An 89-year-old man has reached a goal he spent 20 years working toward. He earned his doctor degree and became a physicist.
Steiner values this degree because it is what he always wanted — and because he overcame health problems that could have interfered with his studies.
As a young person in Vienna, Austria, Steiner wanted to become a physicist after reading about Albert Einstein and Max Planck.
But after World War Ⅱ, his mother advised him that studying medicine would be a better choice. He earned his medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1955 and moved to the United States soon after. In the U.S., he had a successful career studying blood, became a full professor and led the hematology (血液学) department at Brown’s medical school from 1985 to 1994. He helped establish a research program in hematology and directed that program until he retired from medicine in 2000.
Steiner found medical research pleasing, but it was not quite the same as his interest in physics.
“It was something like a wish that was never fulilled, that always stuck in the back of my head,” he said. “Once I’m finished with medicine, I really don’t want to spend my life just sitting around and maybe doing a little golfing or doing something like that. I wanted to keep active.
At age 70, he started taking undergraduate classes at Brown University. He was planning to just take a few classes that interested him. But by 2007, he had earned enough credits to join the doctoral program.
Physics professor Brad Marston soon realized how serious Steiner was about the subject and how hard he worked. “He already had a scientific way of thinking that younger students have to develop,” Marston said. “One thing that’s really true about Manfred is he perseveres.”
After the university published a story about Steiner on its website, people across the U.S. contacted him to ask for advice on how to go after their dreams later in life.
He said his advice is: Do what you love to do.
1. Why does Steiner attach great importance to this degree? (no more than 10 words)2. What is paragraph 4 mainly about? (no more than 7 words)
3. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 5 mean? (no more than 7 words)
4. What is Marston’s comment on Steiner after he joined the doctoral program? (no more than 10 words)
5. What do you think of Steiner? Please explain. (no more than 20 words)
2 . In October, I told the eight-year-olds about my plan. “I’d like all of you to do extra jobs to
Early in the week, the boys and girls arrived in class seizing their hard-earned money and couldn’t wait to go shopping. I watched
“Flowers!” Kristine cried. The group rushed toward the holiday
Then we set off for the house of a needy grandmother and finally
We returned to the car. Fastening seat belts, we could see the kitchen window. The woman inside waved goodbye, then turned and walked across the room, past the turkey, past the trimmings,
| A．spend | B．earn | C．withdraw | D．save |
| A．either | B．though | C．otherwise | D．anyway |
| A．experience | B．expect | C．advocate | D．clarify |
| A．enjoy | B．receive | C．accumulate | D．share |
| A．better than | B．rather than | C．other than | D．more than |
| A．alive | B．wrong | C．fresh | D．fair |
| A．until | B．before | C．as | D．since |
| A．Gradually | B．Eventually | C．Frequently | D．Occasionally |
| A．observed | B．confirmed | C．recognized | D．spotted |
| A．plants | B．lights | C．cards | D．foods |
| A．Panicked | B．Moved | C．Defeated | D．Determined |
| A．pulled up | B．settled down | C．turned out | D．got through |
| A．accompany | B．welcome | C．inspect | D．instruct |
| A．puzzle | B．astonishment | C．pleasure | D．disappointment |
| A．surprised | B．depressed | C．embarrassed | D．amused |
| A．straight | B．abruptly | C．gradually | D．close |
| A．terror | B．shock | C．pain | D．smile |
| A．chance | B．decision | C．moment | D．condition |
| A．energy | B．power | C．talent | D．interest |
| A．sensed | B．noticed | C．marked | D．checked |
| A．that | B．what | C．how | D．where |
— I find it interesting and challenging. It is a subject ________ sometimes you may find yourself having conversations with your ancestors.
| A．where | B．which | C．when | D．that |
5 . Kindergarten represents a crucial environment in which children develop school-related skills and patterns of engagement. They form the basis for the development of later competence which is important for academic success. As for later academic skills, kindergarten achievements have been found to have great predictive value.
Given the long-lasting effects that kindergarten experiences have on later schooling, it is important to understand the factors associated with children's learning and motivation during this time. The quality of teacher-student interaction has been found to be important in terms of many different academic and socio-emotional outcomes. However, much of the previous work in the field has focused on children in later grades in elementary school and has been conducted in the United States. Fewer studies have been conducted in other educational environments and in kindergarten specifically.
Some researchers investigated bidirectional links between the quality of teacher-child relationships and children’s interest and pre-academic skills in literacy and math in Finland. Participants were 461 Finnish kindergarteners (6-year-olds) and 48 teachers.
