Bill Bowerman was a track coach.He wanted to help athletes run faster. So he had learned how to make running shoes. He had also started a shoe company with a friend. It was 1971. Running shoes at the time were heavy. They had spikes(鞋钉)on the sole(鞋底). The spikes tore up the track and slowed down runners.
To make a lighter shoe, Bill tried the skins of fish. To make a better sole, he wanted to replace the spikes. Bill look through his wife Barbara's jewelry box. He hoped to find a piece of jewelry with an interesting pattern. He would then copy the pattern onto the new soles. Nothing worked. Bill was stumped. Then, one Sunday morning, Barbara made Bill waffles(华夫饼)for breakfast. Bill watched her cook. He studied the cross pattern on their old waffle iron.
Inspiration(灵感)hit.
The pattern on a waffle iron was just what Bill was looking for. The squares were fatter and wider than sharp spikes. The pattern would help the shoes grip (抓牢) any surface without tearing into it.
When Barbara left the house, Bill ran to his lab. He took the liquid chemicals that, when mixed, would harden into the sole of a shoe. He poured the mixture into the waffle iron and the Waffle Trainer was born.
Bill's company put the Waffle Trainer on the market in 1974. It was a huge hit. Maybe you've heard of that company called Nike. And today it's worth around $100 billion.
It was the waffle iron that had changed the course of Bill's life and helped turn Nike into a well-known name. Today, the waffle iron is kept at Nike headquarters. It serves as a reminder that if we keep trying, we can find a solution to even the toughest problems. And those solutions can come from unlikely places，even the breakfast table.
1. What was wrong with the running shoes before the Wattle Trainer was made?| A．They were easily worn out. | B．The spikes hurt runners' feet. |
| C．The spikes were sharp and heavy. | D．They were too expensive. |
| A．Inspired. | B．Defeated. |
| C．Satisfied. | D．Doubted. |
| A．It was made quite by accident. | B．It was invented by Bill's wife. |
| C．It was based on many lab tests. | D．It was supported by another company. |
| A．Where there's a will, there's a way. | B．Good is rewarded with good. |
| C．Two heads are better than one. | D．A misfortune may turn out a blessing. |
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【推荐1】Each year, 150,000 people hike Scotland’s Ben Nevis — Britain’s highest mountain. Many choose to take the so-called tourist trail, the rocky path which winds its way to the peak. Few realise that this path was initially carved out in 1883 for a very unique scientific expedition.
In the late 19th century, a key question of science was how depressions, storms and other severe climatic events form in the atmosphere. By 1875 mountain observatories were being established across the US, Mexico, India, France, Germany and Russia. Keen to gather similar data for Britain, the Scottish Meteorological Society decided to build a weather station at the top of Ben Nevis.
And so began a remarkable experiment. From 1883 to 1904, a few hardy individuals lived year-round in a small stone hut, surviving on tinned food and making hourly recordings of everything from atmospheric temperature to humidity (湿度), wind speed to rainfall. In total they made almost 1.5 million observations.
“They were living in very severe weather conditions: 100mph winds were not uncommon, and the temperature would drop to -15°C at times. The main danger they faced was that they were very close to the edge of the cliff (悬崖). If you weren’t careful, you would disappear off the cliff completely,” says Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.
However, by 1904, the Scottish Meteorological Society could no longer afford the observatory’s running costs. It was closed down and the data largely has remained hidden in the dusty pages of archives (档案馆) ever since.
Today, plans are underfoot to build a new modern observatory on the ruins on the former site — with automatic measuring devices rather than human data collectors. “We haven’t had any long-term observations up there for a long time now, and this would give us information straight away on how the climate at the top of the mountain has changed,” Hawkins says. “We think that the high altitude regions are some of the places where we’ve seen the largest changes in temperature. This could tell us a lot.”
