An Extension of the Humans Brain
Other people can help us compensate for our mental and emotional deficiencies(欠缺), much as a wooden leg can compensate for a physical deficiency. To be exact, other people can extend our intelligence and help us understand and adjust our emotions. When another person helps us in such ways, he or she is participating in what I’ve called a “social prosthetic (义肢的) system.” Such systems do not need to operate face-to-face, and it’s clear to me that the Internet is expanding the range of my own social prosthetic systems. It’s already a big bank of many minds. Even in its current state, the Internet has extended my memory and judgment.
Once I look up something on the Internet, I don’t need to keep all the details for future use-I know where to find that information again and can quickly and easily do so. More generally, the Internet functions as if it were my memory. This function of the Internet is particularly striking when I’m writing; I’m no longer comfortable writing if I’m not connected to the Internet. It’s become natural to check facts as I write, taking a minute or two to dip into PubMed, Wikipedia, or other websites.
As for the judgment, the Internet has made me smarter in matters small and large. For example, when I’m writing a textbook it has become second nature to check a dozen definitions of a key term, which helps me dig into the core and understand its meaning. But more than that, I now regularly compare my views with those of many others. If I have a “new idea,” I now quickly look to see whether somebody else has already thought of it, or something similar-and I then compare what I think with what others have thought. This certainly makes my own views clearer. Moreover, I can find out whether my reactions to an event are reasonable enough by reading about those of others on the Internet.
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Driving on Ice
In many northern states, the winters are so cold that the lakes freeze right over. In Minnesotas, Michigan, and Maine, the ice in these lakes can freeze two to three feet deep.
When the ice is that thick, it becomes possible to actually drive a car or truck across the ice. While driving on ice sounds like something that people would do just for fun, a lot of people drive across frozen lakes for very practical reasons.
For example, there are people who live yearround on islands within these northern lakes. In the middle of winter the only practical way of traveling to the mainland is by driving across the frozen lakes.
Actually, when the lake is frozen two to three feet deep, this is a perfect opportunity for people living on islands to transport large objects onto or off the islands. Say, for instance, you owned a cabin on a small island in the middle of a lake in Michigan. Suppose you decided that you wanted to build an extra room onto the cabin.
Transporting all the building materials onto the island using a boat would take a lot of work and expense. But if you waited until winter, you could easily drive all the building materials across the lake.
How can you tell if a lake is frozen solid enough to drive on? The surest way to know is to wait until several other cars and trucks have safely driven across the ice.
It’s possible that one section of the lake has currents that prevent the lake from freezing solid. Or there might be a river or stream that brings slightly warmer water into one part of the lake. So even though most of the lake is frozen solid, one section of the lake can have thin ice.
Usually it takes at least two to three weeks of very cold weather before deep ice is formed on a lake. Here in the northern United States, deep ice doesn’t form until midJanuary, at the earliest. Do the tires of cars slip when they drive across ice? Yes, sometimes they do. But almost every car and truck that drives on ice has snow tires, which creates extra friction between the tires and the ice. Some people also choose to put chains on their tires, which gives the tires an even stronger grip against the ice.
Even without ‘assigned’ seating, it is a little surprising how many people always choose the same seat in a classroom or auditorium. Or the same table in a restaurant. After close observation, psychologists believe they have figured out the reason for this behavior.
In one such study, Marco Costa, a psychologist at the University of Bologna in Italy selected two lecture halls for a sample of 47 and 31 students. Costa purposefully chose rooms where there were more seats than students so that they had more freedom to choose where to sit. He set up hidden cameras to record how the students chose their seats over a period of four weeks. As suspected, most students picked the same scat over and over. But why?
Costa calls this habit ''territoriality(领域感).M The word often makes us think of gangs protecting their territory or wolf packs(群) fighting off other packs to control a certain area. In other words, territoriality usually suggests aggression and defense. However, Costa as well as another psychologist, Professor Robert Gifford of the University of Victoria, believes that this seat-choosing behavior is designed to keep the peace. “Most of the time，most people claim a space and others quietly agree to it, ” Gifford explained.
The phenomenon of classroom seating selection perhaps shows an even deeper truth. Life can be messy and unpredictable. The reason students go to school is to study. Going to class and knowing where you will sit is just one less thing to distract a student from this greater purpose. In short, sitting in the same place sets students up for a psychologically more comfortable learning environment and makes it easier for them to concentrate on the lecture at hand.
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Your child’s brain on math: Don’t bother?
Parents whose children are struggling with math often view intense tutoring as the best way to help them master crucial skills, but a new study released on Monday suggests that for some kids even that is a lost cause.
