北京市朝阳区2019届高三第一次(3月一模)英语试卷含答案

B. he expected to start a business in other fields C. he saw there was great interest in what he was doing D. he thought he could teach more than flight schools could

C

Training the Brain

People who can accomplish unbelievable tasks, such as memorizing thousands of random numbers in under an hour, state that they just have normal brains. Some memory superstars compete in Olympic-like World Memory Championships. These mental athletes, or MAs for short, can memorize names of dozens of strangers in a few minutes or any poem handed them. Ed Cooke, a 24-year-old MA, explains they see themselves as participants rescuing the long-lost art of memory training. These techniques existed not to recall useless information, but to cut into the brain basic text and ideas.

A study in the journal Nature examined eight people who finished near the top of the World Memory Championships. The scientists examined whether their brains were fundamentally different from everyone else’s or whether they were simply making better use of memorizing abilities we all possess. They put the MAs and control subjects into brain scanners and had them memorize numbers and photographs. The result surprised everyone. The brains of the MAs and those of the control subjects were indistinguishable. On every test, the MAs scored in the normal range. However, when the scientists examined what part of the brain was used during a memory activity, they found the MAs relied more heavily on areas in the brain involved in spatial memory.

MAs offer an explanation: anything can be fixed upon our memories and kept in order by constructing a building in the imagination and filling it with pictures of what needs to be recalled. Dating back to the fifth century, the building is called a memory palace. Even as late as the fourteenth century, when there were copies of any text, scholars needed to remember what was read to them. Reading to remember requires a different technique than speed reading. If something is made memorable, it has to be repeated. Until relatively recently, people read only a few books intensively (细致地) again and again, usually aloud. Today we read extensively, usually only once and without continuous focus.

So the great difference is the ability to create impressive pictures in mind and to do it quickly. Using memory palaces, MAs create memorized pictures. For example, recombine the pictures to form unforgettable scenes such as the ways through a town. One competitor used his own body parts to help him memorize a 57,000-word dictionary.

Anyone who wishes to train the mind needs first to create fantastical palaces in the

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imagination. Then they should cut each building into cubbyholes for memories. In a short amount of time, they will notice improvement with remembering things. To keep the skill sharp, MAs deliberately empty their palaces after competitions, so they can reuse them and they recommend that beginners do the same.

38. We can learn from Paragraph 2 that a mental athlete ______. A. owns a brain that is larger in size B. shows a gift in mental ability tests C. uses the memorizing technique better

D. depends less on the areas that control spatial memory 39. Why does the author mention “speed reading” in Paragraph 3? A. To discuss the memorizing technique in the fifth century. B. To give the reason why people read only a few books carefully. C. To explain the text fourteenth century scholars had to remember. D. To compare the type of reading nowadays with that of earlier times. 40. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4? A. There is a variety of unforgettable scenes. B. Memory palaces can be quickly forgotten. C. Impressive pictures are in actual buildings. D. One person probably has 57,000 body parts.

41. What does the underlined word “cubbyholes” in the last paragraph probably mean? A. Small spaces. C. Technical skills.

B. Blacks holes. D. Different numbers. D

Early or Later Day Care

Many young parents are confused about whether their children should have early day care, and there have always been different views on this subject.

The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby believes that separation from parents during the sensitive “attachment” period from birth to three may scar a child’s personality and lead to psychological problems in later life. Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby’s work that children should not be subjected to day care before three because of the parental separation it causes, and many people do believe this.

According to Bowlby, a great deal of psychological harm can occur when young

children are separated from their parents. If they are left without touch for a while, they will have a higher stress level. Parents’ influence on their children’s well-being may never be

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greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child’s brain is developing rapidly and when nearly all of her or his experiences are shaped by parents and the family environment.

However, there are critics. Some anthropologists (人类学家) point out that the love affair between children and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist in traditional societies. There has been a long history of the fact that father and mother did not bring up their children alone. Plato, around 394 B.C., argued that a system of early child care would free women to participate in society. Results from Israeli and Dutch studies show that child-raising duties are more evenly distributed among a broader group of people.

