Every spring flowers suddenly come out everywhere on the same day, as if they had an agreement with one another. But how exactly do plants “know” when to flower?
It’s a question puzzling biologists for years. But according to Science Daily, a US research group may have finally answered it—the secret lies in a protein called FKF1. This allows plants to sense the differences in day lengths so that they can tell the seasons are changing.
Researchers found the protein when they were studying a plant called Arabidopsis. They found it’s a photoreceptor (感光器). This means it’ s sensitive to, and can be activated (激活) by sunlight.
Plants produce the protein every day in the late afternoon throughout the year. If there’s no light at this time, for example, in winter when the sun goes down early, it may not be activated. But when spring comes and the days get longer, it can be activated by daylight and the plants “know” it’s time to flower.
Although researchers have only studied how the FKFI protein works in the Arabidopsis, they believe that the process is similar in many other more complex (复杂) plants, including crops like rice and wheat. This could be useful to the agricultural industry.
“If we can control the timing of flowering, we might be able to produce more crops by putting it forward or putting it off,” a leader of the study said. “Also, if we could control the timing of flowering in horticultural (园艺的) plants, they may be worth more money.”
What an amazing thing to think about this!
1. How do plants know when to flower?| A．They get messages from some insects. |
| B．They receive messages from other plants. |
| C．A certain protein tells them the time to flower. |
| D．Sunlight produces a protein in them to help them flower. |
| A．The study may benefit agricultural industry. |
| B．We may have plants that flower all year round. |
| C．Plants don’t flower in cold weather and short days. |
| D．Researchers found the protein by studying rice and wheat. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Unclear. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Female birds sing, too, but scientists tend to tune in to male birdsong and ignore female songs. It highlights a long-standing bias (偏见) and helps us think about why that bias persists (持续).
Since the beginning of modern birdsong research, the field has focused on male songbirds. Any serious birder could tell you that females do sing, sometimes as frequently as males. However, early birdsong researchers tended to be men. Men are significantly less likely than women to lead research projects studying female songs. Thus, we are missing key behaviors as a result of historical biases caused by a lack of diverse participation in science.
So how do we make science welcoming and accessible for all? We need to communicate better with nonscientists. Engaging the public in science is essential for basic science findings that influence how we perceive the world around us.
For example, understanding that female birds do sing matters not only to scientists but also to the billions of people who hear the sounds of wild birds every day. In many species, males and females look similar from a distance, but can be distinguished by ear. Paying close attention to which sounds each sex makes and thinking about why they might be producing them opens up a richer window into the environment around us. It turns out female birds use songs for all the same reasons male birds do: to signal individual identity, defend valuable territories and attract potential mates.
Public awareness of female birdsong has the potential to change the science itself. Apps like eBird collect millions of public observations and audio recordings of birds every year. Increasing public engagement and involvement with research promises to benefit the scientific community and society more broadly. In many cases, scientists and experts already have strongly held biases about the way the world works, and these biases allow mistaken conclusions to persist. Public observers often make better observers of the world around them because they lack preconceived ideas.
Female birds sing! We welcome a future where research and communication combine to improve our understanding of the world around us and deepen our connections to each other and the natural world.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?| A．Who is to blame for the long-standing bias. |
| B．Why female birdsong is long ignored by scientists. |
| C．What contributes to diverse participation in science. |
| D．How men have conducted modern birdsong research. |
| A．It will enable us to become real scientists. |
| B．It will help us distinguish bird species by ear. |
| C．It will expand our understanding of the world. |
| D．It will make advanced science accessible for all. |
| A．Biased. | B．Creative. |
| C．Mistaken. | D．Varied. |
| A．Why we Didn't Know That Female Birds Sing? |
| B．Advancing Science: How Bias Leads Us Forward |
| C．New Research Has Found Female Birds Sing Too! |
| D．A Case Study of Gender Bias in Science Reporting |
【推荐2】Colorado officials will stick to a plan to kill some mountain lions and bears to support the state’s dropping mule deer (长耳鹿) population.
