1 . If you are a psychology enthusiast, you have probably heard of the famous marshmallow test (棉花糖测试). In this task, kids are given a marshmallow, and are told that they can eat that marshmallow now, or they can wait a little while, and have two marshmallows instead. Some kids eat the marshmallow immediately, while others try their best to wait for the experimenter to come back with two marshmallows.
Wait time in the marshmallow test came to be seen as indicators of self-control. But is it really the case? A 2022 study by Yanaoka and his colleagues tested the idea that children may decide how long to wait for rewards based on what they are used to waiting for in their culture. In the United States, there is no widespread custom of waiting until everyone is served to eat your food. However, in Japan, there is a mealtime custom of waiting until everyone has been served before anyone starts to eat.
Because of this difference, the researchers hypothesized that Japanese children would wait longer in the marshmallow test than the American children. This is exactly what they found. This certainly suggests that cultural standards are important. The researchers did a clever follow-up experiment. They found one situation where children in the U. S. are used to waiting longer than Japanese children are: unwrapping presents. In the U. S., when children are given gifts on special occasions such Christmas, they usually have to wait before they can unwrap their presents. In Japan, however, children usually open presents immediately.
Given these cultural differences, Yanaoka and his colleagues expected that if they ran the marshmallow test with Japanese and American kids, but they replaced marshmallows with wrapped gifts, then American kids would wait longer to open them. Once again, their theory was correct. When the potential rewards were wrapped gifts instead of food, American children waited 15 minutes on average, and Japanese children waited about four minutes on average.
1. What do we know about marshmallow test?| A．Its design is perfect. | B．It only tests a kid’s self-control. |
| C．Its results might be misunderstood. | D．It is famous among kids and parents. |
| A．By listing varied gift-giving customs. | B．By contradicting existing concepts. |
| C．By summarizing previous theories. | D．By examining newly-made guesses. |
| A．Expected. | B．Designed. | C．Assumed. | D．Assured. |
| A．children’s age | B．cultural custom | C．self-confidence | D．self-belief |
2 . A social phobia (恐惧症) in an anxiety disorder with strong fear in social situations.
Learn to relax. People with a social phobia often have anticipatory (预期的) anxiety.
Imagination can play tricks on us in social situations. In most cases you are afraid of things that have not happened or are not happening.
Be yourself. To some degree, social phobia is caused by the belief that we have to be perfect as others expect.
| A．Look for social situations |
| B．Be imaginative in solving social issues |
| C．Perhaps you have a phobia about flying |
| D．We have to learn to accept and trust ourselves |
| E．In other words, they worry about the situation before it happens |
| F．We have to be worried about what we think others may be thinking of us |
| G．People with social phobia feel fear, as well as nervousness, pain or shyness |
3 . People get first impression in seconds, but what exactly are they looking at when they judge you?
A professor Amy Caddy and her group have been studying first impressions for more than 15 years, and have discovered something in common. In her new book Presence, Cuddy says people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you: Can I trust this person? Can I respect this person?
Psychologists translate these questions as warmth and competence (能力), and usually, we want to be seen as having both. Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in their workplace, believe that competence is the more important one. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to do their job well. But in fact, warmth, or trustworthiness, is the most important one in how people judge you. “From an evolutionary (进化的) point of view,” Cuddy says, “it matters more to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust.”
While competence is highly valued, Cuddy says it is considered only after trust is set up. And focusing too much on showing your strength can backfire. Cuddy says MBA students often care so much about being seen as smart and competent that it can lead them to avoid social events, not to ask for help, and generally to come off as unfriendly. These overachievers (特优者) invite their trouble when they don’t get the job offer because nobody gets to know and trust them as people.
“If someone you’re trying to influence doesn’t trust you, you’re not going to get very far. In fact, you might even be considered not reliable because you come across as bossy (专横的),” Cuddy says. “A warm, trustworthy person who is also strong gets admiration, but only after you’ve established trust does your strength become a gift rather than a threat.”
1. Why does the author ask the question in paragraph 1?| A．To offer a tip. | B．To present a belief. |
| C．To predict the ending. | D．To introduce the topic. |
| A．Warmth. | B．Selflessness. | C．Smartness. | D．Talent. |
| A．Leave a job. | B．Catch a big fire. | C．Cause bad effects. | D．Shoot bullets from a gun. |
| A．Competence first, warmth second | B．The importance of first impression |
| C．Trust deciding first good impressions | D．The secret to success of MBA students |
4 . With prices rocketing nationwide for heating oil, natural gas and other fuels, the U.S. government said on Wednesday it expects households(一家人;家庭) to see their heating bills jump as much as 54%.
Nearly half the homes in the U.S. use natural gas for heat, and they could pay an average $746 this winter, 30% more than 2020. The second-most used heating source for homes is electricity, making up 41% of the country, and those households could see a more modest 6% increase to $1,268. Homes using heating oil, which make up 4% of the country, could see a 43% increase to $1,734. The sharpest increases are likely for homes that use propane(丙烷), which account for 5% of U.S. households.
Inflation(通货膨胀)is now running high across the USA. Earlier Wednesday, the government released a report showing prices were 5.4% higher for U.S. consumers in October than a year ago. The higher prices hit everyone, with pay raises for most workers so far failing to keep up with inflation. They have to face more expensive housing, higher medical bills and sometimes reduced working hours. But they hurt low-income households in particular.
