1 . Most of us assume those hyper-achievers who are always able to squeeze in their workout, eat healthy foods and pick their kids up on time must have superhuman self-control. But science points to a different answer:
The way you define the goal you hope to turn into a habit does matter. Goals like “meditate regularly” are too abstract, research has shown.
A plan like “I’ll study Spanish for 30 minutes every weekday” is OK. But a detailed, cue-based plan like “Every workday after my last meeting, I’ll spend 30 minutes studying Spanish in my office” is more likely to stick as a habit.
3.We’re strongly influenced by the behaviors of the people around us, evidence shows. Want to start running regularly? You’re probably better off joining an established running club than asking a few friends who aren’t yet in the habit of jogging to get in shape with you.
However, it’s important not to get too crazy - if you try to train with marathoners when you’re just hoping to work up to a 5K, it can be discouraging.
4.Make it fun to repeatResearch has shown you’ll persist longer and ultimately achieve more if you focus on finding ways to make goal pursuit fun. One excellent way is to try “temptation bundling”. Research shows that temptation bundling improves follow-through; it transforms goal pursuit into a source of pleasure, not pain.
A.Find the right kind of social support. |
B.Tell your friends and family about your goals. |
C.What we mistake for willpower is often a natural outcome of habit. |
D.You’ll benefit from being more specific about what exactly you aim to do and how often. |
E.Having a bite-size objective makes it less daunting to get started and easier to see your progress. |
F.Now you have established a specific goal, it’s time to think about what will cue you to follow through. |
G.For example, watch your favorite show while at the gym or enjoy a beloved podcast while cooking healthy meals. |
2 . Whether in work or study, great people always do things as effectively as possible. Productive (高效的) people have one thing in common: A solid routine made up of small habits that helps them to keep a healthy mindset and lifestyle. Research shows a habit takes about 2l days to become normal behavior.
●Make daily to-do lists.
●
●Have a rest. Whatever you are working on, you do not have to use up every ounce of energy you have.
●Clean up and organize for tomorrow.
A.Keep a journal. |
B.Make great progress. |
C.Making a list of tasks for the day helps you to stay on track. |
D.After a long day, the last thing you may want to do is clean. |
E.Take a break at the same time each day, despite just 10 minutes. |
F.You should be energetic all day and spare no effort to finish your work. |
G.Here are some habits you can start practicing to become more productive. |
3 . The latest bad but unsurprising news on education is that reading and writing scores on the SAT have once again declined. The language competence of our high schoolers fell steeply in the 1970s and has never recovered. This is very worrisome, because the best single measure of the overall quality of our primary and secondary schools is the average verbal(语言的) score of 17-year-olds. This score correlates with the ability to learn new things readily, to communicate with others and to secure a job. It also predicts future income.
The most credible analyses have shown that the chief causes are vast curricular changes, especially in the critical early grades. In the decades before the Great Verbal Decline, a content-rich elementary school experience evolved into a content-light, skills-based, test-centered approach. Cognitive psychologists agree that early childhood language learning (ages 2 to 10) is critical to later verbal competence, not just because of the remarkable linguistic plasticity of young minds, but also because of the so-called Matthew Effect.
The name comes from a passage in the Bible: “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” Those who are language-poor in early childhood get relatively poorer, and fall further behind, while the verbally rich get richer.
The origin of this cruel truth lies in the nature of word learning. The more words you already know, the faster you acquire new words. This sounds like an invitation to vocabulary study for babies, but that’s been tried and it’s not effective. Most of the word meanings we know are acquired indirectly, by intuitively(凭直觉的) guessing new meanings as we understand the main idea of what we are hearing or reading. The Matthew Effect in language can be restated this way: “To those who understand the main idea shall be given new word meanings, but to those who do not there shall follow boredom and frustration.”
