2026年统考专升本《英语》冲刺试卷一

Directions: There are 10 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. You are required to choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Football is the most popular sport in the fall in the United States. The game originated as a （an）___31___sport more than seventy-five years ago. It is still played by almost every college and university in the country, and the football stadiums of some of the largest universities___32___as many as 80,000 people. The game is not the same as European football. There are eleven players in each team, and___33___in padded uniforms because the game is rough and injuries are likely to occur. The___34___of the game is to carry or throw from one person to another the ball across the opponent’s goal or scoring line. He___35___has not attended a large college football game has missed one of the most colorful aspects of American college life.___36___the two halves of the game, the playing field if taken over by the bands（乐队） of the rival institutions,___37___take turns doing intricate marches and executing interesting formations. The student spectators are led in cheering for their team by trained, uniformed student cheerleaders,___38___are pretty girls. Outstanding high school football players are usually encouraged to come to a college and university___39___offers of scholarships and free room and board. Football is so popular and the urge to win is so keen, that many colleges actively___40___outstanding players for their student body. Attendance at football games is so large that it is not unheard of for a college or university to finance its entire athletic program from ticket sales.

Passage 3
In the 1960s, medical researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed a checklist of stressful events. They appreciated the tricky point that any major change can be stressful. Negative events like “serious illness of a family member” were high on the list, but so were some positive life-changing events, like marriage. When you take the Holmes-Rahe test you must remember that the score does not reflect how you deal with stress---it only shows how much you have to deal with. And we now know that the way you handle these events dramatically affects your chances of staying healthy.
By the early 1970s, hundreds of similar studies had followed Holmes and Rahe. And millions of Americans who work and live under stress worried over the reports. Somehow, the research was described briefly in a memorable message. Women’ s magazines ran headlines like “Stress causes illness!” If you want to stay physically and mentally healthy, the articles said, avoid stressful events.
But such simple advice is impossible to follow. Even if stressful events are dangerous, many---like the death of a loved one are impossible to avoid. Moreover, any warning to avoid all stressful events is a prescription（处方）
for staying away from opportunities as well as trouble. Since any change can be stressful, a person who wanted to be completely free of stress would never marry, have a child,and take a new job or move.
The notion that all stress makes you sick also ignores a lot of what we know about people. It assumes we’ re all weak and passive in the face of difficulties. But what about human initiative and creativity? Many people who come through periods of stress with more physical and mental energy than they had before. We also know that a long time without change or challenge can lead to boredom, and physical and metal strain.

Passage 2
Questions 16 ~ 20 are based on the following passage.
A warm drink of milk before bed has long been the best choice for those wanting a good night’s sleep. But now a study has found it really does help people nod off—if it is milked from a cow at night.
Researchers have discovered that “night milk” contains more melatonin（ 褪黑激素）, which has been proven to help people feel sleepy and reduce anxiety.
The study, by researchers from Seoul, South Korea, involved mice being fed with dried milk powder made from cows milked both during the day and at night.
The mice given night milk, which contained 10 times the amount of melatonin, were less active and less anxious than those fed with the milk collected during daytime, according to the study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food.
Night milk quickened the start of sleep and caused the mice to sleep longer.
While the effect of cows’ milk harvested at different time has not been tested on humans up to now, taking melatonin drugs has been suggested to those who are struggling to fall asleep at night.
Previous studies have also indicated that milk can be excellent for helping sleep because of the calcium content, which helps people to relax.
Milk is also sugar-free and additive-free with nutritionists recommending skimmed milk as the best choice before bed as it is the least fattening. The more fat you take in before 4 bedtime, the greater burden you will put on your body at night.

The California lawmakers voted Thursday to raise the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21. The measure is part of a larger package of laws aimed at reducing tobacco use. If Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill, California will become the second state, after Hawaii, to raise the age limit for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products. More than 100 cities in the U. S., including New York and Boston, have already raised the age limit.
A week ago, the California Assembly approved the measure, which—in addition to raising the age limit—treats electronic cigarettes the same as tobacco products, expands smoke-free areas, increases smoking bans and allows counties to collect higher taxes on cigarettes than the 87-cent per pack state tax. The Assembly’s vote came a few days after the city of San Francisco increased the age to buy tobacco products to 21.
California lawmakers passed the bill despite lobbying （游说）from tobacco interests. The measure also faced opposition from many Republicans, who said the state should not be involved in policing people’s personal choices. “I don’t smoke. I don’t encourage my children to,” said Re-publican Assemblyman Donald Wagner. “But they’re adults, and it’s our job to treat our citizens as adults.”
But supporters of the bill say raising the age to 21 moves legally purchased tobacco that much farther from younger kids. “This will save the medical system millions of dollars,” said Democratic Assemblyman Jim Wood. （76）“It will save thousands of lives.” A 2015 study by the Institute of Medicine “found that if the minimum legal age to buy tobacco were raised to 21 nation-wide, tobacco use would drop by 12 percent by the time today’s teens reached adulthood. In addition, there would be 223,000 fewer premature （过早的） deaths and 50,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer.”

Passage Four
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage:
New research is trying to find how we learn and make decisions exactly. To the brain, a new thought or idea is like a spider. If it works hard enough, a web of knowledge spins out from it. Photos of the brain taken during learning actually show a kind of nerve cells firing, growing, and forming new connections. This is fascinating in itself, but what's even more fascinating is that failure can cause this to happen.
That's right; failure can enhance your brain.
Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck has compared the brain waves of people with growth and fixed mind-sets. She finds that, when those with growth mind-sets fail at a task, they would enter a more focused mental state. And as they try again and again, they improve. In effect, they've learned, and their brains have "grown. " Those with fixed mind-sets, however, never enter this focused state of learning and show little advancement.
Antoine Bechara, a professor of psychology and neuro science at the University of Southern California, has taken Dweck's work a step further. He recently isolated two equally sized centers in the brain. These areas interact during the decision-making process. Although more research is needed, these centers may turn out. to be the physical locations for Dweck's twin mind-sets.
“We always knew people could learn from their mistakes, but now we're finding out exactly how and where this happens,” explains Bechara. “In a normally functioning brain, failure is taken as an opportunity for learning and strengthening the species.”