Imagine that you found a wallet in the street containing a stranger 's contact details but no cash. Would you go out of your way to return it to its owner? Now imagine that the same wallet contained a few banknotes. Would that change your response? Alain Cohn of the University of Michigan and his colleagues have taken such behavioral economics around the world.
In different countries Dr. Cohn's research assistants entered public buildings like banks, museums and police stations. They handed in a fake wallet to an employee in the reception area, saying they had found it on the street outside, before making a hurried exit. Each wallet was a see-through plastic card case containing three identical business cards with a unique email address and a fake native's name, a shopping list and a key. Most importantly, some wallets also included $13.45, while some had no cash. Then, the team simply waited to see who would email the “owner” about returning the wallet.
In 38 of the 40 countries, the wallets with money in them were returned more often than those without: 51% compared with 40% for the cashless. While rates of honesty varied greatly between different countries, the difference within individual countries between the two return rates was quite stable around 11 percentage points. In addition, wallets containing a larger sum of money ($94.15) were even more likely (by about another ten percentage points) to be returned than those with less, although the “big money” experiment was done in only three countries.
With greater temptation (诱惑), then, comes greater honesty - at least when it comes to lost wallets and small cash. Interestingly, though, when Dr. Cohn and his team surveyed a sample of 299 volunteers, most of them predicted that the more money there was in a wallet, the more likely it was that it would be kept.
A certain doubt about the motivation of others is probably good for survival, so the response of the general population may be understandable. But is the warm inner satisfaction coming from “doing the right thing” also a powerful reason? As this study shows, such thought is real and universal
1. What does Dr. Cohn's research team try to find out?| A．How long it usually takes before a lost wallet is returned. |
| B．How people of different occupations react to lost w alts. |
| C．How people behave differently at public and private places. |
| D．How people respond to lost wallets of varying amounts of cash. |
| A．Work division in the team. | B．Detailed arrangements. |
| C．Contents inside the wallets. | D．Preparations made in advance. |
| A．They drop with bigger money. | B．They vary from country to country. |
| C．They are quite the same globally. | D．They are stable, unrelated to money. |
| A．A research paper. | B．A travel brochure. |
| C．A psychology magazine. | D．An economy newspaper. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】How can teenagers keep themselves from suffering from loneliness? Here are some suggestions for speeding a recovery from loneliness.
Find a safe place to make connections. If going to the dancing party makes you feel like you just don’t belong, try joining a special-interest group.
Find other ways of making connections. Lonely people hunger for friendship. Sometimes feeling accepted and liked comes more easily when you do something for others rather than wait for them to make you feel better.
You get what you expect, so expect the best. If you expect others to be friendly, you will behave in proper ways that encourage people to be friendlier to you. Loneliness won’t last long.
| A．Choose the right people. |
| B．So consider becoming a volunteer. |
| C．Reach out to others but start small. |
| D．It can be hard work to be positive towards others. |
| E．Maybe it is the drama club or the marching band. |
| F．This harmful attitude can continue into adulthood. |
| G．But starting the first step of positive expectations can make all the difference. |
【推荐2】Americans love peanut butter. The average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter before he or she graduates high school. But there is a controversy over a new peanut butter. It is called STEEM Peanut Butter. This peanut butter adds a new ingredient: caffeine. Coffee is a popular morning drink because it has caffeine and gives people energy in the morning. Even small amounts of caffeine can be dangerous to children.
United States Senator (参议员) Charles Schumer says, “Peanut butter, one of the snacks most closely connected with children, might have to be stored in the medicine cupboard rather than in the kitchen cupboard. This will shock the Food and Drug Administration.” Schumer wants the U.S. FDA to investigate. He observed that earlier the FDA prevented plans for a caffeinated chewing gum.
STEEM, the manufacturer, said, “We are selling the caffeinated peanut butter all over the world. The product provides caffeine in an easily digestible way. Caffeinated foods have been sold in U.S. stores for well over a decade and are in no way a new idea. Customers tell us they want to eat the caffeinated peanut butter so they don’t have to drink as much coffee or energy drinks. The peanut butter is not intended for children.”
