Technology seems to discourage slow, careful reading. Reading on a screen tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. Online writing tends to be more skimmable (易略读的) and list-like than print. The neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this new standard of skim reading is producing“an invisible, game-changing transformation”in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit (神经回路) that maintains and supports the brain’s ability to read now prefers the rapid absorption of information.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to skim quickly across the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gap s by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans (持续时间). So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention spans lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly taken as materials to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, eager to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a source of personal achievement. But this argument often emphasizes “enthusiastic” “passionate” or “eager” reading, non e of which words suggest slow, quiet absorption. To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow understanding of a line of thought.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly-formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
1. Which statement would Selvin Brown probably agree?| A．Online writing harms careful reading. | B．Fears of attention spans are unnecessary. |
| C．The situation of cultural decline is serious. | D．Poetry reading helps lengthen attention spans. |
| A．It demands writers to abandon traditional writing modes. |
| B．It depends heavily on frequent interaction with the readers. |
| C．It leads to too much talking and not enough deep reflection. |
| D．It prepares readers for enthusiastic, passionate or eager reading. |
| A．Deep-rooted. | B．Widely-acknowledged. | C．Slowly-changed. | D．Rarely-noticed. |
| A．Slow Reading is Here to Stay | B．The Wonder of Deep Reading |
| C．The Internet is Changing the Way We Read | D．Digital vs Print: A Life-and-Death Struggle |
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【推荐1】Nearly two decades ago when the Google Books Project digitized and freely distributed more than 25 million works, book publishers argued that free digital distribution weakens the market for physical books. However, new research from Imke Reimers and Abhishek Nagaraj reveals that the opposite — increased demand for physical books, through online discovery — could be true.
The two researchers focused on a particular part of Google Books’ digitized works: those from Harvard University’s Widener Library, which helped seed the project in its early days. The condition that enabled their experiment: Harvard’s digitization effort only included out-of-copyright works, published before 1923 , which were made available to consumers in their entirety. The works from 1923 and later were still copyrighted and not digitized.
The researchers analyzed a total of 37,743 books scanned (扫描) between 2005 and2009. They looked at sales for the two years before this digitization period and the two years after , and found clear differences in the increased sales between digitized and non-digitized books. Approximately 40% of digitized titles saw a sales increase from 2003-2004 to 2010-2011, compared to less than 20% of titles that were not digitized. The increase in sales was also found to be stronger for less popular books.
“If a book is readily available online, people may decide that it’s a useful book and want to buy it,” Reimers said. “The ‘discovery effect’, which even increased the sales of a digitized author’s non-digitized works, is a strong driver of increased sales. It’s not a huge jump in sales , but it’s still good news for publishers.”
“And book lovers,” Reimers said, “are known for their preference for physical books, as opposed to digital versions, which could also play a role.” She added ,“Whenever I talk to people about my research on books, at some point they all say,’ I just love the feel of a digitized author’s non-digitized works, is a strong driver of increased sales. It’s not a huge jump in sales , but it’s still good news for publishers.”
“And book lovers,” Reimers said, “are known for their preference for physical books , as opposed to digital versions, which could also play a role.” She added, “Whenever I talk to people about my research on books, at some point they all say, ‘I just love the feel of a book in my hand.’”
1. Why did the researchers choose the publications before 1923 for their research?| A．They were all masterpieces. | B．They were mostly searchable. |
| C．They were not protected by copyright. | D．They were only partly downloaded for free. |
| A．By interviewing book users. | B．By comparing the sales data. |
| C．By classifying the book titles. | D．By referring to historical records. |
| A．To point out the limitations of the study. | B．To stress people’s different reading tastes. |
| C．To tell another contributor to the sales rise. | D．To show a growing trend in reading books. |
| A．Consumers Are Enthusiastic About E-books. |
| B．Book Publishers Object to Digitizing Books. |
| C．Physical Bookstores Are Declining in Importance. |
| D．Digitizing Books Promotes Demand for Physical Copies. |
In the United Kingdom, the day is recognized on the first Thursday in March. On 3rd March 2016 children of all ages in the UK will come together to appreciate reading. Sometimes, reading a modern novel can be tough ( Booker Prize winner The Luminaries runs to 832 pages! ), especially if reading is not your strong suit. In fact, one in six people in the UK never pick up a book because they’ve experienced difficulties or are out of the habit of reading for pleasure.