1. Why was the weather station at the top of Ben Nevis built?| A．To attract visitors to Ben Nevis. |
| B．To study the formation of extreme weather events. |
| C．To provide weather forecasts for the whole Britain. |
| D．To compete with weather stations in other countries. |
| A．The geographical features of Ben Nevis. |
| B．The extreme climate on top of Ben Nevis. |
| C．The achievements made by the weather station. |
| D．The bad working conditions of the station workers. |
| A．It will take a long time to build. |
| B．It will need many human data collectors. |
| C．It will have archives for the old weather station. |
| D．It will detect climate change at Ben Nevis’ peak quickly. |
| A．To argue. | B．To inform. |
| C．To advertise. | D．To appeal. |
【推荐2】About 60,000 Pacific Islanders worked as indentured labourers (签订契约的劳工）on Queensland’s sugar cane（甘蔗）fields between 1863 and 1903.They were mainly males, aged 9 to 30, transported to Australia by ship.Some came freely, wanting the new life promised to them, some were tricked, and some were kidnapped（绑架）.
The practice of kidnapping people for labour was called “blackbirding”.“Blackbird” was a term used instead of slave, because slavery was actually illegal.Britain had passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 and as a British colony (殖民地）,Queensland had to follow the Act It is said that a third of Pacific Islanders who worked as indentured labourers were either kidnapped or tricked into coming to Australia.Indentured labour was really just another name for slavery.
Indentured labourers had to work for a required period of time,usually three years,to pay back their passage to Australia and then they could earn money as free labourers.It was hard, dirty work in the Queensland countryside.Most indentured labourers were badly treated, many returning to their homelands as soon as their indentured period was finished.A small number married into local communities and stayed.Free labourers were also badly treated on the cane fields, working for low pay and living in very poor conditions.
Then the Australian Government’s White Australia Policy forced Pacific Islanders to leave Australia.Even people who were born in Australia to Pacific Islander parents were driven out of the country due to their colour.If they didn’t leave voluntarily, they were rounded up and driven away forcibly between 1906 and 1908.This practice destroyed many families.Some of the people had lived in Australia most, if not all, of their lives.Only a few who had married Australians were allowed to stay.A few managed to hide and avoid being driven away.
1. What happened from 1863 to 1903?| A．Australians had a new life. |
| B．Many Australians were kidnapped. |
| C．Australia was in want of labourers. |
| D．Australia’s sugar industry began to slow down. |
| A．It was lawful before 1863. | B．It came to an end in 1833. |
| C．It was introduced by the British. | D．It replaced the word “blackbirding” . |
| A．To escape mistreatment. | B．To get a better-paid job. |
| C．To avoid being kidnapped. | D．To be involved in local communities. |
| A．Slaves for sugar | B．Laws in Australia |
| C．Pacific Islanders’ new home | D．Sugar cane industry's development |
【推荐3】Deep within the Yukon, one of the most densely wooded areas of Canada, sits a patch of land that is unlike any other forest on the planet. Instead of a canopy of treetops spreading across the horizon, tens of thousands of signposts perch haphazardly one on top of the other. They are all part of the Signpost Forest, the largest collection of signs from places around the world. At last count, the Signpost Forest in Watson Lake, located about 10 miles north of the U.S.-Canadian border, contains 91,000 signs from spots near and far.
The tradition began during the Alaska Highway Project in 1942, when U.S. soldier Carl K. Lindley spent time in Watson Lake recovering from an injury. A commanding officer asked him to repair and erect the directional signposts, and while completing the job, the homesick soldier added a sign that indicated the direction and mileage to his hometown: “Danville, Illinois, 2,835 miles.” Others followed suit, and the trend caught on. Each year, an average of 1,000 new signs are being added to the collection. Lindley’s original sign has since been lost to time. Fifty years later, in 1992, Lindley and his wife Elinor made the pilgrimage back to Watson Lake to place a replica, which is still there.
The Signpost Forest takes up a couple of acres, with huge panels snaking through the trees. There are street signs, welcome signs, signatures on dinner plates, and license plates from around the world. There are also a lot of familial signs; for example, a grandfather will put up a sign and then years later family will come back and try to find it. A lot of these are personal signs to literally say that they are here. Though the visitor center has wood and paints on hand to help create a sign, many people opt to bring their own signs, though illegally, by snatching a metal sign from their hometown and nailing it to one of the wood posts. The forest has grown so vast that the visitor center no longer tries to keep a detailed list of the signs.
