【推荐2】No one likes interruption. We are born to seek balance and order. No matter what it is that you are doing, being interrupted involves a forceful stop midway and then having to re-enter your former state, sometimes with great difficulty. Popular belief has it that interruption breaks the flow of your thinking and affects productivity negatively, and so it is advisable that you have an uninterrupted session of intensive work before your next break.

However, a Russian psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik, might tell you otherwise. The connection between interruption and memory drew her attention when she was dining in a restaurant. She noticed how the waitresses had an amazing memory of the detailed orders yet to be paid for, but little memory of the orders that were already completed.

Back in her laboratory, she conducted studies in which subjects were required to complete various puzzles. Some of the subjects were interrupted during the tasks. All the subjects were then asked to describe what tasks they had done. It turns out that adults remembered the interrupted tasks 90% better than the completed tasks, and that children were even more likely to recall the uncompleted tasks. To put it another way, uncompleted tasks will stay on your mind until you finish them!

In comparison to tasks that were already finished and ones that we haven’t even started, half-done projects are highlighted in the mental to-do list our brains draw up for us. Zeigarnik described this finding in the late 1920s, which was later called Zeigarnik effect. One possible explanation is that with interrupted tasks, we are longing for them to be completed, in order to regain a sense of balance. Finishing them also means that we can finally clear up the mental backlog and give the space to more upcoming tasks.

Zeigarnik’s effect can be found everywhere, especially used in media and advertising. Have you ever wondered why cliffhangers work so well or why you just can’t get yourself to stop watching that series on Netflix? Ernest Hemingway once said about writing a novel, “It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.” So next time, when you are interrupted, appreciate it and take advantage of it to promote your productivity.

1. What is a common practice to finish a task?

A．Working in a focused period.	B．Working with uncommon breaks.
C．Working with a stop midway.	D．Working in an interrupted session.

2. What is the finding of the Zeigarnik’s experiment?

A．Interruption recalls details.	B．Interruption betters memory.
C．Interruption breaks balance.	D．Interruption reduces efficiency.

3. What is the possible reason behind Zeigarnik’s effect?

A．The physical backlog.	B．The desire for balance.
C．The outside pressure.	D．The upcoming tasks.

4. Which of the following is an example of the application of Zeigarnik’s effect?

A．Fashion shows.

B．Talk shows.

C．Online news.

D．TV series.

【推荐3】 Psychiatrists (精神病专家), who work with older parents say that maturity can be an asset (资产) in child raising — older parents are more thoughtful, use less physical discipline and spend more time with children. But raising kids takes money and energy, many older parents find themselves balancing their limited financial resources, declining energy and failing health against the growing demands of an active child. Dying and leaving young children is probably the older parents’ biggest and often unspoken fear. Having late-life children, says an economics professor, often means parents, particularly fathers, “end up retiring much later.” For many, retirement becomes an unobtainable dream.

Henry Metcalf, a 54-year-old journalist, knows it takes money to raise kids. But he’s also worried that his energy will give out first. Sure, he can still ride bikes with his athletic fifth grader, but he’s learned that, young at heart doesn’t mean young. Lately he’s been taking afternoon naps to keep up his energy.” My body is aging,” says Metcalf, “You can’t get away from that.”

Often, older parents hear the ticking of another kind of biological clock. Therapists who work with middle-aged and older parents say fears about aging are nothing to laugh at. “They worry they’ll be mistaken for grandparents, or that they’ll need help getting up out of those little chairs in nursery school.” Says Joann Galst, a New York psychologist. But at the core of those little fears there is often a much bigger one. “that they will not be alive long enough to support and protect their child, ” she says.

Many late-life parents, though, say their children came at just the right time. After marrying late and undergoing years of fertility (受孕) treatment, Marilyn Nolen and her husband, Randy, had twins. “We both wanted children,” says Marilyn, who was 55 when she gave birth. The twins have given the couple what they desired for years, “a sense of family.”

Kids of older dads are often smarter, happier and more sociable because their fathers are more involved in their lives. “The dads are older, more mature,” says Dr. Silber, “and more ready to focus on parenting.”

1. Why do psychiatrists regard maturity as an asset in child raising?

A．Older parents can better balance their resources against children’s demands.

B．Older parents are usually more experienced in bringing up their children.

C．Older parents are often better prepared financially.

D．Older parents can take better care of their children.

2. What does the author mean by saying “For many, retirement becomes an unobtainable dream”？

A．They have to go on working beyond their retirement age.

B．They can’t get full pension unless they work some extra years.

C．They can’t obtain the retirement benefits they have dreamed of.

D．They are unwilling to retire when they reach their retirement age.

