Lily was renowned for her desire to achieve perfection in everything she undertook. Whether it was school projects, art assignments, or even helping her parents with household chores, Lily’s commitment to excellence was unwavering.
One sunny summer day, Lily’s family decided to spend a day at the beach. As they arrived, Lily’s eyes were immediately drawn by a group of children who playfully built and then tore down their sandcastles. They giggled and shouted, their excitement on full display. “How silly, ” she thought, not quite getting why they enjoyed doing that.
Lily, being herself, decided to build a perfect sandcastle that would become the envy of all beachgoers. She began to plan every detail in her mind, from the balanced structures of the towers to the delicate decorations. Then, she set about piling sand to make the towers and walls of her sandcastle. Painstakingly, she crafted each feature of her work, carefully smoothed the surfaces and adjusting every detail to her vision.
Jake, Lily’s younger brother, didn’t seem too concerned with building a fantastic sandcastle. He picked a spot nearby and amused himself with the sand. He scooped up handfuls of sand, let it slip through his fingers like grains of time, and then molded it into careless shapes with the carefree abandon of a child. Jake’s happiness was contagious. Mom and Dad joined him, laughing and joking over Jake’s playful creations. From time to time, they called out to Lily and invited her to join the fun, knowing that the pursuit of perfection could be exhausting.
Nevertheless, Lily stayed where she was, determined to create an impressive sandcastle. She frowned at Jake’s unconventional, abstract art-like sandcastle shapes and persisted in her efforts. However, the process didn’t go as smoothly as she had anticipated. The sand didn’t always hold its shape, and the waves constantly lapped at the edges of her creation.
Para 1: As the day wore on, Lily’s sandcastle kept losing its form.
Para 2: With bitter smile, Lily decided to join her family.
| A．get used to; polluted | B．is used to; being polluted |
| C．gets used to; pollution | D．are used to; polluting |
| A．Stay to help her friend. | B．Walk alone to her car. | C．Wait for the train to stop. |
| A．She worked at a hotel. | B．She had bought a new car. | C．She was having a baby soon. |
| A．At a crossroads. | B．In front of a hotel. | C．Besides a car park. |
| A．An exciting lunch party. |
| B．A well-known short story. |
| C．An unforgettable experience. |
A simple gesture can be formed into a child’s memory so quickly that it will cause the child to give a false answer to a question along with that gesture. A new finding suggests that parents, social workers, psychologists and lawyers should be careful with their hands as well as their words.
While memories of both adults and children are easy to react to suggestion, those of children are known to be particularly influenced, said lead researcher Sara Broaders of Northwestern University. Kids are used to looking to adults to tell events for them and can be misled even if not intentionally.
Previous research, for example, has shown that detail-loaded questions often cause false answers; when asked, say “Did you drink juice at the picnic?” the child is likely to say “yes” even if no juice had been available. It is not that the child is consciously lying, but rather the detail is quickly formed into his or her memory.
To avoid this problem, social workers have long been advised to ask children only open-ended questions, such as “What did you have at the picnic?” But an open-ended question paired with a gesture, briefly meaning a juice box, is treated like a detailed question. That is, children become likely to answer falsely.
And it isn’t just a few kids: 77% of children gave at least one piece of false information when a detail was suggested by an ordinary gesture. Gestures may also become more popular when talking with non-fluent language users, such as little kids, Broaders said as hand movements can impart meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases. “It certainly seems reasonable that adults would gesture more with children.”
In general, Broaders advises parents and other adults to “try to be aware of your hands when questioning a child about an event. Otherwise, you might be getting answers that don’t reflect what actually happened.”
1．What can we know about gestures from the text?| A．They are rarely used by people. | B．They have not any function at all. |
| C．They have certain effect on children. | D．They are often used by social workers. |
| A．Children are easy to tell lies. | B．These gestures are very attractive. |
| C．These gestures are used frequently. | D．Children’s memories are affected easily. |
| A．Where are you going Lucy? | B．What will you have for lunch? |
| C．Did you see anything else last night? | D．Did you cheat in the last English examination? |
| A．Tell apart. | B．Pass on. | C．Mix up. | D．Break up. |
Teachers say that the digital age has had a good influence and a not-so-good influence on American teenagers. More than 2,000 middle school teachers took an online survey. Researchers also spoke with teachers in some groups. Most teachers think the Internet and digital search tools have had a mostly positive (积极的) influence on their students’ research habits and skills. But at the same time, some teachers also point out some problems in teenagers’ using digital search tools.
The Pew Internet Project did the survey with the College Board and the National Writing Project. Judy Buchanan is the director of the National Writing Project and a co-writer of the report. She says digital search tools are helping students learn more, and learn faster. “Both teachers and students really welcome these tools because they make learning exciting. And the goal（目的）is to really help students become creators of something meaningful, and not just users of the online information.”
But one problem the survey found is that these technologies make teenagers have short attention spans (持续时间). As there is lots of information about different subjects on the Internet, teenagers’ attention is easily drawn away from their research.
