中石油英语复习资料(3)

D. Death is the inevitable result of change.

27. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. All human beings want to be healthy by adapting to new experiences.

B. Some people do not welcome change as a result of habit and indifference.

C. Constant change results in comfort for some people.

D. Healthy human beings are not subjected to habit and indifference, and keep on trying to become someone new.

28. According to the passage, “The only differences between a rut and a grave are their dimensions” suggests that ______.

A. if we regard life as a series of habits and conditioned responses, our life actually ends

B. some people die a kind of intellectual and emotional death

C. death is inevitable

D. too much comfort often results in death

29. The word “stagnate” in paragraph 3 means ______.

A. stop working hard B. stop developing

C. become weak D. fall ill

30. The author’s main purpose in writing the last paragraph is ______.

A. to tell us that if we resist change, we’ll suffer from loneliness in life

B. to show the reason why some people do not accept new ideas or give up old values and habits

C. to come to the conclusion that if we go against the law of change, it will be impossible for us to enjoy life

D. to show that it is because of our desire to seek comfort that we tend to deny our lives

Passage 7

Many of us believe that a person’s mind becomes less active as he grows older. But this is not true, according to Dr. Lissy F. Jarvik, professor of psychiatry (精神病学) at the university of California, Los Angeles, and a board member of the New Center for Aging at the Veterans Hospital. She has studied the mental functioning of aging persons for several years. For example, one of her studies concern 136 pairs of identical twins, who were first examined when they were already 60 years old. As Dr. Jarvik continued the study of the twins into their 70s and 80s, their minds did not generally decline as was expected.

However, there was some decline in their psycho-motor speed. This means that it took them longer to complete mental tasks than it used to. But when speed was not a factor, they lost very little intellectual ability over the years. In general, Dr. Jarvik’s studies have shown that there is no decline in knowledge or reasoning ability. This is true not only into the 30s and 40s, but into the 60s and 70s as well.

As for learning new things, and ability to remember, studies by Dr. Jarvik and others show that the old are equal to the young. It is true that older people themselves often complain that their memory is not as good as it once was. However, much of what we call “loss of memory” is not that at all. There usually was

incomplete learning in the first place. For example, the older person perhaps had trouble hearing, or poor vision, or inattention, or was trying to learn the new thing at too fast a pace.

In the cases where the older person’s mind really seems to decay (衰退), it is not necessarily a sign of a decay due to old age. Often it is simply a sign of a depressed emotional state. This depression usually can be counteracted by counseling, a medical treatment with a psychologist, which fights depression.

In American society, when an older person loses something, we tend to call him or her “senile”. But notice that when a younger person loses something, he does not blame it on senility or loss of memory. He finds some other excuse!

31. According to Dr. Jarvik’s studies, middle-aged and older persons should expect to ______.

A. remember less B. reason better

C. learn fewer new things D. lose little ability to remember, reason or learn

32. A long term study of 136 pairs of twins showed that the only factor that declined over the years was __________.

A. the reasoning ability B. the psycho-motor speed

C. the decline in knowledge D. the loss of intellectual ability

33. Both younger and older persons should realize that ____________.

A. a sign of a decay due to old age is a natural law

B. mental decay due to aging is closely related to one’s health conditions

C. a good emotional state can ensure a longer life

D. mental decay due to aging is much less common than most of us believe

34. What is the probable meaning of “counteract” from the context?

A. convinced B. lessened C. added D. rewarded

35. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?

A. People, either young or old, tend to view their mental decay incorrectly.

B. With ageing, one’s emotional state is on the decline.

C. Old people are not well educated and are thus slow to pick up new things.

D. The decline of intellectual ability is usually accompanied by the drop in psycho-motor speed.

Passage 8

The only certainties I’ve found in life are death and change. One is an end, the other a beginning. Change is life. Without change there would be no growth, no understanding, no relating and no surprises. We are by nature changing beings. Still, we seem to fear and resist it more than any other aspect of life.

Healthy human beings welcome the opportunity to adapt to new experiences. In fact they are quite comfortable in a constant state of change. They know about the possibility of becoming someone new each moment. Only habit and indifference prevent the rest of us from having the same outlook.

When we don’t care, or submit ourselves to patterns and routines, we begin to stagnate. We are inclined to accept the comfortable illusion that life is a series of habits and conditioned responses. In reality this is a comfort more like a disease, which leads to a kind of intellectual and emotional death. We can allow ourselves and dynamic world to go to waste. Ellen Glasgow, an American nove …… 此处隐藏：5886字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……