1 . Babies are surrounded by human language, always listening and processing. Eventually, they put sounds together to produce a “Daddy” or a “Mama”. But what still confuses neuroscientists is exactly how the brain works to put it all together.
To figure it out, a team of researchers turned to a frequent stand-in (代替) for babies when it comes to language learning: the song-learning zebra finch. “We’ve known songbirds learn their song by first forming a memory of their father’s song or another adult’s song. Then they use that memory to guide their song learning,” said Neuroscientist Todd Roberts. “It’s been a long-term goal of the field to figure out how or where in the brain this memory is. This type of imitative learning that birds do is very similar to the type of learning that we engage in regularly—particularly when we’re young, we use it to guide our speech learning.”
Roberts and his team had a feeling that the interface (交叉区域) between sensory areas and motor areas in the brain was critical for this process, and they focused on a group of brain cells called the NIf.
“In order to prove that we could identify these circuits, we thought if we could implant a false memory.” First, they used a virus to cause the neurons (神经元) in the birds’ NIf to become sensitive to light. Then, using a tiny electrode as a flashlight, they activated (激活) the neurons. The length of each pulse of light corresponded with the amount of time the neurons would fire. And the birds’ brains interpreted that time period as the length of each note.
Soon enough, the birds began to practice the notes they had learned, even though they never really heard the sounds. Amazingly, the birds produced them in the correct social situations. The researchers say this is the first time anybody has found exactly a part of the brain necessary for generating the sorts of memories needed to copy sounds.
“This line of research is going to help us identify where in the brain we encode memories of relevant social experiences that we use to guide learning. We know that there are several neurodevelopmental disorders in people that have really far-reaching effects on this type of learning.”
1. The zebra finch is researched because its song-learning mode ________.| A．decides whether it will sing songs |
| B．helps it to say “Daddy” or “Mama” |
| C．is like the way babies learn speech |
| D．reflects its talent for imitating its father’s song |
| A．The interface in the brain. |
| B．Guidance from adults. |
| C．Imitative learning type like birds’. |
| D．The way of regular learning. |
| A．Scientists activated some neurons by using an electrode. |
| B．A bird only sings what it heard before. |
| C．The brain produces tiny electrodes. |
| D．Birds are sensitive to light. |
| A．A change in our way of listening and processing. |
| B．A chance to have relevant social experiences. |
| C．A better knowledge of the secrets of learning. |
| D．Identification of neurodevelopmental disorders. |
2 . Albert Einstein’s 1915 masterpiece “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity” is the first and still the best introduction to the subject, and I recommend it as such to students. But it probably wouldn’t be publishable in a scientific journal today.
Why not? After all, it would pass with flying colours the tests of correctness and significance. And while popular belief holds that the paper was incomprehensible to its first readers, in fact many papers in theoretical physics are much more difficult.
As the physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “There was a time when the newspapers said that only 12 men understood the theory of relativity. I do believe there might have been a time when only one man did, because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper. But after people read the paper a lot understood the theory of relativity in some way or other, certainly more than 12.”
No, the problem is its style. It starts with a leisurely philosophical discussion of space and time and then continues with an exposition of known mathematics. Those two sections, which would be considered extraneous today, take up half the paper. Worse, there are zero citations of previous scientists’ work, nor are there any graphics. Those features might make a paper not even get past the first editors.
A similar process of professionalization has transformed other parts of the scientific landscape. Requests for research time at major observatories or national laboratories are more rigidly structured. And anything involving work with human subjects, or putting instruments in space, involves piles of paperwork.
We see it also in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Nobel Prize of high school science competitions. In the early decades of its 78-year history, the winning projects were usually the sort of clever but naive, amateurish efforts one might expect of talented beginners working on their own. Today, polished work coming out of internships(实习) at established laboratories is the norm.
These professionalizing tendencies are a natural consequence of the explosive growth of modern science. Standardization and system make it easier to manage the rapid flow of papers, applications and people. But there are serious downsides. A lot of unproductive effort goes into jumping through bureaucratic hoops(繁文缛节), and outsiders face entry barriers at every turn.
Of course, Einstein would have found his way to meeting modern standards and publishing his results. Its scientific core wouldn’t have changed, but the paper might not be the same taste to read.