Clearly the key is to make sure that from kindergarten on, every student, from the start, understands the main idea of what is heard or read. If preschoolers and kindergartners are offered substantial and coherent lessons concerning the human and natural worlds, then the results show up five years or so later in significantly improved verbal scores. By staying on a subject long enough to make all young children familiar with it (say, two weeks or so), the main idea becomes understood by all and word learning speeds up. This is especially important for low-income children, who come to school with smaller vocabularies and rely on school to pass on the knowledge base children from rich families take for granted.
Current reform strategies focus on testing, improving teacher quality, and other changes. Attention to these structural issues has led to improvements in the best public schools. But it is not enough.
1. The drop in verbal scores on the SAT is worrisome because ________.A.it will lead to a short supply of talents in the labor market |
B.it reveals young people’s negative attitude towards verbal study |
C.it shows the schools’ inability to meet the national requirements |
D.students’ reading and writing ability affects their future development |
A.Children’s lack of language learning ability. |
B.Fewer courses on reading and writing in school. |
C.The shift of curricular focus from content to skills. |
D.Heavy pressure that numerous tests have resulted in. |
A.children should be trained to understand the content |
B.teachers should focus on one topic in language teaching |
C.children’s family background determines their verbal ability |
D.teachers should make everything understandable for students |
A.Mathew Effect in Language Learning |
B.How to Stop the Drop in Verbal Scores |
C.Try to Understand the Main Idea |
D.Don’t Overestimate Your Verbal Scores |
71. Click to download teacher
“Books will soon disappear in schools,” Thomas Edison announced in 1913: they would, he believed, soon be replaced by silent films. Each new wave of information technology - radio, television, computers - has led to similar predictions.
Like teachers, digital educational technology comes in many forms, from wonderful to awful. But, used properly, it now deserves more prominence (重要性) in schools - especially in poor countries where human teachers are often ignorant, absent or both.
According to a recent World Bank study of seven sub - Saharan African countries, half of nine - year - olds cannot read a simple word and three - quarters cannot read a simple sentence. The reason is terrible. The same study found that only 7% of teachers had the minimum knowledge needed to teach reading and writing effectively. When classrooms were inspected to see whether a teacher was present, half the time the answer was no. As for the absence of teachers, if expensive teachers do not turn up to class, government would, surely, fire them? Easier said than done. Poor governments often lack the money to check on teachers in distant villages.
Several recent studies suggested - tech can help. It seems to bring about bigger improvements in poor countries than in rich ones. Some of the scarce resources being spent on teachers could therefore be better spent on ed - tech. That does not mean dumping computers on schools in the hope that children will understand how to use them. Instead, it means providing schools with software that children can use with minimal help from an adult, that sends teachers prompts about what they are supposed to be teaching and that allows the authorities to check on whether the teacher is in the classroom.
Technology is no cure - all. Good traditional teachers are not outdated, and are never likely to be. And authorities need to hold teachers to account. But ed - tech can help greatly - by monitoring pupils and teachers alike, assisting the best teachers and, most important, making up for the failings of the worst.
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5 . One of the joys of growing up in the leafy suburbs of London was the freedom of living inside a wood. The street where my parents’ house sits runs through one comer of Epping Forest, a carefully manicured (修剪的) greenbelt to retain a sense of unspoilt wilderness. As a result, my brother and I were immediately able to go out of our back gate to climb trees, build dens in the bushes and swing on ropes hung from boughs.
My three boys also have a place, called Glamis Adventure Playground, where they can easily escape their parents, swing on ropes, and even pitch tents for an overnight camp, despite growing up in one of the UK’s most deprived and densely populated boroughs. It’s an oasis of fun for young people constructed on a wasteland with the aim of enabling children to create their own fun.
The tragedy, however, is that they may be the last generation of inner-city kids to experience such freedom. Adventure playgrounds such as Glamis are now an endangered species, according to recent research by Play England, which found that 15 per cent of the 147 sites in operation just five years ago are now shut. Many of the playgrounds, run by local authorities, would end up getting killed off by funding cuts begun in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
But even those that still survive today remain at risk due to health and safety concerns and a downplaying by government of play as an essential part of the developmental process, according to Play England chair of trustees Anita Grant.
