Can modern life make you sick? Have you ever experienced the following surprising syndromes?
Margaret’s friend is taking a new job in a faraway city. She wants to hold a farewell dinner party at her home. But she can’t. Margaret suffers from CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). Her apartment is always messy and she's embarrassed by it. “My best friend gave me some good advice. He told me to get a maid,” she says.
These days we get and receive so much information every day. People call, text, and email us all day long and they expect quick responses from us. It can be very demanding — and it's making some people sick. They have information fatigue syndrome. There is so much information that they become paralyzed and can't think clearly. “I can't sleep at night because I worry,” says Bahman, a college senior. “It’s terrible.”
Do you sometimes engage in “deskfast” (eating breakfast at your desk at work)? If your answer is “yes”, then you may suffer from hurry sickness. Hurry sickness is a straightforward name for another syndrome of modern life. “I'm always rushing. I get headaches a lot. Taking aspirin seems to help,” says Mari, a company employee.
We've all complained about having too much work to do. Well, how about not having enough work? Underload syndrome is caused by having little or nothing to do at the office. You have to pretend that you're working. Steven works as a project manager. “I can finish my work in about four hours, but I'm afraid to say anything about it. I don't want to be assigned too much work!”
If you were these people, how would you reduce your sufferings?
1. What can we learn about Margaret?| A．She is not a tidy person. | B．She is going to take a new job. |
| C．She is good at throwing a party. | D．She is unwilling to accept others' advice. |
| A．Both are full of energy. | B．Both like working greatly. |
| C．Both are under great stress. | D．Both always seem to be rushing. |
| A．He is not well qualified for his job. | B．He tries to stay away from pressure. |
| C．He is too busy to have his own life. | D．He lacks confidence when working. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Nobody likes to think they are "that guy" at work.
• Behaving in an unacceptable way
The most common form of this is eating smelly foods at lunchtime. Other things alike include body smell and its opposite, the wearing of strong perfume, messy desks, or bad breath.
• Checking email on your phone when you're talking to other people
A recent survey shows that 49 percent of people said their bosses checked their phones while talking with them.
•
Do you like the sound of your own voice? Great. Perhaps it's time you learned to like the sound of other people's voices too. If you interrupt others when they speak, they'll dislike you and discount whatever you're saying. However, if you listen to what others say and show interest by asking intelligent questions, they'll love you and be likely to give you their support when you speak,
• Boasting about how much you earn
| A．Talking all the time |
| B．Being a good listener |
| C．Team-working can never be ignored. |
| D．All these things will become part of your personal brand. |
| E．It's better to be modest when you talk about your incomes. |
| F．Bad behavior at work is common --and often we do it without thinking. |
| G．An interesting email seems more valuable than the person you are actually talking to. |
【推荐2】Food safety is a problem in all places around the world and people in different areas of the world prepare foods in different ways. The WHO released five simple rules for preparing food in a safe way.
Key 1:Keep clean
The first key tells about the importance of washing. People should wash their hands often—before touching food, while they are preparing food, and any time after they go to the toilet People should wash all surfaces and equipment used for preparing food.
Key 2:Separate raw and cooked
People should separate raw, or uncooked food from foods that are already cooked and foods that will not be cooked. People should store raw meat, chicken, and fish in containers, or in separate areas Raw foods should not touch prepared foods.
Key 3:Cook completely.
People should cook eggs and meat, like birds, seafood, and animals, especially carefully. These foods may carry more micro-organisms than other foods.
Key 4:
When people are finished with eating, they should keep the leftover(吃剩的食物)in a refrigerator below 5℃ and shouldn't store it for too long. At room temperature, about 20℃, the amount of micro-organisms can increase very quickly. But temperatures above 60℃ or below 5℃ control the growth of micro-organisms.
Key 5:Use safe water and raw materials.
People should use safe water and choose fresh foods. Damaged or old food may develop harmful chemicals as it gets older.
| A．Keep food at safe temperatures. |
| B．Eat cooked food immediately, while it is still hot. |
| C．They call these rules the “Five Keys to Safer Food. ” |
| D．Keeping everything clean helps people to avoid micro-organisms. |
| E．They cannot grow so quickly in a very hot or very cold environment. |
| F．People should also protect cooking areas and food from insects and animals. |
| G．Food like soup must be boiled for at least a minute to make it be cooked completely. |
【推荐3】“Years ago when I was at the Grand Canyon, I remembered someone coming up to the canyon's edge, taking a shot with a camera and then walking away, like “got it – done”, barely even glancing at the magnificent scene in front of him,” Linda Henkel, a scientist at Fairfield University, US told Live Science.