1. What does “The tradition” in the second paragraph refer to?| A．Counting the number of signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| B．Replacing the natural forest with signs of different kinds. |
| C．Putting directional signposts on the highways of the Yukon. |
| D．Bringing signs to the Signpost Forest from around the world. |
| A．It remained in the Forest until 1992. |
| B．It was erected by an American soldier. |
| C．It was first put on the Alaska Highway. |
| D．It was brought from Lindley’s hometown. |
| A．List. | B．Trunk. | C．Copy. | D．Border. |
| A．The origins and sizes of the signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| B．The quantity and variety of the signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| C．The difficulty of categorizing the signs in the Signpost Forest. |
| D．The practice of nailing illegal signs to the posts in the Signpost Forest. |
【推荐1】A frantic call came into Jimmy Gilleece's bar this past March.A newly married woman who had spent the afternoon at the dive beach bar couldn't find her wallet. She didn't care about her ID,credit cards,or $150 in cash---but her wedding ring was tucked inside.
Gilleece, 42, didn't like the idea that a theft could have occurred at his place, Jimmy's at Red Dogs.So he set out to find the wallet. He spent hours searching footage from 16 different surveillance cameras, watching the woman's every step in the bar until she went to sit on a bench outside and left when her ride arrived. Within minutes,a young man in a hoodie approached the bench, shoved(乱放) something in his pocket, and walked off, Gilleece posted a clip on the bar's Facebook page.
Within hours, Gilleece got a text from 17-year-old Rivers Prather. Prather admitted having taken the wallet and told Gilleece he'd done it because he hadn't eaten in two days. He said he saw the ring but thought it was fake, so he took the money and threw the wallet off the public docks into the ocean. Then he bought a sandwich. Gilleece, unsure whether he believed Prather, told the teen to meet him at the docks.There, they got to talking, and Prather revealed that he wasn't getting along with his family and had been living in the woods for a week. Gilleece took stock of Prather---his small stature,his ruddy cheeks---and saw him for what he was: more of a kid than a criminal. But the stakes were high.The police were already on the case,and because of the missing ring, Prather could be facing felony charges."I had to help him somehow, Gilleece says. Gilleece recruited two local divers to search the waters where Prather had thrown the wallet. A crowd gathered to watch the two divers search in the strong current. More than an hour passed,with no sign of the ring. Gilleece grew worried. Each passing minute increased the chances that the police would arrest the young man.
And then a diver popped up. In his hand was the wallet, and inside was the ring. Cheers erupted from the spectators.When Gilleece called the wallet's owner, she burst into tears.She promptly dropped the felony charges against Prather for stealing the ring.“Most people would have given the footage to police,and he chose to help me," Prather said. “I say thank you to him every day."
1. How did the bar owner find the suspect?| A．He emailed the victim to find a clue. |
| B．A police officer texted him. |
| C．He watched the footage from surveillance cameras. |
| D．He canvased the beach for any suspicious guy. |
a.Gilleece decided to help the suspect after talking with him.
b.Prather expressed his gratitude to the bar owner
c.The police dropped the case against Prather
d.Gilleece set out to find the clue after receiving a theft claim.
e.Gilleece hired divers to find the lost ring
| A．e,d,c,a,b | B．a,d,e,c,b | C．d,e,a,b,c | D．d,a,e,c,b |
| A．observe | B．perceive | C．encounter | D．exploit |
| A．A Guilty Bar Owner | B．Mercy for a Thief |
| C．Candles In the Wind | D．the Divine Revelation |
【推荐2】I have received many Christmas gifts over the years. The best gift I ever received was presented to me by a stranger. I never even knew his name and I only had contact with him for less than 60 seconds. His Christmas present to me changed the way I think about people and about Christmas.
I hate Black Friday sales. It’s often a gathering of people who are there for many different reasons. Some are looking for a deal on that one item for their loved one, or perhaps themselves. Their purposes completely have nothing to do with the festive time of year, and can just be summed up with one word, “Cheap!”
It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local department store on Black Friday morning. They had advertised a child’s bike that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle(口哨). I told my wife that if we got a bike, fine, but if we did not, I was OK with that too.
As the number of bikes began to gradually decrease, I saw my “polite” opportunity to reach my hands around the corner of one of the boxes. I lifted it and suddenly felt some mild resistance(阻力). I looked up to see one of the largest gentlemen I had ever seen in my life. Frightening was not the word to describe his appearance. He was wearing lots of straps of metal spiked leather(带有柳钉的皮带) around both arms and even his neck. Still, tattoos(纹身) were an obvious love of his.
