1 . Me and My Brain
We all know that meaningful changes happen in our bodies during adolescence (青春期), but have you ever stopped to wonder what’s actually going on inside our brains during this time?
To paint a clear picture, we should first know about ourselves with the different parts of the brain. Did you know, for example, that our brains are made up of around 100 billion nerve cells (神经细胞) called neurons (神经元)? And coming from these neurons are several branch-like structures for sending and receiving electrical signals? Every time we do or think anything, a signal is sent. The signal travels down a long structure called the axon (轴突) and, at the end, it passes across small gaps called synapses (神经元的突触) to the dendrites (树突) of another neuron, which receive the signal. In this way, messages are sent across our neural network.
Our brain structure changes greatly as we grow up. Newborn babies have almost all their neurons but few connections between them, which is why they can’t do very much. After a few months however, the number of connections increases quickly, which in turn helps small kids master new skills such as walking and talking. Most brain development is completed in the first few years, but we now know that our brains continue to develop throughout our lives and perhaps the most surprising time of change and development is during adolescence.
During this period of reorganization, the brain notices a sudden increase in neurons not dissimilar to a plant growing uncontrollably in spring. Just as we cut back a plant to make it stronger and healthier, we cut back our brains. The connections that are used become stronger, whereas those which aren’t used dry and die. So, the more often an action or thought is activated, the stronger the connections become between the neurons, which in turn makes the part of the brain being used stronger. This explains why the more you do something, the better you become at it, reinforcing the old saying “practice makes perfect”. In fact, the teenage brain provides conditions for perfecting skills such as playing a musical instrument, speaking another language, or learning a difficult computer game. It could be argued that teenagers decide the development of their own grey matter through the activities they take part in and their experiences.
It may also be unsurprising to many to learn that the last part of the adolescent brain to develop is the frontal cortex (额皮质), responsible for self-control, problem solving and decision making. So, long before teens are good at abstract thinking (抽象思维) and logical decision making, they depend on the emotional center of the brain to make choices and think. So perhaps unpredictable, uncertain, risk taking teenage behaviors, often put down to hormones (荷尔蒙), may actually have more to do with what’s going on inside our brain.
1. What do we learn about the structure of the brain?| A．All neurons are activated when we think. |
| B．The structure of a brain cell is compared to a tree. |
| C．Neurons allow a message to travel around the brain. |
| D．The structure of a brain changes when a message is sent. |
| A．A decision helps babies learn how to speak. |
| B．Most changes in brain happen after adulthood. |
| C．The process of brain development is continuous. |
| D．Babies are born with the ability to do anything. |
| A．judging | B．challenging | C．supporting | D．limiting |
| A．are cleverer than they used to be when they study their brains |
| B．are misunderstood and they can play difficult computer games |
| C．want to learn more about the changes in their brains and bodies |
| D．can benefit from understanding the changes that happen in their brains |
2 . In ancient (古代的) times, people tried to explain the world based on what they saw. People saw that the sun came up from one side of the earth and went down on the other side. So they believed that the sun traveled around the earth. Going directly from observation (观察) to conclusion (结论) is called non-scientific thinking.
Here is an example of non-scientific thinking. Maybe you had a stomachache, and ate some chocolates. An hour later, you felt much better. You might think that it was the chocolates that made you feel better. But there are other possible explanations. Maybe you had taken some medicine an hour earlier, and it took a while to work. Maybe enough time had passed, and you would have felt better without eating the chocolates.
While the scientific method is a way of thinking that helps you to avoid drawing wrong conclusions. It helps you to avoid no-scientific thinking. It reminds you to take your first conclusion as one of several possible conclusions. It also reminds you to find evidence (证据) to support your conclusion.
