1 . There’s a song by the great Jamaican singer Bob Marley called So Much Trouble In The World. Marley understood that part of the reason why there are so many problems in the world is the lack of tolerance between people. The UN understands this too that’s why it made Nov 16 “International Day for Tolerance”.
But first of all, what is tolerance? French philosopher Voltaire (1694 — 1778) can give us some help. According to him, tolerance “is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty (脆弱) and error; let us pardon each other’s folly — that is the first law of nature.”
Nobody’s perfect. When we’re tempted to criticize another person, we should perhaps remember our own imperfections first.
Very often, people don’t realize that they’re intolerant. This is because intolerance has a lot to do with ignorance. For example, the UN’s campaign is in part about the treatment of females by males. But often, the behavior of men toward women is intolerant because men don’t put themselves in the shoes of women.
It’s worth thinking a little about the words “tolerance” and “intolerance”. Are they the best words to describe the evils of which we’re speaking here? To agree to be “tolerant” of someone isn’t necessarily a very respectful thing. When someone is tolerated, it implies that there’s something wrong with them.
But it seems wrong that people should agree to “tolerate” people with black skin, for example. And should women think they have received the respect they are due when men agree to “tolerate” them?
Still, what Voltaire said stands: We humans are not perfect and this weakness is something that we all share. That’s the reason we should be tolerant.
It’s a little like generosity. We can give things to another person, and we can also give our forgiveness. Bob Marley understood this. In the song mentioned above, he advised: “Write your love on a rock so it stays for eternity (永恒); write your hate in the sand so the waves will wash it away.”
1. What’s the purpose of the UN “International Day For Tolerance”?| A．To arouse peoples awareness of tolerance among people. |
| B．To celebrate the founding of the UN. |
| C．To solve the problem of global community. |
| D．To change people’s opinions towards globalization. |
| A．being willing to express your love to others |
| B．trying to overcome your imperfections |
| C．giving a hand to vulnerable groups (弱势群体) |
| D．accepting each other’s weaknesses |
| A．They are used to finding faults. |
| B．They consider tolerance a kind of frailty. |
| C．They don’t see things from the angle of others. |
| D．They are intolerant of themselves too. |
| A．Humans are advised to treat others better. | B．Humans learned to find faults in others. |
| C．Humans need to give something to others. | D．Humans will change their attitudes to others. |
| A．The origin of the International Day of Tolerance. |
| B．The meaning and importance of tolerance. |
| C．The philosophy behind Bob Marley’s song. |
| D．Effective ways to show tolerance. |
In life, once on a path, we tend to follow it, for better or worse. What’s sad is that even if it’s the latter, we often follow a certain path anyway because we are so used to the way things are that we don’t even recognize that they could be different. Psychologists call this phenomenon functional fixedness.
This classic experiment will give you an idea of how it works — and a sense of whether you may have fallen into the same trap:
People are given a box of tacks (大头钉) and some matches and asked to find a way to attach a candle to a wall so that it burns properly. Typically, the subjects try tacking the candle to the wall or lighting it to fix it with melted wax (石蜡). The tacks are too short, and the candle doesn’t fasten to the wall. So how can you accomplish the task? The successful technique is to use the tack box as a candle holder. You empty it, tack it to the wall, and stand the candle inside it.
To think of that, you have to look beyond the box’s usual role as a container just for tacks and reimagine it serving an entirely new purpose. That is difficult because we all suffer — to one degree or another — from functional fixedness. The inability to think in new ways affects people in every corner of society. The political theorist Hannah Arend coined the phrase frozen thoughts to describe deeply held ideas that we no longer question but should. In Arendt’s eyes, the complacent reliance on such accepted “truths” also made people blind to ideas that didn’t fit their worldview, even when there was ample evidence for them. Frozen thinking has nothing to do with intelligence, she said, “It can be found in highly intelligent people.”
Another context in which frozen thinking can turn truly dangerous is medicine. If you land in the hospital, it’s natural to want to be treated by the most experienced physicians on staff. But according to a 2014 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), you’d be better off being treated by the relative novices.
1. What does “functional fixedness” mean?2. How is the candle attached to the wall?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
▶Frozen thinking is common among ordinary people but less found in those with high IQ.
4. How can you avoid frozen thoughts in your daily life? (In about 40 words)
3 . It’s no secret that literature is powerful. For many of us, there have been times in our lives — a loved one’s passing, our first heartbreak — that we couldn’t have made it through without a few extraordinary books, poems, or perhaps even just a few words strung together. We knew the connective power of literature all along, but now there’s science behind it.
A number of studies have shown that poetry provides a number of benefits for patients suffering from chronic (慢性的) and terminal (晚期的) illnesses. A randomized clinical trial, which set out to “evaluate the effect of passive listening to music and poetry on the variation in pain, depression, and hope scores” of 75 adult patients, came back with fascinating results. Researchers discovered that music and poetry both lessened pain intensity and depression, but only poetry increased hope scores.
After listening to poems, one participant said, “I feel calmer when I hear those words. Sadness passes. They are important words; they show me that I’m not alone.” What is it about those words that gives them the power to keep sadness away, and, moreover, to bring peace and comfort? As reported in Nautilus, “Poetry has a structure, which is something we can experience with our bodies.”
Using something called functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers were able to ascertain that the recitation of poetry engages the mesolimbic pathway ( 中脑边缘系统通路), the primary reward circuitry in the brain. While poetry won’t cure the disease, it can help patients deal with the pain, both physical and emotional, associated with the illness. Treatment is important, but what physicians tend to forget is that healing (康复) is equally crucial for successful recovery. And healing is not just a matter of the body, but one of the mind and spirit, too.
In the context of terminal illness, communication between patient and physician extends beyond mere descriptions of physical pain, and transcends (超越) to more personal, and even more difficult to express conditions, such as mood, morale, and tiredness. Through poetry, doctors are able to better understand the mental state of their patients and as a result, better aid patients in the healing or treatment process.
1. What did the clinical trial’s researchers find?| A．Music proved ineffective in easing patients’ pain. |
| B．Music raised patients’ hopes of a speedy recovery. |
| C．Poetry could help cure chronic and terminal diseases. |
| D．Poetry helped to relieve pain and depression and give hope. |
| A．Poems often bore hidden meanings. |
| B．Poems should be experienced first-hand. |
| C．Poems had a surprisingly calming influence. |
| D．Poems played a connective role among patients. |
| A．Patients’ spirit matters the most in the healing process. |
| B．Poetry enables doctors to connect with patients emotionally. |
| C．Poetry can serve as an immediate treatment for most diseases. |
| D．Patients’ self-experimentation for a cure should be encouraged. |
| A．The desire to heal |
| B．The art of expression |
| C．The healing power of poetry |
| D．The benefit of literature to doctors |