According to the research, the size of one key brain structure and the connections between it and other regions can help identify the 8- and 9-year olds who will hardly benefit from one-on-one math instruction.
“We could predict how much a child learned from the tutoring based on measures of brain structure and connectivity,” said Vinod Menon, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, who led the research.
The study, published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use brain imaging to look for a connection between brain attributes and the ability to learn arithmetic. But despite its publication in a well-respected journal, the research immediately drew criticism.
Jonathan Moreno, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, fears that some parents and teachers might “give up now” on a math-challenged child. “If it gets into the popular consciousness that it’s wise to have your kid’s brain checked out.” before making decisions about academic options, he said, “that raises huge issues.”
Menon and his fellow scientists agree that their research shouldn’t lead to conclusions immediately. They are exploring whether any interventions might change the brain in such a way that children who struggle with math can benefit more from tutoring.
Just as learning to juggle increases the amount of gray matter in the area of adult brains that is responsible for spatial attention, said Menon, maybe something could pump up regions relevant to learning arithmetic before a child begins math tutoring.
Until then, he said “it’s possible” that parents will interpret the new study as saying some kids cannot benefit from math tutoring, “and give up before even trying. How this plays out is far from clear.”
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Do We Need Art in Our Lives
No one will be surprised to hear that the arts are under fire in this day and age. We view the arts as something of a hobby, something that’s fun but certainly can’t pay the rent. If it’s not a useful skill, no wonder arts funding is being cut in schools. Do we really need art in our lives?
In schools, time and money is at a premium （稀有而珍贵）, now more than ever. With teachers having to fit so many lessons into every day. it’s easy to see why art is dropping more and more by the wayside. Budgets are dropping at an alarming rate, and what school is going to drop teaching in essential subjects such as math or science when they can drop art instead?
It seems as though the loss of art in daily life is sad fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be. There are actually a lot of practical uses for art for many people. For example, art therapy has helped people with a range of illnesses, both mental and physical, cope with their symptoms. Art is found almost anywhere you look in your home. Practical items, such as bedspreads, furniture or clothing, are all art forms in themselves and arouse emotions in the people interacting with them.
Art also gives us insight into the world. History tells us what happened and when it happened, but it can’t tell us how the population at large felt about it, which is where art steps in. We know a lot about how people in the past lived and worded, because their art has given us much a deep insight into their daily lives. We wouldn’t have that insight without it.
Most of all, we need art in our lives as it gives us a form of self-expression. Being able to talk about our feelings is essential to staying healthy. You may not think ou talk about your feelings, but you may express them in other ways. Some like to cook or bake, some like to work machinery, and others may like to paint or draw. Whatever you like to do in your spare time, you’re probably creating art every day.
So, do we need art in our lives? Many people would say no, but the art they’re thinking of is the art you see in galleries. Art is actually much more accessible and it truly needed in everyday life. It helps those in need, gives people in the future an idea of what life was like, and is a vital form of self-expression.
Do you have too many pairs of shoes or some other old things lying around your home? I’m sure many of us have too much stuff that we don’t really use and when it starts getting out of hand, it really is time to do some spring cleaning.
However, deciding which items to get rid of can be tricky especially if you are materialistic, believing that physical possessions are the most important thing in life. Also, some people are sentimental(感伤的) about letting go of their personal possessions. But if you haven’t got room in your house to move, it’s time to assess what is really important to you and decide what are your prized possessions and what is just junk.
Instead of just throwing it away and filling up landfill sites, items could be recycled or given to a charity to resell. You could also make some money by using websites where people are willing to pay for second-hand goods. Some people are deliberately trying to keep life simple. Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home, has done this. She says “we’ve asked really true questions, and assessed every single thing that we have. There is nothing that we missed. I even came to look at my vegetable peeler(削皮器) for example and asked myself, ‘Do I really need that vegetable peeler?’”
Of course, if you’re a shopaholic or a fashion-victim, it’s hard to stop buying and shopping online makes buying stuff very easy. James Wallman is a writer and journalist—he questions what we actually need. He says, “I’m not anti-stuff—stuff is good. I’m anti too much stuff and I’m anti the wrong stuff. Don’t go out and buy that labelled good that you think is going to make people think something more of you. That’s not going to make you happy.”
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【推荐3】Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below.
假如你是明启中学学生李华，校英文报现进行征文活动，让你谈一谈高中生在未来应该着重学习培养哪些方面的知识或技能，与ChatGPT形成差异化竞争，并说明理由。
(相关背景知识：ChatGPT作为一款大型语言模型，可以与人类进行自然而流畅的交互，回答各种问题、提供建议，同时还能生成文本、摘要，具备翻译和写作等功能，被誉为未来人工智能的代表。)
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