Kindness of Strangers
We rely on a community where helping others is highly appreciated. When we need help, it creates a web that ties us together.
Once upon a time, I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready when my fourteen-year-old daughter, Cassandra, called me from her room. “Mom, can you help me get downstairs?” She had lung disease and depended on oxygen twenty-four hours a day, so it was impossible for her to move up and down the stairs without help. I turned down the stove and ran upstairs to her room. Cassandra let out a sigh and closed her eyes. “Mom, I wish it wasn’t so hard for me to climb the stairs.”
“I know, honey. We’ll try to solve the problem.”
My daughter’s words reminded me of an incident. A month earlier, a company introduced an electric stairlift (座椅电梯) to us. My daughter could use this stairlift to go up and down stairs by herself without anyone helping her. Hearing the perfect product, our whole family was very excited and looking forward to it. The stairlift sounded wonderful because it would greatly improve my daughter’s life. Unluckily, we couldn’t afford it although John, my husband, even took two jobs to support the family.
To meet Cassandra’s wish, I got round to ask the charity organization in our community for help once again. They had lent us a wheelchair before we bought one. Maybe they could help with a stairlift, too. I held my breath while the phone rang. “Do you have a stairlift I could borrow?” I asked them hopefully. However, they hadn’t, but they promised to call us right away if they got one.
Hanging up the phone, I told this to my family anxiously.
One early morning, we heard someone knocking at the door.
Is it true that our brain alone is responsible for human cognition (认知)? What about our body? Is it possible for thought and behaviour to originate from somewhere other than our brain? Psychologists who study Embodied Cognition (EC) ask similar questions. The EC theory suggests our body is also responsible for thinking or problem-solving. More precisely, the mind shapes the body and the body shapes the mind in equal measure.
If you think about it for a moment, it makes total sense. When you smell something good or hear amusing sounds, certain emotions are awakened. Think about how newborns use their senses to understand the world around them. They don’t have emotions so much as needs — they don’t feel sad, they’re just hungry and need food. Even unborn babies can feel their mothers’ heartbeats and this has a calming effect. In the real world, they cry when they’re cold and then get hugged. That way, they start to associate being warm with being loved.
Understandably, theorists have been arguing for years and still disagree on whether the brain is the nerve centre that operates the rest of the body. Older Western philosophers and mainstream language researchers believe this is fact, while EC theorises that the brain and body are working together as an organic supercomputer, processing everything and forming your reactions.
Further studies have backed up the mind-body interaction. In one experiment, test subjects were asked to judge people after being handed a hot or a cold drink. They all made warm evaluations when their fingertips perceived warmth rather than coolness. And it works the other way too. In another study, subjects’ fingertip temperatures were measured after being “included” in or “rejected” from a group task. Those who were included felt physically warmer.
For further proof, we can look at the metaphors (比喻) that we use without even thinking. A kind and sympathetic person is frequently referred to as one with a soft heart and someone who is very strong and calm in difficult situations is often described as solid as a rock. And this kind of metaphorical use is common across languages.
Now that you have the knowledge of mind-body interaction, why not use it? If you’re having a bad day, a warm cup of tea will give you a flash of pleasure. If you know you’re physically cold, warm up before making any interpersonal decisions.
1．According to the author, what is the significance of EC?| A．It brings us closer to the truth in human cognition. |
| B．It offers a clearer picture of the shape of human brain. |
| C．It reveals the major role of the mind in human cognition. |
| D．It facilitates our understanding of the origin of psychology. |
| A．Their personal looks. | B．Their mental needs. |
| C．Their inner emotions. | D．Their physical feelings. |
| A．Human speech is alive with metaphors. |
| B．Human senses have effects on thinking. |
| C．Human language is shaped by visual images. |
| D．Human emotions are often compared to natural materials. |
| A．To deepen the readers’ understanding of EC. |
| B．To encourage the reader to put EC into practice. |
| C．To guide the reader onto the path to career success. |
| D．To share with the reader ways to release their emotions. |
A study trip to the countryside
It was 8 o'clock on Sunday. Amy still stayed in bed, listening to the radio. Her mother, Hannah, asked her to switch off the radio and finish her homework, but she didn't listen. Her mother went out of the room with anger.
Next morning, Amy went to school cursing（咒骂）everyone possible for having to go to school. Even in school, Amy had a reputation（名声）of sorts for all the wrong reasons. She slept in class and did not finish her work. In playtime, Amy had to go out and play, but she tried to find an excuse saying that she was tired when someone caught her walking away.
She came home with leftovers in her lunchbox or other complaint almost every day, and that day was also no different.
"Who can help me to change my daughter?" Hannah wondered.
Hannah never believed in raising her voice or raising her arm on Amy or on anyone for that matter. She believed and wished that her love and patience would one day change Amy.
One day a new family moved into Amy's apartment. They were very friendly people. They wanted to acquaint（使…熟悉）themselves with all the neighbors, so their little girl , Mary, was sent all around the neighborhood to find friends. Soon, Mary carne to Amy's home.
