【推荐1】The future belongs to the flexible mind. This is the argument behind best-selling author Leonard Mlodinow’s new book, Elastic.    1    

Do we need to develop a flexible mind?

Times and surroundings we live in demand a flexible style of thinking. In politics, we now have to cope with more scandals in a single year than we used to encounter in a lifetime. Meanwhile, the speed and processing power of computers makes it difficult for us to navigate a landscape in which the number of websites has been doubling every two to three years.     2     More importantly, social attitudes are changing just as fast.

Logical thought is an analysis that can be described by an algorithm (算术) of the kind that computers follow. Elastic thought cannot. Logical thought is solved to help us face the everyday challenges of life while elastic thought helps us succeed when circumstances change.     3    Logical thought can determine how to drive from our home to the grocery store most efficiently, but it’s elastic thought that inspired us to invent the automobile.

    4     One of the abilities to flexible thinking that is difficult to cultivate is the power to relax our mind and let our guard down. If we are constantly alerted, our ideas may have a narrow range and tend to be conventional.

One can also cultivate flexible thinking by adjusting one’s external conditions.

Studies show that sitting in a darkened room, or closing our eyes, can widen our perspective. Low ceilings, narrow corridors, and windowless offices have the opposite effect. Being able to think without any kind of time pressure is also important when striving for novel ideas.     5     A short phone call, email or even a text message can redirect your attention and thoughts.

Another way we can try is to pay special attention to one of our strongly held beliefs, take it seriously and recall times in the past that we were wrong about something, even though we’d been confident of being right. In fact, more generally, introducing a little disagreement to our intellectual interactions may also be helpful.

A．The way we use and access them is also subject to frequent “disastrous changes”.

B．It examines the ever-increasing changes we find ourselves living through, and the ways of thinking best suited to them.

C．Flexible thinking comes naturally to all humans, but it may be blocked by our ability to tune out “crazy” idea.

D．In what way is it hard to think “flexibly”?

E．It is where our new ideas come from.

F．Just as important, interruptions are deadly.

G．How can we learn to be more flexible in our own thinking?

【推荐2】Although women now earn more degrees than men, all is not well with them. Women undergraduates are just as likely as men to have a drinking problem. And they are more likely to have anxiety disorders and to be clinically depressed.

After 46 years of college teaching, I still give colleges an “F” factor—a factor that plays a major role in female students’ well-being: fathers. As documented in my research over the past 30 years, daughters who have strong, supportive relationships with their fathers generally earn better grades, have higher college graduation rates and enter more STEM professions. These daughters are also more emotionally resilient (恢复快的) and self-confident.

Moreover, well-fathered women reap these benefits regardless of their family’s income. It is worth noting that students from wealthier families do not have better relationships with their parents than students from less well-off families.

Then, too, college-educated parents are the most likely to spoil their children—especially their daughters, leaving them becoming the fragile “snowflake” students who melt too easily under stress and rely too often on their parents or college personnel to solve their problems. For decades, however, the research has shown that fathers are less likely than mothers to be overly protective “helicopter” parents who go overboard trying to make life’s path as stress-free as possible for children. So how can colleges and universities improve their grades on the “F” factor?

First, the curriculum needs to be more inclusive and less prejudiced against fathers. For example, social science textbooks and academic journals devote far more attention to mothers than to fathers. A less sexist, more balanced curriculum would help remove the myths that work against strong father-daughter bonds. Second, colleges can make the faculty more aware of how their female students’ relationships with their fathers affect their academic performance and mental health. Third, colleges can create more events specifically for fathers and can be more sensitive to fathers’ needs.

Supporting the “father factor” in these ways can give women students’ mental health a much-needed boost. And it can also offer professors and staff members another valuable resource to help deal with the challenges that might lie ahead.

1. What do we know about well-fathered female students?

A．They don’t have a drinking problem.	B．They gain advantages in various aspects.
C．They usually come from wealthier families.	D．They are more likely to have anxiety disorders.

2. What does the author think of “helicopter” parents?

A．They are definitely college graduates.	B．They are mostly overly protective fathers.
C．They are seeking for a stress-free life’s path.	D．They are responsible for the “snowflake” children.