“Adventure playgrounds are built on trust, autonomy and freedom by children making their own games without the adults telling them what to do,” Grant says. “But there is a new way of discussing play where people talk about learning through play. As soon as you start viewing play like this, as something that needs outcomes, it stops being play for children.”
Another threat to adventure playgrounds is more pernicious than funding cuts: a fear about letting children out on their own to play. Research conducted in 2020 for the British Children’s Play Survey found the average age children were allowed out on their own was 11, two years later than their parents’ generation.
“The professionalization of parenting” — the idea that there is a recipe for children becoming well-rounded adults that has encouraged mums and dads to micromanage their offspring — is to blame. “Taking risks is a really important part of a child’s development but that often conflicts with what people feel is their responsibility as parents,” Dodd says. “Freedom of play is undervalued because we want our children to get a new skill that we can put on social media and brag about.” Typically, children must now play in a way that is being defined by adults.
1. Which of the following is NOT a reason why adventure playgrounds are becoming rare?A.Parents tend to be afraid of letting kids play outside by themselves for safety’s sake. |
B.Parents and kids are switching their attention from adventure playgrounds to social media. |
C.The essential role of play in the developmental process is undervalued by the government. |
D.the local authorities running these adventure playgrounds have economic difficulties. |
A.irrelevant to | B.compared with |
C.coming after | D.independent of |
A.Parents agree on a standard definition of play, which shouldn’t involve risk-taking. |
B.Parents think social media can help their kids acquire new skills that they can brag about. |
C.Parents prefer to consult a professional recipe so that their kids may become well-rounded adults. |
D.Parents involve themselves too much in children’s play in the name of parental responsibility. |
A.Children’s play, nowadays a grown-up matter. |
B.Children’s play, barely an essential part of development. |
C.Children’s play, definitely a learning process. |
D.Children’s play, always an undervalued skill. |
6 . Researchers recently studied 3, 000 middle and high school students. Among them were 618 teenagers with one parent who lived away from home for long periods of time because of work. The researchers wanted to know how the work of these “fly-in, fly-out” parents might influence the health of their children.
A higher percentage of teenagers who experienced the long absence of a parent had emotional (情感的) or behavioral problems compared with those whose parents worked more traditional hours. This supports earlier research finding high percentages of emotional problems in teenagers who often returned to an empty house after school or whose parents were seldom at dinner.
Findings also suggest that parents don’t have to be home all the time to be present in their children’s lives, but it helps to be home at certain times. And the best parental presence for a teenager may sometimes be like a potted plant.
Many parents of teenagers have known this to be true and find ways to be present without trying to start a conversation. One friend of mine quietly does housework each evening in the sitting room where her teenagers watch TV. They enjoy one another’s company without the need to talk. Another friend usually accepts his daughter’s invitation to work or read nearby while she sits and does her homework. Perhaps, that, at least for some families, is the best way for teenagers and their parents to stay close.
In fact, many years of research suggest that children use their parents as a safe base from which to explore the world. Studies tell us that young children quietly follow their parents’ movements from room to room, even while carrying on with their own activities. Perhaps our teens, like babies, feel most at ease when their parents are still around. They don’t want to stay away from parents who allow them freedom. A new school year is at hand, so as parents we could offer our teenagers a “potted flower” as a gift, whose quiet and steady (稳定的) presence will give them a great day.
1. What’s the purpose of the recent research?A.To show the necessity of parents’ company all the time. |
B.To support earlier research on teenagers’ emotional problems. |
C.To find connections between parents’ long absence and children’s health. |
D.To compare “fly-in, fly-out” parents with those working traditional hours. |
A.They got more used to being alone. |
B.They were more likely to have trouble with their feelings. |
C.They showed more dislike for traditional working hours. |
D.They had dinners with their parents more often. |
A.Giving children a great day. | B.Being present in children’s life. |
C.Allowing children enough freedom. | D.Staying with children quietly and steadily. |
A.To set examples for children to follow. | B.To guide children to explore the world. |
C.To take good care of children as babies. | D.To give children a sense of safety and relaxation. |
7 . It scarcely seems surprising that learning to underline a modal verb, such as “can”, and “may”, does little to help students use them effectively in their own writing. These words are anyway grasped by tiny children without the need to know what they are called. This may tempt the conclusion that the teaching of grammar should be shelved altogether. But there are reasons to reform it rather than throw it away.
