Do you think you’re a good listener? Chances are you do. But studies show that most people seriously overestimate their ability to listen. The truth is we are generally not good at listening, and our listening comprehension declines as we age.
Why aren’t we good at listening? One reason concerns the speed at which we think. The adult brain can process up to around 400 words per minute. This means during a conversation an average person thinks more than three times faster than he speaks. Therefore, we can easily think about something else while someone is talking to us, allowing our mind to wander or get sidetracked. Thinking about how you will reply while someone is still talking is one of the most common barriers to effective listening.
Another factor that contributes to our poor listening is our ever-decreasing attention span (持续时间). According to study conducted by Microsoft, in 2000—around the time the mobile revolution began—the average human attention span was 12 seconds; by 2013, it had fallen to 8 seconds! Our mobile devices provide constant distractions, which can be very destructive to listening. Test results have shown that being interrupted by a cell phone lowers listening comprehension by 20 percent.
Interruptions and distractions can cause a dramatic decline in listening ability—but they don’t have to. More and more people now realize that listening is a skill that can be developed through practice. Learning to observe a speaker’s body language and emotions, for example, can improve our active listening. Even the simple act of note-taking or making eye contact can help us stay focused while listening.
The rewards of effective listening are many. Research suggests that people who are good listeners make better leaders. And a recent study indicates that employees who don’t believe their bosses are listening to them are less likely to offer helpful suggestions and new ideas. As Dr. Ralph Nichols once said, “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.”
1. According to Paragraph 2, why is it easy for us to get distracted during a conversation?2. What has caused the decrease of our attention span?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
The decline of listening ability caused by distractions is sharp, and it is hard to be prevented.
4. Please introduce the rewards that effective listening brings to you.
6 . People connect to their cultural or ethnic group through similar food patterns. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods.
Regional food habits do exist, but they also change over time.
In addition to impacting food choices, culture also plays a role in food-related etiquette (礼节). For example, the amount people eat and leave uneaten varies from culture to culture. Some people from Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries might leave a little bit of food on their plates in order to indicate that their hunger has been satisfied.
Even among people who share similar cultural backgrounds, eating patterns are not identical. Further, men eat differently from women.
| A．People of different age groups eat differently. |
| B．As people immigrate; food preferences are exported. |
| C．Food items themselves have meaning attached to them. |
| D．The areas in which families live influence food likes and dislikes. |
| E．One of the reasons is that food itself is brought to other countries. |
| F．Besides, the role of conversation during mealtime varies from place to place. |
| G．However, cooks from other locations might be displeased if food is left on the plate. |
7 . Toward the end of my senior year in England, I watched my peers line up in front of the Career Services building. Waiting for their interviews for jobs, all seemed to be dressed the same — the men wearing navy jackets, the women dark dresses. I thought back to my first day on campus four years earlier when we all wore different colors and dreamed of different futures. It was as if our years of study, instead of enhancing our individualities and imaginations, had reduced them to sameness.
It was not a unique scene. All over the world, education supplies the economy with workers who will increase productivity. But this now threatens our very survival. If the entire world reaches the levels of consumption seen in high-income countries today, we’ll need multiple planet Earths to supply the resources.
The sustainable development goals call for turning education into a force for sustainability, but the opposite is often true: the ways we think about education undermine our ability to deal with the environmental crisis. As an education researcher, I see many children going through rote learning — Indian pupils repeating the sentences written by their teacher on the blackboard, a South African child yelled at by the teacher for failing to recite the text. Rote learning and discouraging individuality in children are still at the root of what it means to be educated across much of the world.
On the other hand, our focus on technological solutions to the environmental crisis is driving our approach to education. More students at British universities are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) than ever before, including a 400 percent increase in enrollment in AI courses over the last 10 years. Compared to STEM, social sciences and humanities are often underfunded and seen as less important. But this approach is counterproductive because non-STEM subjects are crucial to develop our ability to reimagine the world.
We even put our hope in solving the environmental crisis on AI. We make good use of energy networks, track land use through satellite imagery and predict extreme weather. But AI, like our other technologies, can only treat the symptoms (症状) of the environmental crisis, not the causes. These lie in lack of sensitivity to our impact on the planet.
Unlike AI, children are naturally imaginative. Nurturing imagination means seeing inspiration in children’s imaginations. In an education system that celebrates imagination, arts and creativity are as important as math and science. The environmental crisis is not a crisis of technology or science, it is a crisis of imagination. If we let children be our guides, we might just be able to imagine our way to survival.