I started to return the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then directed it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Merry Christmas.” All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best Christmas gift I had ever received. The kindness of a stranger that broke all prejudice(偏见) I may have had of certain types of people. The softness of a human heart can be seen in a simple act. I will never forget it.
1. What may be the best title of the passage?| A．The Best Christmas Gift. |
| B．A Child’s Bike. |
| C．Black Friday Sales. |
| D．A Handsome Stranger. |
| A．Because they can make money. |
| B．Because they hope to find a bargain. |
| C．Because it’s a way to celebrate Christmas. |
| D．Because it’s a place to get things free of charge. |
| A．devote |
| B．solve |
| C．buy |
| D．save |
| A．All roads lead to Rome. |
| B．It’s never too old to study. |
| C．You cannot clap with one hand. |
| D．Men cannot be judged by their appearances |
【推荐3】MacArthur’s love for sailing dates back to when she was just four years of age, when she first got the opportunity to have a try. “I’ll never forget that feeling as a kid of setting foot on a boat for the first time,” MacArthur said. “It’s kind of struck me that this boat had everything we needed to take us anywhere in the world. And as a child, that opened up everything,” she explained how it felt like the “greatest sense of freedom”.
This experience lighted a passion within MacArthur. She knew then that she wanted to sail around the world. She had no idea how to achieve it — growing up in the countryside, it wasn’t the most obvious career path — but she knew that was what she wanted to do at some stage. So, she acquired knowledge and saved up for years to seek a career in sailing. She would have potato and beans every day for eight years so that she could save up to buy the right equipment. By reaching certain financial goals and asking technical questions about sailing, MacArthur felt as though she was getting closer to her ambitions.
“When you know where you’re going, you can actually get there — even if it seems impossible. The impossible could be possible and aiming high is not necessarily such a crazy thing to do.” And it seems that MacArthur’s drive to become a sailor went beyond her expectations. At the age of 24, she started to receive media attention after participating in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed non-stop yacht (游艇) race that goes around the world. She came in second place. Some three to four years later, MacArthur chose to sail for 71 days and 14 hours, covering more than 26,000 miles during the course of her journey. This led to MacArthur scoring a new world record in 2005, as the fastest person to sail around the globe single-handedly. While this record has since been surpassed, MacArthur is still considered as Britain’s most successful off shore racer.
1. What happened to MacArthur when she was four?| A．She was given a chance to sail. | B．She saw a boat for the first time. |
| C．She sailed around the world. | D．She got stuck in a boat. |
| A．She worked as a technician to earn money. |
| B．She got financial support for her ambitions. |
| C．She knew clearly about her career path. |
| D．She prepared herself for her goal. |
| A．She became the fastest person to sail around the world alone. |
| B．She began to gain a lot of media attention. |
| C．She took second place in a yacht race. |
| D．She had her record broken. |
| A．Follow your own course, and let people talk. |
| B．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. |
| D．Doing is better than saying. |
【推荐1】It's already challenging enough for environmentalists to keep beaches clear of washed up trash(垃圾) and plastic debris(残骸), but the most difficult problem lies in cleaning up all of the millions of tiny microplastics that are impossible to pick up and separate from the sand.
Fortunately, a group of engineering students succeeded in developing a massive new vacuum cleaner that can collect microplastics without removing any of the sand from the beach. The 12 Canadian students from the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec built their Hoola One plastic vacuum cleaner as a class project.
"We did some research and we realized there was no machine around the world to do this kind of job," Hoola One co-founder Sam Duval told Hawaii Public Radio. "So we told each other, 'We will invent it,' and we did it."
As a means of testing their machine's efficiency, they recently used it on the sands of Hawaii's Kamilo Beach, which is also notorious for being one of the dirtiest beaches in the world. Though their first prototype(原型)experienced a number of technical issues, the students managed to fix the problems and tidy up the beach.
Using a handheld tube, the machine sucks(吸入)up plastic and sand and dumps them all into a massive tank of water. Since rocks and sand are heavier than plastic, they sink to the bottom of the tank so they can be dumped back onto the beach. The plastic, on the other hand, floats to the top of the tank.
