1 . We are often reminded of Oscar Wilde’s saying that “sarcasm (讽刺) is the lowest form of wit” while forgetting the following “but the highest form of intelligence”. Parents or teachers of teenagers, in particular, may find it hard to believe that it is actually a sign of a flexible and inventive mind.
Yet that is exactly what psychologists and neuroscientists have been arguing. They have found that sarcasm requires the brain to jump through numerous hoops (圈) to arrive at a correct interpretation, requiring more brainpower than literal statements.
If you’re still not convinced that your teen’s love of sarcasm is a thing worth celebrating, consider a recent experiment from Li Huang, a psychologist at Insead’s business school in Fontainebleau, France.
In the experiment, participants were presented with a candle, a pack of matches and a box of tacks (图钉). Their task was to find a way to attach the candle to the wall so that it could burn without dripping wax on the floor. The correct answer is to empty the box of tacks, pin it to the wall, and then place the candle inside a solution that will only come to mind if you are prepared to think about the functions of each object.
Before working on the problem, some participants were asked to recall a sarcastic interaction, while others remembered a sincere or neutral exchange. Quite amazingly, the sarcastic memories more than doubled the participants’ success rate, from around 30% to more than 60%.
It may initially feel like a shock when parents notice their children using sarcasm——a sign, perhaps, of a more adult-like cynicism (愤世嫉俗) that conflicts with their impressions of their children’s youthful innocence. Parents may feel particularly helpless when dealing with a teenager who uses it in almost all interactions, as if they struggle. to express any sincere emotions.
But should we blame teens for applying this handy tool? Perhaps it’s better seen as the useful practice of a vital ability. Penny Pexman, a psycholinguist at the University of Calgary agrees and it is for this reason that she has produced Sydney Gets Sarcastic, a storybook that provides multiple examples of sarcasm and the reasons it was used. In a recent experiment on 5-to 6-year-olds, she showed that children who read and discussed the story found it easier to detect sarcastic statements in a following test.
1. Why does the author refer to Oscar Wilde’s words at the beginning of the text?| A．To give a definition of sarcasm. |
| B．To stress the significance of sarcasm. |
| C．To express his concern about sarcasm. |
| D．To show the misunderstanding of sarcasm. |
| A．They tended to stay long with participants. |
| B．They offered clues to the problem to be solved. |
| C．They could force participants to face problems. |
| D．They contributed greatly to participant’s success. |
| A．It shows their innocence. |
| B．It helps them express emotions. |
| C．It is not appropriate for their age. |
| D．It allows them to behave like adults. |
| A．To urge parents to learn from their children’s sarcasm. |
| B．To teach parents how to respond to their children’s sarcasm. |
| C．To show parents the positive side of their children’s sarcasm. |
| D．To remind parents to teach their children to use words properly. |
2 . Suppose you are out shopping and come across an acquaintance who starts telling you a story that seems to be dragging on and on. You want to seem interested, so you offer the occasional “Oh” or “I see”. To your surprise, though, this person angrily stops in their tracks and says, “Sorry if I’m boring you!”
Where did this come from? Clearly, your body language must have betrayed you. The idea that verbal (口头的) and nonverbal messages can conflict was the inspiration for a recently published study from Yale University’s Lueylle Armentano. As part of her study of communication in relationships, Armentano’s research also examined communication channels in people meeting for the first time.
To test the role of verbal-nonverbal mismatch on emotional communication, Armentano and her partner created experimental conditions to see what happens when someone asks for help from strangers. The research team created videotapes of a fellow Yale student expressing nervousness in his words, bodily gestures, or both. The bodily gestures included running his hands through his hair, grabbing his arm, and facially expressing uneasiness. The key question was whether the other participants, another 82 Yale students, would believe the student and provide the help he was requesting. They needed to give their responses.
Turning to the findings, those nonverbal cues (提示) of nervousness had a greater impact on helping behavior than the verbal cues. Surprisingly, helping behavior was the highest when verbal expressions of nervousness were low but nonverbal cues were high.
Recognizing that your body language can outweigh your words means that you need to be mindful of what your body is doing when you’re interacting with others. Generally, when someone is speaking to you, you want to look like you’re interested. Not only should you maintain eye contact, but you should keep your body still and face toward the other person. If you’re not trying to look interested, it may be more polite to say you have to be somewhere else.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The obvious advantages of body language. |
| B．A situation where body language is a must. |
| C．An example of verbal-nonverbal mismatch. |
| D．The proper way to interact with old friends. |
| A．Express nervousness in their words. | B．Identify the types of body language. |
| C．Try to win the nervous student’s trust. | D．Respond to the nervous student’s request. |
| A．His sincere verbal expressions. | B．His bodily gestures of nervousness. |
| C．His positive attitude to nervousness. | D．His good manners in front of others. |
| A．Make a prediction. | B．Offer suggestions. |
| C．Present some facts. | D．Give some warnings. |
3 . Honesty is important. However, not everyone seems to think so. Lies and the hiding of truth are commonplace. But when examining the case for honesty, you realize it’s a better option. Here are the reasons why the value of honesty is beyond measure.
