Did you ever think someone was scary (恐怖的)because they looked different or ate strange food? Well, they might think the same about you! One of the things we all need to do is to celebrate variety．We shouldn’t think badly of people from other cultures because they behave differently from us.
Sometimes we treat people from other countries unfairly, because one person from that culture did something bad．Well, has your class ever been punished just because a few kids were causing trouble? Has your whole family ever been blamed for something your little sister did? It doesn’t seem fair, does it? It’s just equally unfair to blame a whole culture for what two or three people have done.
So here are some things that you can do to help yourself understand other cultures:
①Find common ground!
Just remember that even though some people look different on the outside, that doesn’t change how they are on the inside．They still have the exact same feelings!
②________________
Because someone from another culture has been mean to you, you decide to avoid everyone from that culture．Well think about it．Why are you blaming them for something they didn’t have anything to do with? Put yourself in their shoes．How would you feel? Putting yourself inside someone else’s head can be a very powerful way to understand WHY they are acting the way they are.
③Try to make friends with people from other cultures!
You could ask them about their culture, or what it is like in their country, if they can remember, or if they have ever lived there．Try foods from their culture, or ask them about words in their language．You might be surprised at how interesting other cultures can be! You can join great discussion groups, participate in projects, and have lots of fun doing new things.
④Be aware that you’ve judged other people
If you know what you have done, it helps to make things better．Pay attention to what you think about other people．It helps.
【小题1】What is mainly discussed in this passage?  

Easy Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp
Everyone is forgetful, but as we age, we start to feel like our brains are slowing down a bit—and that can be a very annoying thing.  1    Read on for some techniques worth trying.
1.  2    
People who regularly made plans and looked forward to upcoming events had a 50 percent
reduced chance of Alzheimer's disease (早老性痴呆症), according to a recent study.   3  
Something as simple as setting a goal to have a weekly coffee date with a friend will do. There's evidence that people who have a purpose in life or who are working on long or short-term goals appear to do better. In other words, keep your brain looking forward.
2. Go for a walk.
Mildly raised glucose (葡萄糖) levels can harm the area of the brain that helps you form memories and physical activity can help get blood glucose down to normal levels. In fact,exercise produces chemicals that are good for your brain.   4    
3. Learn something new.
Take a Spanish class online, join a drawing club, or learn to play cards. A study found that mental stimulation (刺激) limits the weakening effects of aging on memory and the mind. But the best thing for your brain is when you learn something new and are physically active at the same time.   5    Or go dancing with your friends.

Any foreigner who has tried to learn Chinese can tell how hard it is to master the tones required to speak and understand. And anyone who has tried to learn to play the violin or other instruments can report similar challenges.
Now researchers have found that people with musical training have an easier time learning Chinese. Writing in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience，researchers from Northwestern University say that both skills draw on the same parts of the brain that help people discover changes in pitch(音调)．
One of the study’s authors，Nina Kraus，said the findings suggested that studying music “actually tunes our sensory system”．This means that schools that want children to do well in languages should hesitate before cutting music programs，Dr.Kraus said. She said music training might also help children with language problems.
Mandarin(普通话)speakers have been shown to have a more complex encoding(编码) of pitch patterns in their brains than English speakers do. This is because in Mandarin and other Asian languages，pitch plays a central role. A single­syllable word can have several meanings depending on how it is intoned.
For this study，the researchers looked at 20 non­Chinese speaking volunteers，half with no musical background and half who have studied an instrument for at least six years.
As they were shown a movie，the volunteers also heard an audio tape of the Mandarin word “mi” in three of its meanings：squint，bewilder and rice. The researchers recorded activities in their brain stems to see how well they were processing the sounds. Those with a music background showed much more brain activities in response to the Chinese sounds.
The lead author of the study，Patrick C．M.Wong，said it might work both ways. It appears that native speakers of tonal languages may do better at learning instruments.
【小题1】When learning Chinese，a foreigner will find ________.

IV、阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，共40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出最佳选项。
Perhaps you do not know it, but there is something wonderful at your fingertips. You can make people happier, healthier and more hard-working just by touching their arms or holding their hands.
Doctors say that body contact(接触) is a kind of medicine that can work wonders. When people are touched, the quantity of hemoglobin (血红蛋白) — a type of matter that produces the red color in blood increases greatly. This results in more oxygen (氧气) reaching every part of the body and the whole body benefits. In experiments, bottle-fed baby monkeys were separated from their mothers for the first ten days of life. They became sad and negative. Studies showed the baby monkeys were more probable to become ill than other babies that were allowed to stay with their mothers.
Human babies react (反应) in much the same way. Some years ago, a scientist noticed that some well-fed babies in a clean nursery (托儿所) became weak. Yet babies in another nursery were growing healthily, even though they ate less well and were not kept as clean. The reason, he concluded, was that they often had touches from nurses.
Experiments show that most people like being touched. And nearly all doctors believe touch helps to reduce patients' fear of treatment. Of course there is time when a touch is not welcome. But even if we don’t like being touched, a smile can make us feel better. Smiling increases blood flow and starts the production of “happy brain” chemicals.
So let’s have a big smile and don’t forget to keep in touch.
1. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. People may not understand the importance of touching.
B. People may work harder because of body contact.
C. Your fingertips can do something wonderful.
D. Everyone knows that body contact can make people happier.
2. According to the passage, ______.
A. not all the people like being touched
B. touches from doctors and nurses have nothing to do with treatment
C. new-born baby monkeys should stay away from their mothers
D. human brains need oxygen and blood supply now and then
3. The word “benefits” in the second paragraph probably means ______.
A. to be useful or helpful    B. to get something useful or helpful   C. to be ill     D. to be hurt
4. The best title for the passage might be ______.
A. Why People Touch      B. Smile and Touch C. Wonders of Touch    D. Touch or Not

Toyoda said those changes were being made nearly around the clock，but during three hours of often tense questions and answers he repeated that there was no link to the vehicle’s electronic systems．
Many drivers making complaints against Toyota and the government say their acceleration problems had nothing to do with floor mat interference(油门踏板故障)or sticky gas pedals(刹车)．Outside experts have suggested electronic problems.
House lawmakers expressed serious criticism on Toyoda，the grandson of the company’s founder．
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA)is seeking records on Toyota’s recalls and is conducting its own review on whether electronics were behind the car faults．NHTSA also continues to look into steering complaints from drivers of the popular Corolla model．
Toyota has recalled 8.5 million cars，more than 6 million of them in the United States．
It may be a while before car buyers believe that Toyota really makes safe cars．
Toyota’s January sales already fell 16 percent even as most other automakers jumped back from last year’s bad results．Analyst Koji Endo of Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo said he expects February sales，due out next week，to be down 30 percent to 40. Toyota’s sales problem could continue beyond that． 
It will take some time to feel the full effect of this，he said．
【小题1】The best title for this passage is           ．