Understanding of language is part of a wider education in what makes human beings human. How concepts are turned into sounds, and how those sounds combine to form commands or questions, are issues that have occupied many language experts. What they reveal about the mind has exercised psychologists and cognitive scientists.
There are practical reasons to ask children to work hard at grammar, too. One is that a knowledge of it will make learning a foreign language easier. Even if you did know by nature how to make clauses in your native languages as a child — just without instruction — getting to grips with them in German or Russian in later years is simpler if you know how to define and spot them. As it is, many English-speakers come to understand grammar by studying a foreign language, rather than the other way round.
For grammarians keen on future jobs, the natural-language processing field is booming. After many years of poor results, technological wizards have developed programs for automated translation, speech recognition and other services that are actually usable, if far from perfect. These tools may rely more on knowledge of artificial intelligence than of the subjunctive, but linguistic expertise still matters, and may give beginners an edge over competitors whose best language is Python (一种编程语言).
Grammar could still be taught better. One small study showed improvement in some students when concepts are linked concretely to writing tasks. A cook does not need to know chemistry to make a delicious soup. But the science of how words combine to make meaning is fascinating and fundamental.
1. Why do some people consider stopping teaching grammar?A.It’s unnecessary for kids to grasp modal verbs. |
B.Teachers’ teaching methods are far from satisfactory. |
C.Drawing lines under words fails to be effective in learning. |
D.Grammar Learning doesn’t bring obvious effect to writing. |
A.a good command of Python is enough for programmers |
B.the field of artificial technology still shows great promise |
C.being expert in language means advantages in competition |
D.computer geniuses will invent perfect tools to process language |
A.Positive. | B.Negative. | C.Objective. | D.Skeptical. |
A.Grammar teaching shouldn’t be stopped but reformed. |
B.Scientific study of human beings benefits from grammar. |
C.Grammar helps children to learn foreign languages better. |
D.There’s much room for improvement in grammar research. |
8 . Schoolchildren spend most of their time surrounded by their peers (同龄人). They spend a lot more time with classmates, teammates and fellow club members than with adults in their lives. Peer pressure can have a huge influence on the lives of children in grades two through twelve.
From birth through age six, the family shapes a child’s sense of identity (个性). Parents and brothers and sisters affect (影响) a child’s likes, dislikes, tastes in clothing, food and music and, perhaps most importantly, values. Once children enter school, they form connections to the larger group of their peers. This group brings new ideas and experiences. Peer pressure happens when a student’s actions are influenced by this group. The “pressure” happens when peers suggest or demand actions different from the child’s normal behavior and values.
Peer pressure leads to some disturbing negative (消极的) behavior in schoolchildren. In the USA, about 75% of high school students have tried alcohol (酒) offered by their friends in middle or high school. According to a survey, students felt pressured by their peers between 35 and 49% of the time. The power of peer pressure can result from a schoolchild’s growing desire to fit into a group.
Thankfully, peer pressure can also be positive (积极的). For example, wanting to join an athletic group of friends may force a student who has been sitting for a long time to try out for the soccer team. In a survey on peer pressure, 51% of teenagers felt that peer pressure was sometimes positive. One teenager responded, “Sometimes it can help you gain confidence.” Other examples of positive peer pressure include students encouraging a classmate to run for school president, or friends suggesting that that a talented peer try out for a talent show.