“Peanut butter has been a favorite of children for generations,” Schumer continued, “Parents across the country have to worry about a scene in which their child might unknowingly bite into a peanut butter that contains more caffeine than two cups of coffee.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics says caffeine in small amounts can help the physical performance of adults. But the academy urges parents not to allow children to take even small amounts of caffeine owing to caffeine’s possible negative effects on a child’s heart and brain development.
1. There is a controversy over the STEEM Peanut Butter because it contains ______.| A．fat | B．peanut |
| C．caffeine | D．nutrition |
| A．kept in the kitchen cupboard | B．out of children’s reach |
| C．manufactured in huge quantities | D．eaten by children for generations |
| A．it is a traditional food | B．it is digested more easily |
| C．its production is not banned | D．they eat it instead of energy drinks |
| A．introduce new foods and drugs |
| B．promote the sales of foods and drugs |
| C．guarantee the safety of foods and drugs |
| D．improve the physical performance of adults |
【推荐3】Every day, as I took long walks through North Vancouver, I would think about the potential joys of a physically closer network. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone who could join me at a moment’s notice? How good would it be to have more non-scheduled hangs instead of ones that had to be planned weeks in advance?
This doesn’t have to be just a dream. Although technology is making it easier to maintain long-distance connections, nothing can replace seeing friends in person. Researchers have found that happiness spreads “like an emotional contagion (传染)”, especially among those who live close together.
Friends who live in the same city could decide to move within walking distance of one another — the same neighborhood, block, or even apartment building. Doing so would likely involve a lot of effort, but the resulting community could pay emotional dividends for years. Doing so would make it easier to support one another materially and emotionally.
Moving close to your friends requires some masterminding. Cities can make doing so easier by ending single-family zoning codes and encouraging a variety of housing types in neighborhoods. But even without official policies, people can make it work on their own. Sam Unger, 32, a food scientist and a friend of mine, has created a chosen family like this in Montreal, where about 15 of her friends live within walking distance of one another. When someone moves away, they try to transfer (移交) their lease (租约) to other friends. And when pals based elsewhere in the city are looking to move, Unger will try selling them on the positives of her neighborhood and sometimes even look for housing for them. “It’s funny,” she told me. “The other day, I bought a fire extinguisher, and she’s like, ‘Oh, well, I have one. You could just call me if you had a fire, and I’d be right over with it.’”
1. What kind of lifestyle does the author prefer?| A．Alone. | B．Modern. | C．Scheduled | D．Free. |
| A．Needs. | B．Benefits. | C．States | D．Effects. |
| A．To tell Sam Unger has a talent in business. |
| B．To prove people can move closer on their own. |
| C．To show how important the official policies are. |
| D．To suggest how one can get on well with others. |
| A．Live Closer to Your Friends |
| B．The Internet Brings People Closer |
| C．A Way to Maintain Relationships |
| D．Technology Harms Friendships |
【推荐1】Prosthetic limbs (义肢) have been around for a long time. The oldest known dates back more than 3,000 years. But prosthetics which behave like the real thing, as well as looking like it, are still very much a work in progress. And a group at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in China, have just come up with a significant advance — an affordable prosthetic hand that not only responds like a real one to signals from the wearer’s brain, but is also able to signal back to the brain what it is touching and doing.
Gu Guoying and his colleagues describe their invention in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Its fingers are made of rigid tubes, connected to a 3D-printed plastic palm. In contrast to current models, which are electrically powered, Dr Gu’s hand is powered pneumatically by a pump held in a waist bag. This reduces its weight below 300 grams — half that of some current models, and less, indeed, than the weight of a real hand.
The big advance is that it does not require invasive surgery or electronic implants into the residual limb to communicate with the user’s brain. Sensors on the skin record electrical activity from the remaining arm muscles. In an intact arm, this activity would tell those muscles how to operate the hand.
Dr Gu and his colleagues compared the efficacy of their invention with that of existing models using tests including writing, grasping and lifting objects, lifting food to the mouth. Normally, they found, it worked better — particularly for delicate tasks like handling fragile objects, petting a cat and shaking hands.
