1 . Cruising along the long country road in my car, I was singing at the top of my lungs to help pass the time. It was just before midnight and I was making the two-hour journey to see my then-boyfriend, Richard, who lived two hours apart.
Around 20 minutes in, I was driving down a straight stretch of road, when my steering wheel started jerking from side to side and the car shook violently. The wind is strong here, I thought. But when my car suddenly pulled to the other side of the road, the reality of what was happening dawned on me. I was in the middle of an earthquake!
Situated between a mountain on one side and power lines on the other, I was far too scared to stop in case they came crashing down on top of me. Instead, I decided the safest option was to keep driving slowly. But, as the ground continued to shake beneath me, I grew more frightened by the second.
When it finally stopped, I found a safe place to pull over and check my mobile for reception. But there was nothing. Shaken, I was desperate to make my way to the nearest town to find service as quickly as possible.
Traveling at around 100km/h, I noticed a strange shadow on the road ahead. As I got closer, I realized the bridge in front of me had been removed from the road and had risen around 30 centimeters from the ground. I hit the brakes, but there was no way I could slow down in time. Crashing straight into the raised road, my car broke down finally.
Pain tore through my neck and body. I got out and ran to safety on the other side of the road and screamed for help. But, alone in the dead of night, there was no one around to hear me. Thankfully, around 15 minutes later, I saw two headlights in the distance.
1. Why was the author driving on the country road?| A．To pass the time. | B．To meet her boyfriend. |
| C．To break up with Richard. | D．To escape from a natural disaster. |
| A．before the wind became strong |
| B．after the steering wheel started jerking |
| C．as soon as the car started to shake violently |
| D．when her car pulled to the other side of the road |
| A．Because she was too panic to apply the brake. |
| B．Because she tried to get out of the high-risk area. |
| C．Because she wanted to contact the outside world for help. |
| D．Because she was desperate to find service as soon as possible. |
| A．She was rescued by others before long. | B．She had to repair her car on her own. |
| C．She waited in the dark for help but in vain. | D．She warned other drivers of the raised road. |
2 . People do better when more is expected of them. In education circles, this is called the Pygmalion Effect.
The Pygmalion effect got its name from the story of Pygmalion, a mythica（虚构的）Greek sculptor. Pygmalion carved a statue of a woman and then fell in love with it. He appealed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who brought the statue to life and helped the couple get married. Just as Pygmalion’s fixation on the statue brought it to life, our focus on a student can do the same in schools. Research by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson examined the influence of teachers’ expectations on students’ performance. They began by testing the IQ of elementary school students. Teachers were told that the IQ test showed around one-fifth of their students to be unusually intelligent. But unknown to the teachers, the “gifted” students were chosen at random. Actually they had no big statistical advantage over the other kids. As the study period ended, all students had their IQs retested. Both groups showed an improvement. Yet those who were described as intelligent experienced much greater gains in their IQ points. Rosenthal and Jacobson owed this result to the Pygmalion effect. Teachers paid more attention to “gifted” students, offering more support and encouragement than they would otherwise.
In general, teachers have the power to influence how the students behave by holding high expectations. If a teacher thinks a student is brilliant, they will treat them as such. The student then gets more opportunities to develop their ability, and their performance improves. This works both ways. When a student expects a teacher to be excellent or successful, they tend to be attentive and supportive. In the process, they improve their performance, too. Students who act interested in lectures create interesting lecturers.
1. Where did the Pygmalion effect get its name from?| A．A statue of a lady. | B．The goddess of love. |
| C．A character in a literary work. | D．The story made up by Pygmalion. |
| A．worship of | B．affection for | C．marriage to | D．sympathy for |
| A．To improve the kids’ IQ. | B．To pick out gifted students. |
| C．To expand teachers’ influence. | D．To examine the Pygmalion effect. |
| A．Support the teacher by treating them as excellent. |
| B．Attend interesting lectures given by the teacher. |
| C．Work hard to get prepared for opportunities. |
| D．Show great interest in lectures on acting. |
