With large and small keyboards everywhere, neither children nor adults need to write much of anything by hand. That’s a big problem. Study after study suggests that handwriting is important for brain development — helping kids get fine motor skills and learn to express and create ideas. Yet the time devoted to teaching penmanship in most schools has shrunk to just one hour a week. Is it time to give up handwriting? Have a look at the link between the brain and penmanship, and you may get the answer.
A test among students in grades 2, 4 and 6 found that they not only wrote faster by hand than by keyboard, but also created more ideas when composing essays with handwriting. And other research shows that the finger movements required to write by hand activate brain areas involved with thought, language, and short-term memory.
A recent Indiana University study had one group of children practice writing letters by hand while a second group just looked at those letters. Then, both groups of kids entered a functional MRI (核磁共振) that scanned their brains as the researchers showed them the same letters. Researchers found that the brain activity in the first group was far more advanced and “adult-like”.
Handwriting also affects other people’s way they think of adults and children. Several studies have shown that the same average essay will score much higher if written with good penmanship and much lower if written out in poor handwriting. These studies have also found that people judge the quality of a person’s ideas based on his or her handwriting. And the consequences are real: On standardized tests with handwritten sections, like the SAT, all essays that are considered hard to recognize gets a big zero.
Studies show that this isn’t only an English-language phenomenon. Chinese and Japanese youths are suffering from “character amnesia”. They can’t remember how to write characters, thanks to computers and text messaging. Some experts fear that Chinese writing and reading are so closely linked in the brain that China’s reading ability as a nation could suffer.According to the passage, it can be learned that ________________.
| A．many researches have been done on handwriting |
| B．essays can’t be composed without handwriting |
| C．all children write faster by keyboard than by hand |
| D．most schools are trying to teach more handwriting |
What does the Indiana University study imply?
| A．Children should practice writing letters |
| B．Handwriting can increase brain activity |
| C．It’s good for children to enter a functional MRI |
| D．Letters should often be shown to children |
What does the 4th paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．Handwriting affects both adults and children. |
| B．Handwriting helps a person write better essays. |
| C．SAT should be done with good handwriting. |
| D．Good handwriting makes a person seem smarter. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Essays written with keyboards will get lower scores. |
| B．The quality of your ideas depends on your handwriting. |
| C．Chinese and Japanese youths don’t know how to write. |
| D．Less handwriting may affect China’s reading ability. |
The passage tries to tell us that __________________.
| A．keyboards are more popular than handwriting |
| B．we shouldn’t judge people by their handwriting |
| C．handwriting is of great importance |
| D．it’s time to give up using keyboards |
The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has found. Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.
Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.
He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels(元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”
“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and’dutay’, rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’, and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”
The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 pm in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch(传统火鸡午餐).
The results were published(发表) in the Journal of Phonetics.The Queen’s broadcasts were chosen for the study mainly because .
| A．she has been Queen for many years |
| B．she has a less upper-class accent now |
| C．her speeches have been recorded for 50 years |
| D．her speeches are familiar to many people |
Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?
| A．“Dutay”. | B． “Hame”. | C．“Citee”. | D．“Lorst”. |
We may infer from the text that the Journal of Phonetics is a magazine on .
| A．Christmas customs | B．speech sounds |
| C．TV broadcasting | D．personal messages |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．The changes in a person’s accent. |
| B．The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV. |
| C．The relationship between accents and social classes. |
| D．The recent development of the English language. |
Black Box
You never see them, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you're going,how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to resist almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic (漫画) book.They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best method for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine(潜水艇) discovered its homing signal five days later, it marked a huge step toward determining the cause of the disaster in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958. Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first model for a black box, which became a requirement on all US commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to resist crashes, however, so in 1965 it was completely redesigned. That same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to be easier to see.
Modem airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help experts reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. The boxes can resist powerful force and temperatures up t0 2,OOOoF. They're also able to send out signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447 , which crashed near Brazil on June 1 , 2009 , are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.What can we leam about the black box from the passage?
| A．It helps an airplane function normally. |
| B．Its ability to avoid disasters is amazing. |
| C．It is necessary equipment on an airplane. |
| D．The idea for its design comes from a comic book. |
From the black box on the Yemeni airliner we can get information about _____.
| A．the scene of the crash and the damage |
| B．data for analyzing the cause of the crash |
| C．the total number of passengers on board |
| D．homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash |
The Federal Aviation Authority required the black boxes be painted orange or yellow to
| A．make them easily identified |
| B．meet the international standards |
| C．caution people to handle them with care |
| D．distinguish them from the color of the plane |
What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
| A．They have stopped sending homing signals. |
| B．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil. |
| C．There is an urgent need for them to be restructured. |
| D．There is still a good chance of their being recovered. |
Baekeland and Hartmann report that the " short sleepers" had been more or less average in their sleep needs until the men were in their teens. But at about age 15 0r so, the men voluntarily began cutting down their nightly sleep time because of pressures from school, work, and other activities. These men tended to regard their nightly periods of unconsciousness as bothersome interruptions in their daily routines.
In general, these "short sleepers" appeared ambitious, active, energetic and cheerful. They stuck to their opinions, and were very sure about their job choices..They often held several jobs at once, or worked full-or part-time while going to school. And many of them had a strong urge to appear "normal" or " acceptable" to their friends and colleagues.
When asked to remember their dreams, the " short sleepers" did poorly. More than this, they seemed to prefer not remembering. Similarly, their usual way of dealing with psychological problems was not to admit that the problem existed, and then to keep busy in the hope that the trouble would go away.
The sleep patterns of the " short sleepers" were similar to, but less extreme than, sleep patterns shown by many mental patients categorized as manic (躁狂者).
The "long sleepers" were quite different indeed. Baekeland and Hanmann report that these young men have been lengthy sleepers since childhood. They seemed to enjoy their sleep, protected it, and were quite concemed when sometimes they didn't have their desired 9 hours of nightly bed rest. They tended to remember their dreams much better than the " short sleepers". Many of the "long sleepers" were shy, anxious, quiet, nervous, passive, mildly depressed, and unsure of themselves ( particularly in social situations) . Several openly stated that sleep was an escape from their daily problems.From the passage, we can leam that .
| A．"short sleepers" need less sleep by nature |
| B．"long sleepers" sleep a longer period of time during the day |
| C．many "long sleepers" preserve their sleeping habit formed during their childhood |
| D．many " short sleepers" have to reduce their nightly sleep time because of busy work |
Many "short sleepers" are likely to hold the view that _____.
| A．sleep is a good way to escape from the reality |
| B．sleep is not so important as their daily activities |
| C．sleep affects their judgment on some important things |
| D．sleep is the best way to deal with psychological troubles |
It can be learned from the passage that the"short sleepers" _____.
| A．do not know how to relax properly |
| B．are more unlikely to run into mental problems |
| C．are full of energy even under the pressures of life |
| D．often pay little attention to the consequences of inadequate sleep |
When sometimes they cannot enjoy adequate sleep, the "long sleepers" might ______.
| A．appear disturbed | B．become energetic |
| C．feel dissatisfied | D．be extremely unhappy |
As a high school athletics coach, I gave a speech about football to students and parents, aiming at getting new team members :I talked about how"everyone can benefit from football. This year, a worried-looking couple approached me. Their son, who had a sickly childhood, really wanted to play football. They'd tried to talk him out of it, but he had his heart set on joining the team.
When they told me his name , my heart sank. Michael was short and thin. He was a lonely kid and the constant target of other kids' jokes. I knew Michael would never make it. But so close to my "football is for everyone" speech, I told them we could give it a try.
On the opening day of practice, Michael was the first player on the field. We started a one-mile jog around the track. Repeatedly he fell, each time picking himself up. The same thing happened for weeks. But Michael put his whole heart into the training. Cradually, Michael gained strength both socially and physically. He began to laugh and most of the teammates became friendly. By the last week of practice Michael could run the mile without falling. He asked me to add a few more exercises he could work on his own. Soon , Michael ran the opening mile faster than anyone.
One day after practice, the team captain, Steve, came up to me. He was talented but lazy.He was popular with students even though he could be heartless. Steve pointed to the field where Michael was jogging all alone and asked me why he was still out there. I told Steve to ask him. The next night, I was surprised to see Steve exercising right next to Michael.
Finally our big game came-at first we were losing by twelve points. I could see that some kids had already lost heart. But Michael was playing as hard as he could , begging the team to keep trying. Finally we won the game by one point in the final ten seconds.
At our celebration dinner, we always gave a big award to the most productive player. Steve had scored the most points that season, and everyone cheered as he received his award. " There's someone who deserves it more than I do," Steve said, " Everything I accomplished, and everything the team accomplished this season, is thanks to one person-Michael. " The entire team cheered as Steve turned the prize over to the player who had inspired them all. The author gave a speech to the students and parents in order to ____.
| A．bring in new team members |
| B．teach them how to play football |
| C．tell them about the benefits of playing football |
| D．help those parents who are worried about their children |
How did the author react after the couple told him their son's name?
| A．He was very excited about accepting Michael on the team. |
| B．He refused to accept Michael because he had no talent for sports. |
| C．He decided to accept Michael though he was unwilling to do so. |
| D．He agreed to accept Michael because he was moved by his determination. |
What happened to Michael after a few weeks' training?
| A．He gave up training. |
| B．He began to laugh at others. |
| C．He often protected others in the football field. |
| D．He became strong both in friendly relations and in body. |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Road to Success | B．Heart of a Champion |
| C．Steve, the Real Winner | D．A Player of Patience |
Online Degrees
Today, you can earn a degree from a major university without ever having sat in one of their classrooms. Many colleges and universities are offering online courses and degree programs now.
Online Learning Programs
With a computer and an Internet connection, you can earn a degree from home, work, or anywhere else for that matter. Online degree programs follow much the same routines as traditional learning, with a few twists. There are lectures, but they won't be in person. There are assignments (作业) , but you won't hand them to your instructor. In most situations, you are free to "go to class" when it fits your"schedule. If you get a phone call during class, you don't have to miss anything. If you get sick, you don't have to ask for someone's notes, and you just visit the lecture later.
You'll communicate with your instructor by e-mail, chat room and instant messaging. Your classroom will live in a special software program. Contrary to popular belief, you will have close contact with other students and the instructor.
Evaluating the Program
There are a lot of questions to ask before you make your selection, such as:
How do students interact with each other?
★Online programs can use chat rooms, instant messaging, teleconferencing, and video conferencing to communicate. The key is to find a program that has this interaction built into it and even requires it.
★What kind of reputation does the school have?
It may seem simple-a good school will have a good online program. This reputation,however, may not be as straightforward as you think. It's not uncommon for a great school to have a weak program or two. So you'd better look at the overall quality of the school and make a judgment.
The Employers' View
As more and more employees get online degrees and use them in the workforce(职场) , hiring managers will begin to feel more secure about the quality of education these people have.In which way is online education special?
| A．If you get sick, you'll miss the lecture. |
| B．There are lectures, but you don't need to meet the lecturers. |
| C．If you get a phone call during class, you will miss something. |
| D．There are assignments, and you must hand them to your instructor. |
What is the most important part of online communication?
| A．To use e-mails. |
| B．To look for a program with interaction. |
| C．To use chat rooms and instant messaging. |
| D．To use teleconferencing and video conferencing. |
For whom is the passage probably written?
| A．College students. | B．Hiring managers. |
| C．Adult students. | D．High school students. |
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