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Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write.
Dr.J.Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887.He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment (损伤) , such as in autism or retardation. At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people.The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory.
One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr.Benjamin Rush, an American doctor.His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds.Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical pieces beautifully.
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment.Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills.Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However,few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.
48.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities.
B.Human Beings have complicated thinking process.
C.The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired.
D.The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary.
49.Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?
A.He can play wonderful pieces of classical music.
B.He can guess out exactly the length of a man's life.
C.He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast.
D.He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly.
50.What can you infer from the passage?
A.Idiot savants have real talents for art and math.
B.Dr.Down is the first person who found idiot savants.
C.Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations.
D.Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants.
短文改错(共10小题,每小题1分,满分10分)
Last night Iam getting ready for the coming examination when the noise from my neighbor interrupted (打扰)me.The noise went on and on. It was too loud that I could hardly pay attention to my study any longer. but I went to my neighbor’s house and say to him, “ Excuse me, would you please turn down the TV? I’m preparing for tomorrow’s examination.” Hear these words, his face turned to red. And he said, “ OK, I will. I’m very sorry to have made so much noise. Just now, the football game was very wonderfully. I was too exciting to control myself. I won’t do that again. Good lucky in your coming examination.” After that, I went on with his study.
Mr Smith was the manager of a hotel in Springfield. One weekend all of the hotels in the city were full because there was a large meeting. Late in the evening three men came into the hotel and asked for rooms. Mr Smith explained that because of the meeting, there were no rooms ready for use. The men were very unhappy because they had no place to stay in.
Mr Smith wanted to help them. He remembered that Room 414, a very small room, was empty. He asked them if they would share a room. The three men agreed. Mr Smith told them that the room would cost $30: $10 for each. Each of them gave Mr Smith $10, and they went up to the room.
Mr Smith soon began to feel sorry. “Thirty dollars is too much for that small room,” he thought. He called one of his men over and said, “Here is $ 5. Bring it to the man in Room 414. I’ve asked too much money for their room.”
The worker took the money from his manager. While he was on his way to Room 414, he started to think, “How can I divide $5? Well, I’ll give each of them only $1 and I keep $2. The men will be happy to get anything back. I’ll make a little money and Mr Smith will never know.” So he returned $1 to each man.
You see, there come a problem, each man had at first paid $10. After the worker returned them $1 each, each man had paid 9. There were three men, $9 x 3 =" $27." The worker kept $2 —$27+$2="29." Where is the missing dollar?Which of the following is True?
A.The large meeting was held in this hotel. | B.The three men stayed together in one room. |
C.Each of the three men got a small room. | D.Room 414 was the office for Mr Smith. |
Where was the missing dollar?
A.There wasn’t any missing dollar at all. | B.It was taken by the worker too. |
C.It was taken by the manager Mr Simith. | D.It was taken by the three men themselves. |
Put the following sentences in correct order.
a. Three men went into the hotel for a room. b. Mr Smith felt sorry to have asked for too much.
c. They paid 30 dollars altogether for one room. d. The worker gave one dollar back to each of them.
e. Mr Smith thought of a small room, still empty. f. The worker was given 5 dollar to return to them.
A.c→b→e→a→d→f | B.c→d→f→e→a→b | C.a→c→b→e→f→d | D.a→e→c→b→f→d |
What is the best title of this text?
A.The Kind Manager. | B.Three Men Came to the Hotel |
C.A Strange Maths Problem | D.$27 + $2 = $29 |
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