Wednesday’s vote permits organizations to kill up to 25 black bears and 15 mountain lions per year in the central and western parts of the state. The project will run for three years, to be followed by a six-year study of how deer populations respond to fewer predators(捕食者).
The population of Colorado’s mule deer has suffered a puzzling, years-long drop to about 450,000, which state officials said was about 110,000 fewer than there should be. A 2014 state study tied it to seven causes, including predators, whose number has greatly increased in recent years.
Some experts, however, said the state should focus first on the human-led destruction(破坏) of mule deer habitat(栖息地). “The drop of the mule deer population is obviously not a simple problem with simple causes,” Brian Kurzel, director of the National Wildlife Federation, said. “By far, the greatest problem—the one that I think deserves the most attention in any science-based study—is habitat quantity and quality.”
Kurzel pointed out that the U.S Bureau of Land Management recently agreed to create 15,000 new oil and gas wells somewhere in western Cororado, which was often called “the mule-deer factory”. There, the number of mule deer has fallen to about 30,000 from more than 100,000 in the early 1980s. Though state officials have known oil and gas development affects the population of mule deer, they didn’t go against the plan.
Other causes like building highways, population growth and human activities are also curbing the mule deer population, according to the study.
State Parks and Wildlife officials don’t necessarily disagree. They started a $4.5 million program as a way to gather research for later decisions.
1. Why do Colorado officials want to have so many mountain lions and bears killed?| A．To stop them hurting people. |
| B．To leave more habitat for mule deer. |
| C．To stop the mule deer population from dropping. |
| D．To help researchers carry out a three-year-long study. |
| A．Protecting their habitat. | B．Providing enough food for them. |
| C．Reducing the number of their predators. | D．Asking the government to make an effort. |
| A．limiting. | B．ensuring. | C．increasing. | D．protecting. |
| A．Decisions will be made in one year. |
| B．Habitat loss is the main cause of the drop. |
| C．Human activities aren’t responsible for the drop. |
| D．It’s too early to say what exactly caused the drop. |
【推荐3】We've known for years that plants can see,hear,smell and communicate with chemicals.Now, reported New Scientist,they have been recorded making sounds when stressed.
In a yet-to-be-published study, Itzhak Khait and his team at Tel Aviv University, in Israel, found that tomato and tobacco plants can make ultrasonic(超声的)noises. The plants "cry out" due to lack of water,or when they are cut. It's just too high-pitched(音调高的）for humans to hear.
Microphones placed 10 centimeters away from the plants picked up sounds in the ultrasonic range of 20 to 100 kilohertz(干赫兹)。Human hearing usually ranges from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz."These findings can change the way we think about the plant kingdom,”they wrote.
On average,"thirsty"tomato plants made 35 sounds an hour,while tobacco plants made 11. When they were cut,tomato plants made an average of 25 sounds in the following hour,and tobacco plants 15.Unstressed plants produced less than one sound per hour,on average.
Perhaps most interestingly,different types of stress led to different sounds.The researchers trained a machine-learning model to separate the plants' sounds from those of the wind,rain and other noises of the greenhouse.In most cases,it correctly recognized whether the stress was caused by dryness or a cut.Water-hungry tobacco appears to make louder sounds than cut tobacco,for example.Although Khait and his colleagues only looked at tomato and tobacco plants,they think other plants also make sounds when stressed.
If farmers could hear these sounds,said the team,they could give water to the plants that need it most.As climate change causes more droughts,they said this would be important information for farmers. "The sounds that drought-stressed plants make could be used in precision(精准) agriculture, "said Anne Visscher at the Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew,in the UK.
Khait's report also suggests that insects can hear the sounds up to 5 meters away and respond. For example,a moth(蛾子）may decide not to lay eggs on a water-stressed plant.Edward Farmer. at the University of Lausanne,Switzerland,is doubtful.He said that the idea of moths listening to plants is"a little too speculative”。
If plants are screaming(尖叫）for fear of their survival,maybe we should be glad we can't hear them.
