第4部分：閱讀理解(第31-45題，每題3分，共45分)

下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道題。請根據短文內容，為每題確定1個最佳選項。

第一篇 The Development of Ballet

Ballet is a dance form that has a long history. The fact that it survives to this day shows that it has adjusted as times have changed.

Ballet began in the royal courts during the Renaissance. At that time it became common for kings and queens, as well as other nobility(貴族), to participate in pageants that included music, poetry, and dance. As these entertainments moved from the Italian courts to the French ones, court ladies began participating in them. Though their long dresses prevented much movement, they were able to perform elaborate(復雜的) walking patterns. It was not until the 1600s that women dancers shortened their skirts, changed to flat shoes, and began doing some of the leaps and turns performed by men.

It was also in the 1600s that professional ballet began. King Louis XIV of France, himself a devoted dancer, founded the Royal Academy of Dance. The five basic feet positions from which all ballet steps begin were finalized. In the late 1700s another important change occurred. Ballet began to tell a story on its own. It was no longer simply dance to be performed between acts of plays. Elaborate wigs(假發) and costumes were eliminated. By the early 1800s dancers to rise on their toes to make it appear that were floating.

Classical ballet as we know it today was influenced primarily by Russian dancing. The Russians remained interested in ballet when it declined in other European countries in the mid-1800s. One of the most influential figures of the early 20th century was Sergei Diaghilev. His dance company, the Ballets Russes, brought a new energy and excitement to ballet. One of his chief assistants, George Balanchine, went on to found the New York City Ballet in 1948 and to influence new generations of dancers.

31. This passage deals mainly with

A. famous names in ballet.

B. how ballet has developed.

C. Russian ballet.

D. why ballet is no longer popular.

32. The word "pageants" in Paragraph 2 means

A. big shows.

B. dances.

C. instructions.

D. royal courts.

33. Professional ballet was first performed in

A. France.

B. Italy.

C. Russia.

D. America.

34. Who had an important influence on early ballet?

A. Balanchine.

B. Antoinette.

C. Diaghilev.

D. Louis XIV.

35. We can conclude from this passage that ballet

A. is a dying art.

B. will continue to change.

C. is currently performed only in Russia.

D. is often performed by dancers with little training.

參考答案：BAADB

第二篇 Late-night Drinking

Coffee lovers, be careful. Having a quick "pick-me-up" cup of coffee late in the day will interrupt your sleep. As well as being a stimulant (興奮劑), caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin (褪黑激素)，the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.

Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again. "It's the neurohormone (神經激素) that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake," says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Steep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffeinated coffee halves the body's levels of this sleep hormone.

Lotan Shito and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decaf (脫咖啡因咖啡). On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decaf. They also took half an hour to drop off, twice as long as usual.

In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine (尿)sample. Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine, the researchers suggest that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme (酶) that drives melatonin production.

Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.

36. The author mentions “pick-me-up” to indicate that

A. melatonin levels need to be raised.

B. coffee is a stimulant.

C. neurohormone can wake us up.

D. caffeine can balance our brain hormone.

37. Which of the following tells us how caffeine affects sleep?

A. It blocks production of the enzyme that stops melatonin production.

B. It interrupts the flow of the hormone that prevents people from sleeping

C. It halves the body's levels of sleep hormone.

D. It stays in the body for many hours.

38. What does Paragraph 3 mainly discuss?

A. Different effects of caffeinated coffee and decaf on steep.

B. Lotan Shilo's research design on sleep.

C. What the subjects did after drinking decaf at night.

D. Why some subjects took half an hour to fall asleep.

39. The experiment mentioned in Paragraph 4 finds that caffeine drinkers

A. produce less melatonin.

B. sleep longer than decaf drinkers.

C. produce more urine at night

D. wake up every three hours.

40. Ohayon advises coffee lovers

A. to drink less coffee during the day.

B. to take decaf after lunch.

C. not to go to bed after taking coffee.

D. not to drink coffee after supper

參考答案：BCAAD

第三篇 The World’s Best-Selling Medicine

Since ancient times, people all over the world have used willow to stop pain. The willow tree contains salicylic acid (水楊酸). This stops pain, but there is one problem. Salicylic acid also hurts the stomach. In 1853, a French scientist made a mixture from willow that did not hurt the stomach. However, his mixture was difficult to make, and he did not try to produce or sell it.

In 1897, in Germany, Felix Hoffmann also made a mixture with salicylic acid. He tried it himself first and then gave it to his father because his father was old and in a lot of pain. His father’s pain went away, and the mixture did not hurt his stomach.

Hoffmann worked for Bayer, a German company. He showed his new drug to his manager, who tested the drug and found that it worked well. Bayer decided to make the drug. They called it aspirin and put the Bayer name on every pill.

Aspirin was an immediate success. Almost everyone has pain of some kind, so aspirin answered a true need. Aspirin was cheap, easy to take, and effective, it also lowered fevers. Aspirin was a wonder drug.

At first, Bayer sold the drug through doctors, who then sold it to their patients. In 1915, the company started to sell aspirin in drugstores. In the United States, Bayer had a patent on the drug. Other companies could make similar products and sell them in other countries, but only Bayer could make and sell aspirin in the United States. In time, Bayer could no longer own the name aspirin in the United States. Other companies could make it there, too. However, Bayer aspirin was the most well known, and for many years, it was the market leader.

By the 1950s, new painkillers were on the market. Aspirin was no longer the only way to treat pain and reduce fever. Bayer and other companies looked for other drugs to make. However, in the 1970s they got a surprise. Doctors noticed that patients who were taking aspirin had fewer heart attacks than other people. A British researcher named John Vane found the reason aspirin helped to prevent heart attacks. In 1982, he won the Nobel Prize for his research. Doctors started to tell some of their patients to take aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks. It has made life better for the many people who take it. It has also made a lot of money for companies like Bayer that produce and sell it!

41. Why didn't the French scientist continue to make the medicine that stopped pain?

A. It didn't work well.

B. It was hard to make.

C. It hurt the stomach.

D. It was not cost-effective.

42. Why was Felix Hoffmann looking for a painkiller?

A. His company told him to do that.

B. His father was in pain.

C. He wanted to make a lot of money.

D. He suffered from headache.

43. Bayer started making aspirin because

A. it helped prevent heart attacks.

B. other companies were making it.

C. it worked well in stopping pain

D. the manager was a scientist.

44. Bayer aspirin was

A. the only drug with the name “aspirin”.

B. the first aspirin sold in the United States.

C. not sold in drugstores in 1915.

D. not easy to find in drugstores.

45. What has happened to aspirin since new painkillers came on the market?

A. Companies have stopped selling it.

B. It has become the best-selling painkiller.

C. Its new use has been discovered.

D. Doctors have sold it to patients.

參考答案：BBCBC

（責任編輯：vstara）

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