【推荐1】A simple gesture can be formed into a child's memory so quickly that it will cause the child to give a false answer to a question accompanied by that gesture.A new finding suggests that parents,social workers,psychologists and lawyers should be careful with their hands as well as their words.

While memories of both adults and children are easy to react to suggestion,those of children are known to be particularly influenced,said a researcher,Sara Broaders of Northwestern University.

Previous research,for example,has shown that detailed questions often cause false answers;when asked,say "Did you drink juice at the picnic?",the child is likely to say "yes" even if no juice had been available.It is not that the child is consciously lying,but rather the detail is quickly formed into his or her memory.

To avoid this problem,social workers have long been advised to ask children only open-ended questions,such as "What did you have at the picnic?"But an open-ended question paired with a gesture,is treated like a detailed question.That is,children become likely to answer falsely.

And 77% of children gave at least one piece of false information when a detail was suggested by an ordinary gesture.Gestures may also become more popular when talking with non-fluent language users,such as little kids. Broaders advises parents and other adults to "try to be aware of your hands when questioning a child about an event. Otherwise,you might be getting answers that don't mean what actually happened."

1. According to the author,gestures       .

A．have not any function at all	B．are rarely used by people
C．have a certain effect on children	D．are often used by social workers

2. In Sara Broaders' view, kids are easy to be misled by gestures just because       .

A．these gestures are very attractive	B．their memories are affected easily
C．children are easy to tell lies	D．they like these gestures

3. According to the text,which of the following questions may cause a wrong reply?

A．What will you have for lunch?	B．Did you cheat in the last English examination?
C．Where are you going,Lucy?	D．Did you see anything else last night?

4. When talking with little kids,adults are supposed to       .

A．ask less open-ended questions	B．use familiar words and phrases
C．ask detailed questions	D．use gestures carefully

【推荐2】Complaining happens a lot, probably much more than we even realize. Complaining is easy to do, but it’s not good for us. Doctors have found that people who complain about their health can actually worsen the symptoms of their disease.     1    People who complain frequently can end up losing friends because of their complaints.

If complaining is so harmful, why do we complain? Many people complain to get attention.     2     Sometimes we complain as a way of connecting with others, starting a conversation. We can complain to make ourselves look better by comparison. There are lots of excuses for complaining.

    3    It’s harder to find the positive or just stay quiet. Maya Angelou once said, “If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”

You can have gratitude (感激) or take action to find solutions rather than just complain about problems.     4    It can lead to a new vision. Robert Kennedy once said, “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

But how can you stop yourself from complaining? It requires a plan. You could start by not complaining about anything for a week. It won’t be easy but it can be done. When we stop complaining about what’s missing in our lives and start being thankful for all we have, life changes for the better.     5    

A．Anyone can complain.

B．So, complain no more!

C．Complaining makes no sense.

D．Complaining does harm to health.

E．Complaining also hurts our relationships.

F．Dissatisfaction does not have to lead to complaining.

G．They use complaining as a means to draw attention to themselves.

【推荐3】请认真阅读下面的短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意:请将答案写在答题卷上相应题号的横线上，每个空格只填一个单词。

Cycling in Asia: Opening new roads to sustainability

Asia’s rising middle class may be driving the increase in car ownership, leading to traffic congestion and air pollution in the region’s cities, but this status symbol may be slowly giving way to an old love—cycling.

More Asians are jumping on a bicycle for fresh air and to lead a more environmentally-friendly and active lifestyle in recent years as staying sedentary inside a car for hours on end could take a toll on one’s health, and be hard on the wallet because of the high cost of fuel and maintenance.

In a new study of vehicle ownership in 44 countries by Pew Research Center, households around the world own bicycles more than motorcycles and cars. Japan and Thailand rank second and third in terms of bike ownership globally, although these two countries also rank high in car ownership, with 81 per cent and 51 per cent of their populations owning at least one vehicle.

China is also leading the world in the number of bike-sharing schemes, with about 170 bike-sharing systems operating in the country.

Singapore, known for its efficient public transport system but has no established culture of cycling as a transport option, is one of the countries now keen to change that. It is spending $43 million on bike lanes and cycling facilities as part of a national cycling plan.