1. Paragraph 3 mainly explains_______.| A．where humans differ from plants |
| B．how the research was carried out |
| C．what the findings of the study are |
| D．why humans can't hear the cries of plants |
| A．All plants make sounds when they feel hungry. |
| B．Stressed plants make more sounds than unstressed ones. |
| C．Tobacco plants are more afraid of thirsty than being cut. |
| D．The more stressed a plant is,the louder sounds it makes. |
| A．Surprising. |
| B．Uncertain. |
| C．Incorrect. |
| D．Unique. |
| A．Deaf humans |
| B．Stressed plants |
| C．Silent screams |
| D．Precision agriculture |
【推荐1】Chimps will cooperate in certain ways, like gathering in war parties to protect their territory. But beyond the minimum requirements as social beings, they have little instinct to help one another. Chimps in the wild seek food for themselves. Even chimp mothers regularly decline to share food with their children, who are able from a young age to gather their own food.
In the laboratory, chimps don’t naturally share food either. If a chimp is put in a cage where he can pull in one plate of food for himself or, with no great effort, a plate that also provides food for a neighbor to the next cage, he will pull at random ---he just doesn’t care whether his neighbor gets fed or not. Chimps are truly selfish.
Human children, on the other hand are extremely cooperative. From the earliest ages, they decide to help others, to share information and to participate in achieving common goals. The psychologist Michael Tomasello has studied this cooperativeness in a series of experiments with very young children. He finds that if babies aged 18 months see an unrelated adult with hands full trying to open a door, almost all will immediately try to help.
There are several reasons to believe that the urges to help, inform and share are not taught .but naturally possessed in young children. One is that these instincts appear at a very young age before most parents have started to train children to behave socially. Another is that the helping behaviors are not improved if the children are rewarded. A third reason is that social intelligence develops in children before their general cognitive (认知的) skills, at least when compared with chimps. In tests conducted by Tomasello, the children did no better than the chimps on the physical world tests, but were considerably better at understanding the social world.
The core of what children’s minds have and chimps’ don’t is what Tomasello calls shared intentionality. Part of this ability is that they can infer what others know or are thinking. But beyond that, even very young children want to be part of a shared purpose. They actively seek to be part of a “we”, a group that intends to work toward a shared goal.
1. What can we learn from the experiment with chimps?| A．Chimps like to take in their neighbors’ food. |
| B．Chimps tend to provide food for their children. |
| C．Chimps seldom care about others’ interests. |
| D．Chimps naturally share food with each other. |
| A．know the world better than chimps |
| B．know how to offer help to adults |
| C．have the instinct to help others |
| D．trust adults with their hands full |
| A．cooperation as a distinctive human nature |
| B．ways to train children’s shared intentionality |
| C．the helping behaviors of young children |
| D．the development of intelligence in children |
【推荐2】Fear of missing out
It's Friday night.While many of your friends may celebrate by going to the movies or checking out a restaurant that's just opened,you've decided to spend this special night of the week by yourself.The night is yours to enjoy.If you think this sounds relaxing,you're not alone. At least for a little while until you start wondering if you've made the right choice.
Fear of missing out often develops as a result of deeper unhappiness.Research has found that those with low levels of general life satisfaction are more likely to experience FOMO.
The consequences of FOMO are significant and far-reaching.One study conducted with first-year university students found that fear of missing out was associated with tiredness,stress, and sleep problems.
Embrace JOMO,or the joy of missing out.
| A．Therefore,you see yourself in new ways. |
| B．So how can you overcome the fear? |
| C．Who is easily affected by FOMO? |
| D．Fear of missing out,or FOMO,is a common feeling. |
| E．JOMO allows you to focus on what you really want at any given moment. |
| F．A doubt begins sinking in as you imagine the fun your friends are having in your absence |
| G．Further worsening the all-too-common feeling is the rise of social media use. |
【推荐3】In July 1915, sick James Murray, one of the early editors of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), defined one final word. He had devoted 36 years to the dictionary. Knowing he would not see the project complete, he wrote his last entry: for “twilight”.
