【推荐1】I have frequently taught Research Methods and Design to college students at several institutions. I love teaching this course. One reason, of course, is that I enjoy thinking about research methodology (方法学) and sharing it with others. The other reason, however, is the obvious impact that it has on students. Every term, one (if not more) student tells me how taking this course has affected him/her: “I used to just read articles and believe what they said, but now I find myself asking ‘Is this true? How do they know? Is this a well designed study?’ ” That is what I want the students to achieve in this course.

This brings to mind something written by Dorothy L. Sayers in 1948. One of her books, The Lost Tools of Learning speaks to Sayers’ thoughts on education. “By teaching our young men and women to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed words. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no dislike for reading shall protect them from the constant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean: they are victims to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intelligence.”

We are well past the 1940s, but her observation is still relevant. Sayers’ point is well taken. In the world of 24-hour news and social media that often resembles the Wild West, the ability to carry out evaluations has never been more important. In order to resist the distortions with which we are constantly bombed in the media, as well as be able to present a persuasive argument, we must be able to reason well, and think and give a judgement carefully.

When my students begin the Research Methods and Design course, they are generally not content to read all those research article I give. However, by the end of the course, they are excited about their newly obtained abilities.

1. What is the author’s course goal for her students?

A．Reading more books.	B．Thinking critically.
C．Designing studies well.	D．Questioning themselves.

2. What did Sayers imply about education?

A．It was beneficial to learners’ development.

B．It was conventional by teaching learners to read.

C．It was satisfying with the invention of film and video.

D．It was worrying because learners were subject to words.

3. What does the underlined word “distortions” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Popular news.	B．Various evaluations.
C．Misleading information.	D．Persuasive arguments.

4. What’s the purpose of the text?

A．To review a book.	B．To introduce a writer.
C．To criticize social media.	D．To suggest a practical skill.

【推荐2】Students should be able to show what they know. Many folks take this as a self-evident truth. But I think it demands closer examination.

Possessing a skill or piece of knowledge is not the same thing as being able to show it. This is why many smart young people hate school. Understanding, figuring out, and getting a handle on a piece of knowledge is really exciting, but having to prove to somebody else that you understand is a big fat pain in the neck.

Finding proof of student learning is a huge part of the teacher's job, and whether it is done poorly or not makes all the difference in that teacher's effectiveness. There is a huge difference between “How do I figure out if this student understands” and “How do I make this student prove to me he gets it.” The first is a valuable approach; the second is the first step on the road toward wasting everybody's time.

And there's the problem. If we start with the assumption（假定）that a student who knows must be able to show his knowledge to our satisfaction, we will be traveling down the wrong road. The more we demand that students prove to us that they know the stuff, the more we will design artificial tasks that demand a set of skills and knowledge entirely different from the skills and knowledge we really want to measure.

As a classroom teacher, I have to remember that the burden is on me to find a way to see what my students know; the burden is not on them to put on whatever trained monkey show I design for my own ease and convenience.

It may not be the worst thing ever to say “Students should be able to show what they know.” But I think it's far more useful to say, “Teachers should be able to discover what students know.”

1. What does the underlined phrase in the second paragraph mean?

A．Very dangerous.	B．Very annoying.
C．Very difficult.	D．Very frequent.

2. According to the third paragraph, a teacher should have the ability to       .

A．discover whether his students know

B．avoid wasting the precious time in class

C．apply various approaches while teaching

D．give students the chance to prove themselves

3. What does the author think of the artificial tasks designed to test students' learning?

A．They should be limited in number.

B．They are a huge burden on teachers.

C．They should mainly focus on effectiveness.

D．They slide away from their original purpose.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Students should be able to show what they know.

B．There are many ways to find proof of student learning.

C．Teachers should be able to discover what students know.

D．There should be better understanding between teachers and students.

【推荐3】Is it possible to persuade mankind to live without war? War is an ancient institution, which has existed for at least six thousand years. It was always bad and usually foolish, but in the past human race managed to live with it. Modern technology has changed this. Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man. For the present, it is nuclear weapons that cause the most serious danger, but bacteriological or chemical weapons may, before long, offer an even greater threat. If we succeed in abolishing nuclear weapons, our work will not be done. It will never be done until we have succeeded in abolishing war. To do this, we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way, not as contests of force, in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in killing people, but by arbitration (通过仲裁) in accordance with agreed principles of law. It is not easy to change very old mental habits, but this is what must be attempted.

