1 . When evaluating people on various psychological tests, psychologists often distinguish between markers of absolute performance and relative performance. Absolute performance reflects the raw measurement of something, like the time it takes to run a mile. Relative performance is how a person rates in relation to their peers, as in what place a runner gets in a race.
The standards we use to evaluate ourselves are almost always relative, as we compare ourselves to our peers and the standards that are most familiar to us. Our conscious recognition of these peers and norms is what sets our expectations, shaping our self-image and happiness. What’s interesting about the relative comparisons that most of us make is that in whatever area of life we consider—for example, our highest level of education—it’s not how we fare in comparison to the rest of the world that seems to matter most, but rather how we compare to our closest peers.
For instance, in my private practice, I have one patient I will call “Omar” who is dependent on social services and makes less than $30,000 per year at his job. While this level of poverty would lead most people to wake up depressed each day, Omar is one of the most optimistic and appreciative individuals I know. Why? Because most of his closest peers—his siblings and friends from childhood—have lives far worse than his.
In contrast to. Omar, I have another patient, an adolescent I’ll call “Lena”, whose family has property over $5 million. Lena, however, lives in an upper-class neighborhood where her family is at the lower end of the income level. Though Lena’s family allows her to enjoy possessions and experiences that less than 1 percent of her peers across the world can share, she consistently feels “less than”. Why? Because Lena doesn’t compare herself to the rest of the world; This is too abstract an exercise for her, as it would be for most of us.
Accordingly, whether a psychologist is psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioral, therapy (疗法) with individuals struggling with situation al or psychological depression aims to solve the problems associated with basing one’s self-worth on comparisons with others. Psychologists try to help people focus on personal growth around the achievement of concrete goals in line with their values independent of the achievement of others. For all of us, defining these goals, especially during Periods of emotional calm, can go a long way in helping us to avoid the trap of relativity that often leads to situational and psychological depression.
1. In writing Paragraph 1, the author aims to ________.| A．show the significance of evaluating people. |
| B．motivate readers to study psychological tests. |
| C．help people perform well in psychological tests |
| D．provide some background information on evaluating people. |
| A．To measure different achievement. |
| B．To introduce the standards to evaluate people. |
| C．To explain relative performance with examples. |
| D．To contrast relative performance and absolute performance. |
| A．“Omar” is independent on social services. |
| B．“Omar” ‘s siblings lead better lives than he does. |
| C．“Lena” is always discontented with what she has. |
| D．“Lena” tends to compare herself to the rest of the world. |
| A．Setting goals in life is essential for everyone. |
| B．It’s important to avoid unhealthy comparisons. |
| C．A sense of achievement can affect one’s happiness. |
| D．Improving self-worth can help get rid of depression. |
| A．Happiness: Is it all relative? | B．Happiness: Is it associated with achievement? |
| C．Self-worth: Is it based on efforts? | D．Self-worth: Is it measurable? |
Why would human beings waste a third of their lives sleeping when they could be doing more important things like looking after their families or working? Some scientists believe sleeping helps recharge the body. while others think it is important for strengthening newly formed memories. Now, there is new evidence which suggests that the purpose of sleep may be to forget some of the millions of new things we learn each day.
The neurons in the human brain consist of fibers called dendrites (树突). These grow as we learn new things and connect the brain’s cells to each other at contact points called synapses (突触). The larger the dendrites become and the more cells they connect, the more information we store.
In 2018. Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli, both biologists at the University of Wisconsin Madison, suggested a new idea: The things our brains learn each day result in so many synapses that things start to get a little messy. Sleeping allows us to sort through (整理) the “noise” and dispense all the unnecessary information. leaving behind only the most important memories.
Recently, the university’s research has provided direct evidence to support the theory. The experiment involved analyzing 6. 920 synapses in the brain shavings from two groups of mice over a four-year period: one group had been allowed to sleep, while the other had been kept awake and entertained with toys. The researchers discovered that the brain shavings of the sleeping mice had nearly 20 percent fewer synapses than those that had been kept awake and entertained.