According to Hawaii Public Radio, the team left the Hoola One vacuum on the island as a donation to the state department- They are now researching the ecological effects of the vacuum on the beach while they search for funding and sponsorships(赞助)to produce more Hoola One vacuums.
1. What is the hardest problem of keeping the beach clean?| A．Picking up plastic debris. |
| B．Removing trash on the sea. |
| C．Separating plastics from the sand. |
| D．Clearing up all the microplastics. |
| A．It can collect plastics without removing sand from the beach. |
| B．It has been used widely on the beaches around the world. |
| C．The students tested its efficiency on Hawaii's Kamilo Beach. |
| D．The students gave up the first prototype due to several failures. |
| A．The working procedure of the vacuum cleaner. |
| B．The invention process of the vacuum cleaner. |
| C．The ecological impacts of the vacuum cleaner. |
| D．The special materials of the vacuum cleaner. |
| A．Generous and stubborn. | B．Confident and persistent. |
| C．Devoted and wealthy. | D．Admirable and humorous. |
【推荐2】Sawyer Current’s first visit to Isla Mujeres, a small island off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, was meant to be a getaway. But instead of relaxing on white sand beaches, Current was disappointed at the number of unwanted animals wandering the streets. “Dogs were everywhere, coming out of the bushes and along the sides of the road,” she recalls of that trip 25 years ago. “They were dirty and covered with fleas and scars.” “It was sad,” she says. “I just couldn’t stand to watch it.”
Current decided to help fix it. She built a second home on Isla Mujeres in 2000, and beginning with a skinny, toothless cat she rescued from the streets, she went on to find homes for more than 2,000 dogs and cats. Today, thanks to Current’s efforts, the island no longer has a wild-dog problem, and “people are more aware of their pets’ needs,” says Marcelino Velazquez, 34, a property manager from Isla Mujeres. “They vaccinate them and don’t abandon them on the streets. The way of thinking has changed.”
For Current, it was a hard-fought transformation. “At first I was angry and thought it was horrible,” Current says of the conditions on the island when she began her work. “But these weren’t bad people. They were people without resources.” When she first arrived, the community had no small-animal vet, and animal control consisted of a team of government workers who’d round up street dogs in a truck and kill them. “I used to follow the truck, and when they’d go for lunch, I’d let the dogs out,” she says. “One time I let the air out of their tires.”
At one point she was caring for more than 65 rescued dogs in her home, and she estimates she has spent about $1 million of her own savings on her efforts. “It was exhausting,” she admits. Now Isla Animals has an on-site shelter with a small staff, and many volunteers and donors among the island’s tourists. Each year the group re-homes more than 170 pets, many of which fly with volunteers to families in the U.S. and Canada.
“There’s nothing in the world like finding a starving dog, nursing it back to good health and finding it a loving home,” Current says.
1. What made Current feel disappointed with the island?| A．Insects biting people. | B．People without resources. |
| C．Houses in poor conditions. | D．Animals abandoned in the streets. |
| A．To show the local people how to solve their problems. |
| B．To draw public attention to what she was doing. |
| C．To stop the workers from killing the animals. |
| D．To help the government punish bad people. |
| A．Loving. | B．Ambitious. | C．Intelligent. | D．Cautious. |
【推荐3】Ecology is a complicated thing. c Given the facts that elephant damage often kills trees and bush fires often kill trees, a combination of the two will make things worse. However, as research shows just published in Biotropica, by Benjamin Wigley of Nelson Mandela University, if a tree has already been damaged, fire can actually help to make things better.
Since 1954，the Kruger National Park has been the site of experiments. Dr Wigley carried out these experiments by looking at trees in three different zones. In one of these zones, the vegetation (植被) was burned every year. In the second it was burned every other year. The third zone, by contrast, was actively protected from fire. To keep things consistent, he only looked at the fate of a single tree species, the marula (玛鲁拉树), whose bark is often eaten by elephants. In July 2016, he and his colleagues identified 20 marulas in every zone and used a hammer and a knife to remove a 5 cm circular section of bark from each of them.
