How nice are you? Do you give money to homeless people? Do you offer your seat to someone in need on a bus?
Many people believe that confident people think more highly of themselves, while those who have low self-esteem（自尊）think less of their qualities. However, a new study says it might not be true, the Guardian reported.
The study was done by Jonathan Freeman, a psychologist professor from the University of London, UK. He found that 98 percent of British people consider themselves to be among the nicest 50 percent of the population.
In the study, Freeman first asked some people to rate（估价）their own niceness. Then he got people to answer questions like “Do you give directions to strangers?” and “Have you donated blood?” The results showed that people are not as nice as they think they are. Two thirds of them seldom helped others carry shopping bags, and only a quarter of them donated blood.
In another study by psychologists from universities from Chicago and Virginia, the US, some people were shown pictures of themselves. Some pictures had been slightly（轻微地） changed to make them appear more attractive. When asked to pick the unchanged pictures people usually chose the more attractive ones.
So why do we think we are nicer than we actually are? There are many theories（理论）. A popular one says we unconsciously deceive（无意识地欺骗）ourselves, so that we can get confidence without knowingly lying to ourselves or each other.
How can we solve it? Other studies show that there is a simple way: feedback（反馈）. Compare others’ opinion toward you with your own and you will see a clearer picture.
1. What did the new study find?| A．Confident people have more good qualities. |
| B．People with low self-esteem are mostly not nice. |
| C．People are not as nice as they think they are. |
| D．Confident people don’t like those with low self-esteem. |
| A．they were not happy with their looks |
| B．it was hard to tell differences |
| C．they lied to themselves without knowing it |
| D．they wanted themselves to look good |
| A．How to be a nice person. | B．Others’ opinion toward you. |
| C．How to know ourselves well | D．People’s opinion of their own niceness. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】请先阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后根据短文内容从下面方框内的七个选项中，选择五个还原到文中，使短文意思通顺、结构完整，并在答题卷上将其序号、涂黑。
Quilts keep people warm.
Quilts have a long history in different places. In Asia, the quilt appeared in the first century BC.
Bed quilts had something to do with women in American history. When the earliest people in Europe came to America, there were few or no stores.
Quilts are also a form of art. Every quilt is a way for the artist to show himself or herself. Each one uses different designs (设计图样) and colors. Each one also uses different skills for sewing the pieces together.
So next time you climb into bed with a nice warm quilt, look at it carefully.
| A．However, you may not know well about quilts. |
| B．Quilts really have a long history of development. |
| C．Quilting also played a role in helping some slaves. |
| D．Quilts were not made of cotton in the first beginning. |
| E．In the beginning, people just sewed the materials together. |
| F．Women cut up old clothes and used them to make new clothes. |
| G．In the 11th century, people in Europe brought quilting skills from the Middle East. |
【推荐2】When I was young, I lived in Scotland with my parents. I had a good time there.
One morning, I ran to the garden, and said to the old Scotsman who worked there. “Today I am going up the mountain for berries.” No, no, Missey, not today.” he said, “It will rain.” “No, it will not rain.” I said, “The sun is up. The cook says it will be fine. The glass in the hall doesn’t say rain.”
“Tuts, tuts.” said the old man, I care for no suns, or cooks, or glasses. The pimpernel (海螺) says it will rain, and so it will rain. Flowers, Missey, always tell the truth. When they say rain, go and get your umbrella.
Sure enough, by noon the rain was pouring down. After that, I looked with great respect at the tiny flower sometimes brickred, sometimes blue, which could tell about the weather. But the pimpemel is not the only plant that is a weather prophet.
If you go into the garden, and find the African marigolds shut after seven o’clock in the morning, you may be pretty sure that there will be a rainy day. There is a little single marigold which shuts up in a hurry if the sky becomes clouded. It is called the “rainy-marigold”.
Most plants which we call “weather prophets” shut up for rain. But some plants open for rain. The cause of the opening and closing is probably the difference in light. Most likely these plants shut their flowers because there is too little light.
But you know there are some plants which become smaller in a strong light and love the shade. You will find that most shade-loving plants, as the verbenas, do not close for rain.
Lilies, tulips and other flowers that love the sun shut for rain, tulips are careful not to open their cups very wide in the morning if it is likely to rain. The roses make no change. They seem not to fear wet.
On the whole, you may be pretty sure, if you go into your garden, and find many flowers—as tulips, marigolds and morning glories-shut, it will be a stormy day, unfit for picnics or long walks.
1. The plants which are “weather prophets” ________.| A．become smaller in a strong light | B．tell about the weather |
| C．open for rain and fear light | D．love shade and wet |
| A．the morning glories and lilies do not shut | B．the African marigolds shut after 7: 00 a. m. |
| C．tulips don’t open their cups very wide in the morning | D．the roses shut in the sunshine in the morning |
| A．The flowers have four ways to help people to get information about weather. |
| B．The glass in the hall has magic for the writer’s family to know about weather. |
| C．We can know about weather by keeping many roses at home or in the garden. |
| D．Missey will probably know about weather by watching flowers from now on. |
| A．watching flowers carefully before going out | B．learning to watch flowers from the old Scotsman |
| C．the importance of growing flowers in the garden | D．the relationship between some flowers and weather |
【推荐3】When temperatures rise, humans sweat (出汗) and dogs pant (喘气). It seems that cats are not afraid of hot weather. In fact, cats need to keep a body temperature of 38.3℃ to 38.9℃.
Many people have a wrong idea about how cats cool themselves in summer. They think cats sweat through their paws (爪) to cool themselves.
You may find cats groom (梳理皮毛) themselves regularly.
