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Everywhere I go, people are speaking on their cell telephones regardless of their surroundings (环境) . This happens when people are walking around a lake or through town, or even driving. I have even seen a person attempting to speak on her cell phone while ordering ice cream at Dairy Queen, thus speaking to two people at once.
As the over-spending of technology increases, people begin to take less joy in the simple pleasures of life—joys that don’t cost money—from observing clouds, playing with children to thinking or reading. And it is not just telephones that take the responsibility; too much value is placed on items (物品) from computers to cars. Many things are purchased (购买) merely(仅仅) to show off. Do you really need a cell phone that plays games, shows movies and takes pictures? No, cell phones should be purchased to use in urgent situations.You do not need to use your telephone when you are at someone else’s house or in a restaurant.
Technology and possessions (财产) do not bring joy. While some technology is necessary, it can get ridiculous(可笑的). Each possession just makes us want more, while simple pleasures can be enjoyed now and then.
Instead of spending our time buying a third television or looking into the newest cell phone models, we should be acting more productively to improve the world by volunteering, for example. Or, we should reconsider playing computer games or taking pictures on our cell phones and read a book or imagine what shapes the clouds are in the sky instead.The author mentions cell phones at the beginning just to show _________.
| A．they can be used on any occasion. |
| B．people manage to speak to two at a time. |
| C．they can put drivers in great danger. |
| D．people are fond of personal items. |
People have less joy of simple life nowadays mainly because they _________.
| A．focus on technology and their belongings. |
| B．use cell phones in less urgent situations. |
| C．buy private cars just to show off. |
| D．place too much value on computers. |
We can infer that ________.
| A．people have no time to play with their children. |
| B．we can take pleasure in using cell phones at any time. |
| C．people always desire more possessions. |
| D．we depend on volunteers to develop the world. |
Our senses aren't just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world; they're affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who've just eaten.
Psychologists have known for decades that what's going on inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Rémi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France, wanted to investigate how this happens.
Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-1evel thinking processes get involved. Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word, each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen-a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception, not in thinking processes, Radel says. "This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs. "Radel says. Why was there a delay on the day of the experiment?
| A．Because hungry people needed time to fill their stomach. |
| B．Because Radel wanted to create two groups of testers, hungry and non-hungry. |
| C．Because noon was not the right time for any experiment. |
| D．Because Radel needed time to select participants in terms of body mass index. |
What does the writer want to tell us?
| A．Human’s senses aren’t just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world. |
| B．What’s perceived by our senses affects our way of thinking. |
| C．Human brains can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs. |
| D．Thinking processes guarantee the normal functions of our senses. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．42 participants are too small a number for a serious investigation. |
| B．An experiment with hungry and non-hungry participants is not reliable. |
| C．Our thinking processes are independent of our senses. |
| D．Humans can perceive what they need without involving high-level thinking processes |
Taste is such a subjective matter that we don’t usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone’s preference is that it’s one person’s opinion. But because the two big cola companies—Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we’ve wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic (传统型) or Pepsi, Diet (低糖的) Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they’d have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants’ choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse----only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people got all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price.According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to ________.
| A．show that a person’s opinion about taste is mere guess-work |
| B．compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks |
| C．find out the role taste preference plays in a person’s drinking |
| D．reveal which cola is more to the liking of the drinkers |
It is implied but not stated in the first paragraph that ________.
| A．the competition between the two colas is very strong |
| B．blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans |
| C．the purpose of taste tests is to promote the sale of colas |
| D．the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies |
The word “burnout” (Line3, Para. 5) refers to the state of _________.
| A．being seriously burnt in the skin |
| B．being badly damaged by fire |
| C．being unable to function because of excessive use |
| D．being unable to burn for lack of fuel |
The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to ________.
| A．emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other |
| B．recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control of colas |
| C．show that taste preference is highly subjective |
| D．argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy |
People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories according to pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.
The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But we still need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily, and they can make a story much more interesting.Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because______.
| A．the hunters wanted to see the pictures |
| B．the painters were animal lovers |
| C．the painters wanted to show imagination |
| D．the pictures were thought to be helpful |
The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that______.
| A．the former was easy to write |
| B．there were fewer signs in the former |
| C．the former was easy to pronounce |
| D．each sign stood for only one sound |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet. |
| B．The Egyptians liked to write comic strip stories. |
| C．The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one. |
| D．The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians. |
In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ______.
| A．should be made comprehensible |
| B．should be made interesting |
| C．are of much use in our life |
| D．have disappeared from our life |
When she was twelve, Maria made her first important decision about the course of her life. She decided that she wanted to continue her education. Most girls from middle-class families chose to stay home after primary school, though some attended private Catholic "'finishing" schools. There they learned a little about music, art, needlework, and how to make polite conversation. This was not the sort of education that interested Maria or her mother. By this time, she had begun to take her studies more seriously. She read constantly and brought her books everywhere. One time she even brought her math book to the theater and tried to study in the dark.
Maria knew that she wanted to go on learning in a serious way. That meant attending the public high school, something that very few girls did. In Italy at the time, there were two types of high schools: the "classical" schools and the "technical" schools. In the classical schools, the students followed a very traditional program of studies, with courses in Latin and Greek language and literature, and Italian literature and history. The few girls who continued studying after primary school usually chose these schools.
Maria, however, wanted to attend a technical school. The technical schools were more modern than the classical schools and they offered courses in modern languages, mathematics, science, and accounting. Most people including Maria's father believed that girls would never be able to understand these subjects. Furthermore, they did not think it was proper for girls to study them.
Maria did not care if it was proper or not. Math and science were the subjects that interested her most. But before she could sign up for the technical school, she had to win her father's approval. She finally did, with her mother's help, though for many years after, there was tension in the family. Maria's father continued to oppose her plans, while her mother helped her.
In 1883, at age thirteen, Maria entered the "Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buonarroti" in Rome. Her experience at this school is difficult for us to imagine. Though the courses included modern subjects, the teaching methods were very traditional. Learning consisted of memorizing long lists of facts and repeating them back to the teacher. Students were not supposed to ask questions or think for themselves in any way. Teachers were very demanding, discipline in the classroom was strict, and punishment was severe for those who failed to achieve or were disobedient.In those days, most Italian girls________.
| A．went to classical schools |
| B．went to "finishing" schools |
| C．did not go to high school |
| D．went to technical schools |
Maria's father probably________.
| A．had very modern views about women |
| B．had very traditional views about women |
| C．had no opinion about women |
| D．thought women could not learn Latin |
High school teachers in Italy in those days were________.
| A．very modern | B．very intelligent |
| C．quite scientific | D．quite strict |
We can infer from this passage that________.
| A．girls usually attended private primary schools |
| B．only girls attended classical schools |
| C．girls did not like going to school |
| D．Maria was a girl of strong will |
One of our biggest fears nowadays is that our kids might some day get lost in a “sea of technology” rather than experiencing the natural world. Fear-producing TV and computer games are leading to serious disconnect between kids and the great outdoors, which will change the wild places of the world, its creatures and human health for the worse, unless adults get working on child’s play.
Each of us has a place in nature we go sometimes, even if it was torn down. We cannot be the last generation to have that place. At this rate, kids who miss the sense of wonder outdoors will not grow up to be protectors of natural landscapes. “If the decline in park use continues across North America, who will defend parks against encroachment（蚕食）?” asks Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the woods.
Without having a nature experience, kids can turn out just fine, but they are missing out a huge enrichment to their lives. Experts predict modern kids will have poorer health than their parents—and they say a lack of outside play is surely part of it; research suggests that kids do better academically in schools with a nature component and that play in nature fosters（培养）leadership by the smartest, not by the toughest, Even a tiny outdoor experience can create wonder in a child. The three-year-old turning over his first rock realizes be is not alone in the world. A clump of trees on the roadside can be the whole universe in his eyes. We really need to value that more.
Kids are not to blame. They are over-protected and frightened. It is dangerous out there from time to time but repetitive stress from computers is replacing breaking an arm as a childhood rite（仪式）of passage.
Everyone, from developers, to schools and outdoorsy citizens, should help regain for our kids some of the freedom and joy of exploring, taking friendship in fields and woods that strengthen love, respect and need for the landscapes. As parents, we should devote some of our energy to taking our kids into nature. This could yet be our greatest cause. According to the author, what causes kids’ getting lost in a “sea of technology”?
| A．The wild places of the world |
| B．The kids themselves |
| C．The outdoor activities |
| D．TV and computer games |
The underlined words “that place” in paragraph 2 can most probably refer to _______.
| A．a hill | B．a library | C．a bar | D．a classroom |
According to the author, children’s breaking an arm is _______.
| A．the fault on the part of their parents |
| B．the natural experience in their growing up |
| C．the result of their own carelessness in play |
| D．the effect of stress from computer |
What’s the author’s opinion on children’s experiencing the nature world?
| A．It leads to children’s escape from school. |
| B．It’s helpful only in a limited way. |
| C．It helps develop children from all sides. |
| D．It increases the chance of getting injured. |
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