The story of Murray’s final days is one of many memorable tales in “The Dictionary People”. Conceived (构思) in 1857, the OED was a huge crowdsourcing project comprising 3,000 people. The idea was to create a “descriptive” dictionary that tracked words’ use and meaning over time. Volunteers read widely, mailing in examples of how “rare, old-fashioned, new” words were used. What is surprising about this random method is that it worked, achieving order through the large number of contributors.
The origin story of Sarah Ogilvie’s book is almost as improbable as that of the dictionary itself. Ms Ogilvie, an editor for the OED, went into the archives (档案馆) of Oxford University Press and came across an old notebook. It had belonged to Murray and contained the names and details of the dictionary volunteers, most of whom had previously been unknown. “The Dictionary People” is her work of detective scholarship, presenting the lives behind the names.
The dictionary’s contributors are an engaging cast, including one of Karl Marx’s daughters and J. R. R. Tolkien. For some, the dictionary was something addictive: one contributor supplied 165,061 quotations. Murray, too, was assiduous. He once wrote to George Eliot to ask about a word choice in “Romola”, published 17 years earlier.
Ms Ogilvie’s book is full of strange but interesting tales. Many dictionary lovers engaged in another crowdsourcing fashion: collecting and measuring rainwater. The presentation of the book is irregular, too, taking its structure from the work it describes. For example, in her first chapter, “A for Archaeologist (考古学家),” she relates the early life of Margaret A. Murray, a pioneering Egyptologist. There are 26 alphabetical (按字母顺序排列的) chapters, each celebrating a group of contributors. This is a clever concept.
1. What did the OED’s volunteers do?| A．They deleted the words going out of use. |
| B．They listed instances of changes in word use. |
| C．They corrected the misuse of common words. |
| D．They added new words to keep up with the times. |
| A．What Ogilvie achieved with it. | B．How Ogilvie told the stories in it. |
| C．What inspired Ogilvie to write it. | D．Who helped Ogilvie to complete it. |
| A．Hard-working. | B．Easy-going. | C．Energetic. | D．Flexible. |
| A．Interesting and creative. | B．Encouraging and influential. |
| C．Traditional and funny. | D．Descriptive and surprising. |
【推荐1】Bread fruit is a traditional staple (主食) crop from the Pacific islands with the potential to improve worldwide food security. While people have survived on it for thousands of years, there was a lack of basic scientific knowledge of the health impacts of a bread fruit-based diet in both humans and animals. Now the fruit is getting the nutritional thumbs-up from a team of British Columbia researchers.
Bread fruit can be harvested, dried and made into flour. For the project, researchers had four bread fruits from the same tree in Hawaii, shipped to the march Lab at UBC Okanagan. Ying Liu led the study examining the digestion and health impact of a bread fruit-based diet.
“We wanted to contribute to the development of bread fruit as a sustainable, environmentally-friendly and high-production crop,” Liu says. The researchers designed a series of studies that could provide data on the impacts of a bread fruit-based diet fed to mice and also an enzyme (酶) digestion model.
The researchers determined that bread fruit protein was found to be easier to digest than wheat protein in the enzyme digestion model. And mice fed the bread fruit diet had a significantly higher growth rate and body weight than standard diet-fed mice. Liu also noted mice on the bread fruit diet had a significantly higher daily water consumption compared to mice on the wheat diet.
Fundamental understanding of the health impact of bread fruit digestion and diets is necessary and essential to the establishment of bread fruit as a staple in the future. “Overall, these studies support the use of bread fruit as part of a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet,” says Liu. The use of bread fruit could make inroads in food sustain ability for many populations globally. Liu suggests if a person ate the same amount of cooked bread fruit they can meet up to nearly 57 per cent of their daily fibre requirement, more than 34 per cent of their protein requirement and at the same time consume vitamin C, iron, calcium and other elements.