1. What leads to schoolchildren’s peer pressure?A.The identity shaped by their family. | B.The connections with their classmates. |
C.The childhood experiences with their friends. | D.The differences in their behavior and values. |
A.To kill their boring time. | B.To fit into a peer group. |
C.To help gain confidence | D.To improve social skills. |
A.Peer pressure does more harm than good |
B.Peer pressure is very good for schoolchildren’s growth. |
C.Peer pressure is not necessarily bad for schoolchildren. |
D.Peer pressure plays an important role in shaping a child’s values. |
A.Why schoolchildren turn out the way they do | B.Ways to help schoolchildren deal with peer pressure |
C.Peer pressure highly influences schoolchildren | D.How to improve schoolchildren’s behavior and values |
9 . Our lives are full of habits. Unfortunately a great many of them are bad habits. One way to break these bad habits is to fill our lives with good habits. Most people decide one day that they need to make changes to their lives and then they go all out to make big sweeping changes. This may work for them for the first few days, but then they get burned out.
This approach can work for just about anything. If you are exercising for half an hour every day and you want to increase that time to one hour then add a minute every day. After one month you will have reached your goal with very little resistance from your body and mind.
This method of change is gentle, but very powerful. Think of everything you can accomplish if you just continuously improve a little at a time. The change itself creates the momentum (动力) you need to keep going.
A.The key is to change a little bit at a time. |
B.Keeping on exercising can build up strength. |
C.It may take longer, but with this approach you are likely to succeed. |
D.Nothing will happen if you are not determined to achieve your goal. |
E.Pretty soon they are back to their old habits and nothing has changed. |
F.Changing slowly removes the greatest barrier we have to change: fear. |
G.Soon you will find yourself reaching your goals with almost no pain involved. |
10 . If history is “a race between education and catastrophe”, education seemed until recently to be winning. In 1950 only about half of adults globally had any schooling; now at least 85% do. Between 2000 and 2018, the proportion (比例) of school-age children who were not enrolled (使加入) in classes fell from 26% to 17%. But the rapid rise in attendance masked an ugly truth: many pupils were spending years behind desks but learning almost nothing. In 2019 the World Bank started keeping count of the number of children who still cannot read by the time they finish primary school. It found that less than half of ten-year-olds in developing countries could read and understand a simple story.
Then the pandemic struck and millions of pupils were locked out of school. It should be noted that globally, the harm that school closures have done to children has vastly outweighed any benefits they may have had for public health. The World Bank says the share of ten-year-olds in middle-and low-income countries who cannot read and understand a simple story has risen from 57% in 2019 to roughly 70%. If they lack such elementary skills, they will struggle to earn a good living.
This should be seen for what it is: a global emergency. Nearly every problem that confronts humanity can be alleviated by good schooling. Better-educated people are more likely to work out a cleaner energy source, a cure for malaria or a smarter town plan. If the damage the pandemic has done to education is not reversed (逆转), all these goals will be harder to reach.
Politicians talk endlessly about the importance of schooling, but words are cheap and a fit-for-purpose education system is not. Spending has risen modestly in recent decades but fell in many countries during the pandemic. Apart from the money, the education system itself is in urgent need of change: Testing is a mess, leading governments to overestimate levels of literacy. New teachers have been hired but not trained properly. Teachers, who have come through the same education systems they are supposed to be improving, often struggle to teach.
The same energy that was once poured into building schools and filling up classrooms should now be used to improve the lessons that take place within them. No more children should stumble (蹒跚而行) through their school days without learning to read or add up.
1. What did the World Bank find out about pupils in 2019?A.They could hardly concentrate in class. |
B.Many of them had to drop out of school. |
C.They had difficulty finishing primary school. |
D.Many of them failed to acquire necessary knowledge. |
A.They could well protect children’s health. |
B.They made matters worse for children. |
C.They produced unexpected benefits for public health. |
D.They made it hard for teachers to make a good living. |
A.reduced | B.caused | C.described | D.strengthened |
A.Primary schools should only hire experienced teachers. |
B.Teachers should be motivated to cooperate with each other. |
C.A reliable system should be created to test pupils’ knowledge and ability. |
D.Primary schools should spend more on improving facilities. |