Parents, teachers and caregivers have long believed in the magic of storytelling to calm and comfort kids. Researchers working in pediatric (儿科) have now quantified the physiological and emotional benefits of a well-told tale.
“We know that narrative has the power to transport us to another world,” says Brockington, who studies emotions and learning at Brazil’s Federal University. He adds, “Earlier research suggested that stories help children process and regulate their emotions—but this was mostly conducted in a lab, with subjects answering questions while lying inside functional MRI machines. There’s little research on physiological and psychological effects of storytelling in a more commonplace hospital setting.
So the investigators working in several Brazilian hospitals split a total of 81 patients aged 4 to 11 into two groups, matching them with storytellers who had a decade of hospital experience. In one group, the storyteller led each child in playing a riddle game. In the other, youngsters chose books and listened as the storyteller read them aloud. Before and after these sessions, the researchers took saliva (唾液) samples from each child, then asked them to report their pain levels and conducted a free-association word quiz and analyzed samples.
Children in both groups benefited measurably from the interactions. Those who heard stories also reported pain levels dropping almost twice as much as those in the riddle group, and they used more positive and light words to describe their hospital stay. The study demonstrates that playing games or simply interacting with someone can relax kids and improve their outlook—but that hearing stories has an especially dramatic effect. “The researchers really tried to control the social interaction component of the storyteller, which I think was key,” says Mar, a psychologist at York University.
1. What does Brockington say about stories?| A．The effects of them are easy to show in labs. | B．They have a positive effect on kids’ emotions. |
| C．They cause children to become more emotional. | D．The studies of them are often conducted in hospitals. |
| A．By visiting and talking. | B．By making assumptions. |
| C．By grouping and comparing. | D．By analyzing samples from earlier research. |
| A．Its finding. | B．Its purpose. | C．Its approach | D．Its reason. |
| A．Narrative skills play a role in storytelling. |
| B．Listening to a story does benefit kids’ health. |
| C．Storytelling is popular with kids and their parents. |
| D．Stories help kids communicate better with their parents. |
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【推荐1】Modern Europeans came from three major groups of ancient humans, not two as was thought before, according to a study published on Wednesday.
Until now, it was widely believed that Europeans evolved (进化) from two prehistoric groups. One was early farmers who moved into Europe from the Middle East about 7,500 years ago. The other was local hunter-gatherers who had lived in Europe for more than 40,000 years.
But a new study in the journal Nature says there was a third group in the mix: people from northern Eurasia. They lived in today’s Russia and northern Asia. The finding means that northern Eurasians contributed to the human genes (基因) both in Europe and North America.
Their influence on the Americas has been proved by previous studies which showed that they reached modern-day Alaska in the US more than 15,000 years ago. They crossed an “ice bridge” that connected islands in the Bering Strait, a narrow passage of water between Asia and North America, at the time.
Researchers collected genetic information in nine ancient humans’ bones. The remains were found in Sweden, Luxembourg and Germany. They were one farmer from about 7,000 years ago and eight hunter-gatherers who lived about 8,000 years ago, before the coming of agriculture.
The researchers compared the information with the gene pool of 2,345 present-day people living all over the world. They found almost all Europeans have ancestry from all three of those ancient groups.
The ancient northern Eurasians contributed up to 20% of the genetics of Europeans, although this was the smallest percentage among the three ancestral groups.
People in northern Europe, especially the Baltic states, have the highest percentage of western European hunter-gatherer ancestry. Up to 50% of the DNA of Lithuanians of northeast Europe comes from this group.
Southern Europeans had more of their genetic ancestry from the ancient farmers. Up to 90% of the DNA of Sardinians of Italy can be traced back to (追溯到) these early European immigrants.
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to find out when the ancient northern Eurasians arrived in Europe.
1. Ancient people from northern Eurasia _____.| A．brought agriculture into Europe | B．reached Europe about 7,000 years ago |
| C．were hunter-gatherers in northern Asia | D．were also ancestors of modern Europeans |
| A．About 7,500 years ago. | B．About 8,000 years ago. |
| C．More than 15,000 years ago. | D．More than 40,000 years ago. |
| A．By analysing genes. | B．By visiting ancient sites. |
| C．By doing medical experiments. | D．By comparing studies in different periods. |
| A．Hunter-gatherers in western Europe. | B．Hunter-gatherers in northern Europe. |
| C．Ancient farmers from the Middle East. | D．Ancient farmers from northern Eurasia. |
【推荐2】It’s hard to say why, but it’s just true: music is good for you. It can calm your spirit and help you vent (发泄) your anger.
The 74 participants were divided into three groups.
The results? The ones who received a little extra learning every week outperformed those who just continued on with their normal studies.