There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology would prevent war. I believe this to be a big error. All ideologies are based upon dogmatic (武断的) statements that are, at best, doubtful, and at worst, totally false. Their followers believe in them so fanatically that they are willing to go to war in support of them.

The movement of world opinion during the past few years has been very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a commonplace that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course very difficult problems remain in the world, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has begun to be thought, even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die, that negotiations should reach agreements even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict nowadays is not between different countries, but between man and the atom bomb.

1. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “approached”?

A．Addressed.

B．Reached.

C．Divided.

D．Praised.

2. A probable interpretation of the sentence in bold (黑体) in the 1^st paragraph could be _____.

A．Man, as well as war, will have to make the ultimate choice between them two

B．Modern technology has empowered man to choose war or not

C．People will eventually destroy themselves if they choose to go to war at modern times

D．At least 6, 000 years later, man has finally decided to abandon war once and for all

3. From paragraphs 1 and 2, which of the following conclusion could we arrive at?

A．The author believes any ideology is either doubtful or false.

B．Arbitration instead of contests can help change old mental habits.

C．Nuclear weapons have posed the greatest threat to human race.

D．Adoption of one ideology or another does nothing to prevent wars.

4. The author’s attitude towards “the world opinion of nuclear war” is _____.

A．pessimistic

B．indifferent

C．optimistic

D．neutral

【推荐2】American Anai Espinoza is in the eighth grade. This summer, she took part in a summer dance program called AileyCamp. Each morning, she and other campers would say several phrases together. Her favorite is this: "I am in control." Espinoza said, "It makes me believe I have the power to choose the right thing."

AileyCamp was created in 1989 in Kansas City, Missouri by world-famous dancer and director Alvin Ailey. About 1,000 students in 10 U. S. states take part in AileyCamp every year. It is a free, six-week program, especially aimed at young people in financial need or who have school, social or family difficulties.

In addition to dance, the camp introduces students to visual arts, creative writing and other communication skills. It also teaches them how to eat well, solve conflicts and become leaders, notes the camp's website. Dianne Caroll Sales directs the AileyCamp in Atlanta, Georgia. When the camp is over, the city's professional ballet company offers 10 students a full-tuition scholarship for a year of training. The scholarship can be renewed.

Kameron Davis received one of those scholarships when he was a young man. He trained with the Atlanta Ballet for three years. Then he became a dance teacher. Davis said he does not think his mother could have paid for dance classes without the scholarship. Davis said children at school made fun of him when he began dancing. AileyCamp, he said, offered him a safe place and increased his confidence. Today, he enjoys giving back to the program by helping new campers build their confidence, too. "It's an open door to finding new things, doing new things," Davis said. "When I got to AileyCamp, it just reassured me that, 'Hey, it's okay. Everybody is different. You shouldn't be judged by what you do just because not a lot of people do it.'"

1. What is special about AileyCamp?

A．It was set up in Missouri.

B．Its founder was a famous dancer and director.

C．It was free of charge.

D．It was intended for the poor young people who had troubles in life.

2. Which of the following word can replace the underlined word in paragraph four?

A．comfort	B．warn
C．teach	D．persuade

3. What can be inferred according to Kameron Davis?

A．He got the scholarship because he was good at the Atlanta Ballet.

B．He believed his mother would pay for his dance class from the very beginning.

C．He was grateful for AileyCamp.

D．He often played jokes on his students when teaching them to dance.

【推荐3】A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics, and wars. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions, and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors ― or of people very different from our own ― can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than what can be found in most history books.

In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is presented: that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Franciso Goya was perhaps the first truly political artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clements Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros ― as well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martinez ― showed these Mexican artists’ deep anger and sadness about social problems.

In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. Four hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic（伊斯兰教的）belief that statues are unholy（不神圣的；亵渎的）.

1. Which of the following sentences is WRONG according to the passage?

A．Art history concentrates on religious beliefs, emotions and psychology only.

B．Art can provide information about the everyday activities of ancient people.

C．Information and facts about politics are given objectively in history.

D．Franciso Goya was perhaps the first truly political artist.

