【推荐1】Does happiness have a scent?

When someone is happy, can you smell it?

You can usually tell when someone is happy based on seeing them smile, heating them laugh or perhaps from receiving a big hug. But can you also smell their happiness? Surprising new research suggests that happiness does indeed have a scent, and that the experience of happiness can be transmitted through smell, reports Phys.org.

For the study, 12 young men were shown videos meant to bring about a variety of emotions while researchers gathered sweat samples from them. All of the men were healthy and none of them were drug users or smokers, and all were asked to abstain from drinking or eating smelly foods during the study period.

Those sweat samples were then given to 36 equally healthy young women to smell, while researchers monitored their reactions. Only women were selected to smell the samples, apparently because previous research has shown that women have a better sense of smell than men and are also more sensitive to emotional signaling—though it's unclear why only men were chosen to produce the scents.

Researchers found that the behavior of the women after smelling the scents--particularly their facial expressions--indicated a relationship between the emotional states of the men who produced the sweat and the women who sniffed them.

"Human sweat produced when a person is happy brings about a state similar to happiness in somebody who breathes this smell," said study co-author Gun Semin, a professor at Koc University in Turkey.

This is a fascinating finding because it not only means that happiness does have a scent, but that the scent is capable of transmitting the emotion to others. The study also found that other emotions, such as fear, seem to carry a scent too. This ensures previous research suggesting that some negative emotions have a smell, but it is the first time this has proved to be true of positive feelings.

Researchers have yet to isolate(分离) exactly what the chemical compound for the happiness smell is, but you might imagine what the potential applications for such a finding could be. Happiness perfumes, for instance, could be invented. Scent therapies   (香味疗法) could also be developed to help people through depression or anxiety.

Perhaps the most surprising result of the study, however, is our broadened understanding of how emotions get communicated, and also how our own emotions are potentially managed through our social context and the emotional states of those around us.

1. What is the main finding of the new research?

A．Men produce more sweats.

B．Negative emotions have a smell.

C．Pleasant feelings can be smelt out.

D．Women have a better sense of smell.

2. The underlined part "abstain from" in Paragraph 3 probably means _______.

A．avoid	B．practice
C．continue	D．try

3. What is the application value of the new research?

A．Perfumes could help people understand each other.

B．Some smells could be developed to better our mood.

C．Perfumes could be produced to cure physical diseases.

D．Some smells could be created to improve our appearance.

4. We can learn from the last paragraph that _______.

A．happiness comes from a scent of sweat

B．positive energy can deepen understanding

C．people need more emotional communication

D．social surroundings can influence our emotions

【推荐2】We all know that eating junk food can make us fat. However, a new study suggests that it can do more than that—it can also make us lazy.

In the study, researchers at the University of California, divided 32 female rats into two groups. The first group was fed a diet of healthy food such as corn and fish, while the second was given a diet of highly processed food rich in sugar, namely “junk food”.

Within three months, the rats in the second group were already much fatter than those on the healthy diet. And when researchers trained the rats to do simple tasks, they found even more differences between the two groups rather than weight.

During the task—pushing a lever (杠杆) to receive a reward of sugar water—the rats on the junk food diet were found to be less willing to move, and they took longer breaks between each push than the lean (瘦的) rats did.

“It is as if the rat is thinking ‘This is too much work’,” Aaron Blaisdell, leader of the study.

But what about the possibility that the fat rats were less passionate about getting sugar water because they were already eating lots of sugar in their daily diet? That’s why researchers repeated the tests by rewarding fat rats with plain water when they were extremely thirsty. However, the results came out just the same.

The experiment didn’t end there. After six months, the rats’ diets were switched, and the overweight rats were given a healthy diet for nine days. However, this change didn’t help reduce their weight or improve their ability to perform tasks, which means the effects of their junk food diet continued. “There’s no quick fix.” said Blaisdell.

For a long time, we’ve believed that people become fat because they are lazy. But this study has proven the opposite to be true as well, which indicates that laziness and obesity (肥胖) are a “vicious cycle (恶性循环)”.

So, if you constantly feel tired, lacking any urge to get up from your chair, it could be that you’ve been studying too hard. But you should also pay attention to your diet.

1. What is the correct order of the research?
a. Researchers changed the rats’ diet.
b. Researchers divided 32 female rats into two groups.
c. Within three months, rats on junk food were much fatter that rats on healthy food.
d. Researchers rewarded fat rats with plain water when they were extremely thirsty.

A．bcda.	B．badc.
C．bacd.	D．bcad.

2. According to the passage, which of the following idea is Blaisdell most likely to agree with?

A．Most females are probably finding it hard to say no to junk food.

B．Sugar in water as well as in junk food serves the same vicious role in making us fat.

C．Your diet means most to you if you feel tired and don’t want to move from your chair.

D．There is no short cut for losing weight and overcoming laziness after eating too much junk food.

3. The tone of the author can be best described as ________.

A．relaxed	B．concerned
C．optimistic	D．passive

4. Which magazine can we read the passage from?

A．People	B．Entertainment Weekly.
C．Science and Life.	D．Economists.

【推荐3】We all use different ways to remember ideas, facts and things we need to store. Remembering is an extremely important part of our learning experience. Information process, storage and recall encourage purposeful learning.

But the brain doesn’t store everything we want or need for future use, It makes choices and fends to remember information that forms a memorable paten. Things you learned recently can be particularly difficult to remember because they haven’t yet taken root in your mind.

Forgetting allows us to prioritize (put something above others). We forget much of what we read, watch, and think directly every day. Anything irrelevant to our survival will take up space." writes John Medina in his book, Brain Rules.

How do you avoid losing 90% of what you’ve learned? Inspiring writer and speaker Zig Ziglar once said, Repetition is the mother ‘of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment."

Repetition has been a remembering skill for ages. When you hear or read something once, you don’t really learn it at least not well enough to store the new information permanently. The right kind of repetition can do wonders for your memory. People learn or remember better by repeating things or getting exposed to information multiple times. Others repeat’ particular steps or processes deliberately a number of times or even years to become better at certain skills.

Daniel Coyle explains in his book, The Little Book of Talent, closing the book and writing a summary, even short ones, forces you to figure out the key points, process and organize those ideas so they make sense, and write them on the page. When you pick it back up weeks later, reread all of your notes or highlights to strengthen the ideas even further.

People learn by repeating things. Better learning is a repetition process. Every time we repetitively access something we already know, we increase the memory’s stored value.

1. How does the writer prefer to prove his opinion?

A．By giving examples.

B．By listing numbers.

C．By borrowing words of some writers.’

D．By providing scientific findings.

2. What does Daniel Coyle want to say in his book?

A．You can’t pay too much attention to repetition.

B．Summarizing is an effective way to remember.

C．Forgetting forces human brain to make wise choices.

D．Regular repetition helps to form good habits andeffects.

3. What may be the author’s aim of the last paragraph?

A．To summarize and stress his opinion.

B．To ask the readers to use the skills to learn.

C．To introduce his opinion and attract readers.

D．To tell readers to increase the value of memory.

4. Which do you think would be the best title of the passage?

A．How the Brain Works

B．Reading For More

C．Fighting Against Forgetting

D．Repeat to Remember

【推荐2】There is an English saying: “Laughter is best medicine.” Until recently, few people took the saying seriously. Now, however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found that laughter really can improve people’s health.

Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their heart, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercises. It increases blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing.

It also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.

Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effect of pain on the body.

In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group that tolerated (忍受) the pain for the longest time was the groups which listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemicals in the brain which diminish both stress and pain.

As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they heip to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial (有益的) effects similar to those who are caused by laughter.

1. The main idea of the passage is_________.

A．laughter and physical exercises have similar effects

B．smile can produce the same effects as laughter

C．pain can be reduced by laughter

D．laughter is best medicine

2. Which one has the similar effects to physical exercises?

A．Laughter.

B．Test.

C．Funny films.

D．Crying.

3. The underlined word “diminish” is similar to________.

A．Test

B．stop

C．decrease

D．increase

4. Doctors hold laughter clinics________.

A．to give better condition to their patients

B．in order to improve patients' health

C．to make patients smile all the time

D．to prove smile and laughter have the same effect

【推荐3】The evidence for harmony (和睦) may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents.

An important new study into teenage attitudes shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” says one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious (叛逆的) but actually they have other things in their minds; they want a car and other material goods, and they worry whether school is serving them well. There’re more negotiations (协商) between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision­making process.”

So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17­ year old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiations. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”

One of the researchers comments, “Our astonishment that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. Now, the situation has changed.”

1. What does the new study show?

A．Teenagers are more rebellious.

B．Teenagers worry more about studies.

C．Teenagers dislike making family decisions.

D．Teenagers have more negotiations with families.

2. What can we know about today’s parents?

A．They are stricter than before.

B．They are more independent.

C．They give their children more freedom.

D．They care less about their children’s life.

3. What does the underlined word “astonishment” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Surprise.	B．Aim.
C．Memory.	D．Option.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Discussion in family.

B．Harmony in family.

C．Teenage trouble in family.

D．Teenage education in family.