3. What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．Measures that colleges can take.	B．Challenges that colleges may face.
C．Suggestions that fathers should follow.	D．Benefits that college education will bring.

4. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Colleges Get an “F” Factor	B．Colleges Are to Blame for Prejudice
C．Strong Father-daughter Bonds Matter	D．Fathers Are Best Teachers for Children

【推荐3】Despite all the efforts students make to graduate with a science major, research has shown that most college science courses provide students with only a fragmented (碎片化的) understanding of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching method improves memorization of separate facts, proceeding from one textbook chapter to the next without necessarily making connections between them.

With that in mind, we developed a series of cross-disciplinary (跨学科的) activities. In our most recent study, we investigated how well college students could use their chemistry knowledge to explain real-world biological phenomena. To begin with, we interviewed 28 college students majoring in sciences or engineering. All had taken both introductory chemistry and biology courses. We asked them to identify connections between the content of these courses and what they believed to be the take-home messages from each course. The students responded with extensive lists of topics, concepts, and skills that they’d learned in class.

Following that, a set of cross-disciplinary activities were designed to guide students in the use of core chemistry ideas and knowledge to help explain real-world biological phenomena. One activity explored the impacts of ocean acidification (酸化) on seashells. Here, the students were asked to use basic chemistry ideas to explain how the increasing level of carbon dioxide in sea water is affecting shell-building marine animals such as corals and oysters.

Overall, the students felt confident of their chemistry knowledge. However, they had a harder time applying the same chemistry knowledge. The students in our study also reported that these activities helped them see links between the two disciplines that they wouldn’t have perceived otherwise. The ability to make these connections is important beyond the classroom as well, because it’s the basis of science literacy (素养). So we also came away with evidence that our chemistry students at least would like to have the ability to have a deeper understanding of science and how to apply it.

1. What does the present science education fail to do according to the research?

A．Extending students’ theoretical knowledge.

B．Involving students in more hands-on activities.

C．Encouraging students to enjoy the learning process.

D．Helping students make cross-disciplinary connections.

2. What can we learn about the student interviewees?

A．They have rich academic knowledge.

B．They pay little attention to biology courses.

C．They hardly identify the core ideas of science.

D．They fully understand the importance of their majors.

3. What should students do in the ocean acidification activity?

A．Analysing the exact composition of sea water.

B．Studying some unusual phenomena under the sea.

C．Coming up with practical methods to protect marine life.

D．Explaining the effects of carbon dioxide on certain sea animals.

4. What does the author see from the result of the study?

A．The challenges existed in chemistry courses.

B．The need to remove the unfairness in education.

C．The potential to promote students’ science literacy.

D．The method of increasing students’ practical skills.

【推荐2】The British summer is extremely beautiful. Trees, flowers, birds and butterflies make the whole country look like a big garden. However, many British people have noticed that butterflies have been gradually disappearing from this picturesque scenery during the past several years. What has happened to them?

Butterfly Conservation, a charity in the UK is running a survey to help answer this question. The result is more serious than people expected. According to the survey, among 59 butterfly species found in the British Isles, more than three-quarters of them are suffering a declining population, including the most popular Meadow Brown. Moreover, half of all butterfly species are dying out.

Some common species such as the small Tortoiseshell butterfly and the Wall butterfly are dropping sharply. The latter cannot even be seen in many parts of central and southern England. And termly, which was commonly seen in the south, has started settling in Edinburgh in the past few years.

The numbers of butterflies have dropped to a record low in the past three years largely because the summer in the UK is getting cooler and their living conditions are also degrading.

Fortunately Britain is experiencing a long hot summer this year compared to the last few summers. Conservationists believe the warm weather will bring some benefit to the butterflies.

Sir David Attenborough, president of Butterfly Conservation, said, “Butterflies in abundance tell that all is well with nature. When they decline it's a warning that other wildlife will be soon heading the same way.”

