1 . The Stanford marshmallow (棉花糖) test was originally conducted by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s. Children aged four to six at a nursery school were placed in a room. A single sugary treat, selected by the child, was placed on a table. Each child was told if they waited for 15 minutes before eating the treat, they would be given a second treat. Then they were left alone in the room. Follow-up studies with the children later in life showed a connection between an ability to wait long enough to obtain a second treat and various forms of success.
As adults we face a version of the marshmallow test every day. We’re not tempted by sugary treats, but by our computers, phones, and tablets — all the devices that connect us to the global delivery system for various types of information that do to us what marshmallows do to preschoolers.
We are tempted by sugary treats because our ancestors lived in a calorie-poor world, and our brains developed a response mechanism to these treats that reflected their value — a feeling of reward and satisfaction. But as we’ve reshaped the world around us, dramatically reducing the cost and effort involved in obtaining calories, we still have the same brains we had thousands of years ago, and this mismatch is at the heart of why so many of us struggle to resist tempting foods that we know we shouldn’t eat.
A similar process is at work in our response to information. Our formative environment as a species was information-poor, so our brains developed a mechanism that prized new information. But global connectivity has greatly changed our information environment. We are now ceaselessly bombarded (轰炸) with new information. Therefore, just as we need to be more thoughtful about our caloric consumption, we also need to be more thoughtful about our information consumption, resisting the temptation of the mental “junk food” in order to manage our time most effectively.
1. What did the children need to do to get a second treat in Mischel’s test?A.Take an examination alone. | B.Share their treats with others. |
C.Delay eating for fifteen minutes. | D.Show respect for the researchers. |
A.the calorie-poor world and our good appetites | B.the shortage of sugar and our nutritional needs |
C.the tempting foods and our efforts to keep fit | D.the rich food supply and our unchanged brains |
A.Be selective information consumers. | B.Absorb new information readily. |
C.Use diverse information sources. | D.Protect the information environment. |
A.Eat Less, Read More | B.The Later, the Better |
C.The Marshmallow Test for Grownups | D.The Bitter Truth about Early Humans |
2 . On September 7, 1991, the costliest hailstorm (雹暴) in Canadian history hit Calgary’s southern suburbs. As a result, since 1996 a group of insurance companies have spent about $2 million per year on the Alberta Hail Suppression Project. Airplanes seed threatening storm cells with a chemical to make small ice crystals fall as rain before they can grow into dangerous hailstones. But farmers in east-central Alberta — downwind of the hail project flights — worry that precious moisture (水分) is being stolen from their thirsty land by the cloud seeding.
Norman Stienwand, who farms in that area, has been addressing public meetings on this issue for years. “Basically, the provincial government is letting the insurance companies protect the Calgary-Edmonton urban area from hail,” Mr. Stienwand says, “but they’re increasing drought risk as far east as Saskatchewan.”
The Alberta hail project is managed by Terry Krauss, a cloud physicist who works for Weather Modification Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota. “We affect only a very small percentage of the total moisture in the air, so we cannot be causing drought.” Dr. Krauss says. “In fact, we may be helping increase the moisture downwind by creating wetter ground.”
One doubter about the safety of cloud seeding is Chuck Doswell, a research scientist who just retired from the University of Oklahoma. “In 1999, I personally saw significant tornadoes form from a seeded storm cell in Kansas,” Dr. Doswell says. “Does cloud seeding create killer storms or reduce moisture downwind? No one really knows, of course, but the seeding goes on.”
Given the degree of doubt, Mr. Stienwand suggests, “It would be wise to stop cloud seeding.” In practice, doubt has had the opposite effect. Due to the lack of scientific proof concerning their impacts, no one has succeeded in winning a lawsuit against cloud-seeding companies. Hence, private climate engineering can proceed in relative legal safety.
1. What does the project aim to do?A.Conserve moisture in the soil. | B.Forecast disastrous hailstorms. |
C.Prevent the formation of hailstones. | D.Investigate chemical use in farming. |
A.Managers of insurance companies. | B.Farmers in east-central Alberta. |
C.Provincial government officials. | D.Residents of Calgary and Edmonton. |
A.To compare different kinds of seeding methods. | B.To illustrate the development of big hailstorms. |
C.To show the link between storms and moisture. | D.To indicate a possible danger of cloud seeding. |
A.Scientific studies have proved Stienwand right. | B.Cloud-seeding companies will continue to exist. |
C.The doubt about cloud seeding has disappeared. | D.Private climate engineering is illegal in Canada. |
3 . When was the last time you used a telephone box? I mean to make an actual phone call — not to shelter from the rain. Ages ago, right? The last time I used a phone box for its intended purpose was…2006. I was conducting auditions (试演) for my play in my tiny old shared house in London. Hoping to impress some talented actors to come and work for me for nothing, I spread some throws over the sofas and lit candles to make it seem a bit more ”young professional”.