1. According to Richard Feynman, Einstein’s 1915 paper ________.| A．was a classic in theoretical physics |
| B．turned out to be comprehensible |
| C．needed further improvement |
| D．attracted few professionals |
| A．Unrealistic. | B．Irrelevant. |
| C．Unattractive. | D．Imprecise. |
| A．The application of research findings. |
| B．The principle of scientific research. |
| C．The selection of young talents. |
| D．The evaluation of laboratories. |
| A．What makes Einstein great? |
| B．Will science be professionalized? |
| C．Could Einstein get published today? |
| D．How will modern science make advances? |
3 . The vaccine (疫苗) news continues to seem very encouraging. Britain started its mass vaccination effort and the U.S. isn’t far behind.
But there is still one dark cloud hanging over the vaccines that many people don’t yet understand.
The vaccines will be much less effective at preventing death and illness in 2021 if they are introduced into a population where the coronavirus is still severe—as is now the case in the U.S.
A vaccine is like a fire hose (消防龙头). A vaccine that’s 95 percent effective, as Moderna’s and Pfizer’s versions appear to be, is a powerful fire hose. But the size of a fire is still a bigger determinant of how much destruction occurs.
At the current level of infection in the U.S. (about 200,000 confirmed new infections per day), a vaccine that is 95 percent effective—distributed at the expected pace—would still leave a terrible toll (伤亡人数) in the six months after it was introduced. Almost 10 million or so Americans would catch the virus, and more than 160,000 would die.
This is far worse than the toll in a different situation where the vaccine was only 50 percent effective but the U.S. had reduced the infection rate to its level in early September (about 35,000 new daily cases). In that case, the death toll in the next six months would be kept to about 60,000.
It’s worth pausing for a moment on this comparison. If the U.S. had maintained its infection rate from September and Moderna and Pfizer had announced this fall that their vaccines were only 50 percent effective, a lot of people would have panicked.
But the reality we have is actually worse.
How could this be? No vaccine can get rid of a pandemic immediately, just as .no fire hose can put out a forest fire. While the vaccine is being distributed, the virus continues to do damage.
There is one positive way to look at this: Measures that reduce the virus’s spread—like mask-wearing, social distancing and rapid-result testing—can still have great consequences. They can save more than 100,000 lives in coming months.
1. How does the author mainly present his argument?| A．By giving definitions. | B．By categorizing facts. |
| C．By drawing comparisons. | D．By appealing to emotions. |
| A．Improving the effectiveness of the vaccines. |
| B．Producing a greater variety of vaccines. |
| C．Looking at the situation in a positive way. |
| D．Wearing masks and practicing social distancing. |
| A．The vaccines are less effective than expected. |
| B．The US have controlled the spread of the coronavirus. |
| C．The death toll in the next six months will be about 60,000. |
| D．Fewer people will die if the infection rate is lower. |
| A．The vaccine is the hope of wiping out the pandemic. |
| B．The public are optimistic about the effects of the vaccine. |
| C．The public are concerned about the high infection rate. |
| D．The distribution of vaccine will end the pandemic quickly. |
4 . Oxygen, I'm sure you'd agree, is pretty important for life on Earth. We breathe it in, our cells survive on it and without it, we hardly live. Basically all multicellular life on Earth evolved over millions of years to make use of oxygen.
But take a deep breath, because we need to talk about Henneguya salminicola, a tiny parasite(寄生虫) containing fewer than100 cells that lives within the muscle tissue of salmon, a large fish with silver skin and pink flesh. The strange-looking parasite does not busy itself with such small matters as breathing oxygen. Nope, it seems that H. salminicola is the first multicellular animal we've found that survives without the stuff.
“Aerobic respiration(有氧呼吸) was thought to be commonly found in animals, but now we confirmed that this is not the case, "said Dorothee Huchon, a zoologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, in a press release.
Huchon and a team of international researchers examined and sequenced(排序) all of. salminicola's' genes in their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that the parasite, which is closely related to jellyfish, lacks the DNA machinery necessary to“breathe”---it doesn't' have mitochondria(线粒体), often called the "powerhouse" of the cell, because they use oxygen to make energy. It's like a little factory inside almost all cells, and DNA detectives can find mitochondrial genes during sequencing.
The discovery came as something of an accident for the team, who were examining the genome (the complete set of genes) of the species. When they went searching for the mitochondrial genes, they came up empty-handed. "Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions, ”Huchon said. "Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy, and yet we found an animal that gave up this important pathway.”
Some single-celled life forms have evolved the ability to survive without oxygen and do not have mitochondria, either. Plenty of bacteria can exist without oxygen at all. Instead of oxygen, they get their energy from fermentation(发酵) or use other molecules like iron.