The survey is still going on. The public is also encouraged to keep track of the UK's butterfly population. The organizers hope the survey will help raise public awareness of the value of butterflies in the UK. Butterflies give an indication of the well-being of nature and the environment.

1. The survey conducted by Butterfly Conservation has found that __________.

A．the UK butterflies enjoy a cool climate

B．the UK butterflies prefer settling in the north

C．the number of the UK butterflies is decreasing

D．butterflies make the British summer more attractive

2. How does the writer support the findings of the survey in Paragraph 3?

A．By listing examples	B．By providing data
C．By giving explanations.	D．By making comments.

3. What does the underlined word “degrading” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Turning better.	B．Getting worse.
C．Keeping stable.	D．Becoming different.

4. Butterfly Conservation expects their survey to ________.

A．warm people to care more about the change of weather

B．keep the charity running more smoothly than ever before

C．help the British government protect nature and the environment

D．strengthen people’s understanding of the importance of butterflies

【推荐3】A handshake seems to be a normal gesture. In fact, in the 9th century BC, an ancient site during the ruling of Shalmaneser III clearly shows two figures holding hands. The Iliad, usually dated to the 8th century BC, mentions that two characters “taking each other’s hands and expressing their loyalty.” Centuries later, Shakespeare once wrote of two characters who shook hands and swore to be brothers in the book As You Like It. Shaking hands seems to be an ancient custom whose roots have disappeared in the sands of time.

Historians who have studied ancient etiquette (礼仪) books note that the modern handshake did not appear until the middle of the 19th century, when it was considered a slightly inappropriate gesture that could only be used between friends. But what if Shakespeare had written about handshaking hundreds of years earlier?

According to author Torbjdm Lundmark in his Tales of Hi and Bye: Greeting and Parting Rituals Around the World. the problem comes in differing definitions of the handshake. The early handshakes mentioned above were part of making deals or peace; King Shalmaneser III referred to a rebellion in which he signed a treaty with the King of Babylon. In the Iliad, Diomedes and Glaucus shook hands when they realized they were guest-friends, and Diomedes declared: 66Lefs not try to kill each other. Shakespeare was similarly referencing settlement of a conflict.

The modern handshake as a form of greeting is harder to trace. As a Dutch sociologist Herman Roodenburg — the chief authority for the history of handshaking ——wrote in a chapter of an anthology called A Cultural History of Gesture, “More than in any other field, that of the study of gesture is one in which the historian has to make the most of only a few clues”.

One of the earliest clues he cites is a 16th-century German translation of the French writer Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel. When one character meets Gargantua, Rabelais writes, ”He was greeted by countless hugs and countless good days.” But according to Roodenburg, the 16th-century German translation added references to shaking hands.

A popular saying suggests that Cleland’s statements against bowing were actually a wish to go back to a potentially traditional method of greeting in Europe. As the centuries progressed, handshaking was replaced by more hierarchical (等级的)ways of greeting - like bowing. According to Roodenburg, handshaking survived in a few remote places, like in Dutch towns where some would use the gesture to make peace after disagreements. Around the same time, those who valued equality also made use of handshaking. Then, as the Continent’s hierarchy was weakened, handshaking became a common practice among people of the same rank, as it is today.

1. Why does the author mention Shakespeare in the first two paragraphs?

A．To prove that the history of handshaking is hard to find.

B．To illustrate that handshaking is a very old custom.

C．To show readers that handshaking is common in fiction.

D．To explain the value of handshaking in communication.

2. What can we learn about handshaking from the passage?

A．The origin of handshaking as a form of greeting is easy to trace.

B．Citizens usually shake hands to show friendliness in Holland.

C．It was used only between friends and to reach an agreement.

D．It is a common practice between people of different social positions.

3. Which of the following is similar in meaning to “anthology” in Para. 4?

A．the science of mental ability

B．a collection of selected literary passages

C．a daily written record of experiences

D．all the living things of a particular region

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph of the passage?

A．The handshake has disappeared in some remote parts of the Netherlands.

B．Handshaking has different meanings in different European countries.

C．Handshakes are now common between people of different positions.

D．Most Europeans prefer to shake hands owing to the weakening effect of rank.