The results indicated that teacher-perceived(教师感知的)conflicts predicted children’s lower pre-academic skills in both literacy and math. It is possible that when children experience conflicts with teachers, the negative emotions attached to these conflicts are harmful to children’s engagement in learning and curtail their interest in academic tasks. It’s also possible that children experiencing conflicts are missing out on time for learning literacy and math, either because they become separated from instructional activities or because teachers have to spend more instructional time on behavioral management.
The findings highlight the importance of kindergarten teachers being aware of how their relationships with children can influence children’s later schooling. Therefore, it would be important to develop pre-service and in-service programs and interventions to help teachers. Teacher education programs may also benefit teachers not only in academic content and peda-gogical (教育学的)practices but also in strategies used to build supportive relationships with children.
1. What do we learn about kindergarten achievements?| A．They’re closely related to kids’ personalities. | B．They greatly affect kids’ later academic skills. |
| C．They largely depend on the teachers' competence. | D．They’re mainly about kids’ problem-solving abilities. |
| A．has drawn little attention from researchers |
| B．has been considered very important by teachers |
| C．has resulted from specific educational environments |
| D．has formed the basis of many good socio-emotional outcomes |
| A．Develop. | B．Maintain. | C．Reduce. | D．Assess. |
| A．To promote the educational programs among kindergarten teachers. |
| B．To explain the benefits of carrying out pedagogical practices. |
| C．To call on kids to build up good relationships with teachers. |
| D．To highlight the importance of kindergarten teachers. |
| A．The significance of developing kids' school-related skills. |
| B．The necessity of improving teachers' academic competence. |
| C．The ways of reducing teacher-student conflicts in kindergarten. |
| D．The influence of teacher-student interaction in kindergarten on kids. |
7 . These days, it's not unusual to see middle-aged men collecting Star Wars action figures, office workers wearing Hello Kitty accessories, or celebrities like David Beckham playing with Lego bricks. It's becoming more and more common to see adults taking an interest in toys, comic books and the activities that are traditionally associated with children. This phenomenon has given rise to a new word: kidult.
What lies behind the phenomenon? One is about adults' nostalgia （怀旧之情）for the carefree days of childhood, and this is especially true with today's fast-paced, stressful lifestyles. Another is about a societal change in recent decades where people are starting families later. As a result, they have more time and money to spend on themselves. Some adults could only window-shop for their dream toys when they were kids, but now they can afford that radio controlled car or high-priced doll they have always wanted.
Businesses have been quick to exploit the kidult trend, and the number of toy stores that target adults has risen. Companies are repackaging products from past decades and also bringing out new ones for adults. Lego, for example, has brought out an architectural series featuring landmarks from around the world.
Society traditionally disapproves of adults who refuse to put aside childhood interests, viewing the refusal as a sign of social immaturity and irresponsibility. Those who agree with this view sometimes claim that kidults are suffering from the pop-psychology concept known as Peter Pan Syndrome, an anomaly （异常）that people remain emotionally at the level of teenagers. On a grander scale, these kidult opponents （对手）argue that such delayed adulthood causes couples to marry later and have fewer children. This in turn can lead to shrinking national economies, for there needs to be a generational replenishment （补充）
of the workforce.
From the standpoint of kidults, though, this phenomenon is seen as nothing but harmless fun. Kidults insist that having youthful interests keeps them young, happy and creative, and their refusal to conform to society's acceptable tastes shows independent thinking. Besides, they argue that being part of the social trend of delayed adulthood is not purely a personal choice. The real causes include expensive housing, increased educational requirements for employment and poor work opportunities.
Whether the kidult phenomenon will continue to grow or prove to be a passing trend is anyone's guess. As the debate about it continues, remember that there is nothing wrong with being young at heart.
1. What does the kidult phenomenon refer to?| A．Adults act like children. |
| B．Adults have child-like tastes. |
| C．Adults go in for collecting toys. |
| D．Adults like playing with children. |
| A．Different living conditions. |
| B．More choices about toys. |
| C．High pressure of modern life. |
| D．Good memories of childhood. |
| A．Get used to. |
| B．Look forward to. |
| C．Take advantage of. |
| D．Make way for. |
| A．By strongly opposing kidult opponents. |
| B．By convincing readers to accept kidults. |
| C．By refusing to take a stand on the issue. |
| D．By presenting both sides of the argument. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．whose | B．when | C．who | D．of whom |
| A．which | B．where | C．when | D．there |
| A．To experience | B．Having experienced | C．Experienced | D．Experiencing |