The five steps in the scientific method begin by questioning an observation, and end with a conclusion that is based on evidence. Step 1 is to ask a question about your observation, such as, “What makes a stomachache feel better?” Step 2 is to state a possible answer to the question, such as, “Chocolates make a sick stomach feel better.” Step 3 is to test. You could wait until you have a stomachache again, eat some chocolates, and see what happens. You could ask a lot of people if eating chocolates had ever made a stomachache feel better. Step 4 is to think about the findings—think about what happened when you made tests. Step 5 is to draw a conclusion—and share it with others.
1. Why does the writer use the example of the sun and the earth in Paragraph 1?| A．To show what non-scientific thinking is like. |
| B．To prove that the sun travels around the earth. |
| C．To help people explain the world around them. |
| D．To tell us people in ancient times were clever. |
| A．Many findings are from what you see. | B．Conclusions usually come from testing. |
| C．Interviewing is a quick way to get answers. | D．Questions are more important than answers. |
| A．The reasons why scientific thinking is more popular. |
| B．The possible explanations for non-scientific thinking. |
| C．The differences between scientific and non-scientific thinking. |
| D．The conclusions made by scientific and non-scientific thinking. |
3 . Personality describes the certain ways of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that tell apart a person from others. The word “personality” comes from the Latin word “persona”, which refers to a mask worn by performers in the theatre to play roles, or disguise who the person is. Although there are many meanings of mask personality, most focus on the way of behaviors and characteristics that can help predict and explain a person’s behavior. Explanations for personality can focus on lots of influences, from genetic (基因的) effects to the role of the environment and experience in shaping a person’s personality.
Types of Personality
There is popular general knowledge of personality types such as the Myers-Briggs theory. The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI人格类型量表)recognizes a personality based on four aspects: introversion-extraversion (内倾-外倾), sensing-intuition (实感-知觉), thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving (判断-感知). After taking a Myers-Briggs personality test, you are considered one of 16 personality types. Here are some examples of these personality types:
◇ISTJ: Introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging. People with this personality type are logical, organized, detail-oriented and practical.
◇INFP: Introverted, intuitive, feeling, and perceiving. They are easy to be idealists and sensitive to their feelings.
◇ESFJ: Extroverted, sensing, feeling, and judging. They are outgoing, kind, loyal and sensitive.
◇ENFJ: Extroverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging. They are known as “givers” for being warm-hearted and they are practical.
◇…
________
Research on personality can offer deep understanding about how personality develops and changes over the course of a lifetime. This research can also have important practical applications in the real world. For example, people can use a personality test to learn more about themselves and their advantages or disadvantages. Some tests give people deep understanding about how their personality affects many areas of their lives, including careers, relationships, personal growth, and more. Understanding your personality type can help you find out what career you might enjoy, how well you might perform in certain job roles, or how effective a kind of psychological treatment could be for you. Personality type can also have an influence on your health, including how often you visit the doctor and how you deal with stress.
Understanding the psychology (心理学) of personality is much more than simply general knowledge or studying. The findings from personality research can have important applications in the world of medicine, health, business, economics, technology, among others. By building a better understanding of how personality works, we can look for new ways to improve both personal and public health.
1. What does the word “disguise” probably mean in Paragraph 1?
| A．To question. | B．To hide. | C．To discuss. | D．To guess. |
| A．Outgoing and kind. | B．Humorous and self-confident. |
| C．Curious and practical. | D．Practical and sensitive. |
| A．The Influence of Personality. | B．The Forms of Personality. |
| C．The Changes in Personality. | D．The Studies on Personality. |
| A．people’s living environment is decided by personality |
| B．a personality test is a must when looking for a worker |
| C．deep understanding of how personality works matters a lot |
| D．learning psychology can largely improve one’s personality |
Eyes on Vision
Two years ago, Azara Mason was having trouble seeing the board in class. An eye doctor told her she had myopia（近视）, or nearsightedness! People who are nearsighted have trouble seeing things that are far away. Azara now wears glasses when she needs them.
The eye works like a camera. Light passes through a lens and is turned into images. The brain then helps us understand what they are.
