Many of the psychological benefits of outdoor play are already well established. Our brains evolved in natural landscapes, and our perceptual(感知的)systems are particularly well suited to wild outdoor spaces.
This means that natural scenes provide the perfect level of stimulation, which is thought to help recharge the brain when it is tired and easily distractible. Supporting this theory, one study found that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were better able to concentrate following a 20-minute walk in the park, compared to a 20-minute walk on the streets of a well-kept urban area. Being exposed to grass and trees seemed to have had a beneficial effect on their minds. The authors recommended using such “doses(剂量)of nature” as a safe and accessible way of supporting children with ADHD, alongside other tools.
Besides these restorative effects, outdoor play can offer valuable learning experiences. For example, playing with mud or sand can help children develop the way their senses and movement interact, which allows the child to gradually understand his or her body signals.
Such activities — away from the house or classroom — may also help children to find ways to cope with emotions that maybe hard to explore in other environments. So-called “sand tray therapy”, which involves using sand and clay to express one’s thoughts and feelings, is an accepted form of counselling for children who are struggling to verbalise their emotional state.
When it comes to the child’s physical health, the most obvious advantage of outdoor play maybe the exercise A child may find it easier to buildup strength and endurance in a large open space resulting in a reduced risk of overweight, according to one study led by Elizabeth Gershoff, professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, US.
The latest findings, however, suggest there could be a host of other advantages to playing in natural environments — and the secret maybe alive in the mud itself.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?A.To present the topic. | B.To display brain landscapes. |
C.To prove the well-established benefits. | D.To introduce the perceptual systems. |
A.By recording learning experiences. | B.By comparing walking in different settings. |
C.By observing different activities. | D.By exposing children to grass and trees. |
A.Children can speak out their inner thoughts. |
B.Children can develop their senses and movements. |
C.Children can express their thoughts by applying sand. |
D.Children can cope with their emotions in the classroom. |
A.Playing outdoors brings unexpected benefits. |
B.Playing in the mud is the best outdoor exercise. |
C.Playing outdoors can cure children with ADHD. |
D.Playing in the mud can reduce the risk of overweight. |
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【推荐1】A new study has found that smiling at London bus drivers increases happiness. However, on the Number 24 bus to Hampstead Heath, Londoners are sceptical. “Bus drivers,” says Liz Hands, a passenger, “are generally annoying.”
It might seem improbable that a report on London’s buses could change behaviour. But it has happened before. London’s buses have an underappreciated role in the history of medical science. In the 1940s, a single study of London’s transport workers transformed epidemiology (流行病学), medicine and the way we live now. Every time you go on a run, check your step-count, or take the stairs instead of the lift, you are following a path pioneered by the feet of the workers on London’s buses.
In the late 1940s, doctors were worried. Britain, like many rich countries, was suffering from an “epidemic” of heart disease and no one knew why. Various hypotheses, such as stress, were suggested; but one thing that was not exercising researchers was exercise. The idea that health and exercise were linked “wasn’t the accepted fact that we know today”, says Nick Wareham, a professor of epidemiology at Cambridge University. Some even felt that “too much physical activity was a bad thing for your health”. Miners and farmers who did physical exercise also suffered from various diseases and died young.
At this time a young doctor called Jerry Morris started to suspect that the increasing deaths from heart disease might be linked to occupation. He began studying the medical records of 31,000 London transport workers. His findings were breathtaking: conductors, who spent their time running up and down stairs, had an approximately 30% lower possibility of disease than drivers, who sat down all day. Exercise was keeping people alive.
Morris’s research was eventually published in 1953, just three years after a study by Richard Doll proving the link between smoking and lung cancer. Morris’s work had consequences both big and small. Morris now also took up exercise, handing his jacket to his daughter and just running. “People thought I was bananas.” Slowly, the rest of the world took off its jacket and followed.
1. Why does the author mention the new study in the first paragraph?A.To clarify a concept. | B.To introduce the topic. |
C.To present the argument. | D.To provide an example. |
A.Encouraging researchers to work out. | B.Helping with researchers’ inquiry. |
C.Hold back researchers’ progress. | D.Drawing researchers’ attention. |
A.By carrying out survey. | B.By observing their routines. |
C.By doing medical examinations. | D.By analyzing the medical data. |
A.Smiling and Its Effects on London Bus Drivers. |
B.The Evolution of London’s Transportation System. |
C.How London Bus Drivers Led the world to exercise. |
D.What Londoners Think about Studies on Bus Drivers. |
【推荐2】Paul Dirac was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. He was a pioneer in quantum(量子) theory, which shaped our modern world. Dirac was also a genius when it came to analytical thinking. But when his colleagues asked him for advice, his secret to success had nothing to do with the traditional scientific method. “Be guided,” Dirac told them, “by your emotions.”
