【推荐1】Ways to Be More Curious

Buried in the same daily routines and familiar surroundings, some people may lead an unhappy life.     1     It’s a desire to know how and why and a combination of intelligence and hunger for new things. Here are some tips on how to improve curiosity.

You should communicate with others. There is a to-do list in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook. Out of the fifteen tasks on the list, at least eight involve consulting with others. Montaigne once wrote how traveling to different countries allows us to “polish our brains”.     2    

Why not visit a library? It allows us to meet other unexpected information. You can enter it without purpose.     3     And just follow your curiosity to explore unexpected knowledge. The more you explore, the greater your curiosity will be.

    4     With ideas stored in mind, you can mix and remix ideas and themes, making new findings and spotting unusual patterns, until a creative breakthrough is achieved, which strengthens your curiosity. Anyone stopping learning facts for himself because he can search online later is making himself stupid.

Don’t just focus on puzzles but on mysteries. Puzzles have clear answers. Once the missing information is found, it’s not a puzzle anymore, with curiosity fading away.     5     Because the answers often depend on a complex set of factors, both known and unknown. The most beautiful thing we can experience is mysteries. In the process of finding the answers, they are the source of curiosity.

A．Start to search for books you want or need.

B．Unlike puzzles, mysteries don’t need answers.

C．Mysteries have questions that can’t be answered clearly.

D．And that’s how Leonardo polished his brain to remain curious.

E．Allow books or things on the bookshelves freely to attract your eyes.

F．Always thinking of ideas rather than searching online plays an important part.

G．But we can achieve happiness and more meaning in life if we increase our curiosity.

【推荐2】How to be a safe and smart searcher

Some keywords will help to find better results.    1    . If you want to find out about seagulls (海鸥), for example, search for “bird seagull” and not just “seagull”. Because seagull might also be the name of just about anything else, from a hotel to a documentary film.

Exact symbols can help you find what you’re looking for. If you are looking for an exact phrase or sentence, for example, “seagull are very clever”, type it between inverted commas (引号).    2    . Avoid common words like “a” or “the” in a search. There are usually unnecessary. Remove unwanted results by adding a symbol “-”. For example, “Seagull-hotel-film” would leave out all information on hotels and films.

Check your spelling. Make sure you spell spell every word correctly.    3    . That’s because sometimes there are mistyped words existing.

Have a filter (筛选). It’s a good idea to filter your online searchers, especially when you are searching for pictures.    4    . There is lots of filtering software available.

Reliability is very important when you are searching on the Internet. Always ask yourself, “Is this reliable?”    5    . Some websites are unreliable and some information is incorrect. Check your information on other websites before accepting it.

A．So add a filtering system to your computer.

B．Then only exact information will be shown.

C．Make sure that you’re using the safest search setting.

D．The smallest typing mistakes can bring unwanted results.

E．Use more than one keyword when you are doing a research.

F．Don’t make the mistake of believing everything as soon as you see.

G．But finding the right information among thousands of websites can be a real challenge.

【推荐1】Reading is the pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport.     1     Reading is fun, not because the author is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the author’s or even goes beyond his.     2     And your ideas develop as you understand his.

Every book stands by itself, like a one-family house.     3     Although they are separate, together they all add up to something; they are connected with each other and with other cities. Books influence each other.     4     Wherever you start reading, you connect yourself with one of the families of ideas, and in the long run, you can find out about not only the world and the people in it but also yourself in it.

    5     If you concentrate on books somebody tells you ought to read, you probably won’t have fun. But if you put down a book you don’t like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax with it, you will certainly have a good time. If you become, as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder or gentler, you won’t have suffered during the process.

A．Books in a library are like houses in a city.

B．Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be.

C．Reading is good for your study and personal habits.

D．Your eagerness, knowledge and quickness make you a good reader.

E．The human problems that repeat themselves in life repeat themselves in literature.

F．Your experience, compared with his, brings you to the same or different conclusions.

G．They link the past, the present and the future and have their own generations, like families.

【推荐3】The saying that children don’t like reading any more has been proved untrue. A new study finds that 75 percent of kids between 5 and 17 say that although they love technology, they still want to read books.

“The Kids & Family Reading Report “also says that 62 percent of kids prefer reading printed books rather than those on a computer. At the same time, those who search an author’s website or use the Internet to find books by a particular author, are more likely to read books for fun every day.

The study also once again proves that the time kids spend reading books for fun decreases after the age of eight and continues to drop through the teen years. The report is a follow-up to a 2006 study. But this time the focus is on the role of technology and when kids’ interest in reading starts to drop.

“Despite the fact that after the age of eight more children go online daily than read for fun daily, high frequency Internet users are more likely to read books for fun every day,” says Heather Carter, a writer of the report.

One in four kids between 5 and 17 say they read books for fun every day and more than half of kids say they read books for fun at least two to three times a week. One of the key reasons kids say why they don’t read more often is that they have trouble finding books they like—a requirement that parents underestimate.

The study also finds that parents have a strong influence on kids’ reading, but only about half of all parents begin reading to their kids before their first birthday. The percent of children who are read to every day drops from 38 percent among five-to-eight-year-olds to 23 percent among nine-to 11-year-olds—exactly the same time that kids’ daily reading for fun starts to drop.

“Parents’ engagement in their children’s reading from birth all the way through the teen years can have a great influence on how often their children read and how much they enjoy reading”, adds Carter.

1. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A．75 percent of kids like surfing the Internet.

B．Most kids are more likely to read e-books for fun every day.

C．More children like to go online instead of reading books.

D．Most kids like reading books as well as technology.

2. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A．nowadays all the kids still like to read books

B．most parents begin reading to their kids from their birth

C．some kids like to get some information using the Internet

D．the study of kids’ reading has been made before

3. Parents should ________.

A．begin to read books to kids from the age of 8

B．read more books to kids as early as possible

C．help to prevent the decrease of kids’ reading

D．encourage their kids to read at the age of 11

4. What does the underlined word “underestimate” mean?

A．evaluate	B．undervalue
C．ignore	D．request

5. What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Do kids still like reading	B．Kids’ interest in reading drops
C．New technology on kids’ reading	D．Parents’ influence on kids’ reading