It is easier to understand.
You are more likely to get what you want. We often hide our true desires or preferences rather than speak out the truth. But when we are completely honest with ourselves and others, we encourage the right actions that lead to what we want.
It is better for your inner peace. Lying doesn’t come easy for most people. When you cheat others, it can feel like you are going against your values. Not only that, but as soon as you lie, you will live with the fear of that lie being discovered. That’s a mentally tiring thing.
| A．Telling the truth is simple. |
| B．It is the best way to prove your honesty. |
| C．Instead, it is so hard that no one can do it. |
| D．When we speak up, the other person is more likely to listen. |
| E．Honesty, though not always easy, doesn’t carry such burdens. |
| F．When you are clear in what you think, there’s no grey area for confusion. |
| G．Actually, it can be hard when you tell others what they don’t want to hear. |
4 . Humans, by nature, have always lived in groups and social interaction is fundamental for every part of our health. Lack of it can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness. A strong support network and solid community bonds promote our emotional and physical health, and are critical components of a balanced adult life. However, just as with many other aspects of our lives, there seems to be a limit to how large our personal networks can grow.
Back in 1992, a British scholar named Robin Dunbar came up with a hypothetical (假设的) number defining the maximum sum of meaningful human relationships a person can have. The number, which was later named after him, was discovered accidentally while he was studying the cleaning and brushing tendencies — a social behavior —of non-human primates (灵长类动物). Around that time, researchers had discovered that the large brain of these primates was a result of their socially complex societies. The relevance was that the larger the brain, the larger the animal's social group was likely to be. Scientists could then theoretically use an animal's brain size to calculate how many members could make up this group. Dunbar applied this theory to humans, and the resulting number was roughly 150.
Dunbar's Number, however, only refers to the limit of meaningful contacts within our social network. It does not account for other relationships. Human social relationships tend to have numerous layers, and extend outward from the individual in circles with the same centre. The innermost circle contains five people: our loved ones. The next circle holds of our good friends. The third circle is reserved for people we consider friends, and the fourth is where the limit of 150 can be found. Nowadays, with various forms of electronic communication, such as websites for social networking and microblogging people find it very convenient to create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents. Consequently, it is possible for a human to get into the fifth (500acquainitances) circle, an impressive breakthrough that was difficult to achieve in the past.
1. What can be learned about Dunbar's Number in Paragraph 2?| A．It is confirmed by the social reality. |
| B．It serves as an accurate measurement. |
| C．It is backed by a certain theoretical basis. |
| D．It establishes links between health and network. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Human brains are becoming bigger and bigger. |
| B．Social media have contributed to the phenomenon. |
| C．Meaningful contacts grow significantly with age. |
| D．People are eager to improve every aspect of their lives. |
| A．Group Living: A Solution to Health Problems |
| B．Dunbar's Theory: A Ladder to Career Success |
| C．Social Network: A Soured of Endless Pleasure |
| D．Dunbar's Number: A Measure of Social Relations |
5 . Most of us are already aware of the direct effect we have on our friends and family. But we rarely consider that everything we think, feel, do, or say can spread far beyond the people we know. Conversely(相反地), our friends and family serve as conduits(渠道) for us to be influenced by hundreds or even thousands of other people. In a kind of social chain reaction, we can be deeply affected by events we do not witness that happen to people we do not know. As part of a social network, we go beyond ourselves, for good or ill, and become a part of something much larger.
Our connectedness carries with it fundamental implications(影响) for the way we understand the human condition. Social networks have value precisely because they can help us to achieve what we could not achieve on our own. Yet, socialnetwork effects are not always positive. Depression, obesity, financial panic, and violence also spread. Social networks, it turns out, tend to magnify(放大) whatever they are seeded with.
Partly for this reason, social networks are creative. And what these networks create does not belong to any one individual—it is shared by all those in the network. In this way, a social network is like a commonly owned forest: We all stand to benefit from it, but we also must work together to ensure it remains healthy and productive. While social networks are fundamentally and distinctively human, and can be seen everywhere, they should not be taken for granted.
If you are happier or richer or healthier than others, it may have a lot to do with where you happen to be in the network, even if you cannot recognize your own location. And it may have a lot to do with the overall structure of the network, even if you cannot control that structure at all. And in some cases, the process feeds back to the network itself. A person with many friends may become rich and then attract even more friends. This richgetricher dynamic means social networks can dramatically reinforce two different kinds of inequality in our society: situational inequality and positional inequality.
Lawmakers have not yet considered the consequences of positional inequality. Still, understanding the way we are connected is an essential step in creating a more just society and in carrying out public policies affecting everything from public health to the economy. We might be better off vaccinating(接种疫苗) centrally located individuals rather than weak individuals. We might be better off helping interconnected groups of people to avoid criminal behaviour rather than preventing or punishing crimes one at a time.
If we want to understand how society works, we need to fill in the missing links between individuals. We need to understand how interconnections and interactions between people give rise to wholly new aspects of human experience that are not present in the individuals themselves. If we do not understand social networks, we cannot hope to fully understand either ourselves or the world we inhabit.