As I rushed outdoors to empty the wastepaper baskets, the door swung shut behind me. Suddenly I was locked outside. My mobile phone was inside, but luckily there was a telephone box across the street. So, I called Directory Assistance, got put through to our landlady’s managing agent, and had a spare key sent to me with just enough time to get back in before the actors arrived.
As it has been many years since I last used one, I should hardly be surprised that then are no longer any public telephones near my house. The last one standing has just been turn into a “mini community library”: any passer-by can “borrow” a book from its shelves return it later, or replace it with another title from their own collection.
For a few months after the “library” opened, I didn’t bother taking a look, as I had assumed that it would be stuffed full of cheese love stories. Then I noticed fork conducting spring cleans dropping boxes of voluminous books on various subjects there. And these books were free. This unbeatable price-point encouraged me to experiment with dozens of titles that I would never normally consider buying. And I’ve discovered some great books!
If I ever get trapped outside my house again, my local telephone box will, sadly no longer be able to connect me with my keys. But it can certainly keep me entertained while I wait for my wife to rescue me.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in the first paragraph refer to?A.The play. | B.The shared house. |
C.The sofa. | D.The telephone box. |
A.To place an urgent call. | B.To put up a notice. |
C.To shelter from the rain. | D.To hold an audition. |
A.It provides phone service for free. | B.Anyone can contribute to its collection. |
C.It is popular among young readers. | D.Books must be returned within a month. |
A.He wanted to borrow some love stories. |
B.He was encouraged by a close neighbour. |
C.He found there were excellent free books. |
D.He thought it was an ideal place for reading. |
4 . Tom Sawyer Play Is an Adventure
A 35-minute hand-clapping, foot-stomping musical version of a Mark Twain favorite returns with this Tall Stacks festival.
“Tom Sawyer: A River Adventure” has all the good stuff, including the fence painting, the graveyard, the island and the cave. It is adapted by Joe McDonough, with music by David Kisor. That’s the local stage writing team that creates many of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati’s original musicals, along with the holiday family musicals at Ensemble Theatre.
This year Nathan Turner of Burlington is Tom Sawyer, and Robbie McMath of Fort Mitchell is Huck Finn.
Tumer, a 10th-grader at School for Creative and Performing Arts, is a familiar presence on Cincinnati’s stages. He is a star act or of Children’s Theatre, having played leading roles in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Wizard of Oz,” and is fresh from Jersey Production “Ragtime”.
McMath is a junior at Beechwood High School. He was in the cast of “Tom Sawyer” when it was first performed and is a Children’s Theatre regular, with five shows to his credit. This summer he attended Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts in Musical Theatre.
Note to teachers: Children’s Theatre has a study guide demonstrating how math and science can be taught through “Tom Sawyer.” For downloadable lessons, visit the official website of Children’s Theatre.
1. Who wrote the music for “Tom Sawyer: A River Adventure”?A.David Kisor. | B.Joe McDonough. |
C.Nathan Turner. | D.Robbie McMath. |
A.They study in the same school. | B.They worked together in ”Ragtime“. |
C.They are experienced on stage. | D.They became friends ten years ago. |
A.Research funding. | B.Training opportunities. |
C.Technical support. | D.Educational resources. |
5 . Many people believe that working to the maximum is the secret to success, but research has found that moderation(适度) also gets results on the job.
In a study led by Ellen Langer of Harvard University, researchers asked people to translate sentences into a new made-up language. Subjects who practiced the language moderately beforehand made fewer errors than those who practiced extensively or not at all. High levels of knowledge can make people too attached to traditional ways of viewing problems across fields the arts, sciences, and politics. High conscientiousness is related to lower job performance, especially in simple jobs where it doesn’t pay to be a perfectionist.
How long we stay on the clock and how we spend that time are under careful examination in many workplaces. The young banker who eats lunch at his desk is probably seen as a go-getter, while his colleagues who chat over a relaxed conference-room meal get dirty looks from the corner office. “People from cultures that value relationships more than ours does are shocked by the thought of eating alone in front of a computer”, says Art Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. Social interaction has been shown to lift mood(情绪) and get people thinking in new directions and in ways that could help improve any post-lunch effort.