2. History books are objective because _____.

A．personal and emotional opinions are expressed through it

B．it will make the viewers angry and sad about history

C．it can help us understand historical facts better

D．opinions about facts are not expressed

3. The two pictures The Third of May, 1808 and Guernica mentioned in paragraph 2 show that _____.

A．art is subjective

B．artists are very similar even over a hundred years

C．art can reflect political life of a country

D．history books present objective information

4. In paragraph 2, the underlined “another continent” refers to _____.

A．Europe	B．America
C．Mexico	D．Middle East

5. The passage is mainly discussing _____.

A．the difference between general history and art history

B．the development of art history

C．the influence of artists on art history

D．what we can learn from art

6. It may be concluded from this passage that _____.

A．Islamic artists focus on creating architectural decorations with pictures of flowers or geometric (几何) forms

B．history teachers are more objective than artists

C．it is more difficult to study art history than general history

D．people and stories from the Bible were painted on churches and other buildings in order to popularize the Bible

【推荐1】Getting active in midlife could be as good for you as starting young when it comes to reducing the risk of an early death, researchers have suggested. But experts say the study also shows that the benefits fade once exercise declines.

“If you maintain an active lifestyle or participate in some sort of exercise from youth to middle age, you can reduce your risk for dying,” said Dr. Pedro Saint-Maurice, the lead author of the research. “If you are not active and you get to your 40s - 50s and you decide to become active, you can still enjoy a lot of those benefits.”

The study was based on data from more than 300,000 Americans aged 50 - 71 who undertook a questionnaire(问卷) in the late-1990s. They were asked to recall the extent of their moderate to vigorous leisure exercise at different stages of their life. Researchers then used national records to track who died in the years up to the end of 2016. After taking into account factors including age, sex, smoking and diet, the team found that those who were exercising into middle age had a lower risk of death than those who had never carried out any leisure exercise. However, when the team looked at different patterns in the way people were active over their life, it found a surprise.

Men and women who started exercising at the age of 40 - 50 reduced their risk of death from any cause by about 35%. The benefit was similar to that seen for people who reached and maintained similar activity from their teens or 20s onwards.

However, the study found that the protective effect of exercise did not last forever. People whose levels of leisure exercise decreased by middle age had no difference in the risk of an early death to those who had always been couch potatoes. “If you have been active and you slowly decrease your exercise participation as you age, you lose a lot of the benefits that we know are associated with exercise,” Saint - Maurice said.

But the study has limitations, including that it is based on individuals recalling how active they were many years before. What’s more, the research looked only at death records, not other aspects of health such as levels of sickness and disease. Nonetheless, he said, the message was positive. “This adds to the growing body of evidence about the importance of physical activity and exercise across he life course, and indicates that it is never too late to start.”

1. Which of the following is TRUE about the study?

A．The study took about two decades to complete.

B．The study involved around 30,000 elderly Americans.

C．Questionnaires and interviews were the sources of data.

D．The participants in the study took regular physical exercise.

2. According to the passage, what does “a surprise” (Para.3) refer to?

A．The earlier you exercise, the greater your health benefits will be.

B．Participating in exercise from youth to middle age benefits one’s health greatly.

C．The benefit of getting active in midlife is similar to that of starting young.

D．The benefits of exercising in midlife will decline once you stop exercising.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that _________.

A．an active lifestyle will not necessarily bring positive health benefits.

B．participants’ memories may affect the reliability of the study result

C．people exercising from their teens can maintain health forever

D．women benefit more from vigorous exercise than men do

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Exercise has its limitations, studies show

B．Getting active when young, experts suggest

C．Health benefits fade with age, doctors warn

D．Never too old to start, researchers say

【推荐2】The brain has a powerful ability to remember and connect events separated in time. And now, in that new study in mice published in Neuron, scientists have cast light on how the brain can form lasting links.

The hippocampus (海马体)—a small, seahorse-shaped region buried deep in the brain—is an important headquarters for learning and memory. “The traditional view has been that cells in the hippocampus keep up a level of continuous activity to associate two events separated by tens of seconds.” said Dr. Ahmed, co-first author of the study. “Turning these cells off would thus disrupt learning.”

To test this view, the researchers imaged parts of the hippocampus of mice as the animals were exposed to two different stimuli(刺激物): a sound followed by a small but unpleasant puff of air. A fifteen-second delay separated the two events. The scientists repeated this experiment across several trials. Over time, the mice learned to associate the sound with the soon-to-follow puff of air. Using advanced microscopy, they recorded the activity of thousands of neurons (神经元), a type of brain cell, in the animals’ hippocampus in each trial for many days.