Dirac’s advice, like his physics, ran against the common assumption of psychology in his day: that logical thought primarily drives our behaviors, and that when emotions play a role, they are likely to keep us off our best judgment.
Today, researchers have gained a deeper understanding of emotions and how they can positively influence logical choices. In a study led by Professor Mark Fenton, his team conducted interviews with 118 professional traders at four investment banks. They found that even among the most experienced traders, the lower-performing ones seemed less likely to effectively engage with the emotions guiding their choices—whether to buy or sell a set of securities, for example, with millions of dollars at risk. The most successful traders, however, were particularly likely to acknowledge their emotions and followed their direct feelings about stock options(股票期权) when they had limited information to draw on. They also understood that when emotions become too intense, toning them down can be necessary. The issue for the successful traders was not how to avoid emotions but how to control them.
Welcoming emotions into the decision-making process can help us be more clear-eyed about where our choices come from. Dirac knew that emotions helped him look beyond the beliefs of his contemporaries. Again and again, his controversial ideas proved correct. Dirac passed away in 1984, a couple of decades before the revolution in emotion theory began, but he’d been happy to see that he’d been right again.
1. Why does the author mention Paul Dirac in paragraph 1?A.To offer a suggestion. | B.To introduce the topic. |
C.To describe the scientist. | D.To present a phenomenon. |
A.It was permanent. | B.It was unfavorable. |
C.It was meaningful. | D.It was unavoidable. |
A.By working more intensely. | B.By experiencing more widely. |
C.By making decisions more directly. | D.By controlling emotions more efficiently. |
A.A study on professional traders. |
B.A development in emotion theory. |
C.The role of emotions in decision-making. |
D.The achievements of Paul Dirac as a physicist. |
【推荐3】In a 2012 study, Boaz Keysar, a professor at the University of Chicago in the US, led an experiment on the relationship between foreign languages and people’s way of thinking.
In the experiment, people were asked to make a choice: Just take one pound or take a 50percent chance of winning 2.50 pounds. When given this choice in their native language, most people took the safe option of only getting one pound. But they were more willing to make the riskier choice when asked in a foreign language, leading to more profits overall, according to The Guardian. As Keysar put it, “People just hate the chance of losing, but they hate it less in a foreign language.”
In another study published this year, Keysar and his team did an experiment in which participants were given a series of related words like “dream”, “snooze”, “bed” and “rest”. Later, when asked which words they remembered hearing, people were more likely to mistakenly remember “sleep”, which was not on the list, in their native language. But it was much less likely to happen if they did the test in a foreign language. As Keysar explained, people have more careful thinking when using a foreign language, leading to more accurate memories.
The foreign language effect may even influence our personality. Silvia Purpuri at the University of Trento, Italy, looked at people’s willingness to face uncertainty and enter unfamiliar situations. Being tolerant (宽容的) of uncertainty allows people to have more creative ideas and be more open to new things. It turns out that people naturally score more highly on this trait (特点) when they can speak or use a foreign language because speaking a foreign language requires taking risks.
The evidence is clear: By learning a foreign language, you’re not just learning a language—you’re gaining a new state of mind.
1. What does the first experiment suggest?A.People like expressing in a foreign language. |
B.People are afraid of losing in face of money. |
C.People make quick choices in their native language. |
D.People prefer riskier decisions in a foreign language. |
A.Colorful. | B.Simple. | C.Usual. | D.Exact. |
A.Cool-headed. | B.Open-minded. | C.Light-hearted. | D.Easy-going. |
A.Learning foreign languages helps a lot. |
B.People should learn to face uncertainty. |
C.Foreign languages influence how people think. |
D.Personality has an effect on language learning. |
【推荐1】Do you know what “zero” means? Have you ever even stopped to think much about this concept (概念)? It’s an easy one to take for granted. Of course, everyone can understand the concept of nothing, or having nothing.
But did you know that some animals can understand zero as well? Experiments with monkeys and birds have proven that they can master this concept. But now, the understanding of zero has been found in a most unlikely candidate (候选人): bees.
According to a recently published study in the journal Science, Australian and French researchers worked together to conduct experiments to prove that bees are the first insects to “understand that zero belongs at the lower end of a sequence (序列) of numbers”, according to a report by Science Daily.
Scarlett Howard, a researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, trained bees to choose from several cards with different numbers of shapes printed on them. Correctly choosing the card with the fewest shapes earned them a reward of sugar water. For example, the bees learned to choose three elements when presented with three VS four; or two elements when presented with two VS three. And then these bees were presented a challenge — a card that was entirely blank and that they had never seen before. But 64 percent of the time, they chose to fly toward the blank card instead of the card that had shapes on it. This suggests that the insects understand that zero stands for something less than two or three, according to Science magazine.