3. The author gives the examples of Henry Metcalf to show that______.

A．many people are young in spirit despite their advanced age

B．taking afternoon naps is a good way to maintain energy

C．older parents tend to be concerned about their aging bodies

D．older parents should exercise more to keep up with their athletic children

4. What’s the biggest fear of older parents according to New York psychologist Joann Galst?

A．Being laughed at by other people	B．Slowing down of their pace of life
C．Being mistaken for grandparents	D．Approaching of death

5. What do we learn about Marilyn and Randy Nolen?

A．They thought they were an example of successful fertility treatment.

B．Not until they had the twins did they feel had formed a family.

C．They believe that children born of older parents would be smarter.

D．Not until they reached middle age did they think of having children.

【推荐2】A famous health tip says you’d better drink eight glasses of water（about two liters）a day. However, the results of a new study suggest that fewer are needed. An international group led by scientists at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology in China found that the average daily water intake of a man in his 20s should be 1.5 to 1.8 liters, while it should be 1.3 to 1.4 liters for a female in the same age group. The study published recently in the Journal Science described, for the first time, a set of equations（方程组）to predict human water turnover, a sign reflecting the amount of water used by the body each day.

The researchers investigated 5,604 participants from the ages of 8 days to 96 years from more than 20 countries, using isotope（同位素）-tracking methods. They have found that a man aged 20 to 35 consumes 4.2 liters of water each day, while a woman aged 30 to 60 consumes 3.3 liters, with the water requirements dropping as he or she ages.

Since the metabolism（新陈代谢）and water exchange on skin can provide 15 percent, while food and drinking respectively contributing half of the remaining 85 percent, people are encouraged to drink less than 45 percent of the total daily turnover, according to the researchers. “The majority of people perhaps don’t have to drink eight glasses of water a day,” says Zhang Xueying, co-first author of the paper and an assistant research fellow at the SIAT.

The total water input and output change according to a number of factors, including body size, physical activity, air temperature and altitude（海拔）, according to the study. “The equations can be applied to individuals around the world,” says Zhang. However, people living in countries with a low human development index（指数）have higher water turnover than people in developed countries, she adds.

The study challenges the long-standing belief and marks the first step towards a personalized prediction of water requirements, says John Speakman, who also works at the SIAT.

1. How did the researchers carry out the study?

A．By offering examples.	B．By analyzing figures.
C．By performing interviews.	D．By making predictions.

2. Why do most people drink less than eight glasses of water per day?

A．Their daily diets are rich in protein.

B．Their bodies don’t need so much water.

C．They belong to different age groups.

D．They take in water from various sources.

3. What can we learn from paragraph 4?

A．Living conditions influence human water turnover.

B．The equations are used to determine water turnover.

C．Body size is unlikely to change the output of water.

D．Temperature has nothing to do with the input of water.

4. What does John Speakman think of the study?

A．It has a long way to go.	B．It remains a riddle.
C．It wins public support.	D．It is beyond control.

【推荐3】One half of the brain remains on high alert (警惕) during the first night of sleep in a new space.

Over the course of three experiments on 35 young， healthy volunteers， researchers measured brain activity during two nights of sleep. They found that part of the left side of the brain remained more active than the right side only on the first night， specifically during a deep sleep stage.

"When you sleep in a new place for the first time，a part of one side of the brain seems to stay awake，so you could wake up faster if necessary，" said senior study author Yuka Sasaki of Brown University.

While this may be bad news for business travelers who regularly make brief overnight trips， it may not be as troublesome for people who go away for longer periods of time， Sasaki added by email.

To see how being in a strange place affects sleep， Sasaki and colleagues performed a series of lab tests on their subjects.

When they stimulated ( 刺 激 ) the left side of the brain with sounds in the right ear during deep sleep on the first night， that led to greater possibility of waking and faster action upon waking， than if sounds were played in the left ear to affect the right side   of the   brain. On the second night， there wasn't any difference in reactions to tests between the left and right sides of the brain， even during deep sleep. This suggests that there is a first﹣night﹣only effect specifically in one side of the brain during deep sleep， the authors conclude. One limitation of the new study is   its   focus   on healthy   volunteers， which   means   the results may not apply to people with sleep disorders， the authors note.

While it's possible that the findings may explain poor sleep among frequent travelers， the study wasn't designed to test whether these "first night effects" continue to happen to people every time they hit the road， said Patrick Finan， a researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

1. What does the underlined word "this" in Paragraph 4 refer to？

A．The finding of the new study.

B．The advice of the researchers.

C．The process of measuring brain activity.

D．The suffering of the volunteers.

2. If people stay at a new place for more than one day， .

A．they can wake faster on the second night than on the first night.

B．there won't be any difference to them on the second night.

C．they suffer from sleep disorders.

D．the first night effects may not last.

3. What is the problem of the new study？

A．Some volunteers suffer from sleep disorders.

B．It does not find out the different reactions of the ears.

C．The result may not apply to all people.

D．There are not enough volunteers.