Markman also promotes off-task time. “Part of being a good thinker is experiencing things that are seemingly unrelated to what you are working on at the moment but give you fresh ideas about your work,” he says. “Also, there is a lot of research showing that a positive mood leads to higher levels of productivity and creativity. So, when people do things to increase their life satisfaction, they also make themselves more effective at work.”
1. What does Ellen Langer’s study show?A.It is worthwhile to be a perfectionist | B.Translation makes people knowledgeable. |
C.Simpler jobs require greater caution. | D.Moderate effort produces the best result. |
A.is good at handling pressure | B.works hard to become successful |
C.a has a natural talent for his job. | D.gets on well with his co-workers |
A.A good thinker is able to inspire other people. |
B.Experience unrelated to your job is useless. |
C.A cheerful mood helps make a creative mind. |
D.Focusing on what you do raises productivity. |
A.Middle-of-the-road work habits. | B.Balance between work and family. |
C.Long-standing cultural traditions. | D.Harmony in the work environment. |
6 . All around the world, there are small changes taking place. At the side of roads, behind school playgrounds and on all kinds of unloved pieces of land across towns and cities, tiny forests barely the size of tennis courts are appearing, making a great place for both wildlife and local people who may not normally have easy access to nature. This is the Tiny Forest movement, which aims to prove that the best things in life really do come in small packages.
Tiny forests were first pioneered as a concept in the 1970s by Dr Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist. As he went on to share his concept with others, the idea soon took off in India and other countries before eventually reaching Europe, where it became popular in places like France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
So how does it work? Louise Hartley, who is leading the Tiny Forest project in the UK, explains that the process begins by identifying areas in which a tiny forest could have the biggest influence. “We focus on urban areas where access to nature is often not that easy”, says Hartley. “We see it as a chance to try to break the growing disconnect between people and nature.”
In a Tiny Forest, there must be a minimum of 600 trees, and the trees are planted much closer together and without chemicals or fertilisers (肥料). There are usually around 30 different kinds of all-native tree species (物种). This variety, coupled with the fact that tiny forests grow up to ten times faster than standard forests, means they attract a rich abundance of wildlife. It’s also thought that these places could help reduce the risk of flooding, remove carbon from the atmosphere and fight climate change, as well as improving the mental health of those living locally.
1. What do we know about the Tiny Forest movement?A.It has achieved notable success. | B.It is led by number of schools. |
C.It began in Europe in the 1970s. | D.It will spread to the countryside. |
A.To promote eco-tourism. | B.To improve forestry research. |
C.To popularise gardening. | D.To get people close to nature. |
A.They are small in size. | B.They are thickly planted. |
C.They are foreign species. | D.They are heavily fertilised. |
7 . Pasta and pizza were on everyone’s lunch menu in my native land of Italy. Everyone who had such a lunch was fair-skinned and spoke Italian. A few years later, as I stood in the lunch line with my kindergarten class in a school in Brooklyn, I realized things were no longer that simple. My classmates ranged from those kids with pale skin and large blue eyes to those with rich brown skin and dark hair. The food choices were almost as diverse as the students. In front of me was an array of foods I couldn’t even name in my native language. Fearing that I would pick out something awful, I desperately tried to ask the boy ahead of me for a recommendation. Unfortunately, between us stood the barrier of language.
Although my kindergarten experience feels like a century ago, the lessons I learned will stick in my mind forever. For the past three summers, I have worked in a government agency in New York. New immigrants much like the little girl in the lunch line flooded our office seeking help. I often had to be an interpreter for the Italian-speaking ones. As I served the role of vital communication link, I was reminded of my desperate struggle to converse before I learned English. I watched with great sympathy as elderly Italians tried to hold a conversation in Italian with people who did not speak the language. It suddenly became very clear to me how lucky I was to be fluent in two languages.
In New York, a multicultural city, students like me are blessed with a chance to work with a diverse population. In my English to Italian translations, I’ve learned about social programs that I didn’t know existed. This work expanded my mind in ways that are impossible inside the four walls of a classroom. Walking through the streets of Brooklyn today, I am no longer confused by this city’s sounds and smells. Instead, enjoy its diversity.
1. What did the author realize after entering school in Brooklyn?A.Time passed quickly. | B.English was hard to learn. |
C.The food was terrible. | D.People were very different. |
A.An Italian teacher. | B.A government official. |
C.The author herself. | D.The author’s classmate. |
A.It strengthened her love for school. | B.It helped sharpen her sense of direction. |
C.It opened her eyes to the real world. | D.It made her childhood dream come true. |
8 . I have the same 24 hours in a day as you do, but I have made specific choice that allow me to make the most of every day and still feel happy and relaxed.
