Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject—and studied the brain—say that they are. Research for my book Late—Talking Children drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist—and four—fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects—and to music.
Black, white and Asian children in this group showed the same patterns. However, looking at the larger world around us, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled—popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modem. A long string of names comes to mind—Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker…and so on.
None of this presupposes any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
What is the main idea of the first paragraph

A:Mathematical ability and musical ability are related. B:Children usually take readily to their relatives’ career. C:Mathematical ability and musical ability influence each other. D:Children’s mathematical and musical abilities relate to their relatives.

Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject—and studied the brain—say that they are. Research for my book Late—Talking Children drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist—and four—fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects—and to music.
Black, white and Asian children in this group showed the same patterns. However, looking at the larger world around us, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled—popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modem. A long string of names comes to mind—Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker…and so on.
None of this presupposes any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
" Discrepancy " (Line 2, Para.3) most probably means______.

A:inability B:excellence C:difference D:inborn ability

Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject—and studied the brain—say that they are. Research for my book Late—Talking Children drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist—and four—fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects—and to music.
Black, white and Asian children in this group showed the same patterns. However, looking at the larger world around us, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled—popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modem. A long string of names comes to mind—Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker…and so on.
None of this presupposes any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
What can be inferred about opera

A:It needs innate ability. B:It requires formal training. C:It is more difficult to learn than blues. D:It is often enjoyed by those with strong analytical ability.

Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject—and studied the brain—say that they are. Research for my book Late—Talking Children drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist—and four—fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects—and to music.
Black, white and Asian children in this group showed the same patterns. However, looking at the larger world around us, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled—popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modem. A long string of names comes to mind—Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker…and so on.
None of this presupposes any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
Which of the following is TRUE according to the last paragraph

A:Blacks have more innate ability in music. B:Blacks have less innate ability in mathematics. C:Those who have money and time choose mathematics over music. D:Jazz is a channel through which blacks display their musical ability.

It is widely known that birds learn to fly through practice, gradually (1) their innate ability into a finely tuned skill. (2) , a recent study conducted by the University of Sheffield’s Department of Psychology has discovered that the reason birds learn to fly so easily is because memories may have been left behind by their ancestors. These skills may be easy to enhance because of a (3) specified latent (4) for flying.
The researchers used simple models of brains called (5) neural networks and computer (6) to test his theory. They discovered that learning in (7) generations (8) induces the formation of a latent memory in the current generation and (9) decreases the amount of learning required. These effects are especially pronounced if there is a large biological "fitness cost" to learning, where biological fitness is measured in terms of the number of (10) each individual has.
The beneficial effects of learning also (11) the unusual form of information storage in neural networks. (12) computers, which store each item of information in a specific location in the computer’s memory chip, neural networks store each item (13) over many neuronal connections. (14) information is stored in this way then (15) is accelerated, explaining how complex motor skills, such as nest building and hunting skills, are (16) by a combination of innate ability and learning over many generations.
The researchers concluded that this new theory has its (17) in ideas (18) by James Baldwin in 1896, who firstly made the counter-intuitive argument that learning within each generation could guide evolution of innate behavior over future generations. Baldwin was right, (19) in ways less sophisticated than he could have imagined because concepts (20) artificial neural networks and distributed representations were not known in his time.

（15）（）

A:ability B:update C:renovation D:evolution

Passage Two
Having no language, infants cannot be told what they need to learn. Yet by the age of three they will have mastered the basic structure of their native language and will be well on their way to communicative competence. Acquiring their language is a most impressive intellectual feat. Students of how children learn language generally agree that the most remarkable aspect of this feat is the rapid acquisition of grammar. Nevertheless, the ability of children to conform to grammatical rules is only slightly more wonderful than their ability to learn words. It has been reckoned that the average high school graduate in the United States has a reading vocabulary of 80,000 words, which includes idiomatic expressions and proper names of people and places. This vocabulary must have been learned over a period of 16 years. From the figures, it can be calculated that the average child learns at a rate of about 13 new words per day. Clearly a learning process of great complexity goes on a rapid rate in children.

The underlined word "which" refers to （）

A:their ability B:reading vocabulary C:idiomatic expression D:learning process

The expression "books of about your level of ability..." in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to ______

A:the books about your ability B:the books that you could find C:the books about your height D:the books that you can understand

Walk a Quarter-Mile or Die 　　If you can walk a quarter-mile,odds(可能性)are you have at least six years of life left in you,scientists say.And the faster you can(51)it,the longer you might live. 　　While walking is no guarantee of(52)or longevity(长寿),a new study found that the ability of elderly people to do the quarter-mile was an“important determinant(决定因素)”in whether or not they’d be(53)six years later and how much illness and disability they would endure. 　　“The(54)to complete this walk was a powerful predictor of health outcomes,”said study leader Anne Newman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.“In fact,we(55)that the people who could not complete the walk were(56)an extremely high risk of later disability and death.” 　　Newman and colleagues recruited nearly 2,700 white and African-American men and women aged 70 to 79 to(57)the walk.All the participants were screened and determined to be in relatively(58)health,and they had all said they had previously walked that far with no(59).Only 86 percent of them finished,(60). 　　The scientists then monitored the health and mortality of all(61)for the next six years.“There was a big gap in health outcomes(62)people who could complete the longer walk and people who could not,with the latter being at an extremely high(63)of becoming disabled or dying,”Newman said.“What was really surprising is that these people were not(64)of how weak they actually were.” 　　Finishing times were found to be crucial,too.Those who completed the walk but were among the slowest 25 percent(65)three times greater risk of death than the speedier folks.

A:task B:standard C:ability D:subject

? 下面的短文有15处空白，请根据短文内容为每处空白确定1个最佳选项。

A:task B:standard C:ability D:subject

There are many ways of defining success. It is accurate to say that each of us has our own concept of success to the extent that each of us is responsible for setting our own goals and determining whether we have met these goals satisfactorily. Because each of us possesses unique differences in genetic ability and favorable environments in which to express these abilities, it is necessarily true that we must define success broadly.
For some people, simply being able to live their life with a minimum of misery and suffering is considered a success. Think of the peace of mind of the poor shepherd who tends his sheep, enjoys his frugal life with his family in the beauty of nature, and who is respected because he does a good job of achieving the goals expected of and accepted by his and his society. On the other hand, it seems that even though some people appear to be rich in material possessions, many of them seem to be miserable and consider themselves unsuccessful when judged by their own standards of success. Because not all ventures can be successful, one should not set unrealistic goals for achieving success, but if one has self-confidence it would be unfortunate to set one’s goals at too low a level of achievement.
A wise counselor once said to a young man who was experiencing frustration with his own professional success: "You do not have to set your goal to reach the moon in order to have success in traveling. Sometimes one can be very successful merely by taking a walk in the park or riding the subway downtown," The counselor added, "You have not really failed and spoiled your chances for success until you have been unsuccessful at something you really like, and to which you have given you best effort./
In the first paragraph, the author implies that ______ are essential in achieving success.

A:ability and goals B:goals and determination C:ability and environment D:goals and environment