1 . “When we think of curiosity, we often think of the need for immediate answers,” said Abby Hsiung, Ph. D. , a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and lead author of a new research paper. “But we found that when people were more curious, they were actually more pleased to wait.”
“When we watch TV shows or football games, we’re watching that information develop over time, uncertain about how it’s all going to end,” said Hsiung. “I wanted to know if higher curiosity would push people to seek, or to avoid getting an immediate ‘spoiler’ (剧透).”
Hsiung drew inspiration from short cooking videos that are popular on social media. “These videos caught my attention because even though they’re so short, they manage to develop a description and suspense (悬念), so that you’re attracted and curious about how the pizza will all come together.” So Hsiung got out her digital paintbrush and made a lot of 30-second animated line drawing videos that, like the cooking videos, eventually ended up as something highly recognizable, like a hamburger or a dog.
More than 2,000 adults from across the U. S. then watched 25 of these short line drawing videos online. Participants in Hsiung’s study were asked along the way how curious they were, how they felt, and to guess what the drawing would become. Viewers also had a spoiler button to skip ahead to see the final drawing. Hsiung and her team were surprised to find that when people were curious, they refused to hit the spoiler button and kept watching the drawings unfold. It was when people were less curious that they tended to go for an instant answer.
The study also found that curiosity increased at different stages of watching these videos. “We saw higher curiosity during moments when it seemed like the drawing could turn into anything and also when participants were starting to really home in on a single answer,” said co-author Jia-Hou Poh, Ph. D. , a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
1. What is the popular belief concerning curiosity?| A．It fuels the urge for answers. | B．It leads to endless patience. |
| C．It stresses the need to wait. | D．It brings the pleasure of waiting. |
| A．The evolution the TV shows displayed. | B．The fantasy the short cooking videos shared. |
| C．The way the short cooking videos developed. | D．The popularity the short cooking videos achieved. |
| A．Make drawings to take a shortcut. | B．Answer some questions while watching. |
| C．Press the spoiler button to finish the task. | D．Hunt for an answer as quickly as possible. |
| A．The influence of patience on curiosity | B．Curiosity delays eagerness for the answer |
| C．Curiosity arises from the patience of waiting | D．The way to hold back the urge for an answer |
Every week I save all the change and $1 bills I have in my purse. Then every Christmas I cash it in for as many $100 bills as the saved money gets me. I then wait for a family in need. I split the money in half and give half to the family in need and the other half to my nine-year-old son, Say’ Veon, who puts it in his savings account, to teach him about delayed satisfaction. Then he helps me get gifts or give the money to the family.
I adopted Say’ Veon after his mother, a close friend of mine, passed away from cancer before his fifth birthday. Even though Say’ Veon has dealt with great loss and sadness at such a young age, his generous spirit and loving heart shine through. He has given money to someone else who needs it more, such as his friends or classmates. Say’ Veon’s acts of kindness always blow me away and I feel blessed to have him in my life.
This week I got a call from a friend, DeeDee, who is 77 years old. She was upset because she had been cheated, and the cheaters took all the money out of her checking account which she lives on, and now she didn’t have the money to pay her rent and bills.
This morning, I took the money and showed Say’ Veon how much I saved this year. I told him what happened to DeeDee, and then asked him if he would be willing to give his half along with my half and donate it to her as our person in need this year.
He said, “Yes, of course.” This year our total was $400.
We went to visit DeeDee and my son handed her a Christmas card with the money. She opened it and said, “Thank you.” She then looked again and stared at the $100 bills.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
DeeDee froze there with her eyes wide open.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Suddenly, Say’ Veon said to DeeDee, “You are our family!”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. What can we learn about Mrs. Green?
| A．She always drives very fast. |
| B．She only drives a day every week. |
| C．She has an old and small car. |
| A．Black. | B．Blue. | C．White. |
| A．Mrs. Bates. | B．Mike. | C．Joe. |
| A．His cousin. | B．His uncle. | C．His friend. |
1. What does the man think helps him the most to become successful?
| A．Hard work. | B．Good training. | C．A set schedule. |
| A．At about 8:30. | B．At about 9:20. | C．At about 9:50. |
| A．Have lunch. |
| B．Attend a team meeting. |
| C．Do warm-up exercises. |
| A．To make themselves relax. |
| B．To notice the mistakes they’ve made. |
| C．To know the kinds of tips the other team use. |
1. Why do some workers take online language courses?
| A．To pass their free time. |
| B．To enrich their life. |
| C．To meet the bosses’ expectation. |
| A．Cheap. | B．Time-consuming. | C．Boring. |
| A．The pleasure of learning languages online. |
| B．The disadvantages of learning languages online. |
| C．The differences between learning languages online and offline. |
“Why are we bringing groceries for Mrs. Killinger?” Bobby asked his mother, Anna, as they walked back from the supermarket with a few extra bags for their elderly neighbor. He enjoyed helping his mother with these tasks, but they had never bought anything for any neighbor before.