The Galaxy Quick Reads series are designed to introduce reluctant readers to bestselling short funny novels, which bring the joy of reading without demanding hours of concentrated time. They cover a range of subjects, from romance to comedy.
Jojo Moyes’s Paris For One is a romantic adventure in which 26-year-old Nell books a weekend away to Paris with her lazy, neglectful boyfriend. When he fails to turn up, she is alone in the city. That is, until she meets Fabien, who shows her the charms of the French capital -- in more ways than one.
Adele Geras’s moving story Out In The Dark was set in World War I, in which young Rob came back from the battlefields. Determined to find the officer’s widow to return the photo of her and their daughter that the captain kept with him, he traveled several thousand miles but never gave up.
Dead Man Talking is a fantastic tale of Pat, who had a terrible fight with his best friend, Joe, ten years ago -- but now hears that Joe is dead, and he must attend his funeral. But Joe is not going quietly that very night -- he’s lying in his coffin being very chatty indeed.
1. What is the main aim of the World Book Day?
| A．To promote book selling. | B．To encourage reading. |
| C．To win authors fame. | D．To perfect education. |
| A．The Luminaries | B．Paris For One |
| C．Dead Man Talking | D．Out In The Dark |
| A．A romance. | B．A comedy. |
| C．A horror story. | D．A moving story. |
| A．The Luminaries tells a story of a Booker Prize winner. |
| B．Paris For One tells a story of Nell and Fabien. |
| C．Out In The Dark is a story during World WarⅡ. |
| D．Dead Man Talking is a story of Pat and his talkative friend. |
【推荐3】Jose Alberto Gutierrez’s life would never be the same again after finding a copy of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy in the garbage 20 years ago. It happened while he was driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighborhoods at night and seeing deserted books. It sparked his desire to start rescuing books from the garbage. He took home between 50 and 60 books every morning after his nine-hour shift. Eventually, he turned his book collection into a community library.
Colombia’s capital city of Bogota has 13 million residents and 19 public libraries. However, these libraries tend to be far away from where rural and poorer communities live. The option of buying new books is non-existent for families struggling to make ends meet. Having access to a library of books and being taken away to another world while immersed in a book is a luxury for the kids who visit Gutierrez’s library.
Gutierrez grew up poor, and his family could not afford to educate him beyond primary school. Nevertheless, his mother was a keen reader and read stories to him every night. Her love for books left a deep impression on Gutierrez, who never let a lack of formal education stop him from reading classics by the likes of Victor Hugo, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Today, his community library, called “The Strength of Words”, occupies most of his home and is piled from floor to ceiling with fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from school textbooks to story books can be found in his collection of more than 20,000 books!
The Strength of Words library opens every weekend. It is not just school-going children who are enjoying the benefits of The Strength of Words library. Adults are also welcome to expand their horizons and develop new skills to build a better life for themselves.
Despite having done so much for his community, Gutierrez is not yet content to call it a day. He continues to search through bins for reading material and has even travelled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to sell his idea of building library from unwanted books.
1. What inspired Gutierrez to build the community library?| A．Famous novelists he liked very much. |
| B．The dilemma he faced on the night shift. |
| C．Abandoned books he came across at work. |
| D．The hobby he has taken up since childhood. |
| A．Gutierrez’s mother was a good reader. |
| B．Gutierrez was greatly influenced by his mother. |
| C．Gutierrez led a difficult life during his childhood. |
| D．Gutierrez had a disadvantage of poor education. |
| A．Responsible and ambitious. | B．Humble and thoughtful. |
| C．Committed and sensitive. | D．Creative and courageous. |
| A．A book holds a house of gold. |
| B．Constant dropping wears the stone. |
| C．Good things come to those who wait. |
| D．One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. |
【推荐1】A new study has found that social media could be affecting the sleep of young adults. The study is a project of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine.
