One period of our lives when better results are demanded of us is, strangely enough, childhood. Despite being young we are expected to achieve good grades, stay out of trouble, make friends at school, do well on tests, perform chores at home and so on. It’s not easy.
The good news is that being likeable can help a child perform better. Likeable children enjoy many advantages, including the ability to cope more easily with stresses of growing up. In her book Understanding Child Stress, Dr. Carolyn Leonard states that children who are likeable and optimistic are able to gain support from others. This leads to focus and resilience, the ability to recover from or adjust early to life stress; a child who has adequate emotional armor can continue down the path to success. Much research shows that resilience has enabled children to succeed in school, avoid drug abuse, and develop a healthy self-awareness.
Why does a likeable child more easily handle stress and do better in his or her life? Because likeability helps create what’s known as a positive feedback loop. The positive feelings you want to see in other people are returned to you, creating constant encouragement and motivation, to deal with the daily stress of life.
This feedback loop continues into adulthood. To return once again to the example of teaching, learning becomes easier with a likeable personality. Michael Deluecchi of the University of Hawaii reviewed dozens of studies to determine if likeable teachers received good ratings because of their likeability or because they in fact taught well. Deluecchi found that “students who perceive a teacher as likeable, in contrast to those who do not, may be more attentive to the information that the teacher delivers, and they’ll work harder on assignments, and they will learn more”.
You may have noticed this pattern in your own life when you try to give some advice. The more positive your relationship with that person, the more he or she seems to listen, and the more you feel certain that that person has heard you and intends to act on your words.
1. What does the writer imply in the first paragraph?| A．Children are expected more than we usually think. |
| B．Life is not easy for every one of us. |
| C．Better education results in smarter children. |
| D．To be a likeable child is almost impossible. |
| A．They can cope more easily with stress independently. |
| B．They know how to avoid trouble and unpleasant events. |
| C．They are always optimistic and ready to help those in need. |
| D．They can achieve more and understand themselves better. |
| A．To find if a likeable teacher has a positive personality. |
| B．To find if a likeable teacher draws more attention. |
| C．To find how a teacher’s likeability gains popularity. |
| D．To find how a likeable teacher’s teaching style is formed. |
| A．Likeable people do better in life generally. | B．Likeable people do better in their childhood. |
| C．Social creatures enjoy fewer advantages. | D．Likeable people give better advice. |
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【推荐1】It seems that we are one step closer to finding alien life and maybe a future home for humanity. Scientists from NASA have found a new solar system filled with planets that look like the Earth and could even support life.
The group of seven planets, which orbits a star called Trappist-1, is 39 light years away from the Earth in the constellation of Aquarius (水瓶座). And three of them are in the “habitable zone” — the area around a star where water is most likely to be found. This is important because water is necessary for life.
“This is an amazing planetary (行星的) system, not only because we have found so many planets, but because they are all surprisingly similar in size to the Earth”, astronomer Michael Gillon from the University of Liege in Belgium told The Independent.
Trappist-1 is a “dwarf star (矮星)” which is colder and shines dimmer than our sun. If a person were on one of the seven planets, everything would look a lot darker than usual. The amount of light heading toward our eyes would be about 200 times less than we get from the sun, according to The Independent.
Because of that, Trappist-1, together with many other dwarf stars, was never on the list of places where scientists looked for alien life. But Michael Gillon, lead researcher behind the discovery, decided to give dwarf stars a chance. He built a telescope in Chile to observe 60 of the closest dwarf stars, and it turned out that Trappist-1 was worthy of the effort.
The researchers hope that they can spend more time watching the newly found planets to learn more about them. Even though more research is needed before determining whether these planets could really support life, the discovery is still encouraging. It shows just how many Earth-size planets could be out there.
“The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” NASA scientist Thomas Zurbuchen told The Telegraph.