It was also evident during the study that the brain does not shave every synapse. 20% of neurons remained unchanged: these were most likely well established memories. Therefore. although we may be sleeping to forget some of what we’ve learned, the brain “forgets” in a smart way.
Most researchers believe clearing our brains is not the only purpose of sleep.
Resting our minds and bodies has also been found to help with other biological functions like strengthening our immunity. Though scientists may never agree on a single reason. they are all sure of one thing — a good night’s rest is essential for our health. So try and spend at least a third of your day sleeping!
1. What’s the purpose of sleeping according to the new discovery?(no more than 15 words)2. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2?(no more than 10 words)
3. What does the underlined word “dispense” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?(no more than 5 words)
4. What agreement do all the scientists probably reach about sleeping according to the text?(no more than 10 words)
5. Do you think a good night’s sleep will benefit your next-day study? Please explain in your own words. (no more than 20 words)
3 . People have speculated (思索) for centuries about a future without work. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in a wasteland. A different prediction holds that without jobs to give their lives meaning future people will simply become lazy and depressed.
But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with dissatisfaction. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could provide strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure.
These days, spare time is relatively rare for most workers. “When I come home from a hard day’s work, I often feel tired.” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work. I might feel rather different — perhaps different enough to throw myself into a hobby with the enthusiasm usually reserved for professional matters.”
Daniel Everett, an anthropologist (人类学家) at Bentley University studied a group of hunter-gathers in the Amazon called the Piranha for years. According to Everett, while some might consider hunting and gathering as work, hunter-gatherers don’t. “They think of it as fun.” he says. “They don’t have a concept of work the way we do.”
Everett described a typical day for the Piraha: A man might get up, spend a few hours fishing, have a barbecue, and play until the evening. Does this relaxing life lead to the depression and purposelessness seen among so many of today’s unemployed? “I’ve never seen anything like depression there, except people who are physically ill.” Everett says. While many may consider work necessary for human life, work as it exists today is a relatively new invention in the course of human culture. “We think it’s bad to just sit around with nothing to do,” says Everett. “For the Piraha, it’s quite a desirable state.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic in Paragraph 1?| A．By comparing wealthy people with the majority. |
| B．By giving a definition to inequality in society. |
| C．By listing different predictions of a work-free world |
| D．By picturing a lazy and depressed atmosphere. |
| A．Challenges. | B．Losses. | C．Disadvantages. | D．Risks. |
| A．work plays an important role in our future life |
| B．people’s work-free future life will be full of charm |
| C．people don’t know how to balance work and life |
| D．higher unemployment makes life tougher for workers |
| A．To justify John Danaher’s opinion. |
| B．To show a future life without work. |
| C．To compare different views on work. |
| D．To introduce the Piraha in the Amazon. |
| A．Some people dislike a work-free world. |
| B．The Piraha don’t think they are working at all. |
| C．Future people might become lazy and depressed. |
| D．Daniel Everett prefer to sit around doing nothing |
4 . 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. |
5 . A recent study found that experiencing or even just anticipating uplifting events in daily life was related to feeling less depressed that same day. The study, conducted by Professor Lisa Starr at University of Rochester, found that a decrease in depression was especially marked when the experience included interpersonal uplifts, such as participating in fun activities with friends or family.
A number of laboratory-based studies suggest that the mood of people with depression is relatively unresponsive to positive stimuli(刺激物). In other words, when people with depression experience a positive event in the laboratory—like receiving a financial reward—their mood is unlikely to improve markedly. The issue here is that laboratory research doesn’t always translate to real-life settings.
The Rochester study is one of a growing number of studies examining how real life events with direct relevance to study participants affect their mood. The authors wanted to know if people with different levels of depression felt better when good things happened to them. The answer is simple—yes. The same is true for the expectation of good things to come.
The study included 157 young adults of whom two-thirds had mild, moderate, or severe depressive symptoms. The remaining third had no symptoms, allowing the authors to examine whether the level of depressive symptoms changes the way people respond to positive experiences. The study subjects completed a two-week online diary, tracking their mood as it related to recent and anticipated positive events in their lives—like time spent with friends, or exercising.