When people have healthy vision, their eyes focus（聚焦） light on the retina（视网膜）. When people are nearsighted, their eyes focus light in front of the retina. That makes objects that are far away look blurry.
Dr Maria Liu is head of the Myopia Control Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley. She says a growing number of people have myopia, and kids are developing it at a younger age.
Many studies show a rise in myopia. The National Eye Institute（NEI） found that nearsightedness among Americans grew 66% from 1971 to 2004. Experts say that by 2020, myopia could affect（影响） one third of the world’s population.
Scientists link（联系） the rise in nearsightedness to an increase in near work, including computer and cell-phone use. Studies show that less time spent outdoors may also be adding to the increase.
What can you do to take care of your eyes? Liu advises everyone to stay away from electronic devices（设备） and spend more time outdoors to keep eyes healthy. Screen-Free Week, from May 4 to 10, is a good time to do just that. Liu also tells patients to take a 15-minute break to look at things in the distance for every 45 minutes of near work.
If you are worried about your vision, you should visit an eye-care professional. Liu often advises patients to use special contact lenses and eye drops. She says they can correct nearsightedness and slow it from progressing. Glasses and regular contact lenses improve vision but don’t have that extra benefit（益处）, she says.
If you suffer（遭受） from myopia, your parents and doctor can best decide the treatment that is right for you. Azara’s mom is looking into options other than glasses. But for now, Azara continues to happily wear her glasses and clearly see the board.
1. The word “blurry” in Paragraph 3 probably means “________”.| A．large | B．bright | C．disordered | D．unclear |
| A．The treatments for myopia. |
| B．The link between myopia and near work. |
| C．The causes of increase in myopia. |
| D．The electronics for studying myopia. |
| A．Using eyedrops can’t slow nearsightedness from progressing. |
| B．The number of people who suffer from myopia is increasing. |
| C．People’s eyes focus light behind the retina if they are nearsighted. |
| D．Reading on electronic devices outdoors can help to keep eyes healthy. |
5 . A new study finds climate events such as flooding, heatwaves and drought worsen more than half of the known diseases that infect people. These diseases include malaria（疟疾）, cholera（霍乱）and anthrax（炭疽）.
Researchers examined medical literature（文献）of established cases of such diseases. They found out that 218 out of the known 375 human infectious diseases seemed to be made worse by extreme weather connected to climate change. The study connected more than 1,000 pathways from climate events to sick people. In some cases, heavy rains and flooding sicken people through disease-carrying mosquitoes, rats and deer. Other events, like warming oceans and heatwaves, spoil seafood and droughts bring bats carrying viral（病毒性的）infections to people.
Medical doctors, going back to the days of ancient Greek civilization, have long connected disease to weather. But this study shows how widespread the influence of climate events is on human health. “Climate is changing, and the risk of these diseases is changing,” said Dr Jonathan Patz. “The findings of this study are terrifying and illustrate well the enormous consequences of climate change on human pathogens（病原体）. Humans need to all work together to prevent disasters from climate change.”
Camilo Mora, a climate data expert, said the study is not about predicting future cases. “These are things that have already happened,” he noted. Here’s one example Mora knows from his own experience. About five years ago, Mora’s home in rural Colombia was flooded, creating a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Mora contracted Chikungunya, a virus spread by mosquito bites. He survived, but he still suffers pain related to the disease. In another case, the remains of a reindeer which died from anthrax were unearthed as the Siberian permafrost（永冻土）melted from warming in 2016. A child touched the dead animal, got anthrax, and an outbreak spread.
Dr Aaron Bernstein said the study is a good warning about climate and health for now and the future. He added, “But of course, it only reports on what we already know, and what’s yet unknown about pathogens may be yet more convincing about how preventing further climate change may prevent future disasters like COVID-19.”