“Honey, Mrs. Killinger is now having trouble walking around, so I offered to bring some things from the market,” Anna explained as they climbed up the wooden steps to Mrs. Killinger’s house and rang the doorbell.
“Ok, but she could get a wheelchair and move around,” the boy commented as if it was the most straightforward solution in the world.
“You know, Bobby. Mrs. Killinger doesn’t have the money to buy one right now.
They can get expensive.” Anna explained, and Bobby pursed his lips in thought.
Mrs.Killinger answered the door, smiled, and invited them for some coffee and cookies. Bobby noticed how slowly she moved, and an idea formed in his mind. He told the older woman and his mother all about it, and they grinned at him indulgently (宽容地笑).Neither of them thought Bobby would do it.
That’s why Anna was surprised the following day when Bobby had made several ads. “Mom, can you add your phone number here, so people can call me with work?”
“Oh, honey. This is very sweet. But I don’t know if it’ll be enough to raise the money she needs to buy a wheelchair,” Anna explained. She loved that her son had such a big heart, but he didn’t want him to be heartbroken if no one called or he couldn’t raise the money.
“Well，at least，I can say that I tried to help，” Bobby chirped (欢快地说)with his bright smile and eager eyes. Anna nodded and added her phone number to the ads. In his ad, Bobby offered his “services” which included helping with shopping, mowing lawns, keeping company, and walking dogs. He also left the price of his services, which made Anna smile. He honestly just wanted to help.
注意：
1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Anna helped him put up the ads around the neighborhood.
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Two weeks later, Bobby still hadn’t raise the amount of money he wanted.
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7 . VARK is a questionnaire that helps with your learning by suggesting the strategies you should be using. According to VARK, some people learn best by reading materials, while others are more visually-oriented (视觉导向的) and must see something to understand. Others might fall into the auditory learning subtype, meaning they tend to urderstand materials by listening to instructions. There are also kinesthetic (动觉的) learners, or those who learn best through hands-on activities.
Learning style theories had their popularity in the 1990s, when Beth Rogowsky was just starting as a middle school teacher. “At that time, when my students were given some learning material, if they disliked reading it, they could listen to it instead as long as they’d like to listen to others reading it; whatever they preferred, they would be encouraged to do it,” says Rogowsky, who is now an associate professor of teaching and learning at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania.
But when it comes to preferred learning styles, there’s a problem. The idea of using learning styles emerged in the 1980s as many researchers voiced their support, but few actually tested their concepts to confirm the validity in randomized, experimental settings. In the 2000s, when researchers started to do just that, they found little evidence that matching students to their supposed learning style helped them memorize information better.
Rogowsky herself has confirmed the belief that learning styles don’t hold up in her recent studies. In one study published in Frontiers in Psychology this year, Rogowsky and her colleagues tested fifth-graders with preferred auditory and visual learning styles. Students were given standardized reading tests, in both written and audio formats. The team didn’t uncover a relationship between their preferred learning styles and academic performance, according to Rogowsky.
The team’s study noted that a preference to learn material using a certain method could mask skill lack. “Someone who prefers to lean by listening instead of visual approaches might just have underdeveloped reading skills. Letting students learn in their preferred manner doesn’t push them to improve weaker skill sets,” Rogowsky says. “If you need to improve your skills, don’t just keep doing what’s easy to you.”
1. What’s the purpose of Paragraph 1?| A．To explain the complexity of the learning process. |
| B．To inspire people to actively engage in a questionnaire. |
| C．To show different people have different learning styles. |
| D．To suggest using VARK to choose efficient learning styles. |
| A．Encourage students to learn creatively. |
| B．Allow students to use their preferred learning style. |
| C．Help students improve their reading and listening ability. |
| D．Provide varied reading materials for students to choose from. |
| A．Correctness. | B．Faulty. | C．Arrangement. | D．Budget. |
| A．Students need to focus on their academic performance. |
| B．Students should stick to their favorite learning materials. |
| C．Students hiding skill lack can boost their confidence |
| D．Students should go beyond a certain preferred learning style. |
内容包括：1.致欢迎辞；2.介绍开幕式活动。
注意：1.词数80左右；2.适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear teachers and students,
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9 . “I think therefore I am”— mind over matter. What you expect from yourself and the world makes a big impact on the results of your efforts.