Henkel was surprised by how obsessed people are busy with taking pictures these days – before dinner, during friends' birthday parties, on museum tours and so on.
They keep taking pictures because they think that it helps record the moment, but as Henkel's latest study has just found out, this obsession may prevent their brains remembering what actually happened, reported The Guardian.
In her study, Henkel led a group of college students around a museum and asked them to simply observe 15 objects and photograph 15 others. The next day the students' memory of the tour was tested, and the results showed that they were less accurate in recognizing the objects and they remembered fewer details about them if they photographed them.
''When people rely on technology to remember them – counting on the camera to record the event and thus not needing to attend to it fully themselves, it can have a negative impact on how well they remember their experiences,” Henkel explained.
But there is also an exception: if students zoomed in to photograph part of an object, their memory actually improved, and those who focused the lens on a specific area could even recall parts that weren't in the frame.
So basically, this study is saying that constantly taking pictures can harm your memory. But shouldn't reviewing pictures we have taken help wake up our memories? This is true, but only if we spend enough time doing it.
“In order to remember, we have to access and interact with the photos, rather than just collect them,” Henkel told The Telegraph. However, previous research has shown that most people never take the time to look over their digital pictures simply because there are too many of them and they aren't usually very organized on their computers.
1. Why did the author mention Henkel's trip to the Grand Canyon at the beginning?| A．To complain about some tourists' bad habits. |
| B．To give suggestions on how to enjoy one's tour. |
| C．To point out people's obsession with taking pictures. |
| D．To describe the beautiful view of the Grand Canyon. |
| A．Reviewing pictures always helps people bring back memories easily. |
| B．Taking pictures in a museum tour helps students recognize objects better. |
| C．People should spend more time taking pictures than studying real objects. |
| D．Pictures focusing on the details of objects probably improve people's memories. |
| A．the camera | B．technology |
| C．the event | D．an object |
| A．People's obsession with taking pictures and its influence. |
| B．Possible ways of using pictures to improve one's memory. |
| C．Great harm to memory caused by taking pictures constantly. |
| D．A believable study into the negative impact of lining cameras often. |
| A．supportive | B．cautious |
| C．negative | D．objective |
【推荐1】Our species’ incredible capacity to quickly acquire words from 300 by age 2 to over 1, 000 by age 4 isn’t fully understood. Some cognitive scientists and linguists have theorized that people are born with built-in expectations and logical constraints (约束) that make this possible. Now, however, machine-learning research is showing that preprogrammed assumptions aren’t necessary to swiftly pick up word meanings from minimal data.
A team of scientists has successfully trained a basic artificial intelligence model to match images to words using just 61 hours of naturalistic footage (镜头) and sound-previously collected from a child named Sam in 2013 and 2014. Although it’s a small slice of a child’s life, it was apparently enough to prompt the AI to figure out what certain words mean.
The findings suggest that language acquisition could be simpler than previously thought. Maybe children “don’t need a custom-built, high-class language-specific mechanism” to efficiently grasp word meanings, says Jessica Sullivan, an associate professor of psychology at Skidmore College. “This is a really beautiful study, ” she says, because it offers evidence that simple information from a child’s worldview is rich enough to kick-start pattern recognition and word comprehension.
The new study also demonstrates that it’s possible for machines to learn similarly to the way that humans do. Large language models are trained on enormous amounts of data that can include billions and sometimes trillions of word combinations. Humans get by on orders of magnitude less information, says the paper’s lead author Wai Keen Vong. With the right type of data, that gap between machine and human learning could narrow dramatically.
Yet additional study is necessary in certain aspects of the new research. For one, the scientists acknowledge that their findings don’t prove how children acquire words. Moreover, the study only focused on recognizing the words for physical objects.
Still, it’s a step toward a deeper understanding of our own mind, which can ultimately help us improve human education, says Eva Portelance, a computational linguistics researcher. She notes that AI research can also bring clarity to long-unanswered questions about ourselves. “We can use these models in a good way, to benefit science and society, ” Portelance adds.
1. What is a significant finding of machine-learning research?| A．Vocabulary increases gradually with age. |
| B．Vocabulary can be acquired from minimal data. |
| C．Language acquisition is tied to built-in expectations. |
| D．Language acquisition is as complex as formerly assumed. |
| A．Facilitate. | B．Persuade. | C．Advise. | D．Expect. |
| A．Its limitations. | B．Its strengths. | C．Its uniqueness. | D．Its process. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Cautious. | C．Dismissive. | D．Positive. |
【推荐2】If you've ever wondered what the process of becoming an astronaut is like, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC) now has an experience that puts visitors in the shoes of a space explorer in training. The center's Astronaut Training Experience (ATE), features four simulations (模拟). They all require teamwork and good communication.
Dee Maynard, manager of education programs at KSCVC, said the experience was designed to keep visitors involved the whole time. ''When we were designing this, one of our concerns was that we wanted to be having an experience and not waiting around, '' Maynard said. ''Also, astronaut training is very much a team effort. ''
Although astronauts go through thousands of hours of training before taking off for space, this training does include some parts that are similar to those of real NASA training.
One simulation helps visitors learn what it takes to launch NASA's Space Launch System rocket. Six people step into the role of launch control and communicate with six others on the Orion capsule.
Visitors take turns reading and passing instructions and sets of data from both sides. In mission control (地面指挥中心), they can step into roles including flight director and spacecraft systems officer. Inside the capsule, people try their hand at such jobs as flight engineer and commander.
Across the room, there are chairs that are similar to the kind of zero gravity chair. With the press of a switch, the chairs fly across a special floor, giving astronauts-in-training an experience that somewhat simulates the zero gravity environment of space. This part of the experience also offers visitors a chance to learn about the management about sleeping, using the toilet and working in space.
Two simulations help participants experience what life on Mars might look like.
1. What are the qualities most required for the astronaut training at KSCVC?①Working together. ②Reading skills.
③Data analyzing. ④Communication skills.
| A．①③ | B．①④ | C．②③ | D．②④ |
| A．Busy. | B．Bored. | C．Worried. | D．Comfortable. |
| A．the readers will get to know more about roles in space. |
| B．the zero gravity environment of space will be described. |
| C．the author might introduce NASA's Space Launch System. |
| D．the ''land and drive on Mars'' simulators might be talked about. |
| A．Explore the Future of Space |
| B．Realize Your Dream at KSCVC |
| C．Experience Life as an Astronaut |
| D．Make Yourself a Great Astronaut |
Decades ago, the legendary Apollo 11, 15, and 17 missions took on the daring attempt of bringing moon soil back to Earth for study. The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) Program has been studying these samples carried back by the Apollo missions. And recently, researchers from the University of Florida have been able to successfully grow plants in this soil!
For the experiment, researchers planted seeds of a flowering weed called Arabidopsis (拟南芥) in lunar soil. Arabidopsis is a plant closely related to some more commonly known plants like Brussels sprouts (抱子甘蓝). Researchers began by placing very small samples of lunar soil into tubelike containers, then added seeds and water. A control group of Arabidopsis was planted at the same time but was grown in soil consisting of volcanic ash from Earth. Scientists then added a nutrient solution daily to the samples and carefully observed for any signs of change or growth.
To the researchers’ surprise, within two days, the plants began to grow in the lunar soil! By the 6th day of the experiment, though, it became clear that there were differences in the rate of growth of the plants. Arabidopsis grown in lunar soil developed more slowly and grew to sizes relatively smaller than Arabidopsis in the control group. They also had more shallow roots and exhibited qualities that are normally not found in healthy plants.
Even if plants must work extra hard to sustain growth on the moon, their ability to take root and flower at all is truly remarkable. Scientists plan to continue researching plant growth in lunar soil by changing plant genes.
This newfound discovery poses a major step in NASA’s human exploration goals. It could be a key turning point in unlocking future agricultural innovations and improving food accessibility for astronauts in deep space.
1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?| A．The process of the experiment. |
| B．The principles behind the experiment. |
| C．The potential benefits of the experiment. |
| D．The conclusion drawn from the experiment. |
| A．Arabidopsis is closely related to Brussels sprouts. |
| B．Arabidopsis can grow in lunar soil at an increasing rate. |
| C．Arabidopsis grown in lunar soil is unhealthy for people to eat. |
| D．Arabidopsis grown in lunar soil is smaller than that in volcanic ash. |
| A．Passive. | B．Optimistic. | C．Defensive. | D．Casual. |
| A．A science report. | B．A science fiction. |
| C．A science website. | D．A science textbook. |