The other attraction of Dr Gu’s invention is that it is cheap. The components it is made from cost about $500. Existing models may sell for $10,000 or more. If it, or something similar, goes into production, that will permit the transformation of many more of the lives of the 5 million people who have lost a hand, or were born without one, than is possible at the moment.
1. What mainly makes Dr Gu’s prosthetic hand lighter?| A．It is held in a waist bag. | B．It is made of 3D-printing plastic. |
| C．It is powered in a different way. | D．It has specially designed fingers. |
| A．Design. | B．System. |
| C．Construction. | D．Performance. |
| A．Affordable price. |
| B．Smooth operation. |
| C．Advanced technology |
| D．Striking appearance. |
| A．materials | B．advantages |
| C．invention process | D．research team |
【推荐2】The middle class in Uganda is on the increase. So is the country’s tourism industry. The growth of restaurants and high-end hotels is evidence that both foreigners and Ugandans are spending money. But the owners of these businesses have often had to turn to other countries to find executive chefs (行政总厨) . The reason: a lack of well-trained chefs and other assistants at Ugandan restaurants. Slowly but surely, this is changing.
Uganda has a problem not normally found in a low-income country. It has a shortage of local chefs. In recent years, the number of restaurants and tourism-related businesses has risen. As a result, the demand for well-trained cooks and other assistants has grown. But experienced chefs are difficult to find. Jean Byamugisha is in the Uganda Hotel Owners Association. “The biggest challenge is capacity building. People really need a lot of training, especially now that we are competing to reach East African level.”
To meet the need, many restaurants have turned to neighboring countries for help. Enock Alumasi is from Kenya. He saw that Uganda had a lack of top chefs. So he helped set up the Impact Chefs Academy in 2013. The academy is the only school in Uganda that offers a full training program for chefs. It offers a number of program-starting with one-week courses for those who already have a career in the restaurant industry, to a year-long training program.
One recent day, several students were learning the different ways to fry an egg. This may sound like something that comes naturally to a chef. But some workers have never cooked an egg before. Brian Kazibe has worked as a chef. He says that some trainees have learned about five different areas of restaurant operations over three months. “By the time they get to the kitchen,” he says, “they only remain for two or three weeks, which is not really enough for them.”
The Impact Chef’s Academy has trained more than 3, 000 people in the past two years. Jean Byaugisha says that the need is still growing. “The impact is not yet felt. One week’s training for a chef is too short. We need somebody who can come for two months, six months, nine months and train the chefs and release somebody who can actually come to the restaurant or a hotel and prepare a meal that everybody will fall over themselves to pay for.” However, the academy has gotten a taste of success; it looks forward to expanding.
1. What can be inferred from the first two paragraphs?| A．Uganda is a high-income country now. |
| B．Tourism is Uganda’s main source of GDP. |
| C．Visitors go to Uganda mainly for its foods. |
| D．Uganda’s economy develops at a high speed. |
| A．It mainly trains students to fry eggs. |
| B．It provides courses different in length. |
| C．It employs teachers from neighboring countries. |
| D．It was set up by Enock Alumasi in Kenya in 2013. |
| A．has gained success to some extent |
| B．has trained enough experienced chefs |
| C．has set up a series of chain training schools |
| D．has only opened short-term classes for 3 months |
| A．How to solve the difficulties in Uganda. |
| B．Handling lack of excellent chefs in Uganda. |
| C．The setting up of the Impact Chef’s Academy. |
| D．The expanding of the middle class in Uganda. |
【推荐3】One of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Danish scientist Morten Meldal. When describing his career, Meldal said he started out as an engineer but changed to chemistry because he “wanted to understand the world.”
Meldal’s experience may come as a surprise to students. They might believe they have to center their work and school lives in one field to be successful. But a study from professors at Michigan State University shows that is not always the case.
Michele Root-Bernstein and Robert Root-Bernstein published their study in the Creativity Research Journal. They said that a large number of Nobel Prize winners can be described as “polymaths”, or “Renaissance”.
