【推荐1】How to Become a Lifelong Learner

Learning doesn’t stop just because school does. Making a commitment to yourself to learn something new every day, you will not only enjoy what you discover, but also be able to apply your knowledge and become a teacher of future generations. Here are some steps to become a lifelong learner.

Learn how you learn.

    1     Note what learning techniques are the most efficient for you and use them as much as possible, such as viewing online tutorials on websites like YouTube if you’re more of a visual learner.

    2    

Try many different things so that you don’t trap yourself into believing you’re only good at a few things. It’s probable that you’re good at many things, but you won’t know until you’ve tried.

Look on learning as an exploration and opportunity, not a chore (令人讨厌的工作).

Don’t just force yourself to learn things because they’re important or necessary.     3     Follow your heart, as well as your sense of duty. Do you remember the 8th-grade history that you hated so much, with all those names and dates that seemed to mean nothing? The point was to bring you to details that will knit chunks of information together later.     4    

Read, read, and read.

    5     Reading is a gateway into other worlds and into the minds of your fellow human beings. And reading will help you to learn the discoveries and mistakes of others who have gone before you; reading is, in effect, a short cut which makes you not have to learn things in the hard way.

A．Learn where your talents and interests lie.

B．It was a chore then, but it makes sense now.

C．Determine your own preferable learning style or styles.

D．Recognize the educational value of whatever you read.

E．Make friends with your local library operators and new and used book sellers.

F．Their ways of learning might help you to improve your own.

G．Instead, learn things that you need to learn alongside things you love to learn.

【推荐1】Scientists can figure out a movie's emotional tone from the gasps(喘气) of its audience. These gases could point the way to a subtle(微妙的，精细的) form of human communication, a new study suggests.

"When you see a movie, you can hear the music and see the pictures. However, you don't realize here are chemical signals in the air. And they, too, could be affecting you, says Williams, who led the study. As an atmospheric chemist, he studies the chemical makeup of the air around us.

Williams started out measuring the air in a soccer stadium. He noticed that levels of carbon dioxide and other gases changed wildly whenever the crowd cheered. That got him wondering -- Could the gases people breathe out be influenced by emotions?

To find out, he went to the movies.

Williams and his coworkers measured air samples collected over six weeks in two movie theaters. Overall, 9,500 movie goers watched 16 films. They included a mix of comedy, romance, action and horror films. Among them were The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Carrie, and Walking with Dinosaurs. The researchers gave scenes from the movies such labels as “suspense(悬疑)”, "laughter" and "crying". Then they looked for hundreds of chemicals in the air that showed up as people were watching particular movie scenes.

And certain scenes had distinct chemical "fingerprints". Scenes that had people laughing or on the edge of their seats were especially distinctive. During screenings of The Hunger Games, levels of carbon dioxide and isoprene got to the highest at two suspenseful moments. Because isoprene is related to muscle movement, the researchers think tense movie moments likely led to its spikes(尖峰). Williams and his colleagues think the increase in carbon dioxide was due to the viewers' increased pulse and breathing rates.

Scientists need more data to make stronger links between human emotions and what's in their breath. But Williams can see potential practical uses. Companies, for instance, could quickly measure the air during tests to see how people feel about new products. He pictures future studies recording other body variables(变数) as well. These might include heart rate and body temperature, for instance. "It's something to find out."

1. What was Williams's purpose of the research?

A．To know more about the makeup of the air.

B．To find out how the air changes in a crowded stadium.

C．To study how greatly the movies influence people's emotion.

D．To see whether people's emotion affects the air they breathe out.

2. What do we know about the experiment?

A．Each participant watched about 16 films.

B．The movies were a mixture of comedy and romance.

C．The film scenes were labeled with three main features.

D．The samples were taken in two theaters over six weeks.

3. In which situation are people most emotional?

A．Romantic moments.	B．Exciting situations.
C．Suspenseful situations.	D．Horrible moments.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Human emotions are strongly related to the chemicals humans breathe out.

B．People's temperature will be measured when they' re watching movies.

C．Williams thinks more measures should be taken for practical uses.

D．Companies will spend much money testing their new product.

【推荐2】Even though we may believe that it’s important to say thank you, sometimes expressing gratitude is easier said than done. We might find ourselves getting confused about the details of what to say or the best way to deliver the message. As a result, many times, we do not express our gratitude.