Besides, studies have reported that early day care has a neutral or slightly positive effect on children’s development. They learn the benefits of being socially smart, understanding the concept of sharing and caring. They promote concentration skills, which is very important in their learning. There are games where children are taught basic language and mathematical skills through stories and everyday examples.

Common sense tells us that early day care would not be so widespread if children had problems with it. But Bowlby’s analysis raises the possibility that it has delayed effects. The possibility that such care might lead to more mental illness 15 or 20 years later can only be explored by the use of statistics. Whatever the long-term effects, parents sometimes find the immediate effects difficult to deal with. Children under three dislike leaving their parents and show unhappiness. At the age of three almost all children find it easy to go to the nursery. The matter, then, is far from being clearly known, though experience and available evidence indicate that early day care is reasonable for young children. 42. The passage mainly argues whether ______. A. children over three will accept school education B. children under three should be sent to nursery schools C. the family relationship is different in traditional societies D. early day care should be totally replaced in modern societies 43. Which of the following supports Bowlby’s theory?

A. Early day care wouldn’t be so popular if it had negative effects. B. Separation from parents for young children is common in history. C. Parents find the immediate effects of early day care difficult to deal with. D. Studies show early day care has a positive effect on children’s development. 44. The author’s attitude towards early day care is that ______. A. children under three should stay with their parents B. it has potential benefits for both children and parents

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C. the bad effect of it on children will disappear as they grow up D. it is controversial and the settlement calls for the use of statistics 45. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in the passage? A. B.

C. D.

I: Introduction P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点) C: Conclusion 第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，共10分）

根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Can We Stop Food Longing Through Imaginary Eating?

Are you fighting an urge to reach for chocolate? Then, let it melt in your mind, not in your mouth. According to the recent research, imagining eating a specific food reduces your interest in that food, so you eat less of it.

This reaction to repeated exposure to food—being less interested in something because you’ve experienced it too much—is called habituation. ____46____

The research is the first to show that habituation can occur through the power of the mind. “If you just think about the food itself—how it tastes and smells—that will increase

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your appetite,” said Carey Morewedge, a well-known psychologist. “It might be better to force yourself to repeatedly think about chewing and swallowing the food in order to reduce your longing. ____47____ Visualizing yourself eating chocolate wouldn’t prevent you from eating lots of cheese,” he added.

Morewedge conducted an interesting experiment. 51 subjects were divided into three groups. One group was asked to imagine putting 30 coins into a laundry machine and then eating three chocolates. ____48____ Another group was asked to imagine putting three coins into a laundry machine and then eating 30 chocolates. Lastly, a control group imagined just putting 33 coins into the machine—with no chocolates. ____49____ When they said they had finished, these were taken away and weighed. The results showed the group that had imagined eating 30 chocolates each ate fewer of the chocolates than the other groups.

____50____ Physical signals—that full stomach feeling—are only part of what tells us we’ve finished a meal. The research suggests that psychological effects, such as habituation, also influence how much a person eats. It may lead to new behavioral techniques for people looking to eat more healthily, or have control over other habits. A. What’s more, this only works with the specific food you’ve imagined. B. People were advised to try different methods to perform the experiment. C. For example, a tenth bite is desired less than the first bite, according to the study. D. All of them then ate freely from bowls containing the same amount of chocolate each. E. It meant those who repeatedly imagined eating would concern about some specific food. F. This requires the same motor skills as eating small chocolates from a packet, the study

says.

G. This study is part of the research looking into what makes us eat more than we actually need.

第三部分：书面表达（共两节，35分） 第一节 （15分）

假设你是红星中学高三的学生李华。你班交换生Jim将要参加“学在中国”留学生汉语演讲比赛，来信向你咨询。请你给他写一封邮件，内容包括：

1. 推荐一个演讲话题； 2. 说明推荐的理由； 3. 建议他做哪些准备工作。

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