The woman, 69 years old and still active as a professor at Harvard University, told a research team that she had begun to find it hard to recall the names of ever faculty members. Not long ago she had forgotten her classroom number when asking for a slide projector to be sent up. She had one anxious question for the research team, assembled to study the normal course of mental aging: “Am I losing my ability to remember, and perhaps even to think clearly?”That question is the principal focus of a new wave of scientific inquiry on the decline in mental ability with age. The findings are challenging some basic assumptions, like the belief that such decline is a natural part of the aging process, irrespective of general health.From 20 to 30 percent of people in their 80s who volunteer for cognitive testing perform as well as volunteers in their 30s and 40s, who are presumably in their mental prime. The intellectual and creative productivity in later life of certain artists and intellectuals may represent not so much an exception as an ideal, some experts now say.Dr KW Schaie, a psychologist at Pennsylvania State University, is the director of a major study of normal mental decline in the elderly. For over 35 years, his study has been following more than 5000 men and women who have been tested regularly. Dr Schaie’s investigations seek to fill a gap in gerontological research, which, according to Dr Jack Rowe, president of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a leading expert in the field, has focused on disease and disability, and neglected the prospects of maintaining high functioning in old age. Dr Rowe heads a research network on successful aging sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation. In an interview he pointed out that gerontologists have focused on ‘"the 6 to 15 percent of the elderly who are frail and then lumped everyone else together as normal. But there is a huge variation from person to person among older people: the older a group gets, the less like each other people in it become.”Dr Schaie’s most recent findings were reported this month in The American Psychologist. Although the study’s results show abilities begin to decline gradually in the middle to late 60s and accelerate in the late 70s. The rate of decline differs for various mental faculties and differs in men and women. The sharpest declines are seen in basic mathematics. By their late 80s, both men and women were only about half as adept in basic math as they had been in their 50s. For men, the least decline shown is in spatial orientation, for example, in reading a map correctly. By the late 80s, it had dropped by only about one-eighth on average.For women, the most enduring mental skill is inductive reasoning, assessing the information in a timetable, for instance. As women reached their late 80s, it had dropped just over one-eighth from its height in middle age. One of the drastic declines for women proved to be in verbal comprehension, while that ability dropped relatively little into the 70s, it plummeted by about one-quarter during the 80s. For men, the decline was slight in those years.Another study, this one by Dr Richard Mons, a psychologist at Mount Sinai Medical School who is the acting director of a research consortium on normal memory loss and aging sponsored by the Charles
A. Dana Foundation, has found that different kinds of memory differ in their vulnerability to aging. “Crystallized” memory, ie, vocabulary or other knowledge accumulated over the years holds up very well into old age. “Fluid” memory, on the other hand, the ability to add new information to memory or to recall something that happened recently is more prone to decline, beginning in the 60s. He found little decline in very short-term memory, like remembering a telephone number just looked up.A pair of Harvard psychologists, Douglas Powell and Kean Whitla, have designed a computerized test of mental skills like long-term and short-term memory, attention, reasoning and calculation; they reported the test in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Sc
I wish that John would write more（ ） . I can never read his notes and letters.
The heat in summer is no less（ ） here in this mountain region.
A.concentrated B.extensive C.intense D.intensive
He is afraid to go swimming in the ocean. He refuses to enter the water even the sea isperfectly calm and there are no waves.
A.afraid to go swimming in the ocean B.refuses to enter the water C.even the sea is perfectly calm D.there are no waves. E.没有问题
Three days ago I received an e-mail from the conference organizers apologizing the last-minute changes in the schedule; they sounded genuinely embarrassed at the disorder in their planning.
A.apologizing the B.last-minute C.changes in D.sounded E.没有错误
It is hoped that the severe prison sentences will serve as a(n)（ ） to other would-be offenders.
A.hoax B.deterrent C.hindrance D.anguish
Thanks to some help from professors at the university in Canberra，the Australian authorities are letting me to bring my biological samples into the country without the usual three-week quarantine.