The writers looked at past Nobel Prize winners and their students. They decided that when students of winners go on to win Nobel Prizes, some of what they learned from their teachers is how to live a life with many interests. They are, in a way, learning how to be creative.
Having many interests, the Root-Bernsteins wrote, permits scientists to look for creative ways to solve problems. In fact, one important part of science is not discovering answers, but recognizing problems that need to be solved.
The prize winners, the Root-Bernsteins said, transfer “skills, techniques and materials from one field to another.” They said Alexis Carrel won his Nobel Prize in medicine in 1912 by using techniques he learned from the clothing business. He realized that people who used thread to make and fix clothing had a skill that could be used in operations to put new organs into people’s bodies.
The Michigan State professors study creativity. They found Nobel winners are nine times more likely to have experience in working with wood, metal or in the arts than most scientists. The Michigan State researchers say that unlike many people who spend long hours at work and give up some of their outside interests, Nobel winners believe their hobbies are important to creativity.
1. What comes as a surprise to students according to the passage?| A．Meldal’s winning Nobel Prize. |
| B．Meldal’s original working field. |
| C．Meldal’s desire to understand the world. |
| D．Meldal’s study with Michigan State University. |
| A．People who only concentrated on just one field. |
| B．People who are committed lifelong to their career. |
| C．People who are equipped with various interests. |
| D．People who are admired for established achievements. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Cautious. | C．Negative. | D．Objective. |
| A．A Secret to Winning Top Prize |
| B．An Unbelievable Discovery |
| C．A Born Nobel Prize Winner |
| D．An Amazing Rise to Fame |
【推荐1】Claude Monet was born in Paris, France, on November 14,1840. By the time he was fifteen, Monet had become popular as a caricaturist. Through an exhibition of his drawings at a local frame shop in 1858, Monet met Eugene Boudin, a landscape painter. Boudin introduced Monet to outdoor painting, an activity that soon became his life’s work.
Monet was interested in natural light, atmosphere, and color, and recorded them in his paintings as accurately as possible. A striking example of his early style was the Terrace at St. Adresse, which contained a shining mixture of bright, natural colors.
Monet exhibited regularly in the group shows. His painting Impression: Sunrise inspired a newspaper critic Louis Leroy to call all of the artists in the group “impressionists,” and the name stuck.
Monet gradually gained critical and financial success during the late 1880s and the 1890s. This was due to the efforts of Durand-Ruel, who sponsored one-man exhibitions of Monet’s work.
During the 1890s he devoted his energy to paintings of haystacks. In these works Monet painted his subjects from the same physical position, allowing only the light and weather conditions to vary from picture to picture. By 1899 he began to work on his famous paintings of the water lilies in his garden at Giverny, France.
Monet’s late years were very difficult. His health declined rapidly, and he was almost blind. Besides, he struggled with the problems of his art. In 1920 he began to work on twelve large canvases of water lilies, which he planned to give to his country. To complete them, he fought against his own failing eyesight and the fact that he had no experience in creating large-scale mural art. In fact, the task required him to learn a new kind of painting at the age of eighty. The painting was characterized by a broad, sweeping style and depended almost entirely on color.
Monet died on December 5,1926,at his home. He once wrote, “My only merit lies in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to express my impressions of the fleeting effects.” Most art historians believe that Monet accomplished much more than this. He helped change the world of painting by shaking off the convention of the past. By dissolving forms in his works, Monet opened the door for further abstraction in art and influenced such later artists as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning.
1. Who helped Monet find his life’s work?| A．Eugene Boudin. | B．Durand-Ruel. | C．Louis Leroy. | D．Mark Rothko. |
| A．Monet tended to paint haystacks from different positions. |
| B．The painting Terrace at St. Adresse reflects Monet’ s late style. |
| C．The name “impressionist” originated from Impression: Sunrise. |
| D．Durand-Ruel was so interested in Monet’ s paintings that he bought a lot. |
| A．He failed to learn a new painting skill due to old age. |
| B．Monet made a fortune by selling canvases to his country. |
| C．Monet came across difficulties in creating large-scale mural art. |
| D．Monet committed himself to maintaining traditional painting style. |
| A．A great artist-Claude Monet | B．Claude Monet and Impressionism |
| C．Brilliant achievements of Monet | D．The greatest painter in the world |
【推荐2】Column 1
Wedding Invitations—Mod. Or traditional. Call 800-0942 anytime.