Another problem the survey found is that many students trust the information they find on the Internet too much. Judy Buchanan says these students have not developed the skills to judge (判断) the online information. They need to learn a lot to tell if the information is believable. It’s something that really has to be paid attention to.
One more problem the survey found is something that might not seem like a problem at all: being able to quickly find information online. Many students think “doing research” now means just doing a quick search on Google. Teachers say the result is a drop in the wish and ability of their students to work hard to find answers. That is, they are depending too much on search engines and do not make enough use of printed books or research librarians.
Many teachers also say that the Internet makes it easy for students to copy work done by others instead of using their own abilities.
1．The result of the survey shows ________.| A．digital search tools need to be greatly improved |
| B．digital search tools are generally good for teenagers |
| C．teenagers have difficulty in using digital search tools |
| D．American teachers enjoy using digital search tools |
| A．less trusting of online information |
| B．more independent in doing research |
| C．more willing to work hard to find answers |
| D．less able to pay full attention while searching |
| A．spend more time searching online |
| B．ask their teachers for more advice |
| C．make better use of printed materials |
| D．learn more knowledge of search tools |
| A．all the students like using digital tools |
| B．the Internet is playing an important role |
| C．teachers encourage their students to use digital tools |
| D．digital tools bring about something helpful and problems |
| A. chattered away B. poured... into C. in contrast to D. boils down to E. at risk F. makes no sense G. wiped... out |
When Dr. Gullikson was assigning project mates for his introduction to experimental psychology class, I secretly hoped he would pair me with my best friend or at least a classmate I could have some fun with. Above all, I hoped he wouldn’t assign me to work with the fiercely competitive, extremely serious fellow who always wore dark clothes and apparently had a personality to match. As fate would have it, Dr. Gullikson very deliberately matched everyone in class and announced that I would be working with the one person in class I wanted to avoid.
I went up to my new lab mate and introduced myself. He looked at me as if I weren’t there. I felthe treated me as if I would hold him back and probably make him fail to get an A in the course. He wasn’t mean or abusive (恶语相向的). He just gave me the impression he could do whatever project better if he did it alone.
Needless to say, I didn’t look forward to an entire term of being brushed off (冷落), but I tried to make the best of it and didn’t say anything for fear that I would make things worse.
The project required each lab team to develop a hypothesis (假说), set up an experiment to test the hypothesis, do the statistical analysis and present the findings. Whatever grade the team received would be shared by both students. When my teammate and I met to discuss our project, I was uneasy. Here was this challenging student who had a reputation for single-mindedness and good grades — the exact opposite of me. I was outmatched. I actually wanted to drop the class at one point, but stopped short because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my chickening out.
After long discussions, we somehow agreed to do a study on the psychological well-being of teenagers. I wasn’t sure what it meant exactly, but at least we had a topic.
We started to meet regularly to draw up our plans.
One day in the middle of our project, I got word that he was admitted to hospital for a serious disease.
The English word “garden” gives an entirely wrong idea of the Chinese yuan, for “garden” suggests a lawn and an infinite
No Chinese mansion allows an outsider
Adaptation from My Country and My People by LinYutang
According to a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research, both the size and consumption habits of our eating companions can influence our food intake. And contrary to existing research that says you should avoid eating with heavier people who order large portions(份), it's the beanpoles with big appetites you really need to avoid.
To test the effect of social influence on eating habits, the researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, 95 undergraduate women were individually invited into a lab to ostensibly(表面上)participate in a study about movie viewership. Before the film began, each woman was asked to help herself to a snack. An actor hired by the researchers grabbed her food first. In her natural state, the actor weighed 105 pounds. But in half the cases she wore a specially designed fat suit which increased her weight to 180 pounds.
Both the fat and thin versions of the actor took a large amount of food. The participants followed suit, taking more food than they normally would have. However, they took significantly more when the actor was thin.
For the second test, in one case the thin actor took two pieces of candy from the snack bowls. In the other case, she took 30 pieces. The results were similar to the first test: the participants followed suit but took significantly more candy when the thin actor took 30 pieces.
The tests show that the social environment is extremely influential when we're making decisions. If this fellow participant is going to eat more, so will I. Call it the “I’ll have what she's having” effect. However, we'll adjust the influence. If an overweight person is having a large portion, I'll hold back a bit because I see the results of his eating habits. But if a thin person eats a lot, I'll follow suit. If he can eat much and keep slim, why can't I?
1．What is the recent study mainly about?| A．Food safety. | B．Movie viewership. |
| C．Consumer demand. | D．Eating behavior. |
| A．Big eaters. | B．Overweight persons. |
| C．Picky eaters. | D．Tall thin persons. |
| A．To see how she would affect the participants. |
| B．To test if the participants could recognize her. |
| C．To find out what she would do in the two tests. |
| D．To study why she could keep her weight down. |
| A．How hungry we are. | B．How slim we want to be. |
| C．How we perceive others. | D．How we feel about the food. |
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