1. What is the main idea of the passage?| A．Climate disasters make infectious diseases worse. |
| B．Climate disasters bring deadly threats to humans |
| C．Climate disasters cause unknown infectious diseases. |
| D．Climate disasters enable viruses to spread across the world. |
| A．the wide spread of climate-related viruses | B．the dangers of disease-carrying animals |
| C．the real-life impact of climate change | D．the huge damages of infectious diseases |
| A．more related researches are needed | B．unknown diseases are the real threat |
| C．COVID-19 still remains a mystery | D．actions should be taken for prevention |
6 . Exploring Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Gaining a richer and deeper understanding of psychology can help people achieve insights into their own actions as well as a better understanding of other people.
One important benefit from a psychology major is that it teaches the student about the human mind and why people act in various manners. Not all psychology majors will become psychologists.
Psychology also offers the individual insight into himself or herself. As the person learns about the human mind, how it works and why people behave in specific manners, the person may also begin to recognize both harmful and helpful thought patterns in himself or herself.
This may lead the person to an increased level of self-awareness.
| A．Self-awareness is a vital skill for any person to have. |
| B．It shows the individual what areas the person needs to strengthen. |
| C．As a result, psychology becomes an incredibly popular college major. |
| D．A psychology major examines the science of human behavior and mental processes. |
| E．All fields have the opportunity to benefit from the guidance that psychology can offer. |
| F．The third reason why psychology is a useful major is that it opens up a wide range of career opportunities. |
| G．However, all psychology majors will develop an increased awareness about human behavior and thought patterns. |
7 . Does Music Make You Smarter?
What interests many parents is that musical training improves the development of the brain — that “music makes us smarter”. According to a study published by the UK’s largest music education body, 7 out of every 10 children say they presently play a musical instrument. Whether this figure (数字) shows that most parents do believe the statement, or whether the potential benefits of music are hard to ignore (忽视). Ongoing research looks for suggestive evidence proving that musical training may actually strengthen the so-called “smart skills”.
The relationship between music and memory has long been the subject of research. In the 2003 study by The Chinese University of Hong Kong were 90 boys between the ages of 6 and 15, half of whom had 1 to 5 years of musical training and half of whom had none at all. Each of them had a memory test, with the musically trained students recalling more words, and being able to memorize more words after 30 minutes. One year later, a follow-up study showed that those students who had continued training, as well as novices who had recently begun musical training, both showed improvement in retention. However, students who had stopped music practice fewer than three months after the first study showed no further improvement. These results suggest that music training might improve memory function.
There is also increasing evidence that musical training may result in structural changes to the brain. Noticeable differences have been found between the brains of musicians and non-musicians. The size of those areas of the musician’s brain connected with hearing and visuospatial abilities is larger. A 2014 study found that the part of the cortex (大脑皮层) was thicker in children who had taken musical training.
However, like many scientific studies, research into the benefits of music remains ongoing, with many different opinions. Some deny (否认) that music makes people smarter. Others think that people who are naturally gifted in the cognitive (认知的) functions are simply more likely to play musical instruments. It would therefore be premature (草率的) to state without any doubt that music makes people smarter. Whatever the truth behind the statement that “music makes us smarter”, it should eventually come second only to the fact that music is one of life’s greatest pleasures.
1. The studies by The Chinese University of Hong Kong show that ________.| A．most parents believe the statement |
| B．people who take musical training might be happier |
| C．musical training may result in changes to the brain |
| D．musical training might improve students’ ability to remember things |
| A．memory | B．practice | C．train | D．subject |
| A．People have different opinions on whether music can make them smarter. |
| B．A child whose cortex is thicker prefers to take musical training. |
| C．70 percent of students like playing musical instrument. |
| D．Students who had taken the test had continued training. |
| A．To stress that musical training may benefit the brain. |
| B．To show that finding pleasure in music is important. |
| C．To suggest that people learn a musical instrument. |
| D．To remind that musicians are usually smart. |
8 . Nowadays our life is getting more and more demanding. It seems that multitasking can help us get out of the trouble. It was first used to describe computer performance. However, the human brain, is not a computer. And human attention is a very limited resource. Can we actually multitask?