To make ends meet, families are cutting consumption deeply. Nearly 22% of Americans had to reduce or avoid expenses for basic necessities to pay an energy bill.
“This is going to create significant hardship for people in the bottom third of the country,” said Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Association. “You can tell them to cut back and try to turn down the heat at night, but many low-income families already do that.”
The biggest reason for this winter’s higher heating bills is the recent increase in prices for energy commodities(商品). Demand has simply grown faster than production as the economy is recovering.
1. What does the underlined word “rocketing” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Reduced remarkably. | B．Increasing sharply. |
| C．Staying stable. | D．Fixed properly. |
| A．Homes using propane for heat will suffer the least. |
| B．Homes using natural gas for heat will pay the most. |
| C．The steepest increase goes to families using heating oil. |
| D．Natural gas and electricity are the major heating sources. |
| A．The American government has taken firm measures. |
| B．The employers have agreed to increase the salaries. |
| C．The employees have been forced to work long hours. |
| D．The American families have learned to watch every penny. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Sorrowful. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Carefree. |
1. 养宠物的现象；
2. 养宠物的优缺点；
3. 其他……
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear editor,
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
6 . In every Summer Olympics since 1952, with two exceptions, the host country has won not only more golds but also more medals than it did in the previous summer games.
Japan, who hosted this year’s games, won far more medals than it got from the previous Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016. Brazil more than doubled its golds in 2016. In the 2008 games in Beijing, China harvested 37 more than it took home in 2004. Only Finland, in 1952, and the United States, in 1996, saw their medal counts drop at home.
Why?
The biggest plus to competing at home is the positive energy from a supportive crowd, according to athletes. Briana Scurry, a former goal keeper for the US women’s national soccer team, said playing in the US during the 1996 Summer Olympics helped her team beat China to win gold that year. “We had 76,000 people at the final in Athens, Georgia, all cheering for us, while China had a much smaller cheering audience,” she said.
Another factor(因素)that can hurt athletes from other countries is travel. International competitions often require long flights across multiple time zones, which can impact(影响)their sleep. Foreign athletes may also be unaccustomed to the food and training equipment available at the competition. Even the weather may throw off a competitor used to a different climate.
The host countries have additional benefits to help their athletes succeed. Competitors from host countries have to meet lower qualification(资格)standards than their foreign competitors. That may contribute to the phenomenon of host countries sending much bigger teams to their Olympics than the previous summer games when they competed abroad.
Japan got yet another benefit this year thanks to a new policy adopted by the International Olympic Committee(IOC)in 2016, which allows the host countries to add several new sporting events to their games. It meant that baseball, softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing-all popular sports in Japan-were Olympic events in Tokyo. And Japanese athletes have already medaled in four of the five sports.
1. Which host country got fewer medals than it did in the previous Summer Olympics?| A．Japan. | B．China. | C．Brazil. | D．The US. |
| A．Bigger supportive crowds. | B．Having shorter flights and better sleep. |
| C．Lower qualification standards. | D．Being more used to the food and climate. |
| A．The newly added sports are popular all over the world. |
| B．Host countries may unfairly benefit from the new rule. |
| C．Host countries can select any sport for the competition. |
| D．The new rule adds an additional variety to the competition. |
| A．To explain the Olympics new rules. | B．To show the problems of IOC’s policy. |
| C．To review the host countries’ performances. | D．To analyze the benefits for the host countries. |
7 . Don’t be afraid! We are not encouraging people to steal. It’s one of the most popular topics currently talked about by people in cities, together with，“How many vegetables did you steal today?” or, “It’s harvest time for your peaches,” and，“I bought you a new car today.”
Listening to a conversation like this, you do not have to feel strange. These people don’t really have their own farms or so much money that they can casually (随意地) buy someone else a car.
They are just playing games on Social Networking Sites(SNS) like kaixin001.com. Can you imagine millions of people in China spending lots of time on SNS playing games and talking to friends? This is especially true of white-collar workers in cities. Take kaixin001.com for example — the number of current members has already hit 38 million.
However, the large number of people using SNS highlights another problem. That is, lots of people choose to escape from reality. NSN just offers them a virtual(虚拟的) environment where they can escape from reality.
Different games provide netizens with different experiences: dreaming, chatting and playing. It offers people the opportunity to escape from reality. But the virtual world is not the real one; no one can live in it forever, and reality is not as surfing on the Internet.
Since this kind of social networking sites have become so popular, people have started to think about moving it into the real world. And as far as we know, a farmland of this kind exists in Shanghai where it has reached its first base.
After playing the “Happy Farm” game on kaixin001.com, would you like to put yourself among the real world while smelling the fragrances (芳香) of the countryside? Recently a farmland service called “Happy Farm in Reality” was opened in the suburbs of Shanghai where white-collar workers can experience the real farmers’ life for themselves.
1. What’s the writer’s purpose for the first paragraph?| A．To encourage readers to be brave. |
| B．To tell the readers not to steal. |
| C．To tell the readers some shocking news. |
| D．To introduce some game. |
| A．The real world. | B．Farmland in Shanghai. |
| C．The virtual world. | D．An expensive car. |
| A．Millions of people in China are spending lots of time on SNS. |
| B．People steal vegetables on SNS for a living. |
| C．Lots of people play games on SNS to escape from reality. |
| D．White-collar workers can have the real farmers’ life. |
| A．politics | B．entertainment |
| C．economy | D．sports |