ADB (Asian Development Bank) is looking at including bicycles as part of a public transport network in some cities in Southeast Asia through bike-sharing schemes. Many cities around the world including Amsterdam and Copenhagen have shown the successful integration of bike-sharing programmes in public transport systems.

In another form of bike-sharing, cycling has also become a solution to help poor students in rural communities access bicycles as a form of sustainable transport. Non-profit group Bike for the Philippines are lending bicycles for free to help poor students in the country who still need to walk three kilometres to school because of lack of access to public transport or who have no ability to pay for its high costs.

United Kingdom-based Bamboo Travel says their clients are increasingly interested in cycling tours when they plan their trips to Asia.

“In the last few years we have seen demand for cycling excursions grow quickly. And we find a lot of our clients now request some time cycling in places that before they used to do sightseeing by car. Clients of all ages have become healthier and more environmentally conscious in recent years and cycling has grown as a result,” Ewen Moore, sales director at Bamboo Travel, tells Eco-Business.

“They’re very attractive—a fun and healthy way to do some sightseeing,” said Moore.

Cycling in Asia: Opening new roads to sustainability

Introduction	Cycling as a new     1     of middle class is coming out.
	Cycling is beneficial to one’s     2     and wallet as well as to our environment.
3     of bike ownership or bike-sharing systems	Pew study shows that more bicycles     4     families than automobiles in 44 countries. ●People in Japan and Thailand     5     higher ownerships of cars and bikes. ●The number of bike-sharing schemes in China     6     the world. ●National cycling plan in Singapore is     7     its established culture.
New ways of cycling	Public Transport Network Amsterdam and Copenhagen are leading the world in     8     bike-sharing programmes to public transport systems.
	Helping Poor Students Lending bicycles for free benefits poor students who could not access or     9    the public transport.
	Cycling for Tourisim ●Cycling tours are     10     fast in Asia and are replacing car sightseeing in some places. ●Cycling tours are economic, healthy and environment- friendly.

【推荐1】A black hole is created when a large star burns out. Like our sun, stars are unbelievably hot furnaces (熔炉) that burn their own matter as fuel. When most of the fuel is used up, the star begins to die.

The death of a star is not a quiet event. First, there is a huge explosion. As its outer layer is blasted off into space, the dying star shines as brightly as a billion suns.

After the explosion, gravity pulls in what’s left of the star. As the outside of the star sinks toward the center, the star gets smaller and smaller. The material the star is made of becomes tightly packed together. A star is so dense that a teaspoon of matter from it weighs billion of pounds.

The more the star shrinks, the stronger the gravity inside it becomes. Soon the star is very tiny, and the gravity pulling it in is unbelievably strong. In fact, the gravity is so strong that it even pulls light into the star! Since all the light is pulled in, none can flee. The star becomes black when there is no light. Then a black hole is born!

That’s what we know about black holes. What we don’t know is this: What happens inside a black hole after the star has been squeezed into a tiny ball? Does it keep getting smaller and smaller forever? Such a possibility is hard to imagine.

But if the black hole doesn’t keep shrinking, what happens to it? Some scientists think black holes are like doorways to another world. They say that as the star disappears from our universe, it goes into another universe. In other words, a black hole in our universe could turn into a “white hole” in a different universe. As the black hole swallows light, the white hole shines brightly — somewhere else. But where? A different place, perhaps, or a different time — many years in the past or future.

Could you travel through a black hole? Right now, no. Nothing we know of could go into a black hole without being crushed. So far the time being, black holes must remain a mystery.

Black holes are a mystery — but that hasn’t stopped scientists from dreaming about them. One scientist suggested that in the future we might make sure of the power of black holes. They would supply all of Earth’s energy needs, with plenty to spare. Another scientist wondered if a black hole could someday be used to swallow earthly waste — a sort of huge waste disposal in the sky!

1. What do we know about stars in the universe?

A．When a star begins to die, there’s no fuel left in it.

B．After the explosion, a star gets as small as a teaspoon.

C．A star explodes when it dies and then becomes smaller and smaller.

D．A star gets smaller and smaller because the outer layer of a star sinks toward the center.