1. What does the underlined word “thumbs-up” mean in the first paragraph?| A．Requirement. | B．Benefit. | C．Reflection. | D．Acceptance. |
| A．To help those Pacific islanders. | B．To prove the value of the food. |
| C．To promote the food worldwide. | D．To develop a new type of diet. |
| A．The research method. | B．The research focuses. |
| C．The research process. | D．The research findings. |
| A．It will take the place of wheat. | B．It is superior to other foods. |
| C．It can help ease food shortage. | D．It needs further improvement. |
Starting the day right can give good momentum (动力) for the rest of the day. Having a power morning is a key factor for a fruitful day. Here are some tips on getting the most out of the morning.
Wake up early. In theory, there’s no difference in waking up early or late as long as you get the proper amount of sleep. However, there is a psychological advantage when you wake up earlier than the average person and then you’ll have more time to do preparation before engaging in the real world.
Exercise. Good health is always a benefit with exercise, but studies have also shown that morning exercise helps you to sleep better at nights.
Eat breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day. According to the Mayo Clinic, we should choose three from the following four: fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein. Did you know that you can actually gain weight when you skip breakfast?
Take a shower. When you shower, do you do it in the morning or at night? I used to shower in the evenings, but I found that morning showers helped me to be more alert.
Prioritize (优先) your To-Do list. Leo
Check your emails. Only once. Getting a lot of emails can be very distractive. You actually are more productive when you check them only a few times at fixed time of the day. I only do them 2-3 times a day—once in the morning, once at lunch, and one more as it gets toward the end of the day.
1. The purpose for the author to write this passage is to .
| A．tell you to get up early every day |
| B．offer you the best way to start the day |
| C．give you advice about how to arrange a day |
| D．advise you to prioritize your to-do list every morning |
| A．lose weight. | B．be productive. |
| C．put on weight. | D．be more alert. |
| A．invented | B．designed | C．founded | D．defined |
| A．the emails are not important |
| B．reading e-mails is distractive |
| C．you can only read e-mails at fixed time |
| D．getting so many emails can distract your attention |
【推荐3】Aquaculture—or sea farming, as it is sometimes called—is one of the brightest hopes for finding an answer to the problem of a world food shortage. Although it may be years before sea farming produces large quantities of food, it is already partially successful. One of its successes is the growing of oyster (牡蛎).
Oyster farming is a big new business on Cape Cod, where large crops of oysters have been harvested. The waters there were famous for delicious oysters until the supply gave out about fifteen years ago. “There’s a whole generation of people who have never eaten oysters,” said Karl Touraine, marketing director of Aqua Dynamics Corporation, a company that grows oysters on nylon strings (尼龙绳) hanging from metal frames (金属架). “For about twenty years the oyster has been in short supply, and our aim is to change this by using new, modern growing techniques,” he explained.
“Wareham, on Cape Cod, is the first place in the US where oysters are being grown on frames just off the bottom of the sea,” said Hank McAvoy of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Gloucester. “But there’s nothing new about off-bottom raising,” Mr. McAvoy adds. “It’s been done successfully in Norway and Australia and, in the last few years, in Spain. The Japanese have used this form of sea farming for years, and they’re the most successful, with a yearly crop of more than 46,000 pounds of shelled oysters an acre.”
The Aqua Dynamics group grows oysters on strings, away from the bottom so that the oysters’ natural enemies cannot reach them. “When an oyster avoid enemies and live in unpolluted water with plenty to eat, he’ll grow fast.” Karl Touraine explains. “Oysters will attach themselves to almost anything they can,” he continues. “At Wareham, we use shells which we tie with nylon strings hanging from metal frames. We lower the strings into the water, leaving at least a foot of water between the lowest shell and the bottom.”
