北京市东城区示范校2014届高三12月教学质量调研英语试题试卷(5)

　　A. began to enjoy taking risks
　　B. improved his listening ability
　　C. became more considerate in his job
　　D. regretted choosing medicine as his career
　61. What’s George Garritan’s attitude toward the “gap year”?
　　A. Positive.                               B. Suspicious.
　　C. Uninterested.                           D. Conservative.
　62. What’s the passage mainly about?
　　A. How an adult plans a mid-career gap year.
　　B. Why a gap year is worthwhile for adults.
　　C. Whether a gap year is popular with adults.
　　D. Why a gap year is challenging for individuals.

C
Bike-sharing
　　When public bikes rolled onto the streets of New York, it was treated as a national event and even international media took notice. Like the situations in other cities carrying out the program, bike-sharing in New York allows a subscriber to “borrow” a bike from one of hundreds of locations in the city, use it, and return it to another location at the end of the journey.
　　The United States may be a little late to the game, but the business of European-style bike share isn’t that old to begin with. In a 2003 paper for Transportation Quarterly, bike share expert Paul DeMaio, then a transportation planner for Alexandria, identified three generations of public-use bike programs, going back to 1968 in Amsterdam with the use of so-called “White Bikes.”
　　The next major development was in Copenhagen, which introduced a coin-operated system in 1995 called “City Bike.” For 17 years, these bikes zipped through the streets of Denmark’s capital until the program was shut down late last year—it’s getting an upgrade to the third generation technology.
　　Sponsored by media giant Clear Channel, the French city of Rennes brought the next generation of bike share technology to the world in 1998 by replacing coin operation with card access and electronic records. From there the technology has progressed, picking up GPS(Global Position System)and real-time tracking along the way, and has spread throughout Western Europe—and the world.
　　At present, there are 553 bike share programs in operation worldwide and another 193 in planning or under construction. And they’re not just in Europe and North America. The worldwide leader in bike-sharing, as measured by the number of bikes, is China. According to data collected by the Earth Policy Institute, 20 of the 25 largest bike share programs are Chinese. Its largest one, in the city of Wuhan, has twice the number of bikes as all of France’s shares combined.
　　The benefits of bike-sharing programs in any city are plentiful. They relieve traffic jams, relax parking shortages, reduce air pollution and promote fitness. So if you are in any city where public bikes are provided, get out of your car during rush hour and try bike-sharing!
　63. In which city did bike-sharing start?
　　A. Alexandria.                              B. Amsterdam.
　　C. Copenhagen.                             D. Rennes.
　64. Why was the coin-operated system closed in Copenhagen?
　　A. Because bikes made the streets over-crowded.
　　B. Because it would be replaced by a new system.
　　C. Because its time limit was reached after 17 years.
　　D. Because no sponsors provided money to support it.
　65. We can learn from the passage that bike shares are __________.
　　A. free of charge                            B. costly program
　　C. time-consuming                          D. environmental-friendly
　66. What can be inferred from the passage?
　　A. Bike shares have gained worldwide popularity.
　　B. Most bikes used in the program are of European-style.
　　C. Bike share program in China first started in the city of Wuhan.
　　D. A national celebration for the program was held in New York.
D
Popcorn(爆米花) at the Movies
　　Advertising uses repetition to increase consumers’ preference for brands. Particularly for novel brands, much exposure and repetition is necessary to establish the brand name in the first place. Do you still remember your feeling when you see or hear the names YAHOO or GOOGLE for the first time? Now they are imprinted in your brain. Basic psychological research has already shown that repeatedly perceived (感知) information is easier to be remembered for the brain process.
　　Recent research has shown that repetition effects actually are originally caused from the mouth. Each time we come across a person’s or product name, the lips and the tongue automatically simulate(模仿) the pronunciation of that name. This happens without our awareness and without actual mouth movements. During inner speech, the brain attempts to say the novel name. When names are presented repeatedly, this simulation happens repeatedly. However, if this inner speech is disturbed, for instance during chewing gum or whispering another word, the repetition effect vanishes.
　　An interesting experiment was conducted in movie theaters. 96 participants were invited to a real movie theater and were presented a block of commercials and a movie later on. Half of the participants received popcorn to eat. For them, the mouth was occupied with chewing the popcorn so the mouth muscles could not engage in inner speech when watching the ads for the novel brands. The other half of the participants only received a small sugar cube, which dissolved quickly in their mouth so that the mouth muscles were free to simulate the pronunciation of the brand names. The participants were invited to the lab one week after the cinema session. They were presented with images of products. Half of these products had been advertised in the cinema session; the other half were completely novel products. Participants were asked to indicate the products that they liked, and their physiological(生理的) responses were measured. Those participants who had only received a sugar cube proved that there was a clear advertising effect. They preferred advertised novel products and also showed positive physiological responses of familiarity for advertised products. However, those participants who had eaten popcorn while watching the commercials one week before showed no such advertising effect.