According to the spotlight theory of attention, when we focus on the leftmost or rightmost things, our attention must cover the intervening region(间隔区) because the spotlight of attention cannot be divided. Even though we’re constantly receiving a huge amount of information from our senses, it’s only possible for a small amount to make it through to conscious awareness(意识). Take the Bouncing Ball Experiment for an example. Let’s watch carefully and pay particular attention to how many balls bounce(弹跳) in the circle. How many balls can you count? Seven, right? But did you also notice that little dinosaur? What about the changing shape of the circle? Or the smiley face on one of the balls? This experiment shows just how powerful our focused attention is.
Being able to delete irrelevant(无关的) detail is an amazingly useful tool, but it means we might miss things that are right under our noses. This is the effect known as inattention blindness. You can see this very clearly in the famous Invisible Gorilla experiment. When asked to concentrate exclusively on how often basketball players in white pass the ball, most people completely miss the gorilla walking across the screen and beating his chest.
We just don’t have the ability to process everything at a time. This is a particular problem when we try to multitask. We can change attention from one task to another and back again. But when attention is overloaded, we miss things, and the result is nearly always that we perform tasks less well than we will do them one at a time. It’s only truly possible to do two things at once if they require different sets of mental(头脑的) resources. For example, it’s totally possible to read a book and listen to music at the same time.
This would suggest that driving while talking on the phone is not a problem, as long as it’s a hands-free phone. But it’s not that simple. Research has shown that while talking on the phone we have tendency(趋势) to create mental images, and this uses the same visual resources needed for driving. And if visual resources become too spread, it’s possible for a driver to look directly at a danger but, just like with that little dinosaur, fail to see it.
So multitasking makes us at best, inefficient, and at worst, downright dangerous. If you’re feeling like you should be doing 17 things at once, remember, that’s just not the way your brain works.
1. The spotlight theory of attention in Paragraph 2 shows that ________.| A．only a small amount of information can be noticed by us |
| B．our attention is good at receiving information unlimitedly |
| C．the spotlight attention can be divided into several regions |
| D．it’s important to improve our powerful focused attention |
| A．each of the tasks is completed as the way the brain works |
| B．several tasks are repeated in a regular cycle one by one |
| C．mental resources are used to finish the tasks separately |
| D．mental attention resources are overloaded or too spread |
| A．We should learn to recognize different information from multitask. |
| B．Multitasking can help us improve the efficiency of our daily work. |
| C．We have to carry out special training for higher quality of multitask. |
| D．Our brains are hardly able to deal with multitask at the same time. |
| A．To tell the advantages of changing tasks from one to another. |
| B．To remind us to take notice of the bad results of multitasking. |
| C．To teach us how to multitask to lower the stress in daily lives. |
| D．To show some successful experience of developing multitask. |
In many ways, our memories define (定义) our sense of self. You first have a sense of yourself early in life, perhaps as young as 18 months, when you recognize that the little baby you see in the mirror is really you, and not another child. As you progress through childhood and into teenage years, you start to develop a set of views about your identity (身份), including how your body looks and performs, your abilities, your personality and your place in society.
While we are growing up, we start to create our own descriptions about the events we have gone through, or what I call the “life story”. Our identities are shaped by our life stories, as the memories of these stories gradually become a part of our sense of self. Of all these memories, the most important are “self-defining memories”. They are remembered most clearly and can help to build up our overall sense of self most greatly.
Learning to recognize your own self-defining memories can help you gain important insights about your identity. The easiest way to discover your own self-defining memories is by thinking about the events in your life that you are most likely to tell other people about when they say “tell me a little about yourself”.
However, self-defining memories are always changing as you experience more events. They may vary according to your age and what you care about in present life.