“So far the growth has been excellent and the taste is just delightful,” Mr. Touraine notes happily.
1. What’s the purpose of Paragraph 1?| A．To show the importance of farming. |
| B．To introduce the topic of oyster farming. |
| C．To give a brief introduction to aquaculture. |
| D．To encourage people to save food. |
| A．is a brand new way in Norway. |
| B．has failed to spread in Spain. |
| C．is popular in many places |
| D．results in low production in Japan. |
| A．It can improve oysters’ taste. |
| B．It offers oysters an enemy-free environment. |
| C．It greatly reduces water consumption. |
| D．It helps control environmental pollution. |
| A．Approving. | B．Worried. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Unclear. |
【推荐1】The Chinese manned submersible(潜水器) Fendouzhe, over 96.5 percent of whose core components have been independently developed by China, reached one of the deepest spots on the planet, a dizzying and dark depth of 10,909 meters.
Extreme water pressure is the first challenge that requires dealing with during the exploration. At 10,000 meters down in the ocean, the submersible has to stand about 1,100 atmospheres of pressure, equal to 2,000 elephants stepping on a person’s back. As the solid “armour (盔甲)”，the manned cabin is a safety guarantee for humans to reach down to 10,000 meters deep in the ocean. To overcome the technical bottleneck, the Chinese researchers developed a new material-Ti62A, successfully solving problems of the strength and toughness of the manned cabin.
To avoid risks of crashes in the dark deep sea with complex terrain(地形)，Fendouzhe requires its control system, a smart “brain” to give the exact instructions. Researchers designed a neural network algorithm(神经网络算法), which enables Fendouzhe to travel automatically according to the seabed terrain and locate fixed points. Its control system has reached the international frontier level.
The submersible is equipped with two flexible and strong “arms”. Each 7-joint arm with 6 degrees - of - freedom control and a weight-carrying ability of more than 60 kilograms can cover the sampling basket and its front areas. With the arms, Fendouzhe collected samples of ocean rocks, deep-sea living things and seabed sediments(沉淀物).
The ocean, especially the deep sea, is widely regarded as Earth's final frontier. Deep down in the ocean are unusual creatures, strange environments and impressive geological wonders, yet humanity knows less about the ocean floor than about the far side of the moon. These samples and data collected from the deep ocean can be used for geological and biological research, as well as study the human impact on the planet.
1. Why is “2000 elephants” mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To make the numbers accurate. |
| B．To provide a biological explanation. |
| C．To emphasize the importance of the task. |
| D．To describe the degree of the pressure vividly. |
| A．Collect ocean samples. |
| B．Land the submersible. |
| C．Provide safety guarantee. |
| D．Prevent crashes intelligently. |
| A．The toughness of the cabin. |
| B．The ability of weight-carrying. |
| C．The method of data-collection. |
| D．The technology of control system. |
| A．It is more complex than the moon. |
| B．It is seriously affected by humans. |
| C．To make sure of the depth of the ocean. |
| D．To explore the less-known field of the planet. |
【推荐2】Along with soccer, basketball is a global sport. As you read this. young people somewhere in the world are happily passing, dribbling(运球) and shooting. It’s enormous fun and a joyful way to spend time with others.
Basketball is a game for everyone. Unlike golf or tennis. it doesn't require great wealth or a lot of space to play. After all, not many people have a golf course-sized backyard. and tennis equipment is expensive. Basketball, by contrast, just needs a wall with a hoop and a ball.
So after its invention by Canadian-American physical educator James Naismith in 1891, the sport took off within US citizens, who quickly became attracted to the game because it suited their circumstances. Today, 127 years later, basketball remains one of the most popular sports in the US, and the National Basketball Association (NBA)has an increasing appeal for fans around the world.