1. Why is this new planetary system amazing?| A．The size of the planets is similar to that of the Earth. |
| B．It has the same number of planets as our solar system. |
| C．Scientists have found alien life in the new solar system. |
| D．The planets are more suitable for humans to live than the Earth. |
| A．Stronger. | B．More powerful. | C．Less bright. | D．Less beautiful. |
| A．It is impossible to find alien life on the planets of Trappist-1 and other dwarf stars. |
| B．Scientists did not find a good place to observe dwarf stars according to the passage. |
| C．Trappist-1 and other dwarf stars don’t provide as much heat and light as our sun can. |
| D．Scientists have observed dwarf stars, but they failed to find the possibility of survival. |
| A．Scientists have found a second Earth. |
| B．People will move to another Earth soon. |
| C．Scientists are planning to explore another planet. |
| D．A new solar system may become home for humans. |
【推荐2】A high level of methane (甲烷) gas on Mars was found by NASA's Mars exploration vehicle. The discovery is exciting because the presence of methane gas could support the case for life on Mars:
NASA's Curiosity vehicle recently recorded the largest level of methane ever measured during its seven-year Mars mission.
Methane has no color or smell. A special instrument on Curiosity's Mars Science Laboratory recorded the increased gas level. Besides methane, the instrument can record levels of water and carbon dioxide.
Nearly all the methane gas found in earth's atmosphere is produced by biological activity. It usually comes from animal and plant life. But it can also be formed by geological processes, such as interactions between rocks and water.
It was not the first time Curiosity has found methane gas in the Martian atmosphere.. About a year ago, NASA announced that Curiosity had discovered sharp seasonal increases in the gas. This time, NASA said the measured methane gas level was clearly larger than any others observed in the past. NASA officials even temporarily stopped Curiosity's other activities to investigate further.
However, Curiosity's team carried out a follow-up methane experiment that showed a sharp drop in levels of the gas. The rise and fall of the methane gas levels left NASA scientists with more questions than answers. The scientists are continuing to study possible causes for the sudden increase.
Curiosity does not have instruments that can exactly identify whether the source of the methane is biological or geological. One leading theory is that methane is being released from underground areas created by possible life forms that disappeared long ago. Even though Mars has no active volcanoes, scientists believe it is also possible that methane is being produced by reactions involving carbon materials and water.
1. Why is the discovery of methane gas on Mars exciting?| A．It was first found on Mars. | B．It's evidence of life existence. |
| C．It can be used in further studies. | D．It proves the existence of water. |
| A．It is colorless and smelly. |
| B．It is mainly created by rocks and water. |
| C．It is as important as water and carbon dioxide. |
| D．It is produced by biological or geological, activity. |
| A．Discovering methane gas several times on Mars. |
| B．The failure of the follow-up methane experiment. |
| C．Having no exact instruments to identify methane gas. |
| D．Sharp changes in the amount of methane gas on Mars. |
| A．Explorations on Mars | B．Methane Level on Mars |
| C．Methane Mystery on Mars | D．The Sources of Methane on Mars |
【推荐3】You’ve probably eaten a hot dog and felt like the underdog — but have you ever spotted a sundog?
A sundog is a weather event that causes two bright bursts of rainbow colored light to appear on either side of the sun. It is located approximately 22 degrees either left, right, or both, from the sun, depending on where the ice crystals (冰晶体) are. If the sun were a clock, you would see them around 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. Sometimes sundogs appear with a halo (光环) around the sun. They can be very beautiful, with a reddish glow closest to the sun and a bluish white center. Sundogs can be seen during any season but are most often seen during the winter months when the sun is lower in the sky. You are also more likely to see them early or late in the day, when the sun is near the horizon (地平线).The most brilliant sundogs happen on sunny days.
Conditions need to be just right for sundogs to appear. Sunlight passes through high, cold cirrus clouds (卷云). These clouds contain flat, 6-sided ice crystals. If the plate-like crystals go toward the ground horizontally with the large face towards the earth, light is reflected through the sides. The crystals act as prisms (棱镜), separating the light and making the sundog.
Throughout history, sundogs have been used to predict weather because they often indicate that snow or rain is on its way. Some people believed that sundogs were a sign of good luck or encouragement, while others saw them as a warning from God.
Famous authors such as William Shakespeare and Jack London have described sundogs in stories and poems as both frightening and amazing. Artists have been inspired to catch the beauty of sundogs in drawings, paintings, and photography, and rock bands have even written songs about them.