In a study, scientists compared older adults with college students. They found that older adults were more likely to feel more positively (正面地) about their self-defining memories, even if the memories were of events that were negative in nature. A similar study also suggests that older adults have found ways to make sense out of their life stories. They turn memories of troubling events into positive stories, and in this way, they make peace with their past struggles (挣扎). For younger adults, troubling events cause them to experience more pain when they recall them. As scientists have discovered, a self-defining memory does not have to be positive in order for you to grow from it. It’s not the event, but the meaning you make out of the event, that affects (影响) your sense of well-being.
Discovering your self-defining memories is an important step in dealing with your life experiences. By recognizing and making sense out of past events, your identity can continue to grow and improve how you see yourself, both now, and in the future.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Our self-defining memories have little to do with age. |
| B．Our own descriptions of life experiences shape our identity. |
| C．We should share positive life stories when introducing ourselves. |
| D．We start to have self-defining memories when we are 18 months old. |
| A．important events can be changed by time |
| B．older adults have few troubling life events |
| C．making sense out of memories helps us to grow |
| D．self-discovery happens during positive experiences |
| A．Self-defining memories: How others get to know you |
| B．Self-defining memories: A collection of pleasant memories |
| C．Self-defining memories: A great way to understand yourself |
| D．Self-defining memories: Describing your best self to the world |
10 . Think back to when you were in a classroom, maybe a maths classroom and the teacher set a difficult problem. Which of the two following responses is closer to the way you reacted?
A: Oh no, this is too hard for me. I’m not even going to seriously try and work it out.
B: Ah, this is quite hard but I like to push myself. Even if I don’t get the answer right, maybe I’ll learn something in the attempt (尝试).
Early in her career, the psychologist Carol Dweck of Stanford University gave a group of ten-year-olds problems that were slightly too hard for them. One group reacted positively said they loved challenge and understood that their abilities could be developed. She said they had a “growth mindset” and focused on what they could achieve in the future. But another group of children felt that their intelligence was being judged and they had failed. They had a “fixed mindset” and were unable to imagine improving. These students even looked for someone who had done worse than them to boost (提升) their self-esteem (自尊). Professor Dweck believes that there is a problem in education at the moment. For years, children have been praised for their intelligence or talent, but thus makes them vulnerable (脆弱的) to failure. They want to please by getting high grades, but they are not necessarily interested in learning for its own sake (目的). The solution, according to Dweck, is to praise the process that children are engaged (忙于) in making an effort, using learning strategies, persevering (坚持) and improving. This way they will become mastery-oriented (interested in getting better at something) and will achieve more. She thinks that keeping working hard over time is the key to outstanding achievement.
Psychologists have been testing these theories. Students were taught that if they left their comfort zone and learned something new and difficult, the neurons (神经元) in their brains would form stronger connections, making them more intelligent. These students made faster progress than a control group. In another study, some under-performing school children were exposed (接触) to growth mindset skills for a year. The results were surprising. They came top in tests, beating children from much more better schools. These children had previously (以前) felt that making an effort was a sign of stupidity, but they came to see it as the key to learning.
So, back to our original question. If you answered B, well done —you already have a growth mindset. If A, don’t worry, everyone can become mastery-oriented with a little effort and self-awareness.
1. A growth mindset person is the one who ________.| A．focuses on what he has achieved at present |
| B．faces challenges positively to help himself grow |
| C．looks for someone who did worse than him |
| D．is unwilling to experience what he doesn’t know |
| A．Praising children for their intelligence has a positive influence on learning. |
| B．A person with a fixed mindset can easily improve himself in his comfort zone. |
| C．Intelligence or talent is the key to people’s outstanding achievement. |
| D．Guiding students to focus on learning process can help them achieve more. |
| A．testing students often can make them more intelligent |
| B．keeping working hard makes people vulnerable to failure |
| C．practicing growth mindset skills helps students get improvement |
| D．staying in the comfort zone is a good way to boost students’ self-esteem |
| A．To encourage people to develop a growth mindset. |
| B．To explain a scientific experiment about intelligence. |
| C．To discuss what the true meaning of achievement is. |
| D．To compare the differences between growth mindset and fixed mindset. |