But how H. salminicola produces energy is still unclear. Huchon suggests it could draw oxygen from the cells in salmon or it could have evolved similar methods to those of single-celled organisms which scientists have documented in the past.
1. What can we learn about Henneguya salminicola?| A．It is an animal consisting of a cell. |
| B．It can still survive without oxygen. |
| C．It takes on a normal appearance. |
| D．It has a longer lifespan than salmon. |
| A．To make cells breathe fast. |
| B．To help to produce oxygen. |
| C．To provide energy for cells. |
| D．To help cells absorb oxygen. |
| A．Interested. | B．Satisfied. | C．Astonished. | D．Frightened. |
| A．The natural evolution of animal cells |
| B．Different kinds of life forms on earth |
| C．A research on single-celled organisms |
| D．A creature that doesn't breathe oxygen |
5 . Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives, writes David Sturt, Executive Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Institute, in his book Great Work: How to Make a Difference People Love. Sturt insists, however, that great work is not just for surgeons or special-needs educators or the founders of organizations trying to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The central theme of Great Work, according to Sturt, is that anyone can make a difference in any job. It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do with the job that counts. As proof, Sturt tells the story of a remarkable hospital cleaner named Moses.
In a building filled with doctors and nurses doing great life-saving work, Moses the cleaner makes a difference. Whenever he enters a room, especially a room with a sick child, he engages both patients and parents with his optimism and calm, introducing himself to the child and, Sturt writes, speaking “little comments about light and sunshine and making things clean.” He comments on any progress he sees day by day (“you’re sitting up today, that’s good.”) Moses is no doctor and doesn’t pretend to be, but he has witnessed hundreds of sick children recovering from painful surgery, and parents take comfort from his encouraging words. For Matt and Mindi, whose son McKay was born with only half of a heart, Moses became a close friend. As Sturt explains, “Moses took his innate (与生俱来的) talents (his sensitivity) and his practical wisdom (from years of hospital experience) and combined them into a powerful form of patient and family support that changed the critical-care experience for Mindi, Matt and little McKay.”
How do people like Moses do great work when so many people just work? That was the central question raised by Sturt and his team at the O.C. Tanner Institute, a consulting company specialized in employee recognition and rewards system.
O.C. Tanner launched an exhaustive Great Work study that included surveys to 200 senior executives, a further set of surveys to 1,000 managers and employees working on projects, an in-depth qualitative study of 1.7 million accounts of award-winning work (in the form of nominations (提名) for awards from corporations around the world), and one-on-one interviews with 200 difference makers. The results of the study revealed that those who do great work refuse to be defeated by the constraints of their jobs and are especially able to reframe their jobs: they don’t view their jobs as a list of tasks and responsibilities but see their jobs as opportunities to make a difference. No matter, as Moses so ably exemplifies (例证), what that job may be.
1. According to Sturt, which of the following is TRUE?| A．It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do that makes a difference. |
| B．Anyone in the world is responsible to delete poverty and change the world. |
| C．Anyone can make a difference in people’s lives no matter what kind of job he does. |
| D．Surgeons, special-needs educators and founders of organizations can succeed more easily. |
| A．By keeping optimistic and calm when facing patients and their parents at hospital. |
| B．By showing his special gift and working experience when working at hospital. |
| C．By showing his sympathy and kindness to patients when entering their rooms. |
| D．By pretending to be a doctor or nurse when entering a room with a sick child. |
| A．demands | B．advantages | C．disadvantages | D．limitations |
| A．Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives no matter what you do. |
| B．If a boss has trouble recognizing his employees, he can ask O. C. Tanner for advice. |
| C．Moses makes a difference through his sensitivity and his practical wisdom. |
| D．Those who do great work are never defeated by others or their jobs themselves. |
6 . Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South’s landfill sites(垃圾填埋场).
Electronic waste (e-waste) currently takes up 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase rapidly as more of us own more than one smartphone, laptop and power bank. They end up in places like Agbogbloshie on the outskirts of Ghana’s capital, Accra. It is the biggest e-waste dump in the world, where 10,000 informal workers walk through tons of abandoned goods as part of an informal recycling process. They risk their health searching for the precious metals that are found in abandoned smartphones.