1. Why is a social network like a commonly owned forest?| A．It remains healthy and productive. |
| B．What it creates can be enjoyed by everyone in the network. |
| C．It is creative and shared by people in the whole society. |
| D．It tends to magnify negative things. |
| A．whether we are richer depends on the number of friends we make |
| B．the wealth we possess has nothing to do with individual continuous efforts |
| C．sometimes our success may be largely due to our position in social networks |
| D．we won't succeed unless we fully control the overall structure of the network |
| A．To introduce the characteristics of social networks. |
| B．To urge people to understand how our society works. |
| C．To show the significance of understanding social networks. |
| D．To explain the possible consequences of ignoring social networks. |
| A．We can't be easily affected by strangers. |
| B．We have negative effects on other social members. |
| C．We are connected and form a social network. |
| D．We will not make a difference in a specific group. |
6 . Small talk has a reputation for being uninteresting, and for good reason. Pointing out the fact that it’s raining seems as ridiculous as pointing out the fact that you have a head—you’re fully aware of both things, and don’t require an outsider to confirm them. But despite being evident and often painfully dull, small talk has an important role to fulfil, enabling us to leap over a number of social obstacles towards improved, meaningful interaction.
Humans can be sensitive souls. We each have our boundaries and lists of potential upsets, which when broken, cause us to either gently back away to an alternative position in the room, or become cross at the person. Small talk is first a way to test the waters with an unfamiliar person, so that you may better understand their personality. When finding yourself positioned closely to a person who you know little about, it’s much safer to point out the rainy sky than to share your political views on a sensitive topic. Until you know the person better, heavier topics should probably be kept under wraps, so you won’t find yourself on the receiving end of a cold stare.
Though insignificant, small talk still has great power. When talking with fellow humans, much of our soul is exposed through non-verbal communication. A response to “how was your weekend” can unveil much about the person’s character. The length of their response might indicate their level of self-confidence; the tone of speaking might show how agreeable a person is; their slightly lowered head, as if protecting themselves from attack, a possible sign of a regrettable history of bullying.
As more of a person’s character is revealed, we have the insight needed to determine whether to broach more significant topics—the things that we actually want to talk about. Conversation is a great educator, and deep conversation establish lasting bonds with our fellow humans, forming precious friendships that paint our lives with vibrant colors. Such friendships begin with small talk.
1. What is described in the first paragraph?| A．The first stage of human interaction. |
| B．Ridiculous human behavior in communication. |
| C．Absence of communication between strangers. |
| D．The difficulty of having deep conversations. |
| A．Because they are fond of heavy subjects. |
| B．Because they are enthusiastic about politics. |
| C．Because they are too sensitive about topics. |
| D．Because they fail to manage interpersonal distance. |
| A．The length of the answer. | B．The quality of the voice. |
| C．The position of the head. | D．The distance between speakers. |
| A．Reputation of Small Talk | B．Ways of Understanding Personality |
| C．Significance of Small Talk | D．Challenges of Deep Conversation |
7 . Chinese culture values family bonds very much. Family members don't just gather during the holidays .In fact they often live under one roof all year round.
In most East Asian cultures, extended families are common.
Atlantic, 90 percent of children in Shanghai and 70 percent of children in Beijing were cared for by their grandparents. Chinese people believe that "a grandparent is a treasure to their family".
In many Western countries, most families are nuclear families （小家庭）. These are solely made up of children and their parents.
Additionally, the duties parents have toward their children can also differ.
It's normal for parents to pay for their children's college, help them find a job, or buy them an apartment. Chinese adults also follow their parents' opinions when making major life decisions, more often than not.
In most Western countries, however, kids usually move out of the house after they turn 18.
While the East cares more about close family bonds, the West values privacy and independence.
| A．These families have three or even four generations living together |
| B．Nuclear families are the most common type in China. |
| C．In China, many parents look after their children all the way into adulthood. |
| D．Different cultures have different family values. |
| E．But in the end, home is best 一 east or west. |
| F．Many young people going to college often need to take out loans and work part-time jobs in order to pay for tuition and rent. |
| G．Both Easterners and Westerners value quality family time. |
8 . How to Be a Great Best Friend
Everyone wants to be a great best friend but doesn’t know how or where to start that perfect friendship. The following will help you.
Be your own best friend first.
Trust each other.
Learn to listen. Nobody likes a best friend who just talks and talks, but never listens. If you’re a chatterbox, try to develop good listening skills. Whenever your best friend says something, listen carefully and say something.
Care for your best friend. If your best friend is upset, ask them what’s wrong, They might not tell you straight away, but they should in the end.
Let your friend have other friends, too. If your best friend picks another friend over you, try to be friends with their friend too.
| A．Learn how to respect yourself. |
| B．Maybe you guys can be a group of friends! |
| C．Don’t interrupt while they’re talking to you. |
| D．Best friends are the most valuable friends you have. |
| E．If they don’t tell you, don’t get angry at them. |
| F．To be a great best friend really doesn’t take much. |
| G．Take time out of your day to appreciate the funny things in life. |