Those who reported higher levels of depressive symptoms at the beginning of the study, showed stronger associations between daily uplifts and lower daily depressive symptoms, particularly when the uplifts were interpersonal in nature.
“The findings have really important implications for treatment and are compatible with a treatment model called Behavioral Activation, which suggests that if you can help depressed people to engage in positive experiences—despite their low motivation to do so—their mood may improve,” says Starr. In other words: If you’re feeling seriously blue, make an effort to do something fun with friends.
1. What did the new study find?| A．Sociable people are less likely to experience depression. |
| B．People with depression are good at predicting the future. |
| C．Every one of us experiences depression from time to time. |
| D．Positive social activities can reduce people’s depressive mood. |
| A．They produced little effect. | B．They were laboratory-based. |
| C．They were financial rewards. | D．They were related to real-life events. |
| A．How the study was conducted. | B．What the result of the study is. |
| C．What affects participants’ mood. | D．How long the study took. |
| A．Those with no depressive symptoms. |
| B．Those with mild depressive symptoms. |
| C．Those with severe depressive symptoms. |
| D．Those with moderate depressive symptoms. |
| A．Unrelated. | B．Consistent. | C．Comfortable. | D．Popular. |
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)
7 . “It’s raining. It’s pouring. The old man is snoring (打鼾). He bumped his head when he went to bed, and he couldn’t get up in the morning.” Why couldn’t the old man in the children’s song get up? (Let’s kindly suppose that he just didn’t want to get up) This was possibly because in the absence of sunlight, the body was still producing the hotmon (激素) melatonin (褪黑素), which makes people sleepy.
There are many ways that rainfall affects human behavior. But how much does rain really affect people’s moods and behavior?
In 2008, researchers from the University of Minnesota and Lanzhou University published a paper. They proposed that decreased rainfall was influential in social upheaval (社会动荡) and the downfall of the Tang, Yuan and Ming dynasties in ancient China. This is thought to be related to reduced rice cultivation.
But how might rain affect social behavior in the modern world? A 2009 New York Times investigation found that murder rates in New York drop significantly on rainy days. Meanwhile, in Britain, Dr. Peter Langmead-Jones of Greater Manchester police published a study in 2015 detailing an analysis of 6.6 million police records over one decade in Manchester. “ The research showed that the heavier the rainfall, the lower the recorded crime,” he said.
Langmead-Jones also found that there is a strong association between heavy rain and relatively few violent crimes recorded including domestic abuse (家庭暴力). This might be because heavy rain stops people from going out to buy alcohol and the reduced alcohol consumption results in fewer crimes.
It’s not all good news though. One study in 1997 concluded that the behavior of children can predict oncoming storms — they were observed to exhibit their worst behavior when barometric (气压的) pressure fell. Another study in 2012 found that women are much more likely to be affected psychologically by rain and that they report much lower levels of life satisfaction than men on rainy days.
For all the complaints about rain, it does have some characteristics that hold broad appeal. The sound of raindrops can be very comforting and often features in sleep — inducing relaxation apps. The theory behind this is that the pitter patter of raindrops is a form of “pink noise”. It can decrease brain activity and consequently improves the quality of sleep. So if it’s raining where you are, the best thing to do may be to have a nap.
1. The author uses the lyrics of a song in the first paragraph to ______.| A．introduce the interesting song to readers |
| B．voice his understanding of why the old man couldn’t get up in the morning |
| C．illustrate one way that wet weather influences human behavior |
| D．explain why people often get up late on rainy days |
| A．Success. | B．Prosperity. | C．Failure. | D．Development. |
| A．people prefer to take a nap at home when it’s raining |
| B．most people are depressed on rainy days |
| C．people are too lazy to go out when it’s raining |
| D．alcohol consumption is reduced due to wet weather |
①decreased grain output
②relatively few criminal records
③higher chance of feeling low in spirits
④more possibility of feeling sleepy
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．The sound of raindrops helps people sleep better. |
| B．On rainy days, all people can get more sleep. |
| C．It offers a good chance to listen to relaxing music. |
| D．People feel more satisfied with themselves when it’s raining. |
8 . It’s hard to turn down hamburgers, French fries, potato chips and all of the other junk food that seem to call out to us. However, eating too much junk food can harm your body, particularly if you’re between the ages of 10 and 19.