1. What can we learn about sundogs from the second paragraph?| A．Sundogs can be used to tell the time. | B．Sundogs are most common in winter. |
| C．Sundogs always come after a rainbow. | D．Sundogs predict the coming of sunny days. |
| A．The clouds separate the sunlight. |
| B．The plate turns its face towards the earth. |
| C．The crystals go toward the ground horizontally. |
| D．Ice crystals are positioned with their flat sides horizontal to the ground. |
| A．Because people think they stand for bad luck | B．Because sundogs are beyond their recognition. |
| C．Because a rain or snow often comes after them. | D．Because people consider it as a warning from God. |
| A．To prove sundogs are magical events. |
| B．To show sundogs have long attracted great attention. |
| C．To encourage writers to describe sundogs in their works. |
| D．To remind people that they are good at writing stories and poems |
【推荐1】Young children are significantly more likely than adults to have their opinions influenced by robots, according to a new research. The study, conducted at the University of Plymouth, compared how adults and children respond to an identical task when in the presence of both their peers (同龄人) and robots.
It showed that while adults regularly have their opinions influenced by peers, something also demonstrated in previous studies, they are largely able to resist(抵制) being persuaded by robots. However, children aged between seven and nine were more likely to give the same responses as the robots, even if they were obviously incorrect.
The study asks people to look at a screen showing four lines and say which two match in length. When alone, people almost never make a mistake but when doing the experiment with others, they tend to follow what others are saying.
When children were alone in the room in this research, they scored 87% on the test, but when the robots join in their score drops to 75%. And of the wrong answers, 74% matched those of the robot.
Professor Belpaeme said, “People often follow the opinions of others and we’ve known for a long time that it is hard to resist taking over views and opinions of people around us. But as robots will soon be found in the home and the workplace, we were wondering if people would follow robots.”
“What our results show is that adults do not follow what the robots are saying. But when we did the experiment with children, they did. It shows children can perhaps have more of an affinity (亲和力) with robots than adults, which does pose the question: What if robots were to suggest, for example, what products to buy or what to think?”
1. What did the adults do when staying with robots?| A．They totally accepted the robots’ suggestions. |
| B．They tried to persuade robots to resist them. |
| C．They generally refused the robots’ effects. |
| D．They usually compared robots with their children. |
| A．Because robots in the presence made mistakes. |
| B．Because children were not as clever as the adults. |
| C．Because robots reflected better than human beings. |
| D．Because children wanted to affect the robots on purpose. |
| A．He is optimistic about the result. | B．He doubts the result of the research. |
| C．He doesn’t care about the result. | D．He is worried about the future. |
| A．What is the meaning of the research? |
| B．What will be done to solve the problem? |
| C．What should adults do to avoid the problem? |
| D．Why are children more likely to be influenced? |
【推荐2】For adventurous travellers, it is merely an embarrassing and annoying experience. But among poor people diarrhoea is a killer. So it is delightful to report that one of Asia’s poorest countries, Bangladesh, is making huge progress against this disease. Deaths from diarrhoea have fallen by 90% in the past two decades. Along with a far-reaching vaccination programme and steady economic growth, that has helped drive down the number of childhood deaths.
In a country with more than 160m inhabitants, this represents a vast decline in human misery. And Bangladesh’s success holds lessons for other poor countries that are trying to beat back disease.
The first is that cheap, simple, imperfect solutions are often good enough. In an ideal world, with limitless cash and universally good governance, everybody would drink chlorinated water out of taps and flush their sewage through pipes into treatment plants. In the real world, however, you can go a long way with half-measures. Bangladeshi villages are equipped with small pit latrines and tube wells for water. Most are built by the householders themselves, or by laborers whom they pay out of their own pockets. Although the tube wells are often alarmingly close to the latrines, that seems to be fine. Researchers have found that germs do not travel far underground.