But Agbogbloshie legally should not exist. The Basel Convention, a 1989 treaty, aims to prevent developed nations from unauthorized dumping of e-waste in less developed countries. The e-waste industry, however, circumvents regulation by exporting e-waste labelled as “secondhand goods” to poor countries like Ghana, knowing full well that it is heading for a landfill site.
A recent report found Agbogbloshie contained some of the most dangerous chemicals. This is not surprising: smart phones contain chemicals like mercury(水银), lead and even arsenic(砷). Reportedly, one egg from a free-range chicken in Agbogbloshie contained a certain chemical which can cause cancer and damage the immune system at a level that’s about 220 times greater than a limit set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Most worryingly, these poisonous chemicals are free to pollute the broader soil and water system. This should concern us all, since some of Ghana’s top exports are cocoa and nuts.
Some governments have started to take responsibility for their consumers’ waste. For example, Germany has started a project that includes a sustainable recycling system at Agbogbloshie, along with a health clinic for workers. However, governments cannot solve the problem alone, as there is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, especially when governments’ green policies are focused on issues like climate change.
Only the manufacturers can fix this. A more economically sustainable and politically possible solution is through encouraging hardware manufacturers to make the repair, reuse and recycling of hardware profitable, or at least cost-neutral.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?| A．Electronic waste requires more landfill sites. |
| B．Electronic waste is too complex to get fully recycled. |
| C．Electronic products need to be improved immediately. |
| D．Electronic pollution is a burning question in Agbogbloshie. |
| A．Relaxes. | B．Abolishes. | C．Avoids. | D．Tightens. |
| A．The violation of EFSA’s standards. | B．The threat of polluted food worldwide. |
| C．The lack of diversity in Ghana’s exports. | D．The damage to chicken’s immune system. |
| A．Letting governments take on the main responsibility. |
| B．Reducing customers’ demands for electronic products. |
| C．Governments adjusting their green policies about e-waste. |
| D．Manufacturers’ developing a sustainable hardware economy. |
7 . Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) is one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters. He is famed for the great vitality of his works which are characterized by expressive and emotive use of brilliant color and energetic application of impastoed (厚原料的) paint.
Below are some famous pictures painted by Vincent and the poetic lyrics(歌词) to Don McLean’s hit song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) in the famous cartoon film 《Loving Vincent》 .
| Vincent Starry, starry night, Paint your palette(画板) blue and grey, Look out on a summer’s day, With eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the hills, Sketch the trees and the daffodils, Catch the breeze and the winter chill, In colors on the snowy linen land. Now I understand What you tried to say to me How you suffered for your sanity(精神正常) How you tied to set them free. They would not listen They did not know how Perhaps they'll listen now. Starry, starry night. Flaming flowers that brightly blaze, Swirling clouds in violet haze(阴霾,疑惑), Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue. Colors changing hue, morning. field of amber(黄色的) grain, Weathered faces lined in pain, Are soothed(抚慰) beneath the artist’s loving hand. For they could not love you, But still your love was true. And when no hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night, You took your life, as lovers often do. But I could have told you, Vincent, This world was never meant for one As beautiful as you. Now I think I know what you tried to say to me, How you suffered for your sanity, How you tried to set them free. They would not listen, They're not listening sill Perhaps they never will… |
the sunflowers |
Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear | |
the Yellow House | |
Starry Night | |
Head of a Peasant Woman | |
The Potato Eaters |
1. What attitude does the writer of the song have towards Van Gogh?
| A．Prejudiced and changeable. | B．Admiring and understanding. |
| C．Doubtful but respectful. | D．Positive but contradictory. |
| A．good at drawing on starry nights | B．murdered by one of his lovers |
| C．a person full of love and beauty | D．popular with people when be was alive |
| A．The sunflowers, the Potato Eaters |
| B．Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Head of a Peasant Woman |
| C．the Potato Eaters, the Yellow House |
| D．Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Wheat Field with Crows |
8 . The view from the top of Marina Bay Sands, a giant hotel, mall and casino, takes in the skyscrapers of Singapore, the fleets of ships entering and leaving the city's ports, the scattered tropical islands of the Singapore Strait and the crowds of soggy but determined selfie- takers trying to capture a perfect image of it all from the enormous infinity pool. Among the celebrities the hotel has lured (吸引) for a damp snap are Jing Boran and Fu Xinbo, Chinese film and music stars. China Daily, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, has declared the spot the eighth most romantic in the world. The place displays itself all over Chinese social media and offers special discounts and packages to visitors from China.