Column 2
Passport and Application Photos. Call 800-0552 or 800-9668, ask for Steve.
Column 3
Mature Student would take care of children during Christmas vacation. 800-0441 eves.
Column 4
Typing and editing. Call Jean. 800-3584, 10am—10pm.
Column 5
Experienced Guitar Teacher wants students. Folk/jazz. Bob 800-7535.
Column 6
Found: Cat, 6 months old, black and white markings. Found near Linden and South U. Sam. 800-4661.
Column 7
Come to our moving sale—plants, pottery, books, clothes etc. Sat. Dec. 14. 9:00—5:00. 1612 Ferndale, Apt. 1 800-4696.
1. What can Steve do for you?| A．Rent you an apartment. | B．Offer you a modern wedding |
| C．Take pictures for you. | D．Take care of your children. |
| A．800-1932 | B．800-0942 | C．800-0441 | D．800-7535 |
| A．1 | B．4 | C．6 | D．7 |
| A．Plants | B．Books | C．Clothes | D．Paintings |
【推荐3】Apps can help any users, even those who are not students, get more organized and improve their work. Whether or not you are a student, here are some apps worth considering.
Quizlet
Quizlet is a study aid app. It is filled with flash cards on many subjects to study. Quizlet has links to subjects like: Arts & Literature; Languages & Vocabulary; Math & Science; History & Geography; Professional & Careers. The app has a mix of text, images and audio recordings, including pronunciation of words in different languages. Quizlet has games to play and tests to take. Cards are available on the app even when you are not connected to the Internet. Quizlet is available as a free app from Apple’s iTunes store.
Free Graphing Calculator App
The Free Graphing Calculator lets the user create up to four graphs(图表) at once, and lets users adjust the graphs for the best views. You can change measurements within the image easily using the app. The mathematics and science guide within the app can explain some important math or science ideas. The Free Graphing Calculator is free. Users can pay to remove the advertising.
PomoDone App
The PomoDone app can help divide time into blocks for work and for breaks. The app on the computer helps keep track of time blocks for each activity. The app will say when it is time to take a break and when it is time to get back to work. PomoDone can work with other apps and help the user keep track of one’s activities over long periods of time. The app is available for computers from the PomoDone website. The app is free. Paid extra features are available.
1. What kind of work can you use Free Graphing Calculator App to do?| A．Keep track of time blocks. |
| B．Remove the advertising for free. |
| C．Make a graph clearer. |
| D．Study Arts & Literature. |
| A．Free Graphing Calculator App. | B．Quizlet. |
| C．PomoDone App. | D．All of them. |
| A．They can be used to study English freely. |
| B．They can be used to divide time into blocks. |
| C．They can be used to explain some important maths. |
| D．They can be used to help users for free. |
【推荐1】The oldest and most common source of renewable energy known to man, biomass（生物质） is one of the most important forms energy production in the United States and elsewhere. Since such a wide variety of biomass materials is everywhere — from trees and grasses to agricultural and city — life wastes —biomass promises to play a continuing role in providing power and heat for millions of people around the world.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists(UCS), biomass is a kind of renewable energy source that produces no carbon dioxide(二氧化碳), because the energy it contains comes from the sun. When plant matter is burned, it gives off the sun’s energy. In this way, biomass serves as a sort of natural battery(电池) for storing the sun’s energy. As long as biomass is produced continuously —with only as much grown as is used— the “battery” lasts forever.
According to the Energy Information Administration, biomass has been one of the leading renewable energy sources in the United States for several years running through 2007, making up between 0.5 and 0.9 percent of the nation’s total electricity supply. In 2008-although the numbers aren’t all in yet-wind power probably took over first place because of the rapid development of wind farms across the country.