A second lesson is that hardware is not enough—the software of human behavior is just as important. Bangladesh’s neighbor, India, has funded and built a great many latrines. Despite that effort, many Indians continue to defecate in the open. Bangladesh’s government and charities have built latrines, too, but they have worked harder to stigmatize open defecation. Often they provide latrines for the poor and then persuade richer folk into following their example. A new, surprising, finding is that this works better than expecting people to copy their social superiors.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．Poverty relief. | B．Modern life. |
| C．Economic development. | D．Public health. |
| A．Poor countries can draw lessons from its practice. |
| B．Villagers pool their resources to improve their living conditions. |
| C．The measures taken there are cost-effective and time-consuming. |
| D．Sufficient cash plus efficient governance is vital in its steady economic growth. |
| A．Following in the footsteps of the privileged when defecating. |
| B．Looking down upon those who defecate in the open. |
| C．Washing hands with water pumped from the tube wells. |
| D．Getting vaccinated against diarrhoea during childhood. |
| A．Demand a fine. | B．Make it illegal. |
| C．Make it immoral. | D．Follow a routine. |
【推荐3】It hadn't been easy, but Elia Gonzalez had always managed to keep her family fed by stretching her husband's modest income as a cook at a restaurant in Puerto Rig's capital, San Juan. But that changed in mid-March, when those bars closed and her daughter's school, where she'd gotten free breakfast and lunch, did too.
By April 20, Elia and her husband had to skip meals to save food for their children. Still, by the end of April, all they could give their children was a bowl of rice with an egg mixed in.
Her sons, 4 and 5-year-olds, would ask for more. But her oldest daughter, Angellia, a talkative kindergartener, tried to comfort her mother.
“She said, 'Mama, I'm still hungry', Elia said, “but she told me it was OK because she was big and could wait until I got more food. That hit me hard."
A study in 2015 found that 22 percent of adults reported skipping meals because they didn't have money for food in Puerto Rico. "Now, the rate is much higher,“ said Jose Caraballo-Cueto, co-author of the study. "The unemployment rate has risen to 46 percent and the average saving rate here is zero. "
The worsening food crisis has brought people in Puerto Rico closer. Christel Galindez, a community leader, has been picking up thirty cooked meals a day from a church near her home and delivering them to different families every day. "Do you know when people are really in need?” Christel asked. "When you show up with a plate of food and they start to cry!"
During her daily food delivery run last Wednesday, she drove up to Elia's front door playing a birthday song through her car's speakers. Angellia rushed out with a big smile and started dancing to the music when Christel handed three containers of food and three cupcakes to her mother.
"Thank you so much. Today happened to be Angellia's sixth birthday. But I had nothing in the kitchen," said Elia, who was struggling to hold back her tears.
1. Where had Elia's daughter got her breakfast and lunch on her schooldays?| A．At home. | B．At her father's restaurant. |
| C．At school. | D．At a church in the neighborhood. |
| A．To summarize the previous paragraphs. | B．To provide answers to the problem. |
| C．To add some background information. | D．To introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．She was on her way to help those in need. |
| B．She was sent by a church to deliver food. |
| C．She came to celebrate Elia's birthday. |
| D．She made some cupcakes for the children. |
| A．Angellia, a Lovely Girl | B．The Health Crisis in San Juan |
| C．Crisis Can Bring People Closer | D．Hunger Spreads Quickly in Puerto Rico |
【推荐1】The terms “global warming” and “climate change” are used by many, seemingly interchangeably. But do they really mean the same thing?
Scientists shaped the history of the terms while attempting to accurately describe how humans continue to alter the planet. Later, political strategists adopted the terms to influence public opinion.
In 1975, geochemist Wallace Broecker introduced the term “climate change” in an article published by Science. In 1979, a National Academy of Sciences report used the term “global warming” to define increases in the Earth’s average surface temperature, while “climate change” more broadly referred to the numerous effects of this increase, such as sea-level rise and ocean acidification (酸化).
During the following decades, some industrialists and politicians launched a campaign to sow doubt in the minds of the American public about the ability of fossil-fuel use, deforestation and other human activities to influence the planet’s climate.
Word use played a critical role in developing that doubt. For example, the language and polls expert Frank Luntz wrote a memo encouraging the use of “climate change” because the phrase sounded less scary than “global warming,” reported the Guardian.
However, Luntz’s recommendation wasn’t necessary. A Google Ngram Viewer chart shows that by 1993 climate change was already more commonly used in books than global warming. By the end of the next decade both words were used more frequently, and climate change was used nearly twice as often as global warming.