They found that young people who often use social media are more likely to suffer from sleep disorders than those who use social media less. The researchers say doctors should ask young adults about their use of social media when treating sleep problems.
“This is one of the first piece of evidence that social media use really can affect your sleep,” said Jessica C. Levenson, the lead author of a report on the study. The researchers set out to examine the connection between social media and sleep among young adults.
The researchers wanted to find out how often young people used social media sites like Facebook. For the study, they gave questionnaires to nearly 1,800 adults, aged 19 to 32. On average, members of the study group used social media sites one hour a day. They also visited various social media accounts 30 times per week.
Thirty percent of the study’s participants（参与者）reported having serious problems with sleeping. Those people who used social media a lot were three times more likely to have a sleep disorder. And those who spent the most time on social media were twice as likely to suffer from sleep problems.
Researchers say social media can influence sleep in a number of ways. People can lose sleep by staying up too late looking at social media. Sensitive issues argued about on social media can cause excitement. Using an electronic device can disturb a body’s natural sleep rhythms because of the light coming from screens. The researchers note that in some cases, young adults who have a hard time sleeping may use social media to help them fall asleep, which may in turn lead to more problems sleeping because social media involve screen time that is interesting and can keep you awake.
1. What do the researchers suggest on a doctor’s treating young adults’ sleep problems?| A．Knowing their living environment. |
| B．Asking about the time they spent on social media |
| C．Asking what social media sites they use. |
| D．Inquiring about their sleeping habits. |
| A．Less than one-third of the participants in the study have problem sleeping. |
| B．Doctors don’t think there is any way to cure sleeping problems caused by social media use. |
| C．Social media use has something to do with young adults’ sleeping problems. |
| D．Participants who like using Facebook are less likely to suffer from sleeping problems. |
| A．one will stay up late | B．one can get excited. |
| C．one’s sleep rhythms will be disturbed | D．one can fall fast asleep |
| A．Social media have affected young adults’ sleep. |
| B．How to deal with sleep problems. |
| C．Social media takes up so much time. |
| D．Sleep problems mainly result from social media. |
| A．inform | B．encourage | C．persuade | D．advise |
【推荐2】Around 3,000 school-based health centers operate in more than 30 states all around the U.S. offering primary and preventive care for students who live in medically underserved areas. Starting at the centers that treat flu, asthma, diabetes and other common illnesses, they provide vaccinations (疫苗接种) and screen for dental, vision and hearing problems, and some provide mental health care. These clinics bring services to children who need them most and who have the greatest risk of falling behind in school because their health needs go unmet.
The pandemic was hard on existing school-based health centers, and it’s time for government at all levels, to recognize that all children need accessible and affordable health care. As lawmakers draw up budgets, reallocate (重新分配) funds and begin a new school year, existing clinics should be able to operate without budgetary fears, more dollars should go to school-based clinics, and more community partners should participate financially and physically in efforts to bring health care to the kids who lack it.
Yet most school communities that could desperately use such clinics lack them. In 2021 $5 million was appropriated (拨专款) to support new and expanded services at school-based health centers. That money funded 25 facilities only—yet the program got more than 2,000 applications. And fewer than half of U.S. states currently fund school health centers. Although the clinics can also bill Medicaid (医疗补助制度) and insurance for students who have coverage, they need stable funding for operating expenses, including hiring well-trained staff.