From a neuroscience perspective, the brain will believe anything you tell it, right and wrong. Research has shown that this phenomenon can have huge benefits when we approach a significant or difficult task. “We do know there’s the mind-body connection, which isn’t kind of mysterious or magical, and that this is in itself changing our physiology,” said David Robson, a science writer. “Think that you could catch up in a race or that your public speaking anxiety could help you perform better.”
Expectations, even negative ones, are meant to help our brains navigate (理解) a complicated world by simplifying our predictions of the wide range of outcomes to any situation. Those negative expectations can help us anticipate and avoid danger, but they aren’t always up to date with the context that surrounds us. And when you’re in the face of a challenge, inaccurate information can create obstacles of its own. Pessimistic thoughts really just put you in a position where you’re more vulnerable to actually experiencing that unpleasant or negative outcome.
Setting more positive expectations and hopefully acquiring the rewards starts with how you talk to yourself. When baseball players step up to the plate, they tell themselves they will knock it out of the park. Being aware of your thoughts and how you talk to yourself about a challenge can make a big impact.
We tend to see ourselves and our obstacles in two ways. Either our abilities are fixed or can grow, and our obstacles are a threat or a challenge. Shifting focus to believe that we can see difficulties as a challenge to be met rather than a threat to be avoided has been shown to result in more success. If you interpret that situation as a challenge, your physiological response will empower and equip you to be more creative and effective.
Having realistically optimistic expectations does better equip each of us to take up a challenge with our best resources, experts said.
1. What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?| A．The outcome of pessimistic thoughts. |
| B．The connection between the mind and body. |
| C．The advantages of positive expectations. |
| D．The pros and cons of negative expectations. |
| A．Thinking out loud. |
| B．Stepping up to the plate. |
| C．Challenging themselves. |
| D．Improving their abilities. |
| A．Avoiding threats and troubles. |
| B．Removing our obstacles in the way. |
| C．Shifting our focus to something else. |
| D．Regarding difficulties as challenges. |
| A．A history book. |
| B．A fantasy novel. |
| C．A science & wellness paper. |
| D．A sports & health report. |
10 . Modern technology has a strong influence on every part of our life, including the education in the universities.
Ashok Goel, a professor of Georgia Institute of Technology, says he uses the Internet in almost all of the classes he teaches. Every term over 300 graduate students take his class on artificial intelligence (人工智能). The students never meet in person. All of the classes take place online — through a website, which lets students ask questions and complete their work from anywhere in the world.
Having hundreds of students in a class means Ashok Goel has to answer thousands of questions. He has eight teaching assistants to help him. But even that is not enough to give all the students the help they need.
So, in January, Goel had an idea. He decided to try an experiment. At the start of the spring 2016 term, he added a new member to his teaching team: Jill Watson. She was able to answer questions faster than most other teaching assistants. And she was available 24 hours a day.
It was only at the end of the term that Goel’s students learned Watson’s true identity: she was not a real person like the other teaching assistants. Jill Watson was an AI computer program.
And it seems Goel’s stories will become more common in the universities.
A website called Campus Technology publishes stories about how colleges and universities use new technology. In August, the site published a survey of over 500 professors and their use of technology. Fifty-five percent of the professors asked students to use study materials online before coming to class. And, more than 70 percent combined (使相结合) online materials and face-to-face teaching in their classrooms.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Goel seldom uses the Internet in his class. | B．The students take Goel’s class online. |
| C．Goel occasionally meets his colleagues. | D．Goel’s students dislike going to college. |
| A．He is not a clever professor. | B．He wants to have a good sleep. |
| C．He does not want to give answers. | D．He has no time to answer all the questions. |
| A．She was a real person. | B．She helped Goel with his work. |
| C．She was one of Goel’s students. | D．She could ask all the questions. |
| A．Who a person is. | B．The name of a person. |
| C．Where a person is from. | D．A person’s contribution. |
| A．Ashok Goel has eight assistants to help him. |
| B．New technology is changing our way of living. |
| C．Modern technology greatly influences college education. |
| D．Teachers will be completely replaced by the computers. |
