ID：9121-12974
Passage 2
Birds that are literally half asleep—with one brain hemisphere alert and the other sleeping—control which side of the brain remains awake, according to a new study of sleeping ducks.
Earlier studies have documented half brain sleep in a wide range of birds. The brain hemispheres take turns sinking into the sleep stage characterized by slow brain waves. The eye controlled by the sleeping hemisphere keeps shut, while the wakeful hemisphere’s eye stays open and alert. Birds also can sleep with both hemispheres resting at once.
Decades of studies of bird flocks led researchers to predict extra alertness in the more vulnerable, end of the row sleepers. Sure enough, the end birds tended to watch carefully on the side away from their companions. Ducks in the inner spots showed no preference for gaze direction.
Also, birds dozing at the end of the line resorted to single hemisphere sleep, rather than total relaxation, more often than inner ducks did. Rotating 16 birds through the positions in a four duck row, the researchers found outer birds half asleep during some 32 percent of dozing time versus about 12 percent for birds in internal spots.
“We believe this is the first evidence for an animal behaviorally controlling sleep and wakefulness simultaneously in different regions of the brain,” the researchers say.
The results provide the best evidence for a long standing supposition that single hemisphere sleep evolved as creatures scanned for enemies. The preference for opening an eye on the lookout side could be widespread, he predicts. He’s seen it in a pair of birds dozing side by side in the zoo and in a single pet bird sleeping by a mirror. The mirror side eye closed as if the reflection were a companion and the other eye stayed open.
Useful as half sleeping might be, it’s only been found in birds and such water mammals as dolphins, whales, and seals. Perhaps keeping one side of the brain awake allows a sleeping animal to surface occasionally to avoid drowning.
Studies of birds may offer unique insights into sleep. Jerome M. Siegel of the UCLA says he wonders if birds’ half brain sleep “is just the tip of the iceberg (冰山)” He speculates that more examples may turn up when we take a closer look at other species.
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ID：9121-13203
Passage 4
All over the world mention of English education suggests a picture of the “public schools’, and it suggests in particular the names of certain very famous institutions—Eton college, Harrow school and Winchester college; but people do not always realize what place these institutions occupy in the whole educational system.
Eton is the best known of the public schools, which, in spite of their name, are not really public at all, but independent and private secondary schools taking boys from the age of 13 to 18 years. In presenting an overall picture of English education it would be reasonable to concentrate on the state system alone and refer briefly to the public schools. The public schools in reality form a very small part of the whole system of secondary education; only about one out of forty English boys goes to a public school, and one out of 1,500 goes to Eton.
However, although the public schools are not important numerically, they have been England’s most peculiar and characteristic contribution to educational methods, and they have an immerse influence on the whole of English educational practice and on the English social structure. For a hundred years most men in leading positions in banking, insurance, high finance, some industries, the army, the church and conservative politics have been educated at public schools.
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ID：9121-12984（本题为引用材料试题，请根据材料回答以下问题）
By “overtraining” the author means ________.
A) a series of physical symptoms that occur after training
B) undue emphasis on the importance of physical exertion
C) training that is not adequately compensated for by rest
D) training that has exceeded an athlete’s emotional limits
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ID：9121-11838
A transformation is occurring that should greatly __1__ living standards in the developing world. Places that __2__ recently were deaf and dumb are rapidly acquiring __3__ telecommunications. Many developing countries are planning to invest vast sums of money __4__ their telecommunications networks to allow them to __5__ with developed countries. They believe this will __6__ foreign and domestic investment. However, how fast these nations should push __7__ is a matter of debate. And some developing countries __8__ experience in weighing costs and choosing between technologies. Vietnam, __9__ particular, though desperate for any phones, requires that all mobile phones be expensive digital models. Still, there is __10__ dispute that communications will be a key factor __11__ the winners from the losers. Over the next decade, China plans to pour some $100 billion into telecommunications equipment. Telecommunications is also a key __12__ Shanghai’s ambition of becoming a top financial center. Shanghai plans to be as electronically advanced __13__ New York. __14__, some other developing countries and areas such as Hungary, Latin America, and Thailand are all hoping to jump into the modern world __15__ means of telecommunication revolution. For countries that have lagged __16__ for so long, the temptation to move ahead in one jump is hard to __17__. And __18__ the mistakes they’ll make, they’ll persist ―__19__ day they can cruise alongside Americans and Western Europeans __20__ the information superhighway.
10
A little
B much
C many
D less
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ID：9121-13138
No matter how experienced a speaker you are, and how well you have prepared your speech, such a noisy reception as that is _________ to be very off-putting. A) liable B) apt C) opt D) supposed
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