Many existing centers had to close temporarily or permanently during the pandemic for lack of funding. One bright spot is that more than 60 percent of the centers began offering telehealth services, broadening their reach. Getting kids the care they need where they need it has always made sense, and it`s more urgent than ever. The time is right to expand school-based health centers to all underserved students.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly talk about?| A．The role of school-based clinics. | B．The common school-age illnesses. |
| C．The number of school-based clinics. | D．The medical service in underserved areas. |
| A．Build more primary schools. | B．Set up free health care centers. |
| C．Prevent the pandemic effectively. | D．Support in-school clinics financially. |
| A．It is more than enough. | B．It is just a small amount. |
| C．It serves other purposes. | D．It includes training fees. |
| A．We need more health clinics at schools. |
| B．Students’ physical and mental health equally matter. |
| C．The pandemic impacts existing health centers greatly. |
| D．Schools are committed to helping kids get more health care. |
【推荐3】Screen time increases by 300 percent between the ages of 1 and 3 according to a recent study. In a perfect world, parents would always choose outdoor time over screen time. But for many parents, decreasing screen time isn't as simple as it sounds. That's because screens are increasingly used as an entertainment and distraction（分心）tool for kids which parents think is necessary due to a lack of quality childcare.
The United States government defines affordable childcare as care costing no more than 7 percent of a family's total income, yet more than 40 percent of families say they set aside more than 15 percent of their total income for it, according to a 2019 survey published by Care. com.
Affordable childcare in America is a dream. “Screen time is used as a last substitute for childcare for many families,” says licensed child therapist（治疗师）Katie Lear. “Particularly for parents who work from home, it can be hard to justify hiring a caregiver or paying for daycare. And yet children need to be able to keep themselves occupied during important work calls. Turning on the TV can buy the parent some valuable time during what can be a very tiring day."
If affordable childcare wasn't just a daydream, if the system we have wasn't dependent on two incomes, if parents could actually afford not to work 50+ hours a week, if childcare centers could afford to pay their workers a desirable wage, then maybe, we'd see screen time decrease instead of increase. We know our kids should be interacting with something other than You Tube videos and flash games for hours a week. But before we fix our broken system and before affordable, quality childcare becomes a reality, parents and caregivers are going to do whatever they can to make it, and that includes using screens as passive childcare.
1. Why do parents allow their children to spend much time on screens?| A．To please their children. |
| B．To make up the lack of quality childcare. |
| C．To attract kids' attention to classes online. |
| D．To help children learn about necessary technology. |
| A．Childcare workers have high income. |
| B．Childcare centers are popular in America. |
| C．Childcare is a heavy burden for parents. |
| D．Childcare is supported by local government. |
| A．To uncover the reason for screen time as childcare. |
| B．To prove the advantages of adopting c-products. |
| C．To present the ways of parents' improving childcare. |
| D．To explain the benefits of hiring a caregiver. |
| A．Enough company time. | B．High income in the family. |
| C．Turning off the TV. | D．Hiring a caregiver. |
【推荐1】Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experience? Strangely enough, the answer to these questions is yes. To some degree our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no amount of education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus the limits of person’s intelligence are fixed at birth, whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.
It is easy to show that intelligence is to some degree something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be intelligent. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random from population, it is likely that their degree of intelligence will be completely different. If, on the other hand, we take two identical twins, they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth. Imagine now that we take two identical twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all are likely to have similar degree of intelligence.
1. The writer is in favor of the view that man’s intelligence is given to him .| A．at birth | B．through education |
| C．both at birth and through education | D．through environment of one’s family |
| A．surely become a genius |
| B．still become a genius if he isn’t given good education |
| C．reach his intelligence limits through his own efforts |
| D．probably reach his intelligence limits in rich and varied surroundings |
| A．the importance of their intelligence | B．the role of environment on intelligence |
| C．the importance of their positions | D．the part that birth plays |
| A．On Intelligence | B．On Genius |
| C．Dependence on Environment | D．Effect of Education on Intelligence |
【推荐2】Large gatherings such as weddings and conferences can be socially overwhelming. Pressure to learn people’s names only adds to the stress. A new facial-recognition app could come to the rescue, but privacy experts recommend proceeding with caution.