Pick the most important.
Combine your activities.
Many people go crazy trying to figure out how to spend time with friends, family, work, play, etc.
You would think learning takes more time from you, but actually there are always new ways of doing things that can save you time on daily tasks, freeing you up for the most important. Always be looking for a new way to gain back an hour here or there.
Lighten up.
The world won't come to an end in most cases just because you left a few things undone. Celebrate progress and keep refining (改进) toward a happy productive existence.
A.Speed up. |
B.Be an active learner. |
C.Stop trying to balance time between them all. |
D.Make choices about what is meaningful in your life. |
E.The things you do well usually give you greater joy. |
F.Perhaps these tips will help you make the most of your time. |
G.This is why making lists is important in any productivity handbook. |
9 . The benefits of regular exercise are well documented but there’s a new bonus to add to the ever-growing list. New researchers found that middle-aged women who were physically fit could be nearly 90 percent less likely to develop dementia in later life, and as they did, it came on a decade later than less sporty women.
Lead researcher Dr. Helena Horder, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said : "These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people's cardiovascular (心血管的)fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia. "
For the study, 191 women with an average age of 50 took a bicycle exercise test until they were exhausted to measure their peak (最大值的) cardiovascular capacity. The average peak workload was measured at 103 watts.
A total of 40 women met the criteria for a high fitness level, or 120 watts or higher. A total of 92 women were in the medium fitness category; and 59 women were in the low fitness category, defined as a peak workload of 80 watts or less, or having their exercise tests stopped because of high blood pressure, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems.
These women were then tested for dementia six times over the following four decades. During that time, 44 of the women developed dementia. Five percent of the highly fit women developed dementia, compared to 25 percent of the women with medium fitness and 32 percent of the women with low fitness.
"However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important. " She also admitted that a relatively small number of women were studied, all of whom were form Sweden, so the results might not be applicable to other groups.
1. What is on the ever-growing list mentioned in the first paragraph?A.Positive effects of doing exercises. |
B.Exercises suitable for the middle-aged. |
C.Experimental studies on diseases. |
D.Advantages of sporty woman over man |
A.To predict their maximum heart rate. |
B.To assess their cardiovascular capacity |
C.To change their habits of working out |
D.To detect their potential health problems |
A.It aimed to find a cure for dementia. |
B.Data collection was a lengthy process. |
C.Some participants withdrew from it. |
D.The results were far from satisfactory. |
A.More Women Are Exercising to Prevent Dementia |
B.Middle-Aged Women Need to Do More Exercise |
C.Fit Women Are Less Likely to Develop Dementia |
D.Biking Improves Women's Cardiovascular Fitness |
10 . The United States rose to global power on the strength of its technology, and the lifeblood that technology has long been electricity. By providing long-distance communication and energy, electricity created the modern world. Yet properly understood, the age of electricity is merely the second stage in the age of steam, which began a century earlier.
"It is curious that no one has put together a history of both the steam and electric revolutions." writes Maury Klein in his book The Power Makers, Steam, Electricity, and the Men Invented Modern America. Klein, a noted historian of technology, spins a narrative so lively that at times it reads like a novel.
The story begins in the last years of the 18th century in Scotland, where Watt perfected "the machine that changed the world". Klein writes, "America did not invent the steam engine, but once they grasped its passwords they put it to more uses than anyone else. "
Meanwhile, over the course of 19th century, electricity went from mere curiosity to a basic necessity. Morse invented a code for sending messages over an electromagnetic circuit. Bell then gave the telegraph a voice. Edison perfected an incandescent bulls that brought electric light into the American home.
Most importantly, Edison realized that success depended on mass electrification, which he showed in New York City. With help from Tesla, Westinghouse's firm developed a system using alternating current, which soon became the major forms of power delivery.
To frame his story, Klein creates the character of Ned, a fictional witness to the progress brought about by the steams and electric revolutions in America during one man's lifetime. It's a technique that helps turn a long narrative into an interesting one.
1. What is Klein's understanding of the age of electricity?A.It is closely linked to the steam age. |
B.It began earlier than proper thought. |
C.It is a little-studied period of history. |
D.It will come to an end sooner or later. |
A.He was born in New York City. | B.He wrote many increasing stories, |
C.He created an electricity company. | D.He lived mainly in the 19th century. |
A.A biography. | B.A book review. | C.A short story. | D.A science report. |