“That’s a big thing for kids in learning language: being able to hear the differences between words,” Desimone said in a statement. “They really benefited from that.” To the researchers, the results point to one clear conclusion:
| A．It can even be used to improve your memory. |
| B．It can bring people together and give us hope. |
| C．So students should have music lessons more often. |
| D．The control group simply carried on with their normal school classes. |
| E．Many studies have shown a close link between musical training and language skills. |
| F．If you’re a school administrator who wants kids to succeed, you’d better not cut those music programs. |
| G．Even the ones who only took music lessons turned out to perform better on language puzzles than those who didn’t have extra lessons. |
【推荐3】A new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, found that communication that included voice, like a phone call or video chat, created stronger social bonds than communication through typing, like text messaging or email.
In the study, researchers used various experiments to measure connectedness. In one, they asked 200 people to make predictions about what it would be like to reconnect with an old friend by email or by phone and then asked people at random to do one or the other. Although people expected that a phone call would be more awkward, hearing someone’s voice actually made the experience better.
“People reported they did form a significantly stronger bond with their old friend on the phone than by email, and they did not feel more awkward,” study co-author Amit Kumar, an assistant professor of marketing at the McCombs School of Business, said in a statement.
In another experiment, the researchers had strangers connect by either texting, talking over video chat, or talking using only audio. They found that both forms of voice communication—whether video or audio only—made the strangers feel significantly more connected than when they communicated by texting.
Sabrina Romanoff, a Harvard trained clinical psychologist based in New York City, says people tend to text or email instead of calling because of convenience, as they see it as a controlled form of communication where they can “exchange information exactly in the way they intend without unexpected additions by the other person.”
Romanoff says that in reality, texting can make it hard to determine the true meaning behind a conversation. “A phone call is actually more convenient when considering the exact effects of the message.” she explains. “Each party is more present, and therefore, able to measure the meaning behind the content without reflecting on the endless possible meanings behind words.”
1. How was the study carried out?| A．By analyzing data. | B．By interviewing experts. |
| C．By doing experiments. | D．By doing online research. |
| A．Email would help them form a stronger bond. |
| B．Hearing someone’s voice would be awkward. |
| C．A stronger bond would be formed on the phone. |
| D．Hearing someone’s voice made the experience better. |
| A．Texting helps to exchange information exactly. |
| B．People can keep the message under control by texting. |
| C．Romanoff doesn’t agree with the result of the study. |
| D．Calling makes it easier to get the exact message. |
| A．Speeech forms stronger social bonds than texting. |
| B．Making a phone call is significantly convenient. |
| C．Calling and texting become obviously different. |
| D．Introduction leads to the result of a new study. |
【推荐1】Is there a way to turn back the clock on your age? A new study says yes. Exercise can make you look younger. At least it can lower your fitness age—that is the measure of how well your body works.
A study of athletes in the National Senior Games found that their fitness age was more than 20 years younger than their chronological age. The games took place in the Midwestern state of Minnesota.
Tony Diamond took part in the games. Every morning he went to a local park and walked fast for an hour. Then, the retired navy captain ran for an hour.
Two or three times a week, he went to a gym for muscle(肌肉) training. Mr. Diamond won three medals at the 2015 National Senior Games.
“My current age is 86 years old, and my fitness age is 44. I think I am in such good physical condition because I do a lot of exercise during my life. I have been exercising since I was a little boy,” said Mr. Diamond.
“I'm 62 years old and my fitness results showed that I was 32 years,” said Ms White.
Ms. White and Mr. Diamond are some of the 5,000 Senior Games participants who took part in the fitness age study.
Pamela Peeke was an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland. She worked on the study with Ulrik Wisloff at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Mr Wisloff developed a fitness calculator.
An online calculator is available for anyone to use for free. Ms. Peeke says there are benefits from attending this test.
The National Senior Games take place every two years. They are the competition for athletes older than 50. The games include a variety of sports.
This year the average age of the people competing was 68. But their average fitness age was 43.
1. What can make us look younger?| A．Taking exercise. | B．Becoming an athlete. |
| C．Walking fast every day. | D．Going to the park every day. |
| A．Mental age. | B．Psychological age. |
| C．Actual age. | D．Full age. |
| A．support the main idea of the passage |
| B．prove more people like taking exercise |
| C．encourage more people to take exercise |
| D．show many people pay attention to beauty |
| A．the faster you walk, the healthier you are |
| B．the older you are, the more exercise you need |
| C．the more active you are, the younger you look |
| D．the more exercise you take, the longer you live |
【推荐2】Sleeper trains occupy a romantic corner of any traveler’s soul. One of Hercule Poirot’s most fascinating adventures takes place on the Simplon Orient Express, which used to run from Paris to Istanbul. A famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” features a night train entering a tunnel. James Bond, meanwhile, detects a spy on a sleeper train after noticing him behave suspiciously in the dining car.