Producing power from biomass helps reduce some 11 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Some homeowners also try to make their own heat by using biomass materials. Such practice may save homeowner’s money, but it also produces a lot of pollution. So, the best way is to encourage power plants to use it.
1. We learn from the text that in 2008 ______.| A．Wind power would be the leader of renewable energy. |
| B．there was a rapid growth of electricity production |
| C．biomass might become the main energy source |
| D．0.5~0.9 of power supply came from biomass |
| A．To prevent the waste of energy. |
| B．To increase production safety. |
| C．To reduce pollution. |
| D．To save money. |
| A．A research plan. | B．A science magazine |
| C．A book review. | D．A business report. |
【推荐2】I first saw a crayfish (小龙虾) around 2001. A friend brought one into the office and told me it was a female animal that was reproducing (繁殖) on its own. We realized the new type of animal was reproducing itself by the millions.
We think that in the 1990s, two crayfish got children either in a pet store or in the wild. Something went wrong and one of the daughters laid eggs without any males. It’s not unusual for such a sudden change like this to happen, but normally, the children can’t live on or reproduce, and the new type won’t spread. For some reason, this daughter and her children did.
In some way, many of the new crayfish appeared in German pet stores. They would naturally increase, and their owners would often set the children free, which let the animals reproduce and spread farther. In 2003, scientists officially proved that animals like crayfish were, in fact, reproducing themselves. They’ve gone from that single female 25 years ago to millions, or maybe billions, of the same crayfish found throughout Europe and Madagascar.
In 2018, we published a map of the clones’ genetic code (克隆类遗传密码图). This type is becoming a really useful tool for researchers like me: We can use crayfish-like animals to study everything from cancer development to the effects of drugs on the brain. Now that we know this code, we can start to try it in the lab. For example, we might try to make these animals grow to larger sizes so people can sell them for food. This is already happening in Madagascar. It turns out that crayfish are pretty tasty. It’s easy to get lots of them too because they grow up in about three months and lay hundreds of eggs. Just put one in a pool and wait.
1. What do people think happened to crayfish in the 1990s?| A．Crayfish’s children could not live on or reproduce . |
| B．Crayfish got their lives in a scientific way in the lab. |
| C．A daughter crayfish got a strange ability to reproduce. |
| D．All animals like crayfish could reproduce themselves. |
| A．The reason why crayfish became pets. | B．The place where crayfish came from. |
| C．The different ways to raise crayfish. | D．The fact of crayfish’s self-reproduction. |
① diet ② medicine ③ brain ④ ocean
| A．①② | B．③④ | C．①③ | D．②④ |
| A．a cookbook | B．a science magazine | C．an advertisement | D．a guide brochure |
| March 24th Saturday We have arrived in the hot, wet city of Bangkok (曼谷). This is our first trip to Thailand. All the different smells make us want to try the food. We are going to eat something special for dinner tonight. The hotel we are staying in is cheap, and very clean. We plan to stay here for a few days, visit some places in the city, and then travel to Chiang Mai in the North. |
| March 27th Tuesday Bangkok is wonderful and surprising. The places are interesting. We visited the famous market which was on water, and saw a lot of fruits and vegetables. Everything is so colorful, and we have taken hundreds of photos already! Later today we will leave for Chiang Mai. We will take the train north, stay in Chiang Mai for two days, and then catch a bus to Chiang Rai. |
| March 30th Friday Our trip to Chiang Rai was long and boring. We visited a small village in the mountains. The village people here love the quiet life-no computers or phones. They are the kindest people I have ever met. They always smile and say “hello”. Kathy and I can only speak a few words of Thai, so smiling is the best way to show our kindness. I feel good here and hope to be able to come back next year. |
1. How did the writer arrive in Chiang Mai?
| A．By train | B．By bus | C．By car | D．By air |
| A．hope to live in cities | B．like to speak English |
| C．are very warmhearted | D．live a very busy life |
| A．A travel brochure | B．A news report |
| C．A travel journal | D．A magazine |