To their surprise, damaged trees in the annual burnt zone regrew 98% of their lost bark during the two years of the study. Those living in the second burnt zone regrew 92% of it. But those in the zone where fires were banned regrew only 72%.
The researchers also found something else around the trees' wounds: ants. Ten of the 20 trees in the fire-banned zone developed ant colonies in their wounds. The ants were known to damage tissue healing. By contrast, only five trees in the second zone and three in the annual zone developed ants' nests in their wounds.
It looks, therefore, as if bush fires are burning trees'。wounds to kill the ants. Though such fires are surely harmful to healthy trees, it seems, in an example of two negatives making a positive, as if they are actually helpful to sick ones.
1. What is the finding of the research?| A．More fire does good to trees. | B．Fire makes damaged trees. grow better. |
| C．Ants always help trees gr8w well. | D．Elephants often damage tree barks. |
| A．They were finished in one year. |
| B．They were carried out in different parks. |
| C．The damaged trees grew well as other trees. |
| D．The trees chosen had been damaged by the researchers. |
| A．To prove that ants are bad animals. |
| B．To show the benefit fire brings to damaged trees. |
| C．To express how ants influence trees' growth. |
| D．To introduce the role ants play in ecology. |
| A．Is Fire Totally Bad for Trees2 | B．How does Fire Destroy the Trees? |
| C．The Balance of Trees and Ants | D．Trees, Animals and Disasters |
【推荐1】John B. Goodenough, an engineering professor from the University of Texas at Austin(UT-Austin), won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on developing lithium-ion batteries (锂电池). He was the oldest person to win a Nobel Prize.
Goodenough, who was born in 1922, identified and developed the key materials that can power portable electronics, leading to the wireless revolution. Today, batteries using Goodenough’s inventions are used worldwide for mobile phones, power tools, laptops, tablets and other wireless devices, as well as electric vehicles.
Goodenough received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale University at 21 and a doctor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago when he was 30. He beat the odds against him, first overcoming dyslexia (阅读困难症) as a child, and then the claim of a teacher who told him in his 20s that he had started too late to be successful in physics.
He began his career in 1952 at Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he laid the groundwork for the development of random-access memory (RAM) for the digital computer.
After MIT, Goodenough became a professor and head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford, where in 1979 he discovered it would be possible to store energy in rechargeable batteries through lithium cobalt oxide (锂钴氧化物). That discovery helped develop the lithium-ion battery.
Goodenough joined UT-Austin in 1986, where his groundbreaking work continued.
At 98 years old, he still continues to push the boundaries of materials science. In spite of the lithium-ion battery being well-developed and available as a commercial product, it has its limitations. It can’t be charged too fast or overcharged. Goodenough still wants to see some new developments.
“I hope UT-Austin still keeps me employed,” Goodenough once joked.
1. When did Goodenough achieve a doctor’s degree?| A．In 1922. | B．In 1943. | C．In 1952. | D．In 1979. |
| A．At the University of Texas. |
| B．At the University of Oxford. |
| C．At the University of Chicago. |
| D．At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
| A．Considerate. | B．Determined. |
| C．Generous. | D．Modest. |
| A．Time waits for no man | B．Make the world “Goodenough” |
| C．Born poor, achieved great | D．Never too old to learn |
【推荐2】Photography was once an expensive, laborious experience reserved for life's greatest milestones（里程碑）. Now, the only apparent cost to taking infinite photos of something as common as a meal is the space on your hard drive and your dining companion's patience.
But is there another cost, a deeper cost, a deeper cost, to documenting（记录）a life experience instead of simply enjoying it? "You hear that you shouldn't take all these photos and interrupt the experience, and it's bad for you, and we're not living in the present moment," says Kristin Diehl, associate professor of marketing at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
Diehl and her fellow researchers wanted to find out if that was true, so they embarked on a series of nine experiments in the lab and in the field testing people's enjoyment in the presence or absence of a camera. The results, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, surprised them. Taking photos actually makes people enjoy what they're doing more, not less.
"What we find is you actually look at the world slightly differently, because you're looking for things you want to capture, that you may want to hang onto," Diehl explains. "That gets people more engaged（参与）in the experience, and they tend to enjoy it more." Take sightseeing. In one experiment, nearly 200 participants boarded a double-decker bus for a tour of Philadelphia. Both bus tours forbade the use of cell phones but one tour provided digital cameras and encouraged people to take photos. The people who took photos enjoyed the experience significantly more, and said they were more engaged, than those who didn't.