According to new research, however, it’s possible we might be making our thanks more complicated than it needs to be. In a paper published in The Journal of Positive Psychology, researchers compared the effects of expressing thanks in person, over a video call, and by text. And, while people generally expect an in-person thank-you to be most impactful, what happened in reality was quite different: sending a thank-you by text was almost as impactful as delivering the message in person. Additionally, texting maybe especially well-suited for situations where we feel embarrassed about expressing our appreciation.

In one study, 219 college students from the United States and China participated in a gratitude activity in which they wrote about three things they were grateful for over a two-week period. After writing, the students were asked to actually thank the person involved. Some connected with the gratitude recipient (接受者) in person, others via video call, and others via text. At the beginning and end of the two weeks, participants completed surveys measuring their feelings of well-being, connections with others, depression, loneliness, and happiness.

The researchers found that people who expressed gratitude increased their well-being, with only a few differences between the different methods of gratitude expression. Overall, video calls were just as beneficial as meeting in person. Texting was slightly less effective than video calling -- it didn’t make people feel more connected and happy. However, participants who sent their thanks by text still experienced benefits: texting boosted their well-being and reduced their loneliness.

Overall, the message is that we shouldn’t worry about finding just the “right” way to express our gratitude. In fact, you’re probably better off sending a quick thank-you today than waiting for the right time to schedule an in-person visit. You can be sure that many of gratitude’s benefits can be attained regardless of how you send the message.

1. How do people make expressing gratitude complex?

A．They think it is useless to express gratitude.

B．They feel ashamed to express gratitude.

C．They think too much about the best way to do it.

D．They waste too much time before saying it.

2. Which way may be best for us to avoid embarrassment when expressing our gratitude?

A．Video chats.	B．Face to face visits.
C．Sending messages.	D．Making phone calls.

3. What does the research mainly show?

A．Learning to be grateful can give us a lot of benefits.

B．We need to put saying thank-you into our daily routine.

C．We should learn how to express appreciation to others.

D．We shouldn’t be bothered by how to express our gratitude.

【推荐3】Growing up, I remember my father as a silent, serious man — not the sort of person around whom one could laugh. As a teenager arriving in America, knowing nothing, I wanted a father who could explain the human journey. In college, when friends called home for advice, I would sink into deep depression for what I did not have.

Today, at twenty-seven, I have come to rediscover them in ways that my teenage mind would not allow — as adults and as friends with their own faults and weaknesses.

One night after my move back home, I overheard my father on the telephone. There was some trouble. Later, Dad shared the problem with me. Apparently my legal training had earned me some privileges(特权) in his eyes. I talked through the problem with Dad, analyzing the purposes of the people involved and offering several negotiation skills. He listened patiently before finally admitting, “I can’t think like that. I am a simple man.”

Dad is a brilliant scientist who can deconstruct(解构)the building blocks of nature. Yet human nature is a mystery to him. That night I realized that he was simply not skilled at dealing with people, much less the trouble of a conflicted teenager. It’s not in his nature to understand human desires.

And so, there it was — it was no one’s fault that my father held no interest in human lives while I placed great importance on them. We are at times born more sensitive, wide-eyed, and dreamy than our parents and become more curious and idealistic than them. Dad perhaps never expected me for a child. And I, who knew Dad as an intelligent man, had never understood that his intelligence did not cover all of my feelings.

It has saved me years of questioning and confusion. I now see my parents as people who have other relationships than just Father and Mother. I now ignore their many faults and weaknesses, which once annoyed me.

I now know my parents as friends: people who ask me for advice; people who need my support and understanding. And I’ve come to see my past clearly.

1. What was the author’s impression of her father when she was a teenager?

A．Friendly but irresponsible.	B．Intelligent but severe.
C．Cold and forceful.	D．Caring and communicative.

2. Why did the author feel depressed when her friends called home?

A．She did not have a phone to call home.

B．Her father did not care about her human journey.

C．Her father was too busy to answer her phone.

D．Her father couldn’t give her proper advice.

3. After the author overheard her father on the telephone, ______.

A．he blamed her for impoliteness

B．he rediscovered human nature

C．he consulted with her about his problem

D．he changed his attitude towards the author

4. The author realized that ______.

A．her father had too many faults and weaknesses

B．her father was not as intelligent as she had thought

C．her father was not good at interpersonal relationships

D．her father placed too much importance on social activities