“Junk food shapes adolescent brains in ways that impair (损害) their ability to think, learn and remember. It can also make it harder to control impulsive (冲动的) behaviors, said Amy Reichelt, a brain and nutrition specialist at Western University, Canada. “It may even increase a teen’s risk of depression and anxiety.”
Reichelt and two other researchers reviewed more than 100 studies, including their own, about how poor food choices can impact adolescent brains. They found adolescents are more sensitive than any other age group to processed foods with a lot of fat and sugar as their brains are not yet fully formed.
Adolescent brains are still developing the ability to assess risks and control actions. The prefrontal cortex (前额皮质) is the part of the brain that tells us we shouldn’t eat chips all the time and helps us resist that urge. However, this region is the last to mature — it doesn’t fully develop until we are in our early 20s.
Meanwhile, teen brains get more buzz (兴奋) from rewards. The parts of the brain that make us feel good when we do something pleasurable — like eating tasty foods — are fully developed by the teen years.
In fact, these regions are even more sensitive when we are young. That’s because dopamine (多巴胺), a natural chemical that lifts our mood when we experience something good, is especially active in adolescent brains.
Therefore, the teen brain has two strikes against it when it comes to resisting junk food. “It has a heightened drive for rewards and reduced self-regulation,” said Reichelt.
Reichelt and her team conducted their own study using mice, whose brains develop much like our own. They discovered that the “teenage” mice that had a high-fat diet performed worse on memory tests than those eating a normal diet. Researchers said the high-fat diet may make the mice’s prefrontal cortex work less effectively.
So, what’s the best way to say no to junk food? Researchers suggest exercise. When we exercise, the brain’s reward system becomes less sensitive to food cues (线索). Exercise also triggers the body to make a protein that helps brain cells grow and boosts connections between the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions. The prefrontal cortex thus can work better to help us make wise decisions and control our impulses.
1. What is the purpose of the first two paragraphs?| A．To figure out what junk food is. |
| B．To explain the dangers of junk food. |
| C．To show how junk food affect the brain. |
| D．To analyze why junk food is hard to resist. |
| A．Processed food makes them sensitive. |
| B．It is hard to control impulsive behaviors. |
| C．Their still-developing prefrontal cortex. |
| D．The low level of dopamine in their brains. |
| A．Our mood could suffer from eating junk food. |
| B．High-fat diets may negatively affect our creativity. |
| C．The brain of a mouse is similar to that of a person’s. |
| D．High-fat diets can harm our ability to process information. |
| A．It reduces the desire for junk food. |
| B．It activates the brain’s reward system. |
| C．It helps the prefrontal cortex work better with dopamine. |
| D．It makes the body produce a protein that controls our impulses. |
| A．Fashion. | B．Technology. | C．Health. | D．Entertainment. |
9 . People who grow up outside of cities are better at finding their way around than urbanites, a large study on navigation suggests. The results, described online on March 30 in Nature, hint that learning to handle environmental complexity as a child strengthens mental muscles for spatial skills.
Nearly 400,000 people from 38 countries around the world played a video game called Sea Hero Quest, designed by scientists and game developers as a fun way to collect data about people’s brains. Players piloted a boat in search of various targets.
On average, people who said they had grown up outside of cities, where they would have probably encountered lots of complicated paths, were better at finding the targets than people who were raised in cities.
What’s more, the difference between city residents and outsiders was most obvious in countries where cities tend to have simple layouts (布局), such as Chicago with its streets laid out at 90-degree angles. The simpler the cities, the bigger the advantage for people from more rural areas, cognitive scientist Antoine Coutrot of CNRS and his colleagues report.
Still, from these video game data, scientists can’t definitively say that the childhood environment is behind the differences in navigation. But it’s possible. “As a kid, if you are exposed to a complex environment, you learn to find your way, and you develop the right cognitive processes to do so,” Coutrot says.
