The two girls quarreled the day before yesterday, but now they completely ______.
A.coincided B.reckoned C.reconciled D.conceded
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The two girls quarreled the day before yesterday, but now they completely ______.
Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia（痴呆）in old age.This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs（痴呆）the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function. A command system directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind—like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.Why does the tussle（搏斗）between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed（磨炼）by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often—you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompea Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age, and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life.1.According to the passage, the more recent and old views of bilingualism differ mainly in（ ）.2.The fact that interference is now seen as a blessing in disguise means that （ ）.3.What is the role of Paragraph Four in relation to Paragraph Three?4.Which of the following can account for better performance of bilinguals in doing non-inhibition tasks?5.What is the main theme of the passage?
It was obvious that he had been drinking far too much from the way he came（ ）down the street.
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition of no less than 200 words under the title of “My Favorite Color”. Please write clearly on the Answer Sheet.
Some people were just born to rebel; Charles Darwin was one of them.（16）Nicholas Copernicus, Benjamin Franklin and Bill Gates. They were（17）“laterborns”--that is, they had（18）one older sibling--brother or sister --when they were born.（19）, laterborns are up to 15 times more likely than firstborns to（20）authority and break new（21）, says Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.In his book “Born To Rebel” being（22）this week, Sulloway claims that（23）someone is an older or younger sibling is the most important（24）shaping personality is more significant than gender, race, nationality （25）class.He spent 26 years（26）the lives -- and birth orders -- of 6, 566 historical（27）to reach his conclusions.A laterborn himself, Sulloway first（28）how birth order affected personality（29）a scholar of Darwin at Harvard University.“How could a somewhat（30）student at Cambridge become the most（31）thinker in the 19th century?” he said.Darwin, the first to（32）the belief that God created the world with his theory of evolution, was the fifth of six children. Most of his（33）were firstborns.Sulloway’s theory held（34）with Copernicus, the first astronomer to（35）that the Sun was the center of the universe, and computer revolutionary Gates of Microsoft.
Last year’s 800-odd events have mushroomed to more than 2,100, and scores of elected and would-be elected officials, including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, have gone before the cameras to pay homage to the week’s healthcare theme.But some analysts wonder whether the lawmakers who are rolling out new proposals and recycling old ones are more concerned about scoring political points than finding solutions to the problems generated by a fractured healthcare system.Despite the equally fervent declarations coming from every side that, as Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) said, “Now is not soon enough to get the job done,” fundamental philosophical differences—as well as the war in Iraq, terrorism fears and the federal budget deficit—will continue to determine what, if anything, comes of all the talk.Across the country, groups from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the AFL-CIO, from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Islamic Society of North America, have sponsored workshops, town hall meetings and news conferences this week to call attention to the problems caused by rising healthcare costs and shrinking coverage—and to demand government action.But in the nation’s capital, the policy proposals presented by separate groups of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have almost nothing in common and come wrapped in political invective directed at the other side.For instance, Sen. Gordon Smith said Tuesday the key difference between the Republicans’ targeted, tax-based proposals and democratic bills to expand existing government programs was “the choice between superior healthcare for most Americans and finding ways to include the rest of the Americans, or mediocre healthcare for all Americans.”They include previous proposals, such as malpractice reform and tax credits, as well as a new plan to forgive some student loans for college graduates who invest in tax-free, high-deducible tax savings plans.A study released Monday by the Urban Institute, a social policy research organization in Washington, said that providing health insurance to those who lacked coverage would increase medical spending by $48 billion a year.Some analysts think growing public concern about cost, quality and availability of healthcare could force Washington to act―eventually.26. Which of the following can be used as the title of the passage?27. According to this passage, Americans are facing ____.28. The author writes this article in order to ____.29. Which of the following is not true according to the passage?30. What do the Americans need most for their healthcare according to this passage?