【正文】 y from _ _ fancy, but a strict adherence to the essential principles of science. A. empty B. hollow C. idle D. ideal 40. My sister is quite _ _ and plans to get an M. A. degree within one year. A. aggressive B. enthusiastic C. considerate D. ambitious 3 Passage One She’s cute, no question. Symmetrical features, flawless skin, looks to be 22 years old—entering any meatmarket bar, a woman lucky enough to have this face would turn enough heads to stir a breeze. But when Victor Johnston points and clicks, the face on his puter screen changes into a state of superheated, crystallized beauty. “You can see it. It’s just so extraordinary,” says Johnston, a professor of biopsychology at New Mexico State University who sounds a little in love with his creation. The transformation from pretty woman to kneeweakening babe is all the more amazing because the changes wrought by Johnston39。s software are, objectively speaking, quite subtle. He created the original face by digitally averaging 16 randomly selected female Caucasian faces. The changing program then exaggerated the ways in which female faces differ from male faces, creating, in humanbeautyscience field, a “hyperfemale”. The eyes grew a bit larger, the nose narrowed slightly and the lips plumped. These are shifts of just a few millimeters, but experiments in this country and Scotland are suggesting that both males and females find “feminized” versions of averaged faces more beautiful. Johnston hatched this little movie as part of his ongoing study into why human beings find some people attractive and others homely. He may not have any rock—solid answers yet, but he is far from alone in attempting to apply scientific inquiry to so ambiguous a subject. Around the world, researchers are marching into territory formerly staked out by poets and painters to uncover the underpinnings of human attractiveness. The research results so far are surprising—and humbling. Numerous studies indicate that human beauty may not be simply in the eye of the beholder or an arbitrary cultural artifact. It may be ancient and universal, wrought through ages of evolution that rewarded reproductive winners and killed off losers. If beauty is not truth, it may be health and fertility: Halle Berry’s flawless skin may fascinate moviegoers because, at some deep level, it persuades us that she is parasitefree. Human attractiveness research is a relatively young and certainly contentious field—the allure of hyperfemales, for example, is still hotly debated—but those on its front lines agree on one point: We won’t conquer “l(fā)ooks—ism” until we understand its source. As psychologist Nancy Etcoff puts it: “The idea that beauty is unimportant or a cultural construct is the real beauty myth. We have to understand beauty, or we will always be enslaved by it.” 41. The woman described in the very beginning of the text is_ ___ A. in fact in her late twenties. B. Johnston’s ideal girlfriend. C. a stunning beauty. D. is a professional prostitute. 42. Victor Johnston synthesized a new face by bining the features of 16_ ___ A. beautiful European women. B. different women around the world. C. casually chosen white women. D. ordinary western women. 43. Through a few tiny changes made by Johnston, the synthesized face became even more_ ___ A. masculine. B. average. C. feminine. D. neutral. 44. Victor Johnston has produced such an attractive face in order to_ ___ A. give his puter a beautiful screen. B. study the myth of human attractiveness. C. prove the human capacity to create beauties. D. understand why Caucasian faces are special. 45. Paragraph 4 suggests that human beauty may be_ ___ A. culturally different. B. a diseasefree idol. C. individualdependent. D. a world agreed value. 46. It’s a consensus among the researchers that humans are still unconscious of_ ___ A. why they look attractive. B. when attractiveness is important. C. how powerful beauty is. D. what constitutes beauty. Passage Two 4 It’s being something of a joke along the MaineCanada border. So many busloads of retired people crisscross the line looking for affordable drugs that the roadside stands should advertise, “Lobsters. Blueberries. Lipitor. Coumalin.” Except, of course, that such a market in prescription drugs would be illegal. These senior longdistance shopping sprees fall in a legal gray zone. But as long as people cross the border with prescriptions from a physician and have them filled for no more than a threemonth supply for personal use, customs and other federal officials leave them alone. The trip might be tiring, but people can save an average of 60 percent on the cost of their prescription drugs. For some, that’s the difference between taking the drugs or doing without. “The last bus trip I was on six months ago had 25 seniors,” says Chellie Pingree, former Maine state senator and now president of Common Cause. “Those 25 people saved$19. 000 on their supplies of drugs.” Pingree sponsored Maine RX, which authorizes a discounted price on drugs for Maine residents who lack insurance coverage. The law was challenged by drug panies but recently upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court. It hasn’t yet taken effect. Figuring out ways to spend less on prescription drugs has bee a multifaceted national movement of consumers, largely senior citizens. The prescription drug bill in America is$1 60 billion annually, and people over 65 fill five times as many prescriptions as working Americans on average. “But they do it on health benefits that are half as good and on ines that are half as large, ”says Richard Evans, senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, an investment research firm. What’s more, seniors