In some parts of the world, the nostalgia(怀旧)lives on. The Caledonian Sleeper, complete with smartly dressed waiters, neeps and tatties(白萝卜泥和土豆泥)and a selection of whiskies, is the best way to travel between London and Scotland. Elsewhere, however, sleepers are on their last legs. Flights across Europe have become so cheap that fewer and fewer travelers bother with sleeper trains. Sensing that the end is approaching. Andrew Martin, a British writer, has written a book about the sleeper.
“Night Trains” is a brief history of the mode, combined with accounts of journeys Mr. Martin has taken on sleeper routes across Europe. The reader joins him on a train Munich, where he eats a tuna sandwich on board. Travelling from Paris to Venice, he thinks he has been robbed of $105. The service to Nice is cancelled, yet such is his love for sleeping aboard that he spends the night on the train as it sits on the platform.
These stories make clear that the golden age of the sleeper train is long past. How different things were in the 19th century, when a passenger on the Orient Express could dine on delicacies and good wines. The only modern-day sleeper train which comes up to the Mr. Martin’s exacting standards is the Nordland, which travels towards northern Norway.
Those who have no experience of the sleeper trains often ask sleeper enthusiasts: “Do you sleep?” After a read of Mr. Martin’s book, the answer would seem to be a definite “no”: the noise of the train wake him up time and again. Still, it is hard not to be won over by his enthusiasm. Catch the sleeper train, before it’s too late.
1. What can we learn from the underlined sentence in paragraph two?| A．Sleeper trains are the last means of transportation for travelers. |
| B．Travelers tend to fall asleep toward the end of their trip. |
| C．Travelers are too exhausted to walk any longer. |
| D．Sleeper trains are becoming out of fashion. |
| A．They may enjoy the scenery on their journey from London to Scotland. |
| B．They can have the opportunity to travel on the best train in Europe. |
| C．They may have a basic understanding of the history of sleeper trains. |
| D．They may get all the answers to their questions about the sleeper trains. |
| A．The noise of the train makes it impossible for travelers to sleep well. |
| B．Readers may be discouraged from riding on sleeper trains. |
| C．The writer of the passages suggests not spending nights aboard. |
| D．For enthusiasts, the love for sleepers outweighs the inconvenience caused. |
| A．To introduce readers to a new book about sleeper trains. |
| B．To compare the advantages of sleeper trains in different periods. |
| C．To inform the readers of the rise and fall of sleeper trains. |
| D．To recall readers’ memory of an old-fashioned means of transportation. |
【推荐3】A new deadly virus is threatening rabbits in North America. It’s a particular disease of rabbits that has recently appeared in some parts of the Western US. If it continues to spread unchecked, it could harm all species of rabbits in the US and the ecosystems they belong to.
It is thought to have spilled over from one species to another—in the case of the novel coronavirus (新型冠状病毒), likely a bat to humans; in the rabbit disease, from domestic to wild rabbits—and both arose so quickly that health officials had a limited window to act.
“The disease likely originated around a decade ago in European rabbits, which contain most domestic rabbits sold in the US,” said Matt Gompper, a disease ecologist. Then, in early March, another virus was discovered in wild rabbits in southern New Mexico. A few days later, dead rabbits were spotted nearby in El Paso, Texas. More sightings followed in Arizona, Colorado and, in May, in California. Ecologists aren’t sure how virus type 2 arrived in the US. Gompper said he predicted the disease worked its way through rabbit meat or the domestic rabbit trade. It also might have been circulating in northern Mexico, which shares a border with New Mexico and Texas.
Because the disease is so new, there’s virtually no data on deaths. So while it’s still concerning, ecologists aren’t sure if the illness will cause concentrated outbreaks in local areas or widespread deaths across the US. Either way, it’s a loss for conservation. Several rabbit species, including California’s Riparian brush rabbit are endangered, and they’re already up against habitat loss. A potential disease could prevent their recovery.
“Rabbits aren’t the only ones who’d suffer, though. If rabbit population decreases, then the predators (捕食者) who prey on them would lose a valuable food source, and the plants they eat may overgrow, shaking the whole ecosystem,” Gompper said.
1. What does the underlined phrase “spilled over” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Appeared. | B．Changed. |
| C．Spread. | D．Connected. |
| A．To tell how the disease came to the US. |
| B．To warn of the serious danger of the virus. |
| C．To tell us how to deal with the disease. |
| D．To provide some advice for the readers. |
| A．The disease has spread around the world. |
| B．The disease is not dangerous until recently. |
| C．The disease has little impact on environment. |
| D．The disease could harm the whole ecosystem. |
| A．Rabbits are facing a deadly virus. |
| B．A deadly virus is threatening the world. |
| C．Rabbits are important to the ecosystem. |
| D．Rabbits are easily infected with the virus. |