2. Which of the following doesn’t help produce a black hole?

A．The dying star shines very brightly.	B．The light can’t go out of the star.
C．The gravity inside the star is very strong.	D．The star becomes very tiny and dense.

3. What can we know from the passage?

A．A star will blast and die when it lacks fuel to support its burning.

B．Man can never travel through a black hole but can make use of its power.

C．A black hole can swallow everything because it becomes smaller all the time.

D．Scientists have found that a black hole goes into another universe and becomes a white hole.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．A New Scientific Discovery: Black Holes	B．How Do Black Holes Come into Being?
C．What Are Black Holes?	D．Travel Through A Black Hole

【推荐2】As a historian who's always searching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past, I've become preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorian ancestors smiling (what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?). I've found quite a few, and - since I started posting them on Twitter — they have been causing quite a stir. People have been surprised to see evidence that Victorians had fun and could, and did, laugh. They are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years that separate us fade away through our common experience of laughter.

Of course, I need to concede that my collection of ‘Smiling Victorians’ makes up only a tiny percentage of the vast catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, the majority of which show sitters posing miserably and stiffly in front of painted backdrops, or staring absently into the middle distance. How do we explain this trend?

During the 1840s and 1850s, in the early days of photography, exposure times were notoriously long: the daguerreotype photographic method (producing an image on a silvered copper plate) could take several minutes to complete,resulting in blurred images as sitters shifted position or adjusted their limbs. The thought of holding a fixed grin as the camera performed its magical duties was too much to contemplate, and so a non-committal blank stare became the norm.

But exposure times were much quicker by the 1 880s, and the introduction of the Box Brownie and other portable cameras meant that, though slow by today's digital standards, the exposure was almost instantaneous. Spontaneous smiles were relatively easy to capture by the 1890s, so we must look elsewhere for an explanation of why Victorians still hesitated to smile.

One explanation might be the loss of dignity displayed through a cheesy grin. “Nature gave us lips to conceal our teeth.” ran one popular Victorian maxim, alluding to the fact that before the birth of proper dentistry mouths were often in a shocking state of hygiene. A flashing set of healthy and clean, regular “pearly whites” was a rare sight in Victorian society, the preserve of the super- rich (and even then, dental hygiene was not guaranteed).

A toothy grin (especially when there were gaps or blackened gnashers) lacked class: drunks, tramps and music hall performers might gurn and grin with a smile as wide as Lewis Carroll's gum-exposing Cheshire Cat, but it was not a becoming look for properly bred persons. Even Mark Twain,a man who enjoyed a hearty laugh, said that when it came to photographic portraits there could be “nothing more damning than a silly, foolish smile fixed forever”.

1. According to paragraph 1, the author's posts on Twitter ________.

A．illustrated the development of Victorian photography.

B．highlighted social media's tole in Victorian researches.

C．re-evaluated the Victorian's notion of public image.

D．transformed people's initial cognition of the Victorians.

2. Mark Twain is quoted to show that the disapproval of smiles in pictures was ________.

A．a thought-provoking idea

B．a two-edged sword

C．a controversial view

D．a deep-rooted belief

3. Which of the following questions does the text answer?

A．When did the Victorians start to view photograph differently?

B．How come most Victorians looked stem and stiff in photographs?

C．How can re-assessing pasts reveal the contemporary tendency?

D．How did smiling in photograph become a post-Victorian norm?

【推荐1】Retirement Age

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. The "standard" retirement age varies from country to country, but it is generally between 50 and 70, according to the latest statistics, 2011. However, for a long time, people have got into an argument about whether the age of retirement should be increased or reduced in their own countries.

There are several arguments for allowing older people to continue working as long as they are able. Many people think that older employees have a large amount of knowledge and experience which can be lost to a business or organization if they are made to retire. Besides, older employees are often extremely faithful employees and are more willing to implement company policies than the young. A more important point is regarding the attitudes in society to old people. To force someone to resign or retire at 60 or 65 indicates that the society does not value the input of these people and that effectively their useful life is over.