“We expected to see continuous neural activity that lasted during the fifteen-second gap, an indication of the hippocampus at work linking the sound and the air puff,” said Stefano Fusi, PhD. “But when we began to analyze the data, we saw no such activity.” Instead, the neural activity was sparse. Only a small number of neurons worked, and they did so seemingly at random (随意的).

For further understanding, they had to shift the way they analyzed data and use tools designed to make sense of random processes. Finally, the researchers discovered a complex pattern: a style of mental computing that seems to be a remarkably efficient way that neurons store information.

“We were happy to see that the brain doesn’t maintain ongoing activity over all these seconds because that’s not the most efficient way to store information,” said Dr. Ahmed. “The brain seems to have a more efficient way to build this bridge.”

In addition to helping to map the circuitry (神经回路) involved in associative learning, these findings also provide a starting point to more deeply explore disorders, such as panic and post-traumatic stress disorder.

1. What can we learn about the hippocampus?

A．It helps connect events separated in places.

B．It is involved in the visual area of the brain.

C．It is a kind of cell buried deep in the brain.

D．It is a brain region crucial for memory.

2. According to the passage, the traditional view is that ______.

A．animals have trouble learning to associate two events

B．associations of events require continuous neural activity

C．a 15-second delay is enough to separate two events

D．disruption of learning turn the activities of cells off

3. The new study in mice indicates that ______.

A．continuous activity happens as expected

B．no neurons stay active at intervals of 15 seconds

C．a complex pattern helps the brain learn associations

D．neuronal information is stored in well-designed tools

4. From the last two paragraphs, we can infer that the findings ______.

A．inspire deeper explorations of disorders

B．build a bridge between different parts of the brain

C．provide evidence for brain’s ongoing activity

D．help map some aspects of a person’s experience

【推荐3】Edgar Degas, J. M. W. Turner and other painters captured centuries of atmospheric records as they decorated canvases with sunset scenes.

Greek Scientists worked with an artist to confirm that the ratio of red to green in sunset painting, both old and new, increased when particles filled the air, such as after major volcanic eruption（火山喷发）or dust storms. The atmosphere physicists also found a gradual shift in artistic sunset hues over centuries, possibly due to ever-increasing air pollution during the Industrial Revolution.

An earlier study, led by atmospheric physicist Christos Zerefos of the Academy of Athens in Greece, discovered that the amount of red relative to green in sunset descriptions increased after eruptions, including Tambora, Indonesia in 1815, Coseguina, Nicaragua in 1835 and Krakatau, Indonesia in 1883.

Zerefos’ team analyzed 554 paintings created between 1550 and 1990. For up to three years after eruptions, sunsets reddened as sunlight bounced off dust and gas from the volcanoes. The latest study, also by Zerefos, used improved scanning and analysis techniques to confirm the earlier results.

A modern painter, Panayiotis Tetsis, unknowingly repeated the artistic atmospheric observations of classical masters. In the artists’ description of sunsets light over the Greek island of Hydra, the color ratio shifted towards red in paintings done both before（June 19,2010）and after（June 20,2010）a dust cloud from Sahara Desert filtered the sunset’s light.

Zerefos’ team connected the timing of classical paintings’ red shift to other records of the atmosphere trapped in ice cores from Greenland, in the recent study published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The ice cores recorded spikes（尖刺）in sulfur-containing chemicals likely from volcanoes. These spikes corresponded in time to artists’ increasingly dark red sunsets.

The comparison of ice and art also revealed a slow shift in the coloring of the sunset. As the factories of Europe roared into production in the 19th and early 20th century, painting described a steady increase in the red to green ratio. The ice cores recorded a steady rise in airborne particles from industrial pollution during the same time.

1. The underlined word“hues”in the second paragraph probably means_____.

A．angles	B．colors
C．locations	D．times

2. What do we know about Zerefos’ research from the passage?

A．Both modern and ancient artists describing sunset are involved in the research.

B．It confirmed an obvious increase in the ratio of green to red in sunset paintings.

C．The shift from green to red also existed in the records of ice cores trapped items.

D．The team used traditional techniques to confirm the earlier results of the research.

3. How did Zerefos’ team confirm that atmospheric records kept by painters were reliable?

A．By analyzing classical paintings.

B．By connecting time to color.

C．By comparing art with ice.

D．By working with an artist.

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．A modern research of ancient art and ice with pollution.

B．Art Masterpiece and pollutants trapped in ice cores.

C．An increase in the ratio of red to green in paintings.

D．Art Masterpiece Recorded Centuries of Pollution.