If you try to cut off your cats’ hair to help keep them cool, please stop. Fur coats are highly developed.
| A．In summer, you might see wet paw prints. |
| B．They act as clothes to protect animals. |
| C．Even with the methods for keeping cool, cats also depend on the environment to stay comfortable. |
| D．That’s how cats keep themselves cool in hot weather. |
| E．They have their methods for keeping cool in hot weather. |
【推荐1】Everyone gets sad. Being sad can happen pretty often. More than half of teenagers go through a period of sadness at least once a month. When you’re sad, it feels like it will last forever. The world seems dark and unfriendly. You might feel like you have nothing to look forward to. Many times, you cry, and it’s hard to stop. However, your feeling of sadness usually doesn’t last very long—a few hours, or maybe a day or two.
When sadness starts to go away, it feels like a big stone is being lifted from your body. If sad feelings go on for too long, it’s called depression (抑郁症). Children who have depression may not know it. Often, it’s a parent or teacher who notices children’s changes.
When depression happens, it’s very important for children to receive treatment. When they do, they can get better quickly. Sometimes treatment includes talking to someone who knows all about depression. Sometimes it means taking medicine. Sometimes both of these things are used. If you think you have depression, or you just have sadness that simply will not go away, it is important to talk to an adult about it first. This person can help you find the right kind of treatment. Many cities also have mental health hotlines (心理健康热线) that are listed in the phone book. There is always somebody who can help.
1. What might you look forward to at the time of sadness?| A．Sadness. | B．Nothing. | C．Depression. | D．A stone. |
| A．a few days | B．a few weeks | C．a few years | D．a few months |
| A．We ourselves. | B．Our parent or teacher. | C．Our classmate. | D．Our friend or neighbor. |
| A．talk to an adult | B．go to hospital | C．take medicine | D．call their friends |
| A．Culture. | B．Travel. | C．Health. | D．Education. |
【推荐2】You’ve heard of twins before. But what about digital(数字的) twins? A digital twin is a copy of real-world things inside a computer. It could be a computer model of a car, a person, or even a city. By calculating(计算), computers can tell us what could happen to things in the future. Let’s find out about some cool digital twin ideas!
Digital twin of bodies
Say that you have a digital twin at birth. It collects data from your body and can tell when you may get sick. Wouldn’t that be great?
Now, European scientists are trying to twin the human brain. The digital twin can show how the patients’ brains will change after different treatments(治疗方案). Then the patients can pick the best treatment for them in the real world!
Digital twin of cities
Will a new road bring traffic problems? Where should people drive slower?
Digital twins of cities can help answer these hard questions! Computer models can show if building or changing things will be good or bad for a city. This saves a lot of money and time.
Digital twin of Earth
Storms, droughts(干旱), rising sea levels—if we could know when natural disasters would happen, we could avoid many sad stories.
This year, the European Union started a new 10-year project called “Destination Earth”. It will make a digital twin of Earth. It uses AI to study climate data. This will help us know about bad weather ahead of time and save lives.
1. What do we know about digital twins from the 1st paragraph?| A．Digital twins can change what will happen in the future. |
| B．Digital twins can tell us things that happened in the past. |
| C．Digital twins are two computers that are exactly the same. |
| D．Digital twins are computer models of things in real world. |
| A．It can tell us ahead of time that we may get sick. |
| B．It can act as a doctor to treat us when we are sick. |
| C．It can tell us the change of our body when we get sick. |
| D．It can choose the best treatment for us when we are sick. |
| A．The quickest way to drive to work. |
| B．An ideal location of a new shopping center. |
| C．The cost of building a new library at a school. |
| D．The road where traffic accidents are easy to happen. |
| A．To better design cities. |
| B．To fight against disease. |
| C．To keep our bodies healthy. |
| D．To protect us from bad weather. |
| A．Nature. | B．Animals. | C．Humans. | D．Science. |
【推荐3】“Multitask”—doing several things at the same time—is considered a welcome skill by most people. But if we consider the situation of the young people aged from eight to eighteen, we should think again.
Nowadays, young people always juggle a large number of electronic devices (电子产品) as they study. While working, they also surf on the Internet, send out emails, answer the telephone and listen to music on their iPods. In a sense, they are spending a large amount of time in fruitless efforts as they multitask.
Multitasking is even changing the relationship between family members. As young people give so much attention to their own worlds, they seem to have no time to spend with the other people around them. They can no longer greet family members when they enter the house, nor can they eat at the family table.
Multitasking also affects young people’s performance at university and in the workplace. When asked about their opinions of the effects of modern gadgets (器具) on their performance of tasks, many young people gave a positive (积极的) response (反应). However, the response from the worlds of education and business was not quite as positive. Educators feel that multitasking by children has a serious effect on later development of study skills. They believe that many college students now need help to improve their study skills. Similarly, employers feel that young people entering the job market need to be taught all over again, as modern gadgets have made it unnecessary for them to learn special skills to do their work.
1. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Emails. | B．Internet. | C．Young people. | D．Electronic devices. |
| A．Family members do not greet each other. |
| B．Family members do not eat at the family table. |
| C．Young people get on well with their families. |
| D．Young people hardly communicate with their family members. |
| A．Young people must learn skills for future jobs. |
| B．Young people benefit (获益) a lot from modern gadgets. |
| C．Multitasking is an important skill to young people. |
| D．Multitasking influences young people’s development seriously. |
| A．Multitasking is considered a welcome skill for most people. |
| B．Employers consider it unnecessary for young people to be taught all over again. |
| C．Educators feel that young people don’t need to improve their study skills. |
| D．People from the world of education believe multitasking has a good effect on children’s later study skills. |