1. What is mainly talked about in the first three paragraphs?| A．The new resolution of survival problems. | B．The negative effect of present education. |
| C．The adverse impact of over consumption. | D．The constant threat to economic productivity. |
| A．Change. | B．Resist. | C．Recall. | D．Weaken. |
| A．the application of AI needs to be limited | B．emphasis should be laid on social sciences |
| C．creativity is dominated by children’s sciences | D．technology is the cure for the environmental crisis |
8 . If you need an inspiring talk from a kindergartner, there's a hotline for that. This free hotline is called "Joy4all Hotline". If you call the phone number, you'll hear recordings of kids sharing words of encouragement.
The Joy4all Hotline is a school project created at an elementary school in California. It's run by an art teacher Maggie Clancy. Clancy started the hotline because she was concerned about the stressful things that her students had gone through. She aims to bring some joy back into the lives of her students, who range in age from 5 to 12.
To create the hotline, Clancy recorded her students. She instructed the kids to say something that had helped them during a difficult time. The hotline project also included the creation of posters. These posters displayed motivational phrases and were placed around town. The idea is to spread joy in the community.
When callers dial 707-968-8510, they are greeted by Clancy's daughter. The 11-year-old welcomes them with the following menu:
“If you're feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, press 1. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press 2. If you need an inspiring talk from kindergartners, press3. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press 4, and for encouragement is Spanish, press 5.”
When the project first started, Clancy hoped the hotline would receive 100 calls an hour. But within two days the hotline was getting over 500 calls an hour. Now, it is people with conquering anxiety and give people hope that will be good stuff happening more in the world. The project's success proves how much the world currently needs this kind of positive messaging.
“I think people are just looking for ways to feel connected,”Clancy said. “I think this hotline does that in a very pure, sweet way.”
1. Why did Clancy start the hotline?| A．To spread joyful news reports. | B．To support home schooling |
| C．To introduce encouraging posters | D．To lift her students' spirits up |
| A．get Clancy's life advice | B．talk with Clancy's daughter |
| C．listen to the sound of kids' laughter | D．hear the recordings of inspiring songs |
| A．It enjoys an increasing popularity. | B．It arouses people's concern for kids |
| C．It proves the importance of happiness. | D．It changes people's opinions on hotlines. |
9 . Welcome to our full-day sightseeing tour in the Rocky Mountains, which boast some of Canada’s most spectacular scenery. During the tour, you can enjoy round-trip travel from Banff and reach remote attraction including Lake Minnewanka and Lake Louise in comfort, stop at picturesque spots including falls and lakes, and enjoy personal attention from your guide on this small-group tour-limited to 15 people.
What’s Included
Driver/tour guide
Pickup and drop-off
Bottled water
Food
Tips are not required.
Departure Time
9:00 AM
Pickup Time
Please arrive 10 minutes before your selected start time for pickup.
Please Note
We pick up at all Town of Banff-hotels, hostels and even campgrounds! If travelling from outside Banff, please confirm pickup location with the tour operator. Please note we do not pick up in Lake Louise.
What to Expect
◊ Lake Minnewanka
This is the largest lake in the park and actually used to be home to a small summer village. Today the village lies beneath the pure blue waters of Lake Minnewanka. This stop provides some interesting history of how things have changed in Banff National Park over the years.
2 hours·Ticket Free
◊ Lake Louise
First opened in 1911, the world famous Lake Louise has been bringing guests to experience the clear blue waters for many years. This stop will offer the opportunity to explore the historic hotel.
3 hours·Ticket Included
Cancellation Policy
◊ For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
◊ Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
◊ This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled in advance due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or get the fee you’ve paid.
◊ This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
Read more about the tour at https://www.viater.com/.
1. To enjoy this full day tour, you need to ______.| A．take food by yourself | B．prepare tips for the guide |
| C．arrive at 9:00 am for pickup | D．wait for pickup in Lake Louise |
| A．Pay a visit to the summer village. | B．Learn the history of Banff National Park. |
| C．Live in the historic hotel by Lake Louise. | D．Swim in pure blue waters of Lake Minnewanka. |
| A．the tour is arranged to another day | B．he/she changes the route before the tour |
| C．the travelers fail to reach a certain number | D．he/she experiences bad weather during the trip |
Studies have shown video gamers often have high levels of dopamine (多巴胺) in the brain. The prospect of