Other factors have been linked to navigational performance, including age, gender, education and even a superior sense of smell. Figuring out these details will give doctors a more precise baseline (基准) of a person’s navigational abilities. That, in turn, might help reveal when these skills weaken, as they do in early Alzheimer’s disease, for instance.
1. What does the underlined word “urbanites” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Those who live close to urban areas. |
| B．Those who are from rural areas. |
| C．Those who are raised in cities. |
| D．Those who long for urban life. |
| A．By playing a game called Sea Hero Quest. |
| B．By gathering data from the video game. |
| C．By recording electrical activities in brains. |
| D．By comparing various targets of the game. |
| A．City outsiders performed no better than city residents in the study. |
| B．Cities’ simple layouts gave city residents an advantage in the game. |
| C．There was no significant difference between city residents and outsiders. |
| D．The players’ performance had something to do with their earlier experience. |
| A．Childhood surroundings might affect people’s navigational abilities. |
| B．Gender and education are key to developing navigational abilities. |
| C．A superior sense of smell bears no relation to navigational abilities. |
| D．The study of navigational abilities can help cure Alzheimer’s disease. |
| A．How environment impacts early childhood development |
| B．Why is early childhood education important for our future |
| C．When is the best time to obtain your navigational skills |
| D．Where you grew up may shape your navigational skills |
10 . Expertise (专门技能) is what separates amateurs from true masters in almost any field. You might wonder whether experts are “born” or “made”. Experts in the field prove that expertise is acquired through dedicated practice, but how exactly people go about becoming experts?
People who become experts tend to get a body of knowledge that makes them one of the most knowledgeable individuals in their field. They also possess the skills that they need to determine when and how to use their knowledge. Recently, a popular idea has emerged that the key to becoming an expert is devoting at least 10,000 hours to the study and practice of a subject. Pop psychology author Malcolm Gladwell created the phrase “the ten-thousand-hour rule”. Gladwell also suggested tech-entrepreneur Bill Gates had devoted 10,000 hours to practicing programming before he created Microsoft.
Anders Ericsson of the University of Florida, who is a famous expert, has studied the experts from all walks of life and points out deficiency of “the ten-thousand-hour rule”. Ericsson believes that what separates the amateur from experts is what is referred to as deliberate practice. Ordinary practice can help people become skilled at a task, but such practice involves working on things that are outside of their current skill-level, setting goals, and receiving training and instruction from a qualified teacher.
While Ericsson believes deliberate practice is the key to becoming an expert, not all researchers agree with his conclusion. Some recent studies have found deliberate practice isn’t the only factor that explains the differences between the skilled and the unskilled. While psychologists aren’t sure exactly which factors might also play a role, personality traits, physical characteristics, and overall intelligence may matter as well.
Practice is essential for developing a skill, but becoming an expert requires constantly challenging yourself to do better, learn more, and acquire new knowledge and skills. Simply practicing the same skills over and over again will make you better in those areas, but it won’t lead to true experts.
1. What can we know about experts?| A．They are able to apply knowledge flexibly and properly. |
| B．They have a good command of knowledge of other fields. |
| C．They are born with the ability to master professional skills. |
| D．They acquire expertise through the development of individuality. |
| A．To prove his “the ten-thousand-hour rule”. |
| B．To show 10,000 hours’ devotion could create Microsoft. |
| C．To prove becoming experts has little to do with personal skills. |
| D．To show the importance of researching various subjects at the same time. |
| A．Influence. | B．Uncertainty. | C．Significance | D．Disadvantage. |
| A．They think deliberate practice is not reasonable. |
| B．They think he fails to provide a basis for his opinion. |
| C．They place greater emphasis on the psychological level. |
| D．They think he might ignore other aspects of being an expert. |
| A．Practice should be carried on within one’s familiar skill-level. |
| B．Constant improvement of learning skills can lead to true expertise. |
| C．Being an expert is more than the result of practising the same skills. |
| D．Ordinary practice is the most important condition for being an expert. |
| A．become a true expert | B．take advantage of new skills |
| C．acquire new knowledge and skills | D．tell a “born” expert from a “made” expert |