Such spin is increasingly important. Last year, for the first time, China was the biggest source of tourists to Singapore, accounting for 3. 2m of its 17. 4m visitors. Between January and September alone they spent more than $3bn ($ 2.3bn).
All across South-East Asia， tourism is booming. The number of visitors jumped by 49% between 2010 and 2015， to more than 109m. Tourism in Asia and the Pacific is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. The region receives a quarter of the world's holidaymakers (Europe’s share is still a half).
South-East Asia’s Edenic islands, ancient temples and delicious food are strong enticements (诱惑，怂恿). Visitors also flock to countries with cheap currencies: the weakness of the ringgit last year helped draw visitors to Malaysia, for example. Many countries in the region depend on the cash: tourism accounts for about 28% of Cambodia’s GDP and more than 20% of Thailand’s.
The most remarkable growth has been in tourists from China. The number visiting South-East Asia has increased fivefold over the past decade. Newly wealthy Chinese spent almost $ 26lbn travelling abroad in 2016, up from $73bn in 2011.
Indonesia, for one, has relaxed its visa rules to attract more of them. More seats on cheap flights have also helped pull in tourists: between 2013 and 2016 the number available each week on flights to South East Asia from China increased from 92,000 to 188,500.
But for the frenzied holidaying to continue to grow, infrastructure must improve, reckons Paul Yong of DBS, a Singaporean bank. Airports in places such as Manila and Jakarta are crumbling and surrounded by snaking traffic. Plans are afoot to increase annual capacity at Bangkok’s airports by tens of millions over the next four years. Hanoi’s Noi Bai will be expanded at a cost of $5.5bn to accommodate 35m passengers by 2020. Airports in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are to be upgraded too.
Other threats to thriving tourism are far harder to plan around, Travel operators tremble at the thought of economic downturns, volcanic eruptions and epidemic diseases. The head of one luxury holiday company says the regional outbreak of SARS, a respiratory disease, more than 15 years ago almost brought the industry to its knees. Political spats between China and its neighbours are another problem. So too is the manner in which Chinese visitors have been vilified in the region for snaffling prawns at buffets, barging into queues and misbehaving on planes. It makes many of them feel unwanted. But given that just 135m of China's 1. 4bn people have ever travelled abroad, South East Asian countries should prepare to welcome many more Chinese — even when they clog up the infinity pool.
1. What can Marina Bay Sands be defined as?| A．A base for making films and musicals. |
| B．A complex for consumption and recreation. |
| C．A romantic spot for newly-married couples. |
| D．A financial center for international businessmen. |
| A．Locals. | B．Chinese. | C．Singaporeans. | D．Europeans. |
| A．The convenient transportation. |
| B．The improvement of local security. |
| C．The relatively economical prices. |
| D．The extreme poorness in that region. |
| A．The rise of Chinese financial capacity. |
| B．The strong desire to consume in cash. |
| C．Various preferential treatments in that region. |
| D．Rich resources of tourism in these countries. |
| A．To upgrade their basic facilities. |
| B．To advertise their quality service. |
| C．To weaken their cheap currencies. |
| D．To slow down the growth in tourism. |
| A．They should mind their manners. |
| B．They should handle political conflicts. |
| C．They should prevent epidemic diseases. |
| D．They should avoid natural disasters. |
9 . The brain has a powerful ability to remember and connect events separated in time. And now, in that new study in mice published in Neuron, scientists at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute have cast light on how the brain can form lasting links.
The hippocampus-a small, seahorse-shaped region buried deep in the brain-is an important headquarters for learning and memory. Previous experiments in mice showed that disruption (中断) to the hippocampus leaves the animals with trouble learning to associate two events separated by tens of seconds.
“The traditional view has been that cells in the hippocampus keep up a level of continuous activity to associate such events,” said Dr. Ahmed, co-first author of the study. “Turning these cells off would thus disrupt learning.”
To test this view, the researchers imaged parts of the hippocampus of mice as the animals were exposed to two different stimuli (刺激物): a neutral (神经的) sound followed by a small but unpleasant puff of air. A fifteen-second delay separated the two events. The scientists repeated this experiment across several trials. Over time, the mice learned to associate the sound with the soon-to-follow puff of air. Using advanced microscopy, they recorded the activity of thousands of neurons (神经元) , a type of brain cell, in the animals’ hippocampus over the course of each trial for many days.
