom to people who lose them. It might also help scientists understand how people and animals figure out their own sense of place in space.
    “It has been difficult to design robots that can work well when the environment changes or when it's damaged,” says Olaf Sporns of Indiana University in US. “With this work, we are nearer to solving this problem.”

阅读理解
Animals are our good friends. Some are active and others are quiet. But do you know anything about the clever animals in the world? Just have a look!

Animals	Interesting facts
	Kelly is an African elephant. Now she is 19 years old. She lives in the zoo. Kelly has produced more than 100 paintings since last year. She has made over $3,500 for the zoo. Newspaper reporters wrote about Kelly, and then people went to buy her pictures.
	Nana is a clever black and white dog in England. He can do many things just like a human. He can walk on two legs and close the door. Also, he is able to get things for his master, such as newspapers and the TV remote control. What's more, he can sleep and use the quilt very well. No games are difficult for him!
	Koko is a 44-year-old chimpanzee. He has lived with human for tens of years and can “talk” to humans with his hands. He can do simple gestures and that helps people to understand him.

阅读理解

Scientists think that there has been life on earth for millions of years. However, we haven't found life on other planets yet. The earth is a planet and it goes around the sun. And there are seven other planets that also go around the sun. The sun and its planets are called the solar system. The solar system is a small part of the universe.

Scientists have launched many spaceships to explore other planets in the solar system. Some spaceships have gone beyond the solar system. However, no one has discovered any life in space yet.

Why has no one from other planets sent us a message? Have they tried to send information to us? With so many stars in space, are we alone, or is there life on other planets in space?

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