Snapping a photo directs attention, which heightens the pleasure you get from whatever you're looking at, Diehl says. It works for things as boring as archaeological museums, where people were given eye-tracking glasses and instructed either to take photos or not.
"People look longer at things they want to photograph," Diehl says. They report liking the exhibits more, too. To the relief of Instagrammers everywhere, it can even make meals more enjoyable. When people were encouraged to take at least three photos while they ate lunch, they were more immersed in their meals than those who weren't told to take photos.
Was it the satisfying click of the camera? The physical act of the snap? No, they found; just the act of planning to take a photo—and not actually taking it—had the same joy-boosting effect. "If you want to take mental photos, that works the same way," Diehl says. "Thinking about what you would want to photograph also gets you more engaged."
1. What does the author say about photo-taking in the past?| A．It was a painstaking effort for recording life’s major events. |
| B．It was a luxury（奢侈）that only a few wealthy people could enjoy. |
| C．It was a good way to preserve one’s precious images. |
| D．It was a skill that required lots of practice to master. |
| A．what kind of pleasure it would actually bring to photo-takers |
| B．whether people enjoyed it when they did sightseeing |
| C．how it could help to enrich people’s life experiences |
| D．Whether it prevented people enjoying what they were doing |
| A．They come out with better photographs of the exhibits. |
| B．They focus more on the exhibits when taking pictures. |
| C．They have a better view of what are on display. |
| D．They follow the historical events more easily. |
| A．It is better to make plans before taking photos. |
| B．Mental photos can be as beautiful as snapshots（快照）. |
| C．Photographers can derive great joy from the click of the camera. |
| D．Even the very thought of taking a photo can have a positive effect. |
【推荐3】The global energy crisis is approaching. What can we do? Here are some steps you can take.
Cooling puts the greatest stress on your summer energy bill and the power grid. Just as a tune-up for your car can improve your gas mileage, a yearly tune-up of your heating and cooling system can improve efficiency and comfort. Clean or replace filter monthly or as needed.
For central air conditioning systems and room air conditioners, look for the ENERGY STAR, the federal government’s symbol for energy efficiency. For central air, purchase the system with the highest possible Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. (SEER)
Use energy efficient ceiling fans either alone or with air conditioning. Ceiling fans do a great job of circulating air. When used with air conditioning, fans allow you to raise the thermostat and cut costs. Ceiling fans cool people, not rooms, so before you leave, turn off the ceiling fan.
Let a programmable thermostat “remember for you” to automatically adjust the indoor climate with your daily and weekend patterns to reduce cooling bills by up to 10 percent. You can come home to a comfortable house without wasting energy and creating pollution all day while you are at work.
Try to make your home airtight enough to increase your comfort, make your home quieter and cleaner and reduce your cooling costs up to 20 percent.
Cut your air conditioning load, and reduce pollution by planting leafy trees around your home and fixing reflective bricks on your roof.
Close blinds or shades on south-and west-facing windows during the day, or fix shading equipment to avoid heat build-up.
Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers. And use fluorescent bulbs, which provide bright, warm light while using at least two-thirds less energy, producing 70 percent less heat and lasting up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
Drive the car that gets better gas mileage whenever possible if you own more than one vehicle. If you drive 12,500 miles a year, switching 10 percent of your trips from a car that gets 20 miles per gallon to one that gets 30 mpg will save you more than £65 per year.
Carpool. The average U.S. commuter could save about £260 a year by sharing cars twice a week with two other people in a car that gets 20.1 mpg-assuming the three passengers share the cost of gas.
1. According to the passage, the thermostat is used to ________.| A．make rooms quieter | B．control room temperature |
| C．turn off the air conditioner | D．reduce room air pollution |
| A．planting leafy trees around your home |
| B．turning off the ceiling fan before you leave your house |
| C．keeping your south-facing windows open during the day |
| D．using fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs |
| A．using energy-efficient ceiling fans |
| B．sharing cars with others on workdays |
| C．turning off everything not in use |
| D．reducing 10% of your car trips every year |