It didn't take much time for Mary to understand Amy. However, she was not put off by Amy's behavior. She knew that she needed to help Amy to change. She told Amy an idea that her teacher had once told the class in her previous school. "Blow a balloon whenever you're angry or upset about something or someone.
At first Amy did not listen to Mary, but Hannah tried her best to tell her that it was fun and brought her a pack of balloons.
That day, Amy wanted to play a guessing game with her mother, but Hannah wanted to finish her chores（杂活）in the kitchen first. Amy got angry.
She remembered what Mary told her and thought she would give it a try.
Amy is a changed person now.
It was Mother's Day and I was shopping at a local supermarket with my son who was five years old, Tennyson. As we were leaving after finishing our shopping, we realized that only minutes earlier an elderly woman had fallen over at the entrance and hit her head on the ground badly. Her husband was with her, but there was blood everywhere and the woman was embarrassed and clearly in shock. Fortunately, a lot of people stopped to help out.
While we were walking towards the scene, Tennyson became very worried about what had happened to the elderly couple. He said to me, “Mom, it's not much fun falling over in front of everyone.” Seeing that there was a flower stall(摊位)at the front of the supermarket, he added, “Why shouldn't we buy the lady a flower? It will make her feel better.” I was amazed that he'd come up with this sweet idea. So we went over and told the flower seller what we wanted. “Just take it,” she replied. “I can't take your money for such a wonderful deed.”
By now medical staff had arrived, and were looking after the injured woman. There we saw the old man was also in great horror, but he tried to comfort his wife and held her hands tightly to encourage her to be strong. We gave the flower to the woman's husband and I told him it was from my son. At that time, the old man started crying and said, “Thank you very much.” He then turned to me, “You have a wonderful son. Happy Mother's Day to you.”
The man bent down and gave his wife the flower, telling her who it was from. Regardless of being badly hurt, the old lady looked up at Tennyson with love in her eyes and gave him a little smile. And my son bent down his body to the injured lady and tenderly said, “Happy Mother's Day to you, too.”
After a moment, the elderly lady was taken into an ambulance,
One year later,
Is there a way to turn back the aging process in people? For centuries, people have been looking for a “fountain of youth.” The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink its water, you will not age.
Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears that the answer may be called the hypothalamus, which is part of your brain. It controls important body activities, including growth, the way we process food and so on. Researchers found that hypothalamus neural stem cells (干细胞) also influence how fast aging takes place.
Dongsheng Cai was the leading researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings. “when the hypothalamus starts aging, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, so does the body.” he said.
Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate (激活) the hypothalamus in laboratory mice. The results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals. “When we injected the hypothalamus stem cells to the middle-aged mice, the mice aged slowly and they could also live longer.”
But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in human beings. If so, they say the findings could lead to new ways to help doctors identify and treat age-related health problems.
1．Why does the author mention the “fountain of youth” in the first paragraph?| A．To explain what the “fountain of youth” is. |
| B．To introduce the hypothalamus. |
| C．To show how to find the “fountain of youth”. |
| D．To help people find the “fountain of youth”. |
| A．The brain. | B．The aging process. |
| C．Hypothalamus. | D．The stem cell |
| A．They have found a way to turn back the aging process. |
| B．The brain controls growth, reproduction and the way we process food. |
| C．The decrease of hypothalamus stem cells can lead to aging. |
| D．The finding has been applied to human beings. |
| A．The Secret of Youth |
| B．A New Discovery about Aging |
| C．The Ways of Slowing Down Aging |
| D．Hypothalamus — the Fountain of Youth |
| A．Two weeks. | B．One week. | C．Four days. |
| A．Parties. | B．New cars. | C．Travelling. |
| A．An engineer. | B．A teacher. | C．A student. |
| A．Umbrellas. | B．Sweaters. | C．Food. |
To prevent tsunami-caused disasters, several countries worked together to expand the use of a tsunami-detecting system that had been developed in the United States by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The system
By 2004 only six such detectors had been installed, all in the Pacific. There were
There are now 53 detector buoys operating in the world’s oceans, including 6 of a planned 27 in the Indian Ocean. So a (n)
In March, the system, which is run by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), did not work perfectly. JMA’s initial
| A．approves | B．rids | C．expects | D．consists |
| A．broadcasts | B．foresees | C．assigns | D．imposes |
| A．some | B．a few | C．none | D．others |
| A．qualified | B．alerted | C．substituted | D．fueled |
| A．although | B．until | C．as | D．where |
| A．difficult | B．thoughtful | C．easy | D．pressing |
| A．alternative | B．perspective | C．repetition | D．resume |
| A．surprise | B．mistake | C．accident | D．force |
| A．reference | B．confirmation | C．suggestion | D．expectation |
| A．undertake | B．multiply | C．deposit | D．blanket |
| A．location | B．direction | C．territory | D．length |
| A．note | B．catalogue | C．volume | D．estimate |
| A．worse | B．larger | C．higher | D．wider |
| A．schedule | B．scheme | C．monitor | D．response |
| A．warning | B．security | C．setting | D．responsibility |
| A．it | B．one | C．that | D．those |
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