A.Thanks to some help from B.at the university in Canberra C.are letting me to bring D.three-week E.没有问题
Perhaps all criminals should be required to carry cards which read: Fragile: Handle with Care. It will never do, these days, to go around referring to criminals as violent thugs. You must refer to them politely as “social misfits”. The professional killer who wouldn’t think twice about using his club or knife to batter some harmless old lady to death in order to rob her of her meager life-savings must never be given a dose of his own medicine. He is in need of “hospital treatment”. According to his misguided defenders, society is to blame. A wicked society breeds evil - or so the argument goes. When you listen to this kind of talk, it makes you wonder why aren’t all criminals. We have done away with the absurdly harsh laws of the nineteenth century and this is only right. But surely enough is enough. The most senseless piece of criminal legislation in Britain and a number of other countries has been the suspension of capital punishment.The violent criminal has become a kind of hero-figure in our time. He is glorified on the screen; he is pursued by the press and paid vast sums of money for his “memoirs”. Newspapers which specialize in crime reporting enjoy enormous circulations and the publishers of trashy cops and robbers stories or “murder mysteries” have never had it so good. When you read about the achievements of the great train robbery, it makes you wonder whether you are reading about some glorious resistance movement. The hardened criminal is cuddled and cosseted by the sociologists on the one hand and adored as a hero by the masses on the other. It’s no wonder he is a privileged person who expects and receives VIP treatment wherever he goes.Capital punishment used to be a major deterrent. It made the violent robber think twice before pulling the trigger. It gave the cold-blooded prisoner something to ponder about while he was shaking up or serving his arsenic cocktail. It prevented unarmed policemen from being killed while pursuing their duty by killers armed with automatic weapons. Above all, it protected the most vulnerable members of society, young children, from brutal violence. It is horrifying to think that the criminal can literally get away with murder. We all know that “life sentence” does not mean what it says. After ten years or so of good conduct, the most desperate villain is free to return to society where he will live very comfortably, thank you, on the proceeds of his crime, or he will go on committing offences until he is caught again.People are always willing to hold liberal views at the expense of others. It’s always fashionable to pose as the defender of the under-dog, so long as you, personally, remain unaffected. Did the defenders of crime, one wonders, in their desire for fair-play, consult the victims before they suspended capital punishment? Hardly, you see they couldn’t, because all the victims were dead.1.According to the passage, which of the following is the author’s opinion?2.The tone taken by the author towards these defenders of crime in the passage is （ ）.3.“Capital punishment” most probably means（ ） .4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?5.What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
A.All criminals should be required to carry cards which read: Fragile: Handle with Care. B.Capital punishment is the only way to deter criminals. C.Society is to blame. D.All criminals need hospital treatment.
问题2：
A.ironical. B.critical. C.agitated. D.controversial.
问题3：
A.life sentence. B.severe punishment C.fine. D.sentence of death
问题4：
A.There has been a marked trend in society towards the humane treatment of less fortunate members. B.Everybody in society thinks it reasonable that all criminals should be punished. C.The author sympathizes with all criminals. D.Robbers usually think twice before shooting.
问题5：
A.Professional killers should not be treated with humane treatment. B.The violent robbers should think twice before pulling the trigger. C.We should give the prisoner time to ponder about while he is shaking up or serving his arsenic cocktail. D.Severe pun
She makes no （ ）of their affair in public and he understands that he is not to refer to it with these new acquaintances.
A.concealment B.compliment C.amendment D.acknowledgement
Culture is transmitted largely by language and by the necessity for people in close contact to cooperate. The more extensive the communications network，the greater the exchange of ideas and beliefs and the more alike people become—in toleration of diversity if nothing else. Members of a culture or a nation are generally in closer contact with one another than with members of other cultures or nations. They become more like each other and more unlike others. In this way，there develops “national character，” which is the statistical tendency for a group of people to share values and follow similar behavior patterns.Frequently，the members of one culture will interpret the “national characteristics” of another group in terms of their own values. For example，the inhabitants of a South Pacific island may be considered “lazy” by citizens of some industrialized nations. On the other hand，it may be that the islanders place a great value on social relationships but little value on “productivity，” and crops grow with little attention. The negative connotation of the label “lazy” is thus unjustified from the point of view of the island culture.Stereotypes，such as “lazy”，“inscrutable，” and “dishonest” give people the security of labels with which to react to others in a superficial way，but they are damaging to real understanding among members of different cultures. People react more to labels than to reality. A black American Peace Corps volunteer，for instance，is considered and called a white man by black Africans. The “we-they” distinction applies to whatever characteristic the “we” have and the “they” do not have—and the characteristics attributed to the “they” are usually ones with a negative value.The distinction becomes most obvious in times of conflict. For this reason，it is often suggested the only thing that might join all men together on this planet would be an invasion from outer space. “We，” the earthlings, would then fight “them，” the outsiders.Given the great diversities—real and imagined—among people of the world，is there any foundation for hope that someday all men might join together to form a single and legitimate world government? The outcome will probably depend on the political evolution of mankind.1.What makes people more tolerant of diversity between different groups?2.“National character” is built among people who（ ）.3.To some industrialized nations，the mentioned South Pacific islanders are （ ）.4.With stereotypes，people tend to（ ）.5.What is true about the black American Peace Corps volunteer?6.It is possible to form a single and legitimate world government only when （ ） .
A.Extensive communications. B.Language development. C.Close cooperation. D.Direct interactions.
问题2：
A.like each other B.share their values C.speak the same language D.think in the same way
问题3：
A.well-organized B.inefficient C.carefree D.idle
问题4：
A.react to each other on a regular basis B.describe other cultures with labels C.take their own culture as the best of all D.see different cultures in different ways
问题5：
A.He was wronged by his fellow African Americans. B.He was considered against by the whites. C.He was discriminated against by the whites. D.He was excluded from the black Africans.
问题6：
A.people of different nations hold similar political views B.human beings as a whole have one common enemy C.people are willing to abandon their “national character” D.human beings are able to contact beings in outer space