Associate Professor Adrian Dyer, also from RMIT University, said the number zero was the basis of modern mathematical and technological progress.
He told Science Daily that the findings have opened a door to new understandings of how different brains understand zero. “If bees can understand zero with a brain of less than a million neurons (神经元) [compared with the 86,000 million neurons of a human brain], it suggests there are simple and efficient (有效的) ways to teach artificial (人工的) intelligence new tricks .”
1. Why did the writer ask two questions in Para.1?A.To expect an exact answer. | B.To introduce the topic. |
C.To show the concept of “zero”. | D.To inspire scientists to study. |
A.Most insects can recognize different shapes. |
B.Bees can understand the meaning of zero. |
C.Bees are better at numbers than monkeys and birds. |
D.Most insects can be trained to understand numbers. |
A.By giving examples. | B.By designing cards. |
C.By showing numbers. | D.By doing experiments. |
【推荐2】There’s no shortage of web sites offering deals-everything from daily deals to members-only private sales. But when it comes to real jaw-dropping deals, there’s one company that seems to have figured out a way to really deliver.
The company is called Quibids and they auction the hottest, in-demand electronics like Apple ipads and ipods, as well as other items like gift cards from the top retailers. Unlike other sites, the prices people pay are nowhere near retail. How low are the prices?
$ 33.84 for a new Apple ipad 32 GB(retail $ 600)
$ 22.10 for a new Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera(retail $ 1070)
Our first reaction on seeing these prices was disbelief. After all, how could Quibids possibly afford to sell these items for so little — surely they must be losing a lot of money.
That’s where its unique business model comes into play. You see, for every bid a buyer places for an item on Quibids, the company collects a small fee from the bidder. The fee to bid is only about 60 cents, but based on the volume of sales and bids, the company is able to collect enough to make up for the ridiculous prices the items sell for.
But best of all, participating in the Quibids auction is incredibly fun. Because each bid costs a little to place, shoppers can strategize when to place their bids. Each auction has a strict time limit. When you place your bid, the system adds a little time to the auction to see if any other bids come in. If you have the winning bid when the clock runs out — you win the item for that price.
But the best part of Quibids may be the “Buy-It-Now” feature. This allows bidders who did not win an auction to still buy the product they want and apply the cost of the bids they placed as a discount on the regular product price. So you still get the item and the bids you placed previously in the auction don’t cost you anything!
1. According to the passage, the success of Quibids mainly lies in ________.A.their willingness to risk losing money | B.the change in people’s shopping model |
C.the quality of the goods and service | D.how its buying and selling is conducted |
A.other retailers will be out of business | B.the prices on Quibids are the lowest |
C.Quibids only sell popular electronics | D.winning a bid is not just a matter of luck |
A.$ 21.2 | B.$ 20 | C.$ 19.4 | D.$ 18.8 |
A.The Most Successful Shopping Website | B.How to Buy New Must–have Electronics |
C.Buy Products for Next to Nothing | D.Tips on Shopping Online |
【推荐3】What’s your opinion about finding good friends? Speaking from my past experience, it is very difficult to find good friends that you can trust but once you have found them, they are worth keeping forever! Therefore, I think friendship is the most important relationship that anybody could have.
The qualities I look for in a friend are a good sense of humor and sensitivity. A friend would have to be strong-minded and highly spirited. I think that these qualities are the key qualities to look for in a good friend.
Even the best friends can still have arguments between themselves, though usually about more serious topics, rather than the usual childish arguments. Some matters can seriously affect friendship. If one of your friends started experimenting with harmful and dangerous drugs, what would you do? A good friend would try to help as much as possible, while a bad example of a friend would simply shrug and turn a blind eye.
Not only the bad things affect friendship—good activities do too, such as bonding with one another, not just by going out on a night with them, but by spending quality time with them and talking to each other. This is a key aspect of a good friendship.
Good friends do not always have to be in the same age group as you. I have a good friend and she is 47 years old and I am 16.
Unfortunately, some people lose contact with their friends as they grow older, which is a sad way to lose a good friend.
I think friendship is one of the most important things in life because if you have no friends you will have no happiness.
1. According to the author, true friendship _____.A.is easy to get | B.needs management |
C.deepens with time | D.affects one’s happiness |
A.why drugs are bad for teenagers | B.whether a friend is reliable |
C.ways that help avoid arguments | D.problems that will test friendship |
A.Confidence | B.Age | C.Sense of humor. | D.Communication. |
A.Old friends and old wines are best. | B.A friend without faults will never be found. |
C.A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody. | D.A life without a friend is a life without a sun. |