Girls really do prefer pink and boys prefer blue, recent research shows.
The reasons could have its origins in the hunt for food on the African savannah(稀树草原) thousands of years ago. Evolution may have developed women’s preference for pink, perhaps because it helped them to find ripe fruit and healthy men with reddish faces, while both men and women have a natural desire for blue, according to scientists at Newcastle University.
“Everyone in today’s western culture, from parents to toy manufactures, seems to assume that little girls like pink.” Said Prof. Anya Hulbert, who wanted to find out whether the reason was cultural or to do with biology.
A love of salmon, fuchsia and coral does seem to be rooted into females, rather than picked up from their mothers.
The participants in the study were Chinese and British. The Chinese students showed a marked preference for red. “Culture may contribute to this natural female preference.” Said Pro. Hulbert.
In her experiments, 208 young adult men and women were asked to select, as rapidly as possible, their preferred color. Hulbert and her colleague Dr. Yazhu Ling marked the results and found that while men preferred blue, women tended to choose pink.
Hulbert said she could only infer about the preference for blue: “Here again, I would favor evolutionary arguments. Going back to our savannah’s days, we would have a natural preference for a clear blue sky, because it signaled good weather. Clear blue also signals a good water source.”
60.The passage mentions “the African savannah” to show that____.
A.the ancient Africa was a beautiful place.
B.human beings lived in African at first.
C.women and men have different color preferences.
D.Color preference has its historical origins.
61.It can be inferred that the underlined word “fuchsia”_____.
A.is probably a kind of toy
B.is probably pink in color
C.can be only found in Africa
D.hardly causes men’s interest
62.By saying “The Chinese students… for red.” in paragraph 5, the writer means______.
A.red is the Chinese student’s favorite color
B.the Chinese prefer red more than the British
C.culture influences people’s color preferences
D.the study was carried out by two nations
63.What can we know from the last paragraph?
A.Hulbert thinks evolution explains why people prefer blue
B.Hulbert has a strong desire for “savannah” days
C.Blue is a natural signal of many good things
D.While boys like blue, girls like pink.

I hated dinner parties .But I decided to give them another shot because I’m  in London. And my friend Mallery invited me . And because dinner parties in London are very different from those  in New York,  “I’m having a dinner party ” means : “I’m booking a table for 12 at a restaurant  you can’t afford ang we’ll be sharing the cheque evenly , no matter what you eat.” Wors , in  Manhattan there  is  always someone who  leaves before  the  bill arrives  .They’ll throw  down cash, half of what  they owe, and then people like me, who don’t  drink, end  up paying even  more . But if try to use the same  trick  , the hostess will shout; “Where are you going ?” And it’s not like I can  say I have somewhere to go : everyone knows I have  nowhere to go.

But in London, dinner patise are in people’s homes . Not only that, the guests  are an interesting  mix .The last time I went to one , the guests were from France , India ,Denmark and  Nigeria; it was like a gathering  at the United Nations . In New York ,the mix is less striking . It’s  like a gathering at Bloomingdat=le’s , a well-known de partment  store.

For New Yorkers, talking ,talking  about  other  parts  of the world  means Brooklyn  and Queens in New Yorkers.But at Mallery’s ,when I side that I had been to Myanmar recently, peo ple knew where it was , In New Yorkers people would think it was a usual culb.

1.What does the word “shot” in Paragraph I pro baly mean?

A.  Choice B. Try   C. Style   D.Goal

2. What does  the writer  dislike most about  dinner  parties  in New Yorkers

A. There  is a stange mix of people.

B. The restaurants are expensive.

C. The bill is not fairly shared.

D. People  have  to  pay cash 

3.What does the author think of the parties in London?

A. A bit unusual   B. Full of tricks  C.Less costly  D. More interesting

4.What  is the author’s opininon of some New Yorkers from her experience?

A.Easy-going B. Self-centred.   C.Generous D.Conservative

　More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving（旺盛的）. As Skolnich notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline（衰退）in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce（离婚）rate needs to be taken in this pro- marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of the people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty- five years ago, the typical American family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children, and there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses （配偶）．

　　Thus, one can find every type of tamely arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with “full - time” children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with“full- time”children from the present marriage and“ part- time”children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half- brothers and half - sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

　By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.

　　A. Americans are more traditional than Europeans

　　B. Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans

　　C. there are more married couples in the USA than in Europe

　　D. more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age

Divorced Americans ________ .

　　A. prefer the way they live

　　B. will most likely remarry

　　C. have lost interest in marriage

　　D. are the majority of people in the society

Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families？

　　A. Which types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.

　　B. A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife.

　　C. Americans prefer to have more kids than before.

　　D. There are no nuclear families any more.

　More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving（旺盛的）. As Skolnich notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline（衰退）in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce（离婚）rate needs to be taken in this pro-marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of the people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty-five years ago, the typical American family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children, and there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses（配偶）．

　　Thus, one can find every type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with“full-time”children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with“full-time”children from the present marriage and“part-time”children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half-brothers and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.

　　A. Americans are more traditional than Europeans

　　B. Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans

　　C. there are more married couples in the USA than in Europe

　　D. more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age

Divorced Americans ________ .

　　A. prefer the way they live                   B. will most likely remarry

　　C. have lost interest in marriage               D. are the majority of people in the society

Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families？

　　A. Different types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.

　　B. A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife.

　　C. Americans prefer to have more kids than before.

　　D. There are no nuclear families any more.

Though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families, ________ .

　　A. the majority of Americans still have faith in marriage

　　B. the functions of marriage remain unchanged

　　C. most Americans prefer a second marriage

D. most Americans prefer to be single

Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found on Thursday.

    Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others—even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

   “We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn,” said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual (yearly) income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, girls for others and donations to charity.

   “Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not,” Dunn said in a statement.

   Dunn’s team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit-sharing bonus of between $3,000 and $8,000. “Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro-social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself” they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

　　They gave their volunteers $5 or $20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.

   “These findings suggest that very minor alterations (changes) in spending allocations (shares)—as little as $5—may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day，”Dunn said.

1. What is the general idea of the passage?

A. The more you earn, the greater happiness you will get.

B. Spending more money on yourself will make you happier.

C. Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else.

D. You can spend only 5$ a day to get happiness.

2.The underlined word “boost” in the first paragraph probably means_______.

A. help to find     B. help to bring    C. help to increase     D. help to get

3.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Those who spend more money on others can get much more bonus.

B. People usually think spending money on themselves will make them happier.

C. Very small changes in spending your money may be enough to gain happiness.

D. Researchers think that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn.

4.It can be inferred from the 6th paragraph that ______.

A. the volunteers not given 5$ or 20$ spent their own money on themselves.

B. those who spent the money on someone or something else felt happier about it.

C. the volunteers were given 5$ or 20$ as a reward for the experiment.

D. half of the volunteers could spend the money as they liked.