NASA used the term “climate change” because it more accurately reflects the wide range of changes to the planet caused by increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The debate isn’t new. A century ago, chemist Svante Arrhenius started one of the first debates over the potential for humans to influence the planet’s climate. Arrhenius calculated the capability of carbon dioxide to trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, but other chemists disagreed. Some argued that humans weren’t producing enough greenhouse gases, while others claimed the effects would be tiny. Now, of course, we know that whatever you call it, human behavior is warming the planet, with grave consequences ahead.
1. Why did politicians use the two terms “global warming” and “climate change”?| A．To sway public opinion of the impact of human activities on Earth. |
| B．To more accurately describe the consequences of human activities. |
| C．To win more popular votes in their campaign activities. |
| D．To assure the public of the safety of existing industries. |
| A．it sounds less vague | B．it looks more scientific |
| C．it covers more phenomena | D．it is much closer to reality |
| A．Made-up survey results. |
| B．Hired climate experts. |
| C．False research findings. |
| D．Deliberate choice of words. |
| A．Global warming is the more accurate term. |
| B．Accuracy of terminology matters in science. |
| C．Human activities have serious effects on Earth. |
| D．Politics interferes with serious scientific debate. |
Staying healthy：while traveling can make your trip happier. But do you know how to keep healthy during a trip? The following information may be useful for you.
Before leaving：
● Wear comfortable shoes, a hat and sunglasses.
● Take some necessary medicine with you. They can be used when you get sick or have other problems.
● If you do lots of sports like walking or climbing on your trip, you should do some exercise for weeks or months before you leave.
While traveling：
● Be sure not to eat dirty food or bad fruit.
● Have enough time to take a rest during your trip.
● Tap water(自来水) is not safe, so drink bottled water and always clean the cover on the bottle.
1. The passage mainly talks about ________.
| A．eating | B．traveling drinking | C．shopping |
| A．do some exercise for weeks or months |
| B．learn more about sports |
| C．watch many sports games |
| D．buy a car |
| A．take some medicine with you |
| B．clean your house |
| C．drink much water |
| D．wear warm clothes |
| A．do enough exercise |
| B．have enough time to take a rest |
| C．drink tap water |
| D．be too tired |
| A．walk fast | B．eat too much |
| C．keep healthy | D．climb the mountain |
【推荐3】“Creativity is the key to a brighter future,” say education and business experts. Here is how schools and parents can encourage this important skill in children.
If Dick Drew had listened to his boss in 1925, we might not have the product that we now think greatly important: a new type of tape. Drew worked for the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. At work he developed a kind of material strong enough to hold things together. But his boss told him not to think more about the idea. Finally, using his own time, Drew improved the tape, which now is used everywhere by many people. And his former company learned from its mistake. Now it encourages people to spend 15 percent of their working time just thinking about and developing new ideas.
Creativity is not something one is just born with, nor is it necessarily a character of high intelligence. The fact that a person is highly intelligent does not mean that he uses it creatively. Creativity is the matter of using the resources one has to produce new ideas that are good for something.
Unfortunately, schools have not tried to encourage creativity. With strong attention to test results and the development of reading, writing and mathematical skills, many educators give up creativity for correct answers. The result is that children can gain information but can’t recognize ways to use it in new situations. They may know the rules correctly but they are unable to use them to work out practical problems.
It is important to give children choices. From the earliest age, children should be allowed to make decisions and understand their results. Even if it’s choosing between two food items for lunch, decision-making helps thinking skills. As children grow older, parents should try to let them decide how to use their time or spend their money. This is because the most important character of creative people is a very strong desire to find a way out of trouble.
1. What did the company where Drew once worked learn from its mistake?| A．It should encourage people to work a longer time. |
| B．People should be discouraged to think freely. |
| C．People will do better if they pay all attention to their work. |
| D．It is necessary for people to spend some of their working time developing new ideas. |
| A．It is something that most people are born with. |
| B．It is something that has nothing to do with intelligence at all. |
| C．It is a way of using what one has learned to work out new problems. |
| D．It is something that is not important to the life in the future at all. |
| A．They don’t attach importance to creativity education. |
| B．They don’t want their students to make mistakes. |
| C．They pay no attention to examination marks. |
| D．They think it impossible to develop creativity in class. |
| A．Allow them to have a try. |
| B．Try to help them as much as possible. |
| C．Take no notice of whatever they do. |
| D．Order them to spend the least money. |