The success of basketball as global phenomenon is undoubtedly related to the way African-Americans play the game.” The basketball court reflected some of the major cultural shifts in America, such as from forbidding African-Americans to play basketball to allowing them to play in the NBA, "the LIVESTRONG website noted.
From the 1950s onwards, segregation rules, which had prohibited African-Americans from playing basketball in NBA games, were no longer used in the US. In 1950, when Earl Lloyd started to play for the Washington Capitols, things began to change. Since then, most of the greats of the game have been African-Americans, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
It's not difficult to see that there's a strong link between political liberation and basketball. Something of this is expressed in a quote from the US author John Edgar Wideman. He makes a connection between basketball and hope:" When it's' played the way it's supposed to be played. basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, raised above the floor, letting the oppressed(受压制的) people of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.”
1. What advantage does basketball have over golf or tennis, according to the author?| A．It can be played everywhere. |
| B．It doesn't cost much. |
| C．It doesn't require too much skill. |
| D．It interests almost everyone. |
| A．The sport was created by a PE teacher. |
| B．The sport was not popular with people at first. |
| C．Its rules have been changed a lot to suit new circumstances. |
| D．The NBA. with a history of 127 Years. attracts people worldwide |
| A．explain the origin and rules of NBA games in the 1950s |
| B．prove the popularity of basketball among African-Americans |
| C．stress the success African-Americans in basketball |
| D．show how racial integration took place in basketball |
| A．Basketball is sometimes a useful tool for politicians. |
| B．American people usually have a basketball dream. |
| C．Basketball stands for the freedom and hopes of people. |
| D．Political oppression is a serious problem in the US. |
【推荐3】As a teen myself, I’ve seen first-hand the pleasing effects of poetry. Not too long ago, I went on stage to read my poetry at writing workshop, thinking anxiously to myself: Would the audience understand me? More than being nervous about the quality of my poem, I felt anxious about what my voice would sound like. At the time, I was 14, and still suffering from a speech disorder (语言障碍) that had affected me since began talking. As I stood, I experienced a sudden appreciation for the blinding lights. I couldn’t see everyone’s face! That made things much easier. I opened my book and began to read.
After the writing workshop, I gained the confidence to read my own work aloud. I learned that writing wasn’t about pronunciation, but about style and the author’s voice. This lesson helped me grow on endless occasions in my life, convincing me that poetry can have an astonishing influence when taught to teens.
One organization that I am part of, WriteGirl, through monthly creative writing workshops, gives girls the skills they need for a brighter future. Although WriteGirl doesn’t only focus on poetry, the organization still uses poetry to teach, inspire and empower girls all across Los Angeles. While the high school graduation rate in Los Angeles is only 80 percent, every year 100 percent of WriteGirl teens not only graduate from high school, but go to college.
But are these advantages becoming needless with the fast development of technology being placed in young hands?
It seems the answer is quite the opposite—technology has opened whole new world for young poets and writers. On KidBlog, young students can post their poems as a blog post on which others can leave their opinions. The Internet makes it easier for viewers to read poetry. Many people are discovering or rediscovering that poetry is fun and creates many opportunities for self-expression.
As I stepped up to read my writing at the workshop, I learned that poetry is about having a voice, and the courage to use it. With this courage, we free ourselves and become able to influence others.
1. How did the workshop influence the author?| A．It aided her in making a long speech. |
| B．It contributed to her personal growth. |
| C．It improved her communication skills. |
| D．It made her begin to take speech disorder seriously. |
| A．It is beneficial to girls’ studies. |
| B．It brings out girls’ poetic skills. |
| C．It encourages girls to teach poetry. |
| D．It helps girls become famous writers. |
| A．Poetry is old-fashioned in modern times. |
| B．Technology makes creating poetry easier. |
| C．Technology serves as a useful tool for poetry. |
| D．The Internet slows down the development of poetry. |
| A．How poetry gave me a voice |
| B．Why teens don’t read poetry |
| C．Approaches to learning poetry |
| D．Influence of technology on poetry |