“We expected to see continuous neural activity that lasted during the fifteen-second gap, an indication of the hippocampus at work linking the auditory sound and the air puff,” said computational neuroscientist Stefano Fusi, PhD. “But when we began to analyze the data, we saw no such activity.” Instead, the neural activity recorded during the fifteen-second time gap was sparse (稀少的). Only a small number of neurons worked, and they did so seemingly at random.
To understand activity, they had to shift the way they analyzed data and use tools designed to make sense of random processes. Finally, the researchers discovered a complex pattern in the randomness: a style of mental computing that seems to be a remarkably efficient way that neurons store information.
“We were happy to see that the brain doesn’t maintain ongoing activity over all these seconds because that’s not the most efficient way to store information,” said Dr. Ahmed. “The brain seems to have a more efficient way to build this bridge.”
In addition to helping to map the circuitry involved in associative learning, these findings also provide a starting point to more deeply explore disorders, such as panic and post-traumatic stress disorder.
1. What can we learn about the hippocampus?| A．It weakens with the memory decline. |
| B．It is a brain region crucial for memory. |
| C．It serves as a tool of learning languages. |
| D．It is involved in the visual area of the brain. |
| A．associations of events require continuous neural activity |
| B．animals have trouble learning to associate two events |
| C．neural activity can hardly be replaced by associations |
| D．a 15-second delay is enough to separate two events |
| A．continuous activity happens as expected |
| B．no neurons stay active at intervals of 15 seconds |
| C．a complex pattern helps the brain learn associations |
| D．neuronal information is stored in well-designed tools |
| A．inspire deeper explorations of disorders |
| B．provide evidence for language learning |
| C．build a bridge between different parts of the brain |
| D．help map some aspects of a person’s experiences |
10 . Are you aware that every single person on this planet who has ever lived, lives now or will live, has a different perception of reality? The way each of us perceives the world is to some degree different than any other person's perception of reality. __①__ What is absolutely real and right for you may be an illusion, or nonexistent, or completely false for another!
It's important to know this. __②__ For example, the news media loves to create drama, and one of their favorite methods is to elicit(引起) fear: fear of other people, fear of the weather, fear of the economy, etc. The news media tells us how to perceive the world—and if a person takes the newscasters at their word, they perceive the world to be very dangerous and hostile. To that person，the mental images and emotions suggested by other people create a version of reality that is completely different from the reality perceived by someone who does not watch the news.
Things are not always what they seem. For most people, seeing is believing, which is why magicians, artists and marketers are so successful. Just like the TV news, they show you only what they want you to see and it is perceived as reality. But how would that reality change if you saw what went on behind the scenes or what was left out?
What's your story?
We all have a story. Over time, your story takes on a life of its own and you become your story. But who's the author and why did him put so much crap in there? All that unnecessary suffering, struggle, heartache, worry and pain... wouldn't it be better to live a story without all that? Who wants to live in a story with that much boredom and unfulfilled longings?
The story got its start when you were born, and was coauthored by you along with the influences in your life. __③__ Anytime you were influenced by someone or something, you unconsciously handed your pen over and said “Here, you write this about me.” So you are not even writing your OWN story! No one does—until they recognize that fact, and make a conscious decision to take control of the pen. You CAN write your story the way you want it to play out.
________________
It is helpful to understand how the brain takes reality and filters it to create your unique perception of reality. It's an automatic unconscious action that is based on：
● Physical experiences (which is why some optical illusions are extremely unsettling)
● Past conditioning (how you are programmed to see the world)
__④__ When you become aware of the fact that you are constructing your own reality, you can take charge and build one that is more pleasing. If you change your mind, your vibration and your intentions, you can change your circumstances! Instead of, “I am a victim of circumstance，” imprint in your mind, “I am the cocreator of my life”； Instead of, “I am sick and tired of...” imprint in your mind，“I am in control and enthusiastic about what I do”．
Raise your vibration by thinking, talking and acting more positively. As positiveness becomes a mental habit，that change will become your new inner reality, which will soon manifest in your outer reality.
The power of perception is immense. Choose to see more good than bad, more abundance than lack, more love than indifference and more success than struggle.
1. How does the author present his viewpoints in the first three paragraphs?| A．By answering questions. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By drawing conclusions. |
| A．① | B．② | C．③ | D．④ |
| A．Seeing is not believing |
| B．Live up to your expectations |
| C．Change your perception and create a new reality |
| D．Physical experiences and past conditioning really count |
| A．Instructive. | B．Humorous. |
| C．Critical. | D．Ironic. |