Allowing old people to work indefinitely(无限期地), however, is not always a good policy. Some people took the strong view that age alone is no guarantee of ability. Many young employees have more experience or skills than older staff, who may have been stuck in one area for most of their working lives. Having compulsory retirement allows new ideas in an organization. On the other hand, older people should be rewarded by society for their life's labor by being given generous pensions and the freedom to enjoy leisure. They can have time to do whatever they like, that is, they can have their own plans or roles and achieve their retirement goals.

With many young people unemployed or frustrated in low-level positions, there are often calls to compulsorily retire older workers. However, this can affect the older individual's freedom—and right—to work. In my opinion, giving workers more choices over their retirement age will benefit society and the individual.

1. According to the passage, old people should go on with work because _________.

A．they will help the business not to fail quickly

B．they have grasped much practical experience

C．they need to have a sense of achievement

D．they want to learn more knowledge

2. The underlined word "implement" in Paragraph 2 probably means "_________".

A．take over	B．work on
C．get rid of	D．carry out

3. The third paragraph is mainly to tell us that _________.

A．older people can't do their work well

B．young people usually have new ideas

C．it is better for older people to retire on time

D．older people would like to do, something else

4. What is the author's attitude towards compulsory retirement?

A．positive	B．neutral
C．negative	D．uncertain

5. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
CP: Central Point       P:Point       Sp: Sub-point（次要点）       C:Conclusion

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐3】Commencement (毕业典礼)is a time for idealism.

But economic reality is cruel everywhere; especially for new college graduates. They have been told repeatedly that a college degree is an open sesame (芝麻) to the global economy. But that’s not necessarily so, according to new research by two economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Frank Levy and Peter Temin.

It is true that people with college degrees make more money than people without degrees. The gap has narrowed somewhat in recent years, which is disturbing. But the earning power of college graduates still far outpaces that of less-educated workers.

The bad news, though, is that a college degree does not ensure a bigger share of the economic pie for many graduates. In recent decades Mr. Levy and Mr. Temin show, only college-educated women have seen their income grow in line with economy wide gains in productivity. The earnings of male college graduates have failed to keep pace with productivity gains.

Instead, a huge share of productivity growth, which expands the nation’s total income, is going to Americans on the top of the income scale. In 2005, the latest year with available data, the top 1 percent of Americans--whose average annual income was $1.1 million--took in 21.8 percent of the nation’s income, their largest share since 1929.

Administration officials, and other politicians and economists, often, believe that income inequality reflects an education gap. But Mr. Levy and Mr. Temin show that in the case of men, the average bachelor’s degree is not enough to catch the rising tide of the global economy.

They argue that the real reason that inequality is worsening is the lack of strong policies that broadly distribute economic gains. In the past, for example, a more progressive income tax and unions promote equality. Positive measures have also helped and probably accounts, in part, for the pay growth of college-educated women. But such measures have been eroding and new ones have not yet emerged, making the income gap even greater.

Mr. Levy and Mr. Temin conclude that only a new government policy can restore general prosperity. That’s a challenge to the nation’s leaders and today’s graduates. America needs them to contribute to the development of the nation in a global economy.

1. The passage is mainly about that ________.

A．there is a big income gap between female and male college graduates in America

B．college graduates find it hard to find an idea job after graduation in America

C．college degrees are losing value in America

D．research shows that American government should take measures to ensure income equality for college graduates

2. What is the main idea of Paragraph 5?

A．Much of the total income of America has been gained by a few very rich people.

B．The whole nation has enjoyed a big income growth with the growth of productivity.

C．A small part of people in America can have income increase.

D．Upper class Americans contribute most to productivity growth.

3. The underlined word “eroding” in Paragraph 7 probably means ________.

A．being gradually destroyed by wind or rain	B．gradually not suitable
C．gradually disappearing	D．gradually reducing power

4. We can infer from the passage that _____.

A．female college graduates have higher income than male ones

B．income tax can guarantee income equality

C．female college graduates have benefited from some governmental measures to ensure their income growth

D．new measures and policies have been taken to promote income equality

5. From the passage, some economists believe that the worsening income inequality is caused by ______.

A．lack of proper governmental policies	B．lower college degree of college graduates
C．gender discrimination	D．underdevelopment of economy and productivity