The app, called SocialRecall, connects names with faces via smartphone cameras and facial recognition, potentially avoiding the need for formal introductions. “It breaks down these social barriers we have when meeting somebody,” says Barry Sandrew, who created the app.
After receiving an invitation to download SocialRecall from an event organizer, the user is asked to take two selfies and sign in via social media. At the event, the app is active within a previously defined geographical area. When a user points his or her phone camera at an attendee’s face, the app identifies the individual, displays the person’s name, and links to his or her social media profile. To protect privacy, it recognizes only those who have agreed to participate and automatically deletes users’ data after an event.
Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert who runs the Privacy by Design Center of Excellence praises the app’s creators for these protective measures. She cautions, however, that when people choose to share their personal information with the app, they should know that “there may be unintended consequences down the road with that information being used in another context that might come back to bite you.”
The start-up has also developed a version of the app for individuals who suffer from prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” a condition that prevents people from recognizing individuals they have met. To use this app, a person first acquires an image of someone’s face, from either the smartphone’s camera or a photograph, and then tags it with a name. When the camera spots that same face in real life, the previously entered information is displayed. The collected data are stored only on a user’s phone, according to the team behind the app.
1. Why was SocialRecall developed?| A．To identify people. | B．To meet friends. | C．To organize events. | D．To take photos. |
| A．How the app was created. | B．What makes the app popular. |
| C．How the app functions. | D．What people can do with the app. |
| A．By giving names to the photos kept in their smartphones. |
| B．By collecting information previously entered in the phone. |
| C．By providing the information of a person when they first meet. |
| D．By showing the person’s information when it spots a stored face. |
| A．It may put people’s privacy at risk. | B．It has caused unintended consequences. |
| C．It can prevent some communication disorders. | D．It’s praised by users for its protective measures. |
【推荐3】The biggest family tree of humanity to date has been built using genetic data from thousands of modern and prehistoric people. The tree gives a view of 2 million years of prehistory and evolution.
“Humans are all eventually related to each other,” says Gil McVean at the University of Oxford. “What I’ve long wanted to do is to be able to represent the totality of what we can learn about human history through this genealogy.”
Geneticists have been reading people’s entire genomes for the past two decades. McVean and his colleagues analyzed 3609 of these, almost all of which belonged to our species, Homo sapiens, except for three Neanderthals and one from the Denisovan group, which may be a subspecies of Homo sapiens or a separate species.
The team focused on bits of DNA that vary from person to person. They identified 6,412,717 variants (变体) and tried to figure out when and where each arose. To do this, they also looked at an extra 3589 samples of ancient DNA that weren’t good enough to include in the tree, but did cast light on when the variants arose.
Variants that appeared before 2,000 years ago were most common in north-east Africa, and the oldest 100 variants were also from there, specifically in what is now Sudan. Those oldest variants are about 2 million years old, so long predate our species, which appeared around 300,000 years ago.
The simplistic interpretation of this is that humanity first evolved in this region, but later migrations are likely to have interfered (干涉) with the data. The tree also offers clues that people reached Papua New Guinea and the Americas tens of thousands of years earlier than the archaeological (考古的) record implies, hinting at migrations that have yet to be discovered. But both these ideas would need to be confirmed by archaeological finds.
1. What can be expected of the biggest family tree?| A．People can change genes with genetic data. |
| B．People can understand the function of each gene. |
| C．People can have a clear picture of human history. |
| D．People can tell the future development of mankind. |
| A．By collecting people’s DNA. | B．By analyzing people’s genes. |
| C．By reading previous researches. | D．By making archaeological study. |
| A．The findings. | B．The reason. | C．The process. | D．The significance. |
| A．Migrations have changed humans’ genes. |
| B．Humanity may be first born in the same area. |
| C．Archaeological finds have proved early migrations. |
| D